"And station security wishes to assure everyone that there is no cause for alarm due to the gunfight earlier today in the station's lower levels. When asked for comment on the identity of the two bodies brought out of the area, the supervising investigator from station security refused to give details at this time, except to state that there was one male and one female deceased, both Brutors, and that once determined their identities would be disclosed in due time. The nature of the gun fight in which these two lost their lives is still unknown at this time, however it is believed that they were both involved in a contraband smuggling ring using the lower levels to circumvent station security procedures via what seems to be an old forgotten docking bay which shows signs of recent usage."

"Well," Began the stocky looking Krusual, clad in casual military-style uniform. "That's enough of that, I think." He terminated the broadcast being played on the holoscreen and turned with a disgruntled look towards the Brutor sitting across the small table. The room was unusually large - for what he took to be an interrogation room of some sort - with no other furnishings beyond the small metal table, two chairs and the wall mounted holoscreen. Every noise, spoken word and scrape of the chair legs echoed off of the hard walls around them. "Of course, what you just saw is a cover story, as you well know since you were there. Nothing else will be published. Given the mass media latching onto flavours of the month, all the people coming and going, memories are short and so on. This will be forgotten in a short amount of time. Though that still doesn't count out the fact that we need to know what happened."

The Brutor man sat motionless in his chair and simply nodded his understanding to the officer.

"Where did we leave the conversation?" He asked the woman, leaning forwards on the table and looking rather annoyed.
"The chemical attack on the Shakor clan." She said through a heavy sigh.
"Yes, and if I am correct you said you didn't know anything about it? I mean, please, pull the other one."
"Hey! I don't know the person who planted that bomb." She protested strongly. "How many times do I have to tell you this?" The official sat down in his chair and stared her in the eyes for signs of submission. Her steely resolve won over and he just smiled at her.
"OK then," He continued. "What happened next?"

"I docked here at the station to confront her." The Brutor man continued. "I knew she had something to do with it all. She wanted me dead; it was obvious now."
"You were armed when we arrested you. You had just killed a man. I would say you are telling me a different story here. You came here to kill that guy? Or to kill her?"
"I would happily kill them both." The Brutor growled. "But to be honest I don't know what I was going to do."
"But you were armed."
"I took the gun with me to protect myself. After what Chiron pulled I didn't want to take a chance she would try and finish the job at the first sight of me."
"You are, I am sure, aware that personal firearms are not permitted on the station, correct?" The Brutor man rolled his eyes.
"Yes…"
"How often do you carry that weapon on the station?"

The large Brutor groaned in frustration.

"Hey!" she protested. "I had a gun pointed at me and I was not even armed myself. You know that, right? I wasn't there trying to kill anyone. Why do I have to defend myself here? I didn't do anything."

"Look I carry a weapon ok." The Brutor declared, shaking his head at the official and clearly showing signs of growing aggravation. "The line of work I am in I have to. I don't always have it with me in public areas though." He knew this was a lie, but also knew no one could prove him wrong.
"Speaking of work," continued the Krusual. "You and Chiron have an undeniable relationship..."
"Working relationship." The man interrupted the officer, snorting in anger. "Well, we used to anyway..."
"Yes," continued the officer, now returning the favour of interruption. "It stretches back quite some time, too."
The large Brutor shrugged. "I don't see how that is relevant here. But I would hope it would be obvious that she was using me the whole time. I would not call that much of a relationship."
"That is why she tried to kill you now?"
"Yes, she obviously messed up this time and she knew it. I guess she wanted to wash her hands of me."
"Seems more like she was trying to escape. And she did, and we could have caught her if it wasn't for you interfering. You have put the RSS in a very tough position here."
"What?!" he exclaimed in protest. "Let me tell you something. She was already at the airlock door when I got to her and your goons were at least four minutes shy of making that mark. She was gone by all accounts. If anything the only person who stopped you getting her is that worthless corpse you have I the morgue."
"The one you gave us." Corrected the Krusual officer.
"Whatever."
"Look buddy. The fact is she escaped. You actually shot and killed a man who you have already told us was trying to kill her. So tell me why I should buy all of this about you going after her too? Looks more like you helped her escape."
"Ohh come on, give me a break here. You have the info yourself that backs up what I told you about her trying to kill me. I'm hardly going to take such things lightly, so what do you think I was doing?"

