Private Behind A Cigarette

[Ivalyn Yvarro]

The scent of spiced candle wax still lingered in the air — warm, sharp, and clinging stubbornly to the polished wood and heavy drapery. It mingled now with the curling tendrils of smoke that drifted lazily from the black-label cigarra poised between Ivalyn's fingers. She exhaled slowly, the faint ember glowing at the tip before she tapped the ash into a shallow tray at her side.

Her grandmother's brand — sharp, bitter, familiar. A habit Ivalyn had taken up only in her most agitated moments. Tonight certainly qualified.

The emergency session had dragged deep into the night, leaving Ivalyn drained yet restless — her thoughts still churning with the sharp-edged demands of High Basileous Kelora Priestly. The woman had been relentless, her anxiety honed to a blade, pressing for answers Ivalyn herself barely had.

The Blackwall — that cursed, suffocating curtain of shadow — had swallowed seven Commonwealth worlds whole. Seven vital systems, severed from trade, from resources, from their families. Seven worlds left vulnerable to whatever madness stirred within that void.

Ivalyn took another slow drag from the cigarra, the smoke coiling through her lungs like a calming balm, yet no amount of ritual could quiet the gnawing sense of dread beneath her ribs.

With a flick of her wrist, she activated the holo-comm. The swirling blue light coalesced into the image of Lady Taeli Raaf — her grandmother's wife and a member of the Sith Order's Dark Council. A woman who rarely wasted words.

"Lady Raaf," Ivalyn began, her voice low, measured, and sharp around the edges, "I need answers."

Her fingers drummed against the desk — restless, calculated.

"I've just spent the last six hours being torn apart by my own council, and I can't say I blame them." Her eyes narrowed. "I have seven worlds trapped behind that bloody wall, and the Navy is scrambling to form a fourth fleet just to keep commerce from collapsing in the Outer Territories."

Ivalyn shifted slightly, setting the cigarra in the tray. The ember glowed like a dying star.

"You have always spoken of purpose, Lady Raaf," her voice dipped lower, colder. "But this? This feels reckless. This feels dangerous. And I will not have the Commonwealth dragged into another war without knowing what the hell we're stepping into."

She paused, fingers brushing absently against the cigarra's smooth surface.

Ivalyn chewed on the inside of her cheek, her teeth pressing hard enough to sting. A bitter laugh, dry and humorless, spilled from her lips — a quiet exhalation of disbelief and frustration. Balance help me... she thought darkly, her gaze flicking to the window where the faint glow of Qosantyra's skyline glimmered like embers in the night.

Her mother would have never let this happen. Nor would the Grand Moff before her. No — they would have known. They would have seen the signs, caught wind of the whispers that preceded this sort of madness. Because they understood what the Sith are capable of.

Ivalyn dragged hard on her cigarra, the burn of smoke biting the back of her throat. Her chest rose sharply as she exhaled in a huff — frustration vented into the air like a sputtering engine.

A link to the Dark Council wasn't enough — clearly. Taeli Raaf may have been her grandmother's wife, but proximity wasn't power, and Ivalyn had no intention of standing idle while her people were stranded behind that cursed wall.

No, she needed someone closer to the Emperor. Someone with leverage — someone who could speak directly to the heart of the Order. The Blackshield Mandate was already in motion, the Commonwealth Navy mobilizing as a fourth fleet took shape — but that wasn't enough. Ships alone couldn't outmaneuver politics, and the Sith thrived in a mire of power plays and manipulation.

Ivalyn crushed the cigarra out on a nearby tray, the ember sputtering and smearing into ash. The sharp scent lingered — smoke and spice mingling like the heavy tension in her chest.

Closer, she told herself. I need someone closer to the Emperor... before this gets worse.

The silence stretched too long — thin, taut, and suffocating like a wire pulled to its limit. Ivalyn exhaled a plume of smoke through her teeth, pacing the length of the room with sharp, deliberate strides. The scent of her cigarra mingled with the spiced candle's lingering warmth — comfort clashing with irritation.

Her thumb pressed firmly against her forehead, the dull ache that had been simmering since the Divan's emergency session now pulsing like a hammer behind her eyes. Perhaps her father, Djorn Bline had been right — The only good Sith is a dead Sith.

The old saying had felt like bitter rhetoric when she was younger — crude, reductive, the sort of thing men muttered in dimly lit rooms to make themselves feel powerful. But now? As seven of her worlds languished behind that accursed wall, as Kelora Priestly's relentless demands still echoed in her ears — that bitterness tasted less like ignorance and more like bitter prophecy.

