[Lauchenoiria]

Hale Residence, Kerlile

When Xia Chiu arrived at Jennifer Hale’s property, she had to stop and gape at the mess which surrounded her. The door had been opened by a harassed Emma Woodward, and the hallway was coated in a small film of dust. Baby toys littered the entranceway and somewhere down a corridor Amelia Hale screamed. Jennifer had told all her staff except Emma and her nanny to take immediate leave and not contact her. Evidently, that had included the cleaners.

“If you want to try to talk to her, you can,” Emma informed her upon opening the door without bothering to greet her or let her speak. “She might throw something at you, though. You can leave the kids with the nanny if you want.”

Glancing around at the entrance, Xia wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to leave her six-year-old daughter and baby son anywhere near here, but it couldn’t be helped. She needed to speak to Jennifer and if her mental state was as bad as reported, Jia and Kuo would be safer with Amelia’s nanny than anywhere near Amelia’s mother. So, she handed the baby to Emma and told Jia to follow her while Xia made her own way up the dusty stairs towards the Councillor’s room.

Upstairs, Jennifer’s room was easily notable by the trail through the mess. A handwritten sign reading “DO NOT CLEAN” hung on a random door that also looked like it had been kicked. In what looked like lipstick, the words “or else” had been added. Since Amelia was too young to write, Xia suddenly became even more worried about Jennifer. On the door to her room hung a Lauchenoirian flag which made Xia raise an eyebrow before knocking.

“I’LL PAY THE GODDESSDAMN CLEANERS, EMMA! AS LONG AS THEY DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!” yelled Jennifer, as something hard was thrown against the door. Xia swallowed and tried the handle before she could chicken out. The door was unlocked.

Upon opening the door, Xia gagged at the smell. Jennifer’s room smelled so strongly of human sweat that it made that Lauchenoirian black-site Gabriel Fleming had imprisoned her in seem nice in comparison. The Councillor sat in the dark next to a basket full of tennis balls. There were also tennis balls strewn across the room as if they’d been thrown at the door and allowed to roll to rest. At the sight of Xia, Jennifer narrowed her eyes and then made a noise that could only be described as a hiss.

“I’m not going to vote on whatever you’re proposing, so get out,” she said flatly. “If someone assassinated your mother and grandmother, that sucks but you can deal without me. I am done with this country.”

Xia swallowed. “My mother and grandmother are alive, Councillor,” she began carefully. “I’m not here to ask you to vote on anything. Or do anything for Kerlile,” she said as her eyes followed Hale’s to find a destroyed Kerlian flag on the floor. Evidently Jennifer was displeased with the Matriarchy.

“If you’re here to arrest me for treason, I don’t even care any longer,” Jennifer commented.

“Goddess…” Xia whispered, shaking her head. “Jennifer, you need help. We all knew you were depressed but this is next-level. I came here bringing a message from your wife, Josephine, who is going to be here in Kerlile next month and wants to see you. Desperately, I think. In my opinion her only reason for attending the IWC is to see you, but if you’re gonna act like this then maybe I should warn her that it’s a lost cause.”

Jennifer froze at Xia’s words, and then her face contorted into sheer fury. She reached down to grab the entire bucket of balls and fling them in Xia’s direction. The younger woman gasped and jumped back out of the room, trying to shield herself with the door.

“HOW DARE YOU!” yelled Jennifer, standing up and beginning to stomp towards the door. “How dare you give me false hope?”

“I’m not lying!” Xia gasped, moving backwards along the corridor and tripping over a set of building blocks for babies, landing on her bottom and staring up at the Councillor, frightened now of her sudden anger. “I went to Lauchenoiria so my son wouldn’t be taken off me! I spoke to her! And when they changed the law I came back, and she contacted me…”

Jennifer stopped hovering over Xia, an alarm clock in her hand for some reason. Then she suddenly turned around to walk back to her room, then paused to glance around the corridor. “EMMA!” she yelled, then paused until the sound of running feet came up the stairs and Emma Woodward paused taking in the scene.

“Councillor? Daughter Chiu, do you need help?”

“Get the cleaners, tell them this mess needs to be gone. I’m going to take a long shower, and I want the staff back here when I’m out. If Xia is telling the truth, then perhaps things aren’t as bad as I thought. If Xia is lying, I will hunt down all six hundred members of her family and give them to Mariya Adema.”

On that disturbing note, Jennifer walked away towards the largest bathroom, while Emma gaped behind her, turning to Xia to help her up. Once Jennifer had locked the bathroom door, Emma turned to Xia.

“I apologise for the impropriety of asking this question, Daughter, but what the hell just happened here?”

“I told her about Josephine coming to Kerlile and… she’s not quite stable, is she? I’m sorry, but those mood swings are not normal.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Emma lied obviously, but necessarily. Xia rolled her eyes but allowed herself to be led downstairs where the nanny handed her back her two children and out of the house while Emma made some phone calls. Xia’s own security guard, who had been forced to wait outside much to her displeasure, hurried over to Xia to ask what happened, given that she was coated in the dust from her fall, with her hair dishevelled. Xia ignored the questions, getting into the car as the driver began to wind his – yes, his, Xia was a progressive by Kerlian standards – vehicle down the Hales’ long driveway.

The visit to the Hale residence had disturbed her. They’d said Jennifer was depressed and prone to fits of anger, but not that she would become violent and have mood swings at the push of a button… not just between despair and anger but also the positive action of reacting to her information. She feared Jennifer now, especially how easily the supposedly-Reformist Councillor threatened her family. Hale was known as a democrat… but something had happened to her, and it frightened Xia. It frightened Xia a lot.

---

Edit to add link to relevant follow-up post elsewhere:

Huenya in Chaos - Part 2 : Auroras involved in the Cauhloc assault come together to defend Yauhmi.

[Lauchenoiria]

Mariya Adema had spent ten months with her latest subject. Where Cozamalotl had been infuriating, Samantha Collinsgate was intriguing. Where Cozamalotl had been stubborn, Samantha was yielding. Where Cozamalotl had made her want to scream and run away, Samantha always made her want to return. The Aurora, her second, had renewed her love of her work. And had changed her,, irrevocably.

