The Breed II Chapter 5
The Breed 2
By Dream Janus
Disclaimer: All rights are protected and the story cannot be reproduced without permission.
This story is a work of fiction and contains scenes of gay sex between consenting individuals. If you find this offensive, are under the age of 18, it is illegal wherever you are to read this, stop reading now. Leave this site. If you are offended by harsh language, please exit this page immediately. You have been warned. This work of fiction is property of myself and may not be copied or used in any way without my express consent.
Much thanks and appreciation goes to Rubilacxe and Tight141 my editors and second & third set of eyes.
Note from Dream Janus: I now have a presence in Yahoo groups.
On Yahoo, it is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dream_janus_stories/
If you want, I can be emailed at dreamjanus@yahoo.com.
Spoiler Alert This chapter has spoiler aspects for other stories. I am sure you want to know what stories. They are "The Boys of Kendra school of Magic" and "Demonico Angelus". Characters from all three stories will crossover at least limitedly in this chapter and possibly a few other chapters.
Chapter 5 "Transformations and Trouble"
Father Thomas sat in the church sanctuary and prayed. His mind continued returning to the beings that were in that very basement doing who knew what with blood. Had he condemned those poor children to a fate worse than death? Would they try to take him next? In addition, many other questions swirled around in the old priests mind as he attempted to pray.
Finally after ten scant minutes, Father Thomas stood, crossed himself and headed back down stairs. His concern for the children outweighed his fear of the creatures he could only think of as monsters. The priest was even more confused when he opened the door to his make shift dormitory and found the room nearly silent.
The majority of the people in the room were lying on the beds apparently asleep. The leader of the monsters, Toban was lying in a bed with a pale appearance and was asleep. The small boy, Sam and the girl Tammy were the only ones still awake. Tammy was sitting at the table doing a crossword puzzle from a book. Sam on the other hand was slowly pacing back and forth.
Tammy and Sam both turned toward the noise that the priest made as he opened the door. Tammy's look softened into a gentle smile as they recognized the priest. Sam on the other hand just nodded in recognition and continued to pace.
"Could you please explain what is going on?" Father Thomas asked Tammy softly.
"Sure Father, no problem," Tammy said in a slightly whispered voice. "Being that Toban is not totally vampire, the process is different than what we learn in our lessons." She began to explain.
"Let's begin with what happened with them before we got involved," Tammy began teaching the priest. "When a human is bitten and then drinks a vampire's blood, they become a vampire. On the other hand, if they are not bitten and drink a vampire's blood, they become fangs, a more or less quarter vampire."
Tammy paused to make sure that Father Thomas understood so far, when he nodded she continued. "A fang is stronger and faster than a human, but can move around in the daylight unlike most vampires. They are totally subservient to their vampire parent. They can drink other people's blood, but become physically addicted to their parent's blood and usually die within a few weeks of the death of their parent."
"So you are making these children, his slaves!" the priest hissed pointing at Toban.
"No," Tammy hissed back. "That is part of what makes this different."
"The original parent is the master, but when they are adopted like this, things change." Tammy said softly. "Anything that the original parent said was taken as an order, even if said in passing. With an adopted parent, they have much more free will and have to rely on their new parent much less. Instead of feeding weekly, it could be monthly or even less often."
Just then, most of the still unconscious fang bodies began to shake and seize violently. Chris was the only one who did not move. Father Thomas was shocked that Sam rushed to Chris' body instead of the others. When the priest began to get up to check the others, Tammy touched his hand and softly said, "They are responding normally," she then pointed to Chris and said, "He isn't."
A single touch was enough for Sam to realize that Chris was no longer with them. "Is this boy related to the original parent, Ronald?"
"Yes," Father Thomas responded, "They were brothers, why?"
"If we had known that we would have done something different," Sam responded. "As it is, he has gone to be with his brother." A single tear rolled down Sam's face.
Father Thomas jumped up and rushed out of the room, "He needs last rites," was the only thing Tammy or Sam could hear as the man rushed to get his vestments.
Tammy and Sam watched as the other fangs began to stop shaking and seizing. Just as the last one stopped, a dark mist began forming around Toban's inert body. The mist began to solidify and congeal. The mist formed into shadow tendrils.
Tammy and Sam both stood and walked quickly to the door and away from the now moving tendrils. Neither wanting to be exposed to the life leeching affect and certainly did not want the priest to stumble into them. Tammy opened the door and she and Sam slipped out of the room.
