CHAPTER NINETEEN◄CHAPTER TWENTY►CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

It had taken several long days of pondering Yanat’s words and discussing things with Elkanah, but Talitha had finally mustered up the courage to seek out the delegate’s counsel on how to proceed next, now that she’d acquired the truth about her heritage and blood. She’d reached back out to him as discreetly as she could via Jophia, knowing that she’d been in contact with Yanat and Doctor Daloh for some time now, and had arranged a meeting at his private booth within one of Sarat’s numerous clubs. To Elkanah, Yanat had seemed noble enough on the outside, but he knew that all politicians had their weaknesses, and it came as little surprise that he’d have his own investment in a private space in a place like this. That, or he legitimately had a stake in the joint to serve as a meeting place for instances such as this.

Brother Rehu slowly tugged the reins of his Zuthari mount as it trudged into the heart of Sarat’s red-light district. The monk’s holy paints and simple garments—coupled with the traditional animal mount—stood out like a sore thumb amidst the flying hovercars, trams, and wildly clothed foot traffic. Riding at the back of the Zuthari were Elkanah and Talitha, who were both equally taken aback that this was where Yanat had requested to meet them both. Brother Rehu was there on other business—to minister and guide a lost adherent of the temple that had strayed into prostitution, he’d claimed—and had agreed to take them along when he’d heard they needed transport to the area, knowing that they didn’t know the city, though outwardly he assumed nothing about their intentions to discuss things with Yanat and the others.

“This is the place?” Elkanah asked, not having been present in a district such as this since his days before the Crown Army when he’d go out partying and clubbing with friends. The pulsating blacklight, blue, and purple neon and holographic signage of Umbrafall—a nightclub establishment that catered Sivathi from all walks of life—continued buzzing downward on the pair as they descended the Zuthari and stood there awkwardly. A heavyset bouncer with a black and orange tortoiseshell fur pattern stood guarding the way.

“It is,” Brother Rehu said. “I’d suggest you not linger too long inside, either, lest you be dragged into that lifestyle of debauchery. I’ll meet you both back out here in several hours once you’ve completed your business within, although I need seek out our lost acolyte in that time, so you must excuse me if I’m a bit late. Even though they have me as but a simple clerk registering Sivathi at the Temple of Rays, at the end of the day I am still a bearer of the holy suns, and must administer it to those who need it most.”

Elkanah gave a terse nod of his head as he acknowledged Brother Rehu, reaching up his handpaw to shake his in thanks before he and the Zuthari began to trot off further into the red-light district. “The monks of the Temple of Rays really are selfless,” he said. “It was so generous of him to bring us along when he heard we needed a means to get here. Although why Yanat wants to meet here, of all places, I don’t know. I know those politicians have their weaknesses, but he seemed to be of a more upstanding caliber than most.”

“Maybe Yanat’s just being cautious in shifting locations where we can continue talking. And maybe he’s not as upstanding as you think,” Talitha said to Elkanah, making it clear that he still hadn’t forgiven the man who had admitted to executing Shiphra.. “Nonetheless, with everything he said, I’m sure he doesn’t want the same people hearing such secrets in one place.”

“Well, the staff certainly doesn’t look like they’re expecting us,” Elkanah said with a grimace, looking up at the bouncer who was staring them down like he could make mincemeat of them both. “I’m not very keen on just asking if we can go inside without any kind of credential.”

Talitha flat out ignored what he’d just said, and in her naivety of not having known the customs and culture of city life—owing to her confinement in the mud pits of Zeshom Noor—she simply walked up to the bouncer with a smile on her face. “Is Yanat here?” she said as she looked up the burly guard. “We were told we’d be meeting him at Umbrafall.”

The bouncer interlocked his fingers together before cracking his knuckles, as if he were about to beat them down for simply asking such a question. “That depends on who’s asking,” he said in a deep voice, almost in tone with the blasting bass of the electronic music from inside the club. “Yanat doesn’t just invite anybody to his booth at Umbrafall; much less two Sivathi who look like they’re out for an afternoon stroll in the city commons. Do you even know what kind of place this is?”

