Chapter 19

The following day we listened with interest to a news tri-dee announcing the abdication of Duke Vernissilia in favour of his eldest son. Following Gershonian practice there was no mention of why, nor of the duel the previous night, which apparently was their protocol, at least according to Raisa who was breakfasting with us.

“The news they are not telling you is that Myrialis served a Royal Warrant on Vernissilia as some of the documents you unearthed have his personal seal upon them,” she informed us.

“That was fast,” Amanda mused.

“Mother suspended Earl Yrannissia from his office last night as several of the documents point to payments made to him, as head of Internal Security, to look the other way.”

“Oh my, they were not as clever as they thought themselves to be,” Verlig chuckled.

“Indeed not,” Amanda agreed. “Can reform begin?”

“Some. Mother intends to put her own man in charge of Internal Security, promoting Viscount Perdevalion to Earl and allowing his eldest to still run the orbital station,” Raisa explained.

“She’s moving quickly,” I replied thoughtfully.

“Striking whilst the metal is hot. The upper Nobility are in total disarray as none of them are sure just what it is that mother has on them.”

“Ah, so the reform faction are in dominance?” Amanda asked.

“Yes. A lot of the upper Nobility retired to their estates to no doubt hide or burn the evidence. We’ll get a few key reforms through and tighten the screws on some of their more outrageous acts of corruption and neglect of their common folk, though.”

“Wonder if they’ll offer your mum the Queen title to buy her off?” Haelee pondered.

“It’s a thought, but it wouldn’t really help them. I doubt mother is in the mood to be bought off,” Raisa giggled.

“Don’t blame her. We handed her a golden opportunity to advance her reform program and I doubt she’s minded to put it aside for some bauble,” Amanda nodded with a smile.

“She’s grateful, but you won’t get a mention,” Raisa replied hesitantly.

“I should hope not,” Amanda laughed. “It would give the Nobles a rallying point.”

“True,” Raisa nodded, now looking relieved that Amanda appeared to understand the situation.

“Where’s Jerra?” I asked.

“He’s out delivering mother’s engagement petition to Baron Barranovis, or rather he’s accompanying the Herald who will deliver it. He plans to breakfast with Yrannia and Dimantira, along with her brother Tallandria.”

“Hoping for a quick reply no doubt,” I chuckled.

“No doubt at all about that,” Raisa replied, breaking down into giggles.

“I suspect if Barranovis has any links to the Nobles under suspicion his assent will be given immediately,” I grinned.

“Oh yes, though mother hasn’t any real evidence ... yet,” Raisa replied as her giggles continued.

“Just the stuff we unearthed?” Torric asked.

“Yes,” Raisa answered, adding as she glanced at Amanda who indicated she should continue. “Though apparently Amanda gave Myrialis the key to your gateway into Vernissilia’s AIs.”

“We got all we were after, it seemed a shame not to help our friends,” Amanda added.

“I’m told, though it may have changed by now, that the Vernissilia house still believes their AIs to be intact.”

At this point the presence of Jessin, accompanied by Rassalio and Myrialis, was announced and they entered our quarters, exchanging greetings. The trio all looked like they hadn’t had much sleep, but all exuded an air of deep satisfaction.

“I cannot thank you enough for unearthing the corruption Vernissilia was at the head of,” Jessin thanked Amanda. “You may have sheared years off my reform program, assuming Vernissilia hadn’t managed to totally stall it.”

“We were more looking for his links back to a shadowy group in the Empire, Aunty. But thank you for your aid too,” Amanda replied.

“I’m glad you did come looking. I had no idea just how deeply entrenched and widespread his web of corruption had spread.”

“He had a lot of help, with a good few of the arch-conservatives simply looking the other way, if not complicit in his crimes,” Rassalio added. “We also managed to remove that oaf Yrannissia from office and promote Perdevalion in his place. The Earl has asked Myrialis to assist him in purging the corrupt elements from Internal Security.”

“Fortunately we now know who the main instigators against honest investigation, as well as the bribe takers, are and have most of them under arrest,” Myrialis replied with a grim smile.

“Evidence?”

“Lots of it. I’d had Yrannissia in my sights for a while now, but couldn’t act as he had the support of the Nobles and appeared clean.”

“Just glad we could help, even if it was merely an adjunct to our own investigations,” Amanda nodded.

“We can’t, however, acknowledge your part in uncovering this,” Jessin admitted.

“We realise this,” Amanda smiled warmly. “Trusha got in a good one for us last night anyway.”

“Yes, Vernissilia is now in custody and will have to remain unhealed, if alive and in pain, for nine more days,” Rassalio nodded with a satisfied smile.

