The story of the reign of blood begins with dawn glittering like a diamond on the delicate celestial sheet. The twin stars emerge from the horizon, illuminating the absconditus beings, like the new king who has come out of the night to rule over his beloved people.

A solemn ceremony in which the entire kingdom, which is located on the same planet as the human kingdom but on a different plane of existence, is invited, from the eleven dukes down to the most insignificant citizens. The festivities that take place in the Nordic duchy are attended by countless living beings, except their sovereign, who is late.

The new king, Adriel Hazael, walks through a dimly lit room with hardly any working light bulbs, a pile of junk and various machines, some broken and some not, all half-organised and half-disorganised in four corridors surrounded by shelves. He walks up and down the corridors, looking for one of the countless technologies developed by his mother.

Adriel finds a little cupboard with a crooked foot and a stuffed door in the corner of the room and opens it, knocking over countless badly placed devices that almost hit him.

Despite the clutter of machines on the floor, he finds a handsome robot with the appearance of a young man who has long black hair tied in a braid on the right side with a fringe on the opposite side and dark green clothes of the same colour as his irises, refined like those of a prince and covered by a red cape. The robot appears to be his twin.

Adriel stares at it and bends down to try to switch it on. A whole minute of waiting slips away into the unreachable darkness and is lost from existence, and finally the robot stands up. The machine faces Adriel and adjusts its animated, child-like features to resemble his, which are serious and serene. The king removes his new dark green eye patch, puts it on the robot and redoes his hairstyle, fixing the braid that was almost loose.

— You will go in my place at the coronation.

— Coronation? Are you a king? — “Adriel's” tone of voice is excited, but his face still has serious features.

Adriel leaves the robot where it is, ignoring it, and walks to another side of the room where there is a control panel to reprogramme the junk, but he is followed by this little thing that believes to be his puppy and asks him countless questions without receiving any answers.

A projection of bluish light emerges into the air, transforming itself into a kind of screen. Adriel doesn't spend much time adjusting the settings of the robot, which has the personality it had when he was younger, but the machine doesn't respond immediately, which is solved by a few punches and kicks. Adriel, via the programming screen, sends the screwhead to the coronation and just watches it through the camera, prepared to give orders if necessary.

"Adriel" steps through the door and walks with an imposing posture of a powerful ruler, his footsteps resounding in the giant corridors of the palace that are as white as snow and adorned with golden details.

In front of him appears a boy who would be sixteen years old if he as a human, short in stature, no more than one metre and sixty centimetres, because he will still grow a lot, and with flowing white hair adorned with brown locks. The little druid wears an eighteenth-century white shirt covered by a brown waistcoat of the same colour as his trousers, and a dark green cloak lies on his shoulders. He is the king's best friend and a novice counsellor at the royal court, who has been all over the palace looking for Adriel.

— Everyone is waiting for you, where have you been all this time? — his gaze is kind and excited.

— Forgive me, I've been busy working on some scrap.

— Did you argue with a robot again? Anyway, it doesn't matter, let's just hurry to the party, otherwise everyone will think you're dead — he says, hurrying his steps.

— I don't think it would be a bad idea for normal citizens to think I'm dead — he walks faster to keep up with the boy.

— It's impossible for only the nobles to know the truth, the information would leak out easily.

— Yes, it's a shame.

— Strange… I still want to understand your ideas. It seems you've followed the opposite strategy to the one we talked about to keep yourself safe, thousands of absconditus are out to see you — he laughs, remembering what happened at court — It drove the counsellors crazy, I don't know how they agreed to let you invite the whole kingdom.

— I can explain later, this is not the place to talk about something confidential. And speaking of security, you can't appear in public, maybe someone will want to take revenge for the death of that Merope¹.

— I will obey you, my king — and he bows, then laughs, disguising his sadness with this joke.

— I thank you, my favourite subject.

"Adriel" accompanies Arthur Eyrwisdom to a room in the palace, prepared in advance to protect the little druid, who is surrounded by numerous competent military. The robot continues walking calmly and leaves the palace.

"Adriel" teleports, using one of the cracks that connects the entire Absconditus territory, to the duchy ruled by House Alver, which has offered to hold the ceremony on its territory, and when he arrives, the sight more stunning than the infinite horizon of the cosmos adorned by countless galaxies floods his soul, being more exuberant than the palace of the richest being that will exist in this brief breath they call life.

There are oceans of mountains greener than emeralds glittering under the twin stars for the first time after escaping from the depths of a cave where the light is unable to reach. Numerous rainbows made of flowers adorn the paths and trees. The few buildings are in harmony with nature. And despite the beauty of Alfheim that the absconditus contemplate, it cannot compare with the spectacle that this city is at night, where a resplendent dance of emerald waves takes place in the sky. This is the splendid and cherished home of the elves, the capital of the Nordic duchy.

A multitude of absconditus beings of various kinds are eagerly awaiting the king, who decides to speak his first words to his people. The twelve main houses of the kingdom are present. The Hazael family is positioned at the front, and the eleven that govern the duchies are next to each other, accompanied by their respective citizens. There are countless beings stretching beyond the horizon, but there aren't many Meropes because they hate to get out of the water, and there are only a few members of the house of Okeanós present, who have certainly been forced to attend because of their political positions.