Talitha stiffened somewhat at his scrutiny, and an old part of her before she’d been told the truths by Yanat threatened to creep back out, like all the times she’d stood in the mud and threatened to be beaten by the overseers of Zeshom Noor. This time, however, she did not relent. Her sudden strike back surprised even Elkanah. “You think I don’t know?” she said, jutting out her chin and looking up to him as if in challenge. “I’ve come from darker places than the eclipses on your club’s logo!”

“Aaaah…” her companion began to say anxiously, reaching out a paw upon her shoulder to pipe her down before the holographic projector nestled at the side of the doorway shimmered to life, catching the attention of the Talitha and Elkanah, and even the bouncer before he could even start to get retaliatory. The bluish image of Doctor Daloh and Yanat came to life, seated in whatever arrangement they had in the club’s interior.

“That’ll be all, Rothak,” Yanat’s voice came out from the projector as he raised a wine glass in his handpaw in greeting to Talitha and Elkanah. “Didn’t I mention that I was expecting company here tonight? If you’d be so kind as to have them brought downstairs and to my booth, please?”

Rothak the bouncer rolled his eyes and shook his head, but ultimately complied with the instructions of his superior. “Well, Yanat,” he said as he prepared to open the door to the club. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I just let anybody that asked for you inside the club. Your name carries weight as a delegate of the Congress, a lot of people know you. So be thankful you caught me when you did, otherwise I might have shoved these two back out onto the street and into traffic for implying they were your acquaintances!”

“Just let them in,” Yanat said. “And have one of the girls bring them down.”

Not wishing to argue any further with one of his superiors, Rothak depressed the button beside the doorway as the holo-image of Yanat flickered off, and the entryway immediately opened. A whoosh of air seemed to puff out as the misty, low-hanging haze of the club’s floor swished out towards the street and over the footpaws of Elkanah and Talitha, accompanied by the thumping bass suddenly escalating and threatening to blow them both down.

Before the two of them could step forward themselves, Rothak had already snapped his fingers for the attention of one of the attendants inside, to which a sultry looking, revealingly clad Sivathi with a coat of white like Elkanah’s strode forward to answer the bouncer’s call. “If you’ll take these two downstairs for me, Jala,” he said to the girl, flicking his handpaw in a motion for Elkanah and Talitha to head inside. “They’re not here to mingle, drink, or dance; only to meet Yanat.”

Jala simply nodded in response, not answering Rothak verbally as she lifted an eye keenly towards Elkanah. The bouncer didn’t seem to notice—or maybe he didn’t care—as it was seemingly the girl’s job to get flirty with male patrons right off the bat. No sooner had the two of them felt the burly paw shoving them inside Umbrafall, the door had slammed back shut, and the woman had stepped forward several paces up close and into Elkanah’s personal space, much to Talitha’s distaste.

“Well there, aren’t you the handsome one?” she said teasingly, having to raise her voice to be heard above the hooting and hollering of the dancing, drunken patrons and the deafening electronic music. She nudged up in front of him, flicking a finger under his chin as if beckoning him close. “Are you sure you don’t want me to get you something to drink first, or join me on the dance floor? I’m sure your partner here wouldn’t mind it. Rothak only teases; you’re welcome to enjoy yourselves before you go see your guest.”

Talitha had to hold back a snarl at the insinuation, but Elkanah was having none of it from the beginning. He gently pushed Jala back away and shook his head. “Like your boss said, we’re not here for any of that,” he told her. “And I do think my partner would mind it, actually.”

Talitha felt her heart skip a beat joyfully in seeing Elkanah take a stand like that for her. It was yet another warm feeling inside that seemed to bubble upward and all the more reason why she was starting to fall for him. She couldn’t help but smirk triumphantly at seeing Jala give up her pursuit of Elkanah.

