Thursday, December 13, 2012

164 - Shake Them Till Their Teeth Rattle


The zardukar offices were full of people, full of every one that the Empire could manage.  Even the youngest of students from the Dee school were there, working, running errands, doing small programs up to the limits of their strength.

Dag was just as glad she had a door on her tiny cubicle, shutting out the physical noise and letting her dampen down the mental noise as well.  
 
(Head of Milari State to Visit Lainz!

-- Linned by Ahymander Dagdohva


The rumours of the Milar surdeniliarch and his family making a state visit to His Radiance can now be confirmed.  Ilaxandal Vania ah Ruikart will be arriving in procession at the city Gates tomorrow afternoon.)

*Dag, you should also announce exactly who is with him.  His Radiance gives his approval for this announcement.  The Great Hive has begun to approve both siwion.  They might not be the heirs for his Radiance that the Hive wants but that is still up in the air, so to speak.  The bees have not yet approved.*

*Datrus, Should I not hold back then?*

*Diryish is failing.  He may not live out the night.  He needs to let the city know that there are heirs.  More than Her baby Brilliance.*

*Yes, Naser.* 

Amardad, this is so beyond my experience.  I thought I would be failing... dying by now, my body overwhelmed by code triggering cascades of attempted biofixes, not trying to explain this whole convoluted mess to the whole Empire! 

(Escorting the foreign prince is a Brilliance of Lainz’s own.  Born and raised a Talain, the champion, Kyrus Talain, who was reported dead in Milar ten years ago, is the grandson of our own Radian Diryish Pollus. He was found to have been kept safely out of the country, in secret, by his honour the surdeniliarch.  We may speculate all we like that it was planned this way by His Radiance, to keep the unknown siwion safely out of Lainz politics.) Not likely.  I thought Kyrus was truly dead. 

(There is a possible Kragahnz to the Sun Throne, if the Great Hive approves.  He is proven in battle, he is proven in spirit, and body for his son accompanies his father.  Even as His Radiance grows closer to his final cell, he provides Lainz with a strong heir – his grandson, and a great grandson, also named Kyrus after his famous father.) Oh, my boy, you ripped open a whole hive of new bees, going to Milar.  (Lainz will not be left leaderless in the face of His Radiance’s transcendence.)

*Datrus... this is too purple.* She could feel him call up what she'd written and waited for him to read it. 

*No, go with it.  It’s all true.*

Dag set down her pen, rubbing her temples.  Her Kyrus.  Her Kyrus and her boy were about to come back to the city in triumph.  Why do I want to smack them both silly?  I want my boy back and I won’t get him. The only place I'll get to see him is in the Dee school. 

Finding out that her unofficial zardukaro was alive and married and and and... she wanted to pound her fists on the desk.  I realize I wasn’t locked tight to this world then, but did they have to leave me out of understanding for so long?  I want to shake them till their teeth rattle in their heads. 

All of the things she’d seen in Petra’s memories had shaken her completely out of the fog.  It seemed that much of her nightmares and her ill-advised frobbing had been both improper training and a secret hack of some kind actually designed to harm her.  Someone has been slaughtering and mind burning anyone even close to Diryish and hiding in that rancid mess that his father left behind.  If I believed in an afterlife old Hamun had a lot to answer for. Hamun.  Huh.  The old Emperor had died long before she’d even been born and here she was sitting judgment on the man.  Either way, Diryish had been foolish to leave all his old crazinesses in place up until now.  It seemed downright sloppy, if not merely lazy.

(The surdeniliarch, recently married -- don’t say it... endarkened tell the truth! – recently married to our new Kragahnz, has never made a state visit to Lainz before but we anticipate with celebration of the ten year peace between us, the unexpected and gracious visit of the Milari during this difficult time.) 

Diryish... this should have happened earlier... not as part of your deathwatch.  Dare I critique the most High?  Surely you cannot have thought us all to be so ignorant? This is as messed up as my thoughts used to be. 

1 comment:

  1. Wait til she finds out her ex is married to the Milari Head of State!

    ReplyDelete