 sure as hell was no secret. The Faey considered such arrangements to be entirely proper, even practical, but the humans Jason governed, who were just as curious about their Grand Duke as the rest of the Imperium were, well, it took them a little while to wrap their minds around the idea of him having a mistress, who happened to be a married woman, and to whom neither his wife or her husband didn't object. There was the certain "scandal" when it came out that Jason was cheating on his wife with the wife of his best friend, but Jason didn't address it, knowing it would just fade as soon as Jyslin was asked about it. And boy, did it fade fast. When a CNN reporter threw that question at the pair when they were attending a formal dinner with the delegates of the U.N., trying to startle a juicy response out of the Duchess, Jyslin just laughed and loudly shouted back that he'd damn well _better_ be screwing Symone on the side, seeing as how Jyslin had worked so hard to set it up, and how _she_ was screwing _her_ husband at the same time.

That shocked the reporter into absolute silence. And that was probably the moment when the people of Earth learned a valuable lesson: _never try to embarrass a Faey woman on live national television, for she will destroy you_.

It even reached all the way back to Draconis. Two days after that dinner, Dahnai decided she wanted to have her training out on the grounds, since it was such a pretty day. In reality, she did it _only_ because of the sunlight. She knew that the Draconian sun caused his skin to turn blue, and she was taking almost devilish delight in trying to accelerate that process as much as she possibly could. Any time he was at court and it was both warm and sunny outside, Dahnai demanded outdoor exercise, had even taken court outside to the lawn on three occasions.

It was a pretty day, he had to admit. The air was sweet and warm, but not hot, and that damned sun shone down on them with invigorating energy. She _knew_ he couldn't shield himself from the sun and train her at the same time. She was wearing what Jason would call a spandex training suit, a skin-tight pair of thigh-length shorts and a bra-like halter, both glossy black, while Jason wore a traditional Aikido _gi_, with the loose shirt and flared, pleated leggings, whose baggy, flowing volume would deceive the eye and hide his motions from her senses. The back of his _gi_ showed the crest of Karinne, but had also been altered with the Legion Phoenix rising from between the two waves, under the single star. Luke had doodled the design a couple of weeks ago, and Jason liked it so much he was having a new signet ring made with the design, and had it embroidered on the back of his training _gi_. When that ring was complete, he'd present it and a new banner to Dahnai, informing her that the House of Karinne was adopting a new crest.

"You're looking a bit dusty, old man," she teased as they reached the sand-covered training field, where the Imperial Guards practiced hand to hand combat. There were guards in attendance that day, as there usually was when he trained, ten guards wearing tank tops and workout shorts, standing in a wide ring around the Empress and her mentor. The guards were officially defending the Imperial person, but unofficially, they were watching Jason and learning. His non-lethal martial techniques that would immobilize a foe without killing were of great interest to the guards, for they could perform those movements while in armor. Jason didn't mind their observation, and had even been approached by the Captain of the Guard, a middle-aged woman with her blond hair done in a crew cut, about who she could contact on Terra to find someone that could teach her guards some of what Jason knew, since Jason didn't have time to be training the guards himself. He was happy to give her some names of several respected _sensei_, any of which would probably be happy to move to Draconis to become a tutor.

"You do this on purpose, don't you?" he accused as he put his hands together. She mirrored him, and they bowed in respect to one another. Dahnai had been scandalized when he demanded this, and it almost got him executed when the _Siann_ learned that he was demanding the Empress _bow_ to him, but he had been absolutely adamant. She was not bowing to him as a subjugant in political power, she was bowing to him as her _teacher_, and it was a tradition so deeply ingrained into both Jason and the art that he flatly refused to teach her a _damn_ thing without the bow. She was paying her respects not to him, but to the _art_, and she'd better damn well respect it. If she had no respect for the knowledge he was willing to impart upon her, he _would not_ teach her.

"Of course I do," she winked. "I think you'd be devastatingly handsome with blue skin. It's the only part of you that I'd care to change. And since I _can_ change it, well, here we are."

"Bitch."

"Bet on it," she teased. "What are we doing first?"

"You realize that I look utterly ridiculous at home," he pressed. "_Only_ my face and hands are turning blue. Look!" He pulled his sleeve up, showing a rough boundary between his bluish-tinged skin and his beige skin. "It makes me look like I'm diseased!"