"One last time then." The woman groaned in response to the official and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration as he asked his question. "Did you have any contact with Ramar before this afternoon?"
"No! Ok, no. I can't say 'no' to you enough times it seems. I never even met this guy before today."
"And the other woman?"
"I only met her a couple of weeks back. I didn't know anything about her until today."

"OK one last time if you will please. Explain what happened after you caught up with Chiron."
"I have gone over it with you once already. You have it recorded."
"Well I would like it recorded once again. This is the last time and if I am satisfied we can leave it there."

The large Brutor looked tired and about ready to overturn the table. He was frustrated with this interrogation and still wired from the events of the day. Even still, he resigned himself to recite the events as he did before, making sure to leave nothing out. The conversations at gun point, everyone who was there and where they were standing right up until the final player of the show arrived on the scene, calling Darius' name.

"Darius?!" came the woman's voice. Darius, surprised, turned his head precipitating the fatal mistake of throwing off his aim on Ramar.
"Sh'Khari?" He said, distracted, which he quickly realised as he lost his aim. He glanced back in time to see Ramar shifting his gun sights towards Sh'Khari with an evil grin. Acting on instinct Darius leapt towards Sh'Khari, between her and Ramar's gun barrel.
"Get down!" Sh'Khari saw the gun levelled at her a split second before Darius blocked the way. With barely enough time to register shock on her face, Darius slammed his body into Sh'Khari as he leapt at her and bowled her over.

Ramar jerked the trigger on his weapon several times, unleashing a short burst of gunfire in Sh'Khari's direction, seconds too late to strike their mark as Darius crashed to the ground with her. Ramar cursed out loud as he quickly brought his aim round to Shay'la. Several heavy punches, each punctuated by a reverberating gunshot, slammed into his chest followed by a piercing white-hot sensation with the feel of shattering rib bones and perforating lung tissue. Ramar's curled over as Shay'la's own bullets struck home, owing to her trained reactions beating Ramar, with time enough to spare. He dropped the gun and collapsed to the blood stained floor beneath his feet. Shay'la had already moved on to the next priority on her target list as she turned to Chiron, already making a break for the open hatch door, and trained her gun point blank at her head having quickly covered the distance between them.
"Hold it!" she shouts, her voice dampened to her own senses by the disorienting echo of gunfire still ringing I her ears. Chiron froze in fear at the sudden sight of Shay'la's gun barrel levelled between her eyes with frightening swiftness.

Somewhere behind them Darius lifted himself off of Sh'Khari and scrambled for his own weapon again.
"Stay down." He said firmly.
"Step back out here Chiron." Demanded Shay'la. "Or it's your head all over the hangar floor."

Shay'la jolted around as the sound of another gunshot filled the air. She fell backwards through a haze of red before another bullet struck her chest, robbing her of her grip on her gun and sending her tumbling to the floor in a crooked corkscrew. Darius, now armed once more, turned to the sight of Shay'la collapsing in a bloody heap and the hangar door beyond slamming shut with a hiss. Movement to his left drew his eye toward Ramar's shaking hand clutching his own smoking weapon.
"RAMAR!" Shouted Darius, thrusting his gun towards him.

Already barely able to sit up on the floor, Ramar half rolled over onto his back, swinging his gun towards Darius with a maddening grin on his face that was eerily devoid of any desperation. Darius squeezed the trigger to fire a single shot. The bullet struck home neatly through Ramar's forehead and ripped violently out of the back. The force of the shot shunted Ramar's head backwards towards the floor once more and his grip on his gun released sending the weapon skidding along the floor away from him. Darius got to his feet, taking no time to savour the moment of the kill, and rushed to the airlock. He desperately tried to release the latch on the door, frozen in place by the powerful locking mechanism despite his best efforts to force it to yield. He looked through the small thick glass porthole into the blackness beyond, seeing no sign of Chiron, and kicked the door hard in frustration and venting a litany of curses. He slumped with his back against the door, now looking down at a motionless Shay'la, surrounded by a pool of her own blood.

With no time to gather his senses the rumble of heavy footsteps from behind the packing crates heralded the arrival of the security response team, weapons raised and flashlights trained on them all.
"Security! Freeze!" shouted the lead soldier. "Hold it right there! Drop the weapon, now!"

