Because she crashed an escape pod on this planet, the Terrans had followed her and taken out every Rhimodian they encountered.
They were dead because of her.
Wrathin stroked her head. She held onto him, tears wanting to pour out, but she held back. Spies didn’t cry, did they?
She really wanted to. Being wrapped up in Wrathin’s arms, she felt safe, and she hated that people took out everyone, because of her. People who were just trying to survive.
Not warriors.
Survivors.
“This was not how this was supposed to go,” she whispered.
Wrathin touched her chin, a delicate stroke, and it brought her to meet his gaze. “Why are they doing this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where would these orders come from?” Wrathin asked.
“No one should be able to do this.”
“It seems that they can. If it is soldiers doing as ordered, then who is pulling strings?”
There was only one person with the ability to make this kind of demand on the military, but he shouldn’t be able to. The Senate had to approve any large-scale military advancement. It was in the laws.
But it seems they must have. For there was no way the Emperor could make this happen without Senatorial support.
Could he?
“If the Emperor didn’t want peace, then why did he let us come?” She thought back to that conversation with him she’d had before she’d left.
What had he said? She pulled away from him and started walking around. Trying to remember the words. She rubbed her head.
To remember.
Back in his throne room. In that darkened room. Dark. Intimate. Just the two of them. He handed her the blade.
She unholstered it.
Hurled it into a nearby building.
Wrathin raised his eyebrow and smiled just a bit at her. “Nice,” he said.
“Thanks.”
The Emperor’s words came back to her.
“Peace is merely a ceasefire to regroup,”Veta repeated the words out loud. Softly. So, the blade didn’t hear.
“Why would you need to regroup?” Wrathin asked, his voice just as low.
Veta blinked, it all clicked together. “A distraction. Something to keep everyone busy while he regrouped and prepared for the next attack. We were a distraction for him to get the intel he needed.” She pointed at the blade.
“What will that next attack be?”
She glanced at him and then gestured to the village. “Do you really have to guess?”
“How do we stop him?”