"Well, if you don't want a two-tone color scheme, I suggest you take off your shirt so you can tan out to a uniform color," she winked.

"Sometimes I hate you, Dahnai."

"Then I'm doing my job as your Empress," she teased. "Are we practicing forms, or are you teaching me something new?"

"Forms, of course."

They practiced the base forms with flowing grace, as the Imperial guards watched on, as well as quite a few of the _Siann_, watching from windows in the palace behind them. "I saw an interesting little blurb on INN this morning," Dahnai noted as the turned with grace, sweeping the right arm out wide. "I didn't know you had an _amu dozei_."

"Symone," he answered, taking a single step forward. "She's married to my best friend, and she's my wife's best friend."

"The human telepath?"

"Yah."

"I'm surprised you got into that kind of a relationship. You seem to resist your Faey heritage and embrace your human one."

"It's hard to resist Symone," he said dryly.

"How does your friend see it?"

"Same as I do. He's much more adapted to Faey customs than me," he answered honestly. "I had trouble with it at first, when Symone and Tim came to live with me, and I was separated from Jyslin. Symone wanted to fill Jyslin's shoes while we were apart."

"An entirely proper thing," Dahnai noted.

"That's how she saw it," Jason agreed. "I didn't see it quite that way, at first. It took Symone time to wear me down, but I guess over time, it wore me down far enough. I like Symone. She's fun, she's funny, and she's a great person to be around. When I admitted to Jyslin I'd been having fantasies about her, but wouldn't do anything about it because, you know, Jyslin was home, she just laughed and sent Symone to me. Ever since then, whenever I feel like sleeping with Symone, or she wants to sleep with me, we do, and whenever Tim and Jyslin wanna do it, they do. It's been kinda fun, really."

"So, you can bend that towering human morality with enough motivation," Dahnai chuckled.

"More like with the right people," he corrected her. "I think I'd be jealous if my wife were sleeping with anyone other than Tim. I understand their relationship. I know that they knew where the line is, and Jyslin knows that me and Symone are the same way."

"Well," she said as they finished the first exercise. "That makes sense. You have to bring Symone and Tim to court some day. I'd like to meet them."

"Bringing Symone to court would be a _bad_ idea," he said immediately. "If she didn't mortally offend some Grand Duchess, she'd have them all dancing in a congo line."

Dahnai laughed. "I have no idea what that is, but it sounds... interesting."

"Symone's a unique girl, with a lot of natural charisma and a happy-go-lucky attitude that makes people relax around her. It's part of what attracts me to her. And I'd never be insane enough to bring her here. Symone would not gel with the _Siann_. They take themselves _way_ too seriously to be ready for Symone."

"Now I _really_ have to meet her," Dahnai laughed. "Sounds like my kinda person."

"She wouldn't be afraid of you at all, Empress," he warned.

"That's why I want to meet her."

He practiced with her through what he'd taught her, then taught her new techniques of locking an arm of an adversary. "Always remember that the momentum of your enemy can be your ally, if you use it correctly," he instructed. "An arm in motion will remain in motion. That's energy your opponent has expended that he can't change without effort. You use that against him. Attack me," he instructed.

She did so. He never told her _how_ to attack, or what to try. He always allowed her to do whatever she wanted to do, which really annoyed her. She _really_ tried to hit him or knock him down, but he never failed to conquer her attempt and put her into whatever lock, hold, or throw he intended to teach her. It was the way he was taught, and it was the way he taught her. She hovered back a moment, her feet tamping, and then she lunged forward with an open hand, trying to grab him and perform the armlock he taught her last week. He intercepted her and twisted her around, then snapped her arm straight out and bent her wrist, which sent her to one knee in a hiss of pain. "This is the straight arm wristlock," he instructed, applying more pressure, which made her gasp. "With this hold, you incapacitate your foe by forcing them break their own wrist or dislocating their own shoulder to return to the vertical base. With a little nudging," he said, torquing her arm, which literally put her on the ground to avoid either a broken wrist or a dislocated shoulder, "you can take someone off her feet. This hold is about leverage, Dahnai. If you can't gain the leverage on your opponent's wrist with the initial hold, it can be safely broken."

