Transmigrated Into A Women Dominated World

After another twenty minutes inside the Capital Sector, the low vibration running through the cruiser began to change. The vehicle gradually reduced its velocity as it left the high-speed transit corridor, and the featureless layer of cloud beneath them drew closer.

The cruiser descended through it, briefly surrounding the windows with pale gray before the cloud cover broke apart and revealed the Capital far below.

Zaeryn shifted closer to the window.

Near the center of the enormous city, an elevated district rose above everything surrounding it. Even from their current altitude, he could see the immense collection of towers, protected airways and connected structures forming the palace complex.

"We have begun our final approach," the operator announced from the forward compartment. "We will arrive shortly."

'So I am finally going to meet Athea face-to-face,' Zaeryn thought.

He had not expected this moment to arrive so soon. For most of his life, Athea had been nothing more than a woman whose existence had deliberately been kept from him.

Then she had become a distant presence working behind the scenes of his life.

There had been a point when Zaeryn had begun to believe that their relationship would remain that way indefinitely, with Athea always existing somewhere beyond his reach.

Now he was being carried directly into her domain.

Under different circumstances, the prospect of finally standing in the same room with her might have excited him. Right now, however, with the Imperial Council preparing to evaluate him and several unfamiliar Warladies already treating him like an unpredictable security concern, excitement was the furthest thing from what he felt.

He turned his full attention toward the view beneath them.

Zaeryn had seen the Capital countless times in broadcasts, historical recordings and official celebrations, but none of those images had conveyed the true scale of the place. The city extended in every direction until the horizon interrupted it, with immense towers rising in deliberate formations rather than the dense, irregular spread that defined Sector Seven.

Sector Seven had always seemed impossibly vast to Zaeryn, and yet the cruiser had spent the better part of half an hour crossing this sector alone and was only now reaching its central districts. That single comparison told him more about the Capital than every broadcast he had ever watched.

Its greater size was not the only difference. Everything below appeared to have been constructed according to a single, carefully controlled design, from the regulated streams of aerial traffic to the broad security corridors dividing the city into distinct administrative districts. Even the positioning of the towers appeared deliberate, with none standing closely enough to obstruct the protected routes leading toward the palace.

Every major line of construction drew his attention inward, toward the elevated district at the center, where the Lumina Palace dominated everything surrounding it. The palace did not appear to be one building so much as an entire fortified city raised above another city, composed of enormous towers, enclosed bridges, private transit routes and wide areas of protected ground.

Everything surrounding it had been designed to communicate one unmistakable truth to anyone arriving from outside the Capital.

This was where power lived.

As the cruiser continued its descent, the palace district became clearer. The towers within it were wider and darker than those elsewhere in the city, with large sections of open ground separating each structure.

Sage was somewhere within the Capital as well.

Knowing that Sage was waiting for him should have made the city feel more welcoming, especially after the weeks they had spent apart, but the thought only reminded Zaeryn that the evaluation was now close enough to become real.

The cruiser left the public transit corridor and entered one of the protected routes leading into the palace district.

"We have received landing clearance," the operator informed them. "Please remain secured until the cruiser has completed its descent."

Zaeryn watched the surrounding towers rise around them as the vehicle moved lower. Several landing platforms extended from one of the broad outer structures belonging to the palace complex, each large enough to accommodate multiple long-range cruisers.

Their cruiser approached the highest available platform and settled upon it so smoothly that Zaeryn only realized they had landed when the view outside stopped moving. The vibration beneath his feet gradually diminished as the transit engines powered down, and a moment later Kayla deactivated her terminal and rose immediately before turning toward the door.

The two Warladies who had escorted them from Sector Seven stood almost simultaneously. The short-haired woman positioned herself beside the exit, while her companion waited for the exterior seal to release.

Zaeryn left his seat and approached them.

The cruiser door opened, allowing the bright light of late morning to enter the passenger cabin. A narrow ramp extended toward the polished surface of the landing platform, and Kayla stepped outside without waiting for anyone to invite her.

Zaeryn followed her down the ramp.

He had barely placed both feet upon the platform when the reinforced doors leading into the adjoining structure opened and five members of the Royal Guard emerged.

Their uniforms differed from those worn by the transport detail, although the same Imperial crest appeared upon their chests. Reinforced sections covered their shoulders, forearms and upper legs, while narrow lines of pale light ran through the darker material beneath them. Their equipment stopped short of full combat armor, but every part of their bearing announced that they had been sent to manage a situation rather than to welcome a guest.

They moved toward the cruiser in a disciplined formation, with one woman leading and the remaining four following several steps behind her.

Their attention settled upon Kayla first.

Recognition appeared across their otherwise controlled expressions, and each woman acknowledged her with a respectful inclination of the head. Their discipline prevented the response from becoming anything more obvious, but Zaeryn had already witnessed enough people meet Kayla to recognize the immediate reverence her presence created.

"Warlady Noctis," the leading woman greeted formally.

Kayla acknowledged the greeting without returning it. "Where are you taking him?"

"The Crown Guest Residence on the eastern perimeter of the palace grounds," the woman answered. "The upper level has been secured for his use until the Imperial Council completes its evaluation. An adjoining suite has been prepared for you."

Zaeryn had never heard of the place. The name suggested somewhere inside the palace itself, although the woman had specified the eastern perimeter of the grounds, and he suspected that distinction carried a great deal more weight than it appeared to.

"The residence belongs to the wider Imperial complex," the woman added, answering the question before he had decided whether to ask it. "It is not within the palace."

