ONE
Sanves, Ialessa System
March 2178 (Five Years before ME1)
The incessant beeping of her OmniDesk woke Aethyta T'Prave. Sighing, she got up. This better be damned important, she thought. She'd set up the standard VI Assistant that came with the 'Desk to screen out most of the stuff sent to her – a few centuries with the same email address meant you got a lot of spam.
As she came closer, she saw that the caller ID screen was flashing a bright blue. She'd set that color for one person and one person only. Ignoring her state of undress, Aethyta sat down and accepted the call.
Almost immediately, Aethyta knew something was wrong when Lilia didn't even comment on her tits.
"What's wrong, Lily?"
On the screen, Lilia Muralis, one of Aethyta's few friends left from her century-plus association with House T'Soni, shifted uneasily.
"Eth, I'm worried."
"You should never have let Liara go on those damn digs," Aethyta said in a harsh tone while she brought up on a separate screen the latest ships for hire out of Sanves.
Lilia shook her head. "It's not Liara, that I'm worried about. It's Benezia."
"Nezzy? You can't be serious."
Sighing, Lilia rubbed her crest. "I'm afraid so. She returned to the House grounds a week ago after nearly four years away 'on business'."
"Business?"
"With that Turian she was seeing. The SPECTRE."
Aethyta looked at the local timestamp at the bottom of the vidscreen. "You didn't call me in the middle of the night because of some thug that Nezzy could easily flay alive, Lil."
"She's different, Eth." Lilia paused, trying to condense centuries of observation of Benezia T'Soni into a few words. "She didn't even ask about the gardens, or how the Golden Nerine program was going. Just Liara."
While Aethyta massaged her mid-crest in silence; Lilia saw that the older Matriarch was starting to become irritated, so she skipped ahead. "She asked specifically detailed questions about Prothean artifacts. Had Liara ever done any detailed statistical analyses of where Grade Aphelia artifacts could be found?" Lilia paused, remembering the conversation a week ago. "She also asked for everything Liara had written regarding the Prothean Fall."
At Aethyta's lack of response, Lilia sighed and gathered her wits. "They haven't spoken in eight years."
"You're only finally telling me this, now?"
Lilia grit her teeth. "We all thought it was going to be temporary. I didn't call you every time Liara skinned her knees digging as a child, did I?" With that, Lilia unleashed the bombshell. "She tried to convince Liara to run for Matriarch Lenaia's seat eight years ago."
With a curse, Aethyta smashed the nearest frangible thing, a potted plant, with her biotics. Goddess damn it; she could see it all now so clearly. Benezia, trying to steer her 'wayward' child away from her scientific pursuits and towards a more traditional role suited for a House Heir. Even the words that Nezzy would have used – 'The Protheans will be there for you once you've established your skills as Armali's adjunct on the Council,' and 'it's only forty years'.
Lilia watched in silence from the other end of the connection as Aethyta vented her anger. Thankfully, it took only a minute this time. Once Aethyta had calmed down enough; albeit still breathing heavily, she continued.
"Mistress Liara has not been on the estate grounds since then," she said. "She's been following grant funding wherever it becomes available, first with Serrice, Armali, and now Dassus. And before you ask, she's become almost as controversial as you these last ten years, Eth."
At that, Aethyta smirked. "I find that hard to believe. Has she been calling for the repeal of the Occa Accords?" At the same time, she kicked herself mentally for not following Liara's professional career more closely; she'd followed Liara closely during her school years, but that had been thirty years ago. I'm getting lazy in my old age. Thought things wouldn't change much in a few decades.
"Not yet, but Matriarch Myrinia likened her to a rampaging Elcor, thanks to her hypothesis on the Prothean Fall." Lilia paused. "I did hear rumors that Myrrie offered her a job as an Adjunct Professor at the Agreau Institute if she would retract her theories."
"She didn't take it, did she?"
"No." Lilia sighed. "The Dassus grant might not last much longer, Eth. The last few years, Liara's been working as a freelance consultant on Protheans more and more; the money from grants is drying up - at this point, she's as respected as a Krogan physician, so to speak."
"Nezzy's waiting her out," stated Aethyta flatly. It was a time-tested tactic, as old as the Asari themselves. Let a young maiden go out into the world, and simply wait for the money to run out in a few decades, followed by a rather crestfallen maiden returning.
"When Benezia returned, she gave instructions to the House Huntresses that they were to update Liara's location by each evening tide - before that, it was every moon cycle." Lilia paused at that, trying to think of the best way to break the next bit of news to Aethyta.
"The huntresses who went with her are different too, Eth. The moment they got back, I went to see Shiala. She didn't ask about Liara until I reminded her."
"This is like one of those bad horror films Vellus liked." After a long pause, Aethyta grunted in frustration. "There's nothing I can do," she said. "We never signed the vows for the bonding rolls." At that, she wondered not for the first time whether it had been because of her iconoclastic views, or because Benezia had been worried about a relationship with another Asari threatening her promising political career. "Plus, we never went as deep as an allelion bond." Would she have backed me in the Councils if we'd gone that far?
"You're still Liara's atrikós."
"Yeah." Aethyta sighed. "Give me a moment to think." With that, she mulled her options over. A century ago, at the beginning of her quasi-exile from the Matriarchy, she'd cashed out on some investments made nearly half a millennium ago and used the money to start her current line of businesses; a restaurant equipment supplier and a series of chain restaurants across Council-controlled space.
"I can change my working schedules to follow her." A smirk slowly grew on Aethyta's face. "Best of all, I can write it off on my taxes as a business expense; exploring new markets. But if what you're telling me about Nezzy and the others is true; I can't stay too close to Liara. At best, I'll be a day or two away from her. At worst, a week."
"Thanks, Eth. I really appreciate it."
"This is what, the third bottle of seventeen hundreds Ice Brandy you owe me now?"