04-20-2020, 05:27 AM
Sunday, April 19th
Having waited in a sense of limbo, the members of Yauhmi's Cabinet were somewhat prepared for their fate. Nevertheless, when the knocks came on eleven doors, all of their responses differed.
Xochiqui, the Secretary of Defense, refused to swear loyalty to the junta. He then attempted to resist arrest, and was killed by the soldiers he had once commanded. Chuanacoyo, a former executive with Coatōn, the nation's largest defense contractor, was summarily appointed as the new Secretary of Defense by the junta.
Ixtonal, Secretary of the Civil Service, reasoned that one boss was the same as another, but that the government had to continue to function. He had no problem with committing to the junta.
Cuicanan, the Secretary of Justice, not only agreed to join the junta, but did so eagerly. Yauhmi had been too soft for his liking as a ruler, and he welcomed the new (old) order of things.
Nexā, Secretary of the Environment, refused to swear loyalty to the junta, and was summarily arrested. So was Etalmac, the Secretary of Education, for the same reason. The junta decided to just abolish the Secretariat of the Environment and appointed Mahuema, a retired university professor and staunch conservative, to run the Secretariat of Education.
Yāolinli, the Secretary of Scientific Development and Advancement, fled before the junta could come for her. Her whereabouts, at least for now, would remain unknown. The junta responded by declaring her removed from her position and appointed Catzina, another staunch conservative with more interest in the economy than in knowledge, as her replacement.
Namacamina, the Secretary of Support, also fled before the junta could find her, when her Secretariat was ordered abolished by the April 19th Decrees. Her whereabouts likewise remained a mystery.
Cozamaquetzal, the Secretary of Health, refused the junta, was arrested, and replaced by Toztlaxoche, the CEO of Xiomera's largest hospital chain, Alcolman.
Maxtla, the Secretary of Culture, decided to join the junta, and found her Secretariat tasked with the additional mission of "preserving Xiomeran values", just like the old days.
Xōclo, the Secretary of Infrastructure, Development and Planning, found the junta much more to his liking than his previous employer. He had been one of the planners behind the original Manauia Island Project, and had been quite put out when Yauhmi had dramatically scaled his plans back. Under the new regime, it would be full speed ahead, bulldozers and all.
And at the last, Iccauhyotli, the Secretary of Tribal Relations, found himself arrested without even being asked if he wanted to switch sides. Under the new Xiomeran regime, there was no need for silliness such as "inter-tribal relations". Like the good old days, everyone in the Empire would do what the Xiomerans told them to do, or else.
---
Xiomeran Embassy, Laeralsford
"I have already decided. The junta can go screw themselves - apologies for the undiplomatic language. But I have no intention of surrendering this embassy to them - now, or ever." The Xiomeran Ambassador to Laeral, Quetmiilnaxī, sipped his tea before putting the teacup down. "This embassy will continue to serve you, your Majesty, as we always have."
Crown Prince Texōccoatl smiled in response. "That's good to know. We'll need your help to get back in touch with people in Xiomera - we've been cut off from communications."
"I will do what I can," the ambassador replied. "This will be a good base of operations for you to begin your counter-attack."
---
Xiomeran Embassy, Buttercity
At a different Xiomeran embassy, the choice was hardly as clear-cut. Chemā, the Xiomeran Ambassador to Lauchenoiria, read the demand from the Provisional Imperial Government with dismay. If I say yes, I'm damned. If I say no, I'm damned, she thought in frustration. Chemā, truthfully, was not a fan of Empress Yauhmi. But the junta which had taken over Xiomera seemed a bit too old-school Xiomeran, even for her relatively conservative leanings. I may not have liked the Empress, but I didn't want anyone to throw her in a freaking jail cell, she thought irritably.
So, in time-honored bureaucratic fashion, Chemā decided to stall. She pretended that she hadn't received the message at all, and waited.
---
ASI Detention Facility Alpha-73B
Unknown location, Xiomeran hinterlands
Yauhmi wasn't sure how many days had passed.