Father Thomas rushed down the stairs as he hurried from the rectory. He came to an abrupt stop when he noticed that the male Ghoul and the female shape-shifter were standing outside the dormitory. They had the door opened just enough so that they could see inside. "What is going on now?" the priest asked nervously.
"Being that Toban is part shadow, his shadow energy is connecting with the others," Tammy answered in a clinical voice.
"There's shadow tendrils covering the floor and room, touching all of the guys." Sam responded more plainly. "If we get touched by a tendril it can take our life force and we're making sure it's safe if shades actually start arriving."
Father Thomas was confused by the information, but when he looked into the room and saw the floor around the children and their bodies were covered with black tar-like tendrils and tentacles, he decided not to worry and try to trust that these children knew what they were doing. He then thought of a question that even surprised him. "How old are you?"
"Well, that really depends on your reference point," Sam began with a giggle.
Tammy glared at Sam realizing he was about to make a joke out the question. "What Sam is trying to say is we mature quicker than humans and gain our maturity in our communities much sooner than you do."
With greater curiosity the priest asked, "How so?"
"In most of our communities," Tammy began explaining, "We are fully grown between the ages of eleven and fourteen, so the council many years ago decreed that all Breed are adults at the age of thirteen with the same rights, responsibilities and punishments as a human at the age of twenty-one."
Tammy and Sam watched as the priest opened and shut his mouth several times in shock. Finally, when he did not respond Tammy continued the explanation, "So we actually have three ages to deal with: physical age, mental age and actual age. Some races, like Vampires, Thropes, some shape shifters and what we jokingly call Vege-people have a different Physical age than their calendar age."
Sam smiled and said, "I am physically and actually the age of fifteen almost sixteen, but my mental age is considered majority plus two, roughly twenty-three years old."
"My people age a bit differently," Tammy explained. "I am a physical age of sixteen, mental age of majority plus five and actual age of thirty-six."
"How is that?" Father Thomas asked in shock.
"My people are not humanoid in our natural form; we have to master lower forms of shape shifting before we can form into humanoid form," Tammy explained. "We do not have interaction with any humanoid race until we are learning the form. We have to spent time as smaller things learning to be that thing."
Father Thomas was surprised that he understood the process and why the girl was older but yet a similar age to the boys. He then had a strange thought and asked, "How old is that boy Toban?"
Tammy giggled at that question. "He is different in everything he does," she then explained. "Being part human, I think they waited a couple years to give him his majority and then add that he is part vampire...things can get interesting."
Sam rolled his eyes and explained, "Most vampires stop aging either at the age they were turned or if they were born vampire when they fully develop, Toban still ages, though very...very slowly." Sam smiled and said, "If we understand his aging properly he ages one or two years for every twenty, but we can say he is physically between seventeen and nineteen and he is actually about nineteen or twenty." Sam then blushed, "I can never remember birthdays."
Meanwhile in the Undercity of Toŏmę, Valden was fuming in his office. The undertown mayor had called for Kar, Steven and Karl to come to his office. He was preparing to mesmerize the group in hopes of finding out what Toban was doing and what he was planning. Valden had made sure to phrase the order in such a way that it could be taken as a request, but he was not used to making requests of anyone.
Valden looked over his office Its appearance had been carefully crafted to make most people uncomfortable and unsettled, giving the true-blood vampire an immediate place of power over most anyone that entered. The room had several traps hidden in the walls, floors and ceilings.
The walls were covered with heavy tapestries that alternated between Valden's family crest and gory pastoral scenes. Between the tapestries hung torches which on closer look were artificial and were started and maintained by natural gas. Behind his large darkly stained oak desk, he had placed a tapestry that was a copy of Vlad the Impaler dining on the flesh of the impaled Turkish army. The floors were crafted from black and grey Corinthian marble.
Unknown to Valden, Kar was far smarter than he had been given credit. Kar was making final touches to his protections. The protections were so that he and everyone else in the group were protected from any vampiric mind games that the undertown mayor could use against them.
Tash had become weary when she, Jason and Dustin were not part of the group that had been `asked' to visit the undertown mayor. "He is up to something by dividing us like this," she had said. "If he wants information I can understand him not requesting Dustin and me to be part of the group, but not a target as easy as a human." She looked to Jason with an apology in her eyes.
"It is also surprising that he requested me to go along," Steve said.
"Unless his information is behind the times and he thinks you are human too," Kar responded as a small haze of shadow energy left his hand. A moment later it formed into a small black house cat.
