Three Square Meals Ch. 127

"I can't imagine any of your sisters would have posed much of a threat, not once you'd replaced your mother as matriarch," Edraele said, looking unconvinced.

"I was never in any serious danger from any of them," Sarinia agreed, waving a hand dismissively. "My only concern was how you would react to news of my mother's early retirement."

Edraele studied her for a moment, finally understanding what had driven the young woman to sororicide. "Kali told you about the part I played in establishing the Young Matriarchs..."

Giving her a look filled with respect, Sarinia said, "I have to commend you for the remarkable way you seized the throne, Edraele. Assassinating four of the matriarchs from the top seven Houses and replacing them with their pliable youngest daughters was a masterstroke. Kali is quite delightful; so innocent and eager to please... she practically worships you. She actually reminded me a lot of my youngest sister, which was why I couldn't afford to take the chance that you would simply execute me and install Tehlariene as another puppet matriarch under your control."

"So you killed all your sisters," Edraele said quietly. "Leaving you as the only surviving member of House Baelora..."

"Tehlariene would have made a terrible matriarch," Sarinia said, lifting her glass for another sip. "Myrdina, Lieralia, and Rosanae were also equally poor choices. Honestly, I did you a favour in eliminating them as candidates to replace me."

"It seems you've thought of everything," Edraele said, an undercurrent of admiration to her voice. Her expression turned rueful as she continued, "Unfortunately, as clever as you seem to be, you do not know Baen'thelas. He was particularly vexed by the rampant murders within the Maliri Regency and he's gone to considerable effort to eliminate further assassinations. He was appalled to hear that you slaughtered your own mother and poisoned your sisters... and I'm afraid that in all likelihood, you've sealed your fate."

"So what does the future hold for me?" Sarinia asked, looking surprisingly unperturbed. "Am I to be dealt with by swift execution? Is House Baelora to face dissolution, its holdings and assets divided between our neighbours? I know Meriel Romenor and Keishara Venkalyn have viewed Baeloran territory with hungry eyes for centuries..."

Edraele paused, studying the self-assured woman who sat before her. Sarinia didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about the dire future she'd just portrayed, in fact she still maintained an air of quiet confidence.

"You don't have the look of a woman facing imminent disaster," she accused the House Baelora matriarch, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "What are you up to?"

Sarinia sipped her wine and allowed herself a small smile.

***

Thalia Romenor stared at the holo-screen in rapt fascination, enthralled by the vision of masculinity before her. The thought of coupling with a border male had never been high on her agenda, preoccupied as she'd been with avoiding her mother's wrath and sisters' machinations, but this man was no mere Maliri. He was so tall and wonderfully muscular... the thought of being held in his strong arms made her flush with excitement, an unfamiliar tingling in her loins leaving her panting with lust.

Tracing a fingertip over his lips, Thalia could only imagine what it would be like to be kissed by him... this Baen'thelas. Her trembling fingers broke the holographic image, causing it to flicker and momentarily breaking the spell. She blinked her dry eyes and darted a glance at the chronometer and was shocked to realise she'd been gazing at him for over twenty minutes.

She didn't have the heart to close the photograph and be parted from his handsome face, so Thalia chose to move it aside to view the accompanying message again. The fanciful tale of matriarchs conspiring together to achieve immortality had seemed like a bizarre joke at first, at least until she reached the end and activated Sarinia Baelora's personal message. It wasn't her blood-soaked face which had convinced Thalia there might be a grain of truth to the story, but the gleam of triumph in those golden eyes... that of a first daughter earning her rightful place as matriarch.

Then of course she'd studied the pictures that Sarinia had sent, each one more shocking than the last. Meriel Romenor's fanciful story about white hair being the latest matriarchal fashion actually appeared to be true, but the images of the five long-haired matriarchs and particularly Queen Edraele had shaken Thalia to her bones. The final picture of Baen'thelas left no doubt in her mind that every word of Sarinia's story had been the truth. Even if it wasn't, Thalia couldn't care less; she would do --anything-- for the chance to bed a male as magnificent as him.

"See you at the next Council meeting, Sarinia Baelora," Thalia said with a wicked grin, reaching for the jewelled dagger she kept in a concealed sheath under her desk.

