A Matter of Time and Space
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
Command Deck, Threads of Fate, FTL – 11:50 GST – 29thMay 2185 CE
Kevin's feet barely touched the ground as the large krogan 'escorted' him through the corridor. The krogan whose name Kevin gathered was 'Chaill' held Kevin by the neck in a vice-like grip. They turned a corner leading towards the CIC and Chaill dragged him to the bridge. The doors parted to reveal Zaalia, another turian woman, and two asari waiting for him. Kevin stumbled as Chaill shoved him into the room, but recovered quickly and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to stir some circulation back into the skin.
The air was thick with the sharp tang of sweat and dried blood. Since their escape from Omega, not a single one of the battle-weary team, including Kevin, had had the opportunity to bathe. The pungent scent of stale perspiration and alien pheromones leached from their skin. Kevin glanced down at his own sweat-soaked clothes; he imagined he smelled none too fresh either.
He regarded the crowd of hostile looking alien women glaring at him accusingly. Zaalia in particular was giving him the evil eye. Judging by her furrowed brow-plates and the way her mandibles were clamped firmly against her mouth (an expression of anger that he'd seen her exhibit on a number of occasions), she was likely contemplating tossing him around the room with her biotics. He tried to step back to give himself room to manoeuvre in case things got violent, but the low growl from the krogan at his back suggested that wasn't an option. Kevin swallowed; given the choice between fighting the krogan or Zaalia, he was seriously considering taking his chances against the krogan!
In the tense silence that followed, Kevin took the opportunity to admire the room's sleek curved design and decorative murals lining the bulkheads.
"I've never been on an asari warship before," he said conversationally. "It makes very good use of space. A nice mix of form and function. Is that mural a haptic display interface?"
"One of our team is fighting for her life in the infirmary!" Severan, the turian taskforce team leader standing beside Zaalia said. "Now is not the time to test our patience!"
"You fed me false information," Zaalia accused.
"I connected you with one of my sources," Kevin said, his voice suddenly serious. "Someone I've used before. His info has always been good."
"Except he sent us to the wrong base!" T'Rani, the asari in commando leathers said. Kevin recognised her from the intelligence file he'd compiled on Zaalia's associates: she was a Maven from the Asari Republics.
"How is that my fault?" Kevin asked.
"And then you conveniently show up right where the Collectors have taken the captives we rescued," Severan added. "We almost shot you."
"Our scans showed a squad of dead humans and vehicles close to the hanger," the asari in pink and white Phoenix Armour asked. Kevin had heard the others refer to her as D'Ceni. "Was that your team the Collectors killed? Were you trying to intercept the them?"
Kevin shook his head. "No, they weren't my team."
"Then explain what you were doing there!" the krogan rumbled at Kevin's back.
"What was all this? You didn't want us interfering with your own precious Alliance operation, is that it?" Zaalia accused.
"What? No! You know me well enough that I stick to my word: we were cracking this case together."
"I've had enough of your concept of 'together'." Zaalia fired back. "The man I knew in London wouldn't have led us astray."
"I was trying to help you," Kevin insisted.
A blue biotic aura flared around Zaalia's body. "By lying to me!?"
"I did what I could…" Kevin didn't quite meet her gaze.
"Let me tell you what I think happened," Severan said as she folded her arms. "The Alliance have been conducting an investigation into these abductions, just as we have. You must have intercepted information that suggested a deal was about to go down in District B – that's why you were on Omega. But, for whatever reason – maybe on orders from your superiors or you decided unilaterally, it doesn't matter – you didn't want our operation to interfere with yours. When you talked to Zaalia in Afterlife, you gave us information that directed us to a secondary Blue Suns base, and diverted us from our intended target.
"If what you say is true, and that group of humans we found dead weren't your team, then logically it means you were following them. You tracked the humans to the catwalks where they engaged the buyers and were killed. You stayed hidden until we showed up and killed the remaining Collector. And judging by the look of panic on your face you hadn't anticipated the Collectors would put up such a spirited resistance… Or that the buyers were Collectors at all." She paused for effect. "How am I doing? Am I in the right ballpark?"
Kevin stared straight ahead, his expression carefully neutral. "Nice story, Officer Severan; except your mission was classified, if I'm correct? How would have I known so much about it in such detail to be able to lead you astray? Unless you have a mole at C-Sec, or on your team…" he replied, pointing out the flaw in the officer's version of events.