"That is what I am assuming is going on," Tash agreed. "His request was worded almost like what a human mate could expect from someone of equal authority," she revealed.
"I noticed that something was off about the request," Kar said as he walked around the group touching each of them gently with his now shadow-blackened fingernails.
Each person that he touched had a black mark on the spot that Kar's nails had touched. It faded quickly into the skin. The shadow energy he was releasing linked them all together telepathically through him and to the shadow-cat.
"The connection I have just created makes it impossible for anyone short of an Ancient or maybe Toban to be able to control any of us mentally," Kar said with an evil smile. "I can take it off any time you want and I will take it when we leave Toŏmę."
Taking Jason and Dusty's hands and nodding when Tash touched his shoulder, Kar slipped into the shadow realm. [I am going to leave you here for the duration of our `meeting',] Kar explained to his brother and the smaller boy. [I know it is going to be boring but it is the best protection I can give you]
Dusty nodded solemnly, [I won't be any trouble.]
[Remember to stay where I can find you, since I am your only ride out of here until Toban comes back,] Kar directed at his ever-curious brother. Kar then retrieved a small pen sized sound scrambler from his bags and put it in his pocket.
Five minutes later, Kar, Steven, Karl, and a female wolf-guide were descending in a glass elevator into the undertown of Toŏmę. It was obvious to the three of them that the direction and path they were traveling was intended to surprise and amaze them. Even with that knowledge, Kar was surprised to see the vastness of the city.
Toŏmę was built inside a massive underground cavern, partly natural and partly created by the Breed. The cavern ceiling had been augmented with a very power and reinforced concrete. Lights of a variety of types filled the ceiling. They were programmed by a master computer to simulate the passing of time on the surface, but without the harmful effects of the sun.
The center section of the city was obviously the older section. The buildings were shorter, closer to the ground and made of some form of rock or adobe. A portion of the older section reminded Kar and Karl of the National Conclave as it appeared to be crafted to look like caves and underground rooms. The new sections encircled the older section getting progressively newer and the buildings taller as the town expanded. They noticed several rooftop sitting areas and what appeared to be private residences with roof top access.
The elevator descended into the older section of the city, directly into the cave section. Karl was the first person off the elevator. He extended his senses to verify that there was present threat to Kar. The female guide glanced between Karl, Steven and Kar with a questioning look on her face. A quick look from Karl stopped the look and she dropped her eye in a subservient motion. [Do not ask, that way you do not have to try and lie,] Karl transmitted to her.
Within a few moments, the group was standing in Valden's outer office. The secretary silently dismissed their guide and smiled to the men. "Please have a seat gentlemen, Valden will see you in a moment."
Seconds later, the woman looked up from her work and directly to Kar. "Sir, Valden will see you now," and when Steve and Karl stood, she added, "Privately,"
Karl immediately glared at the stone-faced woman. He accepted that he was not going to be able to go in with Kar only when Kar touched his shoulder in a comforting and friendly manner that Kar used to transmit an empathic level of relaxation.
Valden was standing behind his desk when Kar entered the office, and obviously fake smile etched across his sallow face. "Please come in my boy," Valden said in an obvious ploy to try to put Kar off. "Would you like some refreshment?" He asked pointing to a decanter of juice.
Kar rightly figured that the juice was drugged with some psychotropic concoction. "No thank you, Mr. Mayor."
That response only mildly perturbed Valden as he was still under the impression that Kar is human and still went under his human name of Mike. "Please have a seat, Michael and let's talk."
Kar never like his full name but by the mayor using that name verified that the mayor thought he was human and was underestimating him. "Of course, Mr. Mayor," Kar said with a vapid smile. He then sat down in the leather winged back guest chair to the right of the mayor's desk. His senses telling him that both the guests chairs directly in front of the mayor's desk could have some nastiness attached to them.
Valden then began to use his vampiric mesmerizing ability against a fully-protected Kar. The mental pull that Kar felt was not even a tenth of what he was expecting. He even had enough time to wonder if the protective measures he took were even necessary. The power was not even troublesome for his own mental powers.
Valden was so sure of his own power and influence that he did not notice that Kar had not fallen under his control. He smiled a sick and pallid smile as he began to question Kar, "What are Lord Toban's intentions here in Toŏmę?"
