BLOOD
It must be assumed that those who sacrificed themselves for me foresaw a future beyond my capabilities. It should be known the last surviving heir to Indusa House Anemro, who spent no less than a year on her home planet and ancestral lands of Akuban, raised in contempt for the Rucanrian imperial family – who hid her family's execution – is no leader to masses, no reclaimer of lands or commander of revenge. Those who died, who gave their last breaths and filled my lungs, who raised their swords and lowered their shields so I may have a moment longer to land on Y'odd Nexar may never be avenged.
LADY MELA ANEMRO – MEMORY BANK ENTRY 2488. Y'ODD NEXAR STORAGE
A dozen figures emerged from gates of the fourth and weakest pier that led to the imperial palace. Their dark garments silhouetted against the hot red setting sun.
Indusa Lady Mona Anemro, her eldest teenage daughter Rena, and a handful of their household waited patiently by their domestic ship – on what Mona knew to be the pier designated for tradespeople and foreign market holders. If she wasn't so sleep deprived, she'd have had the energy to be offended.
"Why the informality?" Her Beta Ha whispered in their native tongue. Mona pondered his question. What could a man who derived all his insight from the past to predict the future understand of spontaneity?
"Everything has a reason wise brother," she squinted her eyes, trying to see who it was that would be greeting them. Guards, all guards. Not a single council member or member of the imperial family among them. Moreover, they walked at an agonisingly slow rate; did they not feel the cold air? It was bitter on her skin, and the wind was picking up to. Akuban's sun was known to set late, taking its warmth with it.
"There has been no recorded summoning of a leading house by any Rucanrian queen in the last five hundred years," he repeated – his eyes closing and fingers tracing the air. Zemar was his name, and he had told her this exact line as the message was read aloud by her maid, as they bordered the ship and now as they waited to be taken to their caller. Calculating time – always calculating time. Seeing the past, how many times it had repeated itself… the patterns … was it about to happen again? The Beta Ha lifted his head to reveal the three rings tattooed around his neck and opened his eyes, "matters are not discussed in the dead of the night … unless in war–," his breath skipped, "Indusa's…" he continued, emphasizing the significance of their status as leading houses in Akuban, "again, we should not be here, your grace," he persisted, his unease palpable.
Mona brushed off his suspicions. "Zemar, that's enough," she interjected sharply, cutting off his spiralling ramblings. She did not need his words adding to her own anxiety.
The Beta Ha fell silent, chastened by her rebuke. "Never listening, nobody listens to old Zemar, if my masters on Shal knew … Zemar cannot love his lady this much, my lady must listen," his nervous voice echoed. Their eyes met for a brief moment, what was this? Zemar caught a twitch of apprehension in hers
As the imperial entourage drew closer, Mona pondered the Beta Ha's reluctance to communicate with his superiors, why did he never report her insolence?
"Your masters gifted you to me, Zemar. Trust in the nature of time, friend," she advised, her words a gentle admonition. Though she was just as worried as he was. Mona knew his words to be true, he told nothing but the objective truth as he saw it. No summons unless war. Unless war. She wanted to press him on that last statement, but it would only send him into a frenzy. Mona regretted as well, bringing along her eldest daughter.
The young girls' knees were drawn to her chest, keeping from the cold. It would be in tune with a sixteen-year-old to regret her decisions in not listening to her mother. It was far past her time to be in bed, and she had an early start that she knew her mother would never let her sleep past. Her attire did not match the island city of Unut, where the imperial palace sats (reword..-.-) weather. (pls girl describe the cold a little better)
"Rena," Mona's deep voice called her, Rena turned to her, her braids falling over her eyes. "Stand up." The girl did as she was told, smoothing out her chiffon pants. Her mother turned back around, the absence of her was probably felt in this dead dead night at their home. Rena's little sister – Mela, had been left with her father and a great aunt. She had been playing with her dozing sister when the message came.
"Good evening, Indusa Anemro," the covered and muffled voice of the guard spoke out. "Her imperial highness -," Here we go, Mona thought to herself as the guard began reciting an array of titles. "Queen Nebia Rucanrian the second, Queen of Ladys, Princess of sister planets-."