She knew, vaguely, that it had to have been at least two or three, but after she had been transferred from the Ximac Fortress, her first location to be detained, to this current cell, the windowless room gave her no easy way to track time. She had been stripped of her elegant A'pilne dress, and forced to don a prisoner's uniform. And then, she had been left alone.
She had been fed, and not mistreated, other than being stuck by herself in a tiny cell not much larger than a closet. A basic, rather uncomfortable bed; a table and a chair; a toilet; a sink; a very basic shower. That was the extent of her living space. A far cry from the Palace of Flowers, she thought dryly.
Other than food being delivered through a slot in the door, no one had interacted with her at all. Yauhmi wasn't so bothered by that, but she did worry about the people on the outside. Her son, the people who worked for her, the people in general. She also wondered, oddly, if someone was feeding her cat.
When the door finally creaked open, Yauhmi was surprised by the suddenness of a visitor after so long, but quickly composed herself. She wasn't going to give her captors the advantage of knowing the effect the cell was having on her - especially when she realized who was visiting.
"Good morning, Empress," Calhualyana said coolly, her voice giving a mocking twist to Yauhmi's title. Yauhmi found herself surprised only by her utter failure to realize who the snake hidden in the grass behind the coup had really been, until it was too late. "Acting Secretary Calhualyana. Are you the ringmaster of this circus that is the junta, or just another one of the clowns in the show?" Yauhmi replied, forcing every ounce of royal hauteur she could into her voice.
"It's just Secretary now. I am afraid that your Secretary of Security never recovered from his bout with AD14. Nasty illness, that," Calhualyana smirked. "I am now in charge of Security - and your hostess. Do you like your accomodations, Empress?" Calhualyana laughed.
If she had been younger, and not exhausted from the conditions of her imprisonment, Yauhmi would gladly have choked the life out of Calhualyana herself. Instead, she found that her only weapons were words. "If you're here just to snipe at me, you're wasting your time. I don't have any interest in anything you have to say."
Calhualyana gave a fake pout of dismay. "And I was so hoping to have a chat with you over tea. But if you're not in the mood for company, that's fine. I was actually going to say that you could leave this cell if you wanted. You just have to sign this." She passed a tablet over the small table to Yauhmi. Articles of Abdication, the title read.
Yauhmi shoved the tablet back across the table without reading further. "I am not signing any document abdicating my throne. If your little band of usurpers want to take power, you'll not get my help to do so."
Calhualyana sighed. "The power has already been taken. You sit in this little box. Your son is exiled. Your Cabinet members have either sworn loyalty to us, or are dead, or running for their lives. Your military and your police take our orders now. Your so-called Huenyan Assembly sits in cells like this one, except for our pet Necatli tlatoani, who works for us now. You are defeated. Your plans to destroy this country are thwarted. Signing that, and joining your son in exile, makes things easier for you, not us. I am trying to do you a favor."
Yauhmi openly laughed in response, causing Calhualyana to grow red-faced. "You're doing me a favor? Even despite your best efforts, you haven't addled my brain that much. If I abdicate and walk away, that legitimizes your coup. It lets you make a true claim to be the legitimate government - if I voluntarily surrender power, who's to argue with you after that? I won't make your lives that easy."
Calhualyana slammed her fist on the table in front of Yauhmi. "If you wish to be stubborn, you old fool, so be it. But sooner or later, we will get you to sign this abdication. You think you're strong of will? You think you can resist? You are so naive. Do you really think the suffering you've been given so far is even close to our best efforts? If you want to see what ASI can do when we're truly motivated - keep refusing to sign the abdication. You will find out soon enough just how far we can, and will, go."
Calhualyana turned to walk out, but stopped when Yauhmi raised her hand. "Just tell me one thing. Why are you all doing this?"
Calhualyana looked at Yauhmi incredulously. "You really don't know? You really think you've done nothing to provoke this - to provoke us? Are you truly that self-righteous, or that naive, or just that stupid? You were changing everything that made Xiomera strong, prosperous and successful. You were encouraging a culture of weakness, of dependence, with your damned social programs. You were encouraging the total upheaval of the established order, with your talk of Assemblies and elections and reforms. You would have destroyed Xiomera. We are saving it - from you. And don't think we didn't know about your scheme to place your own family on the throne forever, to have Texōccoatl follow you and then that cursed child of his after that, so that your progeny could take us down this path of weakness forever. You made us do this."
