Pace slow, Raskreia carefully looked over every detail of the hallway she was in, even stopping to study it all better. On any other day she wouldn't waste her time wondering why on earth everything was done in a sleek black (marble? plastic? was it alternating or did they mix the two together somehow? their technology was probably advanced enough to do it though she didn't understand the purpose behind it. structurally that was unsound. at least it seemed that way. was she overthinking it? perhaps. it wasn't often she let herself be so slow. she only hired competent people, and yet… she'd check it later), but this wasn't just any day. It was one she had set aside to observe her subject in a natural habitat.

Thus, in the early morning she had started going through Ignes Kravei's daily routine. Breakfast had been a shoddy affair, starting the day off lousily. Raskreia hadn't accounted for the fact that the woman woke and ate much later than she did so she had ended up sitting in an empty café with a quivering chef before her. Head bowed and hair tousled in his pyjamas – apron thrown on but strings dangling by his side instead of tied back – he had made her the coffee and sandwich Ignes always had before coming in for work. An expensive routine, especially with how good it had been, but she knew she paid well enough that one could eat out always and still be able to live easily. Then, since she had plenty of time to spare, she returned to get some work done. Not that she had to, having planned specifically to have the whole day free, but it wasn't as if there was much else for her to do. Getting it all done early was always better anyway, left time for her to go horseback riding or read a useless book.

Since her plan of a whole day together from breakfast hadn't worked out, she had thought it better to go see Ignes Kravei a little bit before lunch. Talk about her work before going to eat. That had seemed a good enough alternative. So here Raskreia was now, wondering if the lava pools outside Ignes' labs had always been there or if it was Urokai's work. He did work together with her when he wasn't berating the finance department or mourning over his late husband (not that anyone was entirely sure if Zarga was actually dead. it was Zarga. who knew what the man was ever thinking. perhaps he had made some eccentric plot, went to colonise some planets, and would return in a few decades after Urokai had married someone else, had children with them, grieved their death due to old age, and dedicated the rest of his centuries to his seventy-six cats. or maybe she was being unrealistic. those weren't nearly enough cats taking into account how Urokai was) after all.

Still. If those lava pools had been Urokai's work wouldn't they have been dealt with? Or perhaps it had always been like this. How else would they have accounted for the heat, proximity to the railing, and general safety of their staff? With a frown, Raskreia noted down that she had to start visiting the entire facility more often. And the city. And other cities. Her knowledge of her territory and environment was getting too rusty. Anyone could kill her easily.

Wrinkling her nose slightly (there was smoke from the lava. someone seemed to have dropped a teddy bear in and it was half gone; quite the despairing situation she had missed. a shame. it was always funny seeing people cry over their precious and beloved possessions), she was glad there was nobody around to see her make such an unsightly expression. As the empress, it would be annoying if she was thought to be weak.

A good example being her father. He had so many assassination attempts on him when he was in rule that he had made her use it as a training exercise and dubbed it family bonding time. Annoying. She much preferred when her grandmother came and they read together like normal people.

"Your majesty," greeted one of her scientists, tilting back her pen to point at the woman she had come for, "You're late. Ignes is sulking and needs cheering up."

Now that was uncharacteristically informal. Or perhaps not because she appeared to be one of Urokai's favourites from the scientists. How strange. She was sure Sa'faa didn't work in this sector.

With a glance – acknowledgement – Raskreia approached, heels losing the loud click they had just had on the floor mere seconds prior. Not because it was carpeted, any fool who would carpet a lab such as this one would be disposed of immediately, but because she had trained herself to be able to do so with ease.

Ignes was perched on a table, mug in one hand and papers crumpled in the other. Between all her time observing her, the reports she had received, and the interrogations she'd put her two Generals who called the woman sister through, the information she had compiled made Raskreia an expert on her behaviour. Ignes was sulking. A problem with an easy enough solution, even if she didn't know what it was yet.

