“The attack on Utgarlthar has left almost ten thousand dead. And though it’s hard to say that this is worse…it’s disrupted the processing of ore from the mines around Vaehash Aegdrasal.”

“Oaibi Ukkoson, how badly will this set us back?” the Dronung asked, fearing she already knew the answer. The officer’s countenance told her, to her horror, that she was correct.

“It…it will prevent us from completing the Geastomylor-class carriers for at least another ten months. Assuming we have no further disruptions.”

“We can’t assume that,” said Prince Hegri, “the Drazari are becoming bolder with every day.”

“They are winning,” said Dronung the eleventh Rajenlief. “They know it.”

Antero Ukkoson swallowed hard; he wanted to talk up his soldiers, his ships, claim that they would fight the Drazari to the last Jotnar…but he was before his Dronung, and while her powers were no longer plenary, in matters of security, hers was the final word. And so he told her the horrible truth, one he had just accepted himself.

“It is worse than that,” Ukkoson said. “All indications are that they are ramping up for a massive offensive into the heart of Jotnarherath. We were baiting them a bit, counting on the new carriers to allow us to cut them off, and regain the upper hand. But without the carriers…they will be able to establish a forward position. I expect they would successfully take Sininentavas and Utgarlthar. At that point, without the mines of Vaehash Aegdrasal…without them, defeat would be assured. If we play out the fight with the assets we have, surrender is inevitable within ten years.”

“And how many Jotunn would die?” Rajenlif asked.

“Millions. Perhaps tens of millions. And hundreds of millions would either have to flee, or accept rule by the Drazari.”

Mylo Daiduson, the Kuthi of the Jotnardiggi, put his head in his hands. “Otna protect us. How far would they push it?”

“The Drazari may not try to sieze all of Jotnarherath, but we’d lose all the border systems and Utgarlthar. And without them…well, without them, the Empire could take us out rather easily, if they wanted to.”

This was the danger, the danger they all understood. For hundreds of years, the Empire had claimed Jotnarherath, and for hundreds of years, Jotnarherath had claimed independence. Neither side was strong enough to break the stalemate definitively, so each side officially pretended that the other agreed with them, and each side quietly worked within the reality that they did not. But with the damage wrought by the Drazari, the scales would tip. The Empire could take Jotnarherath, and destroy Jotnar culture once and for all.

Well…they could. But would they? Nobody knew. A thousand years ago, they would have. Two hundred years ago they probably would have. But in recent years, the Empire had begun to integrate its non-Titan members. It was slowly becoming a more stable, more reasonable nation-state. They might not invade Jotnarherath. They might leave the Jotnar alone.

But even if they did, even if they did not seize the initiative, Rajenlif knew that at best, her people would be poor and miserable, and millions would be dead.

But perhaps there was another way.

“What if the Empire were to fight alongside us?” Rajenlif asked.

“I mean, that would help,” said Ukkoson. “It would help if it turned out the wild humans on Earth had starships and would fight with us, but I’m not counting on either.”

“I am serious, Antero. If we were to persuade the Empire to join in this fight…could we survive it?”

Ukkoson shook his head. “The Empire is significantly stronger than we are, and if even a quarter of their fleet came to our aid, it would be enough to alter the trajectory in our favor. We could re-establish the border and even push into their territory. I doubt we could do much more than that, but we don’t want to rule the Drazari. But High-Born Rajenlif, we know the price. The Jotnar would die either way.”

“There are species in the Empire that are not Titans,” Rajenlif said. “The Avartle, the Ler, the…the fish-people….”

“Dunnermacs,” Hegri said.

“Yes, Dunnermacs. We know that their history has not always been easy, but they did admit all of them into the Empire as free peoples. The Empire will want Jotnarherath back – that will be the price of this. I know that. But perhaps…perhaps, if we do it now, we can convince them to take Jotnarherath back as it is – as free and independent lands.”

“And what if they lie to us, and say that they will, then slit our throats? Daiudson asked.

“If Oaibi Ukkoson is right, Jotnarherath is dead. It is a question of how it dies, and if any part of it can survive,” Rajenlif said.

“There will be many who would refuse to work with the Empire,” Hegri said. “Mother, there are many who would rather die.”

“There always are,” Rajenlif said. “Which is why they need a ruler who will choose their safety over a meaningless sacrifice.” She nodded. It was the only way. “Put me in communication with the Empress.”

* * *

“Your Imperial Highness, this is great news. Great news! We will finally take care of the rebellion in Jotnarherath. It will be a grand day indeed! How should we manage the occupation?”

“Slow it down, Navarchos,” said Emperor-Consort Col. “Who said anything about an occupation?”

“Highness, your wife said….”

