They had their backs pressed against the wall, cool stone seeping through their clothes. The Celzex palace didn't have any obvious sources of illumination, but the further they went up, the brighter the rooms became illuminated by a sort of ambient glow that might have emanated from the very stone itself, though it was impossible to tell. Even as that glow grew brighter, their likelihood of running into palace guards increased as well, roving patrols of Celzex going in clusters up and down the hallway.

They didn't seem to be carrying any weapons, but with the celzex you could never know.

If it had been any other species, he might have risked getting caught. He was a human after all and he had no doubt that he could take out almost any other alien species in the galaxy, aside from maybe a Drev, with near impunity , and the Celzex just so happened to be punting size, however there were two things that stopped him, one: infamous Celzex pride, if he were to actually punt one, he would probably make an enemy for life that would include all of the Celzex's distant family members. Generally speaking, pissing off a group of people who have access to weapons of mass destruction was ill advised . Second of all, just because the LOOKED unarmed didn't mean a damn thing. If world destroying missiles or death rays or whatever, was a think that they were capable of making, he had no doubt that personal protection technology was well within their reach.

As he stood there with his back against the wall it occurred to him that he knew even less about the Celzex than he had originally thought. They didn't obviously avoid handing out information, but it was clear that Celzex ambassadors, and the members of his own crew kept Celzex information close to the chest.

Amelia stood beside him, still pouting rom their earlier confrontation. She didn't seem to understand how Adam wouldn't be interested in her, and she had tried, at all the inopportune moments, to change his mind on the subject. The fact that she would behave in such a way really got under his skin, and he couldn't understand how her credentials were so impressive, when her performance had been less than stellar.

She had really been more of a hinderance to the operation than she had been a help, and he planned on letting her office know about it when he got back to his ship. He was an admiral after all, and he doubted his word would be taken so lightly. Not even considering the fact that he was almost positive her behavior fell under the blanket of 'harassment' and or physical misconduct of some sort.

The Celzex patrol passed, but he didn't bother to move.

Lord Avex had said they should wait here until he and Sunny arrived, and so they would wait.

Behind him he could hear Amelia gearing up for another question, sucking in a long deep breath.

He felt sorry for whatever air she was going to waste, and conveniently stepped back just in time to trod on her foot.

It was clearly intentional enough that she shut up and went back to pouting, leaving him happily in silence as he peered around the doorway and into the hall. With his head tilted to one side he could hear the sounds of retreating Celzex feet, and, a new set coming up the hall. The new set of footsteps were clearly not Celzex: too heavy, and he knew who it was almost immediately.

He stayd in his spot to wait though as Sunny and lord Avex came quietly around the corner, Lord Avex sitting on her shoulder as she walked. He frowned as he saw her. Sunny was wearing a tarp, or what appeared to be a tarp covered in crystals, her beak sticking out from under it in a way that probably would have made it hard to see.

Adam waved a hand at them and Lord Avex steered her into the room.

"The hell are you wearing?" He whispered

Sunny grunted and let the tarp slide to the floor.

Lord Avex answered for her, "Drev look surprisingly like Crystalspawn when covered in crystals and walking on all fours."

"he rode me into the city like a pack donkey." She grumbled rubbing her hands."

Adam snorted, "What I wouldn't give to have seen that."

"I'm sure." She grumbled, "No issues?" She asked looking between the two of them.

Adam nodded, "Just peachy."

If she noticed the tension in his voice or the look on Amelia's face than she didn't acknowledge it.

Adam turned to look at lord Avex, "how far are we from the throne room?"

The fluffly little alien sat back on his haunches and turned an eye down to examine the bottom of his foot as if he were examining his nails. As far as Adam knew, the Celzex only had two limbs, though he couldn't have been sure there weren't other appendages hidden under that mass of fur.

"Oh not far, maybe a hundred yards at most."

Adam raised an eyebrow, "They would leave the palace that unprotected."

