To Stand Before An Empress

| Ise | Current PL: 8,125 (80,125 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 6/6 MP | 0%/270% |

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It would have been quite easy to simply let the entirety or even simply the majority of the responsibilities regarding the ruling of Arcose to fall completely on Brumal and Mint while she simply enjoyed the benefits of being a ruler alongside them and occasionally soaked up a bit of the knowhow on what to do, however that was not exactly in line with what Ise wanted to accomplish as apart of this ruling trio.

Her end goal was ultimately to be the SOLE ruler of Arcose one day, Brumal had already made it clear how he felt on such a thing and it was quite wonderful to know she at least for the present had him backing her up, Mint however was technically an obstacle. A friendly one admittedly and she doubted he would actively seek to sabotage her at least this early on, but eventually the two of them would need to sort things out. Frankly she was rather eager for that day simply because she was certain that it would be a battle for the position rather than some sort of protracted political backstabbery where the two of them vied to make the other look incompetent.

Making Mint look actively incompetent would also take a lot more time than she was strictly willing to work with, he had a rather strong position due to his long standing position as unofficial ‘ruler’ of the more seedy aspects of Arcose, the only particularly useful leverage that could be used against Mint was that he had been apart of Azoth’s pseudo inner-circle alongside Blizzard and even that was only dubiously useful.

So instead Ise focused on making sure she was a direct part of the active ruling of the Planet, Mint was still most often handling the business that he had worked within for long before Azoth had taken the throne, Brumal was currently off world, and thus Ise was able to have things directed to herself. Today had been a fair amount of mostly boring work giving her rulings on issues surrounding the various nobles, a lot of the usual laws and rules only technically applied to them and for anything concrete to be done it would require ‘the’ Emperors say, or in this case at least one of them.

Technically she supposed someone could now seek to have their case seen by one of the others if they did not like her ruling, Ise surmised that she would see quite a bit of that as even being the daughter of Hibernal was unlikely to fully separate the nobility from chafing against the idea of a Saiyan child passing judgment on them.

That they might go to Brumal about such a thing would be QUITE amusing.

Ise hummed to herself as she felt the approach of her next appointment, she raised an eyebrow as this one felt a bit more potent than the others, the guard to her right informed her of the basics of the situation a long-unresolved issue with the child of one of the Lords on Arcose, apparently they had had been the last-in-line to inherit the Lordship, had been because now they were FIRST in line due to them killing their elder siblings.
Ise let out a low whistle. There was certainly a story to THAT, Arcosian politics were regularly cutthroat but rarely so obvious. “Send them in.” Ise said, taking a drink from her glass, doing her best to emulate some of the aura her Father had cultivated, though with a decidedly less alcoholic beverage.

With that the large doors to the throne room were opened to admit Shiver entrance, he would find perhaps to his surprise that sat upon the throne was not a fellow Arcosian but rather a Saiyan only a year his senior. With the doors pulled open Ise’s senses were able to far better get a handle on Shiver, to her immense surprise he was actually shorter than her and by a not insubstantial margin.

“Welcome to the Palace Shiver, it is my understanding that your situation has been left in limbo for quite a bit. Come forward and let's get this all sorted out.”

WC: 695
TWC: 695

| Ise | Current PL: 8,125 (80,125 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 6/6 MP | 0%/270% |

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Ise was immensely amused by the prompt reaction she picked up from Shiver as the doors were opened and he was admitted to enter the throne room, there was a familiar ripple of shock, confusion, and probably a bit of anger as he got a good look at her and realized that ‘Empress Ise’ was not in fact an Arcosian like himself, it was the sort of reaction Ise had once been quite frustrated with when she had ‘just’ been the daughter of General Hibernal but over the years she had found it quite fun to play against the expectations her name set.

Shiver had at the very least the sense to feel the situation out and not fly off the handle like some others had and demand an audience with the REAL Empress or accuse her of being some sort of intermediary that was enjoying such a role far too much. She had a feeling though that based off of the remaining tension and tone that Shiver at least suspected such things were a possibility. Still she could not QUITE blame him, her rise was relatively new and in many ways the ways of Arcose accidentally leaned into creating the misconception, news readings on her rarely outright spoke of her as a Saiyan, and prior information primarily referred to her in the context of being General Hibernals daughter, a further source of confusion.

“When last I checked, yes I am.” Ise said with a smirk as she placed her glass on the arm of the throne “It seems a startling number of the nobility never really realized that General Hibernal Wintergreen’s daughter and protege was anything other than an Arcosian. If you opt to view the recordings of the battle against the former Major Blizzard you will have any doubts on the veracity of who I am cleared up though.” Ise let out a small laugh as she decided to cut straight to the point in regards to herself not overly eager to play a game of beating around the bush in that regard especially when there were more important matters to discuss.

It would also ideally help to put an end to any doubts on if she was in fact actually the Empress “In regards to your being summoned here it was brought to my attention that the situation with your family was left unresolved and with Lord Hale’s position I and the other members of the Triumverate are the ones best suited to rule on it.” Ise was vaguely familiar with Hale or at least with his reputation, not an overly pleasant man by her Fathers word but someone who more often than not got things done, savvy enough to turn success in the field into a rise to nobility.

“Firstly I would like to hear your version of events, the accounts available thus far are provided by Lord Hale himself and other ‘concerned parties’, but ultimately there IS only one proper source of firsthand information. You.” Ise leaned back slightly as she let herself focus entirely upon Shiver to give herself the best opportunity to pick up on any indication of a lie or hesitation on his part.

