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Literature Text
The shuttle returned them to the surface of Foxen Prime, homeworld to the Foxen Protectorate’s modest ten system government. Well, eleven systems now, with the addition of Salli’s holding of Greenholme to the mix. Seven were administered by the Protectorate as a whole, held in trust by the entire ruling Council of Countesses, with a rotating series of Governor Generals. Three, now four, having been discovered by exploration missions led directly by a countess or countess’ heir, were personal fiefdoms.
The homeworld itself was more fragmentary, ruled by a hundred or so countesses, each with their own Domain, a miniature nation each with its own unique set of laws, but presenting a united front to the other races of the Stellar Alliance through tradition and the Law of Domains, which covered how countesses treated each other and their Commoner tenants.
As Salli and Ali exited their shuttle, a ground skimmer was waiting to meet them beside the parking apron. Waiting for them beside it was an unfamiliar, tan furred, middle-aged vixen, She was Military caste by her height and look of general fitness, and wearing a Darktail House uniform. Well, not completely unfamiliar. She gave Salli a general vibe of I really ought to know you which made her tense up for some reason. Sensing her disturbance, Ali subtly took a half step forward, keeping herself angled between Salli and the strange vixen.
“Milady Darktail?” the vixen said, stepping away from the skimmer and giving her a short bow of greeting. “I’m Zaker. The Countess your mother assigned me to be your driver.”
“Zaker… Ah, from the late Countess Highglider’s household,” Salli said, finally placing her. She’d been on the secondary tier of servants, not directly serving in her and her late and unlamented husband in Highglider Manor. Not, therefore, one of the servants who had chosen to maintain the wall of secrecy around Kev’s violent abuse of Salli, though they had all been aware that something had been terribly wrong. It had been impossible not to be aware, towards the end.
“Yes, milady,” Zaker said, bowing more deeply. “The Countess was kind enough to swear me to House Darktail, when Countess Highglider had been, um, removed from her position.” In other words, Highglider had been stripped of her title and committed to the same mental institution as her abusive son, after her very public breakdown under interrogation in the Council of Countess, answering charges of assassination against Salli and her brother Rolas.
It also had left a major portion of Highglider’s old servants adrift, masterless and abandoned. Naturally they had been given first consideration when the now greatly uplifted and expanded Darktail House had been granted their former countess’ domain. Naturally.
“Very well,” Salli said, careful to keep her voice properly neutral and Noble, and not indulge in a scream of How dare you try and serve me now, when you failed me so terribly in the past. If she tried to blame everyone originally sworn to House Highglider for the injuries in body and mind she’d suffered under Kev, she’d shout herself hoarse. So instead she simply said, “Take us home, please.”
“Yes, Lady Darktail,” Zaker said. The vixen held the door open for Salli and Ali, then put their bags in the skimmer’s boot and began to drive them towards Darktail Manor, expertly guiding them through the heavy traffic.
“I don’t remember it being this bad before,” Salli noted, as an articulated lorry passed them in the automated transit lane.
“It’s gotten a lot worse the past few months,” Zaker offered from her position up front in the driver’s seat. “All of the administrative offices are moving to Darktail River, now that Highglider Domain is just going to be another regional office.”
“That’s makes sense,” Salli agreed.
Ali, who had kept her silence since they’d disembarked from the shuttle, finally spoke up to ask Zaker, “So what do you besides driving?”
“Bit of bodyguarding,” Zaker answered amiably. “I usually worked on the old Countess’ outer perimeter.”
Ali’s voice turned distinctly frosty. “And now?”
“Now I’m on the inner perimeter it seems,” Zaker said, her own cheerful tone remaining steady.
“I’m the inner perimeter,” Ali told her, her face growing dark.
Zaker shrugged. “Well, Lady Sallivera is a Countess’ Heir. Can’t be too careful now.”
“Ali…” Salli warned, setting her paw over the young bodyguard’s. Then she hit the skimmer’s privacy button, raising the barrier between the passenger and driver’s compartment. “You need to calm down,” she said carefully.
“I’m calm,” Ali snarled. “Who does she think she is?”
“She’s a servitor of the same House that you serve.”
“She’s from Highglider, the House that your husband came from, the same bastard who took out your old eye!”
Salli took in a deep breath. “She was from Highglider, now she is Darktail. This is not the Feudal Era, where servants were shaved and burned with their mistresses. Now we forgive. I need you to forgive, as I must.”
