The Assassin's Tale; Thalia's Palace

Credits; Krell, Rea, Thalia,

The Palace of Thalia on Gravaga, as it was properly named, was as elaborate as he remembered it.  High ceilings, stone collumns, mosaics about Thalia's victories and the expansion of the empire.  Gravagan guards and servants went back and forth at their business.  It was like the Imperial palace, only much bigger, better decorated, and if the collection of bad jokes written on every door were any indication, much less serious. 
"Sorry for the lack of mess, I've got a fight planned for this afternoon and Hal likes to be able to maneuver.  Normally I keep some flower arrangements around."  Thalia gestured around the grand hall pointing out the large easily destroyed urns and racks of swords.  She seemed happy to point out, for his benefit Krell expected, all of the things that were not normal and which she did not particularly like.  It was fascinating seeing how very different the so-called Dark Lady was in person as opposed to all of the historical accounts and media depictions.  She was always shown as being cruel and vainglorious, but just listening to her he could see nothing but a woman who put a lot of work into cultivating an image.  An evil image, and she was doing a very good job of it, but still just an image.  He could see the cameras hidden all around every room of the palace as she lead them through.  Her plots and exploits had always been broadcast across the universe, for anyone who wanted to watch at least.  Truth was that she made real life more exciting than anything any team of writers could come up with.  She was methodical, and any given adventure was much like the others, but she had the skill to make them all compelling and exciting at the same time.  If she was anything, it was a master of media.  Not many people could have pulled it all off. 
More interesting was that he could see how little she actually wanted any of it.  It was nothing personal; destroying towns to create new heroes and turning out new villains to fight them.  She didn't like the palace; he remembered Liss having mentioned that when they were on Stormguard.  But he would have been able to tell that by listening to her complain about the upkeep and how impersonal everything was.  She had the servants to wait on her hand and foot, but she demonstrated an illusion that let her slip down to the kitchen to wash the dishes when she finished eating.  She had everything you could ever want, and she wanted none of it. 

"You'll be staying here.  Feel free to watch, just don't get involved.  Dinner is at six, we can talk then."  Thalia waved the door closed behind her.  Rea jumped onto the bed and buried her head in the pillows. 
"Does she know how she dies?"
"Petra accidentally told her while she was still in school.  She took it really well."
"Then she knows about Arcania?"
"Don't let her hear you calling her that.  To her mother, she will always be Kate.  Cyssie's still little right now, Koren's off at school, but Hal, Kate, and Sara will be there."
"Isn't she?"
"Yeah, and she's a slovenly, axe crazy, barbarian.  Luckily she doesn't talk much." 
"Sounds like you and her have some bad blood."
"Oh we got along great at the time; I galavanted around stabbing people and she wished she could galavant around burning and killing.  So I told her stories about it until eventually she just ran away from home and started living the dream, the horrible, bloody dream."
"You created the Lych Queen?"
"No, I just encouraged her a lot, all that violence and wantoness was already there."
Krell sat down on his bed and flicked on the screen.  Thalia and Hal were facing off in the throne room, her guards on either side of her, and the little band of heroes Hal had joined up with on the other.  Rea pointed at one of the heroes.  "I know her."
"Did you kill her?"
"No, you know her too.  That's Courtney!  This was her debut season."
He looked closer and recognized noticed that she was wearing her usual cloak.  A sweeping shot of the heroes showed her face and her realized that it was in fact Courtney Yellsdana. 
"Wasn't she Thalia's steward?"
"Not yet she isn't.  She's working for her Grandfather still; he sent her to investigate a series of vampire attacks on Swindreen and she joined up with Hal and the rest so she could hunt down the pereptrator.  Kept traveling with them for years under a code name before she finally took the job on Stormguard.  She'll stay for dinner tonight, Yuri has already let her in on the whole thing."
"How many people normally stay for dinner on Fridays?"
"Thalia's family, any of Hal's companions that are in the know, Me from time to time, and Tala drops in sometimes when she can."
"And Petra?"
Rea went silent.  Krell didn't push it.  Thalia was a villain after all, and Petra was one of the most self-righteous people in the universe, even if she was legitametly good too.  It didn't suprise him that the two didn't get along.  Thalia was willing to do horrible things in order to rebuild the system from the bottom up for the greater good, and Petra seemed more likely to destroy anything that was so much as tainted in order to make anything left good.  She'd be a menace if she ever ran out of demons to slay.  Thalia was definitely the more practical, and likeable, of the two. 
Rea rolled over and looked across the room at him.  "It's not a ideological thing.  Petra's sore over getting her butt handed to her on a very shiny purple crystal plate, and Thalia thinks, no, outright says that Petra needs to pull the stick out of her rear, find a nice man, and get jiggy with him."
Krell blinked and looked over at Rea.  She was grinning from ear to ear.  He paused and then replied, "She thinks that Petra needs to get laid?"
"She's kinda right too.  It did wonders for Tala and Zink."
"I pity the poor man who get stuck with that responsibility."
Rea laughed and stood up.  "C'mon, I just felt Tala pop into the third floor broom closet.  I need to introduce you two."