“Well, it’s always worth a try, I suppose. I just can’t get over such a dashing Sivathi!” she conceded, shrugging her shoulders as she backed off and motioned as blandly and quickly as Rothak had, instructing them to follow.

Having to cut through the dance floor and main portion of the nightclub to get towards the stairwell at the opposite end that led to the basement, Talitha took Elkanah’s handpaw as they followed Jala, beginning to weave through the crowd and bump shoulders with all manner of Sivathi that threw their bodies around in decadent dance. Just above where the disc jockey stood on a podium were a series of pulsating lasers and lights that illuminated all present, accompanied by flashing strobes that made each movement appear as if in stop-motion as tails flicked, footpaws stomped, and torsos swayed. It was a sensory overload in many ways for Talitha, having never imagined any such place like this existing, yet the revelry was…

…exciting. Sivathi from all walks of life, basking in life’s pleasures and enjoying the freedoms that had been hard earned, even as a war raged on outside the walls of the city itself. Overhead atop the ceiling, above the lasers and lights, shimmered the very image of the dual Zaket suns—obscured by an eclipse over the Watcher, in reference to the nightclub’s name—the flares of the stellar corona acting as if they weren’t just an illusion, but a reality. It was almost enough to bring a tear to her eye, such a beautiful image watching over her and not harsh like the real stars that had burned her every day of her life until now. Perhaps all the patrons knew this, too, and it was why they released all their joy here and now in such a place. She was half inclined to jump in and join, but she knew she wasn’t here for such things.

That didn’t stop Jala from taking notice of the intrigued nature of Talitha. “Magnificent, isn’t it?” she pointed at the ceiling as she cleared the crowd and headed for the stairwell that led downward. “A lot of people don’t even seem to notice it once they’re three or four drinks in, though. But the theme attracts many.”

“It’s beautiful,” Talitha answered, holding on to Elkanah’s handpaw as she looked back one more time towards the dance floor and the eclipse overhead, appearing so gentle with its halo. “Where I came from, the suns only burned and never promised anything to those who wished. It’s enchanting to see them in this way.”

Truly, it had been a powerful force that had abused her for many years, wielded by the wrong people in a false duty of holiness, but it had also set her free. To see its mightiness now so subdued, even if artificially, suggested to her that there were still aspects of the fate and destiny that the Zaket stars had in store for her—hidden behind the shadows, yet beckoning promise like the ring of flares that encompassed the blackened circle. Perhaps there was more meaning to this place than first met the eye, and Yanat had intended it as such for the next leg of her transformation to be under such symbolism.

The harder she thought about it, the less she thought it to be a coincidence of any kind as she followed Jala down the spiral stairwell with Elkanah. Light had set her free, and now the answers of where to go next would be revealed to her in darkness.

*

Not long after he’d seen the door shut to Umbrafall and Talitha and Elkanah were well inside, Brother Rehu dismounted his Zuthari and stood off to the side of one of the brothels of the red-light, only a block away from where he’d left them, but still leaving the club in sight. He’d only stopped here to give the illusion that he was actually going to head inside to search and minister for the lost acolyte he’d told them both about, but they didn’t know that such a Sivathi could not actually exist. Or maybe one did, but that wasn’t actually why he was here.

Brushing aside the sleeve of his robe and pulling up the commlink strap lashed about his arm, he began opening up a frequency to address the incoming gunship of lifeguards that had been loitering in the upper atmosphere above Sarat, out of any detection ranges of the city’s antiaircraft defenses and radars. Once he notified them that he’d delivered Elkanah and Talitha to the designated point, he only had to call in the strike, which was just what he was about to do.

