Nodding, Sami crossed her legs, laying her hands on her knees. -She sounds like it. I don't think I could ever do anything like that.-
-You might surprise yourself one day, Sami,- Li'ren said as she turned back to her guest. -I bet you have a mischievous streak in you, somewhere.-
-Maybe...- Sami leaned forward, a little sparkle in her eye as her tail waggled behind her. -So...Did you two finish your 'high-level diplomatic meeting'?-
Sami saw Li'ren's eyes widen, and the blue fur on her cheeks fluffed out slightly. For a few seconds, the Empress looked like she didn't know what to say, but then she began to laugh harder than Sami had heard her laugh yet. When she finally got control of herself again, her tail was still whipping back and forth with mirth. -See, I told you!- Li'ren folded her hands in her lap, looking somewhat shy for a change. -Well...we decided to find a more private place, but...yes, we did.- She took a moment to catch her breath. -Ah...Kri'a...I wish she were here now...She would know just exactly what to say in that speech I have to give tomorrow. But then if she were here, I wouldn't be giving it, would I?-
-I guess not,- Sami said. She tried not to let her mind linger too much on diplomatic affairs. -Do you have any ideas yet?-
-A few...,- Li'ren murmured. She seemed to be getting more quiet, more melancholic. Sami often saw these ups and downs when the subject of her dead mate came up. Fortunately, this down was a very short one, and the Empress began to smile once more. -This is a change of subject, but I wanted to thank you for...well, for the last few weeks. Being able to talk about Kri'a has been...has been very good for me. I think I would have gone crazy after a few days if you hadn't been here. Thank you, Sami.-
-Oh, Li-...,- Sami began to say, but then she caught herself, remembering proper etiquette. -M'lady, you're the one I should thank. My mother is responsible for all of this. My father, and my younger brothers and sisters...It doesn't bother them as much. They're all stronger than me. Aria is too busy to talk with me. If I didn't have someone to help me keep my mind from dwelling on everything that has happened, I would be a wreck. Being able to listen to your stories has been as good for me as talking has been for you, Your Majesty.-
While the younger woman was speaking, Li'ren was listening to her carefully, one finger stroking her own cheek softly. The Empress had a wistful expression on her face, and at the end of her little speech, she gave a small shake of her head.
-You are much stronger, I think, than you give yourself credit for,- Li'ren cautioned her with a wave of her tail. She leaned forward in her chair and placed a hand over one of Sami's. -And I won't have any more of this 'm'lady' or 'Your Majesty'.- She smiled again. -If we are to continue being friends, you must call me Li'ren.-
******
For the last few days, Jack had been feeling that familiar sensation of stir-craziness that he'd had after being at the Me'lia family's estate for so long. Governess Amani had made it very clear to all of them that they were welcome to explore the place as much as they wished while they were guests there, but for Jack that invitation hadn't been something he'd taken advantage of too much. As much as he liked Aria's family, and as much as some other Ailians such as Li'ren and the governess had treated him with kindness, he still felt pretty uncomfortable around Ailians as a whole. So he had mostly stuck to the quarters that the family occupied unless he was out and about with Aria.
Today, though, the governess' residence was relatively empty, so Jack had decided that he was going to have a look around and see if it would make him feel a little less restless. The only people that he saw in the building, for the most part, were the Royal Guards, patrolling in ones and twos. They didn't pay him much mind at all; they all knew by now that he was the mate of their captain, and if any of them took issue with that they were professional enough not to let it show.
As he walked through one of the halls, looking at some of the paintings on the walls, he saw someone walking towards him. Petite, dark-skinned, and dressed in luxurious robes, Jack recognized the figure as Brooke, the human slave girl whom the late Empress had sent from Lirna to serve as Li'ren's lady-in-waiting. She was walking with steady and measured steps, carrying a large, silver-colored tea tray in both hands, keeping her eyes on the tray and the floor in front of her to avoid spilling anything. When she got closer to Jack, she happened to glance up and see him as well.