Zaalia fidgeted uneasily.
Valni's eyes rested on the Cabalite; Kevin followed the team leader's gaze.
"No," he said firmly. "Zaalia didn't say noth…"
"I told him…" Zaalia said cutting him off. "A few things, I guess," she added as her eyes dropped at the ground apprehensively.
Not a single breath seemed to part their lips for a long, awkward moment.
"Well," Kevin broke the silence eventually in a conversational manner, "that aside, I was merely spending my sweet time shopping around. Did I say I was on holiday?"
"Shut it, Officer," T'Rani warned him but not before the fuming Cabalite suddenly lunged forward and laid a well-placed blow into his gut.
"Slâctrü!" she exploded. "I trusted you!"
Most everyone except Chaill winced at the blow.
Wide eyed, Kevin doubled over, releasing a pained groan. He gasped for air for several seconds afterwards.
"You should have warned us who we're fighting against!" the krogan growled. "We could have been prepared."
Kevin, still hunched over, pressed a hand to his stomach. "I didn't know about the Collectors. I had no idea who the buyers were at all," he wheezed.
"How are we supposed to believe anything you say?" Zaalia demanded.
"If you hadn't noticed, I just pointed you to a source, and as a result you saved two live prisoners." Kevin attempted to straighten up. "Not to mention I helped you fight the Collectors," he pointed out.
"Or you were just fighting to save your own skin!"
Kevin shook his head sadly. "Come on, you know that's not true, Leeah."
"It's 'Zaalia'," she said as she locked eyes with him.
He returned her stare, but the pain in his gut suddenly felt insignificant to the feeling that flared in his chest. He did his best to harden his expression.
"What were you doing at the dock?" she demanded, her voice stern yet accompanied with a disillusioned tremble of her sub-harmonics.
"You were definitely well outside your jurisdiction, Agent," Severan added.
"Just 'officer' will do," he corrected, but Valni ignored his remark.
"What's your story? Start talking."
Kevin took a deep breath. "For the past two months SAIA have been tracking unusual money transfers from a number of companies across Citadel space: payments made to front companies that are commonly used by merc gangs. The payments appeared to be legitimate, but we were monitoring these front companies and the transactions got flagged up by the Agency. I was assigned to the case. I followed the money trail to a turian company – Haliat Armory. A few days after they made a payment to the front company, reports would come in of people being abducted. But these abductions were often put down to slaver raids or pirates. No-one made the connection before."
"But you did?" Valni asked.
Kevin nodded. "It was only after I found out C-Sec assembled a team – your team – to investigate the abductions that I made the breakthrough. Every time a group of people were abducted, Haliat Armory would gain the exclusive rights to some new and advanced technology. Their stock would go up and their influence would grow. The same thing is happening with an asari company."
T'Rani narrowed her eyes. "Which one?" she demanded.
"Armali Council. Their payments also showed the same patterns. And they have a great deal of influence with the Alliance. It was Armali Council who secretly collaborated with Alliance R&D to create a new type of omni-tool weapon: the omni-blade. They sold the patents to the Alliance for a substantial profit."
"Yeah, I've seen one of those up-close," Severan said.
"Then needless to say, you never heard that from me…" Kevin put in.
T'Rani nodded. "Go on."
"Our reports also suggest Armali Council have been ploughing huge resources into researching the mass relays. But I don't know if that's connected."
"This is bigger than we thought," Chaill said. "I know those companies. Armali Council have a reputation for ruthlessness, but I never figured they'd be mixed up with slavers."
"What do the companies get out of it?" Severan asked.
"The mercs get credits. The companies get technology," Kevin replied. "A short while after a group of people are abducted, the companies announce a new piece of technology – some breakthrough that's years ahead of its time. They use that to dominate the market."
"Who's hiring the mercs?" T'Rani asked.
"I wondered myself how common this short-cut at researching comes in those companies. Intercepted communication showed a single point of contact for each company: a certain Tusanna Cathropiln – she's the CEO of Armali Council – and a turian named Invidius Ruthlain."
"That last name is familiar," T'Rani said.
"He's the head of Haliat Armory. He hardly ever leaves his office and works through an intermediary. His last go-between died in mysterious circumstances so he recently hired a new envoy from the Turian Hierarchy who acts as a representative for his office: Legate Trajan."
