Anessa walked down the corridor of the station escorted by two Va Sun. Finally back to wearing a Shur At, she hadn’t realized how much she had missed the garments of her people. She’d arrived in system almost ten hours ago and had found three Legions assembled, which meant that the Elders had already called for the forces to attack the Empire. She had known that they would; they desired the Human device above all else. The Elders knew what the knowledge inside the device could do to change the tide of a war; perhaps they wanted to make sure that the Empire had no chance to use that knowledge. But even if they know that the Humans have the Sha, they don’t know about the Nel, nor that the Empire already has access to the device.
Anessa shelved her thoughts as they reached their destination. The Va Sun stepped aside and let her enter the room alone. She stepped inside and was met by three people sitting at a round table. The person closest to the doors stood and bowed deeply to Anessa.
“Dai Sha, I’m glad that you have managed to escape. Forgive me my inability to prevent your capture,” her second-in-command Do Sun Arisak said.
“There was nothing that you could’ve done, Arisak, it is forgiven,” Anessa said.
The second person then stood, crossed the distance, and grabbed Anessa in a hug. She was only slightly shorter than Anessa, with white hair clipped short on her head. “Glad to see you, Anessa. I worried that our enemies might’ve killed you,” the woman with orange eyes said as she gave Anessa a reassuring smile.
“And I am glad to see you too, Garaam,” Anessa said.
“I wanted to come after you immediately, but the Elders overruled me. Do you happen to know why they did that?” Dai Sha Garaam of the Fourteenth Legion asked. “I thought that they would’ve been the first to call for blood, after our greatest Dai Sha was taken.”
“I have some inkling, yes,” Anessa said, and turned to look at the last person in the room, who hadn’t bothered to stand. He had let his black hair grow almost to his shoulders, something that warriors rarely allowed themselves, as it could be a weakness in a fight. It was why Anessa had gone through treatments to remove the hair from the top of her head permanently.
“Narrasak,” Anessa said.
“Anessa,” Dai Sha Narrasak of the Third Legion said.
It had been a long time since they had seen each other; their last parting had been less than pleasant. Once they had been close, had shared intimacy, but Narrasak had grown jealous of Anessa’s status as the first among the Dai Sha. He had always been in her shadow, even when they were in training to become Dai Shas. He had grown to resent her later and they had split ways.
They watched each other in silence, the tension in the room rising with every moment that passed.
“Narrasak,” Garaam said, drawing his eyes at her. “This is not the time or place.”
Narrasak sneered at her. “Fine,” he said, then turned back to look at Anessa. “I am glad that you have returned to us, Dai Sha Anessa. I am sure that all here are very interested in how you managed to escape.”
“I didn’t escape,” Anessa responded simply. There were rarely any secrets among the Dai Sha; even with the history between the two of them, they were bound by a great bond.
“Oh, and how did you then leave your imprisonment?” Narrasak asked, suddenly intrigued. Anessa knew what he was doing; she had suffered a great blow to her honor and standing by being captured, and Narrasak delighted in seeing her diminished.
“I was released,” Anessa said.
“They released you?” Garaam asked, surprised. “Why?”
“In return for me giving an oath not to try to escape and harm anyone, I was promised that I would be set free,” Anessa answered.
“Why would you give such an oath?” Narrasak asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Anessa turned her head to look at him. “Because I had no hope of escaping on my own.”
Narrasak threw back his head and laughed. “Great Anessa, not able to escape a group of weaklings!” he said through laughter.
Anessa ignored him and turned to look at Garaam. “How much do you know about the Empire?”
“The Elders told us that they are descendant from the People, just like us, but that they are weak and have just reawakened the Sha. That they had been enslaved by the race you were charged with destroying.” Garaam paused, glancing at Do Sun Arisak before continuing, “From our agents in the Erasi, we have learned the rough location of their systems and that they have advanced technology, their ships probably on par with us or just about, and that they possess a way of traveling through normal space at faster than light speed. This was confirmed by Arisak when you were taken.”
“Did the Elders tell you anything more about our ancestors?” Anessa asked.
Garaam frowned. “No. Why?”
“Nothing, just a thought,” Anessa said. The Elders were still keeping secrets from their Dai Sha, but did it really matter? The truth wouldn’t change anything. Unless they have hidden other things as well. She pushed those thoughts down; she didn’t need to second guess the Elders. She was a Dai Sha, and would not allow a few words from an alien to lay doubts to a life she had led for almost two centuries. “And what are the Elders’ orders?”
It was Narrasak who answered her question. “We are to gather forces and attack this Empire, sweep them from every system we find. But the most important task they gave us is to find and take possession of the weaklings’ homeworld. We are charged with retrieving a device that the Elders believe is there, a powerful weapon that belongs to us by right.”
Anessa looked skeptically at Narrasak? “And did they tell you what this device was? How it looks like? How to even find it?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I am not in the habit of second guessing the Elders,” Narrasak said through his teeth. “But they said that the device is most likely on their homeworld. That they might not even be aware of its existence. And that we will hear its beacon once we land on the planet. That only the true heirs can hear it.”
Anessa kept her face emotionless as she considered his words. The Elders were withholding information, and they thought that the Humans hadn’t yet heard the beacon of the device, which was true in a way; their device was still on their homeworld. The Elders didn’t know about the Nel or their device.
She opened her mouth to tell them about the second device but stopped herself. They didn’t know anything but the stories that the Elders allowed to become the truth. And it didn’t change their mission in the slightest.
“How many Legions have been recalled?” she asked instead.
“All of them,” Do Sun Arisak said. “Ten of the Legions have been ordered to reposition in strategic points throughout our territory so that they may respond quickly if any of our other enemies notice and try to take advantage. But the rest are all to gather here.”
That left forty-two Legions for the offensive against the Empire, the largest force they had ever used for an opponent. But the Elders knew that they needed to end the Empire quickly, and a smaller force would’ve taken longer, giving the Empire the chance to use more knowledge from the device.
“When is the invasion supposed to start?” Anessa asked.
Garaam turned and glared at Narrasak. “We are having some disagreements concerning that,” Garaam answered sourly. “After your capture, Narrasak was given the overall command of the Legions. And he means to start the invasion within days, with the three Legions we have here. I have been trying to convince him to wait for more forces.”
“You have seen the information our agents stole from the Erasi. That system has no defenses,” Narrasak argued from his place at the table.