“If I didn’t know better, I would think you were frustrated,” Pryvani said, settling a cup of techou on Rixie’s desk. “Anything I should be concerned about?”

“Sorry, boss, no…it’s a personal thing. The issue on Shelius is handled.”

“Glad to hear it, and unsurprised. I’ll ask about it later, but what is this personal thing that has you upset? If it’s stress from trying to keep things going here and head the 67th, I will tell you for the eighteenth time that I would be glad to give you paid leave to serve the Emperor. You’ve hired well, your subordinates can handle things for a while.”

“That’s not it, and anyhow, I’d be too stressed about what they weren’t getting right to be less stressed from the time to relax. It’s nothing. Silly. Really.”

Pryvani smiled gently closed the door of Rixie’s office, and sat down. “Darling,” she said, “I would hope you would know by now that even if it’s something silly that’s bothering you, I will do everything I can to help. Admittedly, if it involves Alex, I would do the same for him, so you will have to settle for me telling you both that you are indeed as madly in love as you think you are and to get over whatever trifle has you upset.”

Rixie snorted. “No, Alex is, as always, exactly the right level of annoying, just enough to keep me on my toes. Do not tell him that, though, it will ruin the fun.”

“I never would,” Pryvani said. “Asteria is too young to be causing serious problems, I hope, and I know that the Prince Antero is currently clear of trouble – believe me, I stay on top of that – so what’s wrong?”

“Like I said, it’s silly,” Rixie said, taking a drink. She sighed. “After Ryan’s meeting with the Council of the 79, and everything that turned up….”

“That must have been a bit hard,” Pryvani offered.

“No, not at all,” Rixie said. “I am so very glad for everything Ryan was able to find out. I always hoped he could find something out about his birth parents, other than that his mother was brave. But what they found….”

Rixie pushed at the cup slightly, looking down at it. “I know what it’s like to not know…anything. You feel like there’s a part of you that you’ll never understand, that you can never understand. Even if you have a family, even if you’re loved – and the Hoplites were a good family and I was loved quite enough….”

Pryvani put her hand on Rixie’s. “Darling,” she said, quietly, “no matter how much you are loved, and I know it is quite a bit, by many people these days…you are never loved as much as you deserve to be.”

“I am,” Rixie said with the slightest of smiles, “because I have been lucky. My friends, my children, my husband…I know how lucky I am. I do. But…anyhow, Kula did suggest that I get a genetic readout, as Ryan has included adoption as a legitimate link, and so we should make sure there isn’t some unknown sibling of mine out there whose descendants could stake a claim ten generations down the line.”

“Sensible,” Pryvani said. “There were two times when the House of Tarsuss almost had to be split or terminated because of competing claims after a primate died without issue. The descendants of Ryan and Thyllia will start life wealthy and powerful, and if they safeguard their investments they will remain so for generations. A distant relative would have quite an incentive to try to get in on the action if an opening presented itself. And if one isn’t clear about lines of succession, well, that can get messy.”

“I’m starting to regret Ryan taking a noble house,” Rixie groaned. “Only good thing about it is that Thyllia feels better about being Lady Carey than Lady Fand.”

“You do not know how much of a burden that was,” Pryvani said. “Knowing your parents can be just as bad as not knowing them. But I apologize, I did not mean to change the orbit of the discussion.”

“You didn’t,” Rixie said. “Anyhow, with the Antero launched and my grandchild a few months away still and the matter on Shelius resolved, I thought I would try to revisit my ancestry again. I knew that I wouldn’t get far with the Hoplite Order – the records were sealed firm, I’ve known that since I first looked into it when I was 15. But I thought I might be able to use a genetic scan of myself to cross-check against the databases. Not totally legal, but I have the access to do it, and I wasn’t planning to do anything significant with it with it, but…and this is where it gets weird…I didn’t get a hit. The data seemed to show…and this can’t be right, but….”