He smirked to himself about how easy it had been to insert himself into the Temple of Rays at the behest of the Crown. He was a holy man, to be sure, but not a very dedicated one at that, for he was too fond of the money offered to him to betray those closest to him. He’d already done it many times before and had been feeding the Crown of Siva secrets from within the Temple of Rays for the longest time, and only now had he been tasked with locating Talitha once the directive had come from the intelligence company of the lifeguards. It had been difficult to maintain his composure when he’d come across her at his desk when she was in line seeking entry, and even harder when Yanat had sought him out coming to confirm her identity, but now the payoff was about to be very real.

Keeping his voice low so that nobody would know anything about what he was up to, Brother Rehu spoke into the commlink as he addressed the commanding officer of the lifeguard team. “Captain,” he spoke, a crackle of static emerging from the other side as his transmission was picked up. “I’ve handed off your targets into the specified location. Your gunship should be clear to descend, but be mindful of the ground defenses picking you up.”

The static continued for a moment longer, with Brother Rehu tapping the commlink a few times with his finger as if trying to force it to work the way he wanted it to. Eventually, the voice of the captain in charge emanated from the other end of the frequency, confirming that he had received Brother Rehu’s message. “Understood,” he replied. “We’re beginning our descent now, low and fast towards your beacon.”

“Don’t linger long once you’re on ground and in the club,” he warned them, looking around at the citizenry of Sarat mingling and meandering through the city streets of the red-light district. Though devoid of any Confederate troops right now, the instant that the gunship came in to deploy the lifeguards and abscond with Talitha would be the very same moment that the garrisons would be alerted, with only minutes to act.

“You act like we aren’t the household troops of Phaziah Ishigar,” the captain scoffed at the spy. “Antiaircraft guns won’t reach us with our speed, and we’ll be in and of there with that mongrel before the Confederacy even knows what happened.”

*

“See that, Yanat?” Doctor Daloh said, slapping a finger against her datapad and pointing to the news article she’d brought up. A scathing piece had already been written condemning their executions, and the gruesome image of their decapitated, strung up bodies was nestled alongside the text. “The people in Sarat are already catching wind of the executions of Veth Kaia and Pakta. I think they are growing more upset over that than any way we could besmirch the divinity of the High King and that he could be wounded.”

“Maybe so,” Yanat answered, drinking deep of the Rovoth spirits in his cup—another smuggled in and finite consumable from their colonial allies. “But if you remember, I was only emphasizing that course of action as to blunt any suspicions the rest of the quadrumvirate had about any affinities I might harbor for making symbols of martyrs. Nonetheless, doing so would be a powerful blow against his image, although it may not be needed if the people are getting as angry as you say over that article. That, and breaching of sacrosanct authority by having slept with Shiphra and having a daughter to show for it; not that he be condemned for the act itself, but for proving that his claimed divinity and moral infallibility are false.”

“Well, we’ll soon be seeing if symbols will be made of the living,” she answered putting the datapad down on the table of the booth with a bit of disgust at glancing over the picture again. “That is, if it’s what Talitha wants. I’d assume she’s inclined to act that way if she answered your call and came here to discuss things. She should be on the way by now, shouldn’t she?”
As if on cue, the decorative curtain shielding the booth from prying eyes was pushed aside as Jala showed herself to the two of them, with Elkanah and Talitha striding in close behind her. “If you’ll excuse me from so rudely shoving aside your privacy, sir,” she said apologetically. “But the guests you’ve been waiting for have arrived.”

“Indeed,” Yanat said as he stood motioned for Elkanah and Talitha to take a seat at the opposite side of the booth. Separate glasses of the same Rovoth spirits had been poured and were already waiting for them both. “Welcome, friends. The Zaket suns are most gracious in blessing us with the opportunity to meet again.”

“Even though it’s in the shadows and secrecy, they still seem to shine and permit us this chance to speak,” Talitha answered, again referring to the circumstances. Nearby, Jala dismissed herself and closed the curtain once again to give Yanat and his guests the seclusion the desired.