“Oh!” Brooke said, breaking into a smile. “Hello, Jack. I haven't seen you around in a while.” She stopped and adjusted the tray in her arms. “I've been so busy lately, though. I wouldn't have had much time to talk, anyway.” The young girl giggled a little.
“You seem to be in good spirits,” Jack observed. “I take it you still like it here?”
Brooke nodded her head. “I like it a lot better than being on Lirna,” she said. “It's not so hot here. And the Empress...Lady Amani, I mean, she treats me just as well as she always has. Her mother is very kind to me as well.” She jerked her head up a little, her long black hair waving as she did so. “I was heading upstairs to bring mistress her after-dinner tea, actually.”
“Really? I'll walk with you.” Jack stepped in beside Brooke. “Like you said, we haven't seen each other in a while. It's nice to see another human face.” He patted her on the shoulder.
The girl seemed a little unsure of that, unused to the idea of a human who wasn't a servant walking around, but after all, Jack was more than a mere slave. He was a guest of the governess the same as Captain Me'lia and her family. “W-Well, alright. I suppose.” She started walking again, and they turned a corner to some stairs.
While they were walking up the stairs, Jack noticed that the dishes on the tea tray barely rattled at all. Brooke was keeping everything very steady but still walking at a normal speed. She must have had a lot of practice with this sort of thing over the last few months of working in the royal palace, and now in the governess' residence. He would have been impressed if the sight of the thirteen-year-old girl carrying a serving dish wasn't a sobering reminder of how many humans there were living as slaves in the Ascendancy.
When they got to the upper floor, Jack thought of something. “You know, Brooke, I have a question to ask you.” The slave girl looked over at him, curious. “How do
you
feel about this new war in the Ascendancy? Or about the Empress being killed?”
Brooke was quiet for a second or two, and she looked like she was thinking hard about what her answer should be. “Well...I don't know how I feel about the war, really.” She glanced over at Jack. “I...I just don't really see how it matters to someone like me. I don't think anything would really change for me if the rebels win.” She looked back at the floor. “I don't really like Ailians very much. In fact, y-you could probably say that I hate them. But...my life got a lot better when the Empress bought me. She treated me like I was a person, instead of just a slave, and she was very nice to me. Nobody ever treated me that way before.” Brooke sighed. “I suppose you could say I'm sorry she is dead. I feel bad for Empress Amani.”
“Yeah...,” Jack agreed. He had liked the Empress as well, and seeing Li'ren's reaction to the news of her death would have been enough to break the hardest of hearts. He wasn't sure that he would go as far as Brooke and say that he hated Ailians, not anymore, but he had absolutely no trouble understanding her point of view.
Soon after that, they arrived at a door flanked by two of the black-uniformed Royal Guards. Brooke stood in front of the door and lifted the tea tray.
“Parak me sa'ra le,”
she said with what Jack recognized as an impeccable accent. From what he'd heard of the Ailian language, he would have thought she could pass as a native speaker, which made sense considering she'd told him when they first met that she had been a slave for almost ten years.
One of the guards nodded at Brooke, and he opened the door for her. The other guard kept her eyes on Jack, watching him carefully but not seeming particularly disturbed by his presence. Jack looked around them into the room. From the furniture that he could see through the door, this looked like a bedroom. This must have been Li'ren's quarters. As the door opened wider, he could see Li'ren herself seated in an armchair. The Ailian Empress looked over and saw Brooke, and she gave a smile.
“Hello, child,” Li'ren said, in her lightly accented English. “Do come in. You picked a good moment to arrive with the tea.” She craned her neck to look around Brooke, and her ears pricked forward. “Ah, Jack! What a surprise. Come in, won't you? We were just talking about something that might interest you.”
“Me?” Jack said, a little surprised. He turned his head from left to right, and when he saw no reaction from the Royal Guards flanking the door he shrugged and walked inside. As he did so and got a better view of the room, he noticed that Sami was sitting in the chair adjacent to Li'ren's. “Oh, hey. I might've guessed you'd be here, Sami. You missed dinner.”
