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You love it.  You wouldn't give any of it up, even if Pellaz threw himself at your feet and declared his undying love.”
     
                “Is that what you think of me?”
     
                “It's what everyhar thinks of you.  Don't be like Pellaz.  Don't blind yourself to the truth.  Use it to your advantage.  Wallow in it.”
     
                Caeru refilled their wine glasses.  “You are a harsh vizier, Vel.”
     
                “Somehar has to be.  It's beneath you to be kind.”  Velaxis picked up his wine glass again, stared into its depths.  “It has not escaped me that you haven't forbidden Cal to call.  You could have done so, at any time.  You enjoy playing with him, don't you?”
     
                Caeru was silent for a moment, then he said, “I heard something recently.”
     
                Velaxis glanced at him in enquiry, but said nothing.
     
                “It came originally from Cal himself, on the very first day after he came here and everything was in chaos.  I didn't think about it much, but then it was confirmed through the grapevine of the Tigron's staff.  A conversation overheard.”
     
                “Oh, gossip!  I can't wait.”
     
                Caeru pulled a sour face.  “Pellaz said that everything he owns belongs also to Cal.  That includes me.”
     
                Velaxis gestured languidly with one hand.  “Well, of course, Pellaz believes that.”
     
                “But does Cal?  He said it to me once, but I think it was just to get a reaction, or to shut me up or something.”
     
                “Why not find out?”
     
                “I don't belong to anyhar.  The idea is absurd.”
     
                “But the fact that it was said...”   Velaxis shrugged.  “Change were – and are – needed, Rue.  Cal came here and overturned the old order.  The Hegemony is alone now and so are the Aralisians.  Thiede has withdrawn from the field.  That's the biggest change to Wraeththu since it all began.  If you are Cal's, then he is yours, and perhaps not before time.  Pellaz cannot be allowed to function in the way he used to.  It's my belief it's partly up to you to make sure this happens, and you have to do it quickly, while the winds of change are still strong.  Don't let the dust settle.”
     
                “And what do you get out of it?”
     
                “Now, you are being harsh.  You know I'm fond of you.”
     
                “Fondness aside, you work for the Hegemony.  Is this what they want too?”
     
                “We all want what is best for Wraeththu.”
     
                Caeru didn't even bother responding to that.   Velaxis, for all his good qualities, was ambitious and self-serving.  He words could mean only one thing.  Pellaz had hidden enemies within the Hegemony.  Caeru had hardly dared to believe such a thing.  Even though he'd worked hard to be popular, the perfect Tigrina, adored – as  Velaxis had pointed out – by hara in the street, he knew that Pell's indifference to his apparently spotless Tigrina was regarded unfavourably by nearly everyhar in Immanion, if not farther afield.  Still, Caeru had always believed the Hegemony regarded him as nothing more than a useful trinket to dangle before the masses, to keep them sweet.  He was the hostling of Pell's heir, Abrimel, and appealed to those parts of the harish psyche that cherished the idea of motherhood.  If he had been human, he would have been a gracious queen, beautiful and dignified, forever at the side of the king.  As it was, Pellaz had spent their entire life together trying to keep Caeru at a distance.  Thiede had arranged their union, against Pell's wishes, and the Tigron had never let Caeru forget that.  The Tigrina had got used to the