Yauhmi looked at Calhualyana with disbelief. "What does Tonauac have to do with this?"
Calhualyana glared at Yauhmi in response. "Your reforms were bad enough. But no hereditary monarchy shall ever rule this land again - especially one that leads to a half-breed child becoming Emperor. That, I can guarantee you."
Yauhmi found herself suddenly filled with rage. She had not been this angry, in fact, since the rumors during the Great Selection that she had cheated on her husband. "You're doing this because my grandson is half-Xiomeran and half-Itotemoc?" she said, standing up and quite forgetting that she was a bit old to be trying to choke someone.
"Only Xiomerans will rule the Xiomeran Empire. That has always been the way. It will always be the way. Your family will not be allowed to change that," Calhualyana grated.
Yauhmi leaned forward, glaring at Calhualyana. "Tonauac will be the future of this country - after my son, that is."
"Not a chance. We are seeking the boy and his mother as we speak, their fate will be sealed soon enough," Calhualyana replied, to a snort from Yauhmi. "That tells me you've failed to capture them so far. Not as on top of things as you claim, are you?" Yauhmi replied. Calhualyana turned even more red-faced, and shoved Yauhmi back into her chair. As Yauhmi sat back upright, Calhualyana turned to walk out the door.
"We will find them, soon enough. And if you don't sign that abdication document before we do, you'll be killing your grandson. We will not allow him to remain in the line of succession. If Tonauac's life isn't enough to convince you to bend....we'll just have to see what ASI's most skilled interrogators, and others we can bring into service, can do to change your mind." Calhualyana rapped sharply on the door, and a guard let her out of the cell.
Yauhmi found herself looking at the door in the ensuing silence. You can't ever just keep your mouth shut, can you? she thought to herself.
Having waited in a sense of limbo, the members of Yauhmi's Cabinet were somewhat prepared for their fate. Nevertheless, when the knocks came on eleven doors, all of their responses differed.
Xochiqui, the Secretary of Defense, refused to swear loyalty to the junta. He then attempted to resist arrest, and was killed by the soldiers he had once commanded. Chuanacoyo, a former executive with Coatōn, the nation's largest defense contractor, was summarily appointed as the new Secretary of Defense by the junta.
Ixtonal, Secretary of the Civil Service, reasoned that one boss was the same as another, but that the government had to continue to function. He had no problem with committing to the junta.
Cuicanan, the Secretary of Justice, not only agreed to join the junta, but did so eagerly. Yauhmi had been too soft for his liking as a ruler, and he welcomed the new (old) order of things.
Nexā, Secretary of the Environment, refused to swear loyalty to the junta, and was summarily arrested. So was Etalmac, the Secretary of Education, for the same reason. The junta decided to just abolish the Secretariat of the Environment and appointed Mahuema, a retired university professor and staunch conservative, to run the Secretariat of Education.
Yāolinli, the Secretary of Scientific Development and Advancement, fled before the junta could come for her. Her whereabouts, at least for now, would remain unknown. The junta responded by declaring her removed from her position and appointed Catzina, another staunch conservative with more interest in the economy than in knowledge, as her replacement.
Namacamina, the Secretary of Support, also fled before the junta could find her, when her Secretariat was ordered abolished by the April 19th Decrees. Her whereabouts likewise remained a mystery.
Cozamaquetzal, the Secretary of Health, refused the junta, was arrested, and replaced by Toztlaxoche, the CEO of Xiomera's largest hospital chain, Alcolman.
Maxtla, the Secretary of Culture, decided to join the junta, and found her Secretariat tasked with the additional mission of "preserving Xiomeran values", just like the old days.
