UC:Fates Act1-Part3
“You’re doing the right thing, I won’t interfere. You have my word I will not attempt to use this to free myself or my maids from your control. I will make no such attempts until Sinda is healed.”
“Thank you, but I assumed I would lose you all.”
“Life is more complicated than that.” Lisa says. Her smile not as fake as she thought it was. She reached out and began the series of spells and Charles’s world became a pleasant blissful buzz as Lisa ensured he was as calm and settled as she could make him. The humbled are normally just calm, like a person simply standing there thinking, though the humbled don’t really think much. They just do whatever the person who Humbled them says, no real emotion unless told to have one, no hesitation since volition and will are not present. They are just a body that does as instructed.
“How?” Sinda asked staring at Charles, speaking in time with his breathing.
“He used seed magic to make his pulse your pulse and his breath your breath.” Lisa answered.
“He is a good man, I like having him as my lord.” Sinda said simply as she lay there relaxed.
“He just might be.” Lisa agreed as she reached out sadly to humble her friend, “Sandy, go get a pair gurneys to take these two to the hospital wing.”
“Yes my lady.”
“Remember Sandy,” Lisa reminded her, “I am just a high born here, not third heir.”
“Sorry.” Sandy said a she went.
“You on the bed.” Lisa said without looking up at them, “Get dressed. Go wait in Brenhar’s dorm room. Sandy or I will tell you what to do from there.”
“Yes ma’am.” They replied as they complied.
“Charles, while humbled you will obey Sandy as if she were me if I am not there.”
“Yes ma’am.” He answers in the dull manner of the humbled, happy to comply.
“He is currently humbled.” Lisa told the healer a short while later, “He did something to keep her alive, but it has limits. Sinda’s body isn’t working on it’s own. You’ve noticed how they seem to be breathing alike? That is because he made his breath her breath, his pulse her pulse. Her body can barely keep up.”
“Incredible.” The healer said feeling both pulses at once, easily able to tell they are as one.
“He couldn’t do enough for her keep up with more than the resting pace of the humbled. If he is released or even answers too many questions too fast, she will not be able to keep up and will end up gasping like a fish out of water until her body moves with his again, or she dies.”
“Got it.” He answered staring as Charles and Sinda’s chests rose and fell as one, “Questions and answers slowly, anybody rushes, and she’s a fish out of water.”
“Exactly.” Lisa says still staring as they moved Charles and Sinda away, unable to really grasp how someone capable of so much, could have such gaping holes in his knowledge.
“I am surprised.” The headmaster says looking at Lisa half a bell later. They are standing beside the bed where the still humbled Charles rests near Sinda in the next.
“He has more courage than I would have I thought.” Lisa admits. Her emotions are a tangle, she desperately wants freedom, yet the warning of the Legents still rings in her ears. She is also fascinated by his determination to save Sinda. Few outside parents would place themselves at any, let alone that much risk for an unrelated girl under breeding age.
“His testimony matches what we know so far perfectly. I’ve known Brenhar was bad news, but nothing like this, nothing this bad, it never reached my office or I would have had to intervene.”
“I thought it would, he can’t lie after all, not while humbled. I wouldn’t worry over spilt milk, Brenhar has definitely been caught now.”
“I know, but it is so surprising. Now all we can do is wait. The doctors are amazed he managed to pull it off. Sharing a pulse like that, invasive to say the least. He must be very good with seed magic, he must also be quite a bit fun for you girls. I see traces of it, him, in all of you and none of you seem to mind. Sinda and Sandy hardly seem aware, they pay it no mind at all.”
“But effective. I didn’t think it was going to work.” Lisa replied, desperately ignoring the last part.
“Is he going to press charges when he wakes?”
“No. He told me before hand that he wanted this kept as quiet as possible. If he presses charges instead of handling it personally then you have to get involved and that challenges the neutrality of the school. He doesn’t want that.” Lisa answered hoping she could convince Charles to follow that course of action in order to prevent the fallout from hitting the school.
“I understand. He is here on scholarship, he won’t want to endanger that.”
“How did he qualify? Other than being good with the seed magic I haven’t really seen much, before he withstood Brenhar and company today that is.” Lisa asked carefully leaving her own history out of the equation.
“He is a third son.”
