[Lauchenoiria]

(Jointly written with Shen)

Heavenly Palace, Shen
1st December 2019

The recording automatically stopped as it reached its end. The new Grandmaster closed the laptop and turned his attention to the rest of the people assembled at the table. Agent Nemo. President Greenwood. The Empress herself.

“This is the information that we have been able to get so far. President Greenwood, I'm interested to hear what you have to say about this. Your perspective can be most enlightening.”

"Well, first of all I must say, I am surprised to see that one would talk so quickly," she said, sounding slightly annoyed. "It seems Councillor Pierre lied to me about the quality of their training. And her mother before her: perhaps an attempt to gain funding. As for what she is saying, it sounds accurate to me. The training she describes is about what I was told, and I gave you the identity of one of the same Auroras she did, so we know she was not lying about that one in LOM."

“Yes. The fact that she confirmed information that we already knew makes me believe that she's telling the truth on everything,” Nemo said speaking up in an accent that the President instantly recognized.

“With this information I think we should move onto stage 2,” the male said.

“Are you sure you're ready Agent Nemo?"

“Yes... the agents we have within the Matriarchy need to begin to look for that facility. I will ask the Aurora if she knows where she was trained.”

"You are Kerlian?" President Greenwood asked Nemo, sounding surprised.

“I was born there yes." He said turning his attention to the former head of state of his birthplace.

“But I have been a Shen subject for many years.”

"Interesting," she replied. She bit her tongue. She had more questions for the man, but it was not her place to ask them right now. "Do I understand you right, that you want to know the location of the Aurora training facility?"

“That will be our next goal. Once we know a general location, we can use satellite images to find potential locations. From there all we have to do is have our agents sneak by and gather intelligence,” Nemo said.

The Grandmaster and the Empress both nodded.

"I'll leave that to you director Nemo. Good luck,” the Empress said standing up and walking out of the room.

"Happy hunting,” the Grandmaster said as well starting to follow his empress.

Nemo turned to the president before he himself began to walk out.

“Do you know the location of the training facility?"

"No, only the Pierre family knows," she replied. "I do not know if the Auroras themselves know the location, or if it is hidden from even them. The Pierres are very secretive about the Programme."

Nemo nodded, gathering up his papers and standing up. “If I have any questions I'll contact you later."

The Kerlian man turned around and began to walk towards the door.

"Wait," she said, standing. "May I ask how you came to Shen? I gather it was illegally, since you do not seem old enough to have left before the emigration ban."

"..." he sighed and turned around.

"I grew up in an orphanage in Kerlile. As you know boys are not exactly sought-after when couples are looking to adopt. At fifteen I already realized I would have no life in the Matriarchy, so I figured out how to get across the border into Lauchenoiria. The communist regime had no interest in taking me and told me, rather dismissively to try my luck in Shen... so I moved here"

"That is understandable," she nodded. "I do not blame you in the slightest, if I had been born a man, my life would have been terrible, I will admit that. You made the right choice."

"... I never thought I would have heard the president of Kerlile say that. But it has been an interesting few weeks, hasn’t it?"

He turned back towards the door and walked out of it.

She stood, tapping her fingers against the table for a few moments. "Yes," she murmured to herself. "It really has."