“Good morning!” Mariya said breezily, entering the cell. Samantha was doing push-ups on the floor, unchained. Despite this, Calhualyana’s favourite torturer didn’t appear remotely afraid as she entered the cell alone. Samantha flipped over and sat down, smirking at Mariya.

“What do you have for me this time?” Samantha asked casually, and Mariya handed her a file. The imprisoned Aurora opened it, skimming through the papers, taking out a pencil from a pocket on her jumpsuit and beginning to make notes. “Has the Empress decided if I can be trusted yet?” she asked as she worked.

“I’m trying,” sighed Mariya, pulling out a pair of chocolate bars and tossing one to her prisoner. “But you know what it’s like; Auroras are notorious and scary.”

“Much like employees of the Restricted Region,” Samantha pointed out, to which Mariya laughed.

It was not an average scene in the deepest darkest prison of the Xiomeran Empire. And it certainly wasn’t average for Mariya. Never before had she established any kind of positive rapport with a prisoner. She was the quintessential bad cop; she only knew how to cause pain and suffering, and her only techniques were torture and fear. Yet Samantha Collinsgate had changed all that. Here’s what happened.

*

Ten Months Earlier - June 2021

Mariya dragged Samantha back into her cell after the meeting with the Empress. She had her assistants strap the Aurora to the wall, so tightly the other woman wouldn’t be able to move but to breathe and speak, at least a little. That was how Mariya wanted it; her subject to be powerless to do anything about the terror she would inflict. It was only then, once Samantha had been secured beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Mariya removed the gag.

“Why did you leave Kerlile?” Samantha asked the moment the gag was removed.

Mariya blinked. That was not the response she had expected.

“You’re Kerlian, I can tell from your accent,” the restrained Aurora continued as Mariya turned slowly away to open her case of interrogation implements. “Yet this isn’t Kerlile. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging you. I’m jealous, if I’m honest. You managed to get away from them.”

Mariya slowly turned back to her prisoner without choosing an implement. “Of course you are jealous,” she replied. “I’m free and you are not.”

“Oh, sure, that’s part of it. Well, in fact, that’s all of it but not in the way you think. I assume you chose to work here; you seemed happy enough earlier about it. You’re lucky, you know: you had a choice in what you wanted to do. Me? I was used by both sides.”

“Both… you are admitting to being a double agent?” Mariya said slowly. Auroras, in her experience, did not admit anything until months into interrogation.

“Sure,” Samantha said, and would have shrugged if she could have moved. “According to the official secret records of Kerlile, I am an agent of the Matriarchy trained by the Aurora Programme under the administration of the Pierre family. According to the Robinson family, I’m their own personal spy designed to overthrow the Kerlian government and work with remnants of the officially-extinct organisation known as Democratic Kerlian State to establish a democratically ruled state in its place. According to Zamastan I was a normal human. According to Huenya I was going to save their damn spokesperson. According to Xiomera I am an enemy agent infiltrating their country. According to, according to, according to. You ask me who I am, what I am, what I do? Depends who is doing the asking.”

“I’m sorry, has someone already been in here to administer interrogation aids?” Mariya asked, stuttering slightly in her surprise, asking even though she knew the answer.

“You find it unlikely, impossible even, that I offer a confession before you’ve done anything. Impossible that I would offer up the least bit of information without coercion. Well, I apologise if I’ve ruined your fun but to be honest, I don’t see the point in holding anything back. We both know you’ll get it eventually and it will just be a waste of time. It’s not like I particularly benefit from hiding anything. We both know I’m dead.”

Mariya opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. She was not easily startled. She was not easily surprised. She had seen everything from stubborn refusal to throwing up to begging for mercy but what she hadn’t seen was a highly-trained spy offering information without coercion or at the very least bribery.

“Listen,” Samantha continued. “You’re confused; I get it. Thing is, right, you’re used to interrogating dissidents and agents loyal to the enemy, and ideologues of varying stripes. And the difference here is that I don’t care. I don’t care who wins; I don’t care who knows my secrets; I don’t care because all I want is for the whole thing to stop. I will give you every piece of information you know and then you can execute me sooner rather than later, and I won’t have to play this goddessawful game any more.”

“You want to… no, this is some kind of trick,” Mariya shook her head. “Aurora mind games. I’m done with this. I’ll be back once I’ve dissected your little friend.”

With that, the chief torturer of the Xiomeran Empire turned tail, rapped on the door and exited the cell, hurrying along the corridor. She would not return to see her Aurora until after she was finished with Cozamalotl and her subsequent holiday.

*

Three Months Later - September 2021

By the time Mariya Adema visited Samantha once more, Cozamalotl was dead, Carmen Robinson was languishing in a Kerlian prison, and the woman in the cell in front of her had been starved for long enough that Mariya could see her bones. Still, when she entered, the Aurora grinned at her from where she was chained, shivering in the corner of the too-cold cell.

“My fellow Kerlian, here again at last,” Samantha greeted her. “Your subordinates - don’t give me that look, it’s very obvious who gives the orders around here - have not been listening to me for the past months. Eighty-two days, yes?”

Mariya could not hide her surprise at the correct guess. They worked hard to keep their prisoners disoriented down here; and she should not have been able to tell how much time was passing given the situation.

“Oh, don’t punish them, my fellow Kerlian,” Samantha shook her head ruefully. “It’s not their fault I’m good at telling the time. Truly, your drugs do work, it’s just they don’t work on me. But enough of the past, let us talk about the future.”

“You’re still going to play this game of false cooperativeness, hm?” Mariya asked, trying to keep her voice disturbingly cheerful, but falling flat. After Cozamalotl, she wasn’t in the mood for games. Perhaps she should have taken a longer holiday.

“It’s not a game,” said Samantha, her voice and expression turning serious. “I know who you are, you know: Mariya Adema. You are infamous; the cruellest professional torturer to ever grace the Restricted Region with her presence. I know what you can do to me, and I know you’ll succeed. But it is not the avoidance of pain that makes me willing to cooperate, Interrogator Adema. It is because I wish to inflict pain upon those who used me. I want revenge. That, surely, is easier to believe.”

It was, indeed, easier for Mariya to believe. So, she sat down, folding her arms in front of herself, and told the Aurora to elaborate.