She stopped him. "I'm very sorry but my household would like to know why we are here ser."
Mona felt his glare from beneath his black helm, who was she to interrupt an introduction for her queen? "I cannot tell you that, but I may show you to her highness."
Her brows furrowed slightly; she wiped droplets of water from her forehead. "You must understand, a call in the middle of the night raises questions. Is it an urgent matter?" her voice rose as she spoke over the waves – they were getting louder as they hit the stone pier. "An unforeseen crisis perhaps?" Any answer from him would ease her tension.
He shook his head in response, "her grace will give you the necessary explanation. Follow me." Any answer except for that one. Mona turned to Zemar, noticing an uncomfortable flush spreading across his tanned skin. She suppressed the urge to reassure him, aware that every word they exchanged beyond the palace gates could be documented.
"Very well. Lead us to her."
The guard turned sharply and led both groups into the palace. The bitter air and cold droplets from the waves below them dried as they passed the gates. Heated air. A city within a city. Their household was stripped of their swords and shields, the electronic hum of braces gone now.
Zemar tutted.
"It is just palace protocol oracle," Sharoni, the head of the household guard for Mona, taunted him. Mona shook her head at both of them. Now was not the time to embarrass each other. "Come Renu," the stocky woman called affectionately. "Do not get lost amongst our house, let me keep you near." Sharoni held her hand out and entwined it with Rena's thin one.
The palace was almost pitch black, illuminated only by sporadic lights that flickered to life as they walked across courtyards and hallways. Statues of sleeping queens loomed from tall plinths, their serene faces barely visible in the darkness.
Their footsteps echoed loudly in the quiet night, a stark contrast to the eerie silence that enveloped the palace. No servants were in sight at this late hour, leaving the air heavy with the scent of burning candles and the faint hum of heated walls. A hovering rover pulsated over them, its bobbing head scanning the humans below. Once it had been satisfied at their lack of threat, it continued on its course.
"Mother," Rena whispered behind her, smiling as she watched the piece of technology scan the halls repetitively.
Mona turned, "much more useful than our guards is it not?" She had forgotten that Rena had never been to the palace, so all its extravagance and pomp would have excited her.
Rena looked at everything, from the smooth ceilings to the flickering holographs. Her free hand reached out to one of a tall and bald man blinking and smiling dimly, and it went through him.
"Good evening, Lady," it's voice robotic, "Rena Anemro. Of Indusa House Anemro. Your stay at the palace is documented. We -," the things greetings were drowned by Sharoni slapping her hand away from it.
"Do not touch those," a warning with no explanation. The household lead shook her head, the young heir should've known better.
What stopped the jibing Sharoni from speaking freely now? Rena wondered.
They approached an eerie entrance to a room. Two massive doors loomed before them, their surfaces adorned with intricate designs of golden serpents, their eyes seeming to gleam in the dim light as if they were orbs of polished amber. Each serpent appeared to slither sinuously around the handles, casting flickering shadows that danced across the marble floor. The doors were pulled open, revealing a glimpse of a study room.
A gentle voice called from inside.
"Only you may enter, Lady Mona."
Mona gave a short nod and hesitant smile to her household and daughter as the doors thudded shut.
She did not need to see the shadowed figure who sat at the desk, the small silhouette engulfed by the bookcases and potted plants behind her. Queen Nebia Rucanrian. The very same girl – now woman – that Mona had tutored so many years ago.
"Your highness," Mona bowed her head, shuffling closer to the desk and sole light in the room.
"You may sit, distant aunt," the calm mannered imperial leaders reminded Mona that history was indeed her favourite subject. The Anemro's hadn't married into the imperial family for over two hundred years but were still considered family.
Mona took her seat, her gaze meeting Nebia's as she inquired, "Is everything alright, Nebia?"
The younger queen's response was laden with weight, "I am fine, my lady. Though I have had some distressing news about Anemrolands."
"Oh?" Mona's greyed brow lifted, her gaze steady.