Lord Avex shook his head, "No, not generally, which is what had me concerned. We should have been surrounded the moment we appeared on palace grounds, so something is very very wrong."

"You mean you expected to get caught."

Lord Avex made a shrugging motion that had his hair bobbing slightly, "The Celzex palace is impenetrable most days, so I fully expected to be apprehended. I was relying on my birth status and your friendship with my father to keep us from getting killed. When we DID manage to sneak in I knew something was wrong."

"And you're sure?"

Lord Avex nodded, his piggy ears flopping up and down with the motion. He had picked up the gesture from humans, though the movement on him was more comical than anything else.

"Yes, my father would have never left the palace so unprotected. Whatever is going on here is not of his doing, and I am worried that something might have happened."

"Like... someone beat him in a duel for the throne?"

Lord Avex didn't answer, but the expression on his strange piggy face made it clear enough that, while he didn't want to acknowledge that possibility, he believed that it was more than likely. Adam grimaced at the thought. If someone a little less agreeable than lord celex were to take over the throne than the GA was all but done for. Lord Celex was a warlord by all accounts, a tyrant and a dictator over his people, but as far as anyone could tell, he was a remarkably agreeable person for his species. He had no desire to rule the galaxy and was willing to work alongside the GA on his terms.

Lord Avex claimed that his father could have taken over the galaxy years ago, but chose not to because, while taking over a galaxy was one thing, running it was another. He would have to redo infrastructure and economics, and he would have to quash rebellions expending more energy and resources on fighting a continual war against people who were less than likely to roll over and give up. Especially knowing the humans as well as he did, he was more than certain that taking over the galaxy would only imbed himself in a lifelong power engagement with the remaining factions of humans.

While that line of thinking was less than comforting, it was at least acceptably logical.

His rivals on the other hand, were not so intelligent and meticulous as their counterpart.

If lord Celex was to be considered a voice of reason, than they had plenty to be worried about.

Lord Avex directed them down the nearest corridor.

"Just through here. If we are lucky the harem will be out for the day."

"Excuse me, the what?" Adam said.

Lord Avex blinked at him, nonplussed, "What?"

"Your father has a harem?"

"Of course." He stated it so matter of fact that Adam could only shake his head in consternation.

"Being emperor comes with perks. It is my father's right as king to proliferate his bloodline through the population." Apparently, Lord Avex didn't seem bothered by the idea that his father got around. If anything, he almost seemed proud of it.

Sunny hummed softly either in amusement or with some measure of thoughtfulness, "For some reason I assumed you were his only son."

Lord Avex laughed at that, "Hardly, I AM the only surviving member of my mother's brood, she ate everyone else." He shook his head fondly, pig ears flapping slightly, "I do think she is dad's favorite, if she wanted anything to do with the throne, she might have had a chance at beating him, even so she was happy enough to be one of his consorts, plenty of power but not a whole lot of responsibility."

Lord Avex seemed well aware of their mouths hanging open in gaping shock, but rather than be bothered by it, he seemed to enjoy their expressions of wonder.

He looked up at Adam, "Tell me, do humans eat their young."

Adam made a face repulsed by the mere thought, "NO! we would never."

Lord Avex laughed, "And they say that your species is the most dangerous." He shook his head, "No, I am not an only child, I am not even his oldest, but I AM his most accomplished. I manage to survive through infancy and childhood, and I have fought many battles, and have now been a crewmember on your ship, Admiral. With my experience, I one day hope to take the throne from my father?"

"So the line is hereditary?" Adam wondered

Lord Avex shook his head in a long suffering sort of way, "No, I plan to duel him."

"Oh.... Like to first blood, or."

He shot Adam a look, "I don't think you get it. When I am powerful enough, I plan to challenge my father to the right of the throne and either kill or be killed in the attempt."
More gaping expressions.

"Do you hate your father?"