*

Three More Months Later - December 2021

“We’ve confirmed it,” Mariya said that morning when she arrived at Samantha’s cell. “All the information you gave us, it’s all correct.”

“Told you so,” grinned Samantha, causing Mariya to roll her eyes and then pause. Once upon a time, Mariya would have responded to such a comment with a twist of a finger, or the slash of a knife, or the buzz of electricity. But with Samantha, she found it more amusing than anything else.

Over the past three months, Samantha Collinsgate had told Mariya everything she’d ever wished to know about Auroras and more. Not just information, but analysis: the Aurora in front of her offered up further pieces of tangential information and observations that helped link it all together, the kind of observations that one just couldn’t extract under coercion. At first, Mariya had thought it might still be a trick but after the first month, she began to realise that Samantha was completely genuine.

Samantha had despised being an Aurora. She felt like she was property; a tool of whichever faction had given her the most recent order, unable to live her life the way she wanted to. She hated the Council of Kerlile for the creation of the Aurora Programme, and she hated the Robinson family even more for their underhanded usage of Auroras. She had come on this mission, she said, out of fear of discovery. But now she realised that such things were inevitable, and that if she was going down she wanted to make damn sure that those who had used her came down with her.

After a while, Mariya had begun to test the waters, asking questions about Xiomera and Samantha’s opinions on the Empire. Samantha had laughed, rolled her eyes and told her she knew exactly what Mariya was doing.

“Look, whether it saves my life or not is irrelevant. I’d much rather die than be used by anyone else for their own purposes again. Sorry, Adema, you can make me talk but you won’t turn me; cause I hate everyone equally.”

So Mariya changed tactics.

*

Two Months Later - February 2022

Mariya had begun giving Samantha puzzles. They were based on old intelligence files, on old security problems that had long since been resolved. Each time, Samantha had given Mariya back something that, frankly, would have improved the response to these old puzzles had the Aurora advised Xiomera on them at the time. Eventually, Mariya started giving Samantha present-day scenarios. And each time, Samantha came through.

The Aurora did not, however, offer these services for free. Mariya hadn’t asked her to. Instead, she paid her. This was something Robinson had not done. This was something Kerlile had not done. This was something Huenya had not done. And she gave Samantha online order catalogues and let her buy what she wanted (within reason). If Samantha refused a certain puzzle, Mariya did not comment and instead gave her alternatives. No punishments for refusal; complete choice over what she worked on. And it worked.

One morning, in February, Samantha handed Mariya a handwritten contract. “That’s my offer, for Empress Calhualyana,” she said. “If she truly wishes to hire me, those are my terms. I won’t do it for my life; I won’t do it for my freedom because we both know that’s fake. I won’t be used for free; I will offer my services in return for the terms outlined there. So, take that to the Empress, if you’re still interested. We can always negotiate.”

And just like that, Mariya Adema turned an Aurora.

[Lauchenoiria]

“DOWN IT!” yelled the crowd as Nelichē stood in the middle of a circle with a red plastic cup full of some kind of alcoholic beverage. “WOOO!” they cheered when she successfully finished the cup, throwing her hands up and taking an exaggerated bow. She glanced around the crowd until her eyes met the guy she’d been playing with all evening, and pointed at him. They exchanged places, grinning, while the host poured him a drink. As the crowd got riled up to cheer him on, Nelichē slipped away to the pool out back.

“Once upon a time, I used to do this every weekend,” she remarked to the other guy she’d been playing with, whom she’d left by the pool. “When I worked for Coatōn Corporation in Huitzitaca. I’d get together with my co-workers and we’d drink until we couldn’t remember the position of the security cameras back at the office.”

“Shit, Huitzitaca? Were you there when the war broke out!?” her conversation partner was startled at her revelation.

“Nah, I was in Kerlile,” she shrugged, grabbing her drink back off him and taking a sip.

“Kerlile?” he responded. “How is that better? Do you just go around touring the most dangerous places on the planet or something?”

“Something like that,” she said, leaning against the steps to the pool. “Where were you when the war broke out, anyway?”

“Here,” he said. “We’ve always lived here. I’ve never been to Xiomera proper, and I never intend to.”

“‘Proper’?” Nelichē quirked her eyebrow at him. “You mean to say you consider other places part of Xiomera?”

“No! No, just that, like, before the war, y’know…” he was flustered.

“Relax! I’m just teasing you! You’re Necatli, it would be really weird if you supported the Empire.”

“You’re Xiomeran though, ethnically I mean. What do you think of Calhualyana?”

“I think she’s an amoral, power-hungry dictator who would murder me if she could, but first she would have her pet demon torture me until I was begging to become her slave,” Nelichē said bitterly and honestly.

“O-kaaay,” the guy, whose name Nelichē had forgotten, said, as he tried to edge away from her. She reached out and grabbed him, pulling him closer.

“Tell me, male, have you ever been with a Kerlian?”

“You’re insane, let me go,” he said, pulling away. She let him, sulking disappointedly as he rushed away from her, back indoors. On the way, he passed the other guy she’d left in the drinking circle, and she smiled, gesturing him over.

“Hey Nelichē,” he said, handing her a drink. “Didn’t wanna stay to watch my epic beer drinking?”

“Oh, I just felt a little hot,” she lied, giggling and pretending to stumble. He reached out to steady her, which is what she wanted. “But then that man came over,” she pointed at the figure who’d re-entered the house, “and kept accusing me of being a Kerlian spy?”

“A Kerlian spy? Guess some people can’t handle a drink, huh?” he grinned and she laughed.

“I just told him about my study-abroad semester in Kerlile and he just lost it! He’s probably going to start spreading lies around,” she fake-sulked.

“Don’t worry, nobody will believe him,” he reassured her.

“Yeah, you’re right, nobody will believe him,” she nodded, giving him a peck on the cheek to hide her amused, triumphant eyes. “Why would anyone believe something so far-fetched?”

“Exactly!” he nodded. “Hey… I was wondering, this party is getting boring, wanna head back to mine?”

“Sure!” she giggled.

They made their way along the streets, Nelichē continuing to pretend to be drunker than she actually was. They made small talk; the lies and truth coming from the ex-Aurora as easily as each other. But when they passed a poster displaying a picture of the royal family, he stopped to spit at it. Nelichē stopped, turning him towards her.