Nebia mocked her own seer, a fat woman whose counsel had become a burden inherited from her grandmother. "My Beta Ha instructed I call you immediately –," she paused, indulging in a snuff tube before continuing, "he said it must be in silence, so I apologize for the shoddy introduction. My grandmother spoiled him, you see, rotten. But he sees what he sees, and I must take his word for it. He has no reason to lie."
Mona maintained her composure. "Your grace?"
Nebia, weary and unkempt, acknowledged the weight of her task. "They say I am to punish you, my lady."
"What for?" Mona's voice remained steady, her eyes searching Nebia's for truth.
"For not wishing me a happy birth on my twins," Nebia confessed, her tone betraying the weight of her predicament. Nebia's hands trembled at her lap as she jested, Mona had a feeling this was a façade; she was being tested … eased into something.
"And who are they? Perhaps the same people who intercepted my letter doing the very same?" Mona's inquiry carried a note of scepticism. Nebia's response was evasive, prompting Mona to press further. "I have also given birth – Mela – my second girl. Am I to know why I was summoned from my bed?"
Nebia deflected Mona's question, "is it in fashion for a queen to explain herself to her subjects?"
Mona resisted the urge to retort sharply, this was the very girl who she had taught in her home. Surely, she had not changed so much. "No, but she should remember she is one, and they are many."
She scoffed in response, "the queen might take that as treason." A silence fell over the room as Mona lowered her eyes, the only sound coming from the low chatter outside the doors. "but I cannot grow angry with the woman who held my hand during my coronation." The mention of Mona's past support during Nebia's coronation elicited a small smile from the queen, a subtle acknowledgment of Mona's role in her ascension to the throne.
Their conversation turned to weightier matters, as Nebia revealed her intent to command Mona to oversee the eradication of nomadic tribes encroaching on Anemrolands.
"My seer – the Beta Ha – have told me it must be done. That they will cause trouble for us otherwise," Nebia reasoned. Gods … Nebia was remembering now. How she hated the brief lessons she'd had with Mona, with her unwavering confidence. Everyone else grovelled, the Anemro lady demanded equality in conversations.
The older woman hummed, "I agree, the crossing of the nomads into our civilised cities would be an issue. Not enough to kill them all though." She put it too frankly, Nebia's lip twitched at the word.
"Vermin," Nebia reiterated, "who preach a foreign G-d and steal our lands." There was an uncertainty in her words, she wanted Mona to agree with her. She wanted a reason – something to use to justify her request.
"Such can be said for many of our nobility," Mona indicated to the many families who paid handsomely for their children to avoid conscription.
"That is different. So what a dozen rich kids don't serve their time? What good would it do them anyway … they will lead someday-,"
"All the more for them to be amongst their common woman," Mona's fast mouth got the better of her, she didn't mean to let that out. The Queen's own younger sister, Yara, had forgone conscription.
There was a long sigh, Nebia grabbed the handles of her seat tightly and pushed herself up. The birth of her twins had not been easy on her, and it showed. "What am I to do? You know how these creatures get when you refuse their requests. I already have the houses down my neck on stolen and soiled land by the nomads, now I am to have a fleet of Beta Ha because I refused one measly request orbiting my planet?"
"Will this seer not see any other way? Banishing them to the far north, I can push them behind desert mountains. You of all people should know we cannot go further than this," Mona indicted to the late Queen, Nebia's grandmother Channa, who had tried and failed in passing northern borders and fighting the nomads on their turf. It was a catastrophically embarrassing mess.
Nebia paced her desk, her massaging on her lower back. "She has woken me up to do this very thing, I don't think she even knew about it until a few hours ago."
Mona sighed, how she wished her Zemar was with her now. "I won't help you commit genocide your grace – if that is what you're asking," Nebia scoffed at her words shaking her head, "your grandmother didn't need to, neither did the queens before her. The nomads were here before us, we must pretend to give them some vanity. The uninhabitable lands in the north are what we can give-,"
"You are not listening."
"I command you to rid me of these no people my lady, it is not a discussion. I called you because you are the only one, I trust to be humane in this role. There was no one else I could – that I would call."
"You must call Indusa Junius," Mona suggested, referring to the southern house known for its militarisation and tight grip over conscription. "They would happily oblige."
