Lavender & Fire

44. Staring the Beast in the Eye

Now that there were so many fewer members of the group and many of those that remained were spooked after all that happened, Daielle had been doing daily check-ins, as he called them, a way to keep them united and support each other. In reality, she suspected this was a way to keep all of their members in check, make sure their anger and fears were pointed at the premier and their resolve to be a part of this group remain in place, leaving them no chance to question their own poor leadership.

She had heard of Daielle a few times during her time with the group, and then again while she was imprisoned with Kahal and his brothers, but she had never actually seen the male until afterward, and didn't realize how high up in the chain he was. She was seeing him speak during these daily check-ins but she hadn't found a way to observe him more closely. Here was her chance, she noted as she walked in the direction Netaq had pointed her in.

She found the door cracked open so she put on a slightly nervous persona and poked her head in. "You wanted to see me?"

Daielle sat at his desk and waved her in.

There was a female sitting in an armchair to the side of his desk. Rahn nodded at her in greeting and the female gave a very slight nod in return. She was older than Rahn, but probably not old enough to be her mother. Rahn took the chair in front of the desk.

"Yes." Was all he said as he watched her take her seat. 

She had had no real interaction with this male so far, and she had certainly never seen the female sitting beside them. She glanced at the female before returning her gaze to Daielle.

"Pay no attention to Niva, she is simply here to take notes, should I want to revisit anything." Daielle continued. "As you can imagine, running this organization requires me to have a personal assistant to help manage everything."

Rahn nodded. "Of course."

Daielle continued again. "I'm sure you can understand we have to take extra precautions now to make sure we can trust our members at this critical time."

Rahn nodded and waited for him to continue.

"I have some questions." He leaned forward, crossing his arms on his desk in front of him.

"Questions?" Rahn said nervously.

"Yes. About your time being held with the premier."

"Oh, um... I've told Schoun everything I know." Rahn had been hounded with question after question by Daielle's second in command over the last couple weeks.

"Of course." Daielle gave a slight smile and Rahn twisted in her seat. This weasel didn't make Rahn nervous but of course Lana would be different. "I would personally like to make sure we've covered everything."

"I understand." Rahn nodded and gave a nervous smile of her own for just a short moment.

"You used to work in the grand hall as a financial officer?"

"Yes."

"You caught someone skimming funds." He started and looked at her in question.

Rahn made it a point to tense her body and blow out a slow breath as if the subject was still a sore spot to her. "Yes. And I reported them, naturally."

Daielle nodded and waited for her to continue. 

"I expected him to be immediately terminated from his position and thrown in jail for his crimes." She drew in a deep breath through her nose and released it through her mouth. "But those fools let him continue working there while they investigated. Several days passed by and he was still there."