Emperors War

Her dad who used to be a respectable magical engineer had moved them to the Underground Empire so that he could turn to smuggling. In order to care for her he needed to be able to make significantly more than he did in his work and the only way to do that was to turn to less than reputable means.

As she watched her dad leave for despicable job after despicable job, she would shed tears every time. Clearly her dad was caught in the greatest dilemma as he didn"t want to be a smuggler but couldn"t afford her treatments if he didn"t.

So many times, she thought about just taking her own life so that both her dad and her could stop their suffering, but she felt that doing that would probably result in her dad following right behind her. It was obvious to her that there was nothing more important to her dad than her, otherwise why would he do everything he has done? If he could struggle, sacrifice and suffer for her benefit couldn"t she also do the same for his?

"How"s my Little Kara doing today?" Sneed"s concerned face which was visibly holding back his tears came into Kara"s view.

"Dad I feel so much better today, I don"t know what that last doctor did but he was great!" Kara would always lie to her dad when he asked.

Kara wasn"t supposed to still be alive, and should have died a half year back. She he had been poisoned by an unknown magic poison when she was just a new infant. For the first few years of her life there was no symptoms or signs of the poison....it wasn"t until she reached her early childhood that the effects of the poison began to show itself.

Sneed had moved Kara here for two reasons. First, he could make enough money to help support her treatment by turning to smuggling and robbery. Unfortunately, the treatment wouldn"t cure her, but it could buy some extra time while he searched for a cure. Secondly, there were treatment options here. Due to the nature of the Underground Empire it was known that just about anything could be gotten within the empire, just don"t ask any questions was the rule. On his home planet Stratun that was in the Sinclair Galaxy which was ruled by the Harmon Empire there was not a single treatment option available to Sneed. If he wanted any hope or chance of saving his only and most precious daughter he would have to get over to the Underground Empire.
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In order to make the move from the Harmon Empire all the way over to the Underground Empire Sneed had to sell all of his possessions and even had to rob a few people on his home planet before finding a shuttle over. As they journeyed all they could do was hope that Kara"s situation didn"t deteriorate any further.

The ship model that Sneed was able to book to travel between the two empires was well known through the outer universe as "garbage can" the X1-Jumper. The reason it was called "garbage can" was that it moved exceedingly slow making a trip that should take a day in most transporters, take ten times as long. The fifteen to twenty-day trip took them almost six months to finish.

As they slowly drifted between empires Sneed could only watch as his daughter"s situation deteriorated every day wishing he had the money and power to cure her, or at the very least move that d.a.m.n garbage can faster. One doesn"t understand the name given to the X1-Jumper until they have used it for transport. As they slowly move forward from location to location with no ability to leave or ability to influence it at all, almost everyone swears in their heart they will not ever use it again.

So then why are these garbage cans used so frequently for transport? Easy, most people can"t afford the ships that can move them quickly between destinations. The cost of transport on a garbage can is only about one hundred franar for each person whereas the next ship up from the X1-Jumper the X2-Shuttle would cost at a minimum two thousand franar a person.

Fuel....the cost difference is fuel. The X1-Jumper"s cost for fuel doesn"t exist which is why they can transport at such a low cost. The X1-Jumper has a converter that takes particles in s.p.a.ce and converts them to energy. When the converter was first invented by a magical engineer the universe thought it would be a revolutionary change, however their hopes were dashed. The conversion is so slow that it is basically unusable and eventually the only technology that tried to implement it was the X1-Jumper. What that technology did was allow for cheap transportation but at an extreme cost of time.

Due to the low cost of transportation the garbage can was essentially the equivalent of staying in metal home. The garbage can did not try and use any comfort amenities and people weren"t even provided bedding as they just received a metal slab to sleep on. For those people who had traveled on a garbage can before they had learned to bring their own bedding to have something soft to sleep on, but for Sneed and Kara who were traveling on one for the first time the six months on the garbage can was an eternity.

"That"s great, your dad just got home today and I will be heading to The Pit tonight to meet with the boss, he said we have a new job lined up so I want to make sure I"m on his crew."

"Let me make you some dinner before you leave." As Kara said that she began to struggle to get out of bed. She wasn"t capable of doing much as the poison had worked its way through her system and destroyed her strength. Her dad hadn"t said anything to her but she could tell she didn"t have long left and so she wanted to do little things like make her dad dinner while she could still move. Unfortunately, she may have already reached the point that she was past "could still move" and entered the territory she was dreading so much.

Sneed walked over and gently put his hand on Kara"s shoulder pushing her back down "No, your dad already ate, just stay and rest...maybe we can have breakfast tomorrow, how does that sound?"

Kara"s face lit up at the sound of breakfast with her dad and nodded her head in agreement.

As she watched her dad walk away Kara fell asleep tired from her earlier attempt at trying to get up to make her dad a meal, the pain from the day clearly displayed on her face now that Sneed wasn"t there to see.

"Wake up.... Kara it"s a miracle! Hurry up Kara let"s go; everything has already been arranged."

The sleeping Kara woke up to the sound of Sneed jumping up and down his excitement evident in every word.

"What miracle? Where are we going? What"s been arranged?" Kara asked baffled at her dads" bizarre behavior. In her entire ten years of life her dad had never acted like this before.

"The boy, he"s our miracle and benefactor. He has saved you Kara, so after your all better you have to go and pay your respects to him...." Sneed still wasn"t making sense as he spoke, his words flying out of his mouth so fast Kara could barely understand.

"What boy? Why is he our miracle? Dad I don"t understand, you have to explain it to me so I can understand." Kara was now getting fl.u.s.tered. She could obviously tell there was cause for excitement but she wasn"t understanding what it was.

"The boy I bet it all on the boy and he was going to die...."

