translated by DawningStar
"The Council of Thirteen has reached its decision, Riae Four-Two-Nine," declared one of the faceless members through the hologram. Cassandra let out an inaudible sigh; the lack of rank there meant a fairly severe sentence, death most likely. Well, she'd expected that going in.
"You are found guilty of the charge of treason by sympathy with a subject species, and hereby stripped of all rank in the Yeerk Empire. You are sentenced to death by Kandrona starvation, your host to be eliminated following completion of this for subversion of a Yeerk Visser. The sentence will be carried out by Visser Five."
Cassandra stared at her hands and schooled her face to show a suppressed terror, no trace of the triumph she actually felt. Oh, the fate which awaited her was certainly unpleasant, but Riae, Tariss, and Faizah and her gang would have a whole three days at least to make it to safety. If she could manage it, maybe no one would ever have to know she wasn't Riae. Suicide was hardly unusual to escape the pain of Kandrona starvation, after all...
But the situation seemed to call for some kind of response. It was an opportunity many Storytellers dreamed about, the chance to tell off the Council of Thirteen to their faces--and there really wasn't anything more they could do. She and Riae had been sentenced to death, the worst death a Yeerk could know for Riae, even if not unexpected.
So all in all...Cassandra banished any hint of amusement from her face and looked up. Here was her chance to tell the people in charge exactly what was going wrong with their system. Not that there was much chance that they would listen, but any chance at all was worth a try.
Visser Five was bowing toward the hologram, saying something about carrying out his responsibilities. Cassandra took a step forward. "Councilors," she said clearly, "I wish you to know that I will hold no one here to blame for my death. Not even you, for I understand that you must protect the integrity of the Yeerk Empire."
One of the human-Controllers gave a half-hidden smile, opened his mouth, probably about to say something to the effect that that was very nice of her but they didn't especially care. Cassandra overrode him.
"After all, it is important, is it not, to make examples? Examples you can hold up to the Empire to show what happens to those Yeerks who somehow develop that dangerous thing called a conscience. Of course, when examples don't work--well, that just means more people up here in my place, right? More examples.
"Far be it from me to suggest that the great leaders of the Empire might actually be wrong about something. Killing off anyone who seems to be a threat is fairly successful in eliminating those visible threats. Before long, no one much dares challenge you openly, and that's what you're aiming for, right?
"Then there are the quiet challenges--when the lowly, unimportant Yeerks and their hosts manage to find a compromise with one another. That can't happen, either, if you want to keep everything stable, because what happens when those Yeerks get promoted? And as for the hosts, they move on to different Yeerks, with the knowledge that not all Yeerks will hurt them. That sort of host wears on a Yeerk eventually. Sooner or later, they're going to become friends with that host, or at least something less than enemies.
"And you don't know who it is. Oh, some are reported, and you get rid of those--sometimes you infest the host again, see who else they've contaminated. It doesn't work. This sort of thing spreads worse than a disease, because when you spend hours, days, weeks on end with someone, you begin to understand their views. After that it becomes very hard to hate."
Visser Five was staring incredulously at her, shaking his head in disbelief. Somewhere behind his eyes, Cassandra was sure, Tal was being asked to explain her actions. Probably he'd have a hard time with that.
"The problem with all this, though, is that suppressing that sort of thing only makes it grow. When a host can point to one of your examples and say, Look, she was like you, she was a hero, and she did her best, and they killed her for it--what then? It makes a Yeerk think, and that's something you can't have. Thinking is dangerous, because eventually someone will arrive at answers.
"I have served the Yeerk Empire to the best of my ability all my life. I'll continue to serve it now, I suppose, or at least according to you people I will. But someone's going to know what happened, and someone else will make a story of it, and what you're trying to crush out will keep spreading. And until and unless you realize that--" Cassandra didn't have to pretend the feeling in her voice--"your house of cards here is going to fall."
The Council of Thirteen was for once in their collective lifespan utterly shocked, speechless with fury. A Hork-Bajir-Controller in the hologram, trembling visibly with rage, motioned sharply. One of the guards took a single step forward and silenced Cassandra rather effectively with a stun-level Dracon shot.
She woke slowly, and it took a moment to remember what had happened. The fact that she was seated in a hard chair and couldn't move arms or legs helped somewhat.