"OK there, happy?" She snorted. "This is the last time. After this you can lock me up all you want because if you ask me to repeat all that again you'll be swallowing your teeth."
The official smiled sarcastically at Sh'Khari before standing up and heading for the door at the other side of the room. He opened the door slowly and spoke to the guard outside.
"Please escort Miss Varis'Rhan out of the facility when she is ready. Try not to ask her a question though, she seems to dislike conversation."
Across the room, at the table, the sound of gritting teeth could be heard in concert with the scraping of the chair legs across the floor as Sh'Khari raised herself from the seat.
"Ohh, one last thing before I forget." Said the official.

"I need you to sign this clause Mr Shakor." He said.
"What is this?" asked Darius, as he gathered up the hefty document and scrutinised it with a frown.
"Confidentiality agreement." Came the terse reply of the officer.
"Before I do, tell me something for a change. Is Shay'la…"
"She survived and is recovering in our facility here in the station. Your escort will take you to her if you like and you can see her."
"All right." Darius did not look up, and had no desire to read the entirety of the large document. All he desired at the moment was to end this quickly as he signed the marked line, vowing secrecy on the day's events, and casually tossed the pages at the officer. With a fluttering of white the document's bindings failed and allowed the pages to burst in all directions around the RSS officer, whose expression rapidly turned sour.
"Ah... hey!"
"Thank you for your time." Darius remarked as he stepped through the open door, tasting the first morsel of satisfaction since his bullet pierced Ramar's skull. Somewhere behind him, the security official gathered up the sheets, accompanied by the muttered sounds of his own cursing.

Darius stepped into the long and sterile looking hallway, which was almost Caldari in aesthetic than Minmatar.
"Darius." the voice to his left chimed. He turned to face Sh'Khari who had already dashed to his side. She enthusiastically wrapped her arms around him and let out a sigh of relief. Darius responded in kind by embracing his love.
"You ok?" asked Darius quietly.
"I am," she responded. "But a few more minutes of questions and the guy in that room would have needed a new nose." Darius stifled a laugh before letting go of Sh'Khari and turning to their escort.
"Take me to her." Darius demanded, with as much civility as he could summon.

A few short minutes walk from the rooms where they were questioned, Darius and Sh'Khari found themselves at the entrance to a medical facility. The door was blocked by several armed guards who parted as they saw their colleague approaching with Darius and Sh'Khari in tow.
"It would be best if only one of you see her." Said the escort, turning to his charges. "She is still in quite a bad way and heavily sedated." Darius pushed the heavy door open and saw a private partition of frosted glass at the far end of the empty ward room. He made his way through another door separating the partition from the room and was greeted by the doctor attending to Shay'la. He quietly stated her current condition as still being critical. Life support machines and a web of tubing dominated most of the bedside where Shay'la was clearly unconscious. Darius slid past the doctor and came to a stop in the only clear spot by the bed, taking Shay'la's hand. Various tubes inserted into both of her arms fed vital fluids and pain medication into her system, while another in her mouth pumped more oxygen into her lungs to prevent them collapsing. Surgical nanobots had been injected into her system earlier too, and were no doubt somewhere in there now fulfilling their role to repair tissue damage and break down infections from her injuries.
"You seem to have a habit of getting shot." He said quietly. "You had better break that one or you will get into some real trouble one day." Darius paused a while before giving her hand another gentle squeeze. "Thank you."

However far away the voice seemed, and however distant her hand felt from her self, Shay'la mustered the will to squeeze back.

Sh'Khari watched silently as Darius continued his almost ritualistic bag packing. He had barely been back a week and already he was returning to Matar again to attend to his clan's recovery, and see the burials of many dead. Instead of his customary overnight bag, Darius was packing much more into a larger case. The kind of case, and the amount of things a man would pack if he were not sure he will return.

The door to his quarters rattled hard with angry knocks issuing from the other side, as something of a clearly impatient disposition demanded entry. Darius stepped to the door and tapped the release before returning to his bag.
"Darius!" The billowing voice of Zoolkhan filled the room from the open doorway as the large Brutor stepped through. He opened his mouth again to speak before catching sight of Sh'Khari perched on the edge of the bed, and hesitated a moment before continuing. "What the hell is this? You vanish on us for the last twenty-four hours, the news is flooded with reports of a shooting in the lower station after you checked out two weapons from the locker, and you." Zoolkahn pointed at Sh'Khari. "You as well. You go missing with him. And what is this I hear about that Shay'la woman being back here? And now, you're leaving again! The RSS have been crawling all over us and submerging us up to our eyeballs with questions about you, about the Ammatar, our fight against the Ammatar fleet in Sasta, that Chiron chick... everything under the sun." Zoolkhan stared at Darius through his dark glasses as he continued to pack his case with as much as he could fit inside. "Well? What the fuck have you got to say? Anything at all?"

