Forty-four Imperial years before, Kullervo had awoken in an unfamiliar room in the Palace of the Three Shaars. It was, like all bedrooms in the palace, luxurious. But it was less luxurious than his bedroom here; it was a simple guest room, not a room for a member of the House of Throden.

He had a splitting headache. He looked for his pad – he was in the palace; he should be able to get a med delivered to his door. But he could not find it, and when he pressed the intercom, instead of the pleasant voice of a palace concierge, there was instead a brusque man answering.

“Security.”

“Yes, um…this is Prince Kullervo. I wanted to get….”

“Well-born Kullervo, our Dronung has directed me to tell you to shower, get dressed, and contact me again when you are ready to see her. Breakfast will be brought to you when she arrives.”

“Yes, um…well, I would just like to get some med, I guess I can fetch it, but if you can have it sent up….”

“You are not to leave your room. Shower, get dressed, and contact me when you are ready.”

“Now just a moment,” Kullervo said, “I’m the prince. What’s your name? I’m going to….”

“I am Hrolf Oleckson, chief of the guard for the palace. And I act on our Dronung’s orders. The doors to your room are locked; if you somehow get through them you are to be stunned and thrown in the palace jail. Shower, get dressed, and contact me when you are ready.”

The line went dead.

Kullervo paused for a second, then went to the door, and tried it. The guard had not been lying; it was locked.

“Hilarious, Raja,” he grumbled. “Frakking hilarious.” He went into the bathroom – again, nice for normal people, but relatively spartan for a prince – and showered quickly. He put on the clothes that had been laid out for him – simple clothing, fit for a peasant – and jammed his finger on the intercom.

“Security.”

“Tell her worshipfulness that I am ready to see her,” Kullervo said, as he worked on his braid.

Four minutes later, the door opened. Two members of the guard accompanied Rajenlif; one pushed a cart with a simple breakfast of bread, jam, fruit, and juice, while the other kept a close eye on Kullervo. They settled the cart between two chairs and withdrew to the door.

“Leave us,” Rajenlif said. “Come in only if I signal you to.”

The doors closed, and Rajenlif said, simply, “Sit.”

“Look, Raja, this is ridiculous,” Kullervo said. “I know you’re pissed, I know you are, but you can’t jail me, it’s not 1198, you aren’t Antero Throden, and I’m not Iisku Ukkoson, so knock it off with the power play.”

“I can do anything I want,” Rajenlif said.

“The Dronung doesn’t have the power to jail people by fiat anymore, they haven’t since Hegri IV.”

“The Dronung doesn’t have the power to jail citizens by fiat,” Rajenlif said. “But there is an exception, one that Hegri left in, for the very reason you cited. I have the absolute power to detain any member of the Royal Family or any pretender to such, for any reason, for up to five years. The founder of the House of Throden had to jail Iisku Ukkoson to preserve his claim, Hegri knew that the day may come when another sovereign would need to protect the throne. True, your crime is different, but it is a crime, and I am doing what I must to protect our house.”

“Look, sleeping with Vikdasa wasn’t a crime, fathering Aud wasn’t a crime, so….”

“I refer to Vwokhu,” Rajenlif said.

The color drained from Kullervo’s face. “This…that’s over. Vwokhu and her mom agreed, the kid is with the Hoplites, it’s all over.”

“Is it?” Rajenlif said. “Sit.”

Kullervo sat down in the chair. Rajenlif took some hard bread, and broke it, putting a bit of jam on it as she spoke. “You committed a crime, Kullervo. You know it. I don’t think you intended it that way, but that is what you did. She was too young, and even if she wasn’t, you were the son of the employer of her mother. Even if she came on to you, you had a responsibility to say no.”

Kullervo grabbed a roll, and pulled some loose. He chewed on it for a good moment, and swallowed. He looked at his sister, and said, “I know what mom would have written about it. But don’t put any of this on her. I was lonely after breaking up with Kota, and I went after her. I thought she was fifteen – she was finished with the tenth year, it was the interim, I didn’t know she had been early-entry as a child – but I was seventeen, and done with school altogether. I should have known better, but she was pretty, and I was…not thinking with my brain.”

Rajenlif kept eating, and watching him. He poured a bit of juice.

