The screen droned on. A reporter stood in front of flashing lights, seeming to report on an incident that had occurred behind him. The news ticker scrolled from right to left under him, reminding viewers of the headlines of that broadcast’s reports.
Alana slowly replaced the empty teapot on the bedside table before she got up and headed out of the room.
A teary-eyed Criseyde stood at the door, her hands holding each other before her as she looked at Alana, who curtsied at her and leaned closer. Criseyde whispered to her, and she nodded in response before she walked away.
Her eyes flittered over the bed's occupant before they looked at the screens propped up beside it, indicating the patient's vital signs. She nodded to herself, satisfied with what she saw, and turned around. Messages flashed on her HUD, making her more anxious and… angry.
She turned away from the door and walked to the other end of the wide corridor. Away from the door and stopped in front of a large plate window that overlooked the exterior of her home. Being at the same level with the ground helped calm the voices in her mind more.
She sighed, then raised a hand as she scrolled the messages, assigning priority to each one she skimmed through. The highlight blinked on a note she had made earlier, and she opened it.
A summation of reports from the House’s embedded intelligence assets in the other Great Houses and smaller ones flashed open on her HUD. She perused each of them deliberately, her mind picking apart and putting together different points on each page, forming a plan of action to mitigate this disaster while still keeping herself alive and living in the same comfort a person of her stature is accustomed to.
She drew up a familiar name on her communicator and called the number, which was picked up before it started ringing.
“Lady Essedar, so glad to hear from you. I wish to reiterate my condolences to you…”
“I didn’t call for that, Alexander.” Criseyde cut him off; she didn’t have time for pleasantries.
The younger man suddenly went silent before he replied, “Okay, Father did say you Essedars don’t care much for those things… What is the purpose of the call?”
“You sent a rather formal request to talk? And, How does the seat feel for you?” She replied with a smirk on her lips.
“It feels like I was born for it, Lady Essedar.” He replied, oozing with confidence.
She scoffed softly at the reply yet smiled and nodded, ”Good. I, for my part, want to extend my House’s resources and considerable security forces in helping your family hunt down and bring the killer to justice. I feel that I owe everyone that since Noa is my daughter.”
There was a long pause before Alexander replied.
“Is that all?”
She chuckled openly, ” Seems your father raised you well. Additionally, I would like to call for a meeting of the Houses that participated in the Pax Aurea confederacy during the Wars of Rebirth.”
Another long pause before Alexander seemed to clear his throat on his end.
“Lady Essedar, respectfully… You don’t have control of your House or its resources, do you?”
This took Criseyde aback. Her eyes blinked, her lips parted, yet before she could reply, he continued.
“House Xela, together with the Great Houses Ritta and Yarla and confirmed by six other minor houses, wishes to repudiate the agreements made during the Pax Aurea conferences. We feel that with the loss of your husband and offspring and one going rogue, you won’t be able to manage your Great House like Richard used to. Thus, declared or otherwise, official and unofficial interests of House Essedar should be transferred to the Pax Aurea conglomeration and distributed to those who favor this new ruling. Additionally, you are tasked with bringing your wayward daughter, Noa, to justice, using any resource you can dig up… The other Houses do not want any part of an intra-family dispute.”
“What?” Her voice rose.”You can’t!...”
“We can, and we are doing it, Criseyde. Please, don’t fight us on this; we’d hate to see what happened to the Mallifars happen to you.” Another female voice suddenly interrupted her.
“Anne? You too!?” Criseyde balked back in shock
“Without a firm hand, the quad-cities and the Adina region will fall into chaos again, dragging the rest of the nation into the same situation. We can’t afford this.”
“All of you will pay for this,” Criseyde hissed angrily before she hung up her communicator and called on another icon on her quick-call list.
“Miller,” she spoke up as the line was picked up, immediately going into a concise and angry rant before she started explaining the developments that she had just found out. Miller reminded her that this was one of the predicted outcomes of recent events.
“Before you say anything. We have secured most of the more liquid assets to safer locations that are out of anyone’s reach, but a significant amount is still up for grabs.”
Criseyde smiled as she heard this, ”How significant? The one that is still up for grabs, I mean.”
“Enough to give your family more than a run for their... Money in what I see is brewing up.”
Criseyde nodded slowly, her mind churning at the information. She had always been involved in running the House with Richard and was privy to every piece of information.
“How about the other end? Hardware, production, security of facilities?”
The man chuckled, ” Ah, those—you don’t have to worry about those, Lady Essedar. They are very secure. The idea of moving their location was one of the better decisions yet. We won’t let our guard down.”
“Excellent. Thank you, Miller. Stay safe now; things are heating up.”
The man scoffed amusedly on his end, ”Well, you never call me unless it’s really important. So yes, I understand, Lady Essedar. Will there be anything else?”.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“That’s all for now”. She cut the line and immediately called another number.
A man with a bassy voice picked it up. “Lady Essedar? We just about to call you, the Broth…”
“Belov, I know you and your brother were close, and we will talk more about it later. Do I have your ear?”
“Of course, Lady Essedar.”
“Hit job, heads of Xela, Ritta and Yarla”
The man scoffed audibly on his end of the communicator.
“I… this is a rather unconventional order, Lady Essedar.”
“I don’t care if it is or not. Can it be done?”
There was a long silence from the other end.
“It won’t be pretty, but yes, we can begin.”
“I don’t want begin; I want done… yesterday”
“Okay, Lady Essedar, you got it then. Keep tabs on the news feeds”, the line cut. Criseyde tapped on another icon on her quick-call list.
