"House arrest mother? Is that not too lenient? Adria asked.
"Adria, my daughter, even though I am an empress I still need to consider the feelings and public appearance of my ministers." Alexia began to explain.
"The ministers could cause us problems if we upset them too much."
"I understand mother, I will assist Roberta in looking into the former minister." Adria said.
"There is no need." A voice said.
The ladies all looked at Alexia's access band to see a holographic Tia appear.
"Tia, how can I assist you?" Alexia asked.
"First off investigating your ministers is normally that race's job, however because this connects to a Genesis incident, I did a quick check on their bank accounts and found several ministers with suspicious activities, I will send you the data later."
"With this I can confirm that Minister Dawn's predecessor former Minister Markus was also receiving regular payments from Malcolm Thomas from five years ago from when John Michaels became an orphan."
Seeing Roberta's confused look Alexia said.
"Roberta leave us."
However, before she could Tia said.
"There is no need, she has been your loyal attendant for many years, and she will learn of this in two hours anyway."
"Next, what is the status of preparing to apprehend those responsible?"
"As I am sure you're aware from the GPS on their access bands, I have sent General Vimes and the military to secretly infiltrate Dawnscape and await your judgment before apprehending all those you classify as involved in this incident." Alexia answered.
"Very well, take this and send it to your general." Tia said before a file appeared before all three ladies that listed over a thousand names, those at the top being marked in red.
"This is a list of those believed to be involved in this incident that need to be apprehended as well as their current location in Dawnscape via GPS received from there access bands."
"Those at the top marked in red are to be apprehended at all cost, specifically the top name Dean Thomas, because of this I am temporarily lifting the restriction on the use of force without due cause for your military personnel as long as it is used to apprehend someone on this list or those protecting said people without loss of life."
The three women were shocked, in all one hundred and twelve years since Genesis launched the restriction on the use of force by security personnel had only been lifted once.
That was in the Orc kingdom where a terrorist group tried to conduct a coup against the royal family.
Because this placed innocents at risk Tia lifted the restriction and the coup was swiftly dealt with and from then on everyone knew that if you did something that endangered too many innocents Tia would not sit by and do nothing.
What surprised them most was that Tia was lifting the restriction when innocents were not in danger.
"Tia why..." Alexia started but was interrupted.
"That is not your concern, inform your general that any change on the GPS coordinates will be updated in real time to his access band and along with apprehending Dean Thomas he must try to find the credit card he has been using under John Michaels name."
"They have two hours to get into positions."
When Tia finished, she disappeared.
"Roberta, I changed my mind. As soon as Tia makes her announcement, the security personnel apprehend Minister Dawn and former Minister Marcus and lock them up while we conduct an investigation, no need to be polite anymore." Alexia ordered before using her access band to contact General Vimes.
***
"What the hell!" John said before looking at a picture on the wall.
The picture was a portrait of a girl around ten or eleven years old with silver white hair sitting on a chair.
"I swear that picture just moved." John mumbled as he looked seriously at the picture trying to see any sign of movement.
Tanelia and Alea just smiled knowingly.
Eventually John turned away and a tiny, small sigh was heard.
"AH HA" John whipped his head round causing the girl in the portrait to squeal before she jumped off her chair and ran out the side of the portrait.
"Wha!" John said as his mouth hung open.
"Stupid human, how dare you scare this queen, what are you doing in my palace?" the little girl said as she peeked out around the edge of the picture.
The two women laughed at the response of John and the little girl before Tanelia said.
"John, allow me to introduce you to our ancestor, the first elf born from Yggdrasil Elmyra."
John showed a shocked expression before he gave a small bow to the portrait and spoke.
"Elmyra amillë Quendi, sa ná -nya túra hantalë omentien lle" (Translation: Elmyra mother of elves, it is my great honor to meet you).
Elmyra came back into the portrait and placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest with a smug smile.
"That's right human, you are in the presence of greatness, respect this queen for I shall be kind and allow you to stay in my palace as I like you."
John just stared at Elmyra before asking.
"I know it's magic, but how?"
"There are two aspects to how the Elmyra can move as not every picture can." Alea said.
"First the painter or photographer in modern times needs to be a master in their craft and be able to imbue magic into the picture."
"The second is the individual or individuals in the picture must have had a strong enough soul that part of them continued to exist in the world after they died, these souls would then search out a picture of themselves and attach to it, therefore bringing the picture to life and a part of the individual continuing to live on in the world."
"So, you're saying that when Lady Elmyra died a part of her soul found this picture and she now lives on inside it.?"
"That's right, I am incredible after all." Elmyra said.
"Well partially, you see our ancestor's soul was so powerful that not just one part of it stayed in the real world, there are in fact multiple pictures of our ancestor that are alive."
"Boo Alea why did you tell him about those boring poop heads, I thought we were friends." Elmyra complained with a pout.
"We are friends Elmyra, but John is my friend also." Alea explained.
"Wait your friends!" Elmyra suddenly asked with shining eyes.
"I want to be friends, John let's be friends, Kay... Kay?"
Elmyra looked at John with shining eyes
"Err sure." John replied, "Not sure at all.