"Darling," Riniya said with a sigh before adding, "I'm just trying to make you understand."
"I do understand, mother, and I'm well aware of father, grandfather and even brother's overprotective nature towards me," Liluth replied before continuing.
"But they need to understand that I'm a grown woman and can make my own choices, especially when it comes to who I will marry.
I mean Ulesse never had this problem when she started dating Malgath."
"Because Malgath has an excellent family background," Riniya replied before sighing as she added, "and if I'm being completely honest, your father never planned to let you marry anyone other than a Solarian."
"But hasn't his majesty supported multiple suitors from other races who wished to pursue the Princess?" Shalendra asked.
"On the surface, yes, he has to keep up friendly relations with the other races after all. But in truth, Taegen would never have allowed it; heck, even I think he's far to over protective of Liluth," Riniya replied.
"Why
"If I may be so bold as to ask, why is King Taegen so overprotective of Princess Liluth?" Tessa asked before adding, "this reason seems to be much more than a simple kidnapping attempt when she was younger."
Riniya smiled apologetically at Tessa before saying, "I'm afraid I can't say.
"I understand," Tessa replied before apologising, "I apologise for overstepping."
"It's fine, you did nothing wrong," Riniya replied.
"Hey look, they're talking about Dryad Eytelis again," Becky suddenly said, causing them all to focus on the stream chat.
[OfficialRowena (Spector): Darling, I think you should have Spector run a system check on itself since you have a few minutes of downtime.]
"Why?" The women heard Adam ask.
[OfficialRowena (Spector): The fact that it claimed Eytelis was on here on Flamyre.]
[NonpareilRaphilia (Aaru): I think you're overreacting, Rowena. It must have meant another Eytelis; there's no way Solarian Prime's Bureau Chief can be here on Flamyre, I mean, she barely leaves Solarian Prime's great tree, let alone the planet itself.]
[[I am fully functional and am experiencing no issues.
What I said was true, Dryad Eytelis, the Solarian Prime Bureau Chief,is currently here on Flamyre, though she appears to be disguised.]]
"How can you be so sure?" Adam asked.
[[Though disguised, she is not able to alter her bio signature.
As a Dryad who is symbiotically connected to the great tree of Solarian Prime and therefore the planet itself, Eytelis's bio signature is almost identical to that of Solarian Prime.
After determining her location and gaining access to Flamyre's mainframe, I accessed the security feed and have determined that this is Dryad Eytelis.]]
As Spector finished speaking, a holographic screen appeared before the seven women.
Displayed upon it was a Solarian female who was completely naked and suspended in the air by some strange manacle, which glowed slightly and was attached to each wrist and ankle.
Another woman who was dressed in an extremely revealing outfit that left nothing to the imagination laughed hysterically as she held some kind of energy whip.
She drew her hand back before whipping it forward, causing the energy whip to lash across the first woman's chest from her breast to her abdomen.
"AAHHHHHHHH!"
The bound woman screamed in pain but continued to glare down through wet eyes at her torturer.
"HAHAHAHA, yes Nogiss yes, glare at me more, it will make my victory all the sweeter when I break you," Fiere Lucent said gleefully.
"Other members of your despicable organisation have tried and failed; you will be no different, Fiere Lucent," Nogiss replied defiantly.
"Good, good, struggle more," Fiere said lustfully before adding, "the others before me complained about how the slave chip doesn't fully work on you, but I'm happy for it. Do you know why?"
As Fiere asked that, she ran one of her fingers over the long gash she had just caused and as she did, the wound seemed to heal.
As Fiere saw this happen, she couldn't help but smile in excitement as she said, "Because of this, dear Nogiss. With how your body heals, I can torture you as much as I want and you will never die."
"Just wait, Fiere Lucent; the time will soon be upon us when our roles will be reversed, but unlike me, your body won't recover as I cause endless pain and suffering before you die," Nogiss retorted.
"So confident, but I'm afraid that will never happen while you have that slave chip implanted within you," Fiere Lucent smiled before asking, "but do tell, what makes you so certain our roles will soon be reversed?"
