A Short History of Isha - Part 3

Posted on 13 Jun 2009 @ 1:42am by

2,520 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: M2: Aggressive Negotiations
Location: Isha's Quarters
Timeline: After leaving DS5

Elek smiled. "I am half-El-Aurian, ma'am. We are well-renowed as Listeners the galaxy over." He paused, deep in thought. "Ambassador, I understand the intention behind why you're telling me this. It helps me understand the detail surrounding the issues we're currently up against. But, I must ask ... what happened to Nveid?"

“Our flagship was lost at Chin’toka taking Nveid and Hexce with it,†Isha said, feeling the ache in her stomach, she felt sick whenever she thought of that ill fated battle. “I’m not the only widow created by that day, I may be conceited but not that overwhelmed by my own importance to the quadrant. I’ll have more to say about that later, my husband, that is, not my own sense of importance.â€

Elek nodded in understanding. "Madam, would you like another drink?" he asked. "I'd be happy to get anything from the replicator from you."

“Only a chilled glass filled with ice, Counselor. I have reached the part of my story that is rather more close to today.†Isha glanced again at the coffee table and the objects she had placed on it; she nudged the little blue shell along – “In some ways this ensemble could be considered a short history of Isha,†she told him, “The shell is my past, the seal, the relevance of which will become apparent later, is my present, and that space at the end is my future; across them all is the ancestral blade of my House. A lot of bluster is made about such weapons, but this one I believe really did make the journey from Vulcan with my husband’s ancestors – I just don’t know whether my future lies at the hilt wielding it, or at the tip, dieing on it,†she said somewhat morbidly.

Elek didn't immediately reply to that. He didn't know quite how to. The ancestral blades were held in great esteem by Romulan Houses who held one - his son held one from his mother's family, and treasured it greatly. The one Isha had laid on the table was a beautiful, yet lethal, blade.

He returned from the replicator with the ice-filled glass and put in on the table in front of Isha, then resumed his seat and picked up the phial of earth again.

"Ambassador," he said, you have great courage in telling me all this. If you want a break, or to simply finish telling the story at another time, I would understand." He smiled. "I'm here for the duration, but I'm conscious that a person's potted history can often be very draining."

Isha poured more of the blue liquid into her glass and sipped it before once again cradling it between her palms, “I fear, Lieutenant Elek, if I do not finish telling you this story now you will never hear it unless you decide that you wish to extract the end from me – some people find that sort of thing preferable but I do not think that you are one of them. Before I go on, tell me about it.†Isha’s gaze fell directly from his to the little bottle he held, “it means something to you.â€

Elek looked down at the phial. He had almost consciously forgotten that he had got it with him - it was almost habitual. But now that he was aware, he was looking at it differently. Isha had touched a nerve earlier when she had mentioned his wife, but he could now see that perhaps it was the right thing to have done.

"This ... is a small amount of earth taken from the Gardens of R'iall on Romulus on the day of my Romulan wife's funeral. I brought it here today because ..." He laughed to himself. "I don't know why I brought it here today. Perhaps to evoke a memory in you, I'm not sure. Now ... now I think it's time to let it go."

He reached over and placed the phial on the table, next to the great blade. "Take it, Ambassador. Take it and return it to where it came from. I no longer need it."

Isha leaned forward and picked it up, the glass still warm from his touch, “I’m a hopeless collector, Lieutenant Elek, I gather people and trinkets and memories, sometimes the most seemingly insignificant words or objects – the thing that trinkets and memories and people have in common is that sometimes one finds that one needs them at the most unexpected of times.†Isha placed his phial back on the table, “She must have been a very special woman for you to hold on to this for so long,†she said.

Elek smiled. "She was," he said. He paused. "Although I think I've met someone here on the Freedom who can match her," he went on, thinking of Mari.

“How wonderful. If you will permit me, I have an idea. Keep this, and when we reach Romulus I will have my gardener find us a young temar’laggaenh, the night blossom is rather like a jasmine - but it miniaturises wonderfully. Rather than your memory being one of dead earth we will mix this in with the loam in which we plant your tree and then you can take a little piece of the living planet with you, and if and when you are fortunate enough to find another special place and person you will be able to transplant it into your own garden, that way you will find Riiel not only in your past, but also bringing pleasure to your future.â€

Elek nodded. "I would be honoured, Madam. You have my thanks."

He accepted the phial back from her, and placed it down next to him. He had had wives before and since Riiel, but perhaps he was ready to truly move on.

"I would very much like to hear the rest of your story, Madam?"

Isha allowed herself a wan but theatrical smile, “and I thought I was doing so well distracting you from your purpose, Chief Diplomatic Interrogator Elek,†she said flopping black on the sofa with her arms splayed inelegantly.

“Where was I?†Ishs wondered out loud as she pulled herself up and arranged herself more appropriately and drew her shawl over her shoulders. “Let me see … Nveid and Nniol had argued … their silence lasted several years though it pained Nveid to be separated from his brother. Nveid inherited young, he was twenty five or so, and in many ways he was more of a father figure to Nniol … it must have been very difficult for both of them. Over the next three years everything was quiet but some voices thought that I was far too influential in the House; partly bowing to that pressure and partly to force a reconciliation I petitioned Nveid to make peace with his brother. The terms were simple, when Nveid was off-world I would act in his stead but Nniol would serve as my primary advisor – every would be satisfied. The arrangement worked relatively well and I believed at the time that all the old tensions were diminished if not dead.â€

"What happened?"

