Once the reunion was done, we went to the throne room to see how the meeting had gone for Ethan and Greca. I knew that it wouldn’t be easy for them, they were the new guys and, besides, their relationship with me would put them in a difficult position.
As soon as the doors opened, my suspicions were confirmed. I could see the floor moving back to its original position while Ethan was trying to walk away from the throne in what was supposed to be a careless manner, while Greca was still standing next to the throne with a smile on her face.
“Already causing trouble?” I asked Ethan. I could see most of the other attendees looking at him with a mix of fear and respect, while others looked at him with hate and resentment, the defeated I guessed.
“Of course not, you know me.”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking. I hope you didn’t kill anyone,” I said, looking around and looking for possible victims.
“You offend me, mother,” Ethan said, trying to look all innocent, “you know I wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“We both know that your cousin would say otherwise. Do I have to remind you of the time you almost killed two of them?”
“First of all, they attacked me first, and second, they are fine.”
“Just because your mother arrived in time to keep them stable and because I was able to use my medical knowledge to save them. I don’t think it’s a good idea to start making enemies, so fast, you shouldn’t be starting fights,” Kimball said.
“We didn’t start them,” Greca said, defending her brother, “we just finished them.”
“I’m surprised you have a problem with this,” Inionri told me, “you were always causing trouble, you tried to kill many people during these reunions, you even managed to kill a few.”
“If it was only me there wouldn’t be a problem, like you said I would have done much worse, but Kimball is a pacifist and he is trying to teach Ethan more control.”
“A pacifist that threatened to destroy a whole clan?” Inionri asked.
“I don’t have problems acting when it’s needed,” Kimball said, “but I don’t think my son has to prove anything to them, we already know who are the most powerful warriors in this room, no one here is really a challenge to them, and if they know what they are capable of, then I don’t see why they need to fight or prove anything to anyone.”
“You seem to have a lot of confidence in your son, but he has never been in a real fight in the Empire,” Inionri pointed out.
“I’m pretty sure that Ethan could handle any of your children, Ratu included,” I said.
“Don’t be so sure, my kids are pretty good, I’m sure they could take yours,” she said.
“My three kids against your five, I’m sure they will beat them without problems,” I said.
“What is she doing?” Greca asked Ethan.
“She is most likely organizing a fight so she could prove to her cousin that we are stronger. I’m used to my mother making others agree to fight me, it’s her way of teaching them a lesson. It’s always fun to see how someone who thinks can defeat mom is defeated by me, the humiliation they feel is increased that way. She already defeated Ratu, but I think that making one of us fight her, is her way to really show her she is not that big a deal.”
“You really think highly of yourselves,” Ratu said, she had followed her mother into the room, “but even if I have to recognize that the stories about you turned out to be true,” she said, “there is no way that your son or daughters would be able to fight me, I’m older and more experienced than any of them.”
“I think you are underestimating us,” Malkia said, “you have no idea what we are capable of. But it’s not worth it to discuss this with you, as Kimball said, we don’t have to prove anything to you.”
“It looks more like you are afraid to fight me, maybe because you don’t want people to realize how weak you really are. So many people talking about your mother and what she is capable of, it must be very frustrating to be compared to her and know you can’t live up to the expectations,” another warrior entered the room and stood next to Ratu, there was something familiar about him and it took me a moment to place him as another of Inionri’s children, looked like Ratu’s older brother. “It’s better for them if they don’t fight, it will save them the public humiliation.”
“You didn’t see what those two did, Nanjue, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make them mad.”
“Don’t be a coward, Shinatobe, maybe you are impressed by a few cheap tricks, since you are fresh out of the Burrows, but we have enough experience to face even strong enemies.”
“So now we are enemies? Every moment I become more convinced that this fight is a good idea,” Ethan said.
“Enough,” Kimball interrupted. “I don’t think this is the time for this. You said you were going to spend some time with your family,” he told me, “I will then spend some time with our children, try not to collect more enemies in the meantime.”
“You are the one who came here trying his hardest to make everyone your enemy, don’t try to tell me now that I’m the one with the problem,” I complained. “You know that things here are different,” I started, but Kimball wasn’t listening, he had already signaled Ethan to move to his side, and I could tell that even if they weren’t sure it was a good idea, Malkia and Greca were also following him.
“Do you really think they can take my kids?” Inionri asked while staring at the three of them standing there.