Darius turned around and faced up to Zoolkhan within inches of his face.
"You listen to me." He said quietly and calmly. "My clan has been attacked by chemical gas, many of my Elders are dead including the one man I respected almost as much as my Uncle and I will be damned after the kind of night I have had if I have to go over the whole story again with you. I had enough of this in an RSS interview room." Zoolkhan did not respond, and his expression did not change. However, inside his mind Zoolkhan felt immediately regretful for having jumped to conclusions. The news about Darius' clan was the first he had heard and he did not even think that Darius was arrested last night. Darius turned back to his bags to finish packing the last items, leaving Zoolkhan to pick his words again
"I'm sorry." He said finally. He did not elaborate what he was sorry about, either coming on strong given the circumstances or at the loss of many of his people.
"I got some small revenge from this." Said Darius during a pause in the packing to see what else he needed to take. "I need time to attend to my clan. I was about to face the Elders the day of the attack by Chiron to account for my apparent lack of attention to clan affairs." Zoolkhan was, one more, taken back at the mention of Chiron in relation to the attack. Already his mind was racing to comprehend this in light of her last intervention to, supposedly, save Darius from the Ammatar. "I will be damned if I will give those doubts any face in this crisis. And... something about it all is nagging at me." Darius silently recounted the argument brewing between Gambati and Khas back on Matar. What was left unsaid between them both irked Darius, along with the question of how the bomber got into the Clan Hall through the rear service door. And knowing Chiron was targeting him, how did she know about the meeting with the Elders in the first place?

Zoolkhan turned quietly to leave Darius to his packing. After the door closed, Sh'Khari stood close next to Darius and wrapped her arms around him. Moments later, their lips slowly connected and Zoolkhan's tirade was soon washed from Darius' memory.

The meeting hall of the Elders of the Shakor clan was not large, and not particularly lavish given the importance of the room to the clan affairs and the men who meet here regularly. Today the room felt even more bare, and much larger than it should. The absence of over half of the delegation served to not only emphasise the barrenness of the room but also the burdening sadness of the last days. Darius arrived back on the home island two days ago, having left his loyalties to the corporation behind in space, kept safe until his return by the woman he has come to love. In the time he has been back he barely slept, and spent much of the time visiting the central families of the clan who have suffered. Having had more time to take stock of what was lost, Darius was faced with a death toll numbering eighty-six. Sixteen of them young apprentices to the Iirwahan arts school run by their master, Imashen Ukanta, who was also among the dead. They had come to visit the gallery of the Clan Hall in the upper main wing, where fine crafts dating back as far as the Amarr occupation were preserved on display, when the gas flooded through what would have been their only escape route.

Darius had no choice but to shake off the feelings of the last few days and forced himself to retain a business-like composure as he sat at the diminished table. The only two elders left were Gambati Koude and Khas Helgaard. Behind Khas was his apprentice, Benton, and seated besides Gambati was Forishan, the apprentice of the late Iirwahan Elder Mathan. Forishan looked lost sitting in the former seat of his master, Matahn, and clearly mournful at his passing. Darius looked to Gambati.
"Koshan?" He asked, in reference to the ailing Vestiar Elder who had suffered lung damage in the gas attack. He was not expected to last the day, and yet surprised the doctors of the clan by still living through the night and longer still. Gambati shook his head slowly, indicating he was unable to attend.
"Despite all his fight," said Gambati. "His condition has not improved. He should not be moved." A draining mix of rage and sadness surged into Darius' heart as he contemplated the suffering handed down by the treacherous Chiron. Once more, he willed himself to focus on the task at hand. The leadership of the clan was a mess with many of the core family members and Elders dead. Some families like the Arodghar and the Vestiar were entirely without a voice for now. Darius mentally remarked on the similarity between now and the days after the Amarr occupation was finally driven out when the rebellion forces made landfall on Matar.

