Untitled - Chapter 19 - Suppressed Memories - Seg.2

{segment 2 of chapter 19 - Duvavi}1

Surprisingly, I’m in a good mood the day after Avalia presents herself to the public. As I watched her speech from my place behind her, I was almost glad she stole the throne from me. Almost. The way this girl acts, I’ve no doubt that this is the most the Insiders will have trusted the government in a long time. So now I walk through the Triumph with a spring in my step; the City trusts Avalia, and today is the first day I will assert my control over her. Perhaps simply being an Adviser isn’t so bad; I get to make decisions, but will receive no blame if anything goes wrong. Well, for now it’s not so bad, but I refuse to be denied the throne for too much longer.2

I stop at my destination and knock three times on the heavy door. It’s the door to the Royal Apartments, which I continue to tell myself I am only lending to Avalia temporarily.3

“Enter,” comes the voice, and I promptly do so, closing my door softly behind me. Avalia is kneeling on the floor of my sitting room in front of the low table, surrounded by old books. In her hands is a particularly large one with photos of people in it. As I get closer, I recognise Daisitar and Natale, Avalia’s dead parents in the pictures. 4

“You have your mother’s eyes, Highness,” I observe. “But what are you looking at those for? Your parents are long since past, and we mustn’t dwell on the past.”5

She looks up from the book. “I… just wanted to see what they looked like,” she says. “But when I saw them, I wanted to know more about them and ended up reading all these biographies,” she smiles. “And I… found this.” She reaches into the pocket of her thick blue robe and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper, handing it to me. “It was crushed behind one of the books.”6

Turning the paper over, I see the little picture of three people; Daisitar, Natale, and a small child in their arms. I gasp softly, realising why Avalia kept it. I thought all of the photos of them with a child had been destroyed, but one must have been accidentally overlooked. Resisting the urge to tear it up then and there, I hand it back to the girl. “How wonderful, that you found a photo with you in it. Family photos are very rare, you know, until the heir turns eighteen.” How easy it would be to kill her right now. 7

She nods and wordlessly puts it back in her pocket. “Now, what is it that you want of me, Duvavi?” If I took her by surprise, got a good grip around her neck, she wouldn’t have time to fight me off. Then I would be Emperor again. No. I must bide my time. Watch and wait, until the time is right and no one will suspect me.8

“You’ve been called to your first government meeting,” I reply. “You need to hurry; we can’t start without the Empress.”9

She sends me a wry look and I briefly wonder if she knows we’ve actually had many meetings without her even after she was declared Empress. “Alright, Duvavi,” she says, putting down her book carefully. “Though next time, I’d like at least a day’s notice of all meetings the government has planned.”10

“Of course, your Highness.” I say it through my teeth. Well, she’ll be put in her place this morning at the meeting, and then she won’t feel so bold that she can give me orders. I must bide my time. Not long, now. I open the door for the girl and bow as she walks through. From there, we make our way to the lift and to the eighth floor. We’ve taken the lift that runs on the opposite side of the building that the other lifts run on, because this one has direct access to the private rooms of the Triumph. The meeting room we’re headed for lies behind the room we usually meet with members of the public in, such as the Head Mech Specialist, Logan, or an honoured Spy.11

But the meeting room is no less extravagant just because the public never sees it. The walls are a calming blue with gold carved cornices and a glass table in the shape of an oval. All of the politicians are there already, waiting for us, and Avi sits at the end of the table with me at her right hand. 12

“Welcome to the Empress,” Pursh grins from the other end of the table, showing his metallic teeth proudly. Everyone claps politely and murmurs their agreement. I smile back at all of them, but I hate them. Every single one of them. These parasites are the ones who decided they would take the crown from me and give it to the Outsider savage. They were on my side from the day I came into power, but the moment they felt they were at risk, they immediately allowed themselves to be manipulated at my expense. They’re loyal to me only when it suits their needs. 13

The sight of them fills me with disgust; I would have them all killed if it would help anything. The funny thing is they think they’re safe and that there’s nothing I can do to them. Well, they forget that I had to get rid of Avalia’s family somehow all those years ago. I still have contact with the one who performed that task for me, and this assassin is a loyal servant whose life is devoted only to my family.14

But then there’s the one who manipulated the politicians in the first place. Logan. I’ve wished many times that I never promoted him to such a high position, but one can only move forward, so I’ll simply have to find a way to dispose of him along with Avalia. When the time is right.15

As I emerge from my thoughts, I realise that Pursh has started the meeting. 16

“The first item we must discuss today is…” he runs his finger down a piece of paper in front of him.17

“Excuse me,” Avalia pipes up. Everyone turns to look at her and she pretends not to notice. “Shouldn’t I, being the Empress, be running these meetings?” Ah, I realise. She knows we’re going to try and use her only as a figurehead and doesn’t want this to happen. Like a true Outsider, she won’t go down without a fight. This should be interesting.18