Severan couldn't hide the look of shock on her face. "Trajan is involved? Are you sure?"
"I am pretty sure. But their security awareness is top notch. Therefore, all the evidence is circumstantial – it's nothing we could use for a prosecution. And because Armali Council enjoy a close relationship with the Alliance I'm not sure how high this goes or who to trust."
"Why hasn't anyone put these facts together before?" Zaalia wondered aloud, her thoughts momentarily distracting her from her anger at him, which Kevin couldn't help but note happily.
"Because until now no-one's had the full picture. I've been following the money trail and you've been rescuing civilians. Like I told you on Omega: we're working the same case, just from different angles."
A thought occurred to Zaalia. "Wait a second. You also said you were on holiday. Was that a lie or are you really investigating this case on your own?"
Kevin glanced down at his feet. "Yes and no," he admitted. "I was assigned to investigate the money trail, but… the mission on Omega wasn't exactly sanctioned by the Agency. I was following a lead. Well, it was more of a hunch, really."
And I wanted to see you again, he added silently.
"You went rogue?" T'Rani exclaimed.
"Officially, I'm on leave. I booked passage to the station myself. I needed first-hand evidence to corroborate the assumption that this is how the deal between the corporations and the mercenaries plays out; that's why I went to Omega and met my old contact. It was a matter of luck I had my contact in Blue Suns – the group I had the lead on. Thus I could skip all the formalities of recruitment and get right to the action."
He glanced up, searching Zaalia's face. She was staring outside the observation window of the bridge, listening intently, so he continued.
"I had to filter through all the fragmented information I had gathered on the safe-houses and depots that may have had the potential of being used to hold prisoners. Eventually a Blue Suns operational group piqued my interest; I decided to track them down. They took matters into their own hands in the waking power vacuum after the death of Tarak, the Suns leader on Omega. Instead of seeking authorisation from the senior commanders in the chain, they cut a deal with an unknown party off their own bat.
"That explains why the bodies we found didn't wear their branded armour." Chaill reasoned aloud.
Kevin merely acknowledged the remark with a nod and continued.
"According to my intel they would have 'snatched some tech worth a fortune' as they say. It was a no brainer, I had to go after them, but there was nothing on captives at all. So I also instructed my source to give you the info you needed based on your interest that Zaalia revealed to me. Mind you, it wasn't as much as you or she thinks." He peered at her.
She glanced back at him, not really sure how to react to his somewhat condescending appeal in her favour.
"You know the rest of the story. The mercs brought in the prisoners with two trucks to do the exchange in the dock, but they got carried away; they wanted to hold back half the "goods" for more technology blueprints. They clearly weren't the ones who've been doing business with the Collectors before. The ground got hot as the first shot's been fired. That's when I fled to the tunnels."
Valni was staring at him, mulling over his words, stroking her chin with one talon in little circles. Kevin had to admit, the turian team leader had a good poker face.
It's kind of unnerving, he thought.
"So the Agency couldn't even stretch to a ticket to Omega for you, huh? I'm so glad we're allies," D'Ceni remarked.
"You have no idea how difficult authorizing this investigation's been!" Kevin retorted. "Like pushing molasses up a sand dune. I'm being stonewalled at every turn. Your interviews with the colonists on Horizon…" Kevin paused and to let his words sink in. "Yeah, they were not classified… So I read them all. I know what that colonist, Traynor, told you about the Collectors. To be honest, I thought they were just the twenty-second century bogeyman of the Galaxy. Hell if I believed any of that! When I mentioned the Collector lead to my superiors they almost suspended me for insubordination. They didn't believe the Collector link for one moment. They thought you're chasing shadows. As far as the Agency are concerned, you might as well be trying to capture the Loch Ness monster!"
"The Loch what?" Zaalia frowned. "What are on about?"
"It's a Scottish creature of legend," Severan, D'Ceni, and Chaill chimed in together.
"How do you three know that?" Zaalia asked.
"Lived in Scotland," D'Ceni explained.
"Scottish friend," the krogan said.
"Scottish… boyfriend," Severan confessed.
"You know a lot of Scots," Kevin observed.
Severan gestured between herself and Chaill. "Same Scot."
"This isn't getting us anywhere!" T'Rani snapped. "The question we have to ask ourselves is: where do we take our investigation from here?" She turned to Severan. "Thoughts?"