“Why did you do that?” she asked, dropping her act.

“Bunch of Xiomeran scum, pretending to be all benevolent. People think Yauhmi was some saviour when she was a dictator before and the wife of one before that. If they want to free us from Xiomera, why do we have to be ruled by Xiomerans?”

“I’m Xiomeran,” she said sharply.

“Yeah but you’re not…”

“Not what?”

“Like, one of the evil ones who tortures people and stuff!”

“Oh, I think you’ll be surprised,” she smiled sinisterly. Then, without further ado she grabbed him and twisted his arm behind his back in a way she’d been taught in Aurora training. He gasped in pain, his breathing suddenly shallow and his fear evident. “Nobody insults Yauhmi and gets away without punishment. You see, male, I am a Kerlian spy. But as you said earlier, if you tell anybody, they won’t believe you.”

She twisted his arm further, causing him to scream out in pain and fall to his knees. She shoved him to the ground and bent over him, pressing her knee onto a part of his chest that made him let out a wail. Then, she slammed his head on the pavement, enough to knock him unconscious but not enough to kill him. And she walked off, giving a middle finger to the clearly broken CCTV camera that was supposed to cover this area.

Nelichē stomped down the street away from the man, annoyed that she hadn’t managed to have her fun that evening. Males, they’re all the same in every country. Either cowards or entitled brats. She doesn’t need them, she doesn’t need anyone. Or anywhere. Kerlile, Huenya, neither felt like home. Nothing felt like home to her any more, not since that stupid traitor Riley had gotten Lily killed, Samantha captured, and ruined Yauhmi’s political career. Stupid traitor Riley. She’s the one who ought to be punished.

Yes, Nelichē decided. It was about time. She made her way to where she knew Riley’s new place of residence was. There was a police station nearby, but no matter. Nelichē was an Aurora, local police trying to arrest her would be like minnows trying to arrest a shark. So she picked up the biggest rock she could find on the ground and lobbed it into the window of Riley Nelson’s apartment.

CRASH. That would have woken the other Aurora.

“RILEY NELSON!” Nelichē called up from the street. “RILEY ‘TRAITOR’ NELSON. Treason to one country wasn’t enough for you, was it? You had to betray SEVERAL. I bet you wish you took that stupid job in Eiria now, huh? Now that you know everything you touch turns to shit. Come out here and face me, Riley! Face the end! You deserve to die for your treason! FIGHT ME, COWARD! You were my best friend before you BETRAYED EVERYONE. It is my duty to execute you! For the Matriarchy, for Huenya, for Yauhmi, for me. For ME!”

Riley did not come to the broken window. Everyone else in the neighbourhood did, though, peeking out at the drunk Aurora (it hadn’t been as fake as she thought) from behind curtains in fear. Several of them had spouses fetching weapons, just in case. The police spilled out from the police station, but none of them could get near Nelichē. One tried, and she flipped him over her head. Another tried to use his taser and she dodged effortlessly.

After one began to draw a gun, Nelichē let out one last scream at the top of her lungs, and jumped up onto a parked van, hissing at the broken window, and then ran off into the night. The police would search. They would not find her.

Behind the broken window, in her apartment, Riley Nelson was curled up, her arms around her knees, sobbing to herself.

[Lauchenoiria]

Council Chambers

Grapevale

Kerlile

24th April 2023

Dear Ms Mariya Adema,

I am pleased to inform you that the Council of Kerlile has lifted your ban on returning to the Matriarchy. As you know, following the Xiomeran Civil War, you and six other Kerlian citizens were subjected to such a ban. Now, following renewed ties with Xiomera including the provision of necessary materials to our country, this ban is no longer in effect. You may remain in the employ of the Xiomeran Ministry of Loyalty and also return to Kerlile as and when you wish.

Yours sincerely,

Pauline Pierre
Councillor of Kerlile

Mariya Adema was delighted. She loved her work in Xiomera, but her exile from her beloved Kerlile had been the only part that hurt. When she had first received notice of the exile, she had cried. Mariya didn’t cry. Except then.

“Thank you, failed missile test,” Mariya chuckled to herself. She knew this wouldn’t have happened without the off-course missile that landed on Greater Acadian territory, prompting Xiomera to provide Kerlile with better missiles. Things were much better now that Kerlian-Xiomeran relations had improved.

Mariya smiled.

[Lauchenoiria]

Click here for part 1 and part 2 from December 2020

Side Effects - Part 3

Emily Keller was not the same person who had cowered in fear two and a half years ago. The terrified nine-year-old Maximusian had turned in to a self-assured eleven-year-old Kerlian. She had even converted from Christianity to Secadualism. The girl who had once feared the Kerlian state would now sing its praises at the drop of a hat. What had prompted this change, however?

After the incident at the boys’ school of the village of Miina, Emily had begun to hang out with Amma more frequently. The pair became the closest of friends; the daughter of a Reformist politician and the daughter of an Aurora. They made an odd pair, but Emily’s name protected Amma, and Amma’s confidence made Emily braver. It was a perfect friendship, that both girls needed deeply.

That is, until they broke the law one time too many.

In May 2021, less than six months into their friendship, then-Councillor Carmen Robinson was arrested for treason. Emily’s mother was questioned; as were all Auroras. Then things went back to normal, such as they were. As the months passed, however, the trend towards reform began to reverse. Laws that had been loosened were tightened once more. The Restricted Region was closed… and then reopened in secret.

Amma had been wrong that Emily was safe from everything due to her mother’s former profession. After the Robinson revelation, the Council of Kerlile no longer quite trusted their ex-Auroras. So, on the evening in October 2021 when Emily and Amma, aged ten, decided to sneak out after curfew for no reason other than fun, things did not end as anticipated.

The local police of Miina had, of course, been keeping dossiers on the number of times they’d had to speak to the pair. This October night, they would push up against that magical unknown number of “too many times”. The pair were arrested. And sentenced to attend an Alternative Education Centre.

