“In broad daylight, Moran!” roared Pac Traes at the Commander of the Traes guard, who shrank under the sheer anger of the planetary head. The commander shrank under the words. “How did this happen?” he said turning away from Moran and Harold, Shilu, his closest advisors who were all lined up before himself and his wife, who had now gone quiet, but the white-hot rage simmering beneath the controlled surface. He turned to look at Eher, her eyes were still blotchy and red from crying earlier, but now they glared as red orbs.
“We must determine first who is responsible” said Harold, hanging his head low.
“Who is responsible? Who is responsible, Harold? It was Grasci! Of course, it was, his people have been threatening this for months. Let us not act like fools for the sake of politics now!”
“They were organised, armed, we haven’t seen that level of sophistication from the Reform. This was a strike team,” answered Moran on Harold's behalf, but the old man spoke up anyway,
“We have monitored their cells closely, my Lord, we have seen nothing that suggests that they would be capable of something like this,”
“You monitored them during the attack?” Eher asked, her voice calm, but venomous.
“They are not always visible, my Lady, they operate underground, it is difficult…”
“So, no,” she said with cold finality. Pac Traes tried to collect himself. He had two dead guards, a seriously injured guest in Meno who by all accounts had acted without regard for his own life, his people were in a state of panic, and they had no way to politically manoeuvre themselves into a position of a counterattack. He made a mental reminder to honour the bravery of those citizens who picked up arms from the guards and stood in defence of his daughter.
“Moran,” he said slowly, trying to contain his anger, “Prepare your guards better than what they showed today. If it wasn't for our guests I dare say that we may be having a completely different conversation. The guard is to wear helmets at all times from this point forward if a mouse moves, I want them to be able to see it, and I want them to obliterate it, is that understood?” the commander saluted, looking as though he wanted to say more as his black moustache ruffled, but knowing that he was in no position to, decided not to. “You are dismissed” The commander left the patio, leaving only Shilu and Harold awaiting more wrath. The patio that usually held so much light seemed to be drenched in shadow with the weight of the day's events, there was a heaviness in the air that Pac knew he was responsible for, but felt it nevertheless.
“We must consider that the reason the three were sent to us was for a moment like this, my Lord, my Lady. We should protect them better than we…”
“I would sacrifice each of them a thousand times over to ensure that my daughter never even had to see something like that,” Eher said, this time the mood was far tenser, she had become ice while looking at him. Her maternal reaction from earlier had slid into a still, hardened woman that Pac had never seen before. He wanted to comfort her now but knew that they both needed this intensity now, more than ever, this was no longer speculation, an attack had been made on their name.
Pac ran his forefinger along his forehead and took a seat. He knew what needed to be done, but that it would provide the Houses an opening to Yeley that they were clearly looking for. They had seen their manoeuvres as just that, and had now been caught playing a game against a prepared enemy, he felt foolish, and naive. He was going to lose because he had not seen the strategy, and now he was caught in it, their moves had been decided for them. He knew that they needed to consider the wider ramifications of this and that the powers of the Lotus and the Houses would be converging. He had trusted, he had based his thoughts on previous actions, not what was possible to happen.
“Has she contacted?” he said to Harold, Shilu was still in the room, being the only member of the Traes guard who was privy to such conversations. Being aligned with Harold necessitated it.
“She has, and we have informed her of the day's events, that there is no need for her at the moment, though I don’t know if that will stop her from coming”
“And him?” Eher said softly, though her voice carried in the room.
“We must assume, my Lady. We have still not had any word from the Artelis either, though my sources say that Lord Sonny has been ordered to stay away from Yeley altogether” he said solemnly. Pac watched as the old advisor rubbed his hands clearly uncomfortable, something that he had never seen to quite this extent before. Harold’s influence in their lives had been extensive, it had brought them their daughter, he had taught and trained her, and Pac now had the sickening feeling that this reaction, rubbing his hands in the anxiety of what he needed to deliver, the responses of the Queen of Midnight, of Olivia’s father, were the words they had always feared.
“What is your advice?”
“My Lord?”
“It’s why you came to us yes? To advise and guide us, to protect Olivia. Tell us what is going to happen” The old man dropped his head. Pac needed to remember who this man actually was, and not allow the feeble form before him to sway his opinion, they needed to listen to him. Harold considered for a few moments and then answered low and steadily.
