So now I knew where that owl had learned all her mystical nonsense.
Hmph. Compared with her ruthless, sharp-tongued, and mystifying ways, her unsavory past was the least of her weaknesses.
And so, King Suluka, still harboring a bellyful of resentment toward the Black Moon father and daughter, packed away the bottles and jars with her still-clumsy movements, then retraced her steps along the mountain path.
When she could see the guards and convoy waiting at the foot of the mountain path, a communications request came through in her ear. It was from her chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ostana Barr.
The chief of staff, of course, knew her sovereign's destination. If she was calling to interrupt, there must have been an emergency.
"We've just received word that Maxwell, the Blue Star Commonwealth's Defense Commissioner, died two hours ago at Metropolitan Hospital in Big Apple City."
Brunhild gave a slight nod. "Send my condolences as a matter of courtesy."
"Pegel, the acting Defense Commissioner of the Blue Star Commonwealth, was arrested in a safe house in Guanghan City on the moon. He denied the claim that President Keith Nishita used a body double. He agrees with the conclusion that Mr. Nishita died in the line of duty, which matches our stargazer's on-site assessment."
After several dozen days, all the stargazer could do was draw an inference. Brunhild gave an impassive nod.
None of that news was urgent. She waited for what came next.
"Deep-space observatories in the direction of the galactic arm have spotted the Natural Emblem. They're calling it a sighting because five observatories have made similar reports over the past twenty-four hours, but they're an average of a hundred light-years apart."
"So the Natural Emblem drifted five hundred light-years in a single day?" Brunhild laughed.
"These observatories only