At first, Emily had been inconsolable. She was terrified in a way Amma could never hope to understand. Her formative years had not been spent in a country where the name “Kerlile” was synonymous with “torture”. Worse still, they would not allow Emily to see her mother before she was packed off to the nearest Centre in a city forty miles away. The girl had been sick numerous times before they arrived.

By the time she left seven months later, she was a loyal Kerlian. That was, after all, the purpose of alt-ed. As was Amma (though the latter was there for a whole thirteen months). It had not been as bad as Emily had expected. Amma and her brother had spoken the truth when they said it was basically a “boarding school with propaganda”. At least, the Juvenile version was.

The very fact of it being not as bad as Emily had imagined prepared her well for her eventual indoctrination. Her terror in the beginning made her perfectly obedient. It was a fateful combination; and Emily soon began to see Kerlile in a new light. Alt-Ed was not brainwashing, as it was commonly called. No, there is no such thing. Alt-Ed merely provided individuals with the knowledge they needed to fully evaluate the merits of the Kerlian Project, and understand the benefits of loyalty to the Matriarchy.

Amma had taken longer. She’d been wilfully resistant from day one, forcing those running the Centre to subject her to some of the punishments Emily feared so greatly. She was not tortured; they were not in the business of torturing ten-year-old girls (unless they were in Aurora training, but that doesn’t happen any longer). Although, that depends on one’s definition of torture. She was not tortured by the Kerlian definition of torture.

The boys’ school teacher who had been arrested in 2020 was later acquitted and went right back to her position mistreating the village’s young male population. Amma’s mother, the Reformist politician, was not arrested but is watched, consistently. And frequently harassed by police who perform searches on the Grant household practically weekly, making sure to break things in the process.

In December 2020, the future of the Matriarchy looked bright. That brightness has now faded. Now, little girls who once said “the reformists will win”, now say “long live the Matriarchy.”

[Xiomera]

Xomaxtli Hill estate

Yauhmi was, in her current role, known as the nantzintli of Huenya. In a strict translation of Huenyan, the phrase meant "honored mother". She was about to have to engage those motherly tendencies in a big way.

"Bring them in," she told her guards. They opened the double doors, gesturing to the two women in the hallway to enter. The two of them stopped in front of Yauhmi, looking indeed a bit like children about to receive a lecture.

"So, I hear there have been some late night discussions taking place between you both. Along with the entire third shift of a police station." Yauhmi looked expectantly at Nelichē, then at Riley.

The two Auroras were standing as far apart from each other as they possibly could while being shown in. Before the guards had opened the doors, they had been staring daggers at each other. If looks could kill, it would have been a duel to the death. Now, they both looked at the floor.

"I didn't mean to hurt that police officer," Nelichē said eventually. "He just... interrupted me."

"Interrupted you trying to kill me, you mean?" Riley snapped, but quietly.

Yauhmi sighed. "Nelichē, while not as serious as in Kerlile or Xiomera, assaulting a police officer is still a serious offense here in Huenya. I had to pull significant strings to keep you out of jail. I need to know what the real issue is between you two and figure out a way to resolve it without bloodshed or more injured cops, please."

"It's simple," Nelichē said before Riley could speak. "Riley Nelson, also known as the Aurora Rita, is guilty of treason. And treason should be punished by death."

Riley looked at the floor again. She could not, after all, deny that she had indeed committed treason from a Kerlian perspective.

"We don't execute people for treason in Huenya. We're trying to be better than the Empire." Or Kerlile, Yauhmi wanted to say but wisely didn't. "Surely there must be some other way to appease your anger towards Riley."

"This is not about anger, this is about justice," argued Nelichē. "Might I remind you that her actions jeopardised you as well as Kerlile. It is not right that she and the others escape punishment for their actions."

"Obviously, I cannot speak for Kerlile," Yauhmi said after a moment. "But I can say that I have forgiven Riley and that, from the Huenyan perspective, she has no sins to repent for, so to speak. So the question remains: do you choose to continue to pursue vengeance against her for the sake of the concept of justice? I have seen what that kind of obsession can do to people. I saw it during the war. It's not pretty, what it does to the seeker of 'justice' any more than it is for the target of their quest."

"Kerlile still seeks her extradition, and that of the others. Their fellow traitors are already being punished in the Matriarchy," Nelichē said. "It is only delaying the inevitable to avoid consequences; once a traitor, always a traitor."

"Please, Nelichē," Riley piped up, finally. "I didn't mean to hurt you! And please don't send me back to Kerlile, they have the others in the Restricted Region from what I've heard. It's been almost two years. They'll barely be human by now!" She felt the panic rise in her voice and tried to calm it, but to no avail.

"Riley, no one is sending you anywhere to be tortured," Yauhmi said firmly. A ghost of fear, memory in her bones of her own torture, gripped Yauhmi briefly; she shook it off.  "Nelichē, I cannot in good conscience let someone else go through the pain I went through. Nor can we punish someone here for 'crimes' committed somewhere else. And we cannot have further violence. Can you understand the position I am in?"

"I didn't want you to send her to be tortured, I was going to just shoot her in the head. She used to be my best friend. I wanted to be merciful," Nelichē replied. And, in her own mind, that was merciful. "Not that she deserves it. Two of them! My two closest friends; her and Renee - Veronica Penners, her other name - were both double agents the whole time I knew them as kids! Do you know when they got recruited by the Robinson traitors? When we were six. Six! She has been lying to me since then."

"Do you think I chose to?" Riley said. "Do you think any of us had a choice? Yes, we were six. What six-year-old would refuse? They'd have killed me there and then, child or not!"

"And that would have been the right thing to do for the Matriarchy!" Nelichē hissed. "Sometimes we must sacrifice our lives!"

"I WAS LITERALLY SIX!" Riley shouted now. "And so was Renee! And now she has spent two whole years being constantly tortured for it and you want me to join her? You're cruel, I'm surprised you're here and you haven't defected to Xiomera of your own free will!"

"That is more than enough." Yauhmi stood slowly from her chair, as her guards looked on in alarm. "The past is the past. Nelichē, if you insist on holding Riley responsible for her past actions, you will take a path that will only bring you misery. Will killing someone who was once your friend, as punishment for an ancient crime, really matter at all in the present day? Will it bring you any kind of happiness or salvation? Will it even help Kerlile now that the plot is exposed?"