What in the hells have they done?

Another drag, another exhale — the smoke curling upward, curling like the tendrils of uncertainty that knotted her thoughts. If war was coming — if the Sith's madness was unraveling the galaxy yet again — Ivalyn had no intention of waiting for the chaos to reach her doorstep.

Pausing mid-step, she turned back to the holo-comm, narrowing her gaze at the flickering silhouette still holding in static.

Taeli Raaf ​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Ivalyn Yvarro
​

In most cases, she was the definition of what the Sorceress and Sith Lady who would sit upon the Dark Council would appear as. Stately, elegant, reserved until her words were needed. Mysterious and almost aloof in bearing, amusement or irritation never far from her eye even as she absorbed and processed all that was said around her and distilled the true meaning of the words spoken around her. She was that in almost all cases...

Except when she was woken up at four in the morning, except when she was only on her third hour of sleep because she had a wife who needed her needs seen to and toddlers that had interrupted said needs to for their own.

Hair tousled from sleep, a robe wrapped around her, eyes blinking as she wished for tea as she listened to Ivalyn vent about the fact several Commonwealth worlds were now behind Empyrean's Blackwall. She could understand the pressure the younger woman was under, even empathize with it, but part of her, the part that was praying that Fiolette or the staff knew her need for caffeine, would like to remind her that trying to govern Commonwealth worlds in direct Sith territory was going to be difficult. But she didn't, even as her nose curled at the sight of the cigarra smoke.

"Empyrean finished the Blackwall stormseeds and fleets and went about closing the borders with them," she said, rubbing her eyes. "I'm not happy about it either, Ivalyn, for a whole host of reasons. Least of which is it disrupts my development plans and most of which it split the Commonwealth apparently."

She would stifle a yawn.

"The idea behind it, so I'm told, is to ensure no enemy agents can slip into the region. High ranking officials and Sith and those granted permission can pass through it with Attuned wayfinders. Otherwise the void storms will obfuscate all communications and travel, even destroying ships that try, and if the storms don't, the patrolling fleets will."

Another yawn, unable to be stopped.

"My apologies, Jaq and Morri were being particularly attentive tonight. We have a few options open to us before anything... rash is done."

 

[Ivalyn Yvarro]

Attire​

The scent of clove and spiced tobacco hung like silk in the air, catching in the early light that kissed the Qosantyran skyline. Ivalyn stood framed by the open balcony doors, her black-label cigarra burning softly between her fingers. The city was just beginning to stir below, but here, in this rarefied hour before dawn, the world felt suspended—held taut between one breath and the next.

"My apologies for the hour," she began, her tone level, elegant despite the hour and the rising fatigue in her bones. "And for the intrusion into your rather animated domestic peace. Though I must say, I find your definition of 'attentive' remarkably charitable." Ivalyn took in a breath and exhaled, doing her best not to feel the headache that lingered at the forefront of her mind.

She allowed a small smile, but it did not reach her eyes.

"The fact that Empyrean has raised a veil over half my territory without so much as the courtesy of a communiqué is, as you might expect, a touch galling. And now, I am told, I must acquire a sorcerer's trinket to traverse stars that already bears my flag."

A pause. She turned, exhaling slowly through her nose as she watched the soft flicker of city lights stretch toward the horizon.

"I have seven worlds—seven—that I cannot reach. Cut off. Silent. Not by act of war or treachery, but by decree. By policy."

She flicked a bit of ash into the waiting crystal tray and continued, her voice quieter now, though no less precise.

"I understand the Empire's need for caution. I understand the delicate latticework of war and fear we all tread. But if I may speak plainly, Lady Raaf and I believe I may, this is the sort of action that unravels nations. Quietly. Subtly. Not with fanfare, but with doubt. With the silence that follows after no explanation is given."

She inhaled again, briefly, the glow of the cigarra lighting the lines of her face.

"You are one of the few voices in this Order I will still listen to. But I must ask you plainly: was the Commonwealth simply to wake up to this new reality? Divided. Weakened. Expected to play along?"

She set the cigarra in a crystal dish, ash trailing like a ribbon.

"Whatever comes next must be tempered with foresight, or the consequences shall be far more dramatic than either of us would like. And I do not think that's a crisis you want on your hands. Not while the House Yvarro still remembers how to wield its own knives."

Her gaze softened, but only slightly.