"I see, if you didn't hold my arm the right way, I coulda bent my elbow and got inside."

"Exactly," he said, letting go. "Always remember to bend the wrist _away_ from the elbow, and get the foe's arm straight with a good snap before you apply the hold. If you bend into the elbow or try to apply the force on a bent arm, your foe can just curl in the arm and retaliate." She regained her feet, and he stepped up and waved in a guard. The guard would be their practice partner, someone Jason could use as basically a practice dummy to demonstrate the moves where Dahnai could see it from the outside. This guard was one he'd never met before, a tall, willowy woman with dark green hair tied back in a ponytail, just like Dahnai's bronze hair was, wearing a Marine tank top undershirt and a pair of workout shorts. Just like Jason and Dahnai, she was barefoot. He put the guard in the lock, showing Dahnai the form without applying any force, explaining it in more detail. "And always remember the basic focus of the art, Dahnai."

"Flowing movements that complement the momentum of the enemy, using it against her," she recited.

"Exactly. Just like any hold, it can be broken if your foe moves the right way. Understand this, move with your foe, keep your leverage. Thank you," he told the guard.

_My pleasure,_ she sent in reply, bowing to them both and stepping back to the outside.

Jason let Dahnai practice the lock on him for the next hour, letting her learn the nuances of the hold and the necessary ways to move to maintain it, for he broke the hold on her several times to show her how it could be done. When their time was up, Jason and Dahnai bowed to each other, and she caught a towel a guard threw to her. "Nice workout. What's on your schedule tomorrow?"

"I'm meeting with the president of Russia tomorrow," he answered as he took a drink from a water bottle. "Er, well, in about nine hours," he corrected, looking at his watch. "This time difference is driving me nuts. Dracora time is ten hours ahead of local time for me now. It'll nearly be dawn by the time I get home. It makes me tired."

"I can relate, believe me," she grunted. "Want a room? You can take a nap and then just go straight to your appointment."

"Nah, Anya's going back to Earth, and I'm catching a ride with her. Besides, they're expecting me back home. Jyslin worries when I don't come home when I say I will."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

He and Anya rode a Suralle shuttle up to a large personal ship, Anya's personal yacht, that then started out for the stargate. But it didn't reach it without incident. Klaxons started blaring in the passenger cabin, where he, Anya, and two of her aides were seated in what looked like a living room, albeit a small, cozy one, and the windows sealed over with armored plates. "What's going on?" Jason asked in surprise.

_Strap in, your Graces, we're under attack! _came a frenzied sending from the bridge. Fearfully, Jason helped Anya to one of the foldaway chairs attached to the bulkhead and strapped her in, but then he was thrown to the deck with her aides when the entire ship rocked violently, sending him flying. They were being fired on! Anya's yacht had been hit!

It was a terrible feeling, being helpless like that. Jason was a passenger here, and all he could do was climb into a seat beside Anya after helping Anya's young aides strap in, wait, and worry. He could feel the ship lurch this way and that, as the pilots of the yacht executed evasive maneuvers, and felt the ship shake when it was hit. The klaxons continued to blare, and Jason could hear the roar of rushing air behind the door to Anya's compartment, telling him the hull had been compromised and the yacht was venting atmosphere into space. A second, heavier door came down over the first one, a bulkhead door to isolate their compartment from the hull breach.

_Where is the Navy?_ Anya sent in fear. _Why aren't they helping us?_

_We were far out from the planet, halfway between the planet and the stargate, it's gonna take them a couple of minutes to get here,_ Jason answered. _I just hope your pilots are good enough to keep us alive until they get here._

_I hope so too,_ she sent in fear, grabbing Jason's hand in a crushing grip.

_[Contact. KMS _Defiant_ mainframe. __Establishing link.]_

What the _fuck_? His gestalt wouldn't be establishing that kind of link unless the _Defiant_

_Holy Trelle!_ the pilot sent. _What the hell kind of ship is that?_

_What's going on?_ Jason sent.

_A cruiser just jumped in out of nowhere, it's getting between us and the cargo ship firing at us! It's shielding us from enemy fire!_ The pilot sent an image of what she was seeing, and Jason gasped in surprise.