“Of course, Highness,” Pursh says. “But other people in line for the throne would know exactly what to do right now, whereas you are yet to learn. I will run the meetings until you are considered ready to take on the full weight of the crown.”19

“Until who considers me ready?” she asks calmly. Her determination is really quite admirable. “I’ve felt no weight from the crown as yet, Pursh. How am I to learn anything if I don’t even make an attempt?”20

The man pauses, and then smiles slowly. “Of course, your Highness. Feel free to begin.”21

There’s a short silence while she looks quite surprised, but she nods quickly. “Alright. The first item we must discuss today is…” Her eyes flicker to the paper sitting under Pursh’s hand on the other end of the table. “What is the first item, Pursh?” she asks. 22

His smile widens and he addresses the whole table once more. “The first item is the terrorist’s activity. Or rather, lack of activity. Do we think he’s given up, or is he concocting some new scheme, as he told Logan?” 23

I watch from the corner of my eyes as Avalia opens her mouth to speak and decides better of it. She’ll be doing that a lot from now on. “I think it very unlikely that Torus has given up,” I smirk. “On the small chance that he has, we have one less thing to worry about. But I think we must still be vigilant. Sicon, are the defences on the Government System still thorough?”24

“Nothing could get through our defences unnoticed, your… Duvavi.” I nod, keeping a straight face, but it pleases me that someone is still trying to get out of the habit of calling me ‘Your Highness’.25

Winston stirs. “We must also consider the fact that there have been no mech revolts for some time now, too. No Outsider attacks… nothing. Surely they are somehow related to Torus. Perhaps Torus is causing the mechs to go berserk, and also has some alliance with the Outsiders.”26

“Impossible!” Valetish pipes up. “How could anyone have that much power, uniting all of the City’s fears?”27

“Though the City fears nothing,” I put in.28

“It’s simply impossible. No one in the City would be able to meet with the Outsiders. Perhaps Torus controls the mech revolts, perhaps the Outsiders do. But all three can not be related.”29

“Actually,” Pursh thinks aloud, “Valetish is quite right. No Insider has any contact with Outsiders, except for the spies, but they never see the same gang twice. We can disregard that possibility completely.”30

“Hmph,” the woman nods, crossing her arms smugly.31

Sicon leans forward so that his bald head gleams in the light. “We can’t really disregard anything, can we? Perhaps Torus can be linked to the Outsiders in other ways. Maybe he is an Outsider.” The politicians are outraged by this; they all begin denying it at once. 32

“Don’t even say that. It’s impossible,” I say. “No Outsider has ever managed to stay in the City alive. If there was one within the walls, we’d know.” Everyone voices their agreement, and Sicon quietens down, shrinking back into his chair.33

Avalia frowns. “How can you be so sure?” she asks, making everyone start staring her down again for raising her voice above theirs. “You can’t prove that this terrorist isn’t an Outsider, yet you still ignore the possibility,” she says. “If he were an Outsider, you would now never discover his identity, because you would refuse to believe the truth. Maybe he has dark skin and blonde hair. Maybe he likes eggs for breakfast. Hell, maybe he’s female!”34

“What?!”35

“A female terrorist?”36

“Impossible!”37

Avalia raises her eyebrows incredulously. “All I’m saying is that you can’t just rule things out because you couldn’t imagine them, or the chances are slim. Outsiders are more capable than you realise; certainly more capable of violence. They’re as smart as you or me, and they certainly have motivation to terrorise the City.”38

“Interesting, how she doesn’t consider herself one of them,” Pursh observes. 39

Valetish agrees. “It’s easy to forget she’s a crazy Outsider when she’s all cleaned up and covered in silk.”40

I’m amazed at how quickly the government is turning on her. They’ll want me to be Emperor again soon without my even trying. The words clearly have an affect on Avalia, and she doesn’t have time to reply before Pursh gets control of the meeting again.41

“So there are still many questions unanswered,” he says. “There isn’t anything we can do, either way, other than continue to defend ourselves.”42

“Yes,” I nod. “No matter how long we wait for another attack, we mustn’t let down our guard. The terrorist’s silence may seem like safety to some, but to me it seems like he’s simply biding his time.”43

“Mmm,” Pursh murmurs. “Well, the world must go on and the City won’t stop moving just because he does. On to the next item. We have a water shortage, yes, Valetish?”44

“That’s right,” she says, jiggling in her seat. “I think we may have put too much of our energy into expanding the City and increasing the size of our armies, and not enough of our resources into maintaining what we have. After the recent budget cut, one of our Water Purifying Plants had a critical malfunction. Apparently the generator stopped completely, leaving both the pump that pulls the water from the ground and the machine that purifies it inoperative. In order to rectify the situation before any severe water restrictions must be put in place, I suggest we…”45

Throughout the rest of the meeting, Avalia continues to try and gain control, but by the end of it she interrupts less and less. When everything on the agenda has been addressed, we all stand and I have to tap her on the shoulder to remind her to do so as well. We bow to her and depart.46