The wheel of the Starlight Empire's fate had begun quietly to turn.
And at the same time, certain things were happening within the Holy Radiance Empire as well.
"Saint Cana has had contact with the Owl Dragon Legion, who destroyed the Sacred Lancer Legion; until the matter is investigated clearly, she cannot go on serving as the Sacred Angel Legion's commander!"
"That is nowhere near enough! Saint Cana has betrayed the Sacred Light; even if she is not to be judged, she must be confined at once!"
"I require that the Sacred Angel family be punished! The Sacred Lancer Legion's losses must be borne by the Sacred Angel family!"
Saint Cana looked with impatience at the body of Imperial Council elders in the military tribunal.
After her return from Stellar City, at the very first instant she set down at the star-port she had been taken under the control of the Holy Radiance Empire's military tribunal.
Happily, by her own arrangements beforehand, the Sacred Angel family had stepped forward at the first instant to contend with the tribunal.
The upshot being that Saint Cana's freedom was restricted, and she was to undergo the tribunal's questioning.
To speak the truth, in former days conduct such as hers this time would certainly have been attacked by the other families, and the loss of her post as the Sacred Angel Legion's commander would have been very likely indeed.
But this time was another matter — because this time there was another 'companion' drawing the fire.
The Consul of the Southern Star Region: Stanford.
Knock, knock, knock.
The sound of a metal hammer striking. "Silence, silence. The questioning of Saint Cana rests here for the present; the result to follow will be announced tomorrow. The court stands in recess; the next questioning in half an hour."
Hearing the chief justice, those who had been denouncing her a moment ago fell quiet too — though there was something odd in their faces.
Because they knew as well that the man who would shortly stand in Saint Cana's place was that Consul of the Southern Star Region!
Saint Cana turned, came down from the dock, and walked straight for the doors of the tribunal's great hall.
And just as she came to the doorway, she saw the man coming toward her.
The Consul of the Southern Star Region — Consul Stanford.
"General Saint Cana." Consul Stanford looked at her with a smile, for all the world as though the tribunal's questioning awaiting him shortly mattered nothing whatever.
"I greet my lord Consul." Saint Cana made her courtesy to this Consul before her.
Within the Holy Radiance Empire, there being no true emperor, the system of rank among them ran rather complicated.
On the face of it the five Consuls held the high places, but the Imperial Council of Elders could check them.
And with the various families and the Sacred-Light Legions standing behind them besides.
In short, a relation of authority of the most tangled kind.
Put a kingdom of any other system in its place and the thing would likely have gone to ruin long since.
But the Holy Radiance Empire, governing by faith, had come this far.
"That Owl Dragon lord — how does General Saint Cana find him?" Consul Stanford asked it without preamble.
For when he had held that video comm with Zhao Chen before, Saint Cana had in fact been present — only Consul Stanford had chosen to take no notice of her at all.
Saint Cana paused a moment, and gave her judgment outright. "Careful and at the same time exceedingly bold, and arrogant; his way of doing things looks to be without any order at all, yet as often as not there is a hidden design behind it. A man one cannot see through. His Owl Dragon Legion is very strong — in our Holy Radiance Empire, at least, it would be hard to find a legion fleet that could meet it in action at equal numbers of ships."
"The Saint-Disciple Legion?" Consul Stanford asked.
The Saint-Disciple Legion was the Holy Radiance Empire's strongest legion fleet, and first among the Sacred-Light Legions, and the strongest claw and tooth the Saint-Disciple family had reared.
Saint Cana considered a moment, then shook her head. "The Saint-Disciple's chance of winning does not pass three in 10."
"My thanks. I'll take my leave first. You know too how those old creatures inside hate to have anyone late." Consul Stanford walked on toward the tribunal with a smile.
"My lord Consul Stanford, there are some things it is better not to touch. Nothing can be hidden from the Sacred Light. Beneath the Sacred Light, no defilement is permitted." Saint Cana said it in a low voice as Consul Stanford passed by her shoulder.
Consul Stanford smiled slightly. "My thanks to General Saint Cana for the reminder."
Saint Cana stood a long while, until the great doors behind her closed, and the new round of questioning began inside.
Stanford was the Southern Star Region's Consul; but in that earlier affair he had disregarded a Sacred Lancer Legion's utter destruction and withdrawn in disgrace.
Which had given certain hostile factions in the Imperial Council of Elders their chance, and they had opened their attacks and impeachments upon him.
And the reason Saint Cana knew this time that she herself would take no harm—
was that her father had told her the family had settled everything for her.
The Sacred Angel family and the Saint-Disciple family behind Stanford had reached a secret arrangement.
Upon this affair, both sides would with one accord push the responsibility onto that commander of the Sacred Lancer Legion.
The ground being that that commander had borne envy toward Saint Cana, had had a grudge with her earlier, and had launched an assassination against her while she was away at Stellar City.
Which had led on to the whole series of events that followed, and to the Owl Dragon Legion's seizing its chance and destroying them, and the rest of it.
While Consul Stanford, undismayed in peril, had made the most proper answer available; and though in certain respects it might have been less than ideal, it had been the best handling to be had at the time.
As to whether the Sacred Lancer family behind the Sacred Lancer Legion would agree to this?
They agreed, of course — for they were themselves a dog the Saint-Disciple family kept, and the Sacred Angel family was willing to make compensation in private besides.
So that all three powers bore no responsibility whatever, and only that lord commander, long since blasted to fragments by an Owl Dragon battleship, carried the pot.
A happy outcome all round, one might say.
And as Saint Cana turned these things over, she could not help recalling that man's face.
Contemptible — and yet at times he gave one a sense of being very reliable.
And besides that, the starship canteens of his fleet truly were very fine; since coming back, she had found her food rather off in flavor when she took it, and had grown a good deal thinner.
And just as Saint Cana was turning over these private cares—
a splendid shuttle came to hover directly over Saint Cana's head, and then a squad of women soldiers dropped down, landed, and closed about her.
"Miss, forgive us. This is the family head's order. For the stretch of time to come you are to rest at the family's house; please fall in with us." The squad leader said it in apology.
Saint Cana shrugged helplessly; she had guessed long since what punishment awaited her on her return.
This came to the lightest of them.
But there was nothing whatever she could do.
She hoped only that afterward she might persuade her family to open an investigation upon the Saint-Disciple family — and above all upon that Consul of the Southern Star Region.
She hoped only that none of it was too late.
Saint Cana went back with the squad of women soldiers to her family's house.
Several hours later.
Consul Stanford came out of the military tribunal and boarded a shuttle berthed and waiting.
"My lord, how did it go?" A woman secretary attentively handed him a cup of water.
"How should it go? That pack of undying old creatures never have done with their nattering." Consul Stanford laughed coldly, and drank the water, and asked at the same time, "And how does that plan proceed?"
"We have begun that research program, and all progresses smoothly at present," the woman secretary answered.
A cold gleam flashed in the depths of Consul Stanford's eyes. "Once I hold that technology — hmph… the empire will have no need of five Consuls, nor of any dog-turd Imperial Council of Elders!"