Sami gave him a warm smile. “Ate here,” she said simply.
“Please, sit,” Li'ren said, gesturing to another chair as Brooke set the tea tray down on a table in between her and Sami. Jack took the chair that she pointed out to him. He found it awkward as always. Because the chair was made for an Ailian, his feet dangled a good twelve inches above the floor. With the tea delivered, Brooke bowed to the Empress, and she was about to leave when Li'ren spoke again. “Oh, Brooke. Don't go just yet. I'd like you to stay for a moment, if you wouldn't mind.”
Her eyes widened, and Brooke looked over her shoulder at the door. “Um...” She turned back to the three seated people, and after a moment's hesitation she nodded. “O-Of course, mistress.” The human girl was waved to a seat by Li'ren, and the guard outside closed the door quietly.
“What's this about, Li'ren?” Jack asked.
Li'ren slid forward in her chair, reaching for the tea pot to pour a cup for herself and one for Sami. “I have something I want to ask you,” she began. She offered the tea pot to Jack, and he declined. Brooke did the same, seeming very disconcerted about being offered tea by the Empress. “I realize you may not be the most qualified person, but you proved yourself to have a rather sharp mind in the meeting before. I feel like you may be able to provide some insight for me.”
Jack shifted in his seat. “I...guess I could do my best.”
“I'm going to be giving a speech tomorrow,” Li'ren explained. “It's a very important one. I am convinced that it will be something that will aid our war effort, but I wanted a human opinion.” She glanced at Brooke before going on. “Tomorrow I'm going to give a speech in which I announce the abolition of the slave trade in the Ascendancy. I'm doing this mainly because I need every edge I can get in convincing the humans to agree to a cessation of hostilities, and to join us in fighting the rebels and the Pteryd. What are your thoughts on this?”
To say that Jack was stunned would have been an understatement, and looking at Brooke he could tell that she was taken aback as well. Slavery was one of the main “evils of the Ascendancy” that they had been taught about during basic training. They'd been told that it was such an ingrained part of Ailian culture that it could never end, and that the only way to free the humans who had been taken as slaves in the conflict was to defeat the Ascendancy completely and totally. Now he was hearing from the leader of the Ascendancy herself that the slave trade was going to be abolished.
“Well...,” Jack said slowly, still trying to wrap his head around it. “I really don't think it's going to hurt your chances of getting a good response. Slavery is one of the things that humans really find distasteful about Ailians. I mean, we used to have legal slavery on Earth, centuries ago. It's illegal everywhere in human space, and has been for a very long time. I think if you abolish slavery, it's going to surprise a sizable portion of humanity, and probably not in a bad way.” He tilted his head to one side. “If you don't mind me asking...have you heard anything from your diplomats yet? Have they made any progress?”
Li'ren's ears folded back along her head, and she stared down at her lap. She took a slow, deep breath. “The response has been less than encouraging,” she admitted. “As a matter of fact, I have heard very little from the envoys I have sent, though I am certain they all arrived at their destinations safely. I am worried that I will hear nothing until it is too late for it to matter. We lose territory to the rebels every day. Not as quickly as when the conflict was in its early stages, but it is still steady. The reinforcements we have received from the Nuretan Empire have helped, but the Pteryd have massive fleets which they could bring into the fight at any time. It may take a while, but without additional assistance, I am afraid that this may be a war we will eventually lose.”
Jack nodded. “Another question...When you abolish slavery, what will happen to all of the human slaves?”
“They will be given a choice,” Li'ren said. “If they wish, we will arrange for them to be returned to human space. I will do this whether or not we get any assistance from humanity.” She looked at Brooke again as she spoke. “However, we will also allow any humans who wish to stay in the Ascendancy to do so. I believe it is only fair that they be allowed to choose their own destiny. We have dictated it for them for ten years.” Despite her apparent mood, Li'ren gave Jack a sardonic smirk. “Of course, if Ara'lana emerges victorious from all this, any humans who choose to remain in the Ascendancy may find themselves slaves again regardless of what I do.”