The Other Witch; Arrival on Star Haven

Hack spent most of the flight in the communications room.  When asked, he replied that he was arranging meetings with the various faction leaders, but after overhearing Katherine's conversation that morning, Salvia suspected there was more to it.  In all probability, many of the meetings would be little more than a formality.  Although she hadn't been present when they'd met with the Countess, Braga had informed her that the meat of the conversation was as simple as, 'You in?'.  The words were, of course, far grander and more political than that, not to mention rather melodramatic, but both Hack and the Countess seemed to have discussed this well in advance and the decision was already made.  Considering the morning's conversation, Salvia suspected that Katherine was the only one that had really needed convincing.

"She was Thalia's daughter, her eldest.  A number of years before the Frostbourne war she had a very public falling out with her mother, and she vanished from even the private eye.  To tell the truth, I believed, as I suspect many did, that she had been among the many immortals who fell in the war.  It is good that she was not, we will need powerful mages in the coming battle."
Braga had previously expressed a certain amount of knowledge of Old Cloak and the Dark Lady's battles, but while it was clear that this was much more than a passing interest or childhood entertainment; it was also clear that he knew little that could not be learned from a database or regular convention attendance.  Salvia wouldn't have been surprised if he'd gone in costume on more than one occasion, and tried to think of what Ga-Vok heroes had traveled with Old Cloak who he might admire.
"What was their argument about?"  Salvia was not a fan; she liked her adventures a bit less contrived.
"It was the same one it always was; Katherine didn't agree with Thalia's methods.  It was always clear she didn't care much for Old Cloak's methods either, but she rarely opposed him as directly.  Katherine was always thwarting the plans of both; opening locked doors, leaving important books in plain sight, and at times even giving contradictory orders to the guards.  To put it simply, she wouldn't play the game.  At a certain point her mother decided that she was a liability and they had it out.  You can't find an unedited copy of the argument, but something was said that crossed a line.  And Kathrine left; whether she fled or stormed out I don't know, only that she rent the teleportation wards in the process."
Salvia barely held onto her glass.  Teleportation wards were the most basic magical defenses, every important base, palace, and the private residences of most mages had one.  And in spite of being so simple a student could cast them, there had been a scant few mages in the course of history who had ever broken them.  The Paladin, Petra, was known to slip past them with ease, but never break them outright.  A few of the highest immortals had managed it at great personal cost, a years sleep or the color of their hair.  But most famous of all was Arcania, who had made a point of shattering wards where even armies couldn't have breached defenses.  The implications couldn't have been lost on Braga.
"You don't think she..?"
"All I know is that the wards on the Imperial palace were broken again just before the death of the Empress. Since she is alive, I have little doubt she was involved.  We should be careful."
Involved yes, but Salvia doubted that a woman who wouldn't so much as cook meat was responsible for assassination.  Arcania might have, but Kathrine didn't have it in her."

"We're arriving at Star Haven, prepare to disembark."  Hack's voice boomed over the loudspeaker.
The four of them walked down the ramp to Star Haven.  It had much in common with Stormguarde; they were both free-space, Frostbourne era city-stations known as harbors for immortals, adventurers, and merchants, but where Stormguarde was elegant, dark, and beautiful, Star Haven was practical and well lit.  The houses were smaller, and the shops less interesting, but the people looked less shifty and the taverns looked like proper taverns.  Further, it seemed clear that the city had only one political faction, which made no pretenses about being humble.  Signs directed you to the palace at every third intersection, and every fourth lamppost bore the banner of the smoldering star, the symbol of Earl Hariel, who had ruled the station since she first built it.
Hariel was widely, and rightly, considered the greatest pyromancer of her age, or any since.  During the early years of the Frostbourne war she had taken refuge under the crust of a planet, following an encounter with a considerable number of Lych.  It was there that she forged the core of the world into a small, bright star, and harnessed its power to sustain a sort of refugee camp for those made homeless by the great blizzard that ran at the forefront of Arcania's armies.  Thus the name of the station, Star Haven.  In the late days of the war, Hariel had faced, and defeated, Sara, the Lych Queen and sister to Arcania.  Since then, she had simply ruled the city while funding an order of immortal adventurers to hunt down the remnants of the Lych.  She was also, Braga informed her, a former companion of Old Cloak.
Katherine had referred to her only as 'the pyromaniac'.