The walk to her mother's palatial suite was a surreal experience. For the first time she could remember, Thalia was actually looking forward to seeing Meriel Romenor. The hardest thing was hiding her smile of anticipation when she reached the armoured Maliri guards standing sentry outside the matriarchal apartments. She maintained a familiar expression of anxious tension as she breezed past the House Romenor soldiers, pretending to be too preoccupied with another fraught meeting with her mother to bother acknowledging the guards in any fashion.

They still nodded to her respectfully and opened the reinforced doors, which slid shut behind Thalia by the time she'd crossed the foyer. Raised voices reached her sharp ears and she paused, listening to the faint sound of angry words being exchanged coming from deeper in the quarters. Creeping down the corridor towards her mother's large and opulent office, she recognised one of the voices as that of Nithroel, the eldest of her two younger siblings.

"You thought I'd just let you torture me forever?!" the enraged Maliri noblewoman screeched.

Thalia didn't hear any response, just the sounds of a frantic scuffle and strangled choking. She approached the door and found Nithroel kneeling astride their mother, her long blue fingers wrapped tight around Meriel's throat. Stopping to stare at the mortal struggle, Thalia watched in shock as the House Romenor Matriarch jerked around, her legs kicking ineffectively at the floor as she tried to dislodge her daughter. Their mother had always been a powerful and imposing figure, so to see her reduced to this pathetic state was... a thing of beauty.

"There'll be no immortality for you, mother," Nithroel crooned, a sadistic glee to her taunts as she squeezed the life out of Meriel. "It'll be me that will live forever, taking my rightful place as ruler of-"

Nithroel's gloating speech was cut off mid-rant as Thalia plunged her long dagger into her sister's back. The mortally wounded noblewoman cried out in agony as the blade pierced through her heart, and she could only stare in mute horror at the bloody tip that now protruded from her chest.

"Don't you mean my rightful place?" Thalia whispered softly in her sister's pointed ear.

"Glurkkk..." Nithroel gurgled, her final words drowned out in a fountain of blood.

Shoving her mortally wounded sibling aside, Thalia saw gratitude in her mother's eyes, a look that changed to terror when Meriel saw the gleeful anticipation on her eldest daughter's face.

"Thalia... I-I can... explain!" she pleaded through wheezing coughs.

"The time of listening to your lies is over, mother," Thalia declared, brandishing the jewelled dagger and letting her sister's blood drip onto Meriel's face. "Nithroel was right about one thing... there'll be no immortality for you."

The panting matriarch clawed frantically at the carpet, her eyes locked on the door leading to her personal armoury as she tried to drag herself across the office.

Thalia smiled, shaking her head in amusement as she strode ahead to cut her off. Standing directly in front of Meriel, she sneered in contempt at the leader of House Romenor. "Ah, so desperate to cling to life... I'd wager Baen'thelas made quite the impression, didn't he mother? I shall so enjoy being mated with him, especially knowing that you never sullied his bedchamber."

Meriel's bleak expression turned to one of surprise, then she stopped crawling and lay her head on the plush carpet in weary resignation. Her chest began to shake as she laughed, her mirth coming out in wheezing chuckles.

"What's so funny?!" Thalia demanded, her mother's mirth ruining her moment of triumph. "Answer me, you miserable old crone!"

Meriel lifted her head and smirked at her daughter, before glancing behind Thalia towards the armoury door. "Nithroel... wasn't alone... both of you... forgot Phelora..." she wheezed.

Thalia's eyes widened in alarm and she whirled around, finding herself facing her youngest sister, who stood with a laser pistol in her shaking hand.

"You don't deserve him," Phelora said, an uncharacteristically determined edge to her voice.

Before Thalia could utter a word of panicked protest, the laser pistol squealed, blasting a glowing hole straight through her forehead.

Phelora turned the pistol on her mother, her face set in a grim mask. "None of you do."

***

Edraele's purple eyes widened in surprise as she felt Meriel Romenor experience a deluge of intense emotions, up until the point that the matriarch was abruptly extinguished from her network of wards. No sooner had the leader of the Ninth Maliri House been attacked, the eleven remaining older matriarchs began to react with shock, dread, fear... and pain. It was as if their daughters had coordinated the assault, striking at their mothers across the Maliri Protectorate within moments of each other.

"What did you do?!" Edraele demanded, instinctively knowing that the woman seated opposite was involved. "Twelve more matriarchs are being attacked!"