Pryvani leaned back, eyes wide. “It says you aren’t related to anyone.”

Rixie looked up. “Exactly. I mean…that’s literally impossible, right? Even if my parents weren’t recorded, even if I had no siblings…it should turn up a cousin. It should turn up Asteria, for frak’s sake! They were able to figure out Eyrn’s parentage and she’s thousands of years old. So how is it possible that my genetic profile comes up with no match? It’s either there’s some conspiracy targeting me personally or I’m really an Avartle and I don’t know it.”

Pryvani looked down for just a moment. She knew that she should not say anything, that she was duty-bound not to say anything.

But Rixie was as close a friend as Pryvani had, as close to her as Zhan, or Thyllia, or her children. In some ways, closer.

And so she measured her words very carefully.

“Rixie, are you familiar with a Terran concept called ‘Ockham’s Blade?’”

“There’s a similar Jotnar concept known as ‘Hrothr’s Sieve.’ The least complicated solution is where you should start, but there aren’t any uncomplicated scenarios. I mean, the most reasonable one I’ve come up with is that there’s some way for powerful families to alter records to hide their mistakes.”

Pryvani was quiet. She was quiet long enough that Rixie’s emotions shifted, from befuddlement to shock to anger.

“That’s bullshit is what it is,” Rixie said, folding her arms. “You can’t be serious! Do you have any idea how twisted and wrong that is?”

Pryvani rubbed a hand through her hair (which was currently short, and fuchsia, just for reference). “Rixie, this is not my secret to share,” she said, calmly.

“Why me? Is this normal? Is this just what’s done when someone has an inconvenient tie to a noble family? Is this what would have happened to Thyllia if she’d ended up with the Hoplites?”

“No,” Pryvani said. “No to all of those questions. Beyond that…Rixie, there is nothing more I can say beyond that.”

“Pryvani, this is…this is about the person I am. It’s about…it’s about my family,” Rixie said. “Do you understand that? What it’s like to have no connections to anything but the Hoplite Order? It was years, years, before I felt like I had a family. I had friends, like Lemm and Zhalem and Vanser, but not family. Not until after I’d been shot, and came….”

Pryvani had been listening to Rixie impassively, knowing that Rixie would draw herself up short. Rixie had nearly the control of her emotions that Pryvani had, and much more of a conscience.

“And came back here,” Rixie finished. “It’s…not fair for me to attack you when you’re one of the people who made me feel like I belonged somewhere, finally.”

“Believe me,” Pryvani said, “if it was anyone else – anyone else – I would have said nothing at all. Not so much as a hint. But you are a part of my family. You are my best friend,” Pryvani said. “And because of that, I will see what I can find. But I have to tell you that this is not my secret to share. And that the answer I bring back may well be that there is no answer I can bring back. And if I tell you that, I ask you, please, to trust me when I tell you it is best to leave it alone. There are limits even to my power.”

“I know,” Rixie said, looking up. “And not just the ones you impose on yourself. You’ve warned me off of enough potential disasters for me to know that. And if this is a potential disaster….”

“I warned you not to go after Vasha Zakrov, and all in all I was wrong,” Pryvani shrugged. “You have put your life on the line for me. I can risk a few difficult conversations.”

Rixie couldn’t help but laugh. “Boss, you know, all of us owe you so much we can’t ever repay it.”

“Oh, not at all, darling,” Pryvani said. “You deserve everything I can give you. And if I can give you back your family, I will.”

She tapped a few quick notes on her pad. The first was to Taron, asking him to ready the Galatea for launch. The second was to an old friend, scheduling a meeting in two days.

She did not tell Rixie that there was a very good chance that she would come back with no answer. The ability to do this rested with very few families indeed. The Tarsuss family was, perhaps, one of them, but it was by no means certain. No, the noble houses with the capability to pull this off could be counted on two fingers.

No…no. Not anymore.

They could be counted on one.