A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Empress' Personal Offices, Ananto Estate, Eveari
November 16, 5607

The Empress was engaged in playing electronic solitaire on her PC, having completed all the work that required her attention.  Now that the Crown Prince was assuming more duties, especially the day to day things in Kaliburg, there were fewer and fewer things for her to fill her days with.  She had been taking more time off of work to spend with her husband, who had turned in his intent to retire from his work at the Ananto Growers' Syndicate last month.  It felt like she was finally getting to really know the man she had been married to for decades, and found him to be warm, caring, witty, and remarkably intelligent.  These are features in him that she first was attracted to but had lost touch with as the world's problems continued to crowd in on her and her family.  And now she had time, and was using more of it to finally live life while she still felt young enough to do so.

In fact, the royal couple were planning a trip to an Egelian Ski Resort in the Spring, and she was really looking forward to finally getting out of the country again.

The Empire would be fine without her, she told herself.  It's time for her maybe to let go, to let others pick up the burden.

The buzzer rang.  It was no doubt her trustworthy and long serving Chancellor, Dame Dianne Bolton, who had made the trip up for her weekly tea with the Empress.  Her Imperial Majesty touched a button and the door swung open, as Chancellor Bolton entered.  She gave her customary bow and the Empress stood up from her desk and went to join her at the coffee table.

"Please, Madame Bolton be seated," signaled the elder stateswoman.  The Chancellor lowered her head respectfully and had a seat, after the Empress herself sat down.

"Diane, we're getting old, you and I," said the Empress.

"Indeed, Your Imperial Majesty,"  said Dame Bolton.  "We are getting there.  Not there yet, but we are headed there."

"In Kalistan, 61 is past retirement age," said the Empress.  "And yet, here we are, still at work, on a perfectly fine late autumn day.  The rains haven't started yet, the temperature outside is nice, you and I should be enjoying the weather..."

"Your Majesty, there is nothing to prevent you from enjoying the weather," said Dame Bolton, matter of factly.

"Oh, there is plenty to prevent me from enjoying the weather," said Her Imperial Majesty.  "Have you read the reports from Artania?  IBSI has made some moderately concerning conjectures about things they saw on the overflight satellites."

"I have read them, Your Majesty," said Dame Bolton.  "But, I think it was a great woman who said once, 'That never happened'."  The Empress smiled.

After a moment, the Empress nodded.  "She did say that, once..."  The Empress took a sip of her tea and waited for a moment to feel the warming sensation of the tea sliding down her throat and into her belly.  "Have you ever been to Kundrati, Dame Bolton?"

The Chancellor shook her head.  "No, Your Imperial Majesty."

"I suppose you wouldn't have.  This business with them has been going on most of my life."  She stared out the office window, over her balcony, and then across the street, over the cliff, and out over Eveari Bay.  "There was a time, I remember it, when that nation was beautiful.  My mother and father you know, they had a house there.  It was a huge house near the beach.  A huge mansion.  Before I became Empress, I helped my mother make contact with Luthori there.  It was a beautiful house.  I don't think it is standing anymore.  They took it, they took everything, and they ruined all of it."

After a moment of silence, the Chancellor asked "Do you wish you could go back ever?"

The Empress sipped her tea again and smiled, not warmly, but acerbically.  "To be perfectly honest with you, I wouldn't trade a bucket of warm spit for ten thousand square miles of that s--thole, Dianne."  The vulgarity from this lately taciturn Empress caught the Chancellor a little off guard, but Dame Bolton knew where it came from.  The two had had many long conversations about loss and resentment over the years.  And while the Chancellor believed that the Empress meant what she said, she also knew that it was regret that was driving the sentiment and a deep pain over the loss of her homeland.

"Everything good about Kundrati has been killed," said the Empress.  "Tortured to death and then cremated so that not even ashes exist.  Because the people who remain there enjoy the suffering and pain they have caused.  My only consolation is:  when they run out of slaves to kill off, they will start feeding on themselves, until the world is rid of them once and for all.  Because eventually parasites kill their host."

"Shall we do anything about the other thing?" asked the Chancellor.

"No," said the Empress.  "That never happened."

The Chancellor nodded, and understood fully what the Empress meant.  And for the good of both women, she didn't push it any further.

"We would, Madame Bolton, like to begin talking about our transition, however," said Her Imperial Majesty, now speaking more formally, which was a signal that the social part of the Tea was over and this was still, after all, an informal audience and a working meeting.

"As Her Imperial Majesty wishes," said the Chancellor, following the Empress' lead in the change of her tone.