Nogiss was about to reply, but a male voice came over the intercom and said, "Sorry to interrupt, Miss Lucent. But you wished to be informed once Senator Kasai's shuttle was on approach."
"Such a shame," Fiere said in disappointment before fiddling with her uniband and a moment later the manacles stopped glowing, causing Nogiss to collapse to the floor.
"Clean yourself up, dear Nogiss. We have an important guest to meet," Fiere said before leaving the room she was in.
"It's her; it's actually Eytelis, we finally found her," Riniya said in disbelief as s the holographic screen disappeared.
"Are you sure? How can you be certain?" Keerla asked seriously.
"I told you before that Eytelis has the ability to disguise herself as a Solarian; that's the form she takes when she does so," Riniya explained before her shock was overcome with rage and she said angrily.
"How dare they treat her that way, torturing the Solarian Prime Bureau Chief? Never has such a thing happened.
Keerla, contact the fleet and have them deploy to Flamyre; they are to rescue Eytelis at all costs before reducing that moon to nothing but rubble."
"Calm down, mother," Liluth said as Tessa, Becky and Andria gulped upon hearing Riniya's order.
"You can't just send the fleet into another galaxy, not to mention the Ashes Galaxy, which is Phoenix territory.
Empress Revi could easily mistake it as a declaration of war," Liluth continued.
"You expect me to leave Eytelis there? Leave her to be tortured? After searching for her for so long?" Riniya asked angrily.
"Not at all, but you know better than anyone that this needs to be handled carefully," Lilith replied before continuing, "even if we do get Empress Revi's permission to send the fleet into the Ashes Galaxy, it would still take several days to get there."
"Liluth is right, and that's several days for them to learn of our actions and move Eytelis; the deployment of the fleet isn't exactly something we can hide, after all," Keerla advised.
"Then send an advanced team; I will contact Empress Revi in the meantime," Riniya ordered.
"Mother, there is a far simpler option, one that can have Eytelis rescued in only a few hours," Liluth stated before indicating the holographic screen, which displayed Adam now travelling in another hover taxi.
"You mean have Adam rescue her?" Riniya asked thoughtfully.
"Why not?" Liluth asked before saying, "He's already there; you can watch everything unfold and, best of all, it will give you a good opportunity to observe your future son-in-law's capabilities."
"Hmm," Riniya replied as she considered Liluth's suggestion for a moment before asking, "will he even accept? After all, other than him saving you in the past, we have no relationship with him."
"I think he will," Tessa replied before explaining. "I've met Adam and while you can't call him a hero in the traditional sense, he always tries to help his friends and loved ones when asked.
Since he saved Princess Liluth in the past and they parted on good terms, I don't believe he would refuse a request for help from her or her mother.
However, if you're still unconvinced, why not issue a stream quest to save Eytelis with a reward he can't refuse?"
"She can't," Becky suddenly stated, causing all the women to look at her before she turned to Riniya and said, "apologies, I meant no disrespect."
"That's quite alright, lieutenant, but would you mind explaining what you meant?" Riniya asked.
"You do not have access to view Adam's stream and so can not make a stream request," Becky explained.
"You need access to view his stream?" Shalendra asked in surprise before adding, "Whoever's heard of a streamer limiting their viewer count? Those greedy bastards normally do anything for more viewers."
"Yes, well, not all streamers are as bad as the one I had that dispute with fifty years ago," Liluth replied while glaring at Shalendra.
Shalendra swallowed nervously at Liluth's glare before saying, "Apologies, princess; I mean no disrespect towards him."
"Really? Because it sounded exactly like you were being disrespectful about my future husband, Shalendra Ellynn," Liluth replied, causing Shalendra to hang her head in shame.
"Alright, daughter, don't blame Shalendra too much," Riniya stated before adding, "If you are truly adamant about marrying this man in the future, you need to be prepared for this.
You know very well how our race treats streamers and if you don't like it, then maybe you should have done something about it before now."
"Yes, mother," Liluth replied.
"Good," Riniya replied with a smile before looking at Becky and saying, "Lieutenant, please prepare a proxy stream mission."
"A what?" Becky asked in confusion.