“If I’m being perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure that you were going to accept my offer of speaking again to discuss things further,” Yanat said. “I was afraid that you…”

“Afraid of what?” Talitha said, cocking her head inquisitively to one side, though she was pretty sure she knew what he was going to say.

“I was afraid you hated me to the point where you wouldn’t want to speak, in spite of you saying that you wished to,” Yanat said before taking another swig of his drink, twirling the cup in his paw and making the liquid spiral around inside. “Ultimately, that wasn’t the most important thing. I still rest easier knowing that I finally came through with the truth, and have left it in your paws to decide how you wish to proceed with your future.”

“And it’s a truth I readily accept,” Talitha nodded. “But I must repeat myself, in that I cannot forgive you now. The Zaket suns may do so, but not I. Only the future will tell me if I am capable of doing that.”

“Rightly so,” Yanat admitted, glancing over to Elkanah. He had his eyes on the datapad, lurking over the news article that he and Doctor Daloh had pulled up earlier.

“I only caught vague whispers of what happened to those two and what they tried to do to the High King while we were in the Temple of Rays and on the streets of the city,” he said. “It seems like Phaziah has upped his degree of depravity since I left the service of the Crown Army.”

“He’s always been that way,” Yanat said, shutting off the datapad so that it would provide no further distractions for the conversation that was soon to be had. “Just look at what he did to Shiphra. It was just that this time, he’d been physically attacked and wanted to set an example for his followers and frighten them into submission. That, or those in the Crown ranks are so blind in their loyalty to him that their bloodlust is just as strong as his. Even if those two weren’t acting directly on behalf of the Confederacy of Liberation, the fact that our movement’s sympathies have personally struck him within the confines of his own territory has frightened the High King, no doubt. But we can surely expect his retribution.”

“Which is why we need to act now in our plans involving you, Talitha, should you so desire to participate and claim or chase what is rightfully yours,” Doctor Daloh said. “There isn’t much time left before the Confederacy’s attack kicks off against Yerusa Province, and the odds are still iffy of that succeeding. Suns know that I hope it does, but even so, I can’t help but feel pessimistic after seeing that the High King swears retaliation.”

“And I suppose those plans involve me doing… what, exactly?” Talitha asked as she raised an eyebrow, knowing what was being expected of her, but hoping to hear it clearly from Doctor Daloh and Yanat, who had both urged her to act upon her lost heritage.

“Believe it or not, the Sivathi aren’t totally inclined to do away with the Crown of Siva entirely,” Doctor Daloh said. “They rant about the destruction of the monarchy in the Confederate Congress, but if it came time for action, what would they do when presented with the chance to destroy it, especially when the nobility still exists—and will always exist? Even the ones sympathetic to our cause would consider rising up to claim the twin-pronged crown. The tradition of High Kings and High Queens acting as herald of the Zaket suns has been embedded in our people for so long that I doubt anybody could really stand to see it done away with. Rather, at the end of the day, the Confederacy of Liberation must be made to see that those who wield the power of the Zaket suns are no longer doing so out of malice and oppression. It needs to be held by somebody who desires to share the blessings of the sun not as a tool of control, but as a means of liberation. A monarch that held that mindset would be revered like none before.”

“And the nobles in our ranks that could be made to see that such a leader exists may yet relinquish any claims to the crown that they may have harbored. Especially knowing that they themselves hail from pure noble bloodlines and may not be taken as seriously as one who has treaded the path of true hardship before,” Yanat explained, pointing at Talitha as he did so. He still did not want to force the matter down her throat and only wanted to give her the opportunity. It was up to her to choose what she wanted to do with the options presented to her. All this time, that was all he had hoped to do, and in that regard, he hoped he was still succeeding.

“Those nobles who have dwelt in their luxurious lives at the expense of those beneath them, and who have grown their dynasties on generations of such oppression; you expect them to rally behind me?” Talitha questioned, having seen with her own eyes the disdain that the nobility like Princess Aliya had held all slaves in. Why would those in the Confederacy be any different?