"That depends on what she's planning. What if she's still recruiting all those nine-fingered DKS fugitives to start another war in Kerlile?" Nelichē asked.

"I'm not!" Riley said. "I just want to live my life, can't we just let this be over?"

Yauhmi thought for a moment. "We can engage FIS surveillance on Riley to make sure that is not happening, if that will satisfy you. Of course, we would have to watch you also. To make sure there are no more late night unexpected visits." Yauhmi allowed a small bit of tartness to enter her voice at the end of that last sentence.

"You're going to do that anyway," Nelichē replied. "I know how these things work. I suppose you want me to apologise to her too?"

"A simple I promise not to try to kill you anymore would suffice," Yauhmi replied in a deadpan tone. "It would be the best thing for everyone."

"And if I don't are you going to throw me in prison?" Nelichē asked.

"No. Again, this is not the Empire. We don't just throw people into prison on a whim. But if cops keep getting injured, and dozens of people continue to complain about late night disturbances, it does become much harder for me to keep you out of jail," Yauhmi mused.

"Do you know what they tell us at the Aurora Centre when we're eleven, right when we start torture resistance training?" Nelichē asked rhetorically. "That we're probably going to end up dying in prison somewhere. I am prepared for such an eventuality. But if you must know, I don't particularly want to kill Riley."

"I see," Yauhmi said. "What is it you do want? What would ultimately satisfy you, short of murder?"

"I don't know!" Nelichē shouted. "Do you understand how confusing this is for me? Kerlile wants me to kill her," she pointed at Riley, "and come back home, and I don't know what they'll do to me if I do! But what exactly am I to do if I betray Kerlile? How exactly am I meant to choose between the two?"

"What you should do is live your life. Not for what Kerlile wants, or what Huenya wants, or what I want. The whole point of me offering Auroras sanctuary was to free them from what others want them to do, and let them be free to decide for themselves. I would argue that instead of choosing between two choices imposed on you, you can choose for yourself."

"I respect you," Nelichē said, "so I will stop trying to kill Riley. But with all due respect, you're not the one making me choose. The Council is."

"I appreciate your restraint. And you do have a valid point about who is compelling your choices right now. But they can only do that if you let them." Yauhmi sat back down slowly. "Now that murder is off the table, who wants tea?"

To their credit, or perhaps the credit of the designers of Aurora training, neither Aurora reacted with visible shock to the sudden change. Riley had relaxed after Nelichē admitted she didn't want to kill her. Nelichē just wanted the world to stop for a moment. Sadly, she had one last thing before it could.

"I would love some tea," Nelichē said. "First, though, I ought to warn you that the Council of Kerlile actively instructed me to kill Riley. And it is likely there are others going after the other Robinson Auroras. Should I disobey them, it is likely they will either rescind my Kerlian citizenship or ban me from the Matriarchy. But that's my choice to wrestle with."

Yauhmi sighed slightly. "And if there are indeed others, that will be my situation to wrestle with. As for your choice, I hope it brings you peace." She paused for a moment as a servant entered with the aforementioned tea, thanking them before proceeding to pour her visitors a cup.

Nelichē said no more of the matter as she sipped her tea. She'd already decided to disobey the Council; she just hadn't realised it. After all, she'd hardly tried very hard to do anything to Riley.

Riley could sense the decision in Nelichē. They'd known each other since they were three. And, while she was greatly disturbed about the thought of further assassins from Kerlile, she was much more relieved that maybe she could be friends with Nelichē again.

[Lauchenoiria]

Xomaxtli Hill estate, Huenya

Nelichē tossed and turned all night. After she’d spoken to Yauhmi, she’d managed to reconcile somewhat with Riley. The other Aurora was still wary of her, which was fair given the circumstances. The problem, of course, for each of the Auroras who remained in Huenya was their divided loyalties. It was an unfortunate but guaranteed side effect of the decision to leave Kerlile.

She had, of course, returned when the Hunt took place, unlike the rest of her (pre-war) Xiomera-assigned compatriots who now resided in Huenya. She’d never formally cut her ties with Kerlile, nor had she sworn loyalty otherwise. In many ways, that made this whole ordeal harder for her. She was, technically, still supposed to be loyal to Kerlile. And yet here she was, disobeying orders.

As much as she hated the Robinson Auroras and thought them traitors, she had to admire their ability to go through life with dual loyalties from absurdly young ages. She’d only faced this problem for a couple years and it was already ripping her apart from inside. Every night she went out drinking, and if she’d been in Lauchenoiria she’d have been in prison for any number of drug-related offences.

“Why did you have to ask me to kill her!?” Nelichē shouted aloud eventually, though it was very unlikely the Council of Kerlile could hear her. She wouldn’t kill Riley, no. But in breaking her loyalty to the Council, she could feel that she was breaking her own heart.

*

Grapevale, Kerlile

Janet Ashton, aka Aurora Jade, had spent the last couple of years in a mental health facility in Kerlile. An actual one, not a euphemism. After she’d been returned to the Matriarchy covered in bruises and convinced she was about to be tortured further or executed, the Council had decided she needed assistance. It had taken its time for her to believe she was safe, but she’d finally recovered.

More or less.

The torture had not been the worst thing. No, that was reserved for her having to live with the knowledge that she’d broken, and talked. It was not fear of pain that destroyed her, it was her guilt over her betrayal. It had taken a long, long time for her to forgive herself. She still hadn’t fully; upon discharge from the psychiatric hospital, she’d sighed up for voluntary classes to learn how to be a better Kerlian. As if her lack of loyalty was the problem.

Still, it was better than where she’d been upon her return: alternating between begging for mercy, and begging them to kill her in punishment. Now, she could at least act like a normal human being for a short while. She was still volatile, and on five different psychiatric medications, but she was given an apartment in a government-owned housing block; she attended her patriotism classes, and was trying to build up a life. If she could.

Kerrie Lee, aka Aurora Janet (ironically), a Lauchenoiria-assigned who’d been traded back to Kerlile six months before Janet, and who’d been in the same class as her in the Aurora Centre, tried to help her out. Kerrie still worked for the Kerlian Intelligence Service, though now as a cryptography expert and hacker rather than an undercover agent. Her own interrogation, at the hands of the rogue Gabriel Fleming, had left her with a couple permanent physical scars, but far fewer mental ones.