Cassandra opened her eyes and looked down. She was tied to a chair, a standard model from a Blade ship, with rope. Old-fashioned plant fibers or more likely strands of plastic, twisted together for strength. That brought a very faint smile. Remembering her impromptu speech was cause for another. More than likely no one had ever dared talk to the Council that way.
"I don't know what you're so happy about," came a voice from in front of her. It was Tal's voice, and Cassandra looked up to see. Visser Five slumped in a similar seat a few feet away from her. He shook his head at her. "You're sentenced to death. Quietly, because they're afraid you might give another speech and cause a riot--not that they admitted it. Which is probably what you had in mind when you gave that ridiculous thing."
It was difficult to shrug tied to a chair, Cassandra discovered. "Not really. I just thought it was time someone told them the truth."
Visser Five snorted with laughter. "You should know by now no one wants to hear the truth, or how did you get such a high rank in the first place? No, Riae, I saw you. You were having fun. I won't deny I've wished I could do something of the sort, but was it worth it?"
"Certainly it was. What more could they do to me--us?"
The visser looked at her gravely. "They gave me free rein, which in most cases is something even the Council won't do, not without a few limits."
Cassandra suppressed a shudder. Having the fate of one's worst political opponent in one's hands was something most vissers only dreamed about. Those who had actually gotten the privilege gave rise to rumors that the dreams had been chillingly creative. She didn't think Tal's Yeerk would come up with anything too horrible, yet... "What are your plans, then?" she asked, and the tremor in her voice wasn't feigned.
Visser Five stared at the floor. "I don't know," he admitted, and Tal's mannerisms were evident in the way he glanced up. "You're--not so bad as I thought, once. I would find it difficult, to do something like that. Hard even to carry out sentence."
"I appreciate that," Cassandra observed, "but it's still your duty. I'm sure you don't want to be in my position, and, odd as it may sound, I don't want you to get in trouble either."
There was no answer for a long moment. At last Visser Five stood up. "For Cassandra's sake Tal almost convinces me to abandon my duty," he admitted, "but I have worked too long for this position to give it up easily. I hope your generosity lasts once you know what will happen."
Her voice sounded oddly gentle even to her, addressed to the Yeerk who was planning her death; but it really wasn't his fault, and Tal was there, too. "Sarim, you are an honorable Yeerk, and that's rare these days. You're an honorable Visser, and that is rarer. I've done a good many things I'm not proud of to get to my position, and few of them came with orders this clear-cut. I don't blame you, Sarim."
Moving to the door, his only response was a brief nod. Cassandra sighed, leaning back in her chair. Here at last was the crisis. She had three days, and she'd play to get full time out of it, but if she hadn't managed a disappearance by the end there was little hope of fooling them into believing Riae was dying of Kandrona starvation. Her acting skills weren't that good.
Meanwhile, as long as she was alone, there were always poems to finish and stories to go over. Boredom was very rare indeed for a Storyteller, taught by years of waiting in the background of her own mind to take advantage of whatever time she had.
There was no telling how long it had been, and Cassandra was beginning to feel a little nervous. She'd completed two poems, gone over another dozen or so, and rehearsed several of the oldest stories she knew, and still no one had come.
Well, if they were just going to leave her be, she would try to get some sleep--the chair really wasn't too uncomfortable, though being tied in one position was beginning to give her a faint ache in the back of her neck. Cassandra twisted a bit within the ropes and leaned back, shutting her eyes.
Whether she actually fell asleep or just dozed off, it didn't seem long before the door slid open once more. It wasn't Tal who stood there, however, but an unfamiliar host, a blonde human female just reaching middle age.
It was her eyes that tipped Cassandra off to the fact that this was not an ordinary visit, not just a guard checking on the prisoner. Bright blue, they were filled with a cold hatred directed at her or more likely at Riae, enough to make the Storyteller flinch back. Cassandra searched quickly through Riae's memories for Yeerks or hosts she might have offended this deeply, and found quite a few possibilities. No help there.
The newcomer took the seat in front of Cassandra. "Do you remember me?" she asked. "I go by Issila Eight-One-Six these days, but you knew me as--"
"Lissi," Cassandra gasped, and Riae's guilt manifested itself on her face.
