26 Realignments #3
“No need.” Darius spun me about to see Princess Marie waiting for us, seated at a table off the main dance floor, Bridgette nowhere in sight. “Besides, it would be noticed if we exited the dance floor so soon after entering it. I’m afraid we’re stuck for at least one song.”
“Right,” I said. “Anything you want to discuss, or shall we turn about in silence?”
Darius studied my face, as if deciding whether to ask his question or not. Apparently, he came to a decision, as he asked, “On the beach, when you said the Emperor left you for familial duties, I got the feeling you were not telling the whole story.”
I snarled slightly, then composed myself. Darius’s curiosity was natural. He could not know that afternoon hurt me more than any day of the war.
“A trimester before graduation, Astrid’s father sent her a stelegram.
She was to return home immediately to wed some prince and forge an alliance.
Apparently, Astrid’s full-demon sister was set to marry the bloke, but she got herself killed in a duel.
That left Astrid. She refused. We were in love, and I had rejected a marriage to be with her.
“Then her father’s goons showed up one afternoon.
I wasn’t ready, I wasn’t armed. It was before I had my cybernetic shield implant, and I wasn’t wearing my school-issued one.
They beat me to within an inch of my life, broke two dozen bones before Astrid called them off.
They promised to kill me if Astrid didn’t go with them, so she did. ”
“Sounds like she did it to save you,” Darius remarked.
“Yes, it does,” I replied. “But she promised to come back for me, then didn’t.”
Darius looked around at the glittering ballroom. “What do you call all this?”
“An accident. Astrid didn’t know I was attending the jubilee.
She didn’t even know I survived the war.
All our mutual friends are dead or in Imperial prison camps.
The smart money would put me in a field on some conquered world with my torso disintegrated by an Imperial lancer, not dancing with you. ”
Darius had nothing to say in response to that. We danced in silence until the song ended, and then Darius guided me through the maze of waltzing dignitaries and let me seat myself next to Princess Marie. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“Yes. At least, I’ve recovered. Darius was kind enough to find me a seat before rescuing you from that d’Lyre woman.” Darius grinned at the princess’s acknowledgment. “Mind you, most men would enjoy being tangled up with a woman like d’Lyre.” Princess Marie sniffed dismissively.
“Beauty isn’t everything,” I said. Then I asked Marie, “How did you escape?”
“I drove her off without much difficulty. She’s far less skilled a conversationalist when her partners are not distracted by her décolletage.”
“I don’t know about you two, but a Fall event has a way of focusing my thoughts,” I said.
Darius and Marie fell grimly silent. “Do you know what happened?”
Suddenly, I realized maybe I was being too free with my information. There was a reason the major heads of state were keeping this quiet. I decided to play on my ignorance.
“Only that it happened, and it scared the Emperor out of her victory march,” I said. “Nobody seems to know much of anything about it, if they even know it happened at all.”
“How is this not widely known? An entire world was destroyed. At least…” She turned to me, her eyes wide with a sudden fear.
“Only one planet, thankfully,” I said. “At least, that’s what I heard.
But it’s surprisingly easy to keep information bottled up in a star system if you control all the portals and nobody has a jumpship.
A Lightbridge insert could get a spy in, but they couldn’t get back out.
It takes years for light to travel from one star to another.
Someone looking with a telescope wouldn’t find out until years or decades after it happened.
Until then, it’s an information blackout. ”
“So what do we know?” Darius asked.
“Not much. I know which planet was destroyed, and when. I know it caused the breakthrough in the star front. I also know nothing will be accomplished here until the Emperor knows who set off the Fall device and why,” I said.
“That’s what we need to find out if we’re going to stop this from getting any worse. ”
Both of my companions looked ready to ask me more questions, but before they could, a demonic voice above me said, “Consort.”
I looked up into Ankhelina’s disapproving face. “Champion.”
“The Emperor requests your presence in her chambers at once,” she said.
“What, already?” I checked my watch. The evening had hardly started.
“The Emperor was quite insistent.”
Darius cuffed me on the shoulder. “Can’t keep her hands off you, can she? You lucky dog, you.”
Ankhelina’s curled lip told me if I did not go with her, she would insist as well, which might involve her dragging me from the ballroom by my ankles.
Marie put a hand on my forearm. “Go to her. We’ll take care of things out here.” Darius nodded in agreement, his normally jovial expression serious for once.
“Thank you. I’ll see you in the morning. Maybe my status as Consort might let me arrange a few tea-times of my own,” I said.
“I’d rather a happy hour with a few stiff brandies,” Darius said, the smirk back on his lips.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, then rose and followed the Champion through the main corridors.
It was a very different experience from twisting through narrow servants’ corridors – the main hallways were gigantic chambers, with richly decorated walls and high, vaulted ceilings.
It was also slower, as we had to hike up the grand staircase instead of traveling via turbolift, but eventually, we reached the Emperor’s door.