They were the only two from their class who had survived. After the Programme was decommissioned, the KIS had attempted to ascertain what happened to the ones who’d vanished. Aurora Jacqueline, aka Alina Kaufer, was Shuell-assigned. Everyone assumed they’d never see her again. All they knew of her fate was that she wasn’t the one in the video… and so she’d probably broken.

Aurora Jane, aka Marita Vogel, had been sent to Iustos. For a long time, her fate was equally unknown, until an unlikely source revealed that she’d been captured and handed off to Shuell also; after having had one of her legs amputated following a gunshot wound. Learning the likely fates-worse-than-death of her two friends from training, Janet Ashton’s fate had no longer seemed quite as bad in comparison.

[Lauchenoiria]

Tlalzixiuhxa was slowly recovering from her ordeal at the hands of Mariya Adema. As time went on since her rescue, her training allowed her to compartmentalise the ordeal somewhat - hardly the best coping method; but probably the most effective under the circumstances. She’d adjusted to life in Huenya, and to the state of the world following the Second Xiomeran Civil War.

It was certainly an adjustment: between the Robinson family, the Kerlian state, Xiomera with Yauhmi in charge, and now a Huenya which had unceremoniously shoved her aside for the supposed crime of sending people to rescue Tlalzixiuhxa herself; she’d had many loyalties over the years. From the moment she had, at the tender age of three, been tested for entry into the Aurora Programme her life had constantly been other people’s. She did not really know what it was like to live for herself.

She had begun applying for teaching jobs, though she’d yet to depart from living on Yauhmi’s estate and the relative safety it provided. At least she no longer took cars from door to door, preferring to get her exercise in by walking or cycling now she’d recovered physically from the whole affair. Fortunately for her, either Mariya had not gotten around to the whole finger thing, or Calhualyana had not given her permission. Either way, it meant she’d come out of the whole thing relatively unscathed, for what it was.

She was on her way back to the estate after a job interview on her bike when the familiar sensation of her Aurora’s instinct washed over her. They were trained to tap into the instincts of childhood rather than learn to suppress them as most adults did in order to fit in with modern civilization and its lack of sabre-tooth tigers. Perhaps it was indeed a loose tiger triggering her instincts now; but she couldn’t count on it.

Tlalzixiuhxa braked suddenly and rolled onto the grass verge at the side of the road - and just in time. A gunshot sounded, and the bullet grazed her hair as she rolled. It was less than a second away from hitting something that would actually hurt.

Obviously she hadn’t taken a gun to a job interview, so her small, easily-concealed knife and her wits would have to do. She’d identified the location of the shooter quickly enough, but she didn’t know if they were alone. She rolled into some longer grasses and lay prone, listening. There were very few sounds that could possibly belong to a human. Behind the birds and wind, there was only one set of possible footsteps. Tlalzixiuhxa paused, waiting for confirmation.

A twig snapped, and she hurled the knife in the direction of the would-be assassin. It wasn’t large enough to kill, but all she needed was a distraction. Before she even heard the grunt of pain, she was up and leaping towards the assassin. It was another woman, shorter than her - and not even trying to disguise herself with a mask. The assassin was pulling the knife out of her arm when Tlalzixiuhxa leaped on top of her, swiping down to the backs of her knees and knocking the woman prone then landing on top of her.

“Who sent you?” Tlalzixiuhxa demanded in Huenyan. The assassin blinked, uncomprehendingly. “Who sent you?” she repeated in English.

“You are a traitor to the Matriarchy,” the assassin spat, struggling in vain against the hold Tlalzixiuhxa had on her. “Death is too kind a fate for you; but since Huenya will not send you home to face true justice, it will have to suffice.”

“Are you an Aurora?” Tlalzixiuhxa asked, calm despite the circumstances.

“No,” the assassin replied. “Kerlile will not make the mistake of sending any more of your kind into the arms of Yauhmi and her… whatever she does to you.”

“Is Kerlile after Yauhmi?” Tlalzixiuhxa asked next, maintaining her position as she waited for the people who had been following her to call for backup.

“No,” the Kerlian assassin responded. “Huenya has burned bridges by harbouring you traitors, but for all Yauhmi did for the Matriarchy in the past, she will not face Kerlile’s wrath. That is reserved for you traitors yourselves.”

“You are speaking truthfully,” Tlalzixiuhxa replied. She’d had her finger on the woman’s pulse the whole time and she was a very good judge. “I am glad to hear that.”

Then the sirens began to sound as the backup approached, and Tlalzixiuhxa decided to leave the rest of the questioning to people who still actually desired to work in this department.

[Xiomera]

(Joint post with Lauchenoiria)

Chuaztlapoc East Federal Police Station
Chuaztlapoc, Huenya

The Huenyan Federal Police had taken the would-be assassin of Tlalzixiuhxa into custody. The HFP was the federal agency responsible for, among other things, monitoring and trying to protect the Auroras residing in Huenya. The Special Residents Taskforce (SRT) had that distinct honor, along with protecting other foreign nationals and Huenyan citizens deemed in need of extra monitoring and protection.

Special Agent Miahitlina of the SRT was the agent assigned to interrogate the assassin and find out more about her. The contents of the assassin’s pockets hadn’t revealed much. A few knives, a gun, and a cyanide pill that the assassin happily noted she had never intended to actually use.

Miahitlina hadn’t been able to gain any other information from a search of the assassin, and she did not come up at all in the Huenyan Federal Identification Database. The SRT agent was expecting a tough interrogation, with hours of questioning.

She would be disappointed.

From the beginning, Kaleigh Traversi had no intention of hiding her origin or mission. She was proud of it, in fact. When asked why she had tried to kill Tlalzixiuhxa, she was blunt. “The Aurora in question has betrayed the Matriarchy. She is a traitor. There is only one punishment for that in Kerlile.”

“This isn’t Kerlile. You seem to have forgotten that,” Miahitlina replied firmly.

“It doesn’t matter. You have refused to send the traitors home to face justice. You have instead harbored them. The blame for this falls on Huenya and its government. Technically, they deserve to be tortured for five years, and then executed, but the Matriarchy has decided to settle for death. You're welcome.”