“His parents managed to have three children, well done for them.” Lisa replied impressed.
“You fail to understand. I wouldn’t tell you mind you, but you are obviously close to him and carry the ring of a Legent. He is their third son, he has two older brothers, and two older sisters.”
“Fifth born?” Lisa asks shocked beyond words, “How? Third born only happen in a few percent of ours, we haven’t had a fourth in two generations.”
“He was originally thought to be a Techist, he tested very well for them. Then he visited a factory one day on a school tour and things began breaking around him.” The headmaster told her, carefully not looking at her as he spoke. “He has had a lot of trouble with the simplest spells, yet at other times he just does something very advanced though he can barely do what leads up to it. Then he is generally able to do all the skills close to it as well.”
“So surviving Brenhar is kind of odd, but odd is not unusual for him?”
“Precisely. I am concerned for him though, the healers say he took a lot of damage. He risked his life doing this. They can’t allow him heal normally until she is somewhat better and he took a lot of damage before. Then this on top of it, the healers and doctors are surprised he actually lived through it all, saving Sinda is just more of the improbable.”
“I know.” Lisa said staring, pondering her own heart as she watched Sinda’s beat, “I know.”
“So she would have died?” Land Mother Thomson asks looking worried a bell later after Lisa has finished making a report of all that has happened.
“No Land Mother, she did die.” Lisa replies to the image in the mirror.
“If she died then how is she recovering?”
“My apologies, I am not a healer, I do not how to say this. He used seed magic to what he called ‘Link’ them, now his pulse is her pulse, his breath is her breath, until the healers can finish repairing her nerves he is her life. Their pulse is as one and the chests rise and fall together, even when he speaks, Sinda breathes as he does.”
“First take a deep breath dear.” She says kindly, “Then decide if you want to speak like a centrist student or a families heir. I can follow either one, honest, just use one at a time.”
“I am sorry Land Mother. There are many new words and concepts I do not understand fully yet.”
“Accepted, now continue.”
“Yes ma’am. After the battle was over, I thought Sinda was dead. He directed Sandy and I to help him. I pushed on her chest and Sandy breathed by blowing into her mouth like a kiss. It was very much like what we have seen the Techist medics do. After a gross of hearts Sinda began breathing on her own as her heart began beating as well. As I noted, as long as they are both relaxed they have the same pulse and breath, as though they were one.”
“Incredible.”
“He is recovering now. He spent eleven days in the hospital in a coma after the first fight and he took much more damage this time. There is concern he may not heal enough this time to matter.”
“There is far more you are not telling me than you are.”
“Yes ma’am there is,” Lisa admitted and then held up the ring that provided an excuse to not even try to explain what she couldn’t anyway. “As I said before, not all my actions are my own. There is much I can not say, even if I could find the words.”
“I am curious why a Legent would become involved.”
“If you would permit me Land Mother, I would like to bring him, Charles, home for the winter solstice celebration as my guest.”
“Why?”
“He is a third son.” Lisa said as the first inkling of a plan for handling Charles came into focus.
“Admittedly nice, but not really enough for intruding on family only time.”
“He is a third year who stood off a ten year with five seven years in support.”
“Again, nice, but, power alone?”
“He has two older brothers.”
“Odd, but so you’ve said.”
“And two older sisters.” Lisa added with a grin knowing she had just maneuvered her Land Mother into allowing it.
“I thought you,” The Land Mother said and stopped cold, “What?”
“He is fifth born. I didn’t believe the headmaster so I went and checked school records directly.”
“Those are locked and sealed.”
“These rings open a lot of wards.”
“You should have said that up front, I’ll have chambers prepared for him as your guest.”
“Just put him in my rooms.”
“Are you sure, that would imply.”
“I don’t want him mobbed by women hoping to have a good luck charm rub off on them.” Lisa said grimly, “He doesn’t do social very well and the only place he knows is here. He was born and raised within leagues of centerversity, it’s all he knows. He wouldn’t understand the number or type of offers he would receive.”
“Oh. You’re right. As a fifth born with the fertility that implies, he would have the run of the entire Familydom. With no need to do more than show interest he could pick and choose virtually any female he fancied, even arranged marriages and contracts could be breached for a chance like that.”
“Out of curiosity I also checked on other things.” Lisa said blushing at her own reaction, “Would you believe that one in eight squared of the low born here that qualify to attend on scholarship are fourth born.”