It was the _Defiant_!

Through the pilot's eyes, he saw what happened next. The cargo ship tried to come in underneath the battle cruiser, and then a sustained streak of angry white light erupted from the port wing of the cruiser, raking across the blocky cargo ship. The beam sliced it in half like paper, shearing through the hull, which caused the ship's atmosphere to explosively decompress, pushing the two halves apart. Plasma vented aggressively into space, and then the stern half of the dead ship exploded violently of its own volition, sending the bow section spinning off into space. Who was manning that warship?

_[Are you alright, Jason?]_ a voice came, relayed to him by communion with the gestalt

He gasped. It was _Miaari_! She was using the _Defiant's_ mainframe to communicate with him by communion!

_[Miaari? What the hell is going on?]_

_[I'm aboard the _Defiant_. When our scanners detected the attack, Jinaami warned Denmother, and she sent us. I was on board, overseeing while my people ran a shakedown cruise to make sure it's operational, when she ordered the _Defiant_ to immediately jump out and assist. Are you okay?]_

_[We're fine now. Thanks for the help.]_

_[Your ship has been hit. Is it in danger?]_

_[It seems alright. The hull was breached, but we seem to be alright. The pilots aren't telling us to use the escape pods.]_

_[Naval ships are coming. We'll let them assist you, my friend. We'll jump back out and let them wonder just what happened and who we are. Faey love mysteries, so we may as well give them one they'll never solve.]_

_[Miaari, that's mean,]_ Jason had to tell her with an audible chuckle.

                                        * * *

Two things happened after that.

First, the mystery of the _Defiant_ swept through the Imperium like wildfire. Nobody had ever seen a ship of that design before, and it was an absolute mystery where it had come from and where it had gone. Video of it firing on the cargo ship was analyzed eight ways to Sunday by both the government and the media, showing the Imperium a weapon that they'd never seen before, some kind of cutting beam so powerful it sliced through the hull of the cargo ship like a hot knife through butter. The video angles they had at first only showed the strike on the cargo ship and then the ship jumping out almost immediately after the ship was destroyed, but later, the media got their hands on surveillance video showing the cargo ship attacking a Suralle personal yacht with almost reckless disregard, in plain view of the entire planet. It was such a maniacal thing to do! It showed the Suralle yacht being hit, and then the mysterious triangular warship jumps in like an avenging angel, destroys the ship attacking the Suralle yacht, and then jumps out, almost like a ghost.

That was the public reaction. The reaction in the _Siann_ was much more reflexive. They all knew that someone had ordered that attack, had tried to kill either Anya Suralle or Jason Karinne, but the sheer nerve of it, to attack in the open at the home planet... that took some _balls_. Nobody knew who did it, because the destruction of the independent cargo ship, privately owned, had killed the crew and destroyed the computer. They searched the remains of the bow section, but found no evidence of who had hired the ship to try to kill members of the _Siann_. That made them all nervous, unsure if they were talking to someone who had just done something one just did not _do_ out in the open.

The second thing that happened was that Dahnai was utterly _pissed_. She had a much more thorough education in history, and had recognized the triangular design of the mystery warship that had saved the Suralle yacht immediately. The _Defiant_ was simply a much larger version of the _Scimitar_ with a flatter bow and narrower stern, and Dahnai had not missed that comparison. She called Jason back to Draconis before he even got back to Earth, making them change ships and turn around and come back, and she _grilled_ him in her private quarters. She knew that ship was a Karinne ship, and it had shown up to defend him from attack. She was through playing games. She wanted the truth, and she wanted it _fucking now_.

This was not the light probing and entertaining game that Dahnai usually made of it. This was the Empress of the Imperium making adamant demands of one of her subjects, but Jason stood silent. He would not answer her. He would not betray his word. He stood in silent vigil for nearly three hours, eyes forward and unmoving as she yelled at him, threatened him, waved an order to yank Karinne's charter in his face awaiting her signature, even summoned a mindbender to stand at the door, waiting for her order to drag him out to be interrogated, but he would not move from his position, nor would he even give Dahnai the tiny victory of saying a single word.

