Enlightened Empire

Chapter 462: Mother's Perspective

"Mother, what are you doing here?"

Some time had passed since Inti had entered the Old Well. By now, she sat opposite her mother — Antaya di Pluritac — but she was still as confused as she had first met her here.

"What does it look like I am doing, my dear daughter?" her mother asked, without looking up from a piece of paper she was writing on. Based on the book sitting next to her, she was probably writing in code. At least that was Inti's best guess based on the nonsensical mess of numbers and letter written within.

When confronted with her mother's return question, Inti looked around in search of an answer. Considering the age and secretive nature of this hideout, it certainly looked different from what Inti had expected. First were all the people running around the place. Inti could see at least ten, all of them wearing black robes and plain, white masks with numbers stitched on their chests.

They sat around the warmly lit room on various tables and did all kinds of writing. Others entered or exited through one of several openings in the walls, put papers into archives or carried them across the room to some other station.

Though the fact that some of the tables these people were writing on were old barrels probably intended for long-storage rations tipped Inti off that this wasn't the usual operational center of Challwala. Rather, this place was improvised, and had only been set up very recently.

Just as Inti had decided that there was no point in replying to her mother's question — since the answer seemed obvious — a figure in a mask and a big '5' stitched onto their chest came up to their table and handed Antaya a piece of paper.

The woman looked at the paper for a second, before she said: "Thank you, Five," and put the paper on a pile to her left. Afterwards, without a look at her daughter, she looked back down and continued to write her original message.

"What's with the masks and the numbers?" Inti finally couldn't help herself and had to ask. They had to start this conversation some way, after all.

"Security measures. There have been a few infiltrations recently, and the current state of the city could best be described as simmering, right before a boil. We need to be efficient, and fast, so anonymity had become paramount for our people."

"And why do... all this." Inti motioned around the room, before she asked the more pertinent question. "Rather, why do you have to do it personally?"

In response, Antaya looked up from her message and put down the feather quill in her hand. For a while she just stared at her daughter. Only when Inti started to squirm under her mother's stern gaze did the spy queen reply.

"I thought: If I don't look after my daughters soon, maybe all of you will end up dead, or pregnant, or worse," she said.

"So you've heard?" Inti asked, though she shouldn't be surprised. After all, Mellana would have arrived in Saniya months ago. It was hardly a shock that her mother already knew about the ridiculous actions of her selfish daughter. Meanwhile, Antaya picked her quill back up and looked back down.

"What, about the fact that you abandoned your post and have been traveling around for fun, or that you made all kinds of trouble for me in the process?" she mumbled out a question as she began scribbling. Inti frowned for a second, annoyed by her mother's accusations. Though if nothing else, she was happy that her mother hadn't seen her loss of control, and quickly fixed her expression.

"No, I was talking about Mellana," she tried to clarify. She wasn't here to talk about her own failings, though to be fair, she also hadn't really come to gossip about Mellana either.

"I have heard about everything, as you could expect." Antaya glanced up just long enough to reply, and then continued her work.

"And what she did does not bother you?" Inti probed again, this time a bit more agitated. "She's..."

"Betrayed us?" Antaya completed the words and smiled at the paper in derision.

"Did she not?" Inti crossed her arms. Was her mother deliberately trying to upset her?

"All I know is that I never had to worry about Mellana, not once in my life," Antaya replied, and once again put down the quill. This time, Antaya folded the paper, before she picked up a piece of yellow wax from a stand filled with different colors. "You on the other hand-"

"I can handle myself just fine, thank you very much," Inti huffed out an interruption, which once again let Antaya look over.

"Is that so?" she asked, and put the wax over the candle flame on the table with a mysterious smile. "Then how often, do you think, did I have to get involved to prevent your death over the past few months? Do you want to try and guess the answer?"

Silence once more forced its way between the two to increase their distance. As Inti watched the wax slowly go shiny, she thought back to her most recent adventures. It was true that her actions had been a bit reckless, and it was also true that their journey had been shockingly smooth since they had left Rhodanos. Still, she hadn't noticed anything, and couldn't confirm or deny a thing. Since she couldn't win a debate without knowing anything, Inti decided to admit defeat.

"No, thank you," she finally said, and lowered her head.

"A wise choice, for once," Antaya commented, before she began to apply wax to the outside of the folded paper she had just written.

"Still, it was irresponsible of sister to just abandon us like this."

While the spy queen was busy pushing a seal into the quickly hardening wax, Inti tried to switch topics once again. So far, this meeting had certainly gone nothing like she hoped.

