Duala Deneira was seated in the chair of responsibility when Durilla Degra entered her audience chamber, which had been emptied of all others as she was arriving. When the matriarch met with representatives of other houses, or with the house council or either branches of the house guard, she would have her personal guards, as well as recorders and at least the minimum number of attendants to give the proper effect.

Private business was private business, though, and even her guards withdrew.

“Greetings, matriarch,” Durilla Degra said, giving her the head bow that was proper.

“And to you,” the matriarch said. “I wonder how strange it must be for you, to see me sitting here before you… the very image of your amikan, on the throne of the house.”

“I once found the resemblance uncanny,” Durilla said. “But I believe it may simply be the goddess working her will on the world. When your long reign eventually comes to an end, it could be an unsettled time for the house… by providing you with a descendant who bears such a striking resemblance, perhaps the Forsaken is giving us a way to ensure a peaceful sense of continuity.”

“That could be,” the matriarch said. “But then, your daughter Duala also bears an impressive resemblance, and your wife was moved to give her my name. If we’re looking for omens in such things, perhaps that could be one?”

“Little Duala is a charming woman and is shaping up to be an able soldier, but she is not of the line,” Durilla said. “My Daella is.”

“And yet the goddess’s plans are intricate.”

“Omens can be found anywhere, if one looks for them… would you really throw away the longest unbroken lineage in the history of the city on something as uncertain?” Durilla asked.

“No, I suppose you are correct about that… I wouldn’t rely on coincidental resemblances in choosing the succession,” Duala Deneira said wryly. “We should compose a reminder to the house council and the priestesses, to that effect. But would it really be such a terrible blow to the house to start a new line?”

“It is our house’s chief claim to honor,” Durilla said.

“And if we didn’t have it, we’d find something else to brag about,” Duala Deneira said. “We have a strong line of telepaths, we have a chapel and school that most would agree are enviable, we have one of the oldest and darkest halfkind, we have sent a daughter of the line to the surface of her own free will. When it comes to it, though, it is all just so much distraction. The positions of the greater houses relative to each other may as well be set in stone. The lesser houses vie for greater standing against each other, but they will always remain as they are: lesser. It is the blessings of peace and security that allows us the luxury to care about such foolishness.”

“As you say, matriarch,” Durilla said stiffly.

“Of course you will not agree that the lineage is foolishness… you’re such a traditionalist,” the matriarch said with a laugh. “Well, rest your mind. I did not ask you here to talk about this, of course.”

“Indeed,” Durilla said. “I must say, I found it curious that your summons was to me alone when normally you would invite my wife and I.”

There were two lies there, of course. The second was the less important one. It was Durilla who interpreted all calls for her wife to participate in house life as referring to both of them… and as often as not, she took it upon herself to answer them alone. It may have been presumptuous, it may have been overreaching, but she was essentially within her rights… and there were times when it was more useful for the matriarch to deal with her even when it would have been more correct to deal directly with her descendant.

The first lie was that she found it “curious”. In fact, she found it worrying. It was only her arrogance that kept her from being terrified. While Durilla thought of her own machinations as subtle, the fact was she was frequently far too bold and even she could not pretend she had not crossed a line with her latest maneuver. In her mind, her actions were justified… or rather, she believed in her mind that she could justify them sufficiently… but the fact that she had been summoned to the throne room, she herself as an individual and not as part of the joined spirit and flesh she embodied with her wife, argued that the matriarch thought otherwise.

“Did you?” was all Duala Deneira had to say, though as a skilled telepath and someone who had seen through the masks and motives of better manipulators than Durilla she knew exactly what was going through the woman’s mind. “I had allotted this time to speak with Darek on matters distantly touching our Dee.”

“Unfortunately… though I believe you will agree it is actually fortunate, in the long run… Darek has entered into an alliance that I believe will be profitable for both himself personally and the house,” Durilla said.

“So I have heard,” Duala Deneira said. “I was under the impression that he resisted your attempts to play matchmaker, especially as he had a favorable match with Delia Daella.”

“Perhaps at first appraisal, but a reasonable person would realize that Delia’s prospects for advancement are contingent on factors beyond her control,” Durilla said. “A match with a well-positioned and high-ranking officer of the city… well, one would be hard to say which would be the more favorable position for a male soldier, consort to a sitting matriarch or consort to a general, but as they say: one fly in the web is worth innumerable elsewhere.”

“So Darek was amenable to this… assignation? Assignment?”

“I arranged it on his behalf, but he did not refuse it… you know how it is with the male soldiers,” Durilla said. “Relative standing counts for much in how advances are received, and Darek has ever been ambitious. The opportunities for advancement are few, for a male soldier who does not offer himself up to other men.”

“Indeed, one might say Darek found one of the best of those opportunities and seized onto her with admirable aplomb,” Duala Deneira said. “His love for Dee has ever been genuine, no matter how strongly wedded it is to his ambition.”

“And then she left,” Durilla said. “I’m sure she broke more hearts than his with that decision. I think perhaps our Darek could best be categorized as a lover of opportunity than as a lover of women alone. I pray you wait until he returns to Durakesh, once he’s settled into his new role… and once the house receives the dowry and the overtures of friendship that will come with it… to settle your heart about this matter.”

“So it is a permanent alliance, then?”

“I suppose we will find out when he returns.”

“Well, in any event, he is beyond my ability to recall until then, so it would be fruitless to belabor these points any further… at this time,” Duala Deneira said. “Especially as other matters arise to demand my attention… I have received a summons to the civic council.”