“The strike team had support, far beyond what we have seen from the Reform before this, as I have said. There were six bodies that we still have not been able to identify, but thought leads us to them not being from Yeley, so offworlders. They had structure, a plan and experience to carry it out. They were not alone in this. With everything happening on the Lotus and reports of a Dorlec ship within the system, we must assume that Victoria knows more than we do and that she is responding to what she knows, hence her eagerness to make planetfall. All evidence leads to the Dorlec’s hand in this, even in Yelean Reform, which has garnered more support than we would have thought possible in such a short amount of time”
“The regulations didn't come from the Dorlec, Harold,” said Eher, listening carefully.
“No, which means that the decision has been made by the Houses at a whole, this will be a larger strategy of the Autarch, perhaps happening across the galaxy with independent worlds. We have seen that news from Yeley to the rest of the Galaxy has been sparse in the last year” he looked up, “We have been taken out of the public view, pushed to a corner so that they may act” Pac had an empty feeling in his stomach, his heart was aching. His words were harsh, delivered carefully and respectfully, but he and his wife both knew. “Yeley will be taken by the Houses. It is the only reason that I can see that Sonny would be barred from entry. His presence here would deter any House” The room went quiet for a time, only the subtle rush of the flowing water over Det’em’s hands could be heard from their patio. He looked out of the patio, knowing that the city below now had people willing to engulf them, to consume them whole, for a purpose that they didn't understand, for a strategy made with them as pawns, but they would feel like liberators, walking directly into servitude.
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“What do we do?” she said, which brought a great sigh from the old man, Shilu behind him shuffled uneasily. Pac was sure that Harold had not discussed this with her previously, but she had been around him long enough to learn his thinking, she would have understood to a fine detail where this conversation was going. Harold pulled from his pocket a small coin on a leather cord,
“They were delivered to us with reason” he said placing the coin onto the table, “We have already seen that they are capable of protecting her…” he lowered his head as Pac was about to say something but decided not to, “In retrospect, their timing of arrival is now suspicious, they arrived right before the attack was coming, and just preceding reports of the Dorlec arriving. I initially assumed that the Dorlec were here for them, and counted on our protection from Sonny to stop them from coming, but with everything that has happened, it seems that I was wrong”
“We are not just going to allow our world to be taken” said Pac leaning forward and placing his hand on the table. He was trying to control his anger, his anger at his own mismanagement of the situation.
“You saw our people stand up against the attackers, citizens defending the Traes” said Eher, “We will not let this narrative of our fall determine it” Harold nodded solemnly once more,
“They will come, even if it takes years, but I believe that it will be shorter than that. We have the Suns Rising Festival coming and the promise of Grasci’s speech, that fuel will be used, it will be the agitant that can catalyse into chaos. We must make preparations for Olivia” he said looking at the coin once more. Again the room fell to silence, a heavy understanding hanging over the room, an acceptance of a sour truth.
“What will you do?” said Pac, his forefinger once more rubbing his forehead.
“I am already making my way here”
*
Meno started to come to consciousness and felt his body ache as he shifted in the very slightest of ways. He felt stiff, and bruised, and heard people around him speaking,
“Yes, but he kept on turning his shield on and off thinking that they wouldn't be able to see him. Those helmets can through practically anything” Angie said derisively. It took Meno a while to figure out what she was saying but caught Paba’s words as she loudly spoke,
“What an idiot” followed by a giggle.
“Oi,” he said weakly, hearing his own voice. He opened one eye and felt the full impact of the splitting headache that he had. His shoulder and stomach felt swollen and hot, and he could feel that he had patches all over his body.
“Ah, finally” he heard Angie’s voice over him, more gentle now, “How do you feel?” he wanted to say something but his body felt to be lagging behind his thoughts for a moment and he nodded, which was a horrible idea and make his head feel awful. He let out a moan instead. He opened his eyes fully, blinking to ease the light rushing in, and saw Angie peering down at him with a caring look that somehow looked strange on her. She was wearing a vest and had a patch on her arm, a tiny red dot of blood seeping through, otherwise, she looked alright. Paba was in the corner and was still wearing the same clothes that she had been while in the glider, she was wearing her usual bravado, but Meno could see that she was happy he was okay.
“Olivia?” he said suddenly having everything that had happened hit him all at once, he tried to sit up and felt a stabbing pain in his stomach and had thankfully been stopped from getting up completely by Angie who held his chest.
“She’s fine, she’s fine. You did a hell of a job saving her out there” Meno felt a sense of relief wash over him as she said it, but thought immediately of Angie,
“And you, your arm?”