Kar immediately began extending his shadow influence from his back and in such a way that Valden did not notice. Kar knew the best thing to do was to give the mayor the partial truth, enough to possibly put him on guard, but in such a way to refocus his attention away from the main reasons. "We are here for three main reasons," Kar began to explain.
"Since we have never been here before, we are here partly to look over the area, before our family comes here for a vacation," Kar said speaking the whole truth. "Our team was sent here to use Toŏmę as a home base while we dealt with some issues in Phoenix. Also giving members of our team the experience they are required to have to complete their specific training.", Telling the truth in such a way to make it seem as if the team's objective was secondary and was for training purposes.
The shadow tendrils had filled the room enough that the lighting had dimmed and was slowly getting darker. Kar then took the offensive and said, "Any other purposes for us to be here you would need to discuss with the Ancient Antino and his heir, Toban." At that moment, the inky blackness of the shadow realm covered Kar in a constantly moving cloak of darkness. His head was also covered and his eyes and nose were covered, leaving his mouth and chin uncovered.
Electric blue eyes peered from the darkness as the shadows in the room added to and merged with the living shadow that was now Kar. An eerie multi-tonal voice echoed from multiple locations in the room. "I am Kardama[i], I am not human, and I have been recognized as having the fierce nature of the Kodiak and the speed of the Feral Cat and cunning of the greatest of all Vampires. You may think of me as shadow-man, I am Zoméa to Lord Prince Toban, Lord George and Master Rex, as well as member of the Guild of the Librum," Kar said his voice never rising above a conversational tone. The information given to let the vampire know that any attacks on him would cause not only the Conclave council, Antino, but also the Guild of the Librum to attack him directly. "I may give you the respect of office, but understand this Valden, I am no mere human and your mind tricks do not work on me and will not work on those in my party. Do not try this again!"
Kar allowed the echoes of his voice to fade before continuing to speak. "My family and my team will not be harmed by you or yours, you and I may not be able to kill one another," Kar said, knowing he could actually kill the vampire, "but I can drain enough life force from you to paralyze you and then allow others to slaughter you." Kar then used a small shadow tendril the size of a pencil like a whip striking Valden's arm, the shadow contact would have been enough to drain fifty years from a human, but on Valden it would only temporarily aged him twenty years. "I will let you know that not only is THE ANCIENT and Toban involved in this, but at least one other Ancient. A single day without contact will result in a team coming to Toŏmę razing the overtown and wiping out every aspect of government down here WITHOUT comment or MERCY."
Valden realized that he had made a tactical mistake and had been properly punished for it, but that did not stop him from beginning to hate both Toban and Kar for their interference. He further realized that Kar was in the house of the most powerful person in all the Breed and it was best to end the meeting as quickly as possible.
"I beg your forgiveness, Master Kardama," Valden said with a deep bow.
"Remember my words and we will not have any further problem," Kar said standing up and walking to the door. His shadow energy condensing as he walked. When he stopped at the door, he turned and said, "I am sure you have no further need to talk with my friends." The shadow energy still surrounded him in the shadow clock and partial mask. Kar then opened the door and said, "I am sure we will not need to speak again until Prince Toban returns." He then walked out the door.
Karl, Steven and the secretary were surprised to see Kar's appearance as he left the office, Karl and Steven could tell that Kar was livid. Without waiting for anyone to say anything, Kar threw up his hand and commanded "SHADOW GATE".
Kar's intent was to create a point-to-point gate across a great distance. His anger amplified the size of the gate until it filled the room. The shadow gate appeared to be a tear in space created out of shadow itself, the center of the gate showed the inky blackness swirling clockwise and disappearing into itself.
Kar formally bowed to Karl and Steven, ushering them into the gate. As Karl entered the gate, he silently hoped that it was stable and they did not end up clear across the planet. Steven and his symbiote looked at the idea of taking a trip in the shadow realm as a new adventure and nothing to fear.
The end of the gate was intended to be in the room that Kar had shared with Toban the night before. It was in the room but the base of the gate was suspended just over one foot above the floor. Each of them found the last step was the hardest as the step down caused each of them to nearly fall. By the time, Kar exited the gate, his partial mask was gone and his cloak was half the size it had been before.
The second Kar left the shadow gate, it winked out of existence. He turned around and disappeared in the shadow realm. Within seconds, Kar returned with Dusty and Jason. Jason had never seen his brother in partial shadow let alone fully enveloped by the shadows. It unnerved him but it also gave him a sense of pride that his brother was so powerful.