In the end, he wore her out. She leaned back on her desk and crossed her arms under her breasts, giving him an ugly look. "Look at me," she demanded. He had been standing there with his eyes forward the entire time, and when he refused, she bent to him by marching into his field of vision. He felt her mind brush against his, but she found nothing but emptiness when she tried to look inside him. He had been using the same trick he had used against Jyslin so long ago, entering a meditative state that suspended all outward thought, giving him the same sense of telepathic presence as a toaster. "I _know_ that was your ship, Jason," she told him flatly. "You salvaged more than just your _Scimitar_. And you are going to _answer_ me. You're going to tell me what you know of the Karinnes, and you're going to bring that ship out and let me board it and look at it. It may not be today, but you will. That's a _promise_. If you thought I was bad before, honey, that was just play. I was amusing myself. But now it's not a game anymore. The Shovalle Empresses that sat on this throne before me always ignored the Karinnes, had let them play their games on their own, as long as they kept doing their research and feeding new ideas and new technology to the Imperium. They _knew_ the Karinnes weren't releasing everything, and that was one reason why they were destroyed. When war was declared, the first thing the Shovalles did was order the immediate and total destruction of Karis, even going so far as to leave their own territory undefended to muster a battle fleet big enough to do it. If Merrane hadn't have gotten there first, the Shovalles would have been the ones to destroy Karis. But the Merranes did it because they couldn't afford to let the Karinnes side with the Shovalles. Even then we knew that the Karinnes were _much _more dangerous than they pretended to be. We knew that whichever side they took was going to win the war because that side would have the Karinne telepaths and the Karinne technology, so they had to either be brought over or destroyed. If they weren't going to side with the Seditionists, they were too dangerous to be allowed to survive. If you read history, you know that the first thing that happened at Karis was the destruction of the planet. After that, when the Shovalles showed up, the largest naval battle in Faey history that took place over the planet. Both sides had brought huge fleets to destroy the Karinnes, and they met head to head right there. That battle actually decided the war, because it seriously crippled the Loyalist fleet. The Loyalists won the battle, but they lost too many ships, and in the long run it cost them the war.

"I'm not going to make the same mistake my predecessors made, Jason. I'm not going to just smile and look away as the new house of Karinne picks up where the old one left off, and plays its own little games. The Karinnes will either be a part of the Imperium, or they _will not_ be a part of the Imperium," she said with intensity.

Jason looked at her. "The Imperium isn't _ready_ for the Karinnes to be part of it," he told her evenly, in a low tone. "When the Karinnes can _trust_ the Imperium, then the Karinnes will be a part of it. If I handed that ship over to you, what would you do with it? You'd take it apart, learn how it works, and build more of them. Then you'd use them to make war on anyone and everyone around you. The Karinnes vowed to never allow that to happen, and _I am a Karinne_. They withheld their true technology from the Imperium because the Imperium would have done nothing with it but make war. I will honor the sacred traditions of my ancestors, because I agree with them completely. The truth is, Empress, you aren't _ready_ for what I know. Faey are violent and aggressive, and though I love the Faey people very much, I detest their negative aspects. You have so much technology, so much culture, so much advancement, and all you do is make war, even on each other. I'm not going to indulge the worst parts of the Faey, Dahnai. I'm not going to help you become better killers. We will not give you new tools to use to make war on others and each other. Until then, until the Faey evolve past their need to conquer and dominate everyone around them, the Karinnes will _never_ be a willing part of your system. Remember that, Dahnai. If you can't accept that, then you'd better kill me right here, right now, because I would rather die than betray the duties I accepted when I took the title of Grand Duke Karinne, duties to _more_ than just _you_."

She was silent, for a _long_ time, just looking at him, her fingers tousling her long bronze hair around and around and around her fingers. Then she sighed. "Go home, Jason," she ordered. "Just go home. And don't come back until I summon you."

Jason nodded and walked to the door. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry," he told her over his shoulder. "I only wanted to be your friend, and I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"I'm sure you mean that," she answered.

That really depressed Jason. He liked Dahnai, he liked her a lot. It had hurt him to tell her that, had been forced to tell her the truth, but he'd had no choice. If he didn't tell her _why_ he wouldn't tell her what she wanted to know, she would never stop. But at least now she understood his position. She knew he took his word very seriously, and that he was dead serious that he would take those secrets to the grave with him.