Ali looked like she was going to protest further, but then simply lowered her head and a nodded, giving Salli’s paw a tight squeeze. “Yes, Milady.”
The homeworld itself was more fragmentary, ruled by a hundred or so countesses, each with their own Domain, a miniature nation each with its own unique set of laws, but presenting a united front to the other races of the Stellar Alliance through tradition and the Law of Domains, which covered how countesses treated each other and their Commoner tenants.
As Salli and Ali exited their shuttle, a ground skimmer was waiting to meet them beside the parking apron. Waiting for them beside it was an unfamiliar, tan furred, middle-aged vixen, She was Military caste by her height and look of general fitness, and wearing a Darktail House uniform. Well, not completely unfamiliar. She gave Salli a general vibe of I really ought to know you which made her tense up for some reason. Sensing her disturbance, Ali subtly took a half step forward, keeping herself angled between Salli and the strange vixen.
“Milady Darktail?” the vixen said, stepping away from the skimmer and giving her a short bow of greeting. “I’m Zaker. The Countess your mother assigned me to be your driver.”
“Zaker… Ah, from the late Countess Highglider’s household,” Salli said, finally placing her. She’d been on the secondary tier of servants, not directly serving in her and her late and unlamented husband in Highglider Manor. Not, therefore, one of the servants who had chosen to maintain the wall of secrecy around Kev’s violent abuse of Salli, though they had all been aware that something had been terribly wrong. It had been impossible not to be aware, towards the end.
“Yes, milady,” Zaker said, bowing more deeply. “The Countess was kind enough to swear me to House Darktail, when Countess Highglider had been, um, removed from her position.” In other words, Highglider had been stripped of her title and committed to the same mental institution as her abusive son, after her very public breakdown under interrogation in the Council of Countess, answering charges of assassination against Salli and her brother Rolas.
It also had left a major portion of Highglider’s old servants adrift, masterless and abandoned. Naturally they had been given first consideration when the now greatly uplifted and expanded Darktail House had been granted their former countess’ domain. Naturally.
“Very well,” Salli said, careful to keep her voice properly neutral and Noble, and not indulge in a scream of How dare you try and serve me now, when you failed me so terribly in the past. If she tried to blame everyone originally sworn to House Highglider for the injuries in body and mind she’d suffered under Kev, she’d shout herself hoarse. So instead she simply said, “Take us home, please.”
“Yes, Lady Darktail,” Zaker said. The vixen held the door open for Salli and Ali, then put their bags in the skimmer’s boot and began to drive them towards Darktail Manor, expertly guiding them through the heavy traffic.
“I don’t remember it being this bad before,” Salli noted, as an articulated lorry passed them in the automated transit lane.
“It’s gotten a lot worse the past few months,” Zaker offered from her position up front in the driver’s seat. “All of the administrative offices are moving to Darktail River, now that Highglider Domain is just going to be another regional office.”
“That’s makes sense,” Salli agreed.
Ali, who had kept her silence since they’d disembarked from the shuttle, finally spoke up to ask Zaker, “So what do you besides driving?”
“Bit of bodyguarding,” Zaker answered amiably. “I usually worked on the old Countess’ outer perimeter.”
Ali’s voice turned distinctly frosty. “And now?”
“Now I’m on the inner perimeter it seems,” Zaker said, her own cheerful tone remaining steady.
“I’m the inner perimeter,” Ali told her, her face growing dark.
Zaker shrugged. “Well, Lady Sallivera is a Countess’ Heir. Can’t be too careful now.”
“Ali…” Salli warned, setting her paw over the young bodyguard’s. Then she hit the skimmer’s privacy button, raising the barrier between the passenger and driver’s compartment. “You need to calm down,” she said carefully.
“I’m calm,” Ali snarled. “Who does she think she is?”
“She’s a servitor of the same House that you serve.”
“She’s from Highglider, the House that your husband came from, the same bastard who took out your old eye!”
Salli took in a deep breath. “She was from Highglider, now she is Darktail. This is not the Feudal Era, where servants were shaved and burned with their mistresses. Now we forgive. I need you to forgive, as I must.”
Ali looked like she was going to protest further, but then simply lowered her head and a nodded, giving Salli’s paw a tight squeeze. “Yes, Milady.”
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And isn't that an awkward position to be in. Your old boss turned out to be a horrid and despicable person but you were well away from it. How many times I wonder has Zaker been challenged by lifelong Darktail staff about what she knew and when she knew it, and not simply security staff.