"You can't trust him," Tatiaria said as she walked with her sister arm-in-arm through the four-mile square park Cerelia Meadows in the heart of Armali. Benezia had just informed her sister that she was going to be leaving Thessia to an undisclosed location where she was to meet the Spectre, Saren Arterius. When Benezia added that she was going alone and not taking any of her acolytes or commandos, her sister stopped in her tracks. "Sister, he is too dangerous to go alone. You must have some kind of security with you ... not only because of him but you will be off Thessia."

"I have no choice," Benezia answered, as she left her sister's side and walked over to the grand memorial to their ancestor, Cerelia T'Soni. This was the original memorial erected and twice the size of its copy in Serrice ... "He will only talk to me in person and not here on Thessia. It appears that neither of us is too trusting."

"Sister, must you meet with him? Can't you use an alternative resource or connection to pull back the veil on him?" Tatiaria asked as she joined Benezia at the memorial. "Surely someone knows what he is doing? What his plans are?"

Benezia dipped her hand in the water, causing the image of her ancestor to stretch and distort into a silent scream, "It would appear that he has found and fallen into a black hole, sister. A black hole that only by his invitation will I gain access to peer into."

"Well then leave him in that hole." Tatiaria bitterly responded as she moved her sister's hand in the water so that their ancestor returned to her mourning.

Benezia turned slightly to look at her sister, "Do not be blind sister to a black hole that could swallow our own daughters. Or be deaf to a silence that could shatter our world."

Tatiaria put her hand in the water next to her sister's and their ancestor disappeared in a swirl of water. Tatiaria would have smiled at their ritual of changing the memorial's appearance if the subject matter had not been so serious. "How long have we done this?" She asked as she moved closer to Benezia.

"Since you were a child," Benezia smiled and gave her a small push with her hip. "You loved this memorial and playing in the water. Always asking me to tell you the story Cerelia and her love of the Myndourite Pastora ... or was that Myndoup?"

This made Tatiaria laugh at her mispronunciation of the word back then, "Myndo-up! If you are going to mock my childish mistakes please get it right!"

The sisters laughed and hugged ... then the Matriarch began writing letters in the water as Tatiaria looked off at the T'Soni Tower, "I had dinner with Liara the other night in Serrice. She made me your omelete and I was very impressed ... she was giggling like when she was small as she told me about the red route climb. She is a strong girl ... like a krogan."

Tatiaria looked at her sister who despite the small smile at her younger sister's tease looked deep in thought as she moved her finger around the cool liquid. "Like an asari."

"Isn't that what I said?" Tatiaria asked innocently.

Benezia looked over at her sister, "I saw her in Illium."

"Why?" Tatiaria had never liked Aethyta and her coarse ways ... In fact that could be said of almost everyone around the Matriarch. But she did see that Aethyta worshipped her sister and was protective of her. Where her failing lied was in the word possessive. Tatiaria witnessed it at a party once. Benezia was speaking privately on a terrace with two cousins and Aethyta had burst in on them asking why they just didn't pleasure each other right there. When Aethyta learned that they were the daughters of Cerelia like Benezia she had said that it was an honest mistake, "No one listens unless they desire the speaker." Tatiaria had asked her sister later how she could put up with that kind of behavior and insulting ways ... Benezia had laughed, "Aethyta comes from the perioikos asari ... give her time. She may not behave as we do but she has an honest heart."

Benezia looked at her younger sister, "I told mother to send you to Lusia and work on the plantation for at least a season ... you would have met more perioikos asari and had a better understanding of where Aethya came from. It would have done you good." Perioikos asari were what the working class was called and the asari that Benezia loved. That love started when she was sent to the plantation to work when she was young and she met those less fortunate working the fields. These asari were strong, severly honest and hearty laughers ... these were attributes not seen in her society and she loved it. She had wanted her younger sister to experience that world ... to live and work among those people ... but their mother thought that she was too delicate. Benezia disagreed but kept silent. But she knew that if she ever had a daughter ... she would experience this world and when she had sent Liara she held her breath. She was afraid that Liara would turn her nose up but instead she had rolled her sleeves up and wanted to stay longer. Thank you Aethya she had secretly said.

"I don't think working on a plantation would have made me like her." Tatiaria frowned. "She was rude and very vulgar!"

That made Benezia laugh ... Yes, Aethya was vulgar but she was also gentle where needed. Benezia saw that the topic was upsetting her sister so she changed subjects, "You also loved it here."

"I loved it when you would pick me up for the day and bring me here for a mid-day meal," Tatiaria hugged her arm, "You were the most beautiful creature to me."