Xōclo, the Secretary of Infrastructure, Development and Planning, found the junta much more to his liking than his previous employer. He had been one of the planners behind the original Manauia Island Project, and had been quite put out when Yauhmi had dramatically scaled his plans back. Under the new regime, it would be full speed ahead, bulldozers and all.
And at the last, Iccauhyotli, the Secretary of Tribal Relations, found himself arrested without even being asked if he wanted to switch sides. Under the new Xiomeran regime, there was no need for silliness such as "inter-tribal relations". Like the good old days, everyone in the Empire would do what the Xiomerans told them to do, or else.
---
Xiomeran Embassy, Laeralsford
"I have already decided. The junta can go screw themselves - apologies for the undiplomatic language. But I have no intention of surrendering this embassy to them - now, or ever." The Xiomeran Ambassador to Laeral, Quetmiilnaxī, sipped his tea before putting the teacup down. "This embassy will continue to serve you, your Majesty, as we always have."
Crown Prince Texōccoatl smiled in response. "That's good to know. We'll need your help to get back in touch with people in Xiomera - we've been cut off from communications."
"I will do what I can," the ambassador replied. "This will be a good base of operations for you to begin your counter-attack."
---
Xiomeran Embassy, Buttercity
At a different Xiomeran embassy, the choice was hardly as clear-cut. Chemā, the Xiomeran Ambassador to Lauchenoiria, read the demand from the Provisional Imperial Government with dismay. If I say yes, I'm damned. If I say no, I'm damned, she thought in frustration. Chemā, truthfully, was not a fan of Empress Yauhmi. But the junta which had taken over Xiomera seemed a bit too old-school Xiomeran, even for her relatively conservative leanings. I may not have liked the Empress, but I didn't want anyone to throw her in a freaking jail cell, she thought irritably.
So, in time-honored bureaucratic fashion, Chemā decided to stall. She pretended that she hadn't received the message at all, and waited.
---
ASI Detention Facility Alpha-73B
Unknown location, Xiomeran hinterlands
Yauhmi wasn't sure how many days had passed.
She knew, vaguely, that it had to have been at least two or three, but after she had been transferred from the Ximac Fortress, her first location to be detained, to this current cell, the windowless room gave her no easy way to track time. She had been stripped of her elegant A'pilne dress, and forced to don a prisoner's uniform. And then, she had been left alone.
She had been fed, and not mistreated, other than being stuck by herself in a tiny cell not much larger than a closet. A basic, rather uncomfortable bed; a table and a chair; a toilet; a sink; a very basic shower. That was the extent of her living space. A far cry from the Palace of Flowers, she thought dryly.
Other than food being delivered through a slot in the door, no one had interacted with her at all. Yauhmi wasn't so bothered by that, but she did worry about the people on the outside. Her son, the people who worked for her, the people in general. She also wondered, oddly, if someone was feeding her cat.
When the door finally creaked open, Yauhmi was surprised by the suddenness of a visitor after so long, but quickly composed herself. She wasn't going to give her captors the advantage of knowing the effect the cell was having on her - especially when she realized who was visiting.
"Good morning, Empress," Calhualyana said coolly, her voice giving a mocking twist to Yauhmi's title. Yauhmi found herself surprised only by her utter failure to realize who the snake hidden in the grass behind the coup had really been, until it was too late. "Acting Secretary Calhualyana. Are you the ringmaster of this circus that is the junta, or just another one of the clowns in the show?" Yauhmi replied, forcing every ounce of royal hauteur she could into her voice.
"It's just Secretary now. I am afraid that your Secretary of Security never recovered from his bout with AD14. Nasty illness, that," Calhualyana smirked. "I am now in charge of Security - and your hostess. Do you like your accomodations, Empress?" Calhualyana laughed.
If she had been younger, and not exhausted from the conditions of her imprisonment, Yauhmi would gladly have choked the life out of Calhualyana herself. Instead, she found that her only weapons were words. "If you're here just to snipe at me, you're wasting your time. I don't have any interest in anything you have to say."