“One in eight squared?”
“Yes. Charles and his siblings are only five years apart each.”
“We are lucky to get seven, normally it’s eight to ten, if not more.” The Land Mother gasps.
“I checked, his mother is the same age as Aunt Barbara, I know she isn’t really blood. Yet she has five children, they all lived, to Aunties three, and she started later.”
“Oh sweet chaos.”
“I checked other records as well. These low born near mongrels in our eyes are few in number but have nearly twice our breeding rate. I found six students who were born to mothers under thirty, not far, but still.”
“Keep that under your hat dear, in fact you are certainly welcome to keep him in your bed if you wish. You manage to get with child that young and you’ll take precedence over my own girls. Ten years or so to get with your first child wouldn’t be bad at all, even at that long you might beat them to the punch.”
“Warn them that he is not a toy. He can take care of himself. If he refuses their advances, they might want to try to humble him, that won’t go over well, they won’t like the result.”
“Problem?”
“He doesn’t play the dance of wills to win. He has never had a partner he humbled, nor been had by a partner who humbled him. All his have been balanced consent without humbling.”
“Impressive.”
“I watched him take down four seven years in a row after killing the fifth, all while holding Brenhar off, then drive her to her knees as he prepared to break her mind. He would have except I stopped him before he did it.”
“And you stopped a war when you did. Had you failed to stop him we would have already been at war with the Michelsons over her killing Sinda. Until he releases her from humbling nothing can happen and that gives time for us to prepare and tempers to cool.”
“Why so quick to war?”
“They have been pushing us for a while. Sinda would have been too much for us to ignore. Breaking Brenhar would have been far to much for them to ignore.”
“Why? I see about Sinda, but why breaking Brenhar? She was the one who attacked.”
“They would have taken it as revenge on our part. They lost their former Heir Primus in birth a fortnight ago, then they lost the child as well. Brenhar is a quite a bit younger than the former Heir Primus was, she is a late child by their Land Mother, the other was by the House mother. If Brenhar doesn’t produce an heir of her own in seven years, by the time she is thirty, the youngest anyone Magist or Techist have children, her family will lose the seat before her next birthday after. They have no heir Tertius, nor a Secondus now, we are lucky to have our third heir. Had not your father been a good man that I, we, the land and House wives, both love and trust, we would be in their position if the worst came about for our children.”
“I thought I was a concession.” Lisa whispered, “An acknowledgement of a debt to my Mother over father.”
“No dear, you are prayer we pray need never be answered.” The Land Mother said softly.
“No matter what they are going to be pissed, they’re going to come after him.” Lisa points out as a way of changing an uncomfortable subject, “If there is an investigation, then how Brenhar treats guys is going to come out publicly and that won’t do them any good on any front. I doubt they’ll see it that way, but that’s the truth.”
“I agree.”
“Brenhar spending a few days servicing her former Pinocchios the way she made them serve her was justice,” Lisa laughed uncomfortably, “but I have to admit using her on the bench at the play was too much, too far.”
“They had to be slapped down.” The Land Mother agrees, “How soon will you know what reaction the Michelsons are going to have?”
“Weeks. He won’t be awake for some time. Sandy and I are going to make sure they attend classes, as you know it can be done with the humbled, but it does take some doing.”
“Keep me informed.”
“Of course.” Lisa answered and stood staring at the mirror that showed her image after it no longer showed her Land Mother. Not the her she knew from childhood anymore, the new her that was both gift and punishment. The beautiful stranger she was coming to know, that only now she realized she had known all along, the one she has always wanted to be. He had used his magic to grant her, her dream body, not his. Keeping the five humbled survivors in class was a balancing act, keeping events from running further away was going to be a chore, yet she knew her job had only just begun.
As the days passed, she and Sandy got better at handling the humbled brood as well as evading the healers and doctors questions about how Charles was able to link to Sinda. It seemed most of them knew some of the theories about how to do it, but none had ever seen the technique actually used before, so they kept wanting to question Charles and get answers. She has also been spending every moment she could stand in the archives, the plug was only damping her powers now but it still helped. Bell after Bell she spent looking up the strange words Charles kept using when while answering her questions, the ones she never asked with the medical staff around, it consumed all her spare time. The most disturbing part was how often the definitions felt like she was back talking to the Legent whose ring she still bore. The hard part was day seven.
