Transmigrated Into A Women Dominated World

The words took a moment to settle into him, the way a blow does before the actual pain arrives.

The Imperial Council knew about him.

He had always understood that this moment would eventually come. It had been unavoidable from the start.

Until now, however, the danger had remained distant enough for him to treat it as a future problem. The Sector Seven Council knew about him, but they had been surprisingly restrained. Lysara, Annalise, and the others had treated him better than he had expected.

But the Imperial Council was different.

Those were the people who made decisions that affected the entire Queendom. They did not answer to Sector Seven, and they certainly did not need permission from the high commander Lysara before deciding that Zaeryn was too dangerous, too valuable, or simply too unnatural to be allowed any freedom.

The real powers were beginning to notice him.

And if he somehow survived that, there was still the Tribunal waiting behind it, the one body in existence that answered to no one at all. He made himself set the thought down before it could take root. One impossible room at a time. He would only need to worry about the Tribunal if the Imperial Council decided he was worth letting live long enough to reach it.

He had no reason to expect that same restraint to follow him to the Capital. The higher the room, the less anyone in it owed him the benefit of the doubt.

Of every moment this could have chosen to land on him, it had picked the one where he was nowhere near strong enough yet to survive being wrong about any of it.

But there was no version of this where refusing was an option, and some part of him had known that before she finished speaking. So he let it in instead, the way he had learned to accept most things lately, whether he wanted to carry it or not.

"What exactly does evaluated mean?" he eventually asked. "Are they going to ask me questions, examine my Vitae, or put me inside a containment chamber while several councilwomen debate whether I should remain alive?"

"It means they want to understand what you are," Ysmeine answered. "Nothing more has been decided."

"That is not as comforting as you probably intended it to sound." Zaeryn said.

"Zaeryn, darling, you must not allow yourself to panic." Ysmeine kept her hands on his arms, speaking with the calm patience she had always used whenever she believed his imagination was moving faster than the actual danger. "This is only an evaluation. You are not being arrested, and you have not been summoned before the Tribunal."

Not yet. Zaeryn did not say the words aloud, but they appeared in his mind immediately.

"The Imperial Council might not be as lenient as the Sector Seven Council," he said.

"They will not be handling this without restraint," Ysmeine assured him.

"Athea has taken responsibility for arranging the evaluation, and the Capital is her domain. She will control the chamber, the security surrounding you, and what information is permitted to leave it."

Zaeryn studied her expression.

"And you believe that makes me safe?"

"I know that it does," Ysmeine said. "Athea will protect you more fiercely than anyone else possibly could."

A quiet, humourless chuckle escaped Zaeryn before he could stop it.

"Somehow, knowing that does not make me feel any better."

Ysmeine's expression tightened slightly. "Whatever difficulties exist between you and Athea, you know she has spent your entire life protecting you."

Ysmeine released one of his arms and glanced toward Kayla. "Kayla will be accompanying you as well."

Kayla's voice cut in before she had finished, flat and immediate. "Don't make it sound as though I've already agreed to everything you've decided."

"I don't want you anywhere near this either," Zaeryn said.

Kayla's green eyes settled on him with immediate coldness. "Nobody asked what you wanted."

Sensing another exchange of words, Ysmeine sighed. "That is enough, Zaeryn." She did not raise her voice, but something in it closed the conversation anyway.

Zaeryn looked away, but the annoyance remained visible across his face.

Ysmeine turned to face her sister fully. "And you have to accompany him. This isn't something I'm asking you." She held Kayla's gaze. "You said you would accompany him."

"I said I would accompany him because you were already imagining every possible disaster that might happen if he went alone. I have not agreed to spend the entire visit following him around the Capital like a personal guard."

"Good," Zaeryn said. "Then you don't have to come. I would rather not spend the journey listening to you explain how much of an inconvenience I am."

The two sisters held each other's gaze, and Zaeryn could see the argument continuing beneath the silence. Ysmeine had already decided that Kayla was going with him and staying at his side, while Kayla had recognised that refusing would take more than simply saying no. Even so, she was not prepared to give either of them a clear answer.

"I have things to do," Kayla said.

She reached for the light covering folded across the back of the nearest poolside seat, drew it around herself, and walked toward the house without looking at Zaeryn again.

Ysmeine watched her leave with a patience suggesting that she considered the matter settled despite Kayla's refusal to admit it. Zaeryn was less certain. He followed Kayla with his eyes until she disappeared through the open glass wall and into the rear lounge.

Something struck the back of his head.

It was not hard enough to hurt, but it was sharp enough to pull his attention away from the house. Zaeryn turned and found Ravena standing beside him with her glass still held casually in one hand.

"Calm down," she told him. "You look as though someone has already sentenced you to death."

Zaeryn rubbed the back of his head. "I might have been sentenced to death. They simply decided to call it an evaluation until I arrive."

Ravena took another sip of her drink. "If they intended to execute you immediately, they would not bother giving you advance notice. Powerful women generally prefer efficiency when committing terrible acts."

"That is a very reassuring observation from someone studying to become a Tribunal judge."

"I thought so."

Zaeryn turned to Ysmeine. "When am I supposed to go?"

"You'll leave for the Capital in three days, ahead of the Gala," she said. "The evaluation itself is the morning after it. Athea would rather bring you before that council while the whole city is still turned toward the palace and too pleased with itself to notice a quiet room with a single male standing in it. Once the Gala has come and gone, that is the least anyone in the Capital will be looking your way."

Zaeryn let out a slow breath. "So I finally get to see the famous Gala, and the morning after it I get to stand in front of the Imperial Council and account for the fact that I exist. What a reward."

Ravena smiled against the rim of her glass. "Then try not to seduce any councilwomen before dessert."

"I will make no promises that depend upon their behaviour."

Ysmeine gave him a warning look, although Zaeryn could see that she was fighting against the beginning of a smile.

He turned away from them and walked toward one of the long poolside benches. The weight of the situation had finally begun settling properly inside him, replacing the first sharp shock with something quieter and much more difficult to ignore.

In a matter of days, he would enter the Capital for the first time. He would attend the Lumina Gala surrounded by the most powerful women in the Queendom, knowing that several of them had already discussed him as an anomaly that required investigation. Then, the following morning, he would stand before the Imperial Council and explain why a male possessed biology that centuries of accepted science declared impossible.

Zaeryn sat down and leaned forward, resting his forearms against his thighs.

He had always known that hiding forever was impossible. Some part of him had even grown impatient for the world to discover what he was, because remaining unnoticed also meant remaining weak.

Now that the world had finally begun looking directly at him, however, he wished it had waited a little longer.

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