“I know what I said,” Empress Vanos II, founder of the House of ColVanos, replied. “I said that the High Dronung of the Jotnar has requested help in defending her people from the Drazari. I did not say that we would take this opportunity to quell the rebellion in Jotnarherath.”

“Due respect, your Imperial Highness,” Kadn Xotrra said, “but I think that’s the House’s call.”

“It is, mister Floor Leader,” Vanos said. “But I am hopeful that you will agree with me when I say the last fifty years have proven that unity serves us better than conquest. If we work with them as partners, and not as conquerors, this will go much more smoothly.”

Xotrra was a conservative, but he was a post-Tez Magilna conservative. “Ah, I think I see. You’re saying…treat them like the Dunnermac?”

“Treat them like we treat the Dunnermac now,” Col said. “As equal people…who have their own ways, which we respect. Yes, they recognize Tuaut as the government, but on strictly internal matters….”

Xotrra stroked his beard. “An autonomous province…if we did it right, they’d accept Imperial rule, but they wouldn’t get their unders twisted up about it. We’d leave them home rule on internal issues, just ask them to accept some taxation for the military, same basic trade laws that we have in place for the three Autonomous peoples…that could work.”

“Ridiculous,” Navarchos Aborion said. “They’ve been outlaws for centuries, you want to just sing and dance the friendship song?”

“No, but let’s be smart. I mean, the Drazari,” Xottra said. “What we’ve heard from the Avartle and the Tusola is that they’re dangerous. Real dangerous. Maybe even Insectoid dangerous.”

“Well, they are,” the Navarchos said. “But they’re not our problem.”

“Aren’t they?” Vanos asked. “We are almost strangers to the Jotnar now, but they are in truth our siblings. Fellow Titans. What would it have taken for us to ask them for help, knowing that the price would be to give them full independence?”

“That’s my point,” Aborion said. “They’ll lose without us. They don’t have a choice. They can pick their occupier.”

“And what if they pick the Drazari?” asked Col. “What if, facing sure defeat, they come to us for help. Us, their siblings, even if we have spent centuries squabbling. And what if we reject them? Logic requires them to go to the Drazari, and surrender. And then what? Well, over time the Drazari may take all of Jotnarherath. Or maybe what’s left of the Jotnar agree to give the Drazari whatever they want, including help invading the Empire, in exchange for allowing their people to stay free. If Jotnarherath falls, the Drazari are on our border, one way or another. You get that, right?”

“They wouldn’t surrender to the Drazari,” Aborion said.

“Wouldn’t they?” the Floor Leader asked. “They are discussing surrendering to us, and I am sure that stings a lot harder. We’ve spent the last millennium with both sides pretending the other has agreed with us, and it’s made things much more difficult than they needed to be. If we do this right, the Jotnar rejoin the Empire – and the Empire treats the Jotnar as it always should have.”

“Now you want me to be sympathetic to the Bluefaces,” Aborion said.

“Yes, I do,” retorted Vanos. “You know history as well as I do. You know that what ended in Great Ocean started in Savarna. There are only a few million Jotnar left in the Empire, and before you shrug, remember that Tez Magilna herself was half-Jotnar. We nearly wiped their culture from the face of Archavia. Even if you do not accept that as wrong in and of itself, what was the cost to the Empire of losing people like Magilna?”

“So we’ve got ultimate leverage, and we’re giving them everything they want?” Aborion said.

“Gorram it, nobody’s saying we should give them back Savarna,” Xotrra said. “Nobody’s saying that we should grant them independence. Empress is saying that yeah, we should make it clear they’re part of the Empire. But we should also make it clear that the Empire they would join isn’t the Empire that deposed the Jofur of Savarna. It isn’t the Empire that’s fought half a dozen skirmishes with ‘em. It isn’t the Empire that banned braids for eight centuries, for frak’s sake! We’re better than that, and it only took half a million Dunnermac starving themselves to death for us to realize we had to be. But we did have to be. And that means that what we take what we learned in the Docar crisis and we apply it here. If we go land our ships in New Savarna and occupy their palace before we defend them from the Drazari, well…once the Drazari are gone, they’ll be turning their weapons on us. And we’d probably win that – your crews are gorram good. But why would we do that, when we could win ‘em just as easily by grabbing their wrist and downing a drink?”

“We might not be able to, mind you,” Col said. “But you think you can talk to your caucus? Give us a chance? We’ll obviously loop in the Minister of State.”

Xottra smiled. “Minister of the Interior should be involved too, mainly because Tuana Zanil is gonna have my job before we’re all done. I’ll sell it as the Jotnar needing help, and offering to bury the sword. And I won’t limit this to my caucus, either, Lat may be out of power, but she and her caucus have votes, and I know they’d love to make peace with the Jotnar. If, that is, the Jotnar want to make peace with us.”