“Rh’vaurek happened. For five years he had been attempting to communicate with me – I refused, I simply could not face him. Rh’vaurek is a very resourceful man, he quietly breached our security and came on me in the garden in the arbour by the lake – I was terrified, I confess, I still thought that he planned to hurt me, but he actually came to apologise.â€

Elek raised an eyebrow in surprise. "To apologise?" he asked.

“When I say apologise I mean that he came to make amends. He offered me his life; he pressed a dagger into my hands and having said what he came to say opened his arms to me.†With her eyes on a scene from her past Isha’s fingers curled in front of her, “I can still feel its hilt in my hand,†she said, “We were standing so close, his hands holding mine, forcing the tip of the blade against his sternum – he would not let me turn away or lower it as I stared through my own tears into his eyes … all I had to do was push … I almost did then I pulled it back and the blade squashed flat between us. He recoiled and I reversed it – I returned it to him. I could not take his life even if he thought that was what was necessary to make up for the ordeal he had put me through. I gave it back to him on the condition that he live it. He shook his head, that irritating half smile of his on his face, ‘its yours whether I live it or not d’Ishaal’ he told me. He’s been mine ever since. Always on the periphery of my world whether I want him there or not interfering and telling me what is best for me; It is quite something to have the unequivocal loyalty of such a man.â€

"I would hope so, Madam," Elek said with a half-smile.

“We were seen. On the morning of the day Rh’vaurek chose to offer himself to me my husband had left on manoeuvres. From outside it must have looked like an embrace and to Nniol I must have seemed to be confirming all of his worst suspicions of me – there I was cuckolding his brother in his own garden – Nniol would not risk arguing with his brother again, he had already said his piece and had it dismissed. He chose another method intended both to strike at me and to punish Nveid for ignoring the truth.â€

"What did he do?"

“As far as I understand it the conclusion Nniol was based on a simple observance - I am slightly built, the Illialhlae men tend to be lean and muscular – both Nveid and Nniol share a remarkable resemblancer, my father is tall and heavy-set, as is Rh’vaurek. As you can see I am quite slightly built myself … physically, Hexce took after my father. I never betrayed my husband … this is where it gets very hard for me, Lieutenant,†Isha reached for her drink and drained the liquid in one go though she held the empty glass on her knees.

"I think it has been hard for you already, Madam, but I take your point," Elek said. "May I ask what happened to upset you so much?"

“Nniol mentioned nothing to me when I returned to the house – the afternoon’s business proceeded as usual. I had found the day unusually stressful and I retired early; Nniol’s presence was only reminding me of Nveid’s absence so I excused myself as soon as I could reasonably do so. I have never been a good sleeper, it grew worse after my abduction, I was prescribed a sedative which I took when my husband had cause to be away from home. … I took my sleeping draught and went to bed.

Despite that I had a very restless night … I was not one for having erotic dreams, Counselor Elek, but I did that night, I assumed it was caused by my husband’s departure and the sudden reappearance of Rh’vaurek after all those years. I was exhausted in the morning, troubled by an aching satisfaction as if I had spent the whole night entertaining a lover rather than dreaming of the night I spent with my husband the night before he departed.

It continued over a number of nights … I was beginning to become confused in the daytime too. I stopped coming down for meals and retreated from public life leaving Nniol to deal with the day to day administration. I no longer knew what was real it was a worry for me – I have a tendency to compartmentalise but every now and then the barriers of experience weaken, very much as they have now, and as they did after Rh’vaurek kidnapped me … things become blurred; I thought that seeing Rh’vaurek had triggered a breakdown

I fought against it eventually, I made myself wake … I wish I hadn’t. There was no longer any need for stealth so he pressed his full weight on me,†she said shifting her arm across her chest, “trapping one arm here between us, the other, along with my hair was caught in his fist –you’ve seen him and, well he was already inside me – I couldn’t dislodge him. He never stopped for a second, each thrust bringing a new accusation from his lips, and the most damning, that if I told Nveid, he would tell him I invited him, that he’d been with me night after night since he left,†she could see him as he growled into her face You didn’t even fight me, you welcomed me whore. Isha could barely breathe at the memory, “I will – have – it – all – starting – with – you!†she recalled as this last became a roar of triumph. Isha shifted uncomfortably in the chair reliving the memory of his pulse ebbing inside her.

"He told me that at least one of my bastard children would be of his family’s blood."

It was a week before I came down from my room, Nniol was still there acting as though he owned the place, I had eaten nothing in that time, drunk nothing but water. My head was very, very clear … Nniol would not allow me access to a medic other than the one he engaged until it became visibly apparent that I was pregnant.

It was not Nveid’s. I knew it and Nniol knew it, but everyone else was delighted that my husband would soon have another child. What could I do but go on?â€

"Did you consider the alternatives?" Elek asked, knowing it was a hollow idea. Romulans did not approve, usually, of abortions, but he knew that it was accepted in certain ... difficult circumstances. "Would Nveid not have understood?"

Isha thought of the day Nveid returned, he ran his hands over her belly and looked at her as though she had performed a miracle while Nniol lounged in the background daring her to say something.

“It would have destroyed him. That was my choice - I could crush a kind and generous man and destroy his House by exposing his brother, or sacrifice my own conscience. On a scale of things the conscience of one rather spoiled woman isn’t really worth very much; I kept my silence.â€

"That was ... incredibly brave," he said. "Your son was Nniol's ... does your son know?"

“If you had asked me that a few days ago I would have said not, Fveirrolh was raised as my husband’s son and it was ten years before I finally told my Nveid what had happened – we tried not to let it influence our attitude towards him. I think that Nniol must have told him something, I could guess what.â€

Elek nodded. "I think I can guess too."

To be continued ...

 

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