Sitara stood behind Keisara Fideima, brushing her mistress' beautiful golden hair. The keisara sat in her private parlor, directly beneath the sitting room where she often entertained her closest friends.

She faced a huge window with a breathtaking view over the western cliffs that dropped far below to the wide expanse of the Tamerlane Sea. Sitara preferred the view from the other side of the tower with its panoramic vista of Tamera.

The keisara was very talkative today, and Sitara tried to seem attentive, but she struggled to focus. Her thoughts kept turning to her harrowing experience in the emperor's tower the previous night. The old woman's death had been ruled a heart attack, so it appeared Sitara could remain safely concealed in the heart of the enemy stronghold.

The mysterious gifted mind that had briefly touched hers hadn’t returned. All day, Sitara had fought the urge to embrace her power and scan the keisara's tower and its lower apartments for hints of the other mind. Not only might she have given herself away, but what would she do if she found it? She was barely trained, and if they had so far failed to identify her, she would only be playing into their hands.

What if they had identified her? The thought sent a chill of fear creeping up her spine. What would they do? Who would they tell?

"Sitara," the keisara said, interrupting her thoughts, "tell me about that woman who died in Zuberi's apartments last night."

Terror seized Sitara for a second, freezing every muscle in a spasm of fear. Did the keisara know what she had done? But Keisara Fideima calmly gazed out the wide windows rather than staring at her accusingly.

Sitara managed to stammer out the sparse details she had heard about the death.

The keisara frowned. "What a shame. I'll have to speak with Zuberi about it tomorrow."

Sitara resumed brushing the keisara's hair and breathed a silent sigh as she fought to regain her composure. Attending to the keisara strained Sitara's nerves and her will even on uneventful days.

If she didn’t guard her thoughts, the keisara's very presence could chip away at her confidence and leave her feeling hopelessly inferior. The keisara didn’t do it on purpose, but she couldn’t help having that effect. She lived on a different plane than anyone Sitara had ever met, be they gifted or not.

Keisara Fideima Tamar Tegnazian was the living jewel of the empire. Her beauty and grace were legendary, and her wisdom renowned. Sitara had detected few chinks in the woman's seemingly perfect image, and most were inconsequential.

She couldn’t help but compare herself to the one she planned to supplant, and she fought a daily battle to convince herself she was worthy of taking the throne.

Tonight Sitara drove away those daily worries. She needed to focus on maintaining her normal façade while preparing to strike the first blow in her secret conquest of the great lady. Her heart raced with anticipation, despite her efforts to remain calm.

After all, she'd influenced the keisara before. She must focus on the one weakness that could topple the woman and destroy her.

Barely two months ago, Sitara had first grasped the significance of the keisara's remarkable loneliness, her deep yearning that somehow the emperor had failed to fill. Sitara had explored that weakness and gently manipulated the keisara's yearnings by pushing thoughts, little more than temptations, into the woman's mind.

The resulting experiment had startled her by its near success. The keisara had proven surprisingly susceptible to gentle urgings to consider a dalliance with the dashing young Lord Naitingael. Unfortunately, Lord Naitingael was ordered to take command of one of the far outer fortifications before the experiment could be concluded.

Shortly before Bajaran had left on his bold mission, he had persuaded Sitara to make another attempt, timed to coincide with his first strike. Bajaran insisted she choose a more humble target for the keisara's affection. If she could drive the keisara to act upon her temptations, the scandal would rock the throne at the worst possible moment.

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Thinking back on those memories filled Sitara with a sense of unease. She had not wanted to pursue that avenue of attack, but Bajaran had insisted they exploit every potential weakness.

He had offered to choose the target, but Sitara insisted she do it. She must take responsibility for what she did next. It was the only way she could feel right about it.

The choice had proven extremely difficult. She couldn’t choose any of the nobility the keisara regularly interacted with, but on the other hand she refused to choose a servant. Forcing the keisara to fall for a mere servant would be too barbaric. Besides, if the scandal were too outrageous, suspicion might be roused.

