Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera A.K. DuBoff (guided reading books TXT) 📖

mindset, every one of her business decisions, political moves, and personal relationships needed to pass an ethical test designed to favor the public good. Outsiders could be as skeptical as they wanted, but Raena had made it her life’s mission to be the kind of leader people wanted to have, not just the one they were stuck with. That’s why it stung so much to see the posters suggesting she was part of a devious plot fueled by greed or megalomania. I’ll prove to them I’m not in this for myself. Every day I can try to be a better person.

Food arrived, breaking Raena from her ruminations. The hot turkey and cheese sandwich was one of her favorite lunches, so at least the day had that going for it.

“So, my parents will get in this evening,” she said after finishing the first quarter of her meal. The gooey cheese oozing from between the bread didn’t make for the most delicate eating experience, but the chef had never failed to deliver after Raena had a heart-to-heart with him about the merits of carbs and cheese. Comfort food was called that for a reason, after all.

Ryan swallowed a bite of his own sandwich with a more restrained portion of fillings. “I’m curious to learn what prompted the visit.”

“Me too. It’ll be strange having them here. The last time we were all together on the island, it still had so much of the Priesthood in the space.”

“All the more reason to make new memories.”

“Yeah, I know. It sucks that there’s this other stuff going on. It would be nice to just have family time. I think my grandparents are planning to come over, too.”

“Speaking of which, should I invite my mom?” Ryan asked.

“That’s a great idea! It would also help with the optics—a proper family gathering that isn’t restricted to TSS special guests.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Not everything is about how things look on the news, you know.”

She took a mental step back. “Sorry. What I meant to say was, it would be lovely to see her.”

“I don’t know if she’ll go for it. It still freaks her out to be around High Dynasty types like that.”

“Well, you’re one of those now.”

“I guess so, but it’s different with immediate family.”

“Then the answer to making her comfortable is to nurture a closer relationship with us,” Raena said. “If she can think of you purely as her son, without the external factors, then that’s how she can think about me and my family, too; let us be people rather than figureheads.”

“That’s easier said than done.”

It had taken a while for even Ryan to build a sociable relationship with his mother as an adult, after growing up away from her as a Ward—essentially foster care, as Raena understood the arrangement. All the Priesthood’s doing, to keep an eye on Ryan once he’d been discovered as a lost scion of the allegedly extinct Dainetris bloodline. One of his ancestors had somehow escaped the Priesthood’s purge of the Dainetris line after they’d criticized the organization. Living under an alias, fallen from grace, the survivor’s descendants spent generations unaware of their true lineage.

So, despite being directly in the Dainetris line herself, Ryan’s mother could never see herself as highborn, having already spent a lifetime in poverty and servitude. It saddened Raena to see the woman struggle with her own identity in such a way. Ryan had slowly come into his own as a Dynasty leader, but his mother had insisted on remaining in her small apartment and maintaining a modest lifestyle. The arrangement made family get-togethers a little awkward, to say the least.

“I really want your mom to feel at ease here,” Raena said, looking her husband in his eyes. “She’s always welcome.”

“I’ll extend an invitation, but this might not be the best time for her to come, truthfully. I don’t expect this to be a particularly restful visit.”

“That’s a fair point.”

Ryan smiled at her from across the table, sensing her souring mood. “Hey, we’d be doing something wrong if this were easy. Being the cornerstone of a galactic empire is complicated.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, it is. I never understood why anyone would want to run for president back home, and that was just for a single country!”

“Didn’t someone say that not wanting the job should be the top metric for qualification?”

“I’m not sure about the quote, but I think there’s truth in the statement when it comes to politics.” She wiped the cheese grease off her hands with her cloth napkin. “And, on that note, I was thinking that we should put out some kind of press statement.”

“What about?”

“Something to get ahead of this growing unrest in the Outer Colonies.”

Ryan leaned back in his chair. “I’ll defer to your lead. I’m finally starting to get my head around DGE’s operations, but this political ruling stuff… you’re a natural.”

“Sorry to break it to you, but I’m totally faking it, buddy.” She smiled, but it didn’t quite touch her eyes.

“Could have fooled me.”

“I don’t know. I just think about what I would want to hear, or what I would want a leader to do, if I was an average person on the street. Whenever there’s uncertainty, you want your leaders to step up and tell you it’s going to be okay, right?”

“But we don’t know for sure that it will be all right.”

“That doesn’t make for a very good press release, does it?”

“No. It’s hard for me, though, to not be forthright,” he said.

“It’s not a lie,” she assured him. “It’s giving hope. Everyone wants to look forward to a better tomorrow.”

—     —     —

Jason knew it would take more than a day to process the change in his relationship with Tiff, but he wished he could fast-forward to the part where they were comfortably long-distance