The automatic sliding doors opened and Tal Roggle entered the room, unable to hide a sense of dread from his face. Avistra was inside the room by herself, sitting down and wearing an armada officer top with a wide, black skirt.

"You wanted to see me…your highness" he said taking a noticeable amount of effort to utter the last two words.

"Tal" she said eyeing him from head to toe. "Come a little closer." Tal edged up a few more steps so that he was standing a foot away from where she was seated.

"Admiral Kildore has advised me to clean house on all the officers in both the marshals and outworld forces, and I agree with him. I am willing to spare you, though. I thought it would be worth speaking to you just to…see where you stand" she said. "You know that working in outworld as one of the officers overseeing the Marshalls will give you more opportunity for advancement than just being a lackey of Zorthia's fiefdom."

"I understand" Roggle said.

"I think you have a lot of guts for standing up to Gall and taking an aggressive stance against outworld rebel groups."

"Thank you your highness, but I'm not too sure I managed to accomplish anything."

"Au contraire, my dear Tal. You likely stopped a revolt that could have resulted in us losing control of outworld and thanks to your stirring of things up, I was able to find Zardin and the talisman of the Goddess."

"You're going to open up the conduit to the Goddess?" Roggle asked surprised.

"Yes, of course" she answered. "You have any reservations?" Roggle thought for a moment, knowing he needed to choose his words carefully.

"You know I agree with you philosophically about our proper relationships with humans and outworld, but we become just like humans if we allow this weird machine make important decisions for us… especially if we diefy it and ascribe great wisdom to it. That thing is the common denominator between the worst wars of both hominids and reptilia-"

"The common denominator of those wars" Avistra said immediately cutting him off, "is intelligent life with vestigial beast-like tendencies."

"Did Zorthia or Adella ever tell you the story of why the talisman was disabled?"

"What is there to know besides my mother was war-weary and took bad advice from people in the Sci-Tech Ministry who were afraid of what they don't understand."

"No, Avistra. Adella and most advising her thought it would be useful to keep it on. It was Acknar Adaforbus who on his death bed confessed that Gaia's followers in the Sci-Tech Ministry had been removing information from archives and removing samples from the DNA library. They apparently threatened to kill him if he told anyone. They had gotten dangerous and they had some secret they didn't want Queen Adella to know about. Now are you okay with this so-called goddess who works against the sitting queen?" Avistra just gave him a contemplative look for a minute, as if actually considering what he was saying.

"You will have one of the highest posts in outworld security forces" she said not putting up an argument. "In the meantime, I'm going to need you to…pay your dues." Roggle swallowed a little bit and took a deep breath.

"I think you'll be fine after you have some time to be…broken in" she said slouching down a little in her chair and spreading her legs apart somewhat. "Before long you'll be… primed to put yourself on the table as I look for suiters and have a greater appreciation and understanding for the wisdom of Gaia" she said. "And besides, you surely didn't believe I'm going to let a delicious hunk of elf like yourself get out of here without getting a little taste" she said coquettishly.

"Well, isn't that just sweet" Roggle grumbled sarcastically as he reluctantly got down on the ground on his knees. He grabbed her feet with his hand and kissed each of them softly several times before gradually moving upward to her ankles and thighs and then most of his upper body disappeared up her wide skirt as Avistra closed her eyes and relaxed her entire body.