Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Chapter 66: Interlude 8 – Jasmine

Location: Magicon Empire; Valterion Duchy; Valterion System; Nua; Alburgh; Valterion Mansion

Jasmine Valterion sighs and puts down her cup of tea. “Do you really have to go again?” She asks her husband, sitting opposite her at the table.

The light red-haired man sighs as well and nods. Aidan Valterion has the exact same hair and eye color as all the other Valterions. Genes that were made artificially dominant by Conor Valterion all the way back when he founded the company. Other than that, every Valterion still has their individual looks. Not that Jasmine can complain about those genetic modifications as it’s the exact same with her family.

Born as Jasmine Benson, the granddaughter of the current Emperor, she has her own artificially changed features. Prominent are her piercing green eyes, almost the same shade as the Valterion ones. Coupled with her natural brown hair color, she would be immediately identified as one of the royal family. That’s one of the reasons why she colors her hair in a different color most of the time. Not that it helps, as everyone still recognizes her because of her childhood as the face of Magicon Incorporated. At least they now recognize her as the Duchess. She worked hard for that. She also doesn’t have a bad relationship with her family in any kind, but she still married into the Valterion family and wants to be associated with them. Currently, her hair is strawberry-blonde, but she already thinks of a new color she could change too.

Maybe it’s time for Auburn again? It’s been twenty years… No, not yet!

“I’m sorry Jas, Adrian called for my help. The fights get more intense by the hour and he fears that without my help he can’t hold the lines much longer.”

Stupid son of mine… Refuses to take any power-enhancing artifacts, saying he wants to get stronger on his own. But when things get dicey, he calls for Daddy.

“Ugh, fine… Maybe you can convince him this time to take the enhancers. He’s nearing his first century… Maybe he’s finally mature enough.”

Aidan chuckles lightly. “You know how he is… He won’t change, the loss of his sister hit him harder than most of us. He wants to earn his power to be able to protect everyone in the future.” His expression turns sad, just like every time Sara is mentioned.

Jasmine’s mood drops as well. Thinking about Sara, about their failure to protect or rescue her, is never easy. Even harder is the fact that no one besides close family, the other dukes, and the royals know about her.

Aidan and Jasmine wanted to give Sara a normal childhood. As normal as it’s possible as one of the heirs of the Duchy anyway. That means they didn’t announce the birth of their third child to the public twenty-two years back. Sara stayed hidden. They wanted her to decide on her own when to come out. When to enter the noble games all the others like to play. She was a magical prodigy among prodigies after all. Already measured in the Senior ranks of power at the young age of two. Let her learn how to use her powers before the others can take advantage of her.

Jasmine still isn’t sure if this was the right way. But they’ll never find out. Sara got kidnapped when she was only two years old. Way sooner than she could have had any benefits of her normal upbringing.

We never even found out how her kidnappers knew about Sara…

But the decision that hurt Jasmine the most was the one her husband made after Sara’s kidnapping. She didn’t protest too much, because deep down she knew he was right. It still hurt!

Sara’s existence was still being kept hidden, even after her kidnapping. The Valterions had to show a strong and united front at the time. War was waged against aggressive neighbors, and upstart Noble houses always tried to crave power. A kidnapping of the youngest child would have cracked their strong façade. The four duchies and the royals are not the absolute powers, they were in the past, anymore. Magic is far wider available now and once someone reaches the Archmage rank, they are a force to be reckoned with.

“Yeah, I know… It’s just our children are always away. I haven’t seen Chris in over a year. All those fights and all those idiots who think they should be the new rulers. They don’t even know what our ancestors did for them…”

Christopher Valterion is their oldest and currently the heir, meaning he is the one who has to mingle with all the other Nobles in the capital system of The Empire. He complains all the time on video calls, but deep down Jasmine knows how much he enjoys it.

He just loves to cross all their schemes. And then there’s Aria Axtendus, his biggest supporter and not-so-hidden lover.

That thought brings a smile to her face, despite her lingering sadness of the memory of Sara.

Aidan raises an eyebrow. “What is it?”

Jasmine laughs. “Ahh, just Chris’ secret with Aria…”

Now Aidan laughs as well. “Oh yeah, he thinks he’s so smart with hiding their relationship from us,” he sets down his cup of tea and stands up. “Now though, I really have to go. I’m back as soon as possible.”