“I take it he was planning on being fully healed but in seclusion?”

“Yes. He didn’t believe the rules of honour applied to him at all. Unfortunately for him he is finding that we do believe that.”

“Imprisonment?” I asked.

“No, likely execution,” Jessin replied with a sigh. “His eldest, Jomainian has the title and no connection to the crimes as is normally the case with Nobles. But, the network of Vernissilia’s fellow conservatives is now rudderless as Jomainian is no schemer or leader.”

“I take it Jomainian is ... pretending he brought Vernissilia down?” Amanda enquired.

“Not had anything official as yet, but yes, it’s coming,” Myrialis sniggered.

“Why am I not surprised?”

“It’s actually a good thing. We can go along with it and pretend we still aren’t looking through his AI.”

“Oh, there’s some good news!” Jessin informed us. “Jerra is now engaged to be married.”

“Congratulations,” I said. “You do things quickly around here.”

“Yes, but Yrannia has quite captured his heart,” Jessin acknowledged. “She’s also very intelligent, as is Dimantira and I intend to permit them to understudy Myrialis.”

“Do they know this ... or are even interested?” Amanda queried.

“The palace AI scanned and assessed them last night, during the dance. They both had a very high aptitude for intelligence gathering and assessment.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Myrialis chuckled. “Apparently my ennoblement will be approved by the College of Nobles soon.”

“Ah, the offered bribe?” Amanda asked with a grin.

“Very much so,” Jessin laughed. “Hoping to buy me off ... or distract me.”

“But you’ll accept it anyway?”

“Of course. I’ve been trying to get Myrialis ennobled since I made her head of Interstellar Security. But it won’t stop the investigations, no matter how much they want it to.”

“Expect the Queen ascension next then?” I wondered.

“Possibly, though more likely an offer to make Jerra King before that.”

“Like they’ll go through with that promise,” Amanda snorted.

“Yes. They aren’t known for keeping their word to me once they have what they want,” Jessin nodded, amusement showing in her face.

“So, how far do you think you can take this?” Amanda asked.

“I believe I can get the various justice departments able to begin prosecuting the Nobles for flagrant breaches of the Charter Nobilis ... though sadly not all of them. Vernisillia’s arrest, along with a few ennoblements, should give me the leverage to push that through. I’ll try to get the emigration bill through as well, but I suspect it may be just a little too early for that,” Jessin replied.

“Anything the Empire can do to help?”

“Stay out of it. If they thought the Empire was after something, they’d close ranks to prevent it,” Rassalio replied with a sardonic smile.

“Still that bad?” Amanda giggled.

“We joke about it, but it’s the truth,” Jessin confirmed.

“I see. Well, the Empire will say nothing, I promise.”

“Thank you, Amanda.”

“No problem, Aunty. Glad to help, even if it can never be openly admitted,” Amanda replied with a smile.

“Would that it could. But for the moment, thank you.”

“We got what we were after too. Now we can simply enjoy a break.”

“Yes, a win, win situation for all,” Jessin acknowledged.

The next two days were a period of peace and quiet for us all, though Amanda did make various visits to a number of sites and gave Imperial aid to those residents living there who needed it. This pushed her into the forefront of the Gershonian equivalents of the Empire’s newsies, who could at least talk to a Noble, even if she wasn’t from Gershon.

Other than accompanying Amanda, I concentrated on doing my sketches, but also doing coloured portraits of the Royal family, including a couple of Jerra and Yrannia, one of which was presented to Baron Barranovis, who simply looked amazed at it. For all he tended a little towards vainglory, he truly loved his family and was simply overjoyed that Yrrania had found someone to love. That it was Prince Jerra was simply the icing on the cake ... so to speak.

In the background there was a lot of political upheaval as Myrialis and her people under the auspices of the now Earl Perdevalion started going over the files of the Internal Security Organisation. Though having been prevented in the past, Myrialis was well aware of a couple of the more notorious cases and had begun investigations there. Arrests of several operatives in Internal Security had followed, as well as of two obstructive Nobles who had attempted to bribe Myrialis’ people to go away. Normally arresting a Noble required a special warrant signed by a Noble of the next rank above, but in this case Myrialis had a number of blank warrants signed by Princess Royal Jessin, though was under instructions to use them wisely and sparingly.

Apparently there had been a few objections to Jessin’s ‘reign of terror’, as one Noble described it. Though the AI observation via the body cams on the investigators soon had them silenced as the attempts to bribe were blatantly obvious. This had then started a slight run of Nobles trying to turn other Nobles in in order to curry favour with the now dominant reform faction.