She nodded. "Lissi. The best friend you betrayed. It's taken you a long way, hasn't it, Riae? All the way to Visser level. I don't know how many others you betrayed on your way up, but I was the first. I suppose I should see that as some sort of honor." Lissi leaned forward. "Well, I don't."
Cassandra sighed. "I am glad that you survived, Lissi. I've often regretted what I did then--believe that or not as you like."
"Easy enough to say that now," Lissi spat. "You killed my sister, Riae! My twin! They sentenced her to Kandrona starvation! Do you have any idea what that did to me? Knowing she was out there, hearing about what they'd done to her and never shedding so much as a tear for fear they'd find out who I was? I hid for years, changing names and hosts every three days, never letting anything leak, before the Visser found me--I lived to find you again, Riae, to get my revenge on you. And now I have." The Yeerk leaned forward. "So tell me, why shouldn't I kill you as you killed Lissi the prime?"
So it had been the prime they caught, Cassandra thought distractedly, Riae had always wondered about that... "Lissi, I can't answer that. I could try to explain or to tell what I have done since, but it won't change your mind, and it could put others in danger."
Lissi sat back, her face startled. "People you care about? I thought Yeerk vissers weren't allowed to care."
"It's rather strongly discouraged," Cassandra agreed.
Shaking her head as though to clear it, Lissi began again. "I don't think you understand, Riae. Visser Five has put your life in my hands. If you convince me to let you go, he says, you'll deserve it." She smiled grimly. "I don't think you can manage it, but you can try. If you fail, after all--well, Sarim's awfully softhearted for a Visser. You won't have it nearly so easy with me."
Cassandra shut her eyes. So that was what this was about. Not wanting to take the responsibility himself, Sarim had struck on this as the perfect plan. He'd probably been protecting Lissi for years, hoping for this opportunity--the best way to cause pain, confronting an enemy with the past.
Only what could she say? The simplest answer to Lissi's question was that she wasn't actually Riae, but she couldn't do that, obviously. It would be suspicious for her not to try at all. That left her with making another speech, one that wouldn't endanger her friends and might even convince Lissi.
Not very likely, Cassandra thought, looking up at the ice-cold blue eyes. But it hurt somehow that Riae's best friend of old remembered her this way, when the former Visser had changed so much in just the past few days. She'd do what she could.
"Lissi," she began softly, "Do you know anything about the hosts' culture? Their Storytellers and stories?"
Lissi snorted. "Not likely. I don't pay much attention."
"That's a lie," Cassandra advised her calmly. "You've tried not to care, maybe, but your host still thinks about it. You can't help but absorb some of that. So maybe you'll recognize this:
"So long as the tales go unheeded,
so long as hopes fade that once were,
so long as a childhood is needed--
So long shall the Village endure."
The Yeerk shifted uneasily. "It's that old rhyme, the one that goes with the legend about the place where hosts who escape can become kids again and grow up in peace. What does it have to do with anything?"
Smiling faintly, Cassandra nodded in agreement. "That's right. And it has a great deal to do with my present situation. Maybe you know this--my host is a Storyteller. Her name is Cassandra, and it's mostly her fault I'm here." All my fault, in fact, Cassandra thought, looking away for fear Lissi would see the amusement in her eyes. Not that where Riae's going is a bad place to be... She firmly suppressed a grin, and launched into an edited version of recent events, leaving out most names and all the locations.
"...so I came back. I would have been recognized too easily. I didn't expect to be arrested so soon," she sighed, finally daring to look up.
Lissi was staring at her. "You became a Storyteller?" she repeated in disbelief. "You? Of all things you could have done, why?"
Several retorts presented themselves, but all would probably offend Lissi and none sounded the least bit like Riae. Accessing memories to find what her friend would have said, Cassandra finally responded, "Because it had to be done, and I was the one who could do it."
A flicker of doubt entered Lissi's eyes for the first time. "I never told anyone this," she said quietly. "But our host, the one my twin and I shared--she was a Storyteller, too. I'm--glad you are sorry. But I can't forgive you, Riae. I hope you understand that."
She stood up, and left, the door hissing closed behind her. Cassandra let out a long sigh. It had gone better than expected, really, though she might have skirted too close to the truth in places...time enough to worry about that if Lissi guessed. There was nothing to do for now, save returning to her stories.