“Got grazed by a bullet, nothing more. It’s you that we were worried about…”
“Yeah you tried to stop laser beams with your body, idiot” said Paba walking over and standing next to him, she didn't have the height to loom over him like Angie did. He looked at his stomach for the first time, now remembering being shot, and checked his shoulder after, remembering that he wasn't able to lift it moments before he had passed out.
“You’re going to be fine, no lasting damage I hear, which is a bloody miracle, considering that you got hit with a beam twice. I thought your arm was done for if I’m honest. The doctors said you will be up and about in a day or two, they have good kit here” she said thinking it was strange. “We need to talk about your shield management” she said seriously, he nodded and her look of worry intensified.
They ran him through everything that had happened, and what the aftermath of the attack had meant. According to Angie, they had lost two guards during the attack and Efreet had taken a pulse blast to the chest but had valiantly continued fighting, which Angie in particular seemed to be impressed with. They had seen the Kryptea arrive on their side of the glider too, and he had swept through a number of attackers, cruelly ending them before they could organise an attack, before making his way back to Meno’s side.
“How crazy is that guy?” Meno said remembering him taking out the three guards before saving him in the end. He had walked straight through those flames to kill the one soldier. Meno knew that they had tougher skin, and muscles from their training, which pushed all of their energy into the body, hardening it, but it was more than that, the ease with which he dodged the shots being taken at him, and the power in each of his strikes. He, unfortunately, hadn't managed to keep his admiration out of his voice and received a look of disapproval from Paba,
The Yeleans that had joined had apparently rallied in a parallel street and had started moving toward them using whatever tools they could to combat the attackers before being armed by the guards fighting by the glider. Olivia had broken down in tears while thanking them which Angie said was a very touching moment in which the crowd began to cheer her name. Paba described it as a great bit of PR.
“How were you, Paba?”
“I was fine”
“An absolute mess, looked like a cat that was caught in a hurricane” Angie said with a smile at the same time, “But she held it together well, and made sure that Lady Olivia was fine which was good” she added kindly,
“I shouldn't have been in a situation like that in the first place, I am delicate” she said tossing her nose up. Meno chuckled thinking that there was nothing delicate about her.
The Traes had apparently been furious and had sent nearly the entire Palace guard into the city once it was picked up on the scanners that their glider had gone down and had ordered the guard, as well as the forces within the city of Det’er and the other cities on Yeley like Lofel and Froej to wear full exo-suits at all times, including helmets, which had obviously put everyone on edge.
The news had been running constant discussions of who was to blame, with some even saying that this was the fault of the Traes for not addressing the issues and allowing people to be pushed so far.
“Most people know that this was Grasci, but nobody can prove anything, and that story is being suppressed by the looks of it” said Angie shaking her head. “The general feeling is that something big is coming, and the Suns Rising Festival is becoming a big talking point. Grasci has said that he will be speaking during the celebrations, and the Traes haven’t made a public response yet”
“Which is obviously being gobbled up by the media” added Paba.
“So it’s a mess” said Meno, looking out of the window, seeing the glow of light raised just above the city, it seemed so peaceful now, but under that glow, it must have been a seething nest of paranoia and fear. “So what do we do now?” he said knowing that Angie would be considering leaving Yeley, but he didn't want to do that, he had grown attached to the place, and to Liv, and they didn't know what the galaxy outside of Yeley would have waiting for them. Angie looked at him with a different look than he had expected though, it was almost strained, Paba picking up on this decided to answer,
“The Traes have invited us to join them for dinner when you are discharged, they want to thank us for our efforts”
“And from what Harold said, it’s not something that we can turn down” Angie added, the strain becoming more apparent. Meno nodded, feeling anxious about the meeting, and feeding off of Angie’s energy about it, Paba even looked concerned. The act of inviting them wasn't strange, but it seemed that from their reactions, this was not delivered to them as an act of generosity, but likely something that would once again determine their path, regardless of their wishes.
He eventually needed to tell them to go to sleep, as their heads dropped from exhaustion, and conversation repeated, the hours ticking away discussing and speculating everything that had happened and what was going to happen. They begrudgingly agreed through yawns and Meno saw them off,
“We’ll be here first thing in the morning” Paba said with an heir of concern that he had never seen from her before. It was almost like they would choose anything besides being separated at the moment, but he waved her off and told her that he would be fine and wished them a good night's sleep. He rested his head back down on the pillow and looked up at the ceiling, preparing himself to run through all of this in his head without other opinions for a moment when he heard a familiar voice,
“I mean it’s just fucking adorable how close you have all become” Meno jumped up, felt the stabbing pain run through his entire body and saw Worrec sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, with a smug look on his face, “You look like shit by the way,” he added sardonically.