“I’m pretty sure they can, but we can organize something to prove it,” I suggested.
“I’m not sure I want to participate in any plan you come up with, if I wanted to do something about this, I would challenge them myself,” Ratu said.
“I guess that you would have to face Greca and the little one would have to fight Ethan,” Nanjue said.
“No thank you, after watching what he did to Fergus’ group the last thing I want to do is face that crazy guy,” Shinatobe complained.
“And what exactly happened?” I asked. “Because I remember his father strictly forbidding him from fighting any of his cousins unless it was a life or death situation.
Shinatobe stayed silent, glancing at his siblings, but without any intention of talking to me. I couldn’t help but smile at that weird show of loyalty. Inionri was also smiling, doing your best to keep your partners out of trouble was part of a non-written code among young soldiers, and the fact that he was including my son in it made me happy.
“Well, I wanted to introduce my kids to you officially, and I think that part is covered, want to go elsewhere to talk?” Inionri asked.
“Who else is invited?” I asked, knowing that the reunion wouldn’t be just between the two of us, but that was a good thing, I wanted the opportunity to talk to the others.
Just as I expected, Inionri guided me to a big room, where soon some of my other allies would arrive, but before that, both of us noticed that Ratu was following us.
“I would like to talk to you for a moment,” she said, the respectful tone she was using was the first clue she wanted something from me.
“We can do this two ways,” I told her, “I could take care of it myself, going into your mind and setting a series of instructions that would let your powers know what to do in order to protect you when you have a vision, or I could teach someone you trust how to do it,” Ratu was surprised by my words, I wasn’t sure if she was more surprised by the fact I knew what she wanted, or because of the options I was giving her.
“What are you going to ask in return?” she asked, I could tell she didn’t trust me and that she was expecting me to demand something drastic out of her, like for her to kill Pompeyo or something like that.
“I will ask you to stop seeing me and my daughter as enemies, and that you keep out of any crazy plans that Pompeyo comes up with against us.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all I need from you. I don’t need you to stop anything they try against me, but it will be much better if I don’t have to worry about you too. I know exactly what you are going through. You would have been a great Empress, but you weren’t even given the chance to try, so the least I can do is help you keep being part of this clan.”
“I told you that you don’t have to worry,” Inionri said. “We are family, and Kaiserin and I have been allies from the beginning, so everything will be fine. We won’t let that cursed Fedelm to get her claws into you, all you need to worry about is Pompeyo and whatever he has to say about this.”
“My brother told me he would support me, he knows it’s better for him to keep me by his side instead of leaving me to rot in those caves.”
“I see that you understand exactly how I felt when I was in your situation. People insist in saying that I betrayed the clan, but the truth is that the clan was going to betray me by stealing my life. I refused to be part of that game in the past, and until your brother does what needs to be done to change that, I will do my best to help whomever needs it. Sooner or later your brother will realize that I came here to help, not to make things worse. I’m pretty sure most of you won’t like my ideas, but you need to understand that I have the best of intentions.”
“Sometimes good intentions aren’t enough,” Ratu said.
“I know, I have lived it. But for now, we have time, so think about the options I gave you and decide which one is best for you.”
“I will, thanks you. I’ll leave you to your talk.”
More people arrived in the room, most of them I recognized, but there were a few new faces. Thanks to my visions I had a good idea of how my family had expanded, I knew some faces, some names, but I wasn’t always certain how they were related to me or what their position in the Empire was.
Something that had most of them worried was my reasons for being there. For them it was hard, if not impossible, to understand that I had no intentions of taking over the clan. I knew that I needed to establish my presence there before the true changes started. Both the North and the South had already started to change and the Empire was trapped in the middle. It was necessary to find a way for them to adapt to those changes.
I knew that I would have to pay a visit to Melchizedek soon, he would have a better idea of what was going on with his people and how it could affect mine. I knew that he had realized he had been overly optimistic about his revolution. Even if the Light Ones were known to be peaceful people, once their basic instincts had been awakened, the consequences had been bad. Those people had been trapped in a masked tyranny, and as soon as the blindfolds started to fall, the consequences became clear.
I knew that it would be very difficult to avoid the bloodshed if the young people in the Empire insisted on keeping their tradition of conquering and taking things by force, but I hoped I could convince them there were other ways to reach the prosperity they wanted. I wouldn’t be easy for them, but I had never gone for the easy path in my life.
Kaiserin Novel 