“Mom…didn’t handle it well. Vwokhu’s mom was an Otnist, very religious. Vwokhu maybe could have been convinced to terminate, but her mom wouldn’t hear it, and mom…she wouldn’t give them a choice. She was demanding termination or else. Didn’t want the family sullied by mixing with an Otnist commoner…like Vwokhu was the bad one, like she did something wrong, like it was her that was the problem.”

“So they fled,” Rajenlif said.

“Yeah. Fled to Sininentavas, where Vwokhu’s father lived. Were preparing to head to Archavia, I guess – their plan was to go to Tuaut and appeal to Tiernan and you. I think they thought the threat of blackmail would be enough for you to tell mom to back off. Anyhow, she got a hold of me, said she didn’t want to raise the baby, didn’t want to be a princess, didn’t want any of this, she just didn’t want to terminate the pregnancy, and I thought, frak, it’s her choice, right? If she’d wanted to terminate and I hadn’t or mom hadn’t, so what, she’d have been able to, so turning it around, same thing – she wanted to have the baby and give it up to the Hoplites.

“So I did the only good thing I’ve ever done,” Kullervo said. “I told mom that if she didn’t back the frak off, I would turn myself in to the peacekeepers. Confess. I don’t know if I would have done it if she’d tested me. I do know that I meant it when I said it, though. And so it was agreed – Vwokhu would get paid off with money for school, her mom would get five years’ severance, they’d stay on Sininentavas, and the baby would be delivered to the Hoplites. And the whole thing would be covered up.”

Kullervo sighed. “It was a girl, I guess. I never saw her. Vwokhu had wanted to go to Gavpot Azkula, you know, she had good grades. But she didn’t. Don’t know what happened to her, but she had to run away from all her friends, her mom got fired, mom had to pull who-knows-how-many strings to get the baby into the Hoplites and get her geneprint split from mine, and I…went off to school. Prince Kullervo, everyone loves that guy, he’s fun, right?”

Kullervo looked down. “Vwokhu paid. Mom…mom died a couple years later, and I still think it was stress from covering up what I did. Vwokhu’s family paid. The baby paid. Everyone paid but me.”

Rajenlif sipped her juice, set it down, and nodded. “That changes now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You need to pay. You committed a crime, and hurt people, and as you said…you have never paid for that. So now you will. You are confined to the palace for one year. For now, you are confined to this suite. If you prove that you are reforming, you will be granted more privileges. In a year, I will decide whether or not you may leave, and move on with your life. But for now, you will pay the debt that you should have paid when you were seventeen.”

Kullervo rubbed his face. “I don’t know, Raja. What good will this do? I mean…I get it, but you aren’t going to announce why I’m here.”

“No, I’m not,” Rajenlif said. “If asked, I will say that you have come back to the palace for personal reasons. You are known to be addicted to drink, Kullervo. It’s far from a secret. Everyone will assume that is the only reason, when it is only one of the reasons.”

“Still, you keep me here a year…and then what?”

“That is up to you, Kullervo. This may amount to a tremendous waste of time. Or it may allow you to repent and redeem yourself. It is your choice. Choose wisely.”

* * *

“It wasn’t easy,” Rajenlif said. “Especially as I couldn’t be at the palace full-time. But at some point during that year, he made the decision to stop being a self-destructive jerk. He gave up alcohol – gave up all mind-altering drugs, actually – and studied economics, which he said he’d loved in school but that he’d been too soused to really understand. He went to the Royal College, got an advanced degree. He crossed paths with Tellervo Aahchi again, and she was not remotely interested, at first, because she’d known him when he was 19. But he was not the man he was at 26, or the man he was at 19, or the boy he was at 17. He was a decent man…he is a decent man. He has not wanted to admit to Aud’s parentage, but it isn’t just that he knows it would be embarrassing, after all this time. He doesn’t want to admit to it because he doesn’t know who his other illegitimate daughter is, and he does not want Vwokhu seeing that he has admitted to one dalliance without confessing the other.”

“You haven’t told him, then?” Pryvani said.

“No. My mother left some information for me, because she had to – this was something that had to be communicated to the next primate, so that I could defend the house if it came out – but she was adamant I should leave it be, and if I did come into possession of her identity, I was not to do anything but watch her…and I was definitely not to tell Kullervo.”