"No, I would consider us relatively close. We have been looking forward to our duel for a while now, though I don't think I am yet ready."

Adam chose to stop asking questions then. If he kept on the subject of the Celzex and their strange practices, he was going to become unfocused from their mission. After a few minutes Lord Avex drew them to a stop before a set of massive double doors. He culdn't have said what they were made of as his first guess would have been pearl inlayed with lapis, but that hardly seemed like the kind of material you would want to make a door out of.

Each one of the doors was almost thirty feet high, and had intricate carvings along it's front.

It was pretty clear that this was the entrance to the throne room.

"No guards?" he muttered.

Lord Avex shook his head slowly, though it was less of a response to Adam's question and more an expression of concern as he stared at the doors.

"Something is definitely wrong."

"Do we go in?" Amelia cut in.

"I don't think we have any other option." Adam said looking around at the group. When there was no immediate objections, he reached out a hand and gently pushed at the doors seeing no handles for him to pull.

Despite the door's size, they opened without so much as a sound, seeming to leap back from his fingers at a simple touch. They glided open as if on ice creaking open and allowing a shaft of natural sunlight to seep into the hall, a shaft of natural light that brought with it a wave of corpse flies and a horrendous stink. Both he and Amelia staggered back, and even sunny recoiled a little at the smell.

Eyes watering, Adam peered in through the doorway, not sure what he expected to find.

He couldn't have anticipated what he saw there.

The room into which he looked was massive, with high vaulted ceilings lined with skylights, which were the source of the natural light. The room itself was almost 100 yards long lined on either side with glowing pillars of pearl marble constructed of the same material as the floors walls, and doors. At the very front of the room there sat a massive stone throne with an impossibly high back, and a seat large enough for a human to sit on if they were dumb enough to try.

Upon that throne sat lord Celex, and on the floor below him, strewn across all 100 yards of the room, lay rotting corpses.

There must have been hundreds of them all lying in differing states of decomposition. One close to the door had lost all of it's fur and bone was beginning to peer out through one of it's gaping eye sockets, while others were still buzzing with masses of flies.

Dried Blue blood coated the floor in spatters making it difficult to see what color the ground had once been. The corpses seemed to lay where they had fallen, some occupying a solitary point, while others were piled in heaps around the pillars, a few even lying around the base of the throne.

A throne upon which Lord Celex slumped.

Adam reached a hand up to cover his nose with his shirt, gagging on the smell.

At first glace he thought that the emperor was dead, the Celzex's fur was matted where it hadn't fallen out in great clumps to fall to the floor below him, and the color of the remaining fur had faded to a sort of grey color luster gone, color faded. His eyes were foggy and distant, and he held himself leaning heavily against the side of the throne, seemingly unable to hold himself upright.

"Sweet Jupiter." Adam muttered to surprised to even curse.

Sunny muttered something in her own language.

Lord Avex was left speechless for a moment regaining his voice only to let of a tremulous question into the air, "Father?"

His voice echoed around the room startling the body upon the throne.

Lord Celex looked up with his glassy eyes and moaned lightly in, pain or something else, "Avex?" He didn't use his son's honorific, which was strange for him.

Avex urged Sunny forward and the group of them stepped into the room, "yes father it's me!"

The emperor's eyes brightened, and with great effort he hauled himself upright looking at them for a long moment before comprehension dawned on his face. But instead of happiness upon seeing his son, or even anger, Adam was surprised to see.... Fear."

The expression shocked him, rooting him to where he stood.

Lord Celex wasn't capable of fear, and even if he was he would NEVER have shown it so outright, but there it was as plain as day.

Clearly the same thought process had crossed lord Avex's mind as he took was rooted and unspeaking.

Lord Celex hauled himself forward, "GET OUT! You have to ge-"

The cool edge of a knife blade kissed the Skin of Adam's neck, and hot warm air blew over his ear as amelia whispered, "Too late for that I'm afraid."