She stepped back from the railing, only to pause at the sound of someone approaching. The Grand Vizier turned, just slightly, catching the familiar figure approaching. Merryn. Her partner. Her anchor. Dressed in a robe, still touched with sleep and the amused annoyance of the woken.

"Go back to sleep, darling," Ivalyn murmured, tone softening as she reached to brush Merryn's arm with the back of her hand.

"Oh yes, sleep," came Merryn's dry reply, arching a brow, "while you're out here with a smoke stick, confiding in my superior."

"I'm simply informing her that she and the Emperor may have accidentally unmade my government," Ivalyn answered breezily.

"I'll fetch the tea. And check if Iskendyr is still asleep," Merryn replied, stepping away with a kiss pressed just behind Ivalyn's ear. "Try not to declare war while I'm gone."

Ivalyn offered a tight smile, and once her beloved was gone, turned back to the holo, her face settling once more into its composed mask.

"You mentioned options," she said, evenly. "Let us start there."

Taeli Raaf​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Ivalyn Yvarro​

"I doubt a discussion this early in the morning requires the foreboding details of diaper changes and bad dreams," she remarked wryly, a touch of amusement in her eyes briefly before it faded from both sleepiness and the gravity of the call. She would listen to Ivalyn carefully as she spoke, an ever so slight frown forming. She understood why it was galling, she argued against the policy and project until she was blue in the face, but ultimately what the Emperor wanted the Emperor got. And yet...

"I would remind you that," she said quietly, equally as gentle as she heard Merryn stirring in the background, "when you and Kelora proposed expanding the Commonwealth to its fourth sector and that included worlds within actual Sith territory that were once in the First Order, I was for it but also warned you that controlling and influencing those worlds would be harder. It is not only the Commonwealth flag on them, so yes decree and policy made by the Empire's ruler could and would affect those worlds more than your other three sectors. Regardless, we both know of those seven worlds, most of them were border worlds with neither strong connections or facilities for the Commonwealth as of yet. This is about Najarka primarily because it's the flagship for the clean energy project, so options.

"Option number one," she would begin, ticking it off on her finger, "would be simply for the rest of the Commonwealth to be drawn into the Blackwall as well. I say this is option one because it's the one right there and present, but I also know it is not one either you or Kelora would want to pursue without massive alterations to existing agreements. But an option nonetheless."

A second finger.

"Option two, you utilize the role of governor within the Sith Assembly and get a law or decree passed that grants an exception to Commonwealth worlds to the Blackwall or creates a means to more readily pass through it officially. You would need to garner majority support, of course, and that could prove difficult due to the Commonwealth's splendid isolation, but doable. I would sponsor such an effort of course, and that would likely sway at least close to a majority of support. But you and Kelora would likely have to cut some deals or agreements to get the rest."

A third finger.

"Option three, the Commonwealth just goes around the Blackwall. A wall is a wall is a wall, and all of them can be circumvented in some ways. Merryn has likely not discussed Project Tezzeret to you because it's a top secret development project in Aurora and I've forbidden any discussion on it until its ready, but I'll allow her to discuss it with you as a solution to the Commonwealth's issue. It wouldn't get rid of the Blackwall, but it only stops hyperspace travel. Nothing it could do if, say, a sub-hyperspace portal created from dark energy tore a portal open between worlds. She can describe the Aether Nodes and the new drive system being developed in that in more detail if that's something to be considered."

A fourth finger.

"Option four, the Commonwealth merely cuts ties with those worlds until the Blackwall is eventually removed. Empyrean will not rule forever, and his eventual successor won't stick to such archaic methods of control. Those worlds, besides Najarka, were always fringe worlds for the Commonwealth and the First Order before it, not as integral to the Commonwealth as say the Home Sector worlds. Not a palatable option, but as with option one, it is one available."

A fifth finger.

"Option five, the Commonwealth goes to war for those worlds and deepens the crisis even further, for every party involved. This, at least for me, should be the option avoided at all costs. Nobody wins from such a struggle, only our enemies do."

She would go to lower her hand but instead move it up to her mouth to cover another yawn. She smelled it first before she saw it, a cup of steaming tea placed into her free hand by her wife, delivered from the kitchens. She would give her a look of such love and adoration, from behind the sip of fortifying caffeine, and then turn back to the holo of Ivalyn.

"Those are at least the first five options that spring to my mind, but there are perhaps others I could think of once the tea kicks in and the brain is awake properly. There are solutions, far more creative solutions, to the problem that we can pursue."