“I expect my daughter to released from humbling immediately.” Land Mother Michelson was fairly screaming in the conference room next to the headmasters office. She had come in person to deal with this rather than by mirror.
“As I have already explained Land Mother Michelson,” Lisa said with far more confidence than she really felt. “I can not do that at this time, I am administrating only, acting as an expression of Charles stated will in this matter, the decision is not mine to make.”
“I will not have her held by a common born.” Was hissed in reply.
“Have you, Land Mother Michelson, reviewed the facts of the case so far as to events that occurred in the primary and secondary meetings between Brenhar and Charles?” Lisa asked emulating, she had come to like that word, the formal speech style in the old documents.
“The facts are irrelevant.” She yelled in reply, “One of my retainer’s children is dead and the rest of my daughter’s retinue is being held along with her in humblement, unable to speak or do for themselves. It is beyond humiliating and must stop at once. Only the fact that I accept the neutrality of the school and the fact that armed personal are forbidden here by edict of the Legents has prevented me from simply recovering her physically. Then forcing this Charles to release her from humblement.”
“I must formally request then that you review the facts of the case before proceeding Land Mother Michelson. Else wise, your failure to do so may be seen as you already knowing what has occurred and or transpired which could mean her having been acting with your approval, or worse, at your behest. Whether this would refer to attitude, approach or be specific to these events, it is not for me to say, how it would be seen by a formal court or tribunal is their choice. I refer to both in this instance because over time her behavior in this incident is consistent with her behavior in the past.”
“My behest? How?” She asked rather than demanded as the formal speech style finally registered.
“Days prior to initial event I had faced him in the dance of wills and in truth, lost, however I acted improperly and failed to accede to his offer of a formal draw.” Lisa admitted outwardly calmly though with fear inside, “I acted in a manner without honor and he chided me. Later an agreement was struck and I went with him as though humbled of my own free will, and in return, he formally called our dance a draw. This drew unwanted attention to a formerly unnoticed, unremarkable, third year born and raised in the Lands of Centerversity.”
“That bastard is a third year common born?” Land Mother Michelson demanded yelling again.
“Him besting me however drew attention he did not want so our continued liaison was kept low key by mutual agreement.” Lisa continued quietly ignoring the outburst with as straight of a face as she could manage. “Brenhar then decided at some point he would make a great Pinnochio. She came up to him at lunch in the eating hall and informed him of their later rendezvous; which he promptly and politely declined. She insisted firmly, he continued to decline, at which time she declared Arcanum in the dining hall during lunch.”
“She did what?” Land Mother Michelson demanded turning to the headmaster.
“She declared Arcanum during lunch in the dining hall.” He answered confirming.
“A few hearts later she attacked with no further announcement or inquiring if he had accepted the challenge.” Lisa continued, “In the ensuing battle she was hurt rather badly, her powers were temporarily reduced to approximately a second year’s levels. She also took some sort of stun or equivalent damage to her nerves, losing much if not most of her natural grace and coordination necessary to use and maintain her physical form in the shape she keeps it. He, Charles, withstood her attack long enough for them to come to a draw. Though as a result he spent eleven days in the hospital before being released for bed rest in his dorm for at least five more days, the healers preferring a fortnight.”
“What about this thing at the play?” Land Mother Michelson demanded deflecting the conversation.
“As stated previously, as a result of injuries sustained in the fight,” Lisa said then paused for a calming breath, “Brenhar’s powers were reduced. She continued on as though nothing had changed however. In doing so she was humbled three times in three days, where as before she had not lost a single bout. As a result of the last fight though, she was held for several days in the chambers of the last boy she challenged. Having lost before and been used harshly, he restricted her to his bed excepting for classes, eating, restroom and bathing breaks. He left her with orders to sexually service anyone she had previously humbled by force to use as a Pinnochio that joined her on the bed. An unknown number of them did so an unknown number of times and she serviced them all exactly as instructed. His ardor and previous humiliation unquelled, he eventually took her out to a play and was using her there. The staff interrupted and put a stop to it immediately. Private fights among students in or around the dorms are one thing, public humiliation is another.”