"Our priority is to get the captives back to the Citadel," Severan said. "Once we're in the Widow System and the captives are in safe hands we can concentrate on this new lead. If Armali Council and Haliat Armory are involved, we'll find out, and we'll stop them."
"If it's true then this could bring down the companies," T'Rani pointed out.
"If it is true then those companies deserve to be brought down," Severan replied. "I don't care where this investigation leads, just as long as we shut these slavers down."
T'Rani nodded slowly, a small smile playing on her lips.
Kevin thought it strange that an asari Maven would defer to a relatively low ranked Warrant Officer from the Hierarchy, but didn't comment on it further.
"What do we do with him?" Chaill asked.
"He can make himself useful," Zaalia said. "The marines will need help. He can monitor the captives in their stasis pods down in hold until we reach the Citadel."
Kevin nodded. "Anything I can do to help you, I will," he said.
Severan smiled. "That's good to hear. But you might want to wear a mask to cover the smell. Timoleon's marines have fought hard, but our showers aren't large enough to accommodate elcor. A squad of battle weary soldiers in a confined space can get a bit whiffy!"
Citadel Docks, Zakera Ward, Citadel – 07:30 GSD – 30thMay 2185 CE
Zaalia manoeuvred the Threads of Fate into the Citadel docking bay. Before the ship had even drifted to a halt in its mooring, the Citadel umbilicals had extended to latch onto the hull.
Within seconds, the ship was secured. A gangway moved into place and attached to the airlock. Then the airlock opened and a flock of floating stasis pods emerged from the ship.
Zaalia, T'Rani and Erata used their biotics to push the pods out towards the team of medical specialists and representatives from three different races waiting on the dock. T'Rani had called the Citadel on the link several hours earlier to brief them on the captive's conditions. Because they had no idea what technology the Collectors were using, Valni and T'Rani had decided it was best not to try removing the captives from the pods during the journey. They didn't even know if it was safe to remove the poor souls from their pods, and the Threads of Fate wasn't equipped to deal with the restorative care of eighteen turians, humans, and salarians. In any case, the Infirmary was busy monitoring Lia'Vael, and the quarian needed to be kept in isolation. Valni thought it best to monitor the captive's vital signs in the pods
The small army of medics rushed forward as soon as Valni's team appeared. They swarmed around the pods, running scans with their omni-tools and calling out the captives' bio-readings.
Behind them, Chaill wheeled out Lia'Vael – the quarian sealed protectively inside an isolation pod that resembled an Alliance sleeping tube except the transparent photochromic glass cover was opaque to preserve her modesty.
No sooner had they left the ship then the pods were quickly bundled onto waiting shuttles and ferried off to a medical centre that could work out how to get the captives out safely.
Dr. Chloe Michel and pair of asari medics quickly intercepted Chaill. They took scans of Lia'Vael's vitals, and after they'd persuaded the krogan to let go of the pod, they hurried Lia'Vael into a waiting transport. Despite wanting to act as escort but there wasn't room in the transport for Lia'Vael, the medics, and a krogan.
"She needs a sterile environment," Chaill reminded them as they secured Lia'Vael's pod in the ambulance.
"She'll get the very best care at Huerta Memorial," Dr. Michel assured the krogan, before adding, "and not to worry, she is not the first quarian I have treated."
And with that, the ambulance doors slammed shut and the transport lifted off, heading towards the Presidium.
Chaill watched them leave. It wasn't until the ambulance had vanished from sight that he turned to join the rest of the team on the dock.
Despite the sudden exodus, there was still a large crowd gathered around the ship – most of them were turians in C-Sec armour that Valni assumed were her bodyguards, but there was also a number of humans, the elcor ambassador talking with Timoleon and his marines, and, as Valni expected, Vereen waiting beside a skycar on the other side of the dock.
Vereen's call to Valni on the Threads of Fate had been brief and not as unpleasant as Valni had feared. Valni persuaded Vereen that the comm wasn't the time or place for explanations and promised to explain everything when she returned to the Citadel.
Vereen insisted on holding Valni to that promise.
Standing close to the marines, Kevin cast a final glance at the retreating shuttles, then turned back, his eyes scanning the crowd, searching for a familiar figure. He spotted them in a second. He sauntered closer to Zaalia, who was checking readings and typing in commands for the Threads of Fate via her omni-tool.