“Those in our ranks may still harbor some biases, to be sure, though there are one or two exceptions,” Yanat told her, referring to those like Duchess Zuleikha Jaasu as he leaned back in the booth and gazed upward at the ceiling, painted in the speckled pattern of a field of stars. “But most would rally to your identity because they are of the belief that the High King’s divinity is in question. That he broke the very laws he claims to masquerade as an upholder of, and that you are proof that the power of the Zaket suns does not belong to a single bloodline any longer—that is all they will need.”

“What about the other classes? Those without noble ties?” Elkanah said, partly speaking for himself out of curiosity for what the very middle class he hailed from would think of having Talitha in a position such as ruler.

“The upper classes loyal to the Confederacy are in much the same boat as the nobility regarding their sympathies, though mainly out of maintaining their vast wealth and influence and not so much out of religious dedication to the High King,” Yanat continued on. “It is a precarious tightrope that we have to walk to keep them appeased in order for them to continue financing our war against the Crown of Siva. Their support has continued on with promises that they’ll retain their financial and industrial strength in the wake of victory, and if this can be ensured by a new ruler that holds together the Confederacy loosely, then they would also be sure to support you.”

“The sermons from the Temple of Rays continue to echo that the glories of the Zaket suns are for all to share, and not to be hoarded by a few. You are the physical manifestation of the real will of the Watcher and the Kindler, Talitha. If the people know that somebody like them was given the opportunity to represent the Zaket suns, then their faith in our very identity as a civilization may be saved and purified; as it should have been when we first took to the stars beyond our own.” Doctor Daloh said, refilling her own glass of the Rovoth spirits from the pitcher at the table. “Many in the middle classes who are not loyal to the monarchy, the commoners, and liberated slaves—the ones who make up the bulk of our movement—they do not trust the Crown of Siva as it is because they know that no High King or High Queen would ever sympathize with their plight, for the do not know, nor care, about their suffering. They would flock to you and place their faith in a woman who has been through the struggles that they know all too well.”

“Like Sarahi,” Talitha mumbled, folding her handpaws together and looking down at the table solemnly as she referenced the folk tale she had witnessed in Gara Market Square from the old puppeteer.

“Very much so,” Doctor Daloh said in agreement. “That tale is as old as time amongst the castes, meant to give hope in dark times. To see it physically manifested would be powerful, indeed.”

“But how are we going to involve Talitha in any of this? What do your plans involve her with?” Elkanah asked, trying to steer things back towards answering his companion’s original line of inquiry.

“I had been discussing that with Doctor Daloh for some time,” Yanat said. He paused for a moment, looking gravely to the girl across the table in stern seriousness. “But only Talitha can speak for herself about how she wishes to proceed. It is what I’ve promised, in that she is given free will to choose how she wants to proceed. I ask you plainly: Even if the prospects and paths are still unclear, and destiny is uncertain, do you wish to see yourself as the focal point of the Confederacy, even potentially becoming its reigning monarch in the wake of victory?”

“If I refuse?” Talitha asked, looking up at him.

“Then we continue to fight this war as best we can and with what we have,” he replied. “You may do your best to disappear into the chaos ahead and lead a normal life, and I will do what I can to make sure the Crown of Siva can never lay a finger upon you, as I should have done so many years ago.”

Doctor Daloh raised an eyebrow as she looked on at Talitha inquiringly. “But something tells me that deep down, you don’t want to relegate yourself to that, do you?”

Talitha thought back to all the times she had stared up at the night skies in chains, longing and dreaming for something more and having made wish after wish upon falling stars for an escape from the humiliation and pain of slavery. Doctor Daloh was certainly right. She didn’t want to relegate herself to anonymity; not after all she’d striven for, not after how far she’d come, and especially not now with the information having been confirmed that she was the daughter of Phaziah Ishigar. With each passing second, it was becoming abundantly clear that the final wish she’d made before her flight into freedom had really come true. This meeting was evidence of that, and she only had to reach out and take it. But she didn’t want to do so for the greed of a throne, nor did she want to do it for fame and fortune. She wanted to do it because she was but one of billions who had been wrongly treated for generations. The wish that had come true was now perhaps a call for her to take up the mantle of responsibility and lead the Sivathi towards dignity and purpose for all.

