Oh, nice, Cardenia thought. Even in attempting to express a moment of condolence, Amit Nohamapetan couldn’t help but remind her that his family still considered the position of the emperox’s spouse their own property. She looked at him and saw the unremarkable face and unremarkable body and behind both, the reportedly unremarkable mind happiest in the pursuit of unremarkable pleasures. The sister and the younger brother were apparently the brains of the Nohamapetan outfit. This one was a lump. His appearance in this meeting was obviously an attempt to ingratiate him toward Cardenia by offering up useful information, followed by the humanizing moment that was happening right now. All delightfully scripted for her consumption.
Cardenia thought about the prospect of being married to, and having children with, this lump, and barely suppressed an impolite shudder. “We thank you, Lord Nohamapetan, and are gratified for your concern.”
If Amit picked up on the fact that Cardenia was still using the imperial address, he didn’t let it stop him. “I hope, after an appropriate time, that we can meet again in happier and friendlier circumstances.”
“It is to be hoped,” Cardenia said. Those circumstances being you no less than thirty meters away, she thought.
Amit, however, was not a mind reader and chose to interpret the carefully ambiguous words in a manner that was positive toward him, which was exactly how Cardenia had planned it, as much as she hated the necessity of it at the moment. He smiled, bowed, and exited. Cardenia waited until he was out of the room before she sagged a bit.
“Are you all right, ma’am?” Deng asked.
“No,” Cardenia said. “My friend is dead and this creep is still trying to arrange a marriage with me.” She stopped suddenly and turned to Deng. “I apologize, Gell,” she said. “I didn’t mean to speak like that. I’m … I’m used to Naffa being here. And speaking freely to her when we’re alone.”
The old secretary smiled at his emperox. “Your Majesty, I was loyal to, and silent for, your father for nearly forty years. It’s in the nature of the position. I would not presume to be in the place of your dear friend. But I promise you that you may always speak freely near me, if you choose. My loyalty is to you now.”
“You don’t even know me,” Cardenia said.
“With respect, ma’am, I disagree. I’ve known you for years. First through your father and his peculiar but fond relationship with you. And for the last year, I’ve seen enough of you to get a sense of you. If I know nothing else, ma’am, I know that you are worth being loyal to.”
Cardenia’s eyes suddenly welled up. “That’s one of you, at least. That’s a start.”
“What may I do for you now?” Deng asked.
“Can you bring back Naffa?”
“No, ma’am.”
Cardenia jerked a thumb back in the direction of Nohamapetan. “Can you tell this creep to take a hike?”
“If you wish it, ma’am.”
“But you don’t advise it.”
“I don’t consider it my place to give advice to emperoxs, ma’am.”
“I need someone to give me advice right now. I don’t have anyone else.”
“Rather than my own advice, let me tell you what your father thought of the Nohamapetans, to help you make your own decisions,” Deng said. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me telling you now.”
“Please.”
“He thought their ambition was admirable. He didn’t consider them particularly wise, however. He thought that left unchecked they would eventually cause him, as emperox, to, as he called it, ‘make a mess to get them back into line.’ Which is why he eventually manipulated the Nohamapetans into suggesting that Nadashe Nohamapetan should marry your brother. He believed that as a couple their ambitions were in accord, and that then the Nohamapetans would have a reason to act with less stupidity. That was his word, not mine.”
“So you think my father would want me to marry Amit Nohamapetan. To keep them in line.”
Deng looked slightly pained.
“What?” Cardenia asked.
“This will not be kind,” Deng said.
“Say it anyway.”
“Your father believed the marriage of your brother and Nadashe would work because they were complementary to each other. Complementary with an ‘e,’ not ‘i.’ He didn’t believe you and Amit were complementary. He considered you passive, and Amit unintelligent. And the marriage of the two of you would leave Nadashe, who is the power of her generation of Nohamapetans, unfulfilled in terms of ambition. And that would spell trouble for you. And for the throne.”
“Maybe he would have preferred I marry Nadashe,” Cardenia said.
“Oh, no,” Deng said. “She would have rolled right over you. Uh, or so your father believed,” he added, quickly.
“My father didn’t think much of me.”
“On the contrary, he thought very well of you, ma’am. He just wished your brother had lived to be emperox.”
“Well, Gell. So do I. But he didn’t. So here we are.”
“Yes, ma’am. And what are the emperox’s wishes?”
“When is Naffa’s funeral?”
“It is two days from now.”
“I will attend.” Deng looked pained again. “What is it?”
“I have a note from a Dolg family representative, ma’am. It arrived earlier and I’ve waited to speak to you about it. The family notes that your presence at the funeral would be a disruption, because the security around you would be immense, especially now. Also, Naffa’s parents are republicans, as will be many of the people at the service, and your presence might provoke some of those friends to do or say something improper.”
“They don’t want me to start a riot.”
“That’s the gist of it, I’m afraid.”
“I want to talk to her parents, then.”
“The letter also suggests that you wait on that, too. My understanding is that the parents have said they don’t blame you. But there’s a difference between not blaming you, and being reminded their daughter is dead because she worked for you. It would be … difficult for them right now.”
Cardenia hitched in her breath at that and sat silently with it for a few moments.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Deng said, eventually.
Cardenia waved him off. “At the very least, I don’t want them to pay for anything.”
“Her parents?” Deng asked. Cardenia nodded. “You mean regarding funeral expenses.”
“I mean for anything, ever again. Their daughter’s dead. She was my friend. If I can’t do anything else right now, at least I can do this. Yes?”
“You are the emperox,” Deng said. “This is something you may do.”
“Then do it, please.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Deng stood. “Will there be anything else?”
Cardenia shook her head. Deng bowed, collected his materials, and moved to leave.
“Where will you be?” Cardenia asked. “In case I need you?”
Deng turned and smiled. “I am always nearby, ma’am. All you have to do is call.”
“Thank you, Gell.”
“Ma’am.” He left.
Cardenia waited until he was well out of the room before she had a good long cry, maybe the seventh or eighth she’d had since Naffa’s death.
Then she remembered where she last saw Naffa, and what Naffa had said to her. Not in real life, but in her dream.
Cardenia looked over to the door to the Memory Room, sat there for a couple of minutes thinking. Then got up and let herself into it.
Jiyi appeared the moment she entered. “Hello, Emperox Grayland II. How are you?”
“I am alone,” Cardenia said, and immediately hated the adolescent drama of the statement, but it was true, and there it was.
“You are always alone in the Memory Room,” Jiyi said. “And in another sense, you are never alone in it.”
“Did you think that up yourself?”
“I do not think,” Jiyi said. “It was programmed into me years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because eventually every emperox tells me they are alone.”
“Every emperox?”
“Yes.”
“That … weirdly makes me feel better.”
“That is a frequent reaction.”
“The Prophet is in here, yes? Rachela I.”
“Yes.”
“I would like to speak to her, please.”
Jiyi nodded and shimmered out, replaced by a woman. She was small and in this image nondescriptively middle-aged, which was different from the usual depictions of the Prophet, which showed her young and with flowing hair and striking cheekbones. The image did not look anything like this.
It also did not look anything like Naffa. Cardenia felt a momentary spasm of disappointment about this, then inwardly chastised herself for it. There was no reason she should have expected the Prophet to be Naffa outside of her dream.
“You are Rachela I,” Cardenia asked the image.
“I am.”
“The founder of the Interdependency, and the Interdependent Church.”
“Basically.”