The Ice Queen of Lessaenes (Book 5)

Plot

"Ah, perfect timing, My Queen, Lord Soren," Selaeyah exclaimed as Fenorel and I entered the Council chamber. "I have just arrived from Kilaenas. There's something important I need to speak with you about."

"Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the Council?" I asked. "All six of us are required to deal with urgent matters of state."

"There is no need, Royal Evilness," Selaeyah said in a suspicious, overly respectful tone. "I'm sure the two of us can agree on this just fine."

"Why are you so eager to get this done outside of a regular Council meeting, Chief Valior?" Fenorel gritted his teeth, hatred in his eyes. "Trying to pass some anti-Rhenan legislation in the absence of my father?"

"I attempt to do no such thing," Selaeyah laughed politely. "There may be certain...political and economic tensions between our clans at this moment, but we are still all Lessaenites, are we not? Now, why would I turn on my brothers and sisters simply to achieve my own selfish ends?"

"Because you are a dishonest, power-hungry, racist Valior scoundrel!" Fenorel snapped, his Aura ballooning.

"What right do you have to insult me, Soren?" Selaeyah snarled. "You may be an Heir, but you are Heir to the weakest of the noble lines. Your dirty, Rhenan-loving family shouldn't be noble at all!"

Oh no.

"Cease this nonsense at once!" I raised my arms authoritatively. "Your silly little family feud has raged for generations, for absolutely no reason! Why can't you just get along?"

"Dearest Saralee, I'm afraid that the Soren family and their clan are a threat to the security and well being of our court," Selaeyah frowned. "Their lenient immigration policies encourage certain...undesirable individuals to come to our planet. However, as usual, I have a gloriously easy solution."

Retrieving a portable Aurascreen from her purse, Selaeyah began to explain her idea.

"I call my set of bills the Rhenan Acts of 2838. If approved by you, they will go into effect next week. First of all, we know that Rhenans are taking advantage of our court system to sue their Lessaenite and Kilaenaian employees, cheating honest citizens of the Empire out of tens of thousands of duvats every year! They also attempt to take massive loans in order to buy back their family members from the Iceheart department, getting them out of the warmatches. They rarely succeed, as our prices for warmatch contestants are outrageous, but when they do, it ruins the entire tournament!"

She paused for a second, studying my face as she hunted for an opinion. However, my expression remained neutral. "The first of the Rhenan Acts revokes Rhenans' Lessaenite Empire citizenship, preventing them from doing any of these things."

"Saralee, please, don't listen to-" Fenorel interjected.

"That is a wonderful idea, Selaeyah," I smiled. "It will surely help the situation."

Selaeyah smirked victoriously at Fenorel, who looked away.

"However, a slight modification would have to be made. Even though Raliyel is a resident of Glaisse, she would count as a Rhenan under these Acts. We would need to grant her an exception."

"No!" Selaeyah spat. "A Rhenan is a Rhenan! Granting one Rhenan an exception would make others start trying to obtain one."

"By saying this, you have confirmed my suspicions," I shook my head. "You wish to put these Acts into place for the expulsion of Raliyel Novisty from Glaisse, not for the improvement of the Empire."

"I told you she'd be too smart to fall for that," Liretta sighed, stepping up behind the furious Scientist Chief.

"I thought you were too good to play a cheap trick like this. Rhenan Acts? You'd pass laws that would affect millions of people just to get back at someone you don't like? You know what, Selaeyah and Liretta?" I fumed. "You two have been acting very weird lately, and I don't like it. What's the deal?"

"We just want to protect you!" Selaeyah cried.

"From the Keepers and their army of angry Rhenans!" Liretta scowled.

"We do not have an army of-"

"Okay, can everyone just be quiet for a second?" I yelled, thinking.

I was the Queen, it was my job to keep the clans from going to war with each other...

"We're all just really tired. We have a huge workload, and people expect us to be perfect. I think we just need to relax."

"Yeah, I guess," Fenorel nodded in agreement.

"How about a day at the beach?" I shrugged. "And then, we can come back to Glaisse refreshed, and deal with our issues maturely."

"We should go to Ahrenne Point," Selaeyah suggested.

"Sure!" I chirped. "Mkok is a lovely moon, and the weather's so much nicer there. Let's meet there tomorrow, shall we? Make sure Armetorius and Derwel find out about it too."

"We will," Liretta nodded.

"Great, see you there," I waved goodbye before walking out of the Council chamber with Fenorel.

Phew.

Making sure she and Liretta were alone in the room, Selaeyah slammed the door shut.

"Why doesn't anything I do ever work!?" She spat.

"It's not your fault. It's the Keeper Heir," Liretta said thoughtfully. "We can defeat Lord Soren and Raliyel separately, but now that they're working for the same cause, they might just have more combined influence over Queen Saralee than we do, and that's bad."

"Sadly, Raliyel isn't going anywhere anytime soon," Selaeyah sighed. "But I wouldn't say the same about Fenorel Soren."

"What?" Liretta grinned.

"If we want to keep our power in the court, we need to end his relationship with Saralee now. And I just might have an idea."
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Too much alien politics or nah? If it's getting boring, I'll skip to the more interesting part.