Kareivis: Warrior

CHAPTER 20: REMEMBER YOUR PLACE

Sky and Muhali opened a communication link with Inthia, Vesma appeared, and she said in a stern and commanding voice: “…status report!”

Muhali and Sky were taken aback for a moment until their eyes landed on Lietus by Vesma’s side in all of her trouble making glory. Muhali began to worry, she retreated into her minds cocoon, and she began to ask herself: "What was Lady Lietus doing in the throne room of Inthia? Doesn’t Vesma know better? No one besides the King, Queen and the Council of Inthia are allowed in the royal throne room of Kariai. So what is Lietus doing there?”

After moments of deafening silence she snapped back into her senses and she started saying: “Phase three is successfully complete my Princess. From the systems we infiltrated we have discovered that the armada they have placed in front of their jump gates is just a ruse to draw out Zionas. They want to know how his system functions in order to develop counter measures to defend against him. I have already sent a signal through to Zionas that he should not do any more perimeter sweeps in Channidae territory. We have further discovered that the Channidae intend to attack three locations simultaneously. They have devised to capture the crowned princess to get her out of the way, and for now they believe that I am her. We know the two locations they will attack are Rammenu and Zeme. They believe these planets to be focal strategic points that make up the strength of Inthia. We are sure that Inthia is not one of the intended targets. In light of this, it is my recommendation that we withdraw most of the remaining forces that had been preparing for the impending attack on Inthia. We need to distribute those between Rammenu and her sister planet Rammese. I strongly believe that Rammese is the third target since it is one of our main mining colonies.”

“Why did you give Zionas such an instruction without informing me first?” Vesma responded as her eyes burned with anger.

“With all due respect my Princess, as much as we can create and control technology we must not forget the prince of the Channidae is hybrid. If they were to get hold of Zionas’s signal, they could infiltrate his system and corrupt his core and his programming. If that were to happen, we would be finished. A decision had to be made, and I made it. I do not apologise for that.” Muhali replied calmly yet with a certain tone of authority. As Muhali was speaking, Vesma had remembered the charade that she was putting up for the sake of Lady Lietus and her friendship. She realized who she was, and she quickly changed the subject, “What of the matter with Masters Kilnus and Varens?” “I will connect Rehsa now, and she will give you a report.” Skydas answered. “What do you mean Rehsa will give me the report?” Vesma asked in a shocked tone. “Yes, about that. Muhali placed Rehsa in charge of the search after the young Masters had failed to make use of the time they were given.” replied Skydas. “You little insolent outsider, how dare you make purebloods take orders from a servant girl…” And just like that Lietus inserted herself into the conversation. Skydas quickly jumped in front of Muhali, who wanted to once and for all put Lietus in her place and he stopped her from responding. “Allow me to remind you who you are, my Lady Lietus. You are an inconsequential individual in this meeting. Your thoughts in these matters were unsolicited and are unappreciated. You neither have the right nor the grounds to address us. It is my understanding that you are not part of the coming council of Inthia nor are you a member of the royal household. And with that in mind little girl, you should know your place. So what business do you have here? I have warned you before and let this be your final warning, if you ever speak out of turn with her Royal Highness Princess Muhali the King will hear about it and you will suffer greatly. Furthermore, I have spoken to the royal guard to escort you out of the throne room and the palace since you have decided to taint it with your outsider presence.” It did not take seconds before the six royal guard stormed into the throne room. Without saying anything, they surrounded Lady Lietus in a carefully measured row of three men to her left and three men to her right. As Lady Lietus was being escorted out of the throne room, she noticed that Rehsa had already been connected. She burned with seething hatred for Muhali for embarrassing her in front of a servant. She glanced back one more time before exiting and she saw them discussing as though she was never even there. She promised herself that she would get her pound of flesh someday and that Muhali would know the true meaning of the term ‘…hell hath no fury like Lietus the flower of Inthia, scorned.’ During the discussion, Rehsa revealed that from the evidence they had gathered from tracking Lukos, they had discovered that Lukos was with a woman and five children. The woman was most likely his human companion. The eldest child was a teenage female around the age of sixteen followed by another teenage girl around the age of fourteen. The third child was also a girl around the age of seven and lastly two young infant boys approximated to be a year and some months old. Rehsa further explained that she believed Lukos ran because he knew which protocols would be initiated once the Channidae made their move against Zeme. The young Masters once more displayed the sense of perplexity to what Rehsa was saying. It was true that they had in some ways assisted Rehsa in tracking Lukos, but they had no insight into his psyche, and therefore they had no clue as to why he had decided to go on the run. They were realizing just how little they knew about the responsibilities that would one day be handed over to them by their father. Seeing the confusion on their faces, Skydas felt somewhat sympathetic toward them. And he decided to give them a short lesson with regard to the protocols to be followed before Inthia could declare a state of war with a planet or a species. He explained that Zeme is a part of Inthian territory. As such, the protocols of declaring war are slightly different. He further explained that before war can be declared with a colony, a peace-keeper would be sent to the colony to commence peace negotiations. The peace-keeper would state the intentions of Inthia to the negotiating ambassadors of the colony. And if the colony would cause any physical harm to the peace-keeper or, for whatever reason, take the peace-keeper captive, they would have declared war against Inthia. Such an act would warrant Inthia to evacuate all the Inthia-born inhabitants without their families. He explained that this was the likeliest reason that would propel Lukos to run, because he would not have wanted to leave his new family behind. He continued to explain that Lukos may have forgotten that either the heir to the throne of Inthia or the reigning king of Inthia could grant asylum to the family members of the Inthian-born soldiers. He also explained that the reason why the group that went to earth was so large was for that very reason. Their orders were to catalogue all humans that have relations with the Inthians on earth and provide them with the option to take up asylum with Inthia in the event of a Channidae invasion.