 

[Ivalyn Yvarro]

The horizon beyond Qosantyra remained bathed in a still indigo, the faint promise of morning yet to arrive. Within the drawing room, only the low glow of wall sconces lent the moment its shape, casting golden light upon the long folds of Ivalyn's robe and the polished curves of the antique tea service now resting on the console beside her. She stood, one arm draped casually across her midsection, the other lifting a fresh cigarra to her lips—though for once, she did not light it.

Instead, she listened.

Patiently. Quietly. As Taeli Raaf laid out the five options with a precision Ivalyn appreciated—even admired, though she might not admit so at this unholy hour.

When the Sorceress finished, Ivalyn exhaled softly—not a sigh, not quite, but something contemplative. Her tone, when she spoke, was low, smooth, and measured like silk drawn across a blade.

"Lady Raaf," she said at last, inclining her head ever so slightly, her voice laced with both gratitude and steel, 'you are—unfailingly—astute.'

She crossed to the balcony doors once more, pushing them open just enough for the cooler air to sweep into the room, the scent of rain and salt mingling with the last curls of her cigarra. Beyond the city, lights shimmered across the Golden Strand, casting the river in hues of amber and indigo.

"As for your first option, yes, I expect you knew I would balk at the very notion. Absorbing the Commonwealth into the Blackwall would undo years of work, sever hundreds of carefully laid trade lines, and send a chilling message to every world not already behind that dreadful veil. The Home Sector alone would revolt." She turned slightly, lifting her brows with wry understatement. "Kelora would be beside herself. No, let us table that one as... prohibitively unpalatable."

She paced again, her fingers lightly brushing the fabric of the curtain as she moved. "Option two intrigues me, though I do not relish the prospect of playing courtier to the Sith Assembly. Still, if sponsorship from your quarter could be secured, I would be a fool not to at least consider it. But it would require careful calculus—precise, high-stakes negotiation. And some favors I would rather not yet call in." Her lips thinned slightly. "Yet, if it must be done..."

"As for option three…" She turned then to glance toward the sleeping quarters, where Merryn had long since disappeared. "Tezzeret," she echoed, the word spoken like a precious secret unwrapped in the dark. "That Merryn kept this from me is almost charming. I look forward to hearing more. If this solution provides even a threadbare path, we will pursue it with all due urgency."

Her gaze sharpened just slightly.

"Option four," she said, voice quiet now, nearly a whisper, "is not a choice I can stomach. Abandoning those worlds—Varonat, Najarka, Ione—would fracture the Commonwealth beyond repair. It is not merely a question of strategic necessity; it is identity. Our citizens must believe we can protect them. That we will never forget them." Her fingers curled gently around the back of the chair. "If we give them up now, we may as well admit the experiment has failed."

A pause.

"And the fifth option," Ivalyn murmured, her gaze hardening in the low light, "would be the death of us all. The Commonwealth is not ready for war—not in that sense. And I suspect neither is the Sith Order." She paused again, her voice dropping into a refined, cutting softness. "Though I will say this: If someone intends to shatter my nation from within, they should be prepared for what happens when I begin making alliances elsewhere."

The silence that followed lingered with weight.

"Iskendyr sleeps soundly," Merryn wandered back, having re-joined Ivalyn there on the balcony. "Haven't started a war, I hope."

A small tug at the corner of her lips. Ivalyn whispered, "perish the thought, my love."

"Of the options available." At last, she turned back to the holo. Her expression had gentled somewhat, but her words were no less deliberate. "Assembly, and... Tezzeret."

Her brow raised as she looked over to Merryn expecting something of an explanation.

Taeli Raaf ​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Ivalyn Yvarro
​

Another reason, and she was not about to say it out loud, that she didn't desire option five in the slightest was that because of the political investment she had made into the Commonwealth, the emotional investment to reconnect with her greater family, it was almost certain that if the order for war came down, she would be forced to lead the campaign herself as both a lesson from the Emperor and punishment for failure. Not exactly something she would ever want to do. As Ivalyn went through her responses to each of the initial options presented to her, and how she felt about them, it was good that she recognized that two and three were the most viable to keeping things stable.

"For whatever legislation you develop for the Assembly, I will most certainly sponsor it," she said easily. "And if I am required for any of the negotiations, whether in person or as a point of leverage, you may call upon me at your convenience."