Talitha leaned forward towards the former captain of the lifeguards, blinking several times and waiting several seconds as she let the severity of her upcoming response linger in the air, the pulsating bass from upstairs seeming to match the hammering of Yanat’s heart as he awaited the answer. “I wish to serve in that capacity and pursue those goals, Yanat,” she answered him, confirming to all that if she was to be the next Ishigar to wear the twin-pronged crown, she would see it done. “All my life I dreamt of something more for myself, and for all. If I can better the entirety of our people by claiming this identity that was stolen from me, then I will do so.”

At hearing the girl’s statement of affirmation, a colossal weight felt absolved from Yanat’s shoulders, and unexpectedly, he felt a smile spread across his lips. Even if she could not now forgive him for what he’d done in the past—as she’d so clearly said—with her new freedom she had chosen to pursue a fate that would see her reach out and claim what had been denied of her, and leading countless others to do the same for themselves. He could ask no more than that, and to see her do this would be the ultimate joy in the face of all the fears he still suffered from. She had chosen that, and no other. That was what mattered most to him.

“Then the Confederacy of Liberation shall be the driving force behind your ascension to something greater, young Talitha,” Doctor Daloh said with a confident nod of her head. “We must act swiftly.”

“What is to be done, then?” Elkanah asked, still vying for a concrete answer. Now that Talitha had given her avowal, he felt it was high time they owed her a proper explanation as to what would happen next.

“A proper introduction to the quadrumvirate needs to be arranged as soon as possible,” Doctor Daloh replied. “As I’m a member of that committee, I can have it arranged within a day. Once Zuleikha Jaasu, Sanak Teos, and Ghamir hear your story, they’ll probably arrange to have you brought before the entirety of the Confederate Congress to discuss how your identity is to be forged in our movement as a whole.”

“You expect the quadrumvirate to believe that I’m the daughter of Phaziah Ishigar on a whim and our claims alone; much less the entire Confederate Congress?” Talitha said in skepticism.

“Just as Doctor Daloh has confided in me as her close friend, she’s had little reason to doubt the story that I came forward with regarding you,” Yanat told her. “Similarly, as a member of the quadrumvirate, the others will have no reason to disbelieve her words, especially when we have others—Elkanah, Jophia, and myself—who know your identity to be true.”

“Convincing the rest of the Congress will be trickier,” Elkanah added, scratching his head in uncertainty. “I doubt some of them will be as willing to believe mere words and simply seeing Talitha with their own eyes.”

“That will not be a problem,” Doctor Daloh chimed in, crossing her arms and smirking, knowing that her occupation as a scientist and geneticist would prove valuable in this regard. “I have access to the laboratories of almost every college in the city. The Confederacy was more than inclined to permit me to operate there where vengeful colleagues and scientists from the Crown couldn’t reach me. We can take blood samples there and have it processed to confirm that you carry the lineage of the Ishigar line in your veins. All the delegates have never doubted my scientific research before, and I seriously doubt that after all my time on the quadrumvirate and in the Confederate Congress that they would do so upon seeing such concrete evidence brought before them.”

“And what happens when the Confederate Congress backs her? Do you think they’ll have any intention on wanting to pursue a system of governance where a new monarch loosely leads a confederation?” Elkanah asked.

“I think they would, even if such a system has never been tried or thought of,” Yanat told them both. “Perhaps a blending of the Confederacy and the Crown of Siva into some kind of constitutional monarchy may be in order, but there will come a time for a discussion on that. What matters is that they back her legitimacy in Phaziah Ishigar’s place, and I think that they will.”

