[Lauchenoiria]

Jointly written with Xiomera

Day Three: Session Seven

Sandra Pavía had sat through the session on "Promoting International Collaboration on Women's Rights" semi-distracted thinking over and over what she and Alvarez had discussed two days prior. She'd chosen a seat as far away from the Milinticans as possible, though now that Kerlian security was deliberately trying to keep them away from her, she was less concerned.

As the session ended, she began to gather the mess of booklets she'd been handed throughout the session into her bag, sipping her now-cold coffee and glancing over the conference centre map to work out where the Political Scandals breakout session was taking place.

As Pavía sipped her coffee, Empress Calhualyana and the two security escorts who had accompanied her to the session walked over. They were trying to be as casual as possible in their approach, but when someone has two warriors in full dress military uniform with them, that is a rather challenging feat at best. "Hello, Minister Pavía," Calhualyana said in a polite tone. "Did you enjoy the session?"

Pavía glanced up, pulling her focus back to the room. The Xiomeran Empress. Great. Just what she didn't want to have to deal with right now. She gathered the booklets into her arms and stood, nodding a greeting. "Empress Calhualyana, I didn't realise you were also attending this session. It's a rather large crowd in these plenaries, is it not?"

"It is indeed," the Empress replied. "Sometimes large crowds can be a good thing, and sometimes not. I witnessed that rather unpleasant encounter you had with that rude Milintican....leader. That was certainly an example of a large crowd leading to an unfortunate situation." Whether the Empress was referring to having to deal with Arana, or to Pavía's somewhat loud declaration of lack of support for Xiomera, as the unfortunate situation was not yet clear.

Pavía blushed slightly, recalling the same encounter in great detail. "Milinticans do tend to bring out the worst in me, alas. They are so obsessed with pushing their ideology they do not care that we in Lauchenoiria have collective trauma around communists."

"Milinticans bring out the worst in everyone. That is the only thing they seem to be successful at," Calhualyana replied with a soft laugh. "They could be easily ignored if their ideology wasn't so dangerous, and they weren't so determined to force it on the rest of the world. I honestly would not be surprised if they are conspiring in some form or fashion to make common cause with whatever communists remain in Lauchenoiria to cause trouble."

"If they are, they will regret that," Pavía replied. "I am informed that the food in Lauchenoirian prisons is rather poor quality."

The Empress laughed again in response, keeping her less-than-impressed opinion of the roughness of Lauchenoirian prisons well hidden. "I should hope so, and that the Milinticans find that out should they indeed have any malevolent intentions towards your country. I know that, under the circumstances, you have to be.....careful about appearing connected to us in any way. But I just want you to know that, if help to prevent a communist plot is ever needed, Xiomera would be happy to do so. We have as much to fear from them and their ideology as you do, after all," Calhualyana said with a smile.

Even as Calhualyana was trying her best charm act to regain Pavía's trust, however, the conversation was not going unnoticed. In the far corner of the room, Neina Arana and her Milintican police escort were about to exit, when she noticed the two others talking. Her eyes narrowed. Slowly, she reached into her pocket for her phone.

Pavía took a step backwards. "Empress, with all due respect, while we have some common cause regarding Milintica, I rather think our two countries' opposition to communism comes from different places. In Lauchenoiria's Communist era, people suffered greatly. But economics alone could not have caused all that suffering. In light of recent events, I must make that clear."

"I understand," Calhualyana replied, still smiling. "And while I acknowledge that our two nations will have some disagreements on various matters, it is my hope that we can still work together on matters where we do have common cause." A slight click interrupted Calhualyana's thoughts. She dismissed it, continuing. "Even now, Lauchenoiria and Xiomera do not need to be foes on the international stage..." Another click interrupted Calhualyana's thoughts once more. She suddenly felt an unusual feeling, for her: dread.

Slowly, very slowly, the Empress turned to her left. Until she was fully facing Neina Arana, phone in hand, a look of triumph on her face. Click.

Pavía followed the gaze of the Empress, alighting upon the same figure. Then the colour drained from her face, and she froze like a rabbit in headlights.

"I knew it!" Arana shouted. "I knew it! You are conspirators, I knew it all along."

"You insufferable, irksome, ignorant.....Milintican," Calhualyana said in response. Her polite act completely fell away. "How dare you." Her face was a study in anger.

Calhualyana's two guards, hearing their Empress in fury, tensed up as if preparing to take Arana's phone from her by force.

Pavía secretly hoped the Xiomeran security would do just that, but saying so would only make matters worse. After the last incident, Alvarez had drilled it into her that she was to remain calm - at least, visibly. So she adopted a look of cold dislike and said to Arana, in a clipped tone: "Just because world leaders ignore your delegation at these conferences does not mean that the same can be said about every other country."

Arana sneered. "No one has been ignoring us. And soon, neither of you will be ignored either. Once I show the pictures of you two plotting to the world, all eyes will be on you."

"Enough!" Calhualyana shouted at the top of her voice. Her expression was dark. She barked something in Huenyan to her two guards. One of them began moving forward towards the Milinticans, stretching out her hand to seize Arana's phone. The Milintican policeman moved to stop her, and suddenly found himself several feet away, sprawled out on the floor and not even being quite sure how he got there. With a snort of disdain, the other Imperial Guardswoman straightened her uniform, before also moving towards Arana.

Pavía looked up towards the ceiling and groaned. "For god's sake, we weren't plotting you commie charlatan! Stop behaving like you're in primary school! Give me strength!"

As Pavía sought divine intervention, the Kerlian security guards were all exchanging looks, trying not to be the one who had to wade into the mess. A few who were nearest started towards the fight, wishing they'd paid more attention to the whereabouts of the Milinticans a few minutes ago.

Before the Kerlians arrived, the Xiomeran guard was upon Arana, moving incredibly fast. She yanked the phone from Arana's hand like a bodybuilder taking a lollipop from a child. With a single gesture, she dropped the phone to the ground and shattered it with a single well-placed slam of her boot heel.

Arana laughed in response. "I already uploaded the pictures! They'll be all over the net in minutes! You accomplished nothing by destroying my phone."

"I at least had the joy of depriving you of the phone. Who knows when you'll be able to afford another one, on a Milintican's salary. That should keep you out of anyone's hair for a while," Calhualyana replied coldly. "Be grateful it's only your phone you have lost the use of."

Pavía had not moved, she was still looking up at the ceiling, her eyes closed, praying even though she hadn't been to church in years. One of the Kerlians, a higher rank, stepped forward and cleared her throat. "That is enough. I must ask you all to leave this room. My colleagues will direct your three delegations now."

Three sets of Kerlians appeared towards different exits, clearly intending to separate each of them. They all looked on edge, as if they feared that the leaders in front of them would not cooperate.

"Of course. My apologies for this....disruption," Calhualyana replied. "Minister Pavía, I am sorry that our conversation was so rudely interrupted. Perhaps we can speak again in the future." The Empress then eyed Arana. "As for you, Milintican....congratulations, you have elevated yourself from being a nobody to someone I am now quite aware of." Leaving the question open as to just how much Arana would enjoy being brought to her attention in the future, Calhualyana slowly strode from the room, her escorts following.

With a sniff of dismissal, Arana exited in a different direction, closely followed by Kerlians.

Pavía groaned, following her Kerlian escort, complaining to them the whole time as they walked her to her breakout session about how Milintica clearly had it out for her. The Kerlians, as one might expect, did not respond.