"I would ask for your number if I haven't had it already."
Zaalia looked up from her work and regarded him for a moment.
"Now, I only ask whether you'd mind if I called you…?"
He scrutinized her face for any giveaway sign of emotion as she gazed at him, hesitating, when the group of C-Sec officers suddenly stormed in to surround the team.
"Warrant Officer Severan," a tall C-Sec officer with silver-grey skin and dark blue markings on his face asked in a loud voice. Valni recalled seeing him around C-Sec headquarters.
"Please tell the Executor that I don't need a bodyguard. I have my team here, I'm perfectly safe," she told him.
"We're here to take you into custody," the C-Sec officer continued. He drew his rifle and pointed it at her head. "Surrender your weapons now."
The squad of officers also drew their weapons and trained them on the team.
"What's in Athame's name is going on?!" T'Rani demanded.
"Officer Severan, you and your team are under arrest," the C-Sec officer said coldly.
"On what charge?" Erata demanded.
"Conspiracy, espionage, theft and sedition against the Hierarchy and Asari Republics," the C-Sec officer replied. "I suggest you come with us."
"I'll bet this is that bastard Inquisitor's doing," T'Rani muttered. "I'll have his head for this!"
"You'll have to get in line," Chaill growled. "I'll give you his head after I've torn it off!"
"I'll add 'threatening the life of a senior member of the Hierarchy' to the list, shall I?" the officer suggested.
"Who ordered our arrest?" Valni demanded.
"The Turian and Asari Councillors," the officer replied.
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Valni could see Vereen's shocked expression from the other side of the dock.
"Both of them want us arrested?" Erata breathed. "That doesn't make any sense."
"We've been authorised to use lethal force if you won't comply," the C-Sec officer added.
T'Rani raised her hands. "Alright. We're not about to make trouble."
"You can't be serious?" Chaill protested. "I'm not going with them!"
"Let's do as they say for now," T'Rani said in a conciliatory tone. "I can get this sorted. The Asari Councillor will listen to me."
Not seeing any way around it, Valni nodded and allowed herself to be handcuffed.
The officers handcuffed each member of the team, including the human, and led them away to the waiting C-Sec skycars.
Valni and Zaalia were bundled into the backseat of the first skycar; Erata and T'Rani shared the second, while Chaill, after a heated protest, was finally coaxed into the third car. Kevin completed the set by being hauled into a fourth C-Sec branded X3M.
The vehicles lifted off and sped out of the docking bay into the vacuum of space.
Valni and Zaalia sat quietly, lost in their own thoughts as the Citadel horizon whizzed past.
After a while, Zaalia broke the silence, gazing through the window with an almost dreamy expression.
"You know, since I joined your team, I've piloted an asari warship, danced at a human wedding, fought an army of vorcha, driven a krogan Tomkah through a warzone, conspired to break into a Matriarch's apartment, ridden an elcor into battle against creatures most people think are mythical, seen enough naked aliens to last a lifetime, and been arrested twice by the very organisation I'm supposed to be working for!"
Valni nodded silently in agreement. "All true. What's your point?"
A smile crept across Zaalia'a face. She turned to Valni. "… I wouldn't have missed this for the whole of Palaven," she said with feeling.
Slowly but surely, Valni smiled back at her. "It's good to have you on the team, Cabalite. I couldn't have done any of this without you… Especially the dancing!"
Zaalia laughed. "I have to admit, I enjoyed you and me stealing the show… Even in those strange outfits!" she remarked.
"I thought you said they were 'too girly'?" Valni asked with a grin.
"They've grown on me." Zaalia grinned back. She gazed out of the skycar window at the translucent white nebula stretching out beyond the Citadel horizon. "It's been one hell of a ride, huh?"
Valni regarded her manacled hands. "Never imagined it would end like this."
"It's not over yet."
Valni and Zaalia shared another brief smile and then continued to gaze out of the windows.
They completed the rest of the journey in silence.
The skycars landed in the one place Valni wasn't expecting. The doors opened on a lakeside platform on the Presidium and their guards escorted them down a ramp to a large elevator leading down to the lower-levels.
After another lengthy elevator ride, they emerged in an airy blue-hued auditorium with C-Sec officers and civilians milling around the large open space.