"What do you mean you bet it all on the boy? What are you betting dad? I thought we agreed you weren"t supposed to ever bet again after we lost everything because of your gamble before!" Kara was completely astonished at her dad"s reckless behavior as she interrupted him halfway through his sentence. They had bet everything on a fighter in The Pit who was guaranteed to win and somehow the fighter ended up losing his life and her and her dad lost everything they had saved up thus putting them in their current predicament.

"That"s just it Little Kara, he didn"t die.... he won! He won and I bet all of our money on him, every penny....hahahahah....hahahahaha.....hahahahaha....." Sneed was bellowing out laughing feeling a true sense of joy. When was the last time he had felt this sense of joy? When had he last truly felt happy?

"All of it? All 4,000 was bet on some random boy?" Kara was even more shocked than when she heard her dad had bet. Not only did he bet, he bet everything they had.

"No, not all 4,000..."

"Oh, thank goodness there is still some common sense left in my dad that he didn"t bet everything." Kara sounded relieved, at least he hadn"t risk everything they had all in one go.

"No let me finish Kara, it wasn"t all 4,000 franar it was all 5,000 franar. I had received an advanced payment for the next job and put it all on the boy as well...and we won!"

"He won? Did you say he won? Does that mean we now have 10,000 franar?" Kara who was fl.u.s.tered by her dad"s earlier statement of betting everything on the boy and because of that didn"t hear her dad say they had won. They had doubled their money after just one fight, she could feel the excitement welling up within herself.

"No not 10,000.... the odds were 500 to 1.....hahahahahaha....hahahahahaha.....we are leaving to get you taken care of Little Kara....hahahahaha.....hahahahaha....."

"You mean we have enough money to pay for everything?" Kara was about to burst at the seams, she was so excited. She was trying to hide it from her dad but she had already given up any hope of raising enough money to pay for her cure. No matter what test they had run on her they couldn"t figure out what had poisoned her and since that was the case they had to pay for "The Broad Miraculous" which was a very, very expensive antidote that cured most poisons.

"We are heading over now; they have to take care of you at the clinic since they have to monitor you and follow a very specific regiment. According to them in about two weeks you should be fully recovered." Sneed couldn"t hold it in any longer as the tears of joy started to matriculate down his face. He had dreamed of this day for years and years. They had given up everything they owned. They had traveled across the outer universe; Sneed had given up the job he loved and turned to a life of crime just for this day. All of it was due to the grace of a small boy who fought in The Pit.

Every day Sneed would go and bet on and watch Aker"s fight and every day he would go back and tell Kara about his battle. Each day she would hear about his fight, she would hold her breath scared for her miraculous benefactor. As her dad would describe in detail she would hang at the edge of her seat as she listened as if though she was afraid she would miss even the smallest word. Each day she heard that he was fine she would smile brightly, excitedly she would ask her dad to tell the story again.

"His name is Aker, I asked after his fight and he told me his name is Aker." Sneed told Kara on one of his visits. After the fight he had blurted out asking for the boy"s name and the boy had shouted back that he was called Aker.

"Aker.... No....Big Brother Aker....only dad can call me Little Kara but Big Brother should as well." Upon hearing that her saviors name was Aker, Kara had already decided that she would have him call her Little Kara just like her dad.

Every day Kara was feeling better and she was growing more and more excited about getting to go out and see her Big Brother. Just a little bit ago she had succ.u.mbed herself to her fate, but now she didn"t have to accept that any longer. Now she would keep her Big Brother company as well and help him until he could beat his fate as well.

Kara had known about The Pit as well. Who didn"t know about The Pit within the Underground Empire? The only fate for those that entered The Pit was death, a slow and agonizingly painful demise.

On the day that she got out of the clinic she felt for the first time in her life that she was completely healthy and full of vigor and life. Not wasting a moment, she darted over to The Pit to meet her Big Brother. Her dad had already made all of the arrangements and set it up so that she could go down and meet him in his cell.

Kara"s dad had made all of the arrangements and Kara would be allowed to keep Aker company until they could figure out a way to get him out of The Pit. Already Sneed had started to develop some influence due to his growing wealth which he had earned betting on Aker. As far as both Kara and Sneed were concerned every cent of it belonged to Aker and they should use it to try and create pressure and influence to free Aker. It would be an arduous task as there had never been a case of someone getting pressured out of The Pit. How could someone who ended up in The Pit have the connections to get them out of there? If they did, they wouldn"t be there in the first place. Not only that, who was brave enough to stand up to the king?

Walking into The Pit and down into the cells Kara was nervous. The smell of The Pit was repugnant as it was musty and moldy with a hint of blood and death. The corridors were poorly lit and the overall atmosphere was dreary and dank. She was nervous that the boy she had been hearing stories about every day, the boy that she had come to start to look up to would reject her.

It would be understandable for someone in Aker"s position to turn against everyone and to have no compa.s.sion or care for the world left. Even if he had turned into a heartless demon Kara would still try and befriend Aker as he was her savior.

When she walked up and saw the boy who had saved her life, she couldn"t help but smile to herself. He was diligently practicing in his cell completely focused on improving himself. What was obvious to her as she watched him was that the boy in front of her was not a devil, at least not in the truest sense of the word.

Seeing her savior swing his weapon, jumping, dodging and bouncing around she couldn"t help but admire him. She who was facing death had given up and was only waiting with a fake smile on her face for her end. But here in front of her was a boy who would face death day in and day out fighting in the arena and rather than give up he was fighting back with all of his might. So, he may not be a devil in the truest sense of the word but he was a demon for sure.

With that thought Kara thought to herself a demon, in that case I"ll become a demon too...with that thought she couldn"t help but laugh which of course caught Aker"s attention.