The remaining shadows around Kar flowed back into his body, including the shadow cat. He quickly moved to the desk and logged on to Toban's laptop as the others watched. Once the connection to the Breed Conclave council mainframe had been established, Kar attempted to contact Toban, George or Antino.
As the contact screen was flashing, waiting to connect with any or all of them, a second window popped-up and read:
Ancient Council requires communication with this computer.
Then the computer left a connect button without the potential to reject the connection. Kar timidly clicked on the connect button and sat back. The screen divided into nine sections, five of the seven with a face looking back at him. It was at that moment Kar realized he was linked with every Ancient on the planet with the exception of Antino.
"Who are you, what are you doing on his personal laptop and where is Toban?" a Latino Ancient asked.
Kar immediately recognized the Ancient as Luis. "I am Kardama, one of Toban's Zoméa. He left the laptop here and I was attempting to contact him, George or the Ancient Antino when your directive came though."
"Security authorization, please," The Ancient James asked in a deep Australian accent.
"I am Kardama of the Librum Guild, Zoméa to Toban, George and Rex, security code Zeta, Epsilon, Gamma, three," Kar stated.
A computer voice was then heard to say, "Identity verified, Kardama McFearsome - Shadow Librum Warrior of the first order. Zoméa of the Shade Prince and Heir apparent Toban McFearsome, remainder of file sealed under Ancient executive order."
Kar blanched, as he knew what was coming next, he turned and said softly, "Clear the room."
Without a word, Karl and Steven began ushering Jason and Dusty from the room, both of them knew that the Ancient council was about to open the sealed order and none of them had the security clearance to hear the contents.
Once the room was cleared, Kar activated the small sound scrambler, he had tucked into his pocket earlier. Kar then said, "The room is secure."
Ancient Mobossa smiled, his dark skin contrasting with his vividly white teeth. His youthful face hiding his true age perfectly, "Computer, open the sealed order."
"Order is open. Do you wish a verbal or digital reading of the file?" the computer responded.
"Verbal," Ancient Athea ordered as she ran her fingers though her long raven hair. The scene behind her showing a Mediterranean beach
"Kardama is of the Order of the Assassins, third level, trained by the Guild Master as well as Master Assassin both. His Shadow capabilities are equal to Lord Prince Toban McFearsome's in most areas and superior in very specific areas, no areas are below par with the skills of Lord Prince Toban. Report given to Ancient Antino by the Assassin Guild Master and the Librum Master on separate occasions," the computer read.
Each Ancient was surprised by the information that had been unlocked. They each knew that the Assassin Guild Master was George and the Master Assassin was Sherry since they had used both of them from time to time. What surprised them was Kar's appearance. Even with the changes that had gone on in his life, Kar still was a small unassuming person with good looks and a nice smile. It was shocking that he was an assassin and one of the most powerful shadow beings in existence.
Ancient Mobossa was the first to respond. "We were contacting Toban to finalize our travel plans for next week, but it seems that something there has happened that have you bothered." He then paused and asked, "May we know what happened?"
Though it was phrased like a question, Kar realized that it was an order. "I need to give you some of the back story so you understand fully," Kar began. "Ancient Antino suspects that the seated government here in Toŏmę has had something to do with the deaths of several territorial leaders that he has sent to take over as well as being corrupt and lying to the Conclave council."
Kar paused for any questions and then continued speaking, "Apparently he found that the overtown's sheriff was complicit in the death of a family of wolves, leaving a child an orphan. Toban found enough evidence to execute the sheriff." He then added, "I cannot attest to the information because I was brought in after the fact."
Ancient Athea smiled sweetly and said, "We understand, please continue."
"Well, Toban felt he needed back-up and contacted our Zomé, George. I was part of the team sent as his back-up and it also gave me the ability to check out the town for our family vacation," Kar continued. "Toban is presently in Phoenix on one of two side missions that is time sensitive."
Kar again paused for questions, but continued when several of the Ancients nodded in understanding. "I and two members of our team were called to the offices of the undertown mayor, a true blood by the name of Valden. I suspected that Valden wanted more information on what Toban and the rest of us are doing here, so I used my abilities to make it impossible for him to mesmerize any of us."
Kar took a deep breath continuing his report, "I was taken into the office first, I was correct in my assumption and momentarily played along acting as if I was under his control. That was until he angered me."