“I see… and will our dear Daella be going in your stead, as is usual?” Durilla asked.

“This is no invitation of courtesy,” the matriarch said. “I have been called to hear and answer charges.”

“Nothing too serious, I hope.”

It went without saying that anything that required a sitting matriarch to come before the council and hear charges would be something serious.

“It is hard to say,” Duala Deneira said. “The formalities were somewhat lacking in the call… it seems the matter is a tad confused. It concerns Darek’s involvement in a street brawl with Eyrui soldiers.”

“It seems that should be a matter to take up with his commanders, not his matriarch,” Durilla said. “Though this is exactly the sort of thing I sought to shield him—and us—from.”

“As I said, the matter seems confused. The matriarch of House Eyru… a young Dania Allena… is trying to spin a line between this fight and Darek’s house allegiance on one tip and the conduct of Alea that apparently instigated the fight on another.”

“I’m afraid you’ve left me quite dazzled. What has Alea to do with us?”

“Alea apparently injured the amakan of Sister Eyru,” Duala Deneira said, using the form of address matriarchs would use among each other. “A gossipy, belligerent creature called Dylie, according to our own collection… and cer amikal is claiming the right to sue for satisfaction against us, on the basis of Darek’s subsequent championing of Alea. It is very tenuous, but the council has based its judgments on implied connections before.”

“Now my matchmaking on his behalf seems prescient,” Durilla said. “This is exactly the sort of scenario I had in mind when I sought to pair him with somebody powerful. His new amekah can help champion his cause, while lessening the implicit connection to the house. Wedded to a civic officer, he is distanced from us while not disowned, and he is in a better position to defend himself without requiring passionate advocacy from you.”

“Or he would be, if he were here.”

“You have an excuse to defer the matter.”

“Except they are pursuing Alea, not him,” Duala Deneira said. “If Darek were present, I would turn the case around and recast it as a matter of our internal military discipline. That will be harder to do with him absent.”

“It seems to me an even easier solution is still viable: give up Alea to whatever judgment the council passes,” Durilla said. “She’s not d’Wyri. Darek was willing to champion her for the moment, but he left her behind quickly enough when opportunity presented itself.”

“Alea’s ties to this house run deeper than Darek’s fleeting interest,” Duala Deneira said. “If a judgment were to be successfully brought against her in a suit naming our house, the only way to avoid sanctions and an injured standing would be to repudiate her to a greater degree than I would like to. Especially considering the nature of this case.”

“What is that?”

“Essentially, it comes down to a halfkind suing a woman for insult,” the matriarch said. “A woman named in connection with our house. Ce is using cer lover as a proxy, but the implications are clear. This case could set an uncomfortable precedent, and it could prove a serious embarrassment. If a judgment is brought. As I said, it is all very tenuous, and there are those on the council who will want it thrown out when the matter is explicated in those terms.”

“A halfkind suing… you know, I have never had much use for the halfkind,” Durilla said.

“That is the problem. Even the most devoted lover of halfness only has so much use for them,” Duala Deneira said. “And so, all too often, they become our idle follies embodied: our pride, our games of vying with one another for standing, our petty intrigues and cycles of disproportionate responses. Imagine if this case started a trend… well, I will expose it for what it is. I will talk to young Dania Allena first. I understand from our halfkind that the rumors say she is all but ruled by her lover… it’s obviously the sort of childish exaggeration only somebody disconnected from the shift-to-shift realities of city life could promulgate, but the rumors may be embarrassing enough to her that she would fear anything that seemed to lend weight to them.”

“Wise as always, Duala Deneira,” Durilla said, giving her a slight head bow.

“Unacceptable!” Dylie shrieked.

“Dylie… dearest, beloved Dylie,” Dania Allena said, reflexively scooting back away from her volatile lover, and thereby drawing her legs up onto the seat of her throne. “It’s the best that I can do.”

“It isn’t good enough!”

“The council would not hear a suit from you. But since the suit I entered involved you, they may indulge me when I ask permission for you to give…”

“I want justice!”

“You said you wanted to go before the council!”

“And you can’t even tell me for certain if I’ll be able to do that!” Dylie said.

“I’ll… I’ll be insistent, love, most insistent,” the young matriarch said. “I’ll tell them that your testimony is central to the case, which it is, and…”

“I don’t want to go because my testimony is central… I want to go because it’s my case.”

“Yes, that’s why your testimony is central,” Dania Allena said. “Listen… now that the suit has been delivered, there is a span where even a greater house like d’Wyr can’t target us for reprisals for fear of how it would look… that means we can go walk in the market, you and I, just like…”

“I don’t want to go to the market,” Dylie said. Ce threw back cer head and sobbed theatrically. “Th-that’s where it ha-ha-happened!”

“But, love, I thought we could…”

“I don’t want to go anywhere with you!” Dylie cried, turning and from the room.

“But…Dylie…” Dania Allena called weakly after cer, but ce was gone. The matriarch slumped down her throne, closing her eyes tightly and squeezing out silent tears. She sniffled.

“Matriarch?” one of her attendants said from the doorway. “May the court return? The trade delegations from the gorgons and House Ahren would like to continue the…”

“Next shift!” Dania Allena said without looking up. “Tell them to come back next shift!”

“But it’s already been delayed…”

“Next shift!” she repeated, getting up from her throne and running towards her private chamber.

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