Jasmine stands up as well and kisses her husband. When they release each other, they both smile. “Good luck, Dan. Go kick some ass. I think I’ll take out the Sulfira and go a bit of incognito shopping.”

Aidan winks. “Good luck escaping your guards.” He disappears in a purple flash.

Jasmine grumbles and casts the Master level Communication spell. This one enables live video calls over any distance. The smirking face of her husband appears before her. “You really want to have the last word?”

“Oh for sure… You should know that after 250 years of marriage.”

He cringes. “True enough, now what is oh so important dear wife of mine?”

“Oh, it’s just that I sent all my guards on vacation without informing them that I sent all of them. So I’m free to go wherever I want.”

Aidan laughs. “Well, they’ll find out soon enough. Anyway, it’s not that you need the protection. See you, gotta go.”

He attempts to cut the call, but Jasmine flexes her magic and holds on. “See you, honey.” Then she cuts the call, smirking.

Got him… The last word is mine.

When he attempts to reconnect the call, she simply blocks it.

No need to give him any other chance.

“Miranda, is the Sulfira ready?”

Miranda, her AI, replies. “She is, I’ve taken the liberty and readied the disguise chamber as well. Oh, and the route to the Silvani System is already calculated.”

“You’re the best, Miranda!”

“I know,” she replies smugly, getting in the last word. Jasmine chuckles but stays silent.

Oh well, the curse of having a sapient AI, she gets back at me for annoying my husband.

With another purple flash, Jasmine leaves the mansion as well and reappears inside her personal yacht, well above the planet. The Sulfira stretches the definition of yacht at almost 300 meters in length and has more weapons than one can count, but Jasmine doesn’t care. A flick of her wrist later and the ship looks completely different. Her Disguise spell took hold at the all-purpose Magitech emitters around the ship and is now fueled by the magical batteries.

Meet the Sulmar, a pleasure yacht, 60 meters long and owned by a rich businesswoman. Clever gravity manipulation and other Magitech emitters around the ship avoid collisions with other ships, as the Sulfira is way bigger than the currently visible 60 meters. Jasmine herself steps into a small room aboard and enters another piece of Magitech. It looks like an old photo booth but serves a different purpose.

She flicks through her holographic interface and nods to herself, that’s the look. A flicker of magic power and the Magitech gets to work. Five minutes later, a completely different-looking woman exits the disguise chamber. She has dark blue hair, brown eyes, and a healthy amount of tan. Her forearms are covered with circling tattoos and she smirks into the mirror.

Perfect, no one’s going to recognize me. Finally, I can go shopping in peace.

“Miranda, do you have a name for me?”

“Sure, you are Jessica Young, a self-made billionaire out of the Gallagher System.”

“Alright, thanks. Let’s go. Do we have clearance for a direct jump, or do I have to stop a system early and use the wormhole?

A sigh sounds in her ear and Jasmine immediately knows. “Don’t worry, I get it. Wormhole it is.”

Her power gathers when she casts the Starship Jump spell and the space bubble envelopes the Sulfira. A few seconds later they reappear close to a wormhole leading to the Silvani System.

Location: Magicon Empire; Axtendus Duchy; Silvani System; VS Sulfira

Finally, after a for her taste much too long wait, the Sulmar is allowed to use the wormhole and exits it about an hour later in the Silvani System.

Ugh, damn it’s a busy day today.

That puts it lightly. The whole system is packed with starships. The single planet is barely visible through all the traffic. The Silvani System is famous in the whole Empire. Every major and minor brand has a store here. It’s The shopping paradise. The prime stores are down on the planet with monthly rents that put the GDP of some nations to shame. It’s THE one thing a company has to own to be recognized as a prime company in The Empire.

Valterion Heavy Industries, of course, owns one of the largest stores on the planet. Not that Jasmine has any intentions of visiting that particular store today. Hell, she doesn’t even want to visit the planet. Her destination is one of the countless space stations floating around in the system. Particularly, her destination is the Sylver Station. A station that only allows major clothing brands to rent a store. Exactly what Jasmine needs right now. If only there wasn’t that much traffic.

Luckily my fake persona allows me to throw around some money. That should get me a priority route.

“How much is it going to cost me to get me to Sylver Station within the next two hours?” She asks and Miranda promptly answers her.

“Not too much, just two arms and a leg…” Miranda stops a moment, hoping to get a reaction out of Jasmine, but she knows her too well and keeps her expression neutral. “You’re no fun… Fine, it’s two million creds. I’ve already made the payment. The route is getting cleared as we speak.”