Miahitlina was stunned that Kaleigh was being so forthcoming. She was also stunned at the blithe dismissal of Huenyan sovereignty. "She's not even in your country. You can't just extrajudicially kill people in other peoples' countries. You do get that, right?"

“You wouldn’t extradite her,” Kaleigh replied matter-of-factly. “If you would just give us back our traitors, we wouldn’t have to resort to this.”

Miahitlina sighed. “You do realize you’re going to be punished for this, right?”

“You’re not from Kerlile. You don’t know punishment.” Kaleigh gave a dismissive sniff, and Miahitlina’s face reddened. The agent stood up and walked out without another word; she had all the information she needed anyway.

—

Three hours later
Tecpancalli Tonaltzintli, office and residence of the Huenyan Vice-Speaker
Chuaztlapoc

Tiacihitli put down the report from the Federal Police, and the attached notes from the Federal Intelligence Service, with dismay. A single post-it note, with the words “Please address this” in Yauhmi’s handwriting, flittered down as he was lowering the folder to land gently on his desk. He had no idea how Yauhmi had intercepted the report prior to it reaching him, but she had.

He really didn’t need this right now. Between the unilateral Xiomeran annexation of a big chunk of Huenyan land and the everyday issues associated with trying to build a brand-new stable democracy, his plate was full to overflowing. But Yauhmi was right, this needed to be addressed. Such a violation of Huenyan law and sovereignty could not be allowed to stand without at least a protest and a warning. He therefore, reluctantly, instructed his assistant to place a call to President Arnott of Kerlile.

When Arnott received the phone call, she was less than happy. She hadn’t particularly approved of the assassination attempt when it was first brought up, but after Patel kept pushing, she agreed in order to solve their domestic problems. Of course, the consequence of that was now she had an international relations problem to resolve. This was not going to go well. Nevertheless, she answered the phone.

“Vice-Speaker, how are you?” she said upon picking up.

"I am doing well, madam President, thank you for asking. I hope you are as well. I hate to interrupt your day, but there is a matter of concern which has come up. It concerns one of your citizens named Kaleigh Traversi." Tiacihitli paused for a reply.

“I’m sorry, I’m not immediately familiar with the name,” Arnott replied truthfully. After all, she’d only seen codenames in the reports she’d read and proposals she’d authorised.

"The KCID 36949025 may help you. It belongs to one of your citizens who was just arrested by the Federal Police. They claim that they were sent on a mission by the Kerlian government to assassinate someone who has been given asylum in Huenya, a certain Tlalzixiuhxa." Tiacihitli waited once more for Arnott to respond.

Arnott swore mentally, but managed to refrain from actually opening her mouth. She’d really been hoping this was about a Kerlian drunk driver or some other such thing. “Ah yes, Tlalzixiuhxa. Is she okay?” Arnott asked. Might as well find out if the assassin succeeded.

"She is quite well." Tiacihitli noted mentally that Arnott had not denied his statement. "The person who attacked her is likewise fine and currently in custody." The Vice-Speaker was curiously pondering whether or not Arnott would request the assassin’s return.

“Glad to hear everyone is fine,” Arnott lied. She had no intention of admitting anything, or denying anything that could be proven to be a lie. Meaningless platitudes would have to do for now. She’d see how Tiacihitli responded to this.

Tiacihitli had been a lawyer by trade before entering politics. He knew exactly what a meaningless statement sounded like. He went from concerned to irritated in the blink of an eye. He decided to press the issue. "Are the claims of the attacker true, madam President?"

Arnott did not respond. She allowed the silence to collect, settling on the two leaders, knowing that the silence was itself a condemnation of Kerlile but powerless to do anything about it. What was done is done, and to speak now would be to invite even more trouble. So, the silence stretched, its meaning ambiguous in theory, but clear in practice.

"I see…." Tiacihitli finally broke the silence. "I must say, madam President, your decision to ally more closely with Xiomera seems to have them rubbing off on you. That is the sort of thing they would do, after all. But while Kerlile may be pretending to reform and become more aligned with the rule of law and international practices, Huenya most certainly is not. Your citizen will be tried for attempted murder. You are welcome to provide them consular or legal assistance as their case is handled in our legal system. This is also how any future such incidents will be handled. This is the conduct of truly civilized and democratic states, a concept that seems to elude Kerlile's leaders."

“I am perfectly aware that a Kerlian citizen accused of a crime in Huenya should be tried under the Huenyan judicial system,” Arnott replied. “We have no objection to such things. Serious crimes should, of course, be punished.” Serious crimes like treason, she thought to herself. That was, after all, what Tlalzixiuhxa was guilty of.

Tiacihitli silently marveled at Arnott's power of delivering particularly bland word salad, before replying. "I should warn that future such incidents would cause significant damage to our bilateral relations, as well as necessitate potentially stronger penalties. There are undoubtedly some within our government who would argue that we should treat such incidents as acts of espionage." The Vice-Speaker allowed it to remain unspoken as to whether or not he shared that opinion.

Arnott found it amusing in a way, how the Huenyans were now worried about espionage, given how Tlalzixiuhxa had first ended up in their country. Nevertheless, Kerlile couldn’t really afford to keep sending assassins to Huenya anyway. Financially, not morally. So she felt fairly confident in promising to Tiacihitli, “I can assure you that we have now decided to leave the traitors you choose to harbour to you. I do hope they don’t prove to be as dangerous to you as they were to us. And, of course, if they ever set foot in Kerlile again, they will be arrested.”

"I am certain that they will not choose to return to Kerlile; they are safer in Huenya. In any event, we shall accept that promise as a resolution. Thank you for taking my call, madam President." Tiacihitli sounded relieved and at the same time vaguely disgruntled.

“My pleasure,” Arnott said drily… and then hung up the phone. She leaned back in her chair, beginning to massage her temples to hopefully prevent the headache that threatened to form. It wasn’t that Kerlile wanted to upset Huenya. If they did, it would be easier. Rather, the Matriarchy felt betrayed by Huenya, for harboring traitors, and for ousting Yauhmi in favor of her male son. Kerlians were still suspicious that gender may have been a motivating factor. They always were.