The murmur of conversation in the room was drowned out by the sound of everyone rising to their feet and bowing at his entrance. Vanya made his way down the center aisle to the throne, the only one left in Calhames. Vanya had chosen to replace it with one similar in design to the throne that had resided in the Imperial palace. An artisan had delivered the new one at the beginning of First Month. The carved wooden body and gold-gilt design was different enough that it shouldn’t always dredge up the memory of Soren sitting in his lap in a throne room that no longer existed, but it always did.
For all that he’d tried to ignore the holes that Soren had left behind, time didn’t ease the ache any. But Vanya had gotten good at shoving aside the memories Calhames threw at him, glad, in a way, that he didn’t have to walk the hallways of the Imperial palace’s private royal wings and see the warden everywhere there.
Vanya made it to the low dais where the throne was positioned and sat down on it. He nodded at themagisterof the Senate, who nodded back. “Let’s begin.”
Time ticked away slowly on the Senate chamber clock bolted to the wall over the main entrance. Vanya focused on the procedure that ultimately brought the reservist bill before him after a final vote. Only then did Vanya leave the throne for the table positioned to the side of the dais. He bent over the table and signed his name to multiple copies of the bill.
“The reserves will be activated,” Vanya said once he stamped the Imperial seal over his name.
Despite the mistakes he’d made during his rulership last year, ensuring the Legion had enough soldiers to defend Solaria’s borders would not be one of them.
Senators dutifully applauded as the bill became law, with some of the spectators in the mezzanine joining in. The noise didn’t help Vanya’s headache any, but he smiled through it anyway, taking time afterward to mingle with a few of the senators and get a feel for the current temperament of the Imperial Senate.
“Myvasilyetis wondering why we haven’t brought Bellingham to heel yet. Surely our Legion is capable of putting down a traitor,” the senator from Seaville said.
Vanya studied the man, wondering if he’d been fed that line from the House of Aetos. That House had only reluctantly backed his at the end of the Conclave and only because he’d proven Joelle’s betrayal to Solaria. “When one has to fight through thousands of revenants to reach a city’s walls, then you’ll find the precautions taken worthwhile. I will not question the generals and their battlefield decisions, for they keep our people safe.”
The senator smiled thinly, bowing his head before stepping back. “Of course.”
Cybele’s warning from earlier kept Vanya in the Senate chambers longer than he intended. Working out of Oeiras half the time meant the personal connections he’d taken for granted when he was mere streets and notvasilyetsaway took a little more effort. When he was finally escorted out of the Senate chamber bypraetorialegionnaires, he found Caelum waiting for him in the hallway.
His Chief Minister elicited a true smile from Vanya. The formal robes of Caelum’s office were matched by the elaborately patterned and brimless, round cap that marked his rank. His short, graying brown hair appeared to have recently been trimmed. Caelum always presented himself impeccably when in public. “Ah, Caelum. I was about to send an aide to find you.”
Caelum bowed deeply, cradling the folios he carried to his chest through the motion, blue eyes creasing at the corners when he smiled. “Your Imperial Majesty, it is always good to see you. The Ashionen representatives are present and available whenever you are ready.”
“The bill is signed, so let’s see to the foreigners.”
“They’re in the Mosaic Room.” Caelum situated himself one step behind Vanya as they walked. “How was your flight over?”
“A bit turbulent, but nothing the captain couldn’t handle. How has Calhames fared in my absence?”
Caelum took the brief opening to bring Vanya up to date on the political pulse of the Senate and the Houses. While a small subset of political officials and aides had decamped to Oeiras to assist Vanya in ruling out of that city, the Senate couldn’t be moved, and so Caelum was Vanya’s eyes and ears in the capital when he was out west.
Not for the first time was Vanya glad that the older man had survived the attack on the Imperial palace. Too many had not, but the government persisted, as did the Houses, and Caelum was as loyal as they came these days.
The Mosaic Room was on the other side of the Senate building, where offices for the senators were located. Since they no longer had a functioning palace, rooms in the building had been repurposed for Imperial use. Vanya had refused to have his House’s ancestral estate be used for governing. At some point, when he brought Raiah back, she would stay there, and he wasn’t about to let unknown people near her in a place that should be her home.
Caelum had an office on the premises, close to the one given Vanya. Both were located near the Mosaic Room, which had once been a social space for senators and subsequently been turned into a formal receiving room. The wide windows allowed in the sunlight, hitting the hundreds of thousands of tiny colored pieces of broken tile and glass fit together on the walls, floor, and ceiling. When Vanya’s arrival was announced, he saw the Ashionens turn toward the door, heads craning back down from where they’d been studying the sky of the grand mosaic. He couldn’t fault them their admiration.
The artwork was grand, depicting the Dawn Star in all her glory as she led the sun across Solaria, with the eastern wall picked out in soft dawn colors, the middle bright like day, and the west shaded for sunset. The mosaic across three walls showcased the various major cities of Solaria from east to west on the continent. It was hundreds of years old, which meant it also depicted Rixham when it had once been a thriving city and not a prison for the dead.
The Ashionens all bowed or curtsied at his arrival, their formal attire not nearly as extravagant as their Daijalan counterparts. He could see the similarities in the tailoring of the clothes, though. Vanya wondered if that war up north had anything to do with it or if this particular group merely preferred a more subtle style. He knew the banking system in Ashion had split, resulting in disrupted capital and food shortages, and yet they persisted in their fight against Daijal.
“Your Imperial Majesty, may I introduce to you the Ashionen ambassador, Lord Dariush Zayed,” Caelum said.
Vanya nodded at the ambassador as thepraetorialegionnaires who’d followed them into the Mosaic Room settled themselves against the wall. Dariush was a tall man, perhaps a few years older than Vanya, with blue eyes that stood out against his tanned skin and brown hair. He held himself with a gravitas that Vanya could respect, considering the situation up north.
“Your Imperial Majesty,” Dariush said in accented Solarian. “We thank you for agreeing to meet with myself and my diplomatic aides on behalf of Queen Caris Rourke and Ashion.”
He spoke with an accent found in Karnak and had a fluency Vanya could appreciate. Whoever his teacher had been, they’d hailed from that city and been very good. Vanya had been prepared to conduct the meeting in Ashionen if need be, but any ambassador worth an auron would be fluent in the language of the country they’d come to do diplomatic business in. If he weren’t, then their supposed queen was politically inept. “The Daijalan envoy has pressed upon the throne that you and your people do not speak for Ashion, Ambassador Zayed.”
“You have been misinformed, Your Imperial Majesty. Daijal does not speak for Ashion. We speak for ourselves and always have.”
“At least until the Inferno, perhaps.” At the faint tightening of the other man’s mouth, Vanya waved them in the direction of the formal seating arrangement that consisted of two leather sofas facing each other over a low, colorful glass table. “I speak nothing but the truth and mean no ill will by it. Your politics may not be ours, but I am aware of them for Solaria’s sake.”
“Then you must be aware of the threat Daijal poses to your country and others, especially after their attack on the Warden’s Island.”
More than they knew, though he’d never speak of such to foreigners. Vanya sat on one of the sofas, taking the folio that Caelum handed him, but didn’t immediately open it. Caelum chose to stand behind the sofa and a little to Vanya’s right, a clear indication that his Chief Minister didn’t anticipate the meeting lasting long.