— Forgive me for being late and thank you for your patience — Adriel, who speaks through the robot, pauses his speech to pick up a piece of paper next to him, where the speech is written, and continues to speak for a long time — I invite you to this banquet, where we will share a meal as proof of our union.

There are no tables or chairs for them to sit on because the elves refused to bring these trinkets to the glorious flora that they have in abundance in their territory, however, it's no problem at all, the soft grass is comfortable and the sensation of eating while sitting on it resembles the most pleasant dreams that comfort troubled hearts on a peaceful night.

The twelve leaders of the main houses sit on a plateau located on top of a high mountain. "Adriel" reclines his back on a tree that is responsible for creating a shadow that protects him from the light of the twin stars. Next to him is the quiet Duchess of Alver, a beautiful elf with long blonde hair who wears a long dress as white as snow, has tender light green eyes and gentle maternal features.

The Duke of Eyrwisdom is shyly wanting to get closer to the Duchess of Alver, and the distance between them is getting smaller and smaller. This druid with shoulder-length brown hair is apparently wearing something that resembles a deer mask, but perhaps this is part of his body. His clothes are in the colours of the house of Eyrwisdom, an eighteenth-century white shirt, green cloak, brown trousers and accessories.

The Duke of Yacy, a grizzled boy with mischievous features, who has red hair as if it were on fire and wears the clothes of a hunter in dark colours; the Duke of Djinn, a genie of the lamp in his human form — all absconditus have a human form, which loses certain attributes of its original form — a boy with dark skin, black short wavy hair, who retains similarly mischievous features to the other duke and wears a black shirt covered by a scarlet waistcoat that overlaps wide beige trousers; the Duke of Long, who necessarily uses his human form because he is a gigantic dragon, is a Chinese man who has reached adulthood, with long reddish-brown hair that contrasts with his flowing blue tunic adorned with silver details and jewellery; they are chatting about trivial matters and smiling. Later, Curupira Yacy invites the Duke of Yokai, who is in the form of a black fox, to join them.

In one corner, the Duchess of Teniov, a shapeshifter in the false guise of an elderly woman wearing a white dress and scarlet chalet, traditional of Slavic culture, peacefully enjoys her meal while observing the people around her.

Most of them are smiling and have calm features, with the exception of a few. "Adriel" is too serious, however, he tries to appear friendly, fails, and his expression becomes a little forced — which is understandable for dukes —. The Duke of Lupus is at the coronation out of obligation; except during the full moon, he's just a normal human who is now wearing the uniform of his job in a Japanese office, has short hair that has been dyed a dark colour just so he doesn't stand out in a foreign country and has heavy, tired features. The mysterious Duke of Menece just stands invisibly in a corner. The Duke of Nanook, who uses the appearance of an indigenous human with long straight hair that has a dark brownish colour and wears classic Arctic clothing, rather than being in his overpowered bear form, remains quiet because Diarmuid Eyrwisdom, his only duke friend, only flirts with Elin, while his disciple, Daisuke Yokai, is distant. However, realising Ulloriak Nanook's loneliness, Curupira Yacy and Ifritte Djinn invite him to join them. Disappointed at not being at sea, like the other meropes present there, the Duke of Okeanós just lies on the grass with his long, wavy hair as blue as the waves that dominate the ocean, his white pirate-like shirt dirty with the vegetation on the ground, his indigo trousers as dark as the night sky.

Hours pass incessantly and no one attacks the robot that is in the king's place, serving as bait for the ill-intentioned to be unmasked when trying to assassinate it, and despite the ease of finding the robot, no one dares harm it during the entire ceremony.

As soon as the party is over, "Adriel" says goodbye to everyone and uses the rift to return to the palace. The robot just walks into the storeroom and meets Adriel, who switches it off, takes back the eye patch and puts it on himself. Then he shoves the scrap metal into the cupboard and closes the door so that nothing falls out like a tsunami. However, the force used breaks the foot of the cupboard and causes it to topple sideways, but the wall keeps it balanced. Adriel sighs at not having knocked anything over and leaves the secret room because he needs to eat. It's night and he hasn't eaten since he woke up.

However, before taking care of himself, Adriel decides to meet Arthur. He goes through a door and, as soon as he hears the sound of it opening, Arthur runs towards him and hugs him without any sense of delicacy while shedding tears. It's rare for Arthur to cry, especially in front of someone else.

— What happened? Did anyone hurt you?

— It's all my fault — he hugs me tighter.

— Calm down, we'll sort it out, what happened?

— I killed a living being, a living being like me.

— It's been days since the uprising, why be sad now? Has something happened?

— The Duke of Okeanós will come to the palace tomorrow. What if he's angry with me for murdering a Merope?

— I'll defend you.

— How can you defend a guilty man? You're the king, your judgements must be fair and impartial.

— Why would I condemn you for saving me? You haven't done anything against the law.

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Footnotes:
¹Name of a Greek goddess, daughter of Atlas, in this book it is the name used to refer to the Greeks who live in the sea.