“Of course she humbled by force, that’s how you win the dance and the Arcanum both.”
“I am sorry Land Mother Michelson, I was unintentionally unclear. The orders were to sexually service anyone she had taken by force outside the dance or the formal Arcanums. It was only for those who were her unwilling partners, not those who had challenged her in the dance or otherwise. Those she had declared Arcanum on as she did Charles, without warning, and used to sate her own wants or needs.”
“Unwilling?” Land Mother Michelson asked quietly, her face a mask.
“Yes. She has a long history here at school of taking partners as puppets by force if they catch her fancy. She restricted her usage to the dorms so she was left alone. Most males that came to her attention that were not interested, took to avoiding anywhere she spent much time. In her time here playing this game, Charles was the first opponent she challenged that she was unable to defeat.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Go humble some your own retainers and question them.” Lisa told her as calmly as she could.
“What happened in this last fight? The one in the dorms.” Land Mother Michelson asked quietly, visibly shaken by the confidence and certainty of Lisa’s last statement.
“She with five others in support, all seven years, attacked with killing level and strength spells from the hallway hidden under a privacy cloak while Charles was with one my maids, Sinda. Their attack killed her immediately. He survived and engaged them. They were surprised in return by his survival and immediate counterattack, enabling him to kill one of the males who took the brunt of what was intended for Brenhar, who was the focus of the surprise attack. Charles then held his shields against the rest attacking and counterattacking. He was bleeding from his nose, ears and eyes when I arrived. He then managed to remove all four remaining seven years from the fighting without killing anymore of them. After that, he finally managed to disrupt Brenhar’s attacks and magic much as he had the others. I stepped in to prevent him from breaking, or worse, killing, Brenhar in his rage.”
“How did he survive?” She demanded in a quiet voice.
“He has learned to disrupt incoming magic. He is one of those students who will struggle with some things, in his case induced motion is almost impossible for him, yet others he just does like breathing with little or no practice. While he would have been just in seeking revenge for himself or Sinda either one, I had to intervene for his own good as well. He was intimately connected with and felt Sinda die in their initial attack intended for him through his seed Magic in her. Letting him gut the mind of or kill one I believed to be an Heir Secondus would have destabilized an unsettled situation even further, potentially leading to further loss of life by those uninvolved in the core event. The Fact that she was actually your Heir Primus only made my actions more necessary than I knew at the time.”
“For that I thank you.” Land Mother Michelson said unable to tell if the news, the formal tone and words or the confidence they were delivered with disturbed her more.
“You are welcome. I intervened for the good of all, especially in light of your loss only days or was it bells before.” Lisa stated firmly.
“You knew?”
“I knew you had problems then, but as I said, I know more now. Go look at the damage to the hallway and come back, see if you can tell me he went too far defending himself after that.”
“I already saw it. I had assumed it was from him.”
“No. That was their initial attack. That was how she and they attacked in school, at night, in the dorms, someone they assumed would be alone and asleep.”
“Yet I notice this Sinda lives.” She observed changing the subject desperately.
“Yes she does, now. He used Seed Magic, they had been together when attacked from cloak so that helped. To weave new nerve paths to give her his pulse and his breath. He lies humbled unable to be allowed to heal any faster than she does because if his pulse goes too high her body will not be able to keep up and she will die. If he takes more than a few too rapid breaths, she will die choking like a fish out of water. He can not be unhumbled before she is stable on her own, only then can he be allowed to heal. And he was already on bed rest when this occurred.”
“This is all provable?”
“Proven.” The headmaster interjected sadly.
“She also left out another detail.” The headmaster continued, “He, Charles, had never humbled nor been humbled, all his liaisons had been balanced consensual. He literally did not know how to humble, an item I believe we will need to address in the curriculum now, it has never come up before this incident. If Lisa had not shown him how by allowing herself to be humbled on reflection, he would have had to break Brenhar’s mind leaving little behind to recover, if recovery were even possible. By the rules he would not have had to let either girl go anytime soon, even if there had been anything left to release in Brenhar’s case.”
“I thank you Lisa, please tell your Land Mother I owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“I will tell Mothers that.”
“Your Land Mother.”
“I am Third heir of Thomson. Had Sinda not been better than I am with massage, that would have been me in his chambers and our Familydoms would already be at open war. That is also why I could not allow him to break her mind, you had to have your Heir, especially since she is now your Primus.”