She had a feeling that there was more at play with this situation than just Shiver going mad with jealousy over his elder siblings' positions and seeking to claim the heirship for himself. The brief interactions thus far indicated he DID understand a need to be at least somewhat subtle which meant he likely knew that directly and OBVIOUSLY killing your way to ascend the political hierarchy was not always the best choice, at least when seeking a position that itself was beholden to another.

WC: 617
TWC: 1,312  

| Ise | Current PL: 8,125 (80,125 PL) | Base Form |
| 6/6 KP | 6/6 MP | 0%/270% |

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The mention of her Father seemed to do well enough to give Shiver what he needed to drop some of the hostility that appeared to be building from him, she had some doubts on how likely it was that he was fully accepting of her at the moment but provided he maintained a degree of respectful behavior towards her that would be fine enough for now. She was under no illusions that it would be EASY to get Arcose entirely on board with the position she now held, she would simply need to show them that she belonged here.

She really DID wish she knew more about Hale, the report HE had submitted painted a pretty clear picture of his interpretation of the situation, one that painted Shiver in just a bad enough light that he would almost certainly need ot be punished in some manner but did not go quite so far as to demand his death which in and of itself was rather curious. Shiver had by the man's account killed his siblings in cold blood and with no cause other than perhaps jealousy. That Hale apparently was not looking for Shiver himself to face ‘justice’ was VERY curious.

And so Ise listened intently as Shiver gave his side of things, Ise cocked an eyebrow at the fact that Siver opted to start his story with his own birth but the reasons for that became evident rather quickly, it was a particular sort of context. Ise kept her expression entirely neutral however as she listened, simply focusing further on Shiver dragging every scrap of information she could glean from her senses.
The agitation and fury as he explained his situation was clear as day to her, mostly because it was so very familiar to her, it was the same as when she recounted what she knew of her life that had led to her being found by her Father.

Shiver however had not been jettisoned off to die elsewhere, he was kept and his ‘flaws’ were used against him by his elder siblings. Ise had been rather lucky in that regard, Polarus had never treated her poorly even when Father had begun to prime her to be the one to take his place, Polarus had his own work and dealings to attend to and never as far as she could tell had any ill feelings toward her. On the other side there was Kabe, she was far less familiar with her Saiyan sibling but what she DID know did not paint him as likely to have treated her poorly if she had been with him.

Shiver’s ‘problem’ was frankly scarcely something Hale ought to have treated as such, perhaps it was the fact that she was not exactly a giant like Polarus but even if Shiver WAS rather smaller than the norm for an Arcosian it seemed hardly an issue. Then again the fact Hale had so ardently sought a rise to nobility likely meant he had some amount of desire to be seen as ‘better’ and Shiver was likely seen by him as a flaw in his new noble family’s presentation.

Ise’s claws rapped against the armrest a few times as Shiver spoke, she was already doing her best to puzzle the full story of the situation, Hale’s recounting was almost certainly deeply flawed though she had a feeling that at the very least Shiver’s own recounting of the attack itself was leaving out details though she could imagine that that had mainly to do with how much of it was REALLY self-defense and how much it was something Shiver had desired for a while and his siblings had simply given him the opportunity with their foolish attack.

That Shiver fought off three older, likely quite a bit bigger Arcosians spoke well of his skill in a fight as well, sure it was possible the trio were simply coasting off of Hale’s newly appointed status but even a weak Arcosian was still a threat. Shiver however was no weakling, diminutive size or not he was clearly strong, only a bit weaker than Ise had set her own power at and this level was usually more than enough of a gap to cow most would-be upstarts.

At his full strength he would likely even make for a decent sparring partner if she cut loose a bit.

“Before I weigh in on the situation I think it would be good for me to give you a bit better of an understanding about myself.” Ise finally spoke up after a few moments of silent thought pushing herself up to her feet and with one hand brushing some of the hair away from her visor “I am, shockingly, not the biological child of General Hibernal” Ise said with a small smirk “He found me a long time ago when I was quite small, only old enough to have vague memories of the day itself. Saiyans have a tradition of occasionally sending off their young to planets intended to help them grow stronger, it’s was not VERY common during the war but it was something still done on occasion.”

“I was not such an example. The tradition was likely used to mask my being sent off, if my existence was made known, but I was not sent off to get stronger because I was born a bit weaker.” Ise reached up and pulled off her visor giving Shiver a good look at her slightly glassy eyes the pale amber showing no signs of focusing on anything “I was sent to die, blind and alone. So I can say for certain I understand your frustrations to a decent degree, I however was lucky enough to be found by my true Father, General Hibernal. I was given a chance to flourish properly under him.” Ise paused to put her visor back on and to give Shiver a bit of time to take in what she had said thus far.

“You HAVE technically committed a wrong in the… ‘eyes’ of Arcose” Ise said grinning once more at the slight irony of the statement “So you cannot be left unpunished. I think however I have something fitting, Lord Hale’s purview is clearly the wrong place for you at this time. I cannot quite imagine you two being left to your own devices resulting in anything good for Arcose. So instead of returning to Hale you will remain here, I have a need for capable fighters.” Pulling Shiver away from Hale would be for the best, and with HER order backing it there would be little Hale could actually do other than complain and frankly speaking Ise was rather eager to get a chance to interact with the man.

WC: 1122
TWC: 2,434