"You know I cannot control them," it was a meek comment, perhaps Nebia shouldn't have made it. But it was true. Junius were unmatched in military power and savagery. Untameable, they made great guards, unbeatable soldiers … but as leaders? Tyrannical would be a complimentary word to describe them.
It was Mona's turn to stand from her seat, "I cannot help you. These seers are not human, they do not understand bloodshed like we do." She wanted to tell Nebia that this would leave her with sleepless nights for the rest of her times, but she was too young to understand death. "Be a leader, and say no. Paths can be made that are not so cruel."
Nebia shook her head gently, "you do not understand what it is to have these people control your ever move."
"We all have our own seers Nebia, it is up to us to push their path making. They do not control time." Mona's lips formed a tight line as she thought, "I will not spill blood for history. It is unnecessary, and animalistic. You are not an animal Nebia."
She would've taken it as an offence had it been from anyone else, but this, this was from the woman that Channa trusted with her life. The only person her grandmother told her to trust was an Anemro, what was Nebia to do? Deny the confidence of her late Queen? "They want the nomads gone my lady."
"I cannot give you want them what they want Nebia."
"I cannot ask anyone else. It would be held over me and the imperial line for centuries if I did."
"That is not a sound request," Mona neared the door, "I have declined-."
"Do not leave, please," Nebia's arm was slightly outstretched. Her shoulders slumped; a visible weight was on her shoulders. She could not expect Mona to help her surely. "I do not know what to do Mona," her eyes pleaded for some sort of guidance. "Talos," she referred to her Beta Ha again, "has been bothering me about this for months. I have not seen my children trying to come up with a solution to appease her."
The older woman stepped towards Nebia and held her shoulders tightly, "you," she repeated, "you are the Queen. Tell this seer no for god sake Nebia! You want me to kill thousands of people to create some path … a path of what? Do you think the northern tribes are the only ones? What of the ones all over the planet, the millions already in our lands and cities? They will just sit by and watch?"
"I don't know … I don't know," Nebia's fingers still trembled, her jaw tightened as she kept herself from screaming out loud.
Mona let her go, the dim lighting casting elongated shadows across the room. Mona wiped her nose of sweat; she hadn't even noticed how her body had reacted. The smell of incense lingered in the air. She asked the dreaded question, "where is Yara?" it was a well-known fact that Nebia tended to unravel without her younger sister by her side, often using Yara as a stand in for herself.
"She has gone to oversee some farming disputes for me."
Mona gave Nebia a disapproving look, "that is the role of ministers and advisors, not an Princess."
"I don't trust anyone else."
"Let us call this seer in," Mona ordered, turning back to the doors, pushing them open. The hallway was now empty of her family, assuming the household had been led to a kitchen or lounge room hopefully. "Talos?" She called out. From the dark wall emerged a woman. The same tattoos adorned her neck as Zemar, only hers reached her face and arms.
The seer did not wait for invitation, marching past Mona into the room. Nebia turned away from it, whispering encouragements to herself. She did not fear it … did she? Mona's held tilted as the doors closed once more.
The Queen was controlled by the Beta Ha so tightly, how could Yara let this happen? Mona's mind questioned. How could anyone let this happen.
The atmosphere in the room grew heavy as Talos entered, her presence unsettling. Mona's resolve wavered slightly, but she steeled herself, determined to find an alternative to the grim fate Nebia's Beta Ha had foreseen.
"I have refused the call of my queen to butcher a people, Talos. We have called you in for an alternative," Mona stated firmly, her voice echoing in the tense silence of the room.
Talos wasted no time in her curt response. "There is no alternative," her foreign accented voice declared. "I have seen," she gently tapped her forehead, "there is no other way."
Mona's brows furrowed in frustration. "No is your answer," she reiterated, standing resolutely beside Nebia, her eyes fixed on the Beta Ha.
Nebia, visibly distressed, attempted to intercede, but Talos's presence seemed to suffocate the room, leaving little room for dissent.