"Let us press on." Said Darius finally with a sigh. "I have been speaking with many of the families as you all know to see what has been lost. Even now I admit I cannot grasp it so I will approach this from another angle. You Elders are the eyes and ears of the clan leadership. So I need your help to discover what we have lost and what has survived. Also what needs to survive. I do not want our clan's way of life to be suspended entirely and as much as possible I want our clan to recover in time. Until then I want nothing of ourselves forgotten, which is where I begin to worry. It has not escaped me that we have lost several of our senior Imashens and their students."
"You expect us to pull new Imashens out of thin air?" Suggested Khas, with a noticeable degree of incredulousness. Darius looked silently at Khas, not appreciating the interruption and already losing his patience with the old man.
"I expect you," continued Darius with particular emphasis. "To do whatever it takes to ensure our clan does not lose its heritage. If your family has to start over again from square one with the help of outsider tradesmen then do it. And restore what has been lost to you over however long it takes." Darius' mention of 'outsiders' was in reference to non-family apprentices within the clan who have since graduated from their trade. While skilled in their trade, the prestige that would come with being of the family who specialised in their craft was not afforded to them. Such as an artist who was not of the Iirwahan, yet trained in the skills of an artisan, would not have their works revered as much as one of the Iirwahan family. Not so much as an elitist point, though it could be considered an extension of such feelings since many Imashens exercised their right to refuse to teach anyone not of their own family. Though by clan law imposed since the Amarr occupation of Matar ended, a small number were required to accept outsiders. The merits of being trained by a 'true' Imashen who accepted only their own were not taken lightly among the clan, or the other clans resident to nearby islands, who regarded the work of someone trained by an Imashen to be superior to that of an outsider.

Darius looked around the table again and rested his eyes on Forishan who had not looked up from the table where his eyes seemed to be fixed.
"Forishan," he said. The young man looked up with startled eyes, unaccustomed to being addressed in this chamber by anyone except his mentor. "This is a time for great men to cast their eyes upwards." He turned and locked his eyes on Khas'. "Wouldn't you agree Khas?" After a long stare Khas finally diverted his eyes carefully to the side, avoiding his instinct to cast them down to the table while clearing his throat to answer.
"It is indeed." He said as confidently as possible. "Which is why I would hope you would not use this unfortunate situation to dodge the matter of the questions surrounding your leadership of the clan in the past." Darius clenched his teeth, feeling his last and only nerve begin to break somewhere in the furthest reaches of his mind. Frustrated enough already by the last few weeks, Darius slammed his fist down on the table hard, regretting it instantly as a sharp pain raced through the knuckle that never healed properly the last time he did such a thing, resulting in his hand being broken. He pressed on with his anger fuelling him, ignoring the pain which will fade soon.
"This is not the time for this Khas!" he shouted loudly. "I will not play your political games while our clan sits in near ruin down the hill from here. If you even knew the tentative state of things between myself and the corporation I am a member of, and how I am currently risking my position there by attending to this situation here then you would not even doubt my commitment to the clan or the qualities of my leadership. And this will be the last time we speak of this until we begin to move the clan forwards again, repair the leadership structure of the clan and ensure the safety of our ways. After that, if you still want to have this out, I am more than willing." Darius stared intensely at Khas who did not look him in the eye, and instead let his own eyes wander restlessly around the room before nodding his head.
"Very well," he said finally. "I want you to understand I love my clan too Darius and I only wish to do what I feel is right for the clan and my family. But I will speak no more of this until much later."

Darius inhaled deeply and slowly to regain his composure and tried to cast out the anger as he let the breath out into the room. The meeting continued finally, focusing mainly on the state of the leadership of the clan, or what was left of it. The clan was not in as bad a shape as Darius had feared, however there would need to be drastic measures taken none the less to ensure the families had a voice in this room. The most senior members of two families were dead, and another gravely stricken who may never recover should he continue to survive. More importantly, there were question on their succession. With the death of Mathan, the duty of being an Elder for the Iirwahan family now fell on Farishan's shoulders who was nowhere near as experienced as he should have been when this day should have come. The Vestiar would be without Koshan for the foreseeable future and his apprentice, Galinos, was also dead. Gambati was without his apprentice now, who was also claimed by the gas and the deceased Arodghar Elder, Vomar, had no apprentice still.

