TheAdvisor39

==Chapter 39 - The Advisor==
Sian
Capellan Confederation
3158
[In the Celestial Palace's Throne Room, the Forbidden City]
"How is he today?" Danai Centrella-Liao asked a mandrinn.
"Beside himself.  I hope you have good news from Atreus?"
"Maybe." she steeled herself and entered the Throne room.
Daoshen was raging. Visibly shaking in outrage as the holographic plot before the throne showed creeping waves of Republic orange encroaching on gains the Confederation made before the Fortress fell in '45.
She knelt on the floor, pressing her forehead to the polished marble, waiting to be acknowledged like any other supplicant.
"What news do you bring me, Child?" he almost groaned.  "Tell me we at least have Marik!"
"We do not have Marik...yet, Celestial Wisdom but, I bring news you may find gladdening." she said.
Air displaced and she could feel his heat through the air between them, the madness from his breath on her neck.
"What news?"
"Alaric Ward is preparing to attack the Republic, Honored One." she said, "We do not have Marik yet but, the Wolf Khan is going after Terra."
His near silent footsteps passed her head. "Rise, child." he said absently.
Danai raised her head, and then stood.
Daoshen Liao looked old in a way she had never seen, even in his moments of madness before he sent her to visit her friend Nikol.
"You do, indeed, bring me good news. You may live." he said.  "You will have to, my time is...shorter than I would prefer, and you are the only heir I can trust to do your duty."
"Father?" she never used that word with him, though both knew the facts.
He gestured impatiently, "I know the symptoms.  Forgetting faces, forgetting recent events, outbursts of temper? Blackouts?" he shook his head in denial, "Danai, I am not up to my Father's legacy but, I am intelligent enough to recognize that...what must be done for the Confederation. The first, is to prove we can hold our ground, the second is to give nothing to Devlin Stone and his Master...I will not be able to help you but, you must remember-"  he shook his arm, and a laser pistol appeared in his hand. She felt a sharpness in her chest with the fear that he would use it on her.
"The Capellan People must be preserved." He said, raised the pistol, "Win for them, win for me."
He shot himself, Danai stood stunned, and then, she screamed "NO!!!"
The Warrior House guards that came at her scream found her cradling the body of Daoshen Liao. Her tears were real, and her grief genuine-an oddity worth noting among the Liao household.
 - Finish - 
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*Wiki Editor Note: While the The Advisor Story itself has concluded. The story continues chronic logically, in The Absolute Zero.
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