“You prevented a war you would likely have won given the circumstances, why?”
“That wasn’t my idea and it wasn’t my choice.” Lisa said pulling the Legent’s ring out of her pocket and holding it up.
“Chaos.” Land Mother Michelson hisses at the ring.
“And now I am trapped.” Lisa said sadly, “The fate of lands are in your hands. If you make me or him fight this, her ways with boys becomes officially known and she will be found unsuitable to rule. No matter what Charles does or doesn’t do, if she doesn’t change her ways, she is unsuitable and now you formally know it. It would have been better if your former Heir Primus had survived childbirth to remain Primus.”
“I know, we all know. We will contest no punishment he chooses that does not outlast her education here as long as her reputation is intact enough to inherit.” Land Mother Michelson said grimly, defeat in her tone, “I have no choice, he can do with her as he wills as long as her education continues. The rest are his, their educations are of course paid for, but they are sentenced to what ever he chooses to do with them. But I have to have my Heir Primus back in a condition to take her seat.”
“I will so inform him when he wakes Land Mother Michelson. You also have both my personal word and my word as Third Heir of Thomson. That I will try my best using whatever influence I have with Charles to keep him from making her unsuitable by his actions. I can do nothing about Brenhar’s actions though, I can not control how she responds to her punishment. If she continues as she has, if she does not change her ways, then child or no child when she is of age, there is no way your houses will confirm and accept her.”
“Thank you, I take my leave.” She said rising, trembling in rage and helplessness knowing the fate of her Familydom now rested in the hands of a common born because of the actions of Brenhar, her Heir Primus. Oddly, she found Brenhar’s fate being partly in Lisa’s hands reassuring since the younger girl was doing the formal dance of diplomacy very well, and that meant there was hope.
“You have matured as much or more in mind as you have in body.” The headmaster observed after Land Mother Michelson had left.
“I am discovering that the more I learn, the less I know.” Lisa quipped, “Mother, my Land Mother that is, calls it growing up.”
“It was that way for my generation as well. How bad is his revenge on her going to be? I know the Michelsons have pledged to live with it, but she is their Heir Primus.”
“Bad. He is angry, enraged and rightfully so. He and Sinda were really linked when they attacked, he felt her die. The best I can hope for is to guide him into burning it out before he does hurt enough to become harm. I will try to convince Brenhar to put the needs of her Familydom before her own wants, but I do not think I can succeed and that will be bad for my Familydom. As bad or worse than not having interfered at all I fear.”
“Where did he learn that trick with the seed magic? The healers and doctors are getting annoyed with you evading their questions and not allowing him to answer either.”
“I don’t know, however that is his to speak of or not. To force him to explain now would be a violation nearly as bad as what Brenhar did. To take advantage of healing for interrogation is unconscionable on any level. But if one of the Legents is involved, I think what I need to ask is why we don’t all know, not why he does.”
“Why?”
“Because everything I know about them says they only ask questions they already know the answers to and Legent Wilhelm asked some very weird questions indeed. If the past is any indication to go by, finding those answers is every bit as important as the answers themselves.”
“Our healers and the Techist doctors agree, she can be unhooked from him tomorrow. They brought in a machine to look inside her and pronounced the nerves healed enough. The healers are concerned though, she apparently has no magic right now. They are not sure why, but she didn’t disrupt even their most delicate scans which even an small untrained Magist child should have. They had hoped only for a rough guide, not the detail of a Techist.”
“Then he can begin healing for real.” Lisa answered, ignoring the latter since she didn’t want the headmaster to have a clue, for her own and other people’s safety.
“The healers say he needs to remain humbled for another week at least, they want two.”
“I’ll see if he will. I’ll tell him the healers insist on one week, but would prefer a full fort, or maybe a little more.”
“Brave.” The headmaster laughed letting her evade his real question, “He took out a lot of them, he might you as well.”
“He won’t hurt me.”
“Think he won’t hurt anyone with his seed magic in them?”
“There is little left. I think he trusts me.”
“Being good at just battle magic is not a good sign.”
“Trust me, despite the evidence, he’s not good at battle magic.” Lisa said with a smile of a type she can’t name, “He is just using what he is good at to do something he is not good at, he doesn’t even know how to do flexible shields.”