"Ignes Kravei," she called out, seeing Sa'faa nod and walk off to the side as she did. Something to look into later, she noted. "You are a mess."

Dark eyes looked up to meet hers and Ignes jolted upright, slipping off the table to stand before her properly- "Your majesty! I uh- sorry about the mess, I-"

Ignes was fiddling with her lab coat, trying to fix up her appearance, and Raskreia stepped forward, making her go quiet with a squeak. Her appearance really did need fixing, and she started with the buttons on the lab coat, removing them from their haphazard positions and putting them through the matching holes. Their proximity had Ignes blushing and Raskreia kept herself from smiling; no need for her prey to know of her status after all.

"A scientist should be better aware of themselves and their surroundings," she said as she finished with the buttons and looked her prey in the eye, still keeping herself from smiling as Ignes stared back with wide eyes. "How can I trust you to your work if you cannot even keep yourself tidy?"

Looking like a startled deer, but only for a moment, Ignes nearly jumped with fright and started babbling, "I'm really sorry, your majesty. I'm not always like this, really! It won't happen again, and-"

Cupping Ignes' cheek, Raskreia finally smiled as she went silent again. For a moment neither spoke and Ignes leaned her head into her hand with a contented sigh.

"Is that a promise, Ignes Kravei?"

"Yes," she said, eyes closing as she savoured the gentle touch and missed Raskreia's predatory gaze, "I promise, your majesty."

"Now then-" Raskreia pressed Ignes back against the table, still caressing her cheek – "what has you so upset in the first place?"

Ignes wrapped her arms around her, hands clasping loosely at Raskreia's back, almost as if she was forgetting who she was speaking to. Though considering how drunk on paradise she seemed, she probably was. Would she perhaps think back on this later with terror as she berated herself, Raskreia wondered? Or would she write it all off as a mere daydream. Anticipating it was exhilarating.

"The ethics committee rejected my proposal for the time travel machine that traps people in the past."

"Oh?"

Raskreia remembered said proposal having passed her desk at some point and how she'd rejected it due to the irrelevance it held. Had it been by Ignes? Well it was quite fortunate that she was blaming the committee instead then, wasn't it? To think that the rejection had her so down though. What a coincidence that she had been planning to replace the committee anyway. She'd just move up the plans, but in the meantime-

"Why don't we have lunch then? I'm sure that would cheer you up."

Although she had been the one who had called for this meeting, Raskreia couldn't bury the annoyance she felt at having to attend it. Duties were duties though, and she opened the door to the room she had designated (a cleanly and brightly lit space with a large table surrounded by chairs more suited for an office company or university, but she preferred such areas to the archaic designs of her predecessors. not because she found them ugly or unappealing, but because it was much quicker to clean off blood and corpses and replace anything broken or irreversibly damaged. money was of no issue.).

Immediately she was assaulted with- "Raskreia! My baby, I've missed you!" as she'd been dreading but strangely enough she felt nobody barrelling into her so she took the opportunity to place the papers she'd brought on the table.

A quick look to the side made it obvious why though. Her father was busy braiding her grandmother's hair, and there was a copious amount of that grey-black as always. He'd reached her waist but that wasn't even a tenth of it all. Good. That meant she wouldn't have to deal with him for a while and she gave an appreciative smile and nod to her grandmother's gentle knowing look. It was always strange reconciling that such a caring woman had one of the longest reigns of all her predecessors.

"I haven't, father," she replied, ignoring his upset cries and complaints to her as she looked around the room.

There was her great-great-grandfather and great-grandmother with their identical looks sitting together, the latter stroking the auburn hair of her… pet lover who had her head in her lap as she sat by her feet. Raskreia never knew quite what to call the drugged woman who had once been the most dangerous weapons of the Empire. Aside from her, the only other person in the room was a blonde woman with her hair wrapped. One of her… predecessors. Not an ancestor since though they were relatives Raskreia wasn't descended from her, but she had once been Empress like her long ago. Everyone in the room had been in her position in the past.

