Now Anessa looked over the people assembled in the ‘throne’ room. They had been given the data after her people found it, and then they had been brought to the Hall of Ages and told about the change in leadership. She had given them time to study the data, and now they would decide whether they wanted to bow to her or challenge her.
She waited for the Vallar Havasse to speak, as she had been chosen as the voice of the leadership of Shara Radum. She was an old woman, age clearly seen on her face. A stoic and great speaker, she struck the visage of a true Shara Daim lady. Like all Shara Daim, she was trained as a warrior. Not on the level of a Dai Sha, but still, she understood strength. If Anessa had the support of Shara Radum, she would have a much easier time of convincing the ordinary people to support her, who might resist even with all the proof she planned to release to the public.
“We have reviewed the data you supplied, Dai Sha,” Havasse said.
“Kar Daim,” Anessa corrected. She did not intend to give any ground. The Shara Daim would be hers, one way or another. Protecting her people was the only thing she cared about. As long as she lived, she would not allow anyone weaker than her to lead.
Havasse gave her a look filled with steel, her face as unmoving as Anessa’s own. Then, Havasse looked away and sighed; she turned and looked around at the faces behind her. A great majority of them were scared, of Anessa, presumably. Anessa understood their fear.
Finally, Havasse looked back at Anessa. “I will speak truthfully with you. We came here with no intention of accepting your rule. We thought to bully you in giving the power over to us. But I see now that that will not happen. These idiots behind me are scared of you, but they are more scared of change.” Anessa heard a couple of gasps from behind Havasse, but she ignored them, keeping her eyes on the older woman who continued speaking.
“The Elders lied; everything we accomplished since we left our homeworld was built on a lie. We thought that we were better than anyone else is, superior in every way, but the truth is far from that. We who control our trade and commerce know very well that that is a lie,” Havasse said sadly. “Our economy is weaker than that of other empires our size. We don’t trade with other races nearly enough to satisfy our size. The only area where we excel is the military, and only because every citizen of Shara Daim is a soldier. But you know that even our Legions aren’t undefeatable.”
Havasse shook her head, her two long gray braids swinging lightly behind her. “The Elders and their lies crippled us with their teachings, filled us with false arrogance, so much so that it was only a matter of time before we crumbled. The Erasi attack might yet break us, especially since their orders left us vulnerable.” She locked her eyes with Anessa’s again determinedly. “Even with all the lies of the Elders, they have not been able to erase what we truly are deep down. So I will not follow our plan. Shara Daim are warriors, we believe in strength. And we must change if we are to survive.”
Havasse lowered her old body to a single knee with a grace unbecoming her age, and then she looked up. “I will have you lead us, Kar Daim.”
Anessa allowed herself a small smile as the rest of the room followed suit and dropped down to their knees.
Two months later — December; Year 56 of the Empire — Shara Radum
Anessa let out a moan of pleasure as the man beneath her moved in unison with her. She put her hands on his chest, feeling the hard muscle there and noting the difference in their skin color. In the back of her head, she found that strange; Shara Daim didn’t look like that. But it didn’t matter. The strange brown eyes looked up at her as she shook in ecstasy.
Anessa woke up, her breathing hard and her body hot and drenched in sweat. She lay in her large bed in a renovated wing of the palace, thinking about the dream. She had known that she was attracted to the Human, but what she had felt in the dream went far beyond that. Her mind was a mess. So many things had changed; it wasn’t strange that she was confused. She remembered the dream and immediately felt her body shiver. Adrian was strong, he was smart, he was a great commander, and she had seen his people give him respect. He was also manipulative and prepared to do everything to win. She remembered their fight, how he’d moved. At that moment, they hadn’t really been fighting. It had been more of a dance; they had been completely in sync, lost in each other. She had never felt that way with anyone before. She shook herself off, went to her cleaning area of her quarters, and then returned to bed. Now she was unable to sleep, the same thoughts always coming to her mind unwanted.
She didn’t know who she was, not really. She had always believed that she was a servant of the Shara Daim, that her duty was to follow the orders of the Elders. And now she had taken the reins of leadership from the ones she had been taught to obey without question. She couldn’t allow herself to go down that path of thinking, not now. Because even though she didn’t know who she was, she couldn’t let her people die. It was one thing that kept her from bowing down to the demands of those who didn’t agree with what she had done.
Anessa had brought the Shara Daim under her rule; the relays had spread the word much faster than any ship could travel. She had the loyalties of the Legions; she had been one of the Dai Sha for a long time, and they respected her. There were some who weren’t completely on board with her rule, but for now they were silent, at least in her presence. Anessa had recalled ten Legions to Shara Radum under the guise of reinforcing her rule, but the truth was that six of those Legions were the ones that had refused her orders to defend the Shara Daim from the Erasi, those who hadn’t disobeyed the Elders. None of them argued with her rule now in public—she had too much proof of what the Elders truly were—but it was best to keep them close, perhaps even goad some of them into challenging her and taking care of that problem permanently.
She didn’t have the problem with them following orders; she had the problem with the fact that they hadn’t even argued to the Elders for protection of the people. Being Shara Daim needed to mean more than just following blindly, especially now when she had revealed all. Everyone knew about their true history, both of their ancestors and the history doctored by the Elders.
In the first month, she had been challenged three times over the fact that the Shara Daim had been engineered. But after she had made a point of ripping the third challenger in half in front of all watchers, she had suddenly found herself with no new challengers.
Dai Sha Farran was the most ‘vocal’ one of her opposition, speaking against the changes she was trying to implement in the Shara Daim society. She knew that she needed to deal with him, but he was very respected, and powerful. She could kill him, but she needed him to issue a challenge. And he wasn’t that stupid; he knew that she was much stronger than him.
She knew that she needed to change the Shara Daim. The looking down on other races needed to end, and expansion politics would need to change as well. However, even with all those changes, she would not change who the Shara Daim were at their core: a warrior culture that valued strength.
Now that she had taken rule, her first task was to defend her people. She had given the command of the defense to Garaam, and all save the ten Legions were now on their way to the invaded sectors.
She had ordered every shipyard to begin war manufacturing, to build ships and weapons. But as she had found out, the production rate of the Shara Daim could barely sustain their current needs; they needed more materials, especially now that their limited trade with the Erasi had ceased. She needed to find a new source of materials to build up her war machinery.