Звездопад / Starfall: Глава 1

Chapter 1

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:26

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Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:42

"Lord Cassard, have you ever seen such an enthusiastic group of hostages?" Lady Nadine said with feigned surprise in her voice. "Great shadows. It seems they're about to elbow each other."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:43

"I think there's a scientific term for it..." continued Lady Pell, tapping her long polished nail on her chin thoughtfully... "Sacrifice syndrome... or is it? ... Hostage syndrome."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:44

//... "Stockholm syndrome"..." He was about to correct Alex, but he stopped himself in time with a neutral chuckle. His lordship Lord Alessandro Cassard did not need to know such words:

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:44

//And I don't think there's any Stockholm, so the name must be different. He thought and then was belatedly surprised. The "Arrival" ceremony had not started for some reason, and they had been bored at the top of the artificial hill for almost an hour, all alone. And this phrase was the first attempt at communication by the blood princess of the Great House Peltar.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:46

Alex looked up curiously at Lady Nadine. Her perfect, aristocratic features were completely impassive, but in the green eyes of this red-haired beauty, there was a whimsical mix of boredom and judgment with a slight tinge of contempt.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:46

//More boredom, perhaps. He decided.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:47

Temporarily deprived of her usual surroundings of numerous suitors and occasional girlfriends, Lady Nadine seemed desperately bored.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:48

//What's lonely at the top... Only you and your enemies.... Or rather an enemy... just me, that's all conversation partners. -He smirked in his mind and put aside the infoblock with another batch of economic reports, and smiled at her for real:

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:49

"I think you should be more lenient with them," Alex said, trying to keep the conversation going.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:50

The object of their discussion was a group of similarly young but far less noble and influential nobles. They, by their status, were situated on the lower tier of the hill and now having abandoned their seats, were gathered by the huge windows of the pavilion that covered the garden, trying to get a glimpse of the Imperial Palace.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:52

A huge artificial hill, at least fifty meters high, which adjoined the outer walls of the imperial castle, was composed of eight lush terraces connected by a long winding path along which there now stood tables and armchairs for the many noblemen who came to the castle. They were arranged in strict accordance with the title, antiquity, nobility, and the position a nobleman held in his house. From knights to earls and barons, from forgotten grandnephews to heirs and heads of clans, higher and higher. The nobility got nobler, richer, more influential, and so on up to the top.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:54

And at the top were they, with a lineage lost somewhere in the darkness of millennia past, the highest of all present. Lady Nadine Pell, the younger sister of the Ruling Lord of House Peltar and second in line of succession, with a personal estate the size of a continent. And he, Lord Allesandro Cassard, head and only representative of the Cassard family, whose ancestral domain included a planet with a population of fourteen billion.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:55

//Enemies... No, that's kind of pompous, more like adversaries." Alex mentally corrected himself.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 18:56

Their feud was aristocratic and refined to the extreme; there was nothing personal about it at all. Only very high politics and old family scores they had both inherited.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:00

Hurried footsteps were heard from outside, and one of the stewards almost ran out into their clearing, trying to catch his breath as he went:

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:00

"Your Ladyship Princess Pell. Your Serene Highness, Prince Cassard," he said, bowing in a bow that contrasted with a face grey with horror.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:01

//I wonder what could possibly have gone wrong?" Alex thought absently, trying to imagine what sort of "messes" might be possible at ceremonial events. "Three maidens are drunk out of their minds and they're being hastily replaced? Someone has a broken heel or a torn hem?"

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:02

That was the third assurance that: "it's about to start" in the last forty minutes.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:03

//And it's not starting.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:04

After receiving gracious nods from their "Lordships", the steward immediately disappeared, sounding at once to be on the run. He soon reappeared within sight on the next level of the hill and, bowing courteously to the nobles below, ran on down a winding path lavishly decorated with green vegetation.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:05

//This is the fourth time. Shitty job.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:05

"Imperial titles..." snorted Lady Nadine, glancing up at the Imperial Steward as he moved swiftly away. "When I am suddenly transformed from 'Lady Pell' to 'Her Serene Highness Sovereign Princess Pell' upon my arrival in the Capital, I am sickened by the air of that loquacious pathos."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:07

For an heiress to one of the great aristocratic Houses, Nadine Pell had an unusually democratic, even rebellious, attitude which she demonstrated at every opportunity, particularly when it came to imperial power.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:08

//Must be all about education." - Alex thought as far as he knew, instead of the typical home education of someone of her standing, Nadine had graduated from the university on Tallana, which, as the recent rebellion had shown, was quite a hotbed of freethinking. - "I wonder what her parents had in mind when they sent her there? Or did she insist?"

