Camilla is beginning to see why Palamedes said that she would like Lieutenant Tayray. Of course she has questions, as any intelligent person would, but she understands that sometimes, in times of precarity, all but the most important questions must be set aside. As it is, those that she asks have answers that are decided complex.
Shrugging off Ari’s I’m sorry, she does her best to explain Blood of Eden. “In the Houses we call them terrorists. I think they would prefer ‘freedom fighters’.” She presses her lips together. “The Emperor has colonies on habitable planets across the galaxy. Most of them signed contracts thousands of years ago granting the Houses full use of their natural resources during the Emperor’s lifetime. What they did not realize is that the Emperor would never die, or that the extraction of natural resources would involve the destruction of most organic life on the planet and the displacement of its people. Blood of Eden is made up of individuals from those planets who object to these conditions. Violently.”
Camilla Hect nearly, nearly smiles. “More of an acquisition, as we remain entirely separate entities.” The Sixth likes contracts and corporate-speak in their own way, too. “One of them is still in the infirmary, chained up and slowly dying of a gut wound sustained while we were at Canaan House. The other one bunks with the rest of the crew.” Meaning: Judith Duteros, Second House heir and Captain of the Cohort, remains a prisoner of war, while Coronabeth Tridentarius, Princess of Ida, has forsworn her titles and joined Blood of Eden. Nothing in Camilla’s expression reveals what she thinks of either of these choices.
And now for the important bit: “The Warden wants to convince the Sixth House to secede from the Empire under the guarenteened protection of Blood of Eden.”
no subject
Shrugging off Ari’s I’m sorry, she does her best to explain Blood of Eden. “In the Houses we call them terrorists. I think they would prefer ‘freedom fighters’.” She presses her lips together. “The Emperor has colonies on habitable planets across the galaxy. Most of them signed contracts thousands of years ago granting the Houses full use of their natural resources during the Emperor’s lifetime. What they did not realize is that the Emperor would never die, or that the extraction of natural resources would involve the destruction of most organic life on the planet and the displacement of its people. Blood of Eden is made up of individuals from those planets who object to these conditions. Violently.”
Camilla Hect nearly, nearly smiles. “More of an acquisition, as we remain entirely separate entities.” The Sixth likes contracts and corporate-speak in their own way, too. “One of them is still in the infirmary, chained up and slowly dying of a gut wound sustained while we were at Canaan House. The other one bunks with the rest of the crew.” Meaning: Judith Duteros, Second House heir and Captain of the Cohort, remains a prisoner of war, while Coronabeth Tridentarius, Princess of Ida, has forsworn her titles and joined Blood of Eden. Nothing in Camilla’s expression reveals what she thinks of either of these choices.
And now for the important bit: “The Warden wants to convince the Sixth House to secede from the Empire under the guarenteened protection of Blood of Eden.”