She had agonized over the choice. Even though Bajaran had left weeks ago, only yesterday, shortly before hearing rumors of Bajaran's bold attack, had Sitara found the perfect target.

His name was Junian.

She had been attending her mistress in the formal audience hall while the emperor heard a particularly tiresome petition. While letting her eyes wander the room, she spotted him.

Junian had slipped into the room through a side door, carrying several documents in both hands, intent on his task. She first saw him as an amusement. He was a middle-aged man who might have been considered moderately handsome at a younger age. His face now bore the marks of age, and his paunch seemed intent on graduating into a full-blown ale gut.

He delivered the documents to a nearby official, accepted several others in return with an air of great formality, and departed. No one else seemed to notice him or pay him any attention. The man was perfect: completely obscure, and yet self-important.

It surprised her just how easily she had made the decision, and a burgeoning sense of her own power exhilarated her to the core. She could destroy that man, and she watched him leave with a satisfied smile on her lips. But it froze and wilted under the full gravity of what she intended. The satisfaction turned sour in her gut.

Sitara pushed aside the memory of those feelings just as her mistress began to speak of the day's happenings at court. Sitara had trained herself to seem interested in those running monologues from her mistress, though gossip did not interest her much. However, Bajaran had helped her to understand just how much information she could glean from the keisara's idle musings.

So she usually paid attention, filing away useful bits of information to share with him later, and even gently prodding for more details on occasion. It was an art at which she had proven adept. Over time, Sitara had developed a clear picture of the personalities, dispositions, and means of all the major players at court.

Keisara Fideima said, "What was Zuberi thinking when he ruled on that petition?" Her mouth twisted into a surprisingly childish pout. "He must not have been listening at all."

"A lot of people seemed interested in it."

"Did you think so?" The keisara paused as if to think back on who she remembered seeing there. Perfect.

Junian was looking unusually good today.

Sitara gently pushed the thought into the keisara's mind. She'd found in her previous attempt that if the keisara's thoughts were already running in the direction she wanted, she could easily toss in a whispered thought.

The keisara gave a start and shuddered in her seat.

Sitara cursed herself. What a stupid thought to have started with. Why spend so much effort choosing the right person but then not prepare the right thought to initiate the temptation?

"Are you all right, Your Majesty?"

"Yes." The keisara rolled her shoulders and shuddered again. "Just a rather surprising thought."

As soon as the keisara dismissed her, Sitara retired to her small room and dropped onto her bed. What had gone wrong? The keisara had quickly succumbed to thoughts implanted about Lord Naitingael.

After pondering for a while, Sitara decided the keisara must have already felt attracted to Lord Naitingael. Most of the ladies at court had, for he was still rather young, dashingly handsome and charming. The fact that his dearly loved wife had died in childbirth added a twist of tragedy to him that many women found deliciously attractive. Even the keisara herself could harbor fantasies about such a man.

She would never fantasize about Junian. Sitara frowned and hugged her pillow while she considered the best way to proceed. Should she choose a different target?

No, Junian was perfect. She felt it so deep that she refused to reconsider. How to proceed then?

The keisara would clearly never dwell on thoughts of Junian, which would make implanting the thoughts far more difficult. If she pushed too hard and overcame the keisara's natural mental defenses, the woman might well realize someone was tampering with her thoughts and seek help.

Even those non-actinopathic with no gift still possessed natural mental defenses. The weak-willed might languish all but defenseless, but a strong mind could withstand all but a concerted sentinel attack.

The keisara possessed a strong will, but lacked discipline. Sitara could exploit that, especially when pushing simple thoughts, or thoughts that paralleled what the woman was already thinking.

Sitara lay on her back and stared unseeing at the ceiling for hours as she considered the best way to make the next assault on the keisara's mind.

She sat upright in a single, convulsive movement. The truth illuminated her mind like the unshuttering of a covered tempest lantern.

Of course.

Sitara smiled, knowing what to do.