It didn't stop her from trying someone else, though. She summoned Myleena to Draconis, _alone_, and Jason paced the entire time she was gone. She returned almost two days later, pale and shaking, and she clung to Jason for almost an hour after returning. She told him that Dahnai interrogated her _personally_, trying to force her to reveal what she knew of Karinne technology, but Myleena refused. Dahnai hadn't used mindbenders, she had only used her own authority, trying to make Myleena obey her Empress. "It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life," she said weakly from Jason's arms, after crying herself out. "Since I was a little girl, I was trained to obey my Empress, and there she was, in the flesh, asking me questions I knew I couldn't answer. It was a nightmare! I almost had a nervous breakdown. That's when she finally showed me some mercy and let me come home. Oh, Jason! I was so scared!" she said, then she started crying all over again.

Jason expected some kind or Imperial retaliation for Karinne's defiance, like taking Foxwood from him or recalling the Marines, but nothing like that materialized. Jason was banished from the _Siann_ for now, no longer in the Empress' favor, and it gave him time to quietly reflect on how hard it was going to be to be the gatekeeper of the secrets of the Karinnes from a woman so hell-bent on breaking that gate down and taking what was inside. He realized that it might even cost him his life.

So be it. He meant it. He would take those secrets to his grave. He would never turn them over to Dahnai. _Never_.

He buried himself in other matters for a few weeks, riding shotgun as the United Nations finally seated its delegates then opened for business as the Earth's governmental entity. Jason introduced the Terran Charter to the legislative body, the constitution of Earth that was basically patterned after the American constitution, and it was passed. Each country then had to ratify it; once three quarters of them ratified the charter, it would become the law of the land. It established two separate parliamentary houses, and the Secretary General would act as the main executive, but with Jason over him as the Grand Duke Karinne, who could overrule the Secretary General and act with the same executive power if necessary. The Secretary General would be like a Prime Minister, with Jason being the royal figure above him, like the British system. But unlike the British system, Jason's position was not ceremonial. He held real power.

The ratification took about two weeks. And it passed.

And so, the United Nations then reorganized itself. Selected delegates would sit on the Security Council, like the Senate, while elected officials would serve in the General Council, which was like the House of Representatives. The World Court was installed as the judiciary in planetary matters, and the Secretary General was installed as the direct executive, with Jason sitting as the ultimate executive, holding the same title of Grand Duke in the charter as he did in the Imperium. The United Nations took over the responsibilities of diplomacy, defense, and the oversight of the farming effort on their side, working closely with the Suralles to ensure that food was produced at the required quotas. The new Farm Worker Act was passed that limited the amount of time a single person could work on a farm, paid them for their work using the portion of the profits that went to Earth from the farming, putting all that money back into the farming effort, and instituted mandatory classes in agriculture for every child and working-age adult on Earth. Everyone, from the richest to the poorest, would learn about the farming business, so they'd have an understanding of what they'd be doing when their turn came up to serve on a farm.

The new system was quite satisfactory, to both the Terrans and to the Suralles, because it protected the productivity of the planet while boosting the morale of the people that would be doing the work. The law made a farmer an important, prestigious occupation, and an occupation that may be hard work, was also a certain path to prosperity with its high financial returns for the effort given. It made everyone happy.

Jason was quite happy himself, because now that Kim Duk Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, was in place and on the job, Jason could take a break and relax a while. Kim could just call him and send over anything he wanted him to read. And since he was exiled from Draconis, which let his skin return to normal without exposure to the Draconian sun, he really didn't have that much to do for a while.

So, he snuck out in the middle of the night, and visited Karis. He had a good visit with Cybi, caught up with the Kimdori on their repairs, which were almost complete, and saw that the floral reclamation project that Cybi had started on the island was already taking root on the small continent of Benja, where the old capitol of Karsa was at. The capitol was already 40% rebuilt, and all sixteen of the reclamation robots were on Benja, planting grass and trees to restart the ecosystem. They'd already carpeted nearly a quarter of the small continent with green, and Cybi projected that the continent would be revitalized in 1.3 years.

They'd really done a good job. All three of the warships were now fully operational, and since there were no Karinnes to man them, Zaa had com