That told him everything he needed to understand. Athea had chosen not to place him anywhere near the private quarters occupied by the royal family.

Considering how many people still did not know who he was, Zaeryn understood the reason for that decision. Bringing an unfamiliar male directly into the royal residential district would attract questions that even Athea might find difficult to suppress.

'I guess I should be happy they didn't put me in a cage or a cell,' he thought.

Kayla's expression remained unchanged. "What restrictions have been placed upon him?"

The Warlady glanced toward Zaeryn before answering.

"He is to remain within the residence until he is summoned for his evaluation tomorrow morning. Any movement elsewhere within the Imperial complex must receive prior authorization, and an assigned security detail will accompany him whenever he leaves."

Zaeryn looked at her. "So I am not permitted to leave by myself."

"You will have access to the residence and its surrounding grounds," the Warlady explained. "You are not a prisoner. Princess Athea asked me to tell you exactly that."

Zaeryn nodded.

"That does not mean you will be permitted to walk around freely," she finished.

"Got it," he said, accepting it because no other option had been made available to him.

The four Warladies behind their commander began moving.

One took up a position to Zaeryn's left while another mirrored her upon his right. The remaining two separated behind him, placing themselves far enough apart to control both sides of the platform while closing the path leading back toward the cruiser. Their commanding officer remained directly ahead of him.

The entire formation settled into place within seconds.

Zaeryn looked from one woman to another.

Every position had been chosen for a purpose that he could read without any effort at all. The Warlady ahead controlled the direction in which he could move, those beside him prevented him from breaking away toward either side of the platform, and the two behind him removed any possibility of retreating toward the cruiser.

They had not left him a single open direction.

He had seen similar formations in security broadcasts whenever dangerous fugitives were transferred through populated areas.

Every woman had been assigned a position that allowed the others to respond the moment the person inside their formation attempted to move somewhere unexpected.

Did they truly believe he intended to run? He was offended.

Even if escape had been his intention, why would he have boarded the cruiser in the first place? He would never have agreed to come here at all if he wanted to spend the rest of his life running from the Queendom.

The formation was not merely unnecessary. It was insulting.

But he could say nothing at the moment.

The two Warladies from the transport detail remained beside the cruiser while the formation moved him across the platform toward the reinforced doors, and nobody said anything to him during the walk.

They passed into an enclosed corridor running along the outer edge of the structure. It was wide enough for the Warladies to maintain their formation without adjusting, while tall windows along one side overlooked the palace grounds and the towers beyond them.

Zaeryn noticed that every door they passed remained sealed. The few Imperial staff moving through the corridor stepped aside well before the formation reached them.

A woman was waiting beside the final door.

She wore the formal robes of the Imperial Council and stood with her hands loosely clasped in front of her. Her attention settled upon Zaeryn the moment he came into view.

The commanding Warlady stopped. The rest of the formation halted around him.

"These are the quarters assigned to you," she told Zaeryn. She then inclined her head toward the waiting woman. "Councilor Merane."

Merane barely acknowledged the greeting. She continued looking at Zaeryn.

Noticing this, the two Warladies standing ahead of him stepped aside, giving her a clear view. The others remained in position around him.

"So," Merane said. "This is the male from Sector Seven."

"Zaeryn Noctis," he supplied.

"I know your name, boy."

Her gaze moved over him slowly, from his face to his shoulders and back again. She made no effort to disguise the fact that she was examining him.

"They were right. You do look unusual for a male."

Zaeryn could not tell whether that was supposed to be an observation or a compliment.

"Thanks?"

Merane continued staring at him. Her attention settled upon his eyes, and something in her expression changed.

"A male with Warlady biology," she said quietly. "Unusual does not begin to describe you. You should not exist."

Her gaze remained fixed upon his eyes.

"And you carry the royal coloring, of all the possible accidents." Her voice had lost its edge, becoming slower and more careful. "I have sat across a table from that exact shade for the better part of twenty years."

Zaeryn kept his face still and said nothing at all, because every answer available to him would have made the observation worse than her silence already had.

Merane held the comparison in her mind for a few seconds and then discarded it, and Zaeryn watched her do it. He could follow the reasoning without being told what it was. The only conclusion the resemblance pointed toward required the First Heir of the Lumina Queendom to have concealed a son for eighteen years, and no woman alive was capable of hiding something of that magnitude from the Imperial Council.

Zaeryn made himself breathe normally.

Only then did Merane pull her attention away from him and look toward Kayla. Recognition appeared immediately, followed by genuine surprise.

"I had not realized you were accompanying him."

"Of course I am," Kayla replied.

Merane looked from her to Zaeryn. "Of course?"

Kayla did not answer straight away, and Zaeryn understood exactly why. Whatever she said next would be written into a report before the evening ended, and it would attach her name to his in front of a woman who would be seated in that chamber tomorrow morning deciding what he was.

"He is my nephew," she said.

Zaeryn turned toward Kayla. She did not return his glance. She had said it plainly, as though their relationship made her presence beside him the most obvious arrangement in the world, and Zaeryn knew better than to believe that. Kayla had spent eighteen years refusing to claim him inside a private house with three people in it, and she had just claimed him in a palace corridor in front of an Imperial Councilor.

Merane took a few seconds to process all of this, and her surprise was replaced by acceptance. "The preliminary report did not mention that," she said.

"Then it was incomplete."

Merane looked at Zaeryn again. Something had changed in the way she examined him.

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