Calhualyana gave a fake pout of dismay. "And I was so hoping to have a chat with you over tea. But if you're not in the mood for company, that's fine. I was actually going to say that you could leave this cell if you wanted. You just have to sign this." She passed a tablet over the small table to Yauhmi. Articles of Abdication, the title read.
Yauhmi shoved the tablet back across the table without reading further. "I am not signing any document abdicating my throne. If your little band of usurpers want to take power, you'll not get my help to do so."
Calhualyana sighed. "The power has already been taken. You sit in this little box. Your son is exiled. Your Cabinet members have either sworn loyalty to us, or are dead, or running for their lives. Your military and your police take our orders now. Your so-called Huenyan Assembly sits in cells like this one, except for our pet Necatli tlatoani, who works for us now. You are defeated. Your plans to destroy this country are thwarted. Signing that, and joining your son in exile, makes things easier for you, not us. I am trying to do you a favor."
Yauhmi openly laughed in response, causing Calhualyana to grow red-faced. "You're doing me a favor? Even despite your best efforts, you haven't addled my brain that much. If I abdicate and walk away, that legitimizes your coup. It lets you make a true claim to be the legitimate government - if I voluntarily surrender power, who's to argue with you after that? I won't make your lives that easy."
Calhualyana slammed her fist on the table in front of Yauhmi. "If you wish to be stubborn, you old fool, so be it. But sooner or later, we will get you to sign this abdication. You think you're strong of will? You think you can resist? You are so naive. Do you really think the suffering you've been given so far is even close to our best efforts? If you want to see what ASI can do when we're truly motivated - keep refusing to sign the abdication. You will find out soon enough just how far we can, and will, go."
Calhualyana turned to walk out, but stopped when Yauhmi raised her hand. "Just tell me one thing. Why are you all doing this?"
Calhualyana looked at Yauhmi incredulously. "You really don't know? You really think you've done nothing to provoke this - to provoke us? Are you truly that self-righteous, or that naive, or just that stupid? You were changing everything that made Xiomera strong, prosperous and successful. You were encouraging a culture of weakness, of dependence, with your damned social programs. You were encouraging the total upheaval of the established order, with your talk of Assemblies and elections and reforms. You would have destroyed Xiomera. We are saving it - from you. And don't think we didn't know about your scheme to place your own family on the throne forever, to have Texōccoatl follow you and then that cursed child of his after that, so that your progeny could take us down this path of weakness forever. You made us do this."
Yauhmi looked at Calhualyana with disbelief. "What does Tonauac have to do with this?"
Calhualyana glared at Yauhmi in response. "Your reforms were bad enough. But no hereditary monarchy shall ever rule this land again - especially one that leads to a half-breed child becoming Emperor. That, I can guarantee you."
Yauhmi found herself suddenly filled with rage. She had not been this angry, in fact, since the rumors during the Great Selection that she had cheated on her husband. "You're doing this because my grandson is half-Xiomeran and half-Itotemoc?" she said, standing up and quite forgetting that she was a bit old to be trying to choke someone.
"Only Xiomerans will rule the Xiomeran Empire. That has always been the way. It will always be the way. Your family will not be allowed to change that," Calhualyana grated.
Yauhmi leaned forward, glaring at Calhualyana. "Tonauac will be the future of this country - after my son, that is."
"Not a chance. We are seeking the boy and his mother as we speak, their fate will be sealed soon enough," Calhualyana replied, to a snort from Yauhmi. "That tells me you've failed to capture them so far. Not as on top of things as you claim, are you?" Yauhmi replied. Calhualyana turned even more red-faced, and shoved Yauhmi back into her chair. As Yauhmi sat back upright, Calhualyana turned to walk out the door.
"We will find them, soon enough. And if you don't sign that abdication document before we do, you'll be killing your grandson. We will not allow him to remain in the line of succession. If Tonauac's life isn't enough to convince you to bend....we'll just have to see what ASI's most skilled interrogators, and others we can bring into service, can do to change your mind." Calhualyana rapped sharply on the door, and a guard let her out of the cell.
Yauhmi found herself looking at the door in the ensuing silence. You can't ever just keep your mouth shut, can you? she thought to herself.
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