Fortunately, having gone over the list of the dead, the families seemed to have enough Imashens to cover their trades. It was not essential to the continuation of current clan business, but symbolically it was the lifeblood of the clan that Darius's Uncle Gol'dar Shakor fought tooth and nail to restore after the Amarr occupation. And he was not about to let that legacy go without a fight.

Finally done, and a plan now set in motion, Darius mentally recapped the priorities of the clan. Gambati had graciously agreed to assist Farishan with his duties as the new Elder, and give him a quicker crash course in the generalities of his position before his family inaugurate him officially. The situation with the Arodghar was more serious however, with no clear candidate with the capability to train as the prospective Elder for their people standing out at this time. Such a thing would no doubt come in time with the adversity ahead of them, sifting out the hidden gems from the rough. But this would be a slow process. Gambati, already with enough on his plate, also agreed to be their interim representative to the Elder council until something else can be worked out. Darius made mental note to visit with many of the Arodghar family again and discuss this decision before making it final. The Vestiar family also required oversight, which Darius decided to take up himself until Koshan's situation clears up, if ever.

One last thing had weighed on Darius' mind as they formulated the leadership structure, which was the persistence of Khas to obtain a position of authority over the families. While not overly argumentative, another alarm bell in Darius' head which he hoped was simply down to their confrontation earlier, Khas continued to protest Gambati or Darius taking oversight of any family and even Farishan's further mentorship. Khas' protests made Darius even more wary of him and the previous feelings of discomfort returned in force by the end of the meeting as Darius contemplated the unthinkable. For that alone, Darius would not appoint Khas in any position of oversight today until he was satisfied that his doubts were little more than cautious paranoia.

The meeting was finally adjourned after a long day in the small room, and several more planned down the line before Darius would feel comfortable with returning to space once more. As the attendees began to disperse, Darius asked Khas to remain behind for a private talk.
"About what?" asked Khas, when confronted.
"Stay and find out. It is a private matter so I won't say with others in the room." Darius glanced at Benton. "Let's just say we clearly owe each other a talk. Get some things out in the open between us instead of in front of others, and maybe resolve some issues while we are at it." Taking the moral high ground in the opening salvo was key for Darius, giving Khas little room to refuse such an offer in front of his apprentice and at the same time avoiding belittling Khas. He nodded and turned to Benton to dismiss him. Once Benton was out of the room and the door to the chamber was closed, Darius stalked around the table towards Khas who was stood with a blank expression on his face, waiting for Darius to begin. Instead, Darius closed the gap between them, looking squarely into Khas' eyes more intensely with each step until he was inches away from the old man's face.
"Tell me, Khas." Said Darius finally, each word as sharp as a knife. "What have you been up to this last week?"
"What do you mean? Specifically..."
"What have you been planning?"
"Planning.." Khas struggled to say more than that. "I don't understand."
"I am talking about your intentions towards me, my family, and my clan."
"As I said... I... my intentions are only for the good of the clan."
"I don't doubt somewhere in your mind you have rationalised things that way. But that does not answer my question, it only seems like the kind of wriggling the lowest of worms beneath the ground of Matar would do. What have you been doing?"
"What are you trying to insinuate here Darius? Be careful..."
"I am way past careful now Khas. I am not blind Khas, and I see what has been happening with you this last few weeks since you came to tell me that the Elders wanted to question my leadership of the clan. It seems that this was not really the case and only you wanted to question my leadership. And then that meeting became the target of a botched attempt to kill everyone in this very room."
"How dare..."
"How dare you Khas! Do you think you can keep insulting my intelligence? Everyone has lost something here, except for you. The other Elders, their apprentices, Gambati's apprentice though thankfully not him. Yet you and Benton are without a scratch. All of your Imashens were called to a meeting at your family hall at the other side of the town by the skimmer port. Tell me I am reading too much into this, convince me that your efforts to subvert my authority in the middle of all of this is simply what you feel is right and for the good of the clan." Khas did not speak, and his face now wore a heavy expression of guilt. "Convince me Khas! I want to believe that the meeting I was going to have here with the Elders was not your way to lure me into a death trap, or that the look on your face these last few days is not the look of guilt, different from the look of grief on everyone else's face." Khas let his head hang as he fell backwards against the wall.
"You could not possibly know what is going on in my head." He said finally. "You think I am not lamenting everything that has happened here? Not heartbroken by all the death around us?"
"What have you got to lament?" pressed Darius. "I am told that the bomber got in through the rear service door. You know that door Khas?" Khas finally nodded. "It can only be opened from inside, Khas." Khas covered his face with his hands.
"What have I done?"

