Chapter 60: The Pavilion

The Imperial column, led by Smythe and senior officers, marches through Kharn Sagara’s ship between ranks of silent SOMs and enters a vast Garden-like space. Beneath a central tree and striped pavilion, the Imperials face Prince Aranata, his son Nobuta, herald Oalicomn, and the captive Tanaran, with Kharn presiding and his children present.

Smythe opens with a bid for peace; Aranata counters by highlighting centuries of Cielcin losses and the necessity of feeding millions aboard his fleets. Varro outlines a cessation of hostilities in exchange for halting raids, but when Smythe proposes trade and provisioning, Aranata erupts, rejecting “merchant” dealings as demeaning. The Cielcin react with contempt to the notion of equitable exchange, forcing the Imperials to pivot.

Seeking terms that could end raids, Smythe asks what the Cielcin need. Aranata and his retinue intone a creed of survival, rebuffing settlement offers as captivity and denying human authority to grant favors. Oalicomn oversteps and is struck; the hierarchy’s brutality is laid bare.

Tanaran then speaks in scriptural cadence, recounting ancestral guidance by the “Great,” the poisoning of air and earth, and the Cielcin’s inability to live on new worlds under starlight. This reveals a fundamental environmental constraint: they evolved underground and cannot thrive topside.

Hadrian quietly connects these revelations to Cielcin ship design, suspecting their ice hulls function as radiation insulation and that they lack effective ray-shielding. He attempts to steady the room, emphasizing shared aims to prevent further deaths, and the tense session breaks without resolution.

The meeting is the first of many; talks will continue under growing uncertainty, with the Imperials newly aware of a potential technological leverage point and the Cielcin’s existential framing of the war.