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:09

"I wasn't used to it at first either." He agreed aloud. //After all, it wasn't even a month before I was in the body of an aristocrat. He added mentally.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:10

"But, man gets used to everything." Alex continued aloud. "Isn't that so, your most Serene Ladyship, Nobleborn and Most Serene Princess of the Blood of Pell? If I have omitted something of your full title of honor, please excuse my memory as you know it is not what it used to be after the poisoning."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:17

"Is it only memory?" asked Lady Nadine, and defiantly, with a weary sigh, she covered her face with her palm. It would seem that she was indeed dizzy.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:19

//This round is clearly for her. -Mentally, Alex admitted.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:20

The verbal banter had been part and parcel of their interactions with Lady Nadine from the very first time they met. And it seemed to suit them both completely. At least it diluted the boring ceremonies.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:21

"By the way, I bet in your first Onstum, you too, were suffering from curiosity." He continued the conversation, which was interrupted by the arrival of the stewards.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:22

"Me?" Lady Pell raised an eyebrow. "No, I was rather longing to get out of here. And Lord Cassard, it's your first time here, too..." she added, seeing the irony of doubt in her companion's eyes.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:22

"Lazy..." Alex admitted with a sigh, shrugging his shoulders. "It's a long walk. And the stewards had been assuring me that the ceremony was about to start"

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:31

"In any case, it's a waste of time." Nadine stated categorically, "The palace must be seen from the air. Well, unless the Almighty Emperor decides to send you to the frontier as an observer of our tyranny, you will have another opportunity to see the capital and the palace. Though I have to say that for the fourth time, it's all boring."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:33

"Well, maybe this time they'll send you somewhere as an imperial observer for a change?"

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:33

"Me?" She arched a very eloquent eyebrow again, emphasizing the absurdity of the suggestion. "I'm doomed to get some colorful court position. Dictators prefer to keep those who resist them close so they can strangle them at any moment."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:34

Alex chose not to comment on the politically straightforward phrase, limiting himself to a neutral smile. After all, he had come to the capital to sit out the politically turbulent times, not to get involved in a political scandal. But Lady Nadine appeared to understand everything in her eyes:

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:35

"I see you think differently?"

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:35

//Oh, the hell with you... take it, beauty.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:36

"As you know, I have lost my memory." Just in case, he reminded me again. "And perhaps I lack completeness of information or experience. But from my point of view, "dictatorship" and tyranny do not look like that at all."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:37

"Is that so?" Nadine grinned with interest and leaned towards him with a hand under her chin. "Maybe you could give us some arguments then?" she suggested, smiling sweetly."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:40

"Why not... Look at our conversation from the outside. Do you understand that it would have been impossible in a real tyranny and dictatorship? You spoke ill-favorably about the Empire, the Emperor, and not somewhere in your castle, alone with your confidants, in utterly protected and shielded chambers, with the hum of the suppressors ringing in your ears. No, we're in a garden adjoining the imperial palace, surrounded by servants and, worse, droids, with recording devices hidden somewhere, and to top it all, you're talking to me. A representative of, shall we say, not the friendliest of houses, and let's be honest, politically, we're adversaries. You can't be sure I won't report this conversation, though it might not be very noble of me..."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:42

"Even if I did? If you were to report our conversation, or even if there were recording devices hidden somewhere in the room, even though it's just not appropriate. But I was just making a point. I did not insult His Majesty. I did not call for mutiny... I have nothing to accuse him of. No court would have found it a crime."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:43

"What court...?" Alex's eyes widened in surprise, "No..." he shook his head. "There wouldn't be any court. We're talking about tyranny, aren't we? A dictator? A real tyrant doesn't need to bother with a trial. He does what he wants. Dissenters are removed, and those who resist are destroyed. No objections, no other points of view. The dictator's word is the law. The inconspicuous, silent men would just take you away, that's all. You'd disappear quietly into some dungeons."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:45

"Would I just be taken away?" Nadine smiled indulgently. "In front of everyone?"

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:45

"It doesn't have to be in plain sight." He shrugged. "Maybe they wouldn't want to spoil people's holiday and try to do it discreetly when no one was looking. At night or early in the morning. In a real dictatorship, that would be the case. But as you can see, no one is taking you away, you are not afraid of anything, so I conclude that this is not a dictatorship."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:47

"You'd think, Lord Cassard," snorted Nadine, "that you had some perfect benchmark for dictatorship in a neutral gas capsule, and you have something to compare it to."

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:49

//I really do have something to compare it to." thought Alex, Earth's history had no shortage of dictatorships of all kinds. But he shrugged his shoulders in response. "'I'm getting carried away enough as it is, I'd better not raise any unnecessary questions.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:50

During the time they had been talking, the ceremonial conflicts seemed to have been resolved. The stewards scurried about seating everyone back to their seats, and soon everything was ceremonial. On the lowest tier of the garden came the ushers: the maidens in gleaming court dresses and the imperial guards in full sea-wave uniforms. They came in a majestic, sparkling wave that flooded the garden, and as they swept up the hill, they slowly began to climb up the paths to find their charges. They were to accompany the nobles who had arrived on the onstum during their stay in the imperial palace.

Camrad_RIP 17.04.23 в 19:52