Private Zann's Alley/Backyard An Offer of Sorts

[Dusk Rainblade]

Dusk raised an eyebrow at the request, but crossed her fingers in front of her and humored him. "You may certainly ask, though I may not know the answer off the top of my head. The last time I was an agent was thirty years ago, and I've only been minister for ten. That leaves a bit of a gap. Besides, the Ministry it a vast organization; I doubt anyone definitively knows off-paw the names of all its agents past and present. If I don't know, however, I shall have that name run against our files and get back to you with an answer - assuming, of course, that there are no active operations that would be jeopardized by revealing such information."

 

[Kaii Nashirou]

Kaii pulled out a snip of paper from his notepad and a pen, writing down name 'Isa Newmoon-Nashirou' and giving it to the Minister. "I do hope for any archival knowledge remaining. She was my mother, and I only did ever learn she served as a spy till the very day me and my sister were born. I do only wish to know who did she serve or where did she come from. Nothing more, if you even have anything. Of course I understand if her twenty-five year old cases are still in any way active, though I doubt it. She did say she cannot ever go back after all."

After fixing the collar of his outfit, Kaii once more bowed. "Nevertheless, thank you for humouring my request, for your blessings, your offer and for informality of this meeting Minister. Please, tell me where I will have to go with the contract you gave me and I will do my best to fulfil your expectations." Kaii now knew he would be soon dismissed, thus he took his notepad back into his inner pocket, leaving the Duchess with the slip that held his mother's name.

 

[Dusk Rainblade]

Dusk took the slip of paper, glanced at it, and couldn't quite keep the shock off her face. Nashirou. That Nashirou. It wasn't exactly an uncommon name in Fyador and Westisle; there were plenty left there, even as large shares of the broader family had moved to the Imperium even before the revolution. Kaii's Ministry of War file had been rather sparse on details, and she'd assumed it was simply coincidence. How wrong she had been.


"Wait," she ordered. She set the paper down on the desk, then reached for her wine again. She was far too sober for this conversation. "I know the name," she stated. "Her work, and her fate, are something that I can tell you about quite freely. We're at least long past the point where I could be hung for it anyway." She gestured to the chair, inviting him to sit once more.

 

[Kaii Nashirou]

Kaii stopped on the spot and returned to the chair. Not because he was ordered to, but because he wanted to know something. Seylene told him a lot about his father's past and the overall Nashirou's dynasty, but Isa was rarely spoken about, most things Kaii knew about his mother were from those eight years he knew her in person. Her past however was an enigma. Any detail was welcome here.

Looking at the Minister, pouring more wine, Kaii also did so for himself. His expression was still unmoved, but his tail was perked at the idea of finally learning anything, even if the truth would be upsetting.

"I am all ears Minister. Though, I assume... it will be personal to you and not very pretty. Still, anything you can share, I will be grateful for."

 

[Dusk Rainblade]

Dusk finished draining the bottle into her glass, trying to ignore the voice in her head tallying the number of bottles that made that week alone - and it was only Tuesday. Don't have a problem, huh? She swirled the glass a bit before taking a sip to steel her nerves. Setting it down, she began her tale.

"Thirty years ago, I was the Dark Star - that's the Chief of Intelligence - to Minister Karath Nicolas. He wasn't a very good Minister of Misanthropy," she reflected. "If he was, he'd have fired me immediately. He was an idealist, not cut out for this life. Naturally, I started running my outfit almost entirely behind his back, and quietly plotting his downfall.

"One of my best agents at the time was a vixen called Isa Newmoon. She was brilliant," Dusk recalled, smiling a bit sadly. "Spoke four languages, knew Fyadorian customs by heart. She was my go-to agent in Eastisle, infiltrating the Ryalors after the split between House Ryalor and the Imperium following the death of Vaelora Ryalor. Back then, I was going under an assumed name to obscure my own connections to the Ryalors," she clarified. "Isa didn't realize that my sister had been married to one of them, so I'd had ties there before their exile.

"Well, eventually my little game fell apart," she continued. "I was outed as disloyal to the Imperium for reasons that would take too long to explain, and I had to flee, winding up in Eastisle myself. I'm not proud of it, but the first thing I did was make contact with Isa and flip her. I got her spying for Eastisle instead, while still working as a MAUL agent to feed us information from within and send disinformation back to the Imperium. She did that for a bit, until she met your father."

Dusk took another sip of her wine before continuing. "She wanted to have a family, to leave spywork behind her. I agreed, and let her go inactive. We made provisions to keep in contact and touch base whenever I was in the Imperium on my own work. I think I may even have seen you as a toddler once," she added, "though you wouldn't have noted me as anything but one of your mother's guests. Eventually, as the civil war was in full swing and your family was deeply involved in the arms trade, I reached out. Eastisle saw the winds were swinging so an invasion by our forces was possible, but we needed arms on site to replenish ourselves more easily when we did so, instead of relying on convoys from Eastisle. I reached out to your mother to arrange shipments to be made, ostensibly to the rebels in order to persuade your father and, I'll admit, to cover our tracks as well."