“Hello, Criseyde, my dear. Would you like me to call on Elizabeth?” the pleasant voice of a man older than she picked up the line.
“No, Henry, I wanted to talk to you.”
Henry sighed heavily. “Is this about Pax Aurea?”
Criseyde’s eyes narrowed - not them too… her mind pleaded to itself.
“Yes,” she gulped, trying to keep her voice steady.
“Did those crazy people go through with it? Are they mad? I told them not to go through with it! They called me, you know, those crazy fools!”
Henry started ranting, his calm tone disappearing. After a few moments of ranting, he cleared his throat and returned his attention: “Pardon me, Criseyde, if you want to know where I stand. House Antillas is with you. We don’t forget our history, unlike those cretins.”
“Thank you, Henry. Please send Elizabeth my love and regards. I have to attend to other things right now. We will talk soon.”
The line cut, and Criseyde realized she had walked far away from the door she had been standing at and headed toward it.
She finally reached it, leaned against the large, dark wooden doorframe, and looked again at the bed occupant. Despite everything, she found herself smirking; her mind raced.
‘We shall see who is dead.’ Her mind whispered to her.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Droplets of water turned into streams that lazily slid down the window. Rain in farming communities wasn’t as unpleasant as it was in the quad-cities.
Duke sipped on the mug in his hand, an open book on his lap as he looked at Noa. A hand patted his thigh as Mira joined him on the couch.
He looked at Mira and tilted his head toward Noa, his voice low, “Is she okay? She’s been sitting there for hours now.”
Mira sipped her mug and looked at the silver-haired woman. Her hair was in a side ponytail, leaning toward the right. She seemed unmoving. One could have mistaken her for a life-like sculpture of a thinking woman if it wasn't for the tears wetting her cheeks that gently slid down.
Mira nodded slowly, replying in an equally low voice, “Give her time. She needs that right now, and I think this safe house is the best location for it; she shouldn’t be in the cities now.”
“What happened up there? I mean, it must have gone well, right? We saw no signs that the army of guards they had around the perimeter had any clue until you guys were well and truly away.”
Mira sighed and looked at Duke. “You have any broadcast soft on your HUD?”
Duke cocked his head to the side, confused. “Yes?”
Mira nodded, and her free hand moved up and started tapping the air. In a few moments, several newsfeeds appeared on his HUD, the voices of each broadcast flooding his ear.
“Hey!”
Mira swatted his arm and pressed a finger on her lips; she frowned as she shook her head, signaling him not to make too much noise.
Duke raised his hand and nodded slowly, placing his mug on the table next to him before that hand started turning down the volume in his ear. He then pushed all except one of them onto his HUD.
Mira walked to the kitchen and refreshed her mug of coffee, slightly wincing at the vile taste of it, but it was all they had in the place. Her eyes glued onto Noa, who hadn’t said a word since she had woken up from the knockout Mira had delivered to her at Prism HQ.
Bugs’ communicator icon flashed on her HUD, and she picked it up.
“Hey Mira, how’s Noa doing?” came Bugs’ concerned voice.
“She hasn’t moved, been looking out at the rain since forever.”
“You mean, she’s still there?.”
Mira tilted her head. “Yep.”
“Okay… just… keep me posted. By the way, I have something that just came up.”
Mira gulped down what she had in her mouth and retreated into a corridor that adjoined the hall she was in.
“Tell me.”
“It's not on the official channels, but activity is really picking up on both ends of the spectrum.”
Mira shook her head, her face perplexed.
“Say again?”
“Everyone seems to be up in arms - the lowbies, the Great Houses, even the smaller Houses. I’m tracking combat comms and arms shipments all over the quad-cities. Even some fixers are being targeted. Something is happening. I know I don’t have much to go on, but I’m gonna continue digging. I just wanted to give you a heads-up and, well, check on Noa.”
Mira scoffed and smirked, nodding her head slowly. “She chose that, after all,” she seemed to muse aloud.
“What? Do you have a clue on what’s going on?” Bugs sounded even more confused now.
“Yes, some. Keep on doing what you are doing. I will do my part and send out some of my ticks to tap on the worms already in the Great Houses’ systems and see what I can dig up.”
“OK, call you back then?”
“Nope, I’ll call you back; until then, continue, please, Bugs.”
“You got it, Mira.”
She turned and headed back to the hall, fishing out a sizeable spherical container from inside one of the cupboards in front of her. Opening it, she poured hot water into an empty mug and spooned some tea leaves into it.
She moved slowly toward Noa, who remained unmoving on the bed by the window.
Steadily, she leaned forward and placed the steaming mug onto the window sill opposite Noa. Then, she leaned back up, placed a hand on Noa’s shoulder, and squeezed gently.
Noa’s body tensed up as Mira kept her hand on her shoulder. This time, Noa’s opposing arm moved, and she placed a hand over Mira’s and squeezed before letting go.
Mira smiled and squeezed Noa’s shoulder again before gently tapping it, and then her hand slipped off. She hesitated as she leaned away; her hand reached out again to Noa’s shoulder and paused, fingers barely touching the seemingly statue-like younger woman staring out at the rain.
She looked out toward the direction of Noa’s gaze. The heaviness of the rainfall had blocked out the bright neon lights that so easily lit up the quad-cities, yet with the rainfall, even the strong, tall neon columns of Need Creation seemed to struggle to make their point. Her mind raced as she bit her lip, wanting to say something, maybe assuage whatever was turning in Noa’s mind, then decided against it.
She shook her head, spun around, then looked over her shoulder, checking on Noa again, before she turned and joined Duke on the couch, who was still engrossed in what he was watching on his HUD, his mouth open.