Governor Pryce hated to admit it, but she was glad when the flagship of the 7th Fleet returned to Lothal. She had worked hard to get Thrawn stationed here, to have the factory built for his TIEs, to institute the Imperial Academy on Lothal. His success on Ryloth had reached her ears as it happened, and that galled her. Not that she took measure with his success, she wanted him to be successful. But, her goal for Lothal to be the planet in the Outer Rim depended entirely on his presence.
And she knew he knew it.
Staying a step ahead of him was almost impossible. Almost. He had no aptitude for anything political, and it bled over into the personal. Her ability to manipulate those around her gave Arihnda the standing she needed to keep up with the brilliant strategist.
How can he be so good at reading people at war and not in politics? It was a question she had pondered more than once and had yet to come up with an answer. Perhaps there wasn't an answer.
All the better for her. She could keep her position as his political liaison when he needed one and she could keep him under her thumb. A good deal, if you asked her.
"Insurgent cells had been uncharacteristically quiet," she said. While that should have pleased her, being proof that their efforts to thwart the rebels were successful, it left a tightness in her chest. Something was off about it. Something was very off.
"Why do you think that is?" Thrawn asked her. His hands were clasped behind his back as he stood at the window overlooking the capital city in his planetside office.
Arhinda had noticed that he'd brought a new trinket from Ryloth with him, a strange sort of totem pole with bits hanging off of both ends. She had no idea why he would want such a thing, it was very rustic and primitive, but then, there was no accounting for taste.
"I have no idea," she answered him curtly. "Other than brewing something big."
"They are brewing something that involves multiple planets," Thrawn said in his confident voice.
"How do you know?" she asked, coming up to stand beside him.
She, too, clasped her hands behind her back and looked out over the capital city. It was the same as it always was, except with perhaps more troops than there were before. That suited her. The more troops, the more order in society. The more order in society, the more productive the populace were. The more productive the populace were, the better chance Lothal had of becoming the planet of the sector. If Lothal was the planet of the sector, then she could crush whomever was in her way.
"I can tell by their actions," he replied. "And their inactions." His red eyes did not leave the cityscape before them.
That unnerved Arihnda a little. Thrawn, himself, unnerved her a little. His utter confidence in everything he did and said, his alien features, his cool tone of voice, his red eyes. She would have suspected it was on purpose to cultivate a certain feeling in those around him, but she knew him well enough to know he didn't have enough guile to do that. Which meant that was naturally this way.
If she were completely honest with herself, he did not unnerve her. He frightened her.
"How does inaction tell you anything?" she asked, her dark brows furrowing.
"It tells me they are not yet ready to strike," he replied. "That they are gathering their forces. That their forces are spread out and have not quite come together."
"You've been on Ryloth," she said, a little more petulantly than she meant to. "You haven't been here to see the action or inaction."
"I've read the reports." He finally turned to her, looking down without inclining his head. "And I have my own findings from Ryloth, which is not that far from here."
"What planets do you think are involved?" She straightened a little, as if that would help with the way he was looking at her. It didn't.
"Lothal," he drawled. "Ryloth. Astarrax. Elbeni, Eradu."
There it was—Astarrax. Her rival for sector dominance. She frowned. Unlike Lothal, Astarrax had a native population, a very large one at that. Because of that, they boasted a rich and deep culture that the backwater of Lothal could not. While that culture was not Imperial culture, to be sure, it was a culture, with all the things that come with it—history, art, philosophy, royalty, stories. Things that Lothal lacked.
Her saving grace was that Astarrax could not compete with Lothal economically. Their only true exports were handmade lace and saffron. While both were exorbitantly priced, neither made for an entire economy. They still needed help from the Empire in order to flourish.
"Astarrax has its own fleet blockading the planet," she said through her frown. "You don't need to be worried about them."
"I am not worried about them," he said simply. "You asked which planets I thought were involved. Those are the ones that I think are coalescing for a large-scale assault."
She started at his answer, not sure how to answer in return. Irked, her frown deepened. "Are you planning on going to Asterrax?" she asked. "I heard that you had a marvelous time with Viita and his sister."
"Did you?" he asked. To her surprise, the question seemed genuine. He stepped away from her and toward his desk, reaching out for the totem with the dangled ends. He picked it up and examined it.
"Everyone has heard about it." She tried not to sound scathing. "Word is that you and Madam Tristaine are fast friends."
He glanced at her, his face neutral. She wasn't able to read it, but the small pause before he replied spoke volumes to her. "We are friends."
She didn't know why that irked her so. It wasn't as if she were a threat. She had no real power at all—she wasn't a senator or a diplomat or an officer. She wasn't really an anything, as far as Arihnda could tell. Not anymore. All of her accomplishments were in the past, long past, and she didn't seem to be striving for any other accomplishments or power in the present moment. She'd done what so many other Imperial ladies did, get caught up in her children's upbringing so that everything else faded away, leaving an empty nest and an empty woman.
Arihinda scoffed. What an awful way to go out. She was glad she'd not been born an Imperial lady.
"You disapprove?" Thrawn asked, turning around and leaning on his desk.
It took her a moment to realize what he was talking about. "You should watch who your friends are," she told him. Why did she care who his friends were, it wasn't like they were friends. Arihnda had learned a long time ago that friends weren't worth it. They were work colleagues. But she had decided she didn't like Luxsolaria Tristaine. "Not everyone has good intentions."
"Like you?" he drawled, squinting his red eyes a little.
Arihnda smirked. "When have I ever steered you wrong?"
He raised his head a little, whether to agree with her or simply acknowledge she had spoken. After a moment, he said, "I am not going to Astarrax."
Arihnda blinked. She'd forgotten that she'd asked him if he was going. "If you know what the rebels are going to do, what are you going to do about it?"
He pushed himself off the desk and stood up straight again. Placing the totem with the dangly sides back on his desk, he answered, "Wait."
A/N Thank you so much for reading this far! You've come a long way. Don't stay silent. Say something about the story in a review!