Once she had said her piece to Strosius, she had settled back into her chair to continue watching the proceedings and listening with half an ear. Her mind was very much devoted to other issues already, chiefly on how to break into the Netherworld to free Fiolette, and she had said what she thought about the matter between Strosius and her family. However, events within the chamber were just distracting enough and entertaining enough, that she shelved her current train of thought on her next set of preparations.
She leaned forward as Lina Zambrano got up before the Lord Inquisitor could speak and made her own statement to those assembled. She could see the younger woman was making a play with her proposal to reform the Inquisition and the laws within the Empire to formalize conflicts between Sith. She admired her initial stance here, although...
She would give a nod to the Emperor in recognition of his words to her before he turned himself to address both Lina and Strosius. His first words were to the Lord Inquisitor and she had to force herself to keep her expression neutral as he lit into his arguments. She could understand, to a degree, where the Lord Inquisitor and his frustrations came from, especially in regard to her once again having a seat on the Dark Council. She had been a leader in the Tenth and here she was once again a leader in the Eleventh, but even in that thought, there was part of the lesson. The Sith were on their eleventh attempt of empire and conquest of the galaxy, and she had to wonder if he would ever realize that empire would rise and fall, but the Sith would remain eternal.
Still, the Emperor's words to the Lord Inquisitor had ignited yet more boldness and rage in the masked Sith as he responded, kicking down the railing so he could approach closer. Pride had been wounded, and yet he had not learned that to break free of his chains, he would need to conquer that particular sin. His next words only proved that he could not as he boasted of his own accomplishments and denigrated her and anyone else, such as Empyrean, that had not done more to keep the Tenth Empire together. She had bled for that empire. She had won victories for that empire. She had lost most of her family fighting for that empire and only now she had started to put the pieces back together, and even then, Fiolette continued to be stolen away from her. The New Imperials and the Alliance had broken themselves against Ziost, her world within Sith space, and the world had held. It had been the site of two battles, and it had held both times. That holding action had allowed many Sith and their forces and followers, including their families, to escape the fall. It had allowed them to keep a vast amount of their strength.
And yet he did not see it that way. Perhaps he never would as she demanded that all would bow before him. Pride had won out...
He had learned nothing.
She wanted to reply herself, but Empyrean decided to respond instead to the latest attacks from Strosius, giving him an ultimatum and deriding what he had just boasted of. She was curious how the Lord Inquisitor would respond before a voice behind her spoke out, and a small smile formed as her grandson made his voice heard.
He was articulate in his words and points, and she would send a fierce wave of pride towards him through the Force. He had taken what occurred, for himself and his siblings, and decided to learn from it. There was also the part of her that had been a student of galactic history, in her days before she ever became a Sith, that was also ecstatic as he used history for his points. That just made her giddy all inside.
And then the door to the Assembly flew open to announce the dramatic arrival of one of her fellow Dark Councilors. A small sigh escaped at the flair as it seemed so... unnecessary to her. As she thought of both his mask and the Lord Inquisitors. They both wanted to make names for themselves in the Sith, to cement their places, and yet... their deeds would not be tied to their faces. They would be tied to masks they used to hide their faces, their true selves, away from the galaxy. Oh, there were practical uses for one, but it was something that she always had a quiet... disagreement with.
As she disagreed with assessment that the grandchildren had been returned to her. Strosius had not returned them. She had taken them back, but she would hold her tongue for the moment as he continued speaking. She would give her fellow Dark Councilor that level of respect that she wouldn't interrupt his speech and entrance.
His reveal that he captured and brought Ayra before them however would eventually earn a response, as it did from the Emperor as he dismissed the capture as inconsequential.
"Congratulations, Lord Marr," she would say quietly, looking at the woman who wore the face of another. "You successfully fixed the mistake created by the Tsis'Karr before our assault on Tion. A mistake that could have been avoided if information had been shared with old contemporaries of the woman you bring before us."
It had been a long rivalry, and even now, she still wondered what Ayra had intended to say on Sojourn during the auction she held to her. She had thought their fight on Coruscant would have been indicative enough, but she had been curious regardless and she got a new holocron for the collection out of it.
Still the tension with Strosius was close to the top, and the Empress had clearly sensed it too as she had entered into the discourse and strategically placed herself between Empyrean and the Lord Inquisitor. A wonderful show for Ayra to witness and no doubt something she was enjoying seeing in the halls of the Sith Order she had declared herself so vehemently against. She was very curious to watch, after her own conflict with the Lord Inquisitor to see how the two apprentices of Ophidia would fight each other. To have it broadcast across the Holonet, as suggested by the Empress, was a wonderful idea.
And then Alisteri responded as he always did... with even more vitriol. The lightsaber hilt came to his hand, aimed for the Emperor, before he decided to once again earn her own ire by levying a threat against Kaivaan and proclaimed her an obstacle to success. Her eyes closed as she took a deep breath, trying to not let the white-hot lance of anger that raced through her come out in either words or deeds. A small part of her brain, the part not involved in quelling the rage that would bring her full wrath down on this masked man again, wondered if Fiolette could feel this through their bond even in the Netherworld. How many times must the lesson be imparted before it sank in?
How many people needed to die?
"Alisteri," she would say, slowly, quietly, that veneer of calm and motherly exasperation in place even if it didn't quite meet her eyes, even as she avoided using his title or rank deliberately now, "do not threaten my grandchild or my bloodline again. Formos will look tame in comparison if you continue."
His lightsaber would ignite, but he would level it Malum before making his next proclamation and then departure. She watched him depart, the issue Malum had brought forgotten on the floor for the moment. The issue she desired to pursue on pause until the meeting concluded. She would turn back to look at her grandson, trying to impart her thoughts to him. There was no saving that one from his path. Take heed to not embrace zealotry in pursuit of something you think was justice.
The ending would be unpleasant.
"Spirited as always," she would say quietly, looking back to Lina, Malum, and the bound Ayra.
Srina Talon
, or it would've been the end of him. A final flourish, only to be walked down by the Emperor. He grunted as the Inquisitor turned and left.
Alicia Drey
. Anger filled her eyes, but they were met with nothing but the cold apathy of alchemized phrik for eyes.