As the Beta Ha reiterated her orders, Mona's frustration bubbled into anger. "And if I said I will not jump from this genocidal mountain with you, is this a crime?" she challenged, her words laced with accusation. "Will you report this to your masters?" The weight of their predicament bore down on them, each moment fraught with uncertainty. Nebia's hand rubbed at her neck. Mona pressed on, her determination unyielding. "What will happen should we refuse this? What is the path, seer?" she demanded, her voice tinged with desperation.
The imperial Beta Ha placed her arms behind her back forward. "Is this how she speaks to a messenger from the past? To those who hold more power than her?"
"No … we are just trying to find another way."
"I am not a murderer," Mona supported Nebia's words, "besides, this killing would do no good. Many nomads live outside of the north."
The wealthier Beta Ha held her hands out in innocence, "let it be the Rucanrian army who spill the blood. But these are my orders from Shal. I am merely following instruction."
"What should happen if it was ignored? What then of the path?"
Talos hesitated, closing her eyes reluctantly. A heavy silence fell on them as they waited for her predictions. "There is something in this air," she admitted, eyes still squinted closed and her tone grave. "I have tried to see the future, but it... There is darkness ahead. I cannot see it. I did not seen this moment -," she opened her eyes and huffed at Mona, "there was no room for rejection."
"Try again," it was Nebia who commanded this time.
There was a disbelief etched on the seers' face, but she closed her eyes and traced her fingers again. The air thickened, "I see …," a whisper, "darkness in the palace."
Nebia gave Mona a pointed look. "They will come to my home and will hurt our family?" the young woman implored. It was unwise to interrupt a Beta Ha's calculations, but she couldn't help herself.
"They are already here. A … nomad," Talos tutted at whatever she was seeing patterns of, "a deep desire to free themselves from imperial shackles, they are restless take the Rucanrian empire."
"They are here!?" Nebia's voice raised, and she did not wait around to hear anymore. By the doors, was a small button lost on a guest's eye. Nebia pressed on it and left the room in one quick step. Mona followed after her, "do you see?" she stressed, clambering up a discreet staircase that Mona knew led to the families sleeping quarters. "Do you now see why I listen to that thing." She huffed, her face red with angry and body frantic.
The first to greet them was the Prince, Nebia's husband, Mikal, who had run into them. "What's wrong?" he asked, dishevelled from his sleep. Mona had no time to speak let alone greet him, armour clanked as guards rushed through the corridor, their footsteps echoing off the stone walls.
"There are nomads in the palace, search for them."
"Nothing has been caught yet on our scanners or rovers, where did you hear this?" A guard asked, following Nebia as she opened and closed various rooms doors. Family members filtered out in a sleep like state, rubbing their eyes as they were ushered away.
Nebia ignored the guard, "take the Lady Anemro and her family to the safe house with my family," she turned to Mikal, "where are the children?"
"No I'll stay, tell me what I can do."
"You can go do as you were commanded and fix this," Nebia's eyes were wide as she barked at Mona, "go!"
Mikal rushed to the nursery, flicking on the bright lights. A small cry came from the room – and two children were taken away. One infant, another toddler.
Twins. She had recently twins. One boy – one girl. Where was the other?
It was time to go home, if there really was a threat in the palace she needed to get back to her household and far away from this place. Where was Rena? "Take me to my family, I want to le-,"
An alarm pierced through the low hustle and bustle of the hallway, the already directionless guards dashed past her, the one she had been speaking to pushed her out of the way, her face drawn with concern. None dared to speak the truth that hung heavy in the air. Nebia's desperate cries infected those around her.
The Queen stumbled backwards from the room, her hands over her mouth as a strangled cry left her lips. Her eyes were wide, darting frantically from the nursery to her husband. As if willing him to conjure her missing child.
There is one great story that children of houses are told of their bloodline. Stories of ancestors winning wars, falling into wealth, proving themselves to the world as deserving of their titles. For Mela Anemro, it was the story of the eradication of her family, her name, her home and her people. It would have been wise for her not to replay the memory banks of her father and captain connecting their oxygen tanks for their journey to Mela and her aunt, but she was not wise. The memory banks, however fleeting, gave her the only chance to see what she could of her family, even if they only began on the night her life of Akuban ended.
Amaeneya.