There was surprise and curiosity in Sarinia's inquisitive gaze. "How did you know? We've received no incoming calls..."

"We're all psychically linked," Edraele snapped, waving away the question dismissively. "Now answer my question: What did you do to trigger these attacks on the matriarchs?"

Sarinia's eyebrows climbed in astonishment at that revelation, then she sat back on the sofa, a smile of satisfaction on her face. "I simply informed their daughters of a few interesting facts... and made your life considerably easier, my Queen."

Edraele resisted the urge to fire more questions at the woman seated opposite, realising she knew the answers already. "You're emulating my assassinations that led to the Young Matriarchs controlling their Houses."

"My mother was a stubborn and vindictive shrew, consumed with jealousy and grudges that lasted for centuries... just like all the rest of those spiteful old hags. You said yourself that your relationship with the existing matriarchy was 'fractious'... now they'll be replaced by a dozen eager, pliable young women, all desperate to earn the favour of the magnificent Maliri Queen."

"That wasn't the only reason though, was it?" Edraele asked after a moment's pause, giving Sarinia a shrewd look. "In all probability, there'll be a dozen new matriarchs soon heading to Genthalas, each of whom earned their position by murdering their family."

"With several daughters out to kill their mother at any cost, I don't fancy the existing matriarchs' chances," Sarinia agreed, a sly smile on her face. "So... I'll be sharing my newly acquired status with a dozen other matriarchs who gained their position exactly the same way I did. Will you execute all thirteen of us and divide up our Houses? That seems like a highly impractical solution."

Slowly shaking her head, Edraele marvelled at the woman's Machiavellian cunning. "And of course, they'll all be eternally grateful to you for helping them become matriarch... and gaining the associated benefits that position entails."

"I'm a firm believer in seeking out allies," Sarinia conceded, her smile broadening. "Kali also mentioned that she's had to endure taunts from those spiteful old crones; perhaps by eliminating their tormentors, I might make a few friends with the Young Matriarchs as well."

Edraele's face shadowed and she looked away. The frenzied life and death struggle for succession was still playing out across her empire, with five of the thirteen old matriarchs already slain at their daughters' hands, their empathic presence extinguished from her network of wards. From Sarinia's viewpoint, her plot had numerous benefits and almost no drawbacks... but she didn't know Kali Loraleth half as well as she thought she did. When Kali discovered that she had inadvertently triggered a bloodbath amongst the nobility, the last thing she would ever want is to be friends with Sarinia.

And if Kali was left heartbroken, John's stance towards the architect of this plot was not going to be based on pragmatism.

"What is it?" Sarinia asked with concern, frowning when she saw the Queen's melancholy mood.

Edraele rose from her seat and glanced at Luna, who stepped forward to escort the House Baelora matriarch from the office.

"Edraele! What's wrong?!" Sarinia asked in alarm as the assassin padded closer.

"You will be detained in your quarters until Baen'thelas returns," Edraele said quietly, turning her back on Sarinia and gliding over to the window. "He will pass judgement on you for murdering your family and for your conspiracy to kill a dozen matriarchs along with most of their daughters."

"Wait!" Sarinia protested, as Luna took a firm grip on her arm. "Why are you treating me like a common criminal?! You'll benefit from their deaths! I did this for you!"

Edraele glanced at Sarinia over a shoulder, a look of sadness in her purple eyes. "You shouldn't have involved Kali. I don't know how to stop her blaming herself for what you've done."

Looking at her incredulously, Sarinia shook her head in protest. "That's absurd! One woman's hurt feelings are inconsequential!"

"Not when John loves her..." Edraele murmured, turning away to stare out the window.

No longer paying attention to Sarinia's protests as Luna dragged her from the office, Edraele winced as Matriarch Keishara Venkalyn vanished from her psychic network in a sharp stab of agony.

***

"Six dead already..." John muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

Alyssa and the twins looked at him with concern as he sat dejectedly on the illuminated steps that lead up to the Command Podium. They had only just left the Briefing Room when Edraele warned them of the concerted attacks against the matriarchs.

"John, you need to be prepared for the worst," Irillith said, sitting beside him and stroking his arm. "I'd be surprised if any of the existing matriarchs survive this. They're each outnumbered by several homicidal daughters who have the benefit of surprise, decades of suppressed hatred, and nothing left to lose..."