She closed her eyes for a long moment. "That was a mistake. One of the middlemen your mother used for arranging the transport of weapons informed to the authorities, and your family was executed for it. I was very sorry to hear about it, and I'll admit, I considered reaching out to try to get custody of you and your sister, but it seemed too dangerous to have a known operative from Eastisle sniffing around your family so soon after an event. I'll be honest, since then I've rather tried to put out of my mind how I failed your family. I'm sorry, Kaii. She, and you all, deserved so much better."

 

[Kaii Nashirou]

Kaii listened intensely. So much so, he forgot to blink for a moment. There was a lot to unpack, especially in the last sentence. During the lengthy battle for his own titles, he had heard so quite often as his name was one of traitors who supported the monarchist side instead of ministerial one. Since he had absolutely no word on what his family did after he departed with Seylene, he could only rely on Duchess's word. It was however difficult. He was assured that it was his father's loyalty to the crown that got him to do what was right and to stay loyal to the oath Nashirou's had made to the Imperium. Suffering from choosing the side that ultimately had lost mostly.

It didn't add up for Kaii to have his mother involved. Isa openly told their kits that she used to be a spy. Never mentioned the details but made sure to let them know she was done with it. In a way, she was living a rather humble life of a housewife as far as Kaii could remember.

There was however a certain thing with the Marble fox's memory. It was stunningly good. And going through them prompted seeing it all. Kaii could remember now indeed seeing once a vixen that would by all means be younger Dusk. Being a tiny kit still, mock fighting his sister on a sofa while Isa was having the Duchess in the same room to keep an eye on the two. Neither Isa nor Imerou knew yet that Kaii and Arima could understand words at the time already and read. So Kaii did also remember the voice of Dusk.

This only proven that The Duchess wasn't lying at all. Which shook Kaii enough to even for a moment shatter his stoic expression. Were he not already mostly white-furred, he would seem pale now as his muzzle opened and eyes slightly glossed. The revelation that it was Dusk who ultimately brought the death to his dynasty, safe for him, was very, very unnerving. She did seem to show remorse and did apologise, but Kaii... needed a moment.

In this temporary weakness, he did only utter one sentence. "When my parents died, Arima was already dead for three years. You would only ever get to find me..." He chuckled at the irony of being now consoled by the same person that he could blame for most troubles he had in his life.

Kaii had all of his grief frozen deep within his soul. So much so that it was in part why he could just completely detach himself emotionally from anything. It was only impossible when it was brutally dug out by his thinking process like right now. As such, all of that pain he held, emerged.

And Kaii fell to tears. Not caring much for the fact he was in front of the Duchess. He couldn't get to hate or mind her even if he tried now. He just finally knew the truth, and knowing that what he knew was a lie? That stung him most.

 

[Dusk Rainblade]

For a moment it looked like Dusk might stand and cross around the desk to hug him; she put her paws on her desk to push herself to her feet, then hesitated. Instead she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a handkerchief monogrammed DDR in ornate cursive stitching, presenting it to Kaii. "This revelation doesn't change any of my opinion of you," she told him quietly. "I was already impressed by you, and thought you were a good match for my daughter even before I realized you were my dear friend's son. I can't make any promises for Mina Rose either; she will have to determine on her own whether or not she wants to share a future with you, and I will not push her either way. I can only tell you that I am glad to have you in my family's life, even peripherally, and I sincerely hope that one day I will be able to call you a son, like I should have back then."

 

[Kaii Nashirou]

Kaii too the handkerchief and stared at it for a moment. He wanted to hate this vixen for causing him pain but... he couldn't. She did put his family at risk, but it was his parents who made that choice. She now told it all to him, but she had no ill intent. She still seemingly supported him and her words were ones of... consolation.

Hearing as he was still considered a good match for Mina, as Dusk actually wanted for this to happen and as she in a way apologised she couldn't step in to fulfil his mother's role... it all made Kaii reconsider. He regained control over himself as his rational snuffed the emotional outbreak, closing it in the depths of his existence for later to deal with. He have back the handkerchief and stared at his paws, no longer crying nor showing any emotions.

"Thank you for all of this. It hurts, but i prefer knowing it all. If the day you will call me son happens, I may... return to this topic. For now, please, I need to reconsider a better part of my life now, as well as... my future goals. I also am sure you have better things to do than watching a young todd cry." Kaii spoke earnestly, but with tone that was perfectly masking his feelings.