Kar then began to form his shadows around him, copying the form he took while in Valden's office as he finished his report. "I let Valden know I was not a puppet to be controlled and left him with a light punishment to prove my point." Kar then flicked a shadow tendril like a whip to show his meaning. "I do not trust or like the mayor and was seeking Toban, George or Ancient Antino's council on what I should have done and what I should do now."
"Was Tash'sel`nar one of those called to the office?" Ancient Luis asked.
"No, she was not, just myself, Karl, a wolf who is acting as my security and Steven, who is a fairly new host," Kar responded.
Ancient Luis nodded but said nothing else.
Ancient Houg'an spoke with a laugh and said, "I don't know about the rest the Ancient Council, but I see that your actions to date have been exactly as I would have done," his Viking nature and temperament showing in his face.
All of the Ancients nodded in agreement.
"We do still need to finalize plans to arrive there," Ancient Athea said softly, drawing the conversation back on track. "I suggest we accelerate our individual plans so that we arrive as quickly as possible."
"Agreed," Ancient Mobossa interjected. He waited until he saw each of the other Ancients nod and then said, "We will start arriving tonight and continue over the next day. We will need you to remain silent to all but you Zoméa. That includes remaining silent about our arrival with Ancient Antino." He then paused and said, "That is an order of the Ancient Council."
Kar knew that only an order of the Ancient Council could override an individual Ancient, even with Antino being the Council's leader. "As it is ordered by the Ancient Council, I shall obey," Kar responded in the traditional response.
"Now we have to help you out in the situation at hand," Ancient Luis said pushing the conversation. "Have Tash'sel`nar contact me immediately after this meeting is completed."
"Yes, Ancient," Kar responded almost on instinct.
"We need to activate some extra protections for you, if you are going to have your family with you," Ancient Athea added.
"Agreed," Ancient Mobossa interjected.
"Expect extra help by the end of the day," Ancient James said, his face showing near anger.
"I think we need to get Antino on here so he can be brought up to speed and possibly make an appointment of an interim regional governor," Ancient Houg'an added.
"Remain online and connected," Ancient James directed. "We will contact Antino and bring him up to speed on what has happened and what we want to see happen next."
The computer screen then blanked and was replaced by a sign that said, `Ancient Council in deliberation, Stand By'
Kar leaned back in the chair he was sitting in and stretched. He knew that the meeting with Antino would only take a few moments, but he had exerted himself and the stretch felt good. For a brief moment, he thought of telling Tash about the order from Ancient Luis, but remembered he had said after the meeting and technically the meeting was still in progress.
Two minutes later the screen cleared and showed each of the Ancients, including Antino on the screen. Kar immediately bowed his head and said softly, "Ancient Antino."
Antino smiled at Kar, it was a smile one family member gives another that shows that they are angry, but not at the person receiving the smile. "Kar, I am sorry that I was not able to be contacted by normal means, that issue will be changed in a few moments, remember to give my love to your Zoméa, when you see them."
"Antino has been brought up to speed on what has happened and what we would like to see happen in the short term." Ancient James said. He intentionally had dropped the title of Ancient, not as a form of disrespect to Antino, but giving Kar the ability to use just their names and at least for the moment he could drop the use of the titles.
"While the problem is in a territory that is under the direct control of Antino and to a lesser degree Toban, we feel that because certain individuals are involved that the whole Ancient Council should have some input," Mobossa explained.
Antino noticed that Kar had become nervous. Antino then changed his smile to one that showed only his love and respect he held for Kar. "They convinced me that appointing a regional governor with authority to make any and all changes necessary would be a wise decision. The only issue I had with it was that the governor when appointed would need to remain in the region to oversee its needs."
Antino the changed his focus down and spoke with the voice of an Ancient, "Computer begin recording."
"Recording," the artificial voice of the computer responded.
Antino's voice retained the Ancient authority as he then said, "I, Ancient Antino, this day and time, appoint Kardama McFearsome Interim Governor of the territory known as the Southwest section of the United States of the Breed. His powers and authority shall be limited only by the order of the United States of the Breed Conclave Council, the council president or myself. He shall also be afforded the protections of the same."
Antino's smile increased as he saw the stunned face of Kar. "I further transfer control of one-sixth of the funds under the power of the United States of the Breed to his authority to be used to benefit those beings under his control," Antino continued to proclaim. "Access to restricted communications systems shall be fully given without limits. All incomes shall be generated in the ordinary manner and shall be kept in separate accounts from other governmental monies."
Antino then looked up and at Kar for his input. A terrified Kar could only whisper, "I accept." In truth, he had no real choice.