“And when they do, word of her identity may spread beyond just Siva,” Doctor Daloh said. “The navy still moored at Rovoth may be more inclined to come and do battle with the Crown of Siva here and now if they know that a child of the Ishigar line exists that would alleviate the plight of the oppressed. That, in concert with the offensive against Yerusa Province, would be a backbreaker for the Crown.”

“Maybe you should be sent there, if the Congress would permit it, Talitha,” Yanat added on, throwing the idea of travelling to their colonial allies. “If your identity can be made to win the battle on the ground against your father, then sending you as an envoy to press the Confederacy’s allies to finally attack may yield a victory in the heavens.”

“And in doing that, securing the Zaket system as a whole for the Confederacy of Liberation,” Elkanah said, scratching his chin as he thought deeply of the implications. “For it is here that the Sivathi influence over the entire colonial system is centered. If this movement controls the homeworld and the home system, then a grand design may then be in place to spread our message of liberation throughout all the colonies.”

The immensity of what her pursuit of heritage entailed threatened to hit her like a slap in the face. Truly, she’d wished for something greater than what the past twenty years of misery had afforded her. Now, with the Confederacy dangling from a precarious position in a do-or-die counteroffensive, she was being thrust into the forefront of the conflict, having emerged from the lowest depths and now towards the greatest heights. She’d striven do help those who could not help themselves before, like when she’d taken Jophia’s place on the grindstone. Now, she had a chance to make such a difference for all the Sivathi, though the path would be fraught with challenges and a vengeful High King eager to snuff her out of existence.

“Whatever the Congress advises, I shall do,” Talitha admitted, readily acknowledging that she still did not know enough about herself or the implications of being an Ishigar to independently blaze her own trail. In time, however, she knew that she could take these steps on her own, and it had been of her own volition that she’d even stepped out to pursue this.

“Then we’ve done all we can do here tonight,” Yanat said, a genuine smile now upon his face that was no longer hampered by doubts or fears. “We know that you must be brought before the Congress so that you may be instructed in how best to wield your identity. Doctor Daloh will arrange the blood samples to be drawn and tested and then prepare a meeting with the rest of the quadrumvirate.”

“Then let us toast to the dawn of something great,” Doctor Daloh said, raising her glass and beckoning the others to do the same. Having never partaken in one before, it took a moment for Talitha to catch on, but soon enough she grasped her cup and raised it on high. “When the polar winter ends and the Zaket suns grace Halaj Province once again, it will be the first rays that shine down upon a changed civilization. A changed people. A changed history.”

She paused for a brief moment, eyeing Talitha and flashing her a quick wink. “And a changed woman. Free, and pursuing the dreams that are no longer dreams. Dreams that have become realities that she must only grasp with her paws and shall share bountifully with the Sivathi.”

“To Talitha!” Elkanah said emphatically, raising his own glass and downing it enthusiastically, to which the others cheered in agreement and did likewise.

As if destiny itself had been altered by the toast and the first titanic challenge to their plans had emerged, a sudden eruption of commotion emerged overhead at the ground floor of the club above their heads in the basement. The immediate moment of triumph and hope that had emerged in the wake of their meeting was interrupted with the shrieking of patrons, the stomping of footpaws fleeing for safety, and the eruption of gauss and plasma gunfire over the thumping bass of the dance floor. In fright, Doctor Daloh dropped her glass upon the floor, the thing shattering into hundreds of pieces upon impact as all their heads turned upward in the direction of the emerging chaos.

To be sure, the red-light district was a tumultuous place. But with the stakes having been raised now that Talitha knew about her own blood, there could be little doubt about what was transpiring. Yanat gritted his teeth at hearing the familiar sound of pulsing gauss weaponry, the rate of fire akin to the weaponry only issued to the lifeguards he had once served.

“Phaziah’s household troops are here,” he gravely uttered.