Imperial Orders

♕The Threat♕

Failure did not sit well with Saara Remy. 

Her extremely successful years as Prime Minister of Homina had been marred by a few noticeable black spots. The first was the disappearance of her son, followed closely by the similar disappearance of the Crown Prince. Conspiracy theorists spoke of a possible connection between these two events, but Saara knew that those statements were nothing more than rumors. 

Two important, Gifted children had been lost. 

She had allowed them to get away. 

Now, as if the pressures from those two events hadn't been enough, she had come to the third crisis of her trouble-filled career. 

"They are not far, Madam Remy. We can no longer afford to keep the public ignorant!" a minister spat, looking quite frustrated. The entire room was stirred up, and the tension in the air was as high as it had been since the vanishing of Prince Arafien Tyllanie. 

Things weren't looking good, and you didn't have to be the most experienced Prime Minister in the history of Homina to know it. 

"It is our duty to protect the people, and to allow them to live their daily lives in peace," Saara stated firmly. "We must only divulge information about this situation to them if it is absolutely necessary." She would stick to her principles. She would not allow herself to be swayed. Not now, when the Empire needed her the most. 

"This is no ordinary threat, Madam. The Djareny reached Khaas last week. It appears that large numbers of them are pouring onto the abandoned moon." 

"The gathering of the Djareny can never be a good sign." 

Saara remained quiet and emotionless as she carefully listened to and processed the words of the various Ministers. They spoke the truth. Perhaps, as much it scared her to admit it, the time for protective secrecy was over. The Djareny were tricky creatures, and the fact that they looked scarily similar to humans didn't help with the already difficult task of weeding them out. She needed eyes out in the Empire- more eyes than the Imperial Military could provide. 

"You are right," she finally proclaimed. The room fell silent, and she could feel dozens of sets of eyes trained on her. She knew that she had just crossed a threshold after which there was no turning back. She had chosen to do what she wouldn't ever have dreamed of doing before. 

"In order to stop the Djareny, we must make sure that everyone knows that we did not defeat them in the series of wars we fought against them many years ago. The people must be aware of the immediate and very real threat that they pose. The Djareny aren't just conglomerating on Khaas to take its resources. For the first time in a hundred years, they are holding an organized gathering...and I just might know why." 

Saara knew that the time had come to reveal her secret. For years, she had kept it carefully hidden, but now, the Empire needed every piece of information regarding the Djareny that it could get. With humanity's greatest enemy potentially planning an attack, she could not afford to take any risks. 

"The Djaren Nation has a new leader," Saara announced. "She- if she is even still a woman- is a creature unlike anything you have ever seen before. If she has become hostile, Homina is in very serious trouble."

"But Madam...the Djareny have no leader," a Minister argued. Several others nodded in agreement. "They have no system of government at all. They're simply a whole bunch of lawless bandits, starting wars and plundering every planet they come across." 

"That was so, ten years ago. Yet, now, something has changed," Saara sighed. "They have discovered one among them who is different. She is Gifted- a Tactile- but...not," she paused, unsure how to explain the strange abilities of the new Djareny leader. 

"And how, Madam, did you manage to acquire all of this crucial information while none of it appears in any of our databases?" the Minister raised an eyebrow, giving Saara a suspicious look. 

It was time. 

"I am an Ocular," Saara drew in a deep breath. "I can see what I know in my mind's eye, regardless of where it is. I see her, a female Djaren, now, at the head of a Djareny legion. I see her because I know her quite well...Nexetra Serpis is my half sister, and I am half Djareny." 

Horrified gasps echoed through the room, and several Ministers unsheathed knives and small handguns, pointing them at an unfazed Saara. 

"I have served Homina faithfully in some capacity for over twenty years," she said gravely. "My human father brought me to Celatys when I was only a few months old. I have never been to Djara, nor do I have the slightest desire to travel to that lawless planet. Tactiles, you may test my honesty as you see fit." 

The Prime Minister folded her arms behind her back, standing confidently in place as a young Minister rose from her seat. Approaching the front of the room, the Tactile held out her hand, touching Saara's shoulder and closing her eyes. 

"I feel only concern within her," the Tactile pronounced after a long moment. "She bears no ill will against us." 

"Thank you," Saara nodded. "I hope you understand that the Djareny are no longer simple thieves. Under Nexetra, they will move and think as one." 

"And what, may I ask, makes this Nexetra Serpis so dangerous?" the Tactile Minister asked. Looking around the room, Saara still saw a handful of doubtful expressions. Yet, she could not afford to pay them any mind. 

"Her Gift," Saara bit her lip. "It's...not normal. She carries two copies of the Tactile gene, which causes the over-enhancement of her senses of taste and touch. It's an extremely rare and deadly defect. She wasn't supposed to have survived past the age of one." 

"How, then, did she live?" the Minister asked, speaking in a soft tone. It was clear that she feared Saara's answer. 

"The mutation feeds on living flesh. It eats its victims alive," the Prime Minister explained. "Nexetra, however, figured out quite quickly that the flesh didn't have to be hers."