“Well, the Kullervo that Dronung Hirera knew….”

“It wasn’t just that,” Rajenlif said. “The House of Throden had very complicated rules of succession. The rules can be read to suggest that the eldest grandchild of a sovereign would have claim to the throne if the eldest child of that sovereign’s successor chose not to ascend to it. A great deal depends on how one interprets the merger of the Houses of Throden and ColVanos, and my interpretation – that when Vallero takes one of our thrones, she will take them both – carries a great deal of weight. But Vallero is not my eldest child. Rhionne is my eldest living child, and at the time, Antero was my eldest child. Rhionne is older than Aud by two months, so that is not a problem. But Rixie…Rixie is the oldest of my mother’s grandchildren, living or dead. And whether one reads it as Antero…having sacrificed himself, or Rhionne passing on the throne of the Jotnar so Vallero can take it, or Vallero being ineligible to take the throne of the Jotnar because she’s sovereign of the Empire….”

“…Rixie would have a legitimate claim to be Dronung,” Pryvani finished. “Not necessarily a strong one, not one that would hold up, most likely, but enough of one that she could cause a lot of division if she wanted to pursue it.”

“Exactly,” Tiernan said. “There are still Jotnar who chafe at being part of the Empire, who see a united throne as an affront to, rather than a celebration of, their lands. I know Magister-Imperator Carey, and I know that she would sooner sever her head from her body than harm this Empire. But Hirera could not have known that, and when this all was happening…she was a Hoplite child, raised without a family. She could have grown up to be bitterly angry at her fate, rather than the woman she became.”

“And even if she hadn’t,” Rajenlif said, “she could have been easily used. Someone who could be used as a puppet for the most aggrieved houses. Many people – most people – would be happy to live in a gilded cage and pretend to power.”

“That’s not Rixie,” Pryvani said. “But you’re right, you had every reason to cover this up.”

“I know it hurt her,” Rajenlif said. “It hurt Vwokhu. And it hurt Kullervo. But her existence could have been enough to fracture the fragile bond between the Empire and Jotnarherath. And once fractured, who knows what could have happened?”

Pryvani nodded. “So what now?”

Rajenlif sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t want to hide this from Rixie…she is a good person. I am honored to know she is my niece, and to be blunt, if she somehow stumbled into succeeding me I can think of no Jotnar more worthy of doing so. But I will need to talk with Kullervo first. He has been willing for Aud to know he is her father, at least quietly. I hope that given the chance…he would want to meet his eldest offspring.”

“And Rixie’s mother?”

Rajenlif shook her head. “Vwokhu SkamøId. I know only that she’s on Sininentavas. It is my understanding that she runs a business there. I would need to know much more about her before I could trust that she could be contacted safely.”

“I can handle that,” Pryvani said. “I know some people who can check her out. They’ll be discreet. And two of them are Jotnar, so they won’t even stand out.”

Rajenlif nodded. “For now, tell Rixie this: you have made contact with the family that hid her parentage. That they are studying the implications of sharing this information with her. But tell her that they know of her existence, know who she is…and that they are proud of her.”

Rajenlif had told Pryvani far more than prudence dictated, and far more than her mother would have wanted. But she did not tell Pryvani everything everything she had known.

She couldn’t bear to. And as much as it pained her to know she would have to tell Rixie…she already knew she had failed her niece.

* * *

Thirty-nine years ago, Rajenlif had walked the halls of the headquarters of the Hoplite Order.

“Welcome to Chirae Ankelos, your Majesty.” Vice Director Euridia Dal intoned, bowing formally before the Empress Rajenlif. “We are so pleased you’ve taken the time to visit us personally.”

Rajenlif resisted the urge to snort in amusement. Hidden in Vice Director Dal’s statement was the question of why it was the Empress herself who was making this inspection and not some underling.

“I’m very pleased to be here.” Rajenlif responded instead, inclining her head politely to the short auburn-haired woman. “The Hoplite Order has always been an asset to the Empire, and I have always been impressed with the work you do here.”

“Thank you.” Dal smiled and gestured towards the atrium that lead into the Hoplite training compound.

Rajenlif followed, easily keeping pace with the short woman, while her bodyguard and entourage trailed behind at a discrete distance. They walked through a sterile white hallway, passing doors that concealed classrooms and dormitories for the various age groups of children being trained for future service.