"Were?" Benezia arched a brow at her much sister.

"Always, sister." The two manipulated the images as they listened to the sounds in the park. Tatiaria wanted to tell her sister no, to forbid her from going but she was still a matron and much younger than the Matriarch. Carefully she said, "Sister, what if something should happen to you? What if this is a trap? What if he will not let you return? Your absence would leave me empty and-"

Benezia cut her off, "If something should happen to me then you would honor me with tears of loss and joy."

Tatiaria caught her breath at the thought of losing her older sister and felt her composure slipping, "Sister, please don't go. If not for me then think of your daughter, think of Liara. She is so young … too young to be without you. What would happen to her if you were not here anymore? Without you or your guidance? No. She is too young to be without you, sister."

Benezia lowered her head, closed her eyes, took a deep breath herself, "Liara-"her voice choked at the thought of her young daughter alone without her, "Liara will survive without me as long as she has you and your guidance."

"My guidance?" Tatiaria looked worried, "Please, sister ... Look at my daughter, how senseless she can be and then look at Liara." Both pulled their hands out of the water to face each other as their ancestor slowly returned to mourn and carry her lover. "I wouldn't know what to do with her. She requires deeper training than I am able to provide."

Benezia smiled, "You have done well with Sibila. I have full confidence in you that my daughter would be properly trained if left in your care."

"How can you be so sure?" Tatiaria frowned. "I would surely fail, sister."

Benezia placed her hand on her sister's cheek, "Do you not realize that you are the reason that she is here? It was watching you, seeing you with your daughter that made me start to want a daughter of my own. It was seeing how you and Sibila lit up, how you took care of her and the way you two seemed connected. It inspired me long after I had given up any real desire or hope to ever have a daughter of my own."

"Me?" Tatiaria was shocked since she had always looked up to her older sister and never thought that she could truly inspire the Matriarch. "I am both touched and honored, sister. I never knew …"

"Now you do," Benezia smiled as she removed her hand and gave a kiss to her cheek where her hand had been. "Tati, I need your support in this matter. I cannot hesitate or fail at what I need to do. I cannot stand by and let Saren stay on the path that he is currently on. His hatred of the humans has poisoned his very heart and, while I have no proof, the path that he is on may be the destruction of us all. No, I pray to the Goddess that I do not fail in my handling of him."

"I have never known you to fail." Tatiaria said, "You have always succeeded at anything and everything you do."

Benezia frowned looking at the dead lover being held by Cerelia in the memorial, "Not everything."

"Do not think of that," Tatiaria pulled her sister away from the memorial and turned Benezia to face her, "That was not your failure. It was hers."

Benezia looked past her sister, remembering a happier time with Aethya on Lusia, "Liara asked me about her."

Tatiaria stepped back, "And did you tell her?"

"No." Benezia answered, returning her gaze to her sister.

The two sisters stood in the quiet sounds of the park again for a few minutes as each collected her own private thoughts. "I know that you are wiser than I am, but to go alone! He could kill you. You must take commandos … anything. Not alone."

"Tati, I do not know what he is up to so I will not endanger anyone until I have accessed the situation first. That is why I need you to promise me that while I am away that you will stand in for me."

Tatiaria looked at Benezia, saw that her sister was not going to be persuaded to change her mind and bowed her head, "It would be my honor to stand in your place, sister."

"Good." Benezia said, forcing a smile. "I have contacted my attorney and will be making you executor of my estate. It will remain that way until I have succeeded with the Spectre or if I do not return. All that is mine will become Liara's when she turns two-hundred and fifty."

As they walked off together arm in arm Tatiaria said to her older sister, "You better come back! Or I promise that Liara will be wagging her ass in some bar!"

"Lovely." Benezia laughed at that thought. The thought of Liara wagging anything in a bar would most definitely result in broken glass, overturned barstools and someone bleeding.

It was dark and cold. Liara didn't know how she had gotten there but she saw her mother off in the distance. "Mother!" Liara cried out as her mother began walking farther away.

"She needs you." A voice whispered, "You must be strong."

Liara tried to ignore the voice as she began running towards her mother who was now walking into a lake of mud that was slowly engulfing her. "Please mother! Please come back!"

"No Liara," The voice called. "She needs you!"

"I don't care!" Liara cried as she tried to cross a hedge between her and her mother. Soon the hedge was holding her ... holding her as that butterfly appeared and fluttered about casting green and gold dust on her ... all the while the hedge was wrapping around her legs and keeping her from the Matriarch. "Please, let me go! Mother!" Benezia stopped, turned to look at Liara, put a finger up to her lips to hush her and then disappeared into the mud. Liara began to scream just as she came awake.

