A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Office of the Chancellor of the Empire, National Capitol Building
Kaliburg, 3:05 PM

Jacob Maxwell, director of AYIC sat in a sofa with several magazines spread out. In front of him was the recent edition of The National with its feature piece on the history of House Ananto which had recently landed it in hot water with the Government. He looked around, and people were walking here and there, opening doors and going in them, coming out of doors and walking down the hall. The outer office, where he sat was a fairly busy place, as one would expect of the Office of the Head of Her Imperial Majesty's Government. A Secretary sitting at a desk ahead of him looked up to see him fidgeting, picking up a magazine, leafing through it, putting it back on the table, checking his watch. Maxwell knew she was looking at him, staring at him, possibly judging him.

"Miss, is the Chancellor free yet?" He asked insistently after looking at his watch again.

"Mr. Maxwell, she will be with you shortly. You are not the first person she is seeing this afternoon. Just relax."

He breathed deeply. In another minute he would stand up and just go back to his office and someday reschedule. As he watched the seconds tick by, the Chancellor's door opened, and the Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Ericka Donahue stepped out, closing the door behind her. She had a smile on her face, and it would appear she was laughing. She came over to Mr. Maxwell and sat on the chair arranged at 90 degrees from the sofa he sat on.

"Madame Chancellor. I've been waiting here for forty minutes," he said, as politely as he could.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Maxwell. Pressing affairs of government and etc. How can I help you?"

"Madame Chancellor?" Jacob asked. He was sure he had written extensively what the point of this meeting was. "Maybe we should go into your office?" he said as he started to stand up.

"Nonsense," she said with a smile. "We have this furniture out here and I so very rarely get to use them. Here will do just fine."

Maxwell felt confused. Did she mean to have his meeting in the public office? This place was basically a lobby. When he saw she was not moving, but staring at him as if he had fallen off a space ship, he realized that indeed she did. So he slowly sat back down.

"Madame Chancellor, I..." he paused as she was interrupted by some undersecretary, who brought her over a paper in a manilla folder to look at...

"That one right there. See? Its mis-spelled. I can't not see it. Please have it corrected..." The secretary nodded, and left, as the Chancellor turned back to him. "I'm sorry, Mr. Maxwell. I really... I just hate spelling errors in my reports. Please continue. You were saying?"

"Well, I... I'd like to see if you will set up a meeting with me and the Princess Regent."

The Chancellor thought. "Well, she's in Athosia until the end of the year with the Princess of the Empire. So..."

Maxwell thought. "Ok, so what about after that?"

The Chancellor looked up as if going over a calendar in her head. "I think she's busy then. The Empress in Waiting is getting ready to study abroad in Valruzia... there's just... there's not a lot of time."

Maxwell suddenly get the feeling that he was being stonewalled. "Is she here now? I thought I heard her in your office when you stepped out?"

The Chancellor looked at her office door, and then back at Maxwell. "She's not here either." But just as she said that, the Empress in Waiting stepped out of the Chancellor's office and without noticing the two of them, fallowed the wall into the hallway just beyond.

"Ah ha. I could speak to the Empress! She's right there. You could speak with her for me..."

The Chancellor leaned forward, "Mr. Maxwell, that is inappropriate. Her Imperial Majesty does not take audiences while she is still a minor. You know this."

"But she's..." He started.

"Perhaps there is something I can do for you Mr. Maxwell?" she firmly answered.

He shifted his attention back to the Chancellor. "Lady Donahue... I doubt... I mean... why have I been shut out?"

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"Why have I been shut out? The Anantos always took my calls before. Now that they just gave that diamond away, I no longer matter? The AYIC no longer matters?"

Lady Donahue looked at him. She thought he had become kind of pathetic. "Mr. Maxwell. Part of my job as Chancellor is to run interference for Her Highness, the Princess Regent. If there is someone I don't think it would be wise for her to meet with, she doesn't meet with them. It is what she asked me to do. Not in your case, specifically, but in anyone's case. And right now, I don't think a meeting between you and Her Highness, the Princess Regent would be very productive. So, if you want something, you will need to ask me."

Maxwell stood there with his mouth agape. He knew it was as she said: He just never thought anyone would ever honestly admit that. "Madame Chancellor. I need to talk to them about the Diamond. I don't think they understood what they just got rid of."

"Mr. Maxwell," said the Chancellor. "I'm fairly certain they understand. We don't tend to question things like that around here. Its not good for career longevity, if you know what I mean."

"Career longev... What?! Have you lost your mind?" he said, his voice raising sharply at the end. "How can you say something like that? That diamond was priceless. It is a cultural symbol of my people. It... you... I..."

"Jacob," the Chancellor said. "You're getting a little bit animated here. Take a breath and finish a sentence, please."

Jacob rose to his feet instead. "You people are nuts, you know that? All of you. Just bonkers. I don't think I have ever seen such a bunch of short sighted cynical monsters in all my life. It's like you just sold the three million Yeudis in Kalistan completely out. And how much did you get for it? How much is the life blood and the history of my people worth to that family that has more money than God? Huh? How much did Hutori pay you all for the cultural heritage of my people, which you stole and kept from us all those years? How much, huh? How much? Whatever it is, you owe it to us. The Yeudi people."

The Chancellor sat back in her chair. Jacob waited for her to speak. But she said nothing. So he decided to wash his hands of the whole debacle. "You know what, I'll say it right here. F--k you, Ericka. Alright? And f--k her!" he said as he gestured toward the office. "You guys can have one another. Pure psychopaths, I tell you what." Jacob Maxwell had probably violated about fifteen laws. There were thirty witness in the area who stopped and stared at him in disbelief when he had started cussing, and he would probably not hear the end of this, but he said what he said, and now it was out there. He started walking away...

"They didn't get anything for it," the Chancellor called after him. Her voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What?" he said, but did not turn around.

"The Anantos didn't get anything for it," she repeated. "The Princess thinks its cursed, and thinks that if she had asked anything for the diamond, whatever she got for it would be cursed too."

"Well," said Jacob. "That's crazy." He took another couple steps toward the door.

"Her Mother agrees with you," said the Chancellor, almost under her breath. "And I do too." Jacob paused once more, and then continued out the office door, letting it close behind him.