That was why she had called them and yet she frowned looking over everyone once more- "Where are the other two?"

"Grandmother is chasing down father to bring him here," replied her great-great-grandfather as he filed his nails, not bothering to look up.

Between his vanity, his airheaded personality, and his measly reign which had ended as soon as it started with him abdicating almost immediately, leaving his nine-year-old daughter as Empress to fend for herself, Raskreia often thought he'd have made a much better blond. What he said was par for the course though. Her great-great-great-grandfather was a free spirit who was impossible to chain down, while her great-great-great-great-grandmother had been a warmonger with a taste for blood. She was always the one who brought her son when they were called.

"When can I expect them?"

Her great-great-grandfather shrugged, but before Raskreia could get annoyed, the blonde woman spoke, "Kamaliyah will have Arya here by the end of the week. She's probably already found him in that new marsh the albino boy made so she'll catch him in two days."

The smile on her lips made Raskreia's eyes narrow. This was also the usual. The woman somehow always knew what those two were doing at any given time even if it should have been impossible. She counted herself lucky that her pastimes didn't give her predecessor great amusement.

"Good enough. You are all needed for two months."

The announcement made everyone look at her with the closest emotion to shock that they were capable of feeling but they waited for her to continue.

"The ethics committee has been thoroughly vetted and completely eliminated." Executed of course. They had become like buzzing flies. "While agreeable clones are grown by the labs to replace them, you all will act as temporary replacements."

"They always did start acting up after a while," her grandmother agreed, "Replacing them was difficult too."

"But my Raskreia's come up with a genius plan don't you think, mama?" her father asked with a bright smile, and she pushed down the happiness she felt at his pride.

"It is."

"More than genius, really," said her great-grandmother with a thumbs-up and she couldn't stop herself from flushing this time, "I wish I'd thought of it instead of having to get rid of the idiots whenever they started growing a conscience."

Her predecessor snorted, laughing, "Oh, now that was a pain. You hire some idiots to judge how ethical some things are in both the short and long-term so you can pick the worst option but then they start acting like an actual ethics committee."

Giggling, her great-grandmother nodded and patted her lover who had looked up sleepily due to all the commotion- "One of the major annoyances on the job."

"And we'll get to spend time with my darling daughter!" her father exclaimed, finally a tenth of the way through braiding.

"That does sound pleasant," said her great-great-grandfather. Raskreia frowned, surprised he'd think that. She hadn't thought them close. "Will we be compensated for our time spent working?"

Neither had she expected that sensible question from him. Perhaps she shouldn't have judged him so harshly from the few times she had seen him. Plenty of the Generals were just as air-headed and they worked fine. Even if she did wonder how sometimes.

"Yes, you may look over and discuss the contracts with the relevant staff later." Though she doubted they'd put much thought into it. Her father would definitely only read through it once and sign no questions asked. Everything was reasonable by her estimates. "For now, I will leave this committee with its first task."

"Oh?" her great-grandmother looked at her with interest.

"Is it wrong to tamper with human DNA? Is it wrong to murder an entire ethics committee? Is it wrong to replace them with obedient laboratory clones?" she asked, tapping the papers on the table, "I leave these questions in the capable hands of the ethics committee."

Raskreia left the room, an amused smile matching the uproar of laughter behind her.

Order of Rulers

Predecessor/Kalidasa Maedoc di Agape

Great-great-great-great-grandmother/Alika Betje di Kamaliyah

Great-great-great-grandfather/Chinasa Arya di Ezhil

Great-great-grandfather/Harsha Mai di Ayomide

Great-grandmother/Al-Kahina Mo Ye di Enyo

Grandmother/Merge Ennea di Gentilus

Father/Menodara Gouyen di Ashoka

Erga Kenesis di Raskreia