Chapter 1 - The Absolute Zero[]
Sian
Capellan Confederation
January 1st, 3159 CE
The Funeral was delayed for ninety days to let the invited guests arrive. Uninvited guests, well, Danai Centrella-Liao knew uninvited guests would arrive in their own time. The lack of an official resumption of conflict with the Federated Suns meant she could invite Julian Davian, and she did. She also invited Yori Kurita, and of course, her dear friend Nikol Marik. She also extended an invitation to Alaric Ward to send a representative, but didn't expect to see one appear, the Confederation really had no contact with the Clans for the most part, but she also extended invitations to the Lyran Commonwealth.
Pointedly, no invitation was extended to the Republic of the Sphere, though she did extend one to the Rasalhague Dominion, Taurian Concordat, and Raven Alliance.
The Snow Ravens' response was a polite decline, but it was polite. The Elected Prince of Rasalhague sent a letter of consolation, but also declined to send someone to see Daoshen interred.
Devlin Stone insisted on seeing her dead father's body himself. The Republic was not invited, but instead requested. Her answer was among the shorter messages sent through ComStar in its history.
"No."
Danai would tolerate Julian Davion, she had met him at the Tharkad conference. Considered to be somewhat dim, a good man at his core. A man with a sense of honor and an understanding of right-and-wrong.
She had no such impression of the Legendary Devlin Stone.
While Trillian was the one she invited, the person she wanted to converse with from the Commonwealth was somewhere deep in the deepest unexplored periphery, so Trillian would suffice.
There was Nikol, sweet natured. Clever Nikol Marik who knew Danai's darkest secret, Nikol said yes. At least one of the things Danai wanted, was happening.
She sat in his study. looking at the messages from well-wishers and those who would not be coming to see him off. He had always been distant, but Daoshen was her father.
The grief. The memory of his suicide were real, the pain was real.
She could look at his doctor's notes. The notes that broke him, the brain scans, the (failed) experimental treatments he had kept hidden from everyone.
Absently, she canceled the execution of the medical team that found the lesions and diagnosed the disease, but could not cure it. The wise do not punish people for doing their jobs correctly.
If it happened to him, it can happen to me. "I will not be Romano." she told the mirror over the desk, "I will not be Candace, either. I am the Celestial Wisdom, I am the State, and the State does not punish those with bad news for having bad news."
Saying it out loud, I am the State didn't feel quite...right. it felt hollow. The State was Sun Tzu, it was Daoshen.
No one must ever know what a fraud I am. She looked into that mirror again, "I serve the State."
That felt right.