That gets a reaction out of Jasmine, and she laughs. “Looks like you’re way ahead of me.”

“Waiting is just so annoying.”

Alright, I’ll do a bit of work, call me when we’re there. Miranda voices her acknowledgment and speeds the Sulfira along the now cleared route. Jasmine sinks deep into her holographic interface and works off some of the things that come with being the Duchess of the Valterion Duchy.

One and a half hours later, Miranda calls out that they’ve arrived. Jasmine finishes her current document and returns back to the real world. She gets up and stretches.

Alright, let’s do some therapy shopping.

She exits the ship, and after showing her fake ID of Jessica Young to a guard, she gets waved through and enters the shopping station. It’s looking just like a shopping mall down on a planet, if one didn’t know, one wouldn’t even think about being on a station. Additionally, all the stores are quite distracting as well. Shop windows display the newest collections of famous designers and floating holograms, some even made out of hard light advertise even more pieces of clothing throughout the hallways.

Jasmine lets out a pleasant sigh.

Heaven!

Nodding to herself, she starts her wild shopping spree. Hours later, large bags float all around her and take up quite a lot of space in the hallways. This continues till one of the station’s security personnel clears his throat next to her.

“Excuse me, madam. We had quite a few complaints about your haul being in the way of other customers. Would you be so kind and bring your things to your ship? We can also take care of that for you for a small fee, of course.”

Jasmine looks at him in confusion and is about to tell him her piece when Miranda clears her throat as well.

“Jasmine, dear, it seems you got lost in your shopping spree… again.”

She looks around and notices all the bags around her. A small blush of embarrassment flushes her cheeks.

Oops, luckily my disguise has a darker complexion.

“Sorry about that, sir. I got a bit lost… But no need for the delivery service.” She snaps her fingers, and all the bags disappear. They are now safely aboard the Sulfira. Teleportation is just a neat spell… It’s the upgraded version of Personal Teleportation that lets the user teleport almost anything in their vicinity they wish. Unfortunately, it can only be used at Master level and above. Not that Jasmine cares as an Archmage, but the security man stares at her with wide eyes.

Doing what she just did without even flinching is a testimony of high power. Jasmine ignores him and continues her shopping trip, this time stopping from time to time to teleport her bags.

This continues for a while, until suddenly Miranda’s voice enters her ear, sounding very urgent.

“Jasmine!” She basically shouts and Jasmine almost loses control of the bags around her.

That would have been rather embarrassing. I’m in the middle of a luxury store after all.

“What is it?” She asks quietly, not wanting to disturb the people around her.

“I just caught a report out of the Axtul System. They caught a starship that tried to enter The Empire over the Zerin Route. It’s an Old one.”

Okay, but why should that be important?

“Go on, this doesn’t require my attention so far…”

Just let me speak, the interesting part is the crew of the ship. They all have fake IDs, well all except one but that’s not important. Important is the Captain. A young girl named Sara Valt…”

Power erupts around Jasmine Valterion and all the people around her take a few panicked steps back. Her bags are completely forgotten and get blasted through the room. With a single purple flash, she is gone and reappears on the bridge of the Sulfira.

“Is it her?!” She half shouts, half asks the empty room and Miranda immediately answers her.

“I’m not sure, she has the looks, and the age is fitting. According to her ID, her name is Valtron though. You have to let me speak. Still, the report also said something about the owner of the ship is Sara Valterion, but they assumed the whole crew were spies or imposters and put them in prison till their court hearing tomorrow.”

After lots of false leads over the years, Miranda has gotten more careful, but Jasmine doesn’t care. “This is the best lead we’ve had in years. Give me a route, I don’t care about any law-breaking right now… just pay all the fees. And let’s go!”

Miranda, knowing when not to argue with Jasmine does as she is told and disengages from Sylver Station. The disguised Sulfira fires up her engines and even more urgent messages float in. Miranda ignores them all and just sends standardized answers.

Finally, Jasmine gets a set of coordinates and immediately fires off the Starship Jump spell right next to the station. Due to her great control, the station isn’t ripped apart, but a lot of people are still very shaken. A thought in the back of her head tells her this is going to be expensive. Not that she cares at the moment.

Seconds later and due to the rushed jump, she emerges in the Axtul System in a very big flash of purple light.

Please let it be Sara for real this time!