Darius felt the urge to lift the old bastard up from the wall and into the air before slamming him back into it again and beat his face until it could not be recognised.
"You did this, didn't you. Damn you Khas, why?"
"We needed a leader who was there for us." He said sombrely. "No one else could see that. We needed..."
"You?" interrupted Darius. "That is what this was all about, wasn't it? What you wanted. You wanted to be the leader of the clan. And you would kill a hundred people to get your way. I should kill you right here Khas!"
"She didn't give me much choice!" Darius raised an eyebrow.
"She? You mean Chiron?"
"I didn't know her name. She said she could help me be leader by removing you. The clan has never fully appreciated what the Helgaard have done for them! We have never been valued" Darius felt the pit of his stomach turn and the urge to crush the life from Khas' throat beneath his boots returned in full force as he grabbed Khas by his robes and pulled him close. The old man was now battling with fear while trying to put on a face of defiance, but it was not working too well as the younger and stronger Darius gripped his robes hard.
"If putting the roofs over the heads of you fellow clansmen at their invitation, making the very tools our farmers use to plough the fields and our artists use to sculpt their works is not seen as value in your eyes you are more pathetic than I thought Khas. The value of your family is seen in every facet of Shakor life. All you wanted was more power, not more respect. And if you did, then more power would not win you such respect." Darius pushed Khas away again letting him fall against the wall, barely able to steady himself. "You let Chiron prey on your selfish nature, and you made a deal with a devil working for the Ammatar."

Darius walked to the door of the chamber while considering his actions. To expose Khas as the traitor who made this attack possible would be the only course of action right now, but they were trying to repair themselves now and that was more important. And Darius began to realise that any word of this would destroy the moral of the clan, possibly beyond repair. He felt backed into a corner by fate, and despised having to concede to the circumstances.
"Khas." Said Darius, resting his hand on the door. "I am sure a greater judgement waits you after life than what I could ever deliver. I could, and by all right should, simply kill you now and expose you. But I will not do this. We have a clan to rebuild now, thanks to your selfish ambitions. You will have to live with this, but don't think you are getting mercy here. If people find out about this, their first instinct would be mine, and have you shot. I will keep this quiet though for the sake of clan harmony. But if you ever cross me again, the mob can have you, and I will disgrace your family and drive them from the clan." Darius looked at Khas intently and spoke his last thought. "You know it is ironic. Waiting to come before the Elders I could see it as nothing more than you trying to put me in your back pocket. How fitting that you now find yourself in mine instead."

Darius opened the door to the chamber and gestured to Khas.
"Get out now, before I change my mind." Khas slowly walked past Darius and through the door, leaving Darius alone. Darius sat back down at his table in the chamber and began to brood over his worst nightmare. Much of what he said was an empty threat to Khas. Darius, as mad as he was, would not take it out on the Helgaard family who knew nothing of Khas' betrayal. But he could not stomach the thought of Khas continuing as an Elder for the clan an could see no way right now to remove him without realising the fear of what it would do to the clan. The Helgaard would feel the worst of it as they would never be trusted again and maybe even violently ostracized by the clan. This was something Darius could not allow any more than for Khas to remain their Elder. So Darius rested on the only option he had, and would try to ease his mind when attempting to sleep tonight, that biding his time with one small push at a time was the best course. The only way to remove Khas now would be to move against him on different ground, as any other means would be untenable without cause, and hope Khas does not call his bluff on the threats he just made today against the Helgaard.

A different time, Darius would not have cared for such complex politics. Fuelled by a bloodlust stemming from Ramar's betrayal, when Darius was tied up in a little room and beaten for uncovering his network of spies and escaped only on pure desperation, he might well have strangled Khas here and now and given no thought to the consequences. Even now Darius felt the unremitting rage dying down with every replay of the memory of the bullet striking Ramar's head. But even with that feeling of finality, Darius did not find the peace he had long desired from that moment. And the aftermath had left behind a scar on his clan that would take decades to recover.