Anessa glanced at the people assembled; most were looking in disbelief at both Adrian and the lifeless body of Farran. Only Vallar Havasse was looking at Anessa, something very akin to surprise and respect in her eyes.
Anessa stood, drawing the attention of all in the room.
“Lord Sentinel Adrian, you are the victor of the challenge made against you for your part in the death of Dai Sha Narrasak of the Third Legion. As your right by blood and death, your part in his death is to no longer be held against you by any in the Shara Daim,” she said loudly.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed and he bowed in the exact same half bow he had last time, keeping his eyes on her. Anessa walked down her platform and onto the dais. She glanced at the honor guards, who were now looking at Adrian like he had suddenly become someone else, someone far more dangerous. They stepped closer to him and Anessa as she approached.
“I wish to speak with you in private, Lord Sentinel,” she said in a commanding voice, then she turned to her guard. “Clean this up. And as for the rest of you,” she said, looking over the crowd of the Shara Daim top officials, “you are dismissed. I shall call another gathering at a later date,” she said, and then motioned for Adrian to follow her. She waited until he looked at his people and gestured for them to stay behind.
She turned, and he followed just a few steps behind her as she led him out of the ‘throne’ room. She walked from the hall to the palace proper, her guards following behind. They walked a long time until they reached her private quarters. She stopped at the doors and turned to her guards.
“Stay here, I wish to speak with our guest privately. Don’t let anyone interrupt us,” Anessa said.
The leader of her guard looked at her and then at Adrian. “Kar Daim, we shouldn’t leave you alone with… an alien.”
“Lord Sentinel is no threat to me,” Anessa said, and entered the quarters with Adrian following.
Shara Daim rooms were different from the Empire’s ones, at least the ones she had seen. In the Empire, the quarters were usually separated fully, creating different rooms. Among the Shara Daim, the quarters were open, with no full walls. In the center of the room was a long table with chairs. To the one side were seating furniture for relaxing and a holo-table. At the far side was her sleeping bed, which was much larger than the beds in the Empire. And to the other side of the room was a small half wall that sectioned off her cleaning area. But there were no full walls that would separate the quarters into rooms. She debated leading Adrian to the table in the middle, but the chairs and the table were larger than what he was used to, and it might be a bit awkward to sit and talk like that, so she led him to the side and the relaxing area. She sat on one wide, backless sofa and had him sit on the other.
She knew that her guards would speak of her meeting with him in her quarters in private, but these were the only rooms where she knew no one would be eavesdropping. Anessa wasn’t a fool; Vallar Havasse might have supported Anessa, but there was a reason why she was feared as she was, and knowledge was power. Anessa didn’t begrudge her spying, but she needed to talk with Adrian without others listening in, at least at first. He would ask her about Farran, and she didn’t want others to realize that it was she that had goaded him into doing that.
Anessa and Adrian looked at each other for a few minutes in silence, studying each other. Then Adrian spoke.
“So, Kar Daim, what do you wish for from the Empire?”
Adrian waited in silence for her to answer him.
“What you have always wanted: peace,” she said finally.
“Peace… didn’t you once tell me that Shara Daim don’t consider other races worthy of consideration? How is any peace we make going to last?” Adrian asked. “Your people don’t seem to be all that excited about me even being here. And already I had to fight and kill one of your people; how is that any good foundation to make peace?”
Anessa’s expression darkened. “I want to change my people. Already my people know the truth about our ancestors. And I have started the changes concerning their views of other races, to do that I need to make them interact with other races. Yours is the one they will have the most ease accepting.”
“And your views have changed?” Adrian asked.
Anessa hesitated. “They have. My time with you taught me a lot. It just took me some time to accept it.”
“And why did you push me into killing a man?”
“Farran didn’t want for things to change; he was an obstacle. I could have removed him myself, but having you do it will show the others who think like he did that you aren’t weak. It will make them question their superiority and temper their arrogance,” Anessa said calmly.
“Reisi said that the Kar Daim killed the Elders and took power. That was not what I intended when I let you talk with Axull Darr,” Adrian said.
“And what did you think would happen?” Anessa asked angrily, her eyes hard.
“I didn’t know what your Elders knew, how much was a product of corrupted history and how much their own fault. I only wanted you to know the truth,” he said softly. He hadn’t thought that Anessa would take it upon herself to seize the rule of the Shara Daim, that was for sure.
Anessa stood and glared down on him. “The talk with Axull Darr revealed many things, and we figured out who the Elders truly were. They deserved death and more.” She took a step closer to him, making him bend his neck upwards to keep eye contact. “They lied about everything; they twisted who we were supposed to be. I couldn’t stand by and let anyone else rule us. I couldn’t risk them being the same as the Elders. I was the only one I could trust with that power,” she said.
“I don’t know if you should’ve done that, Anessa,” Adrian said. It came out as an accusation, but he didn’t really mean it like that. He himself didn’t know what she was supposed to do. He wanted to take the words back, and explain better, but it was too late.
“What?” Anessa asked loudly. She reached down and grabbed him by his suit at the shoulders and effortlessly lifted him up from the sofa and the floor, bringing him up so that they were at eye level. “You judge me?” she said incredulously. “This was all your fault! I am here because of you. It was your voice that wormed its way inside my mind, whispering things that made me question everything that I am.” She took two steps and slammed him against the wall.
“It was your manipulations that broke the basis of my beliefs, your ‘truths’ that accused my Elders. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have been forced to do any of this! I was supposed to be a servant of the Elders, the greatest Dai Sha in history, and one day I was supposed to become an Elder myself, guiding my people with the wisdom of all the years I have lived. Now half of my people are terrified of me. I made them terrified because they can’t accept what must happen any other way.” Her hands on his shoulders tightened. “My people are dying, and I couldn’t let them be guided by the weak. I killed those that I had worshiped for centuries, because to turn a blind eye would’ve meant failing the oath I gave to protect the Shara Daim. I chose the oath to my people over that to my leaders! Without you, I would have still been a Dai Sha!”
Adrian kept himself from reacting as he hung in the air, held by her arms. He looked into her angry face, seeing that she was lost, struggling with the fact that nothing she had believed in was true. “But would you really have rather lived in ignorance?” Adrian asked softly.
Anessa glared at him, and her anger slowly dissipated, the tension in her arms leaving her. He never for a second thought that she would have harmed him.
“No,” she whispered.