"Your sister wanted to start a family. There is nothing wrong with that," Antaya insisted, and blew onto the wax to help it along. "As far as my daughters are concerned, she is the only one I don't have to worry about all the time."

"She's pregnant, with some strange man's child," Inti pointed out.

"Well, at least she is not bothering me with extra work."

"She just disappeared from her post, without a word."

This time, her terse words let her mother look up again. With a stern face, she stared down Inti again.

"And what have you been doing, my dear daughter?" she asked an icy question which pierced right through Inti's chest. "You also left your post at a critical time. And yours was the most important, that of monitoring the political arena in Arguna. And you did not leave because you were imprisoned, like your sister. You left to travel around the country with your new man. Compared to Mella, would you say you have done your duty?"

"He is not my man, we are only traveling together," Inti insisted, though her voice was weak. She herself knew that she was in the wrong here. Although she had only taken a break because her sister had dared to do the same, it still hadn't been right.

"Whatever you say, my dear daughter," Antaya simply replied. While Inti mulled over her own decisions, and her own mistakes, her mother waved over to someplace behind her. Soon, the masked ghost with the five on its chest returned.

"Get that to Fourteen, please. Post-haste," Antaya said, and handed Five the newly sealed paper. After a quick bow, Five soon disappeared again.

In the meantime, Inti had finally managed to organize her thoughts. Although her actions had clearly been wrong as well, they obviously weren't nearly as bad as Mellana's. In the first place she had never been truly irresponsibly, as she had planned out everything.

"I am only taking a short break," she tried to explain to her mother. "All my life I've done my duties. And there is no trouble in Arguna anyways. I've kept in contact with our people there, and would have gone back at the first sign of trouble. Until then, I think I can take a little time off."

The more upset Inti became, the louder she got. However, her mother just went back to reading messages, unimpressed by her daughter's outburst.

"Surely, your sister thought the same," her dry voice shot back.

"But now she's too busy playing with that guardsman to ever return," Inti insisted. "She will never come back to the family business. I will. I will spend the rest of my life as part of the ghosts. Since no one else will do it, I might even replace you one day."

"You will not," Antaya shot back. For the first time, she sounded upset. She had even stopped working again to stare at Inti.

"What? Do you think Tama the unreliable will do it?" the daughter mocked her, happy that she had finally managed to unsettle her mother.

"No, none of you will take over the position." Antaya sighed, once again in control of her emotions. However, this topic seemed to matter a lot to her, so she leaned back and explained without any distractions. "In the first place, leading the ghost warriors is not the business of our family. It never was. Your father was the first of our family to lead the ghosts, and he only took over because his friend, Emperor Titu, was worried that the ghosts would be turned against him if anyone less loyal were to lead them. Because we were in a terrible position after the emperor's death, we were forced to take over to save our lives, and to save King Corco's claim to the throne. However, this is not the kind of future I had ever envisioned for any of you."

Again, Antaya sighed, and stared at some distant point past Inti, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. However, her daughter didn't share the mother's sentimentality. Why would her mother's plans for her matter? Had mother ever considered what her daughters wanted in the first place?

"But what if I want to do it anyways? What if I just keep leading the ghosts?"

Will you stop me? she thought, but her mother's reply shocked her. She simply shook her head, and sighed again.

"You have no choice. None of us have. The only one who can decide the leader of the ghost warriors is King Corco. And he is far too suspicious to appoint you as my successor. He has already threatened me before, and he will do the same to whoever will replace me."

"He threatened you!?" Inti shouted, and half-jumped out of her seat. To her, Corco had always seemed quiet, friendly and well-mannered.

Though I guess based on Brym's true actions, I should have guessed that this kind of person is not harmless.

In contrast to Inti, Antaya remained perfectly calm.

"Considering the power the ghosts have in his kingdom, it was perfectly within the king's right to do so," she strangely explained for the one who had threatened her. "The king's authority is paramount. No servant should be able to threaten the king, otherwise King Corco will end up like King Amautu, a mere puppet to his former support. Unlike Amautu, Corco has been far more careful in dispensing his power. Now you see why I do not want you to succeed me. Surely, you do not want to end up as our king's target."

"And what if I want to anyways?" Inti still insisted, though the motherly smile which responded her made her insistence feel childish.

