The agency director's office was spacious, but cluttered, awards and photographs hung on the walls, shelves of books and paperwork stuffed to the brim. Her desk was similarly covered in ephemera.

" Lyena Nova," she greeted him. " I'm Marden-Ge'el. It's an honor to host you here on Hesperia. You've brought Lyewa Prima along as well?"

Marden-Ge'el was middle-aged, with thick, fluffy spotted fur and pale skin. By Nova's approximation, she was not Sturam or Moyar, but one of the fringe ethnicities that had been expelled from the imperial center in Arjun's time. He found himself somewhat uncomfortable.

" I'm in training as a cultural liaison," Prima helpfully piped up, distracting Nova from his thoughts.

" Yes," Nova said. " He's staying on to help William with a project on Thrace."

The agency director smiled a bit.

" That's good to hear," she said, sitting back down at her desk. " I think the way that they're sending you back is a bit troublesome. We weren't told anything until you were within our solar system."

" A failing of bureaucracy, I presume," Nova said, sitting across from her.

She flipped through the open book in front of her, settling on a page.

" We've had to pull a lot of resources we were putting into the upcoming holidays for this," she said. " The Sector's providing security and civil clearances, but almost all of the parade arrangements are being made here. I've been up working since last night."

" Well, you had more notice than us," Nova said dryly. " We weren't told until after we'd already landed."

She paused.

" It wasn't your decision to leave?" she asked.

" Were you under the impression it was?" Nova asked in turn.

She looked a bit chastened.

" I was under the impression," she said, " that no one could give orders to an Imperial prince except the emperor."

So she thought that his uncle had ordered him back home, most likely because of the interview on Noahl.

" If I didn't comply with the DASS's plan for me to leave, it'd cause a whole host of other problems, wouldn't it?" he said.

She laughed a little bit, not as though it was humorous, but as if he had confirmed something.

" What's so funny?" he asked.

" The empire really must be falling apart," she said. " We were told the refugee surge at the end of the war was a temporary thing, but the numbers have just kept climbing. And now even their own prince has said he'd prefer to stay in the DASS..."

She trailed off, seeming to realize what she'd just said. There was a silence.

" Well," Prima cut in, " we're going to be a part of the DASS eventually anyway. A little vacation never hurt anybody."

Nova's ear flicked in annoyance.

" It wasn't just a little vacation," he said.

Though looking back, he realized he hadn't done much serious diplomatic work.

Marden-Ge'el covered her face, and sighed deeply.

" Regardless of the political situation, we must make this work," she said. " The agency is under a lot of fire right now. The last thing I need is for this to go badly."

" I agree," Nova said stiffly. " I would like as little trouble as possible. Any complications we go through now may impact my ability to return in the future."

" What's with the agency being under fire?" Prima asked, narrowing in on the other half of her reasoning.

" Because of the ongoing refugee crisis, both my agency and the Hesperian immigration board have been completely slammed," she said. " There's a lot of pressure from reactionary politicians. And it's not just humans and their ilk. Even sār Starka are angry that Sturam are moving into DASS space. I myself don't particularly understand why so many are so obsessed with something that happened over five thousand years ago, but that's probably why I was picked for this job."

" Why are they angry?" Nova asked, though he could guess. He couldn't particularly imagine that people who had been expelled from their home planets and genocided due to religious differences would want the ones who had done so to them around.

" We've spent centuries building communities based around how Not Sturam we are," Marden-Ge'el said. " But do you think people who aren't Starka know or care about that? To most of the DASS, all cats are the same."

This was a grim view of the situation, but made sense to him. It didn't help that the empire had, up until this point, strongly cultivated the view that only Sturam were 'real' Starka.

She continued to speak.

" At any rate, the show must go on," she said. " We have a little less than a month to pull this off. I'll need your full cooperation."

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