Their first stop was the nursery for infants and younger children, the Nul caste that had yet to be sorted by aptitude. Rajenlif smiled and spoke to the children, who were all a bit awestruck at seeing the Empress in the flesh. Rajenlif enjoyed the brief visit. Especially as the children reminded her of her own daughter Vallero, who was about the same age as they were.

On the tour went. Through the training facilities of each of the castes. Rajenlif was polite with all of the students and instructors she interacted with, but most of it was an automatic gesture on her part. She was distracted.

She was also looking for something.

It wasn’t until they arrived at the combat training grounds that she began to think she might have found it. The class that was in session were the first-year Tams, newly assigned to the caste. The children were just on the cusp of adolescence and learning their first forms of martial arts. They line up in neat if undisciplined rows practicing stances in front of a wall-spanning mirror while steely-eyed instructors paced in front of them making adjustments to their posture and foot positions.

The group was mostly male, which meant the few girls among them stood out significantly. However, there was one in particular who drew Rajenlif’s attention almost immediately.

She stood at the end of her line, and the amount of space between her and the rest of the students didn’t appear to be incidental. She stood nearly a head taller than the majority of her classmates and practiced her forms with steely determination even as she ignored the whispers of the pupils that stood nearest to her. Rajenlif could see the smoldering anger in the girl’s green eyes reflected in the mirror. A half-dozen small braids whipped around her head with every punch and kick while the rest of her long hair hung loose to her shoulders.

“Excuse me.” Rajenlif spoke to her guide softly. “That girl on the end, she is Jotunn?”

Euridia peered down the line until she spotted the student the Empress was referring to. “Ah yes. Rixie.” Vice Director Dal nodded. “Yes. I know that normally we don’t get a lot of Jotunn orphans, but Rixie was a special case. Apparently her parents were both killed in an accident and neither of them had any relatives able to take the poor girl in. She literally had no one in the world.”

Rajenlif felt a stab in her gut, but didn’t let the reaction show on her face. “May I speak with her?”

“Of course, your majesty.” Dal nodded and signaled to one of the Tam instructors. After a brief conversation, the instructor stepped away. In a terse, loud voice he dismissed the class to the showers but held Rixie back.

“Someone wants to have a word with you, Cadet.” Rajenlif’s lips quirked in an attempt at a smile as Rixie turned in her direction, eyes suddenly widening as she beheld the monarch of the Jotunn people. The Empress could see the girl’s legs shaking as she walked over to meet them, and her hands trembled as she bent into a formal bow.

“Hello Rixie.” Rajenlif smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s n-nice to meet you too, your majesty.” Rixie said nervously, her eyes cast down towards her feet. “H-how can I help you?”

Rajenlif lifted Rixie’s chin until the girl was forced to look her in the eyes. The Empress’s gut twisted again because now that the girl was close, she could see the traces of familial resemblance. The same pale green eyes, the shape of her nose, the cast of her cheekbones. There was no doubt. This was the child she’d been looking for.

This was a mistake. Rajenlif’s inner voice groaned as she resisted the mad urge to bundle the girl up and take her back home where she belonged. I shouldn’t have come here.

Nevertheless, the deed was done. She might as well take the opportunity to get to know the child, however briefly. She smiled and gently brushed one of Rixie’s braids with her fingers. “You wear the Jotunn braids?” She asked mildly.

“Yes…” Rixie began hesitantly, before nodding. “They told me the found me on Jutuneim so I wear the braids to honor my heritage.”

“Good.” Rajenlif said approvingly. “But why do you wear so many, child? Traditionally, our people only wear one or two braids.”

“I…” Rixie bit her lip. “You see, your majesty… Every time someone insults me for being… what I am, I add another braid.”

Rajenlif’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden, hard look that crossed the girl’s features. The urge to take her away grew stronger. “I see.” Rajenlif sighed. “Well, in that case I must say I’m impressed, and I honor your conviction. You hang onto that strength, and your career will be very illustrious indeed. I believe I’m going to need to keep an eye on you, Rixie Tam.”

Rixie smiled and blushed just a little bit. “Thank you, your majesty.”

“Not at all, my dear. Now, I believe I have kept you from your training long enough.”