When Visser Five reentered the room, he looked utterly baffled. "You must be better at making speeches than I thought," he said, "either you or your host. I'd have bet a good deal that nothing could convince Lissi you should live. Certainly not you."
Cassandra blinked, startled. "She actually listened? I did my best, but I didn't really expect it to work."
"Why not?" demanded Lissi, appearing from behind the Visser. "Were you just lying to save your own skin?"
"No," Cassandra replied, meeting the accusing blue eyes squarely. "I didn't think you could forgive what I did to you and your twin."
"I haven't," Lissi informed her. "But a long time ago, I made a promise; to help a Storyteller, if I ever had the chance. I'm not sure I believe you are, but your host doesn't deserve to die from your actions."
Staring, Cassandra almost began to smile. Perhaps she should tell them--?
Not yet, she decided. Maybe later, when she was certain, she could drop the pretense. For now, it was nice to know they would help for her sake and not for Riae's--since the Yeerk wasn't even there. "Visser," she asked of Riae's old rival, "what do you intend to do?"
Tal's eyes closed briefly, then he looked up. "We'll get you out of custody, take you to whatever city you prefer. I can't manage much more. And call me Sarim; most likely I'll lose my career and my life over this."
"All right, then; Sarim. You have a plan?"
The Visser nodded briefly. "You're on my Blade ship, in orbit. We fake engine trouble--that won't be hard, we're on the edge of it anyway, no one ever pays for new parts--and we have to set down somewhere. There's confusion, you take the chance to grab a Dracon from a guard, and disintegrate yourself to avoid starvation and whatever else I had planned. We'll make the surveillance tape of that. Meanwhile, Lissi here will have gotten your host a disguise and you'll slip out with the crew."
"And you won't get a feeding before you leave, or any portable Kandronas either," added Lissi somewhat spitefully.
"That makes sense," agreed Cassandra. "It would attract attention."
Sarim glanced at her, but turned away so quickly Cassandra barely caught his shocked face. Had she made a mistake? How would Riae have reacted, a day or so from her limit? There was no time to worry about it now, though.
Cassandra looked at Tal with a faintly wistful feeling, and asked impulsively of everyone in general, "Would you come with me?"
Lissi snorted. "And starve? Not likely."
"No one would starve," Cassandra said patiently. "I certainly have no intention of it, and I'm much closer to my limit than you two are. I'm going to the Village."
The two Yeerks stared at her with expressions that clearly stated their opinions of her sanity. "Assuming it's real," Lissi started, "what makes you think you can get in? I thought it was this huge secret."
"It isn't a secret," said Cassandra. "How could it be? The hosts know, so the Yeerks know, even if they don't believe in it. The ways to the Village are easy to find if you want to get in and you aren't close enough for a lot of people to see. It hardly needs to be a secret. No one could attack the Village."
"I know a lot of people who'd like to try," Sarim muttered half under his breath.
Cassandra winced at the thought. "They'd better not," she told him. "The Village is inside time itself. That means if it were to be destroyed or harmed, everything else would be, too...so anyone who attacks would simply vanish from all memory. Not exactly pleasant for them, I suppose, but better than the universe imploding."
From her flinch, Lissi seemed to share Cassandra's aversion to that idea. "Now I understand that bit in the stories," she mumbled.
"Will you come, then?" asked Cassandra hopefully. "Just for a while? I mean, you wouldn't have to stay...but if you'll be in danger here..."
Sarim began to grin. "I get it," he said. "You're trying to get us to join your little resistance, aren't you? I wondered when you'd try. You may not have done anything treasonous yet--that was why you sounded so confident in the trial--but you're planning on it."
"Maybe," Cassandra shrugged a bit evasively. "Mostly I just want you to see it." For Tal to know I was telling the truth, she added silently. And there was the added fact that if they came with her even partway, she could tell them her little secret. Kyli and Riae would be safe enough by then, surely. "So? Will you?"
The Visser studied her, and at last nodded. "I will. Not for long, but...I'd like to visit this Village the hosts talk so much about. And it shouldn't be dangerous to anyone. Lissi?"
"Oh, all right," the other grumbled. "Nice to know what could possibly change you this much, Riae."
Cassandra smiled. "I suppose it did, at that. Thank you."
Moving to her side to release her from the chair, Sarim sighed. "We'd better get started," he said. "There's not much time."