"This is the C-Sec Academy!" Zaalia exclaimed. "Why'd they bring us here?"
"Spirits only know. Maybe they want to make an example out of us?" Valni replied with a shrug. "Vereen used to work here as a flight technician."
As they waited for the T'Rani and the others to arrive, Zaalia found her gaze drawn to a pair of turian women dressed in striking blue and gold saris, and who appeared to be in the midst of what looked a heated argument with a human C-Sec officer.
"You shouldn't be wearing that, it's cultural appropriation," the human female scolded.
The turian in the blue sari looked shocked. "What? I don't understand. All we wanted to do is look glamorous."
"That's fine. But could you do it without disrespecting my heritage?" the human replied.
"How is this disrespectful?" the turian in the gold sari asked, tugging anxiously at the pallu on her left shoulder. "I've seen plenty of humans wearing asari dresses. They never complain about humans appropriating their culture."
"Fine. That's their prerogative, but my culture isn't there so you can play dress up," the human officer fired back.
"But they're so comfortable," the woman in blue said.
"I know. They're meant to be like that."
"It makes me feel feminine," the woman in gold added. "Is it so wrong to want to wear something other than our C-Sec uniforms for once? Besides, we arrested that pair of turians a couple of weeks ago who were dressed like this. You didn't have a problem then."
"Is that where you got the idea?" the human asked.
"Sure," the woman in blue replied. "How is this different?"
"They were at a wedding," the human retorted. "They were invited to wear them. Sometimes it's offensive not to wear proper clothing to that kind of event. But what you're doing is taking an aspect of my culture without having any lasting connection to it."
"Yeah, well, you didn't object when Agent T'Pann wore that sari last year," the woman in blue said petulantly.
"That was for Diwala! She was allowed!"
"Oh, so many rules!"
Zaalia tore her gaze away from the two turians in saris and turned to Valni. "And I thought the day couldn't get any weirder," she muttered.
At that moment, Chaill, Erata, and T'Rani stepped off the elevator.
All eyes were on them as the arresting officers herded Valni and her squad up a set of stairs and along a crowded hallway.
Zaalia was craning her neck, trying to see past the gurads. "Where is Kevin?" she asked. "He isn't here." She kept turning around to search for him, until one of the guards steered her back in line.
"They might have taken him elsewhere," Valni suggested. "They know he's not part of the team."
The guards came to an abrupt stop at an office door on the left.
The door opened to reveal Inquisitor Passcal sitting behind a white metal desk. The barefaced inquisitor rose to his feet as they were ushered inside.
"I knew it!" Valni murmured as she caught sight of him.
"Inquisitor!" T'Rani exploded. "You better have a bloody good reason for…"
But Passcal cut her off.
"It's over, Severan!" he yelled over T'Rani's tirade. "You've proven where your loyalty lies. I see now I should have arrested you when I had the chance. You've been a thorn in my side from the very start!"
"What are you talking about?" Valni retorted.
"I'm talking about you lying to me. I'm talking about you disrupting my investigation. I am talking about Illium! You broke into a Matriarch's apartment!"
Valni froze. That was privileged information.
How had he found out?
"You were given C-Sec resources and this is how you chose to use them?" Passcal continued. "You don't deserve the honour of wearing that uniform."
"The mission on Illium was classified," T'Rani protested, not bothering to deny it.
"Not from the Primarch," Passcal replied. "And fortunately the Office of Internal Affairs enjoys a close relationship with the Primarch's Office. When news of a covert operation on Illium fell into my hands, I was compelled to act. I now have enough evidence to have you executed!"
"He just can't let it go, can he?" Zaalia whispered to Valni. "Like a varren with a bone."
"And they call me a savage!" Chaill thundered. "We've shed our blood rescuing turians from slavers, and this is the thanks we get? Why are we being treated like criminals?!"
"Because you do such a good job of acting like one," a feminine voice said from the door behind them.
This time, it was Chaill who froze.
He recognized the voice; it belonged to someone he very much hoped he'd never meet again.
Slowly, the team turned their heads, staring back at the door.
Standing in the entrance, and flanked by a squad of black-clad asari commandos, was Matriarch Lidanya.
The Matriarch let the tense silence drag on for suitably dramatic moment before stepping lightly into the room and giving Chaill a dazzling smile.
"It's good to see you again, Grax."