It was also good that she recognized that working through the Assembly would require careful political maneuvering and negotiations, especially with the Commonwealth trying to keep the Sith at a comfortable arm's reach away. That caution had served it well, but Ivalyn would need to do some work to get a majority for a bill that would give the Commonwealth admittedly an outsized advantage. It could be done, but it was going to cost something to do.

Her interest in Tezzeret, as Merryn came back into the room, the quiet pause as her business second-in-command looked at her with surprise that she brought it up. Taeli gave her a small nod that she could explain.

"As Lady Raaf revealed, regardless of marketing plans and reveals for the CIG or any of our carefully protected prototypes from even leaking of existence," Merryn would catch herself, knowing that it was being done in circumstances that called for creative solutions. But her prepared roll out of the technology, the dramatic unveiling at the next Expo... it had been so masterfully prepared. "Project Tezzeret is Aurora Industries' answer to Locke and Key's hypergate developments. It's our teleportation and sub-hyperspace research and development program, something we have taken great pains to keep hidden so no one knows what we were working on. And as Lady Raaf knows, the prototypes weren't meant to be discussed yet..."

Merryn would sigh. She could probably get Ivalyn to stay quiet about it so she could still do her marketing campaign, and with the galaxy starting to unravel current hyperlanes, they could easily gain great influence with their fellow Guild members with a solution.

"Aether Nodes are designed to allow instantaneous energy transfers from one point in space to another through nano-scaled sub-hyperspace connections, similar to quantum entanglements. It would let someone developing energy resources on, let's say Najarka, to instantly send energy to Dosuun or Mephout or any other world equipped with the proper power stations without having to store it and transport it by ship." She would look at Ivalyn sheepishly. "I was going to reveal them to you next week, but here we are."

"As for the new drive system, it makes use of dark energy and quintessence to create temporary portals that travel through the galaxy, bending space-time, rather than across it, completely rendering the Blackwall redundant," Taeli would add. "A ship equipped with it would, for all practical terms, be able to travel from one point in the galaxy to the other in an instant. There's other tech we're developing that I'm sure the Commonwealth would love, but to spare Merryn and her marketing push that we were going to start in the lead up to the Expo, I'll save that for when it's officially announced."

 

[Ivalyn Yvarro]

Taeli Raaf​

Ivalyn stood by the wide arched window, the night beyond painted in hues of bruised violet and soft pearl, the lights of Qosantyra glittering like scattered embers across velvet darkness. The scent of Merryn's tea lingered in the air, blending with the faintest trace of cigarra smoke, the last vice of a woman whose life had no room left for indulgence.

She had listened, truly listened, to Taeli's words with a diplomat's restraint and a daughter's discernment. The offer of legislative sponsorship was not only welcome, it was vital. In this hour, with the Commonwealth's cohesion threatened and her own credibility walking a tightrope before the Assembly and Her Majesty, Lady Raaf's support became more than politics. It was reprieve.

Ivalyn exhaled slowly, a hand brushing over her temple as Merryn spoke, her tone one she knew well — the weariness of brilliance burdened by secrecy. It was in that soft confession, the kind shared not with officials but with confidants, that the details of Project Tezzeret began to unfold. And Ivalyn listened, not as a Grand Vizier, but as someone desperate to find a way back to her people.

"Aether Nodes," she repeated softly, as if tasting the words. "Sub-hyperspace energy transfers… my darling, you do choose the most poetic of scientific pursuits." She glanced at Merryn with a faint, rueful smile, before allowing her brow to arch in quiet disbelief at the scale of what was being proposed.

"Teleportation across the void. The ability to circumvent the Blackwall. Not by defiance, but by simply… not being bound by it." She returned to her chair, her posture still the very model of cultivated elegance, but her voice carried a new undertone, a tremor of something close to awe.

Then, her gaze lifted toward Lady Raaf, calm and direct. "I had begun to wonder if we were consigned to suffocate under this storm, politically, economically, spiritually. But this…" She tapped her fingertips gently against the side of her tea cup. "This restores more than hope. It restores leverage."

Her tone darkened slightly, not in malice, but in certainty. "If what Merryn describes can be scaled, stabilized, and secured… then the Commonwealth would no longer be a vassal out of necessity. We could reconnect our sector worlds, reach beyond the cordons. Not with defiance, but with quiet resolve."

She glanced toward her partner again, softer now. "You've kept this close, as you were right to do. But it would appear, Merryn, we've found ourselves precisely at the moment where this may not just be a scientific marvel. It may well be a sovereign imperative."