“Well, now, that is the question,” Vanos said.

* * *

“Well?” Rajenlif asked, as Daiudson entered the room.

“Their demands are….”

Mylo shook his head, and actually cracked a smile. “They are…they are reasonable. They ask that we agree to place interstellar relations in their hands, and that we assess earnings taxes to support the government in Tuaut. And they ask that we agree to ensure our laws fit with their guarantees of rights as listed in the Charter, but as far as the barristers can see, there are no serious impediments there. And there are some agreements on trade, but those will probably help – it will open our markets completely, we won’t have the quasi-black-market back-channel system leeching money through graft. But our internal affairs will remain internal; the Jotnardiggi will remain intact, you will remain our sovereign. And most important….”

Daiduson looked up at Rajenlif. “They said this is symbolic, and it is. We will be a part of the Empire, after all. But the Empress has offered this: when you are outside of Jotnarherath, you are to show her respect, but no more than the leader of the Ler, or Dunnermac, or Avartle must. She has indicated that if bowing is going to cause difficulty, another show of respect could be agreed to. And in Jotnarherath, the Empress will not bow to you…but neither must you bow to her. She will recognize that you are sovereign over our lands, and not just that…she will allow you to retain the title of Queen of Jutuneim – all of Jutuneim.”

Rajenlif’s jaw dropped.

Now it probably will sound ridiculous to someone not versed in Imperial history, but that simple phrase – “Queen of Jutuneim” – had been the very reason that the Empire had deposed Gramr Uđjjus II of Savarna in the first place. It was, they had said, a challenge to the Emperor.

This may seem nonsensical to you – isn’t Jutuneim the home planet of Jotnarherath, the location of its capital? Well, yes, it is. But it isn’t just that. You see, Jutuneim means “Land of the Jotunn.” And to the Jotnar, that had once meant all Jotnar lands – including Savarna, and at times, Tannhauser. By the time of Kraon VI, the Jotunn had conceded much, stating that it meant only the Jotnar people, but even that was too much for the Imperial government; Imperial doctrine at the time was that there could be but one Sovereign, and any other leader was a challenge to the authority of the Crown.

So this was no mere matter of semantics. The Empress and Floor Leader had offered to allow the Dronung to maintain her claim as the sovereign of all Jotnar. Yes, there was an acknowledgement that she was still subordinate to the Empress, at least outside of Jotnarherath…but that was simply an acknowledgement of fact, one that did not bother Rajenlif in the least.

“They ask…they ask nothing more than that I treat her as equal in our lands, and that I recognize her as sovereign outside of them?”

“Nothing more. Oh, there will be other issues. We will have to discuss the militaries. And they are asking us to blend our militaries. But they promise that Jotnunn will command all facilities in our territory for at least one hundred years, and that after a hundred years, the Jotnardiggi will have to approve allowing others to lead them. According to their Floor Leader, this is patterned on their agreement with the Ler.”

“It must be a trap,” Ukkoson said. “This is…this is everything we could have hoped. Short of them recognizing our independence…I can’t believe they’d offer this in good faith. It must be a trick.”

“Perhaps,” Rajenlif said. “I am quite certain we must be on guard. But I am quite certain they will be as well. We have never completely broken off relations, but we have been close many times. It will be hard for both sides to trust. But their Empress and Floor Leader…they appear to understand what we understand.”

“What’s that?” Daiudson asked.

“That the Empire and Jotnarherath can live together in one community. Along with the other species who live in the Empire – it will be strange to get used to treating the lizard people as we treat each other! But they have, and we will. Mylo, when you speak to the Floor Leader next, tell him that I am honored by the Empress’s concession, and that I will be honored to great her as an equal in our lands – and honored to bow to her in hers. A weaker Empress would have demanded concessions; she has shown me and us respect by offering us options. I will repay her in kind; if the Empire is to lead the defense of all free peoples against the Drazari, then they deserve this respect.”

“It will never feel right,” Ukkoson said.

“Perhaps not,” Rajenlif said. “Not for us. But my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, they may see this as simply natural. Who knows? Perhaps someday, a descendant of mine will marry a descendant of hers…and the Jotnar and the Empire will find themselves with one united throne.”

“Would they rule from Tuaut or Jutuneim?” Daiudson asked.

“If they are of Jotnar descent, then they can rule from Earth for all it matters. Our people are Jotnarherath. These lands are ours, and we hold them to protect our people. But if the day comes when a Jotunn takes the Imperial throne, on that day all the Empire is Jotnarherath – and Jotnarherath is fully a part of the Empire. And Jotnar and Aementi alike will truly be equal, and our people will be ever free.”

“Well, let’s see if they let them wear a braid first,” Daiudson said. “But…it is a wonderful dream.”