Empress

Gold silks and purple velvets hung above the gilded chair where Ahztja settled in to tell the princess Caiatl her nightly story. Ahztja was the emperor's mythkeeper; a talented storyteller and Psion who held all the legends and histories of the conquered…

In a war chamber built by her father's Psion mind-sculptors, Caiatl piloted a fighter through a strange world. It twisted and turned on itself to create strange, rotting landforms all around her. She passed mountains that sprouted weeping tumors and saw…

Caiatl felt the assassin's eyes on her back before she heard their words. "Your father sends his regards," they croaked. She calmly turned. The intruder was not Cabal. They wore a strange, sleek armored suit—some off-world species unaccustomed to the…

Caiatl loathed the crawling pace of the court. She despised the tricky voices of courtiers and generals vying for attention and resources. Sorting out their tedious requests was like fetching lost scraping sticks from the bottom of a mud-wallow. But one day,…

It was Taurun, one of Caiatl's advisors, that alerted her to the spectacle. "In the square," she said, her deep voice laced with concern. "I've never seen anything like it." Caiatl went immediately. In the central square of Torobatl's weaponsmith…

Smoke rose from the city of Torobatl. The sky was dark with Tombships and Threshers. Strange, spindly towers had sprouted from the ground, infecting the streets and alleyways Caiatl had known so well, rendering the landscape alien. Many of the creatures…

At the long table of her council room on the fleeing warship Eligos Lex V, Caiatl sat with her advisors. An ugly panic gripped them. "Their war moons are too powerful," said Councilor Taurun. The tactical display, where Hive ships and war moons floated like…

//A MESSAGE FROM EMPRESS CAIATL OF THE CABAL, TO ALL HER FLEET// I speak to you as crowned empress of the Cabal Empire, your new leader. As I speak, we flee our home. Some of you lament our loss. Some of you whisper about the weakness of retreat. I assure…

Caiatl was sitting alone in her private quarters. She glanced up, awoken from her reverie when Taurun arrived. "Empress," Taurun said, bowing. She was a stickler for formality. "The other councilors are awaiting a decision regarding our arrival in Sol."…