Looking back to Lady Raaf, Ivalyn's voice dropped just a note, that steel wrapped in silk. "I know what it is to hold onto something dangerous for the right moment. This, this is that moment."

Then, with that signature crispness and aristocratic composure, she straightened her shoulders and added: "So tell me, Lady Raaf. If we are to usher in this quiet revolution, who else must we bring into the circle? Do we keep this to ourselves, perhaps?"

A beat.

"Because if the Commonwealth is to tear a hole in a wall built by gods, I'd like very much to know whose hands will steady the foundation when it comes tumbling down."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Ivalyn Yvarro
​

"It's not truly a matter of who else to bring into the circle of knowledge on this project," Taeli would reply, looking over at Fiolette for a moment. "You may, of course, inform Kelora about the project and the ministers that need to absolutely know. The true issue for this, as you call it, revolution is a matter of scale, production, and resources. This isn't a system you're going to be able to retroactively install on a pre-existing starship, not with its complexities and need for integration across a ship's entire structure, nor is something smaller ships or even commercial civilian craft will be able to utilize due to the power constraints. Brand new models of ships will be needed, or at the very least completely retooled variants of existing models, new production and dark energy resource gathering localized in Commonwealth space, it's a grand undertaking and these are merely the first steps."

The prototype Crucius drive had been tested and seen to work, though it had pained her to enlist Bloodborn's assistance in testing the technology. Fiolette still hadn't let it go yet.

"We realize how crucial this technology and the Aether Nodes would be for the Commonwealth, love, but there is a price attached to it," Merryn would add quietly. "With how sensitive it is and how expensive it is to just make a few of the devices, Aurora Industries would need a bigger slice of the market in Commonwealth space, contracts and such and agreements with Ryssa and Primo Victorian, or... further access to the classified sector."

She would glance over at the image of Taeli.

"The choice is yours, Ivalyn, on what price you and Kelora decide to pay for the drive system," Taeli would continue. "The Aether Nodes we will provide as our contribution for the clean energy project. We will even assist with the construction of the requisite power stations."

 

[Ivalyn Yvarro]

Ivalyn's thumb rubbed thoughtfully against the top of her brow. "Of course," she murmured, voice cool but edged with exhaustion. She winced, she was already in the midst of a very long series of negotiations with the Navy on overhauling their ships.

She exhaled and turned her gaze to the holographic image of Taeli Raaf, her posture impeccably composed despite the mounting stress. "Well, I suppose, then, that I should be so fortunate that my grandmother was quite the prolific shipwright," she remarked dryly, a wry smile ghosting at the corners of her lips.

There were, indeed, many hull types to choose from for such a project, some more ancient than others, all requiring delicate political handling. "Indeed," she continued, "and I fear with the Blackwall, we may be caught in our own…" Her voice trailed off, the weight of uncertainty pressing down. "Damned if we do, damned if we don't, situation."

With a sigh, Ivalyn rose from her chair and moved deliberately toward the bedroom. She returned a moment later, her presence calm and measured, holding her cigarra case with practiced grace. Selecting a Black Label cigarra, she tapped it against the case and set it between her lips.

She lit it with the small integrated lighter, and the end glowed softly as she inhaled. She exhaled a slow, steady stream of smoke, letting it curl languidly toward the ceiling. "There is always a price," she said, offering a small, tight smile. She knew too well the precarious nature of her position, no, it was far from ideal.

"Classified sec—" Ivalyn stopped abruptly and let out a bark of laughter, brittle and strained. "You want access to—" She caught herself, taking another drag, and tried again. "You want—"

She squeezed her eyes shut, her index fingers pressing against them as though that might banish the stress. "I really should have just taken the offer to run Mother's little humanitarian expedition," she muttered. Another exhale, the smoke curling from her lips like an old confidant. "Right. I will have to talk to Her Majesty, and, of course, Aunt Ryssa."

"But it isn't much of a choice, is it?" she remarked, rhetorical and bitter. "I'm up against a bloody wall, and the wolves, quite literally."

She continued, her voice steadying with resolve, "with a nation that is about to hit a brink. We—" She caught herself again, her mind whirling. "I have to look at how we operate now and find ways to make sure we maximize our potential."

She knew Taeli's offer. She had heard it clearly: aether nodes would be provided, even assistance with power stations. "These power stations will be delisted, obviously," she said, thinking aloud now. "And the nodes, well, we can rename them, something more palatable to the average citizen."

Balance. Was she truly considering it? She was, because what choice did she have?

Taeli Raaf ​