"How many Maliri are going to die?" he asked, lifting his tired eyes to look at each of the twins in turn.

Tashana knelt in front of him and gave him a sympathetic look. "Most noble Houses consist of a matriarch and at least four daughters. I think we can expect all the matriarchs to be slain, along with at least three of their daughters, leaving only a sole survivor."

"That's not going to be the youngest daughter, is it?" he asked woodenly, imagining a dozen innocent girls like Kali Loraleth being plunged into a brutal battle for survival.

The twins shared a glance, then shook their heads at the same time.

"It's highly unlikely," Irillith said with sympathy. "I'm sorry, John... but the daughters most likely to survive will be ruthless killers. Think of the way I behaved before I joined you."

He grimaced reflexively, then put his arm around her when she saw his reaction. "Sorry, honey."

"No need to apologise, I used to be an absolute bitch," she replied light-heartedly, leaning into his sideways hug.

*John... I know this situation isn't ideal, but in one way, it doesn't really matter which daughter becomes matriarch,* Edraele said gently. *None of them will be as bad as the mothers they'll be replacing.*

*Not ideal?!* he blurted out incredulously. *Edraele, this is a disaster! How did Sarinia even find out so much about what we'd been up to? It can't have come from her mother, not if Gaenna was keeping her in the dark all this time.*

There was a long pause, then the Maliri Queen confessed, *I'm sorry, John... that was my fault. Kali wanted to talk to Sarinia and find out what she was doing on Genthalas, with me monitoring the conversation to help limit how much we revealed. Unfortunately, I was distracted and Sarinia found out far more than I ever intended.*

*You were distracted?!* he blurted out, unable to believe Edraele could be so careless.

Before she could reply, Alyssa squatted down beside John and looked him in the eyes. *Kali met Sarinia at the same time you started thinking about your plans for Sakura. There was no way Edraele could concentrate on Kali while that was going on.*

John froze, suddenly understanding all-too-well what had debilitated his Maliri Matriarch. *Shit... I'm sorry, Edraele. I'm responsible for this mess, not you.*

*It was simply an unfortunate chain of events that led to this outcome. I don't think blaming yourself is productive,* Edraele replied, her voice soft and soothing. *I think the most important course of action now is to focus on how we deal with the aftermath and our approach towards the replacement matriarchs that arrive at Genthalas.*

He hesitated, surprised by the hint of anticipation to her voice. *Edraele... were you involved in this somehow?*

*John!* Alyssa exclaimed, frowning at him reproachfully. *You know she'd never go behind your back like that.*

*It's alright, Alyssa,* Edraele said, sounding quite unperturbed. *We discussed this kind of scenario only a few weeks ago... it's only natural to be suspicious, especially after what happened with the Young Matriarchs. To answer your question, John: no, I had no involvement. However, I must admit that I'm pleased Sarinia has neatly resolved the problem of dealing with the old matriarchs. I know you were reluctant to reward them with immortality, not after a lifetime of cruelty and murder.*

*I'd hardly call it a neat resolution...* John muttered, his face falling as he thought about all the dead Maliri noblewomen.

*John... this problem was never going to end without bloodshed,* Edraele said, her voice gentle but with a firm edge to it. *I imagine a perfect resolution from your point of view, would have been to replace all the older matriarchs with their youngest daughters, correct?*

*Yes, but not by assassinating their mothers!* he protested.

*The existing matriarchs would never have accepted retirement,* she explained with a rueful frown. *The only way you could have realistically achieved your ideal goal, would have been to order a sweep of assassinations to eliminate them all.*

*Not necessarily... I could've changed the matriarchs so they'd willingly retire in peace,* he replied, shaking his head obstinately.

*Would you have been willing to forcefully change the personalities of all thirteen matriarchs? Because you'd have to... it's the only way you'd be able to convince them to retire.*

*Alright... I see your point,* he grudgingly conceded. Running a hand through his hair, he let out a weary sigh. *I never wanted to be making these kinds of decisions. It seems like there's never a simple solution to any of these problems... and no matter what I try to do, it still ends up a mess.*

*Sometimes you're going to be forced to make unpleasant choices to get the outcome you want,* Edraele said, her voice ringing with sympathy. *There are often unforeseen consequences to your actions when you're deciding the fate of billions of people, but in my experience, postponing a decision only makes matters worse.*