"Again, this is not your decision. It is King Corcopaca's, and he will never choose you. Our family already has far too much power in the southern kingdom. I lead the ghosts, your brother is the kingdom's prime minister. Now, Tama has married that Atau boy, who's the kingdom's admiral-"

"What?" a confused Inti wondered when exactly this had happened, but her mother just pressed on.

"...and now you are playing around with his minister of finance as well. Do you really believe someone who is as careful and suspicious as King Corcopaca will just watch as our family occupies all important positions in his kingdom?"

Once more, the silence between them had returned. Finally, Inti had nothing left to say in reply.

"If this old woman had the choice, I would prefer if all of you were just like Mellana. You should just look for a good man far away from the politics of the kingdom, and find your own happiness," Antaya concluded.

After all these years, Inti had almost forgotten that in the end, her mother was just a typical medalan lady: conservative and servile. However, this was not a path Inti was willing to take. While she understood her mother's concerns, she would never agree to just throw away all the hard work over the years. Instead, she would find her own happiness, and make something of herself, her mother's blessing be damned.

Thus, rather than waste any more time on a discussion which would lead nowhere, she simply decided to move on to the main topic of their discussion. She hadn't come here to be lectured, after all.

"Anyways, I haven't come here to talk about my future husband," she forced the conversation to shift, before she realized how poorly her rude words prepared her follow-up. "I need your help."

Although Inti was embarrassed by her selfish plea, her mother just smiled.

"Only mine?" she asked, and once again began to look through the papers on her desk.

"I need access to the local forces," Inti explained the plan she had brought with her before her mother's presence had derailed her. "Minister Brymstock is about to meet with the northern lords, and I need enough people to protect them. They are all in danger."

"Of course they are." Antaya scoffed. "Why do you think I am here, in this city deep within enemy territory? Of all places in Medala, this one is the most dangerous to me."

To her shock, Inti realized that she hadn't even considered her mother's position at all. All this time, Antaya had seemed so in control that she had never believed her to be in any danger in the first place. Yet as she looked around the room again, at its improvised furniture and the masked people running around in it, she realized that this clearly wasn't the case. Something must have already happened to warrant this level of security.

Thus, Inti's mind circled back the important question: Why had her mother come here if the city was so dangerous? Although Antaya had always been quite distant, especially in recent years, their previous conversation could only lead Inti to a single conclusion.

"You came here to support us?" she guessed.

"Why else would I throw stones into this stale pond. I will only get my dress dirty." However, Inti didn't think her mother's joke was funny, so she just stared until Antaya continued. "After all, my daughter's man has poked the lion, and then foolishly ran right into the lion's cave to show off. As always, the mother will take care of her child's mess."

Although her mother had once again misidentified Brym as her man, Inti wasn't in a mood to correct her. After all, since her mother had the same goal now, her plan would become a lot easier to realize.

"Then we should activate the agents right away, to protect Brym and the lords during the meeting," she urged, yet her mother continued to work calmly.

"I have long activated them," she explained, while she added another piece of paper to a pile on her right. "In fact, ever since you entered this place, I have done nothing but coordinate our forces for your grand meeting."

Finally, all tension left Inti's body. Only when she sank into her seat did she realize just how on edge she had been all this time.

"Then there is nothing left to worry about," she said.

Now that the spy queen was in charge, she had full confidence that their plans would succeed. Yet the spy queen in question once again shook her head to contradict Inti.

"I think you are overestimating our position in Challwala. This city is among the places where we are weakest compared to the local forces. After all, we have only begun to strengthen our efforts in the north at the start of the year. Not to mention that the northern kingdom has far stronger security forces than the disjointed center," Antaya explained. "Amautu cannot use any of the emperor's old intelligence forces like the ghosts, but he has long since developed his own. Those Chutwa people have brought several experts in covert operations from their homes, and those scholars have their eyes and ears everywhere above ground. Not to mention, there is also that mysterious new organization called 'Terminus'."

"Terminus? What is that?" an intrigued Inti asked, as tension returned to her body once more. However, this time, even her mother all-knowing mother didn't have the answers.

"I am unsure. Our informants could catch little more than a name so far, but it appears to be a secret organization, we assume, specifically founded by King Amautu for the purpose of assassinations. This time, you best not expect things to go the same as usual. This time, we are at a disadvantage in both intelligence and numbers. If we want to win, we need to be smart, and move carefully. Our enemies are no pushovers."

Again, Antaya picked up her quill. Before she bent over to write another message she looked up one final time to add: "Now stop sitting around with your mouth open and help me sort these papers. We have much left to prepare."