"Mother!" she called out as she rose up out of bed. The dream was so real that she hurried to her mother's bedroom and as she threw the doors open she calmed when she saw her mother fast asleep in her bed. Liara, sweat rolling off her, crept over to where her mother lay and looked at her. She tried to slow her breathing so as not to wake the Matriarch and she looked at the spot next to her mother that was empty. Quietly and gently she slipped into her mother's bed, careful not to disturb her and then curled up to her mother.

As the morning light crawled into the Matriarch's bedroom her private companion came in and smiled. She had found Liara curled up next to her companion more times then she could count since Little could walk. She quietly moved to the Matriarch and whispered, "Benezia."

"Kyri," Benezia reached out to her and the companion pulled away and motioned next to her. Benezia looked over and saw her daughter sleeping and turned back to Kyriake, "I see that we will need to change our morning plans."

Kyriake smiled, "Not the first time. Would you like me to have your morning meal brought to you?"

Benezia said no as she slowly got out of bed and went into her washroom pulling Kyri with her. Benezia was to leave that morning and thought it best to not tell her daughter. Liara would have too many questions and Benezia did not want to worry her daughter. As Benezia touched Kyriake she knew that this was possibly the last time that she would know this kind of pleasure and so she opened her mind and moved into her lover's. Once they had pleasured each other, Kyri was sent away as the Matriarch bathed.

An hour later and Benezia sat out on her private terrace looking out at the early morning view and thinking of a lost love ... Benezia was gifted in the art of pleasure but used it more for control then release ... Except for one past lover. She had taken that control away from Benezia with just a slight touch ... Marcella T'Loak. How she had desired her, begged for her ... but in the end it was not to last. Her mother, Dianthe, had forbid Benezia to continue the relationship as Marcella was not only a perioikos but an athlete. Neither of these were worthy of a T'Soni.

As Benezia watched as the morning get brighter she remembered taking her daughter to see a skyball match and after the game she had taken Liara into the locker room. As soon as Liara had seen Marcella she had gotten so excited that she tripped over another player and hit her head on the ground. When she came awake Marcella was holding her and taking her to the team doctor as Benezia followed. Liara threw her arms around the athlete's neck and told her how she was her favorite player ever. Marcella had told Benezia later that it was a shame that her mother wasn't as crazy about her ... Benezia just smiled. Now even years later, she still wanted her but it was too late. Marcella had a turian bondmate, two daughters and had finally retired from skyball and moved to Palaven. Six centuries and she still craved her touch ... she was her one true regret.

"Mother?" Benezia turned to see her daughter looking at her worried.

Benezia patted the seat next to her, "Come."

Liara sat next to her mother, placed her head on her shoulder, "I had a nightmare last night."

Benezia pressed her hand against Liara's cheek, "What was the nightmare about this time?"

"You." Benezia froze as Liara continued, "I saw you disappear in a lake of mud and I couldn't stop you ... I couldn't help you ... I screamed and tried to get to you but I wasn't strong enough."

"It was just a dream, Liara." Benezia said as her stomach knotted. "Nothing more."

"But it seemed so real."

Benezia stood and pulled her daughter up, "It was just a dream. Now, go to your room and rest, it is too early for you to be up."

"I'm not sleepy," Liara said as she sat back down and tried to pull her mother back to her. "Please let us sit for awhile longer."

Benezia looked into her daughter's blue eyes and wanted to kiss her and tell her how she was her true heart but she had to start preparing for her trip. "Liara, I do not have time to sit here. I have many duties, you know that. Now go to your own bed." Liara looked down, then rose and headed for the door as Benezia reached out and stopped her. "Daughter, I wish nothing more than to spend this morning with you. I have always delighted in our time together. You are my heart. You understand that I must sometimes put what I want to do to the side? That as a Matriarch my duty to ensure that our species moves forward without losing connection to our past is above everything ... even you." Liara nodded as Benezia reached out and kissed her daughter.

Liara smiled as her mother kissed her and she reciprocated with a tight hug, "Of course, mother. Forgive me for being selfish."

As Liara left her, Benezia turned to the small altar of water to Athame in her room and whispered, "Please Goddess, watch over my daughter. Keep her safe if I cannot. Give her strength and wisdom if I am not here. And make sure that if my sister is left to teach and guide her, that Liara does not end up stripping in some bar." As her prayer ended Benezia heard the sound of the sunrise bell coming from the temple of Athame, as if in answer to her prayer.