“Good luck.” The headmaster said rising and leaving. Lisa sat for a while just thinking before heading back to her quarters to report in.
“I can’t believe I just faced down a Land Mother, Land Mother.” Lisa said still trembling to the image in the mirror a half bell later.
“You did well third heir.” The image replied smiling, “I have already spoken to the headmaster and received his report on the meeting. You did well not to use the ring until you had to. By using it the way you did it gave you more weight. Now we must wait and see what happens with this Charles when he wakes.”
“They want me to wake him the day after tomorrow to break the link with Sinda. Then they want me to rehumble him for a fortnight to give him time heal. I do not know if I can convince him.”
“You must succeed by any means necessary. He must be healed and calm before he sets out to take his measure of revenge. Our position is more delicate now. King Donalson just arranged an alliance with the Techist king Dest and the Kallows collective. Any change in her status could be a catalyst.”
“The Michelsons won’t be able to stop them if they make a concerted push together.” Lisa replied with horror.
“With as large of a border as that will open up, Donalson will have us in a bad way. The death of the former Michelson Heir Primus leaves them weak. There is fear they won’t be able to breed enough to hold their land, they need a miracle.”
“So if he breaks or even badly damages Brenhar?”
“He destroys us as well. I have also spoken with the Legent whose ring you bear, he explained some of what Charles did to you; and why.”
“I am sorry Land Mother.” Lisa said bowing her head in supplication, “I was rash and as you now know, I was punished, as were Sinda and Sandy who were merely doing as I had ordered.”
“Yet he risked his life to save Sinda. The Legent also said to tell you that the compulsions will only last a year, two at most if he doesn’t compel you often. Sinda and Sandy are another thing completely though, based on what he has seen they will remain his to call on freely for quite some time.”
“I will do my best Land Mother.”
“I hope it is enough. Whatever price you pay will be small by comparison, this is bigger than you now, and looks to be getting bigger. Michelson is a necessary buffer between us and Donalson, he wants both of our growing lands and all our common born, their birth rate is no better than ours or any of the Techists. With his wars of expansion in the last decades, Donalson is running out of people to send to fight and still have enough to gather his grain. You may only be able to buy us a few years third heir, but the horse may learn to sing.”
“I remember the tale of the horse thief Land Mother.” Lisa said gravely, “Yet I tremble that events are such that the joke is valid.”
“I should also warn you, that ring belongs to Wilhelm the planner. His mate, he calls her his wife in the pattern of old, Amina the Mongoose, was through here over the summer solstice as well. She is the one who warned me to be watching out for changes in the Michelsons.”
“Are the Legents on the move?” Lisa horrified.
“I don’t know. But if they are, it’s bad. The last time they moved in concert was to end the wars of the troubled times, the so called Sync wars, they reacted then. If they are moving now, then perhaps they see them starting again and wish to head them off this time.”
“Did she mention children to you?”
“Children? No. She mentioned populations, but not children. Why?”
“I have to go.” Lisa said as a slimy feeling settled in her stomach, “I need to check something.”
“Go with order Child.” The Land Mother tells her as she breaks the connection.
“Do you hate me?” Lisa asks hesitantly of the humbled Charles a bell later knowing he won’t remember once she releases him.
“No.” He answers.
“Do you plan on sharing me the way you did Sinda and Sandy?” She asks giving voice to part of the slimy feeling and her worst fears.
“No.”
“Do you trust me?” She asks fearing a yes and a no equally though for unrelated reasons.
“I don’t know, I think so.” He answers and Lisa’s stomach settles, his mind wasn’t made up, she could still influence her own fate, so she still has a chance. She leaves carefully telling herself she isn’t running, unwilling to ask herself what she could be running from.
“How do you feel?” Charles hears Lisa ask him as his eyes open once she releases the humbling to unlink from Sinda.
“I ache.” He answers in a dry mouthed mumble reaching for the water he sees.
“The doctors are ready for you to, they called it ‘disconnect life support’ to Sinda now. The healers say she will be able to breathe on her own now.” Lisa reported then smiled shyly, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Charles replied grinning as he reached out to ease the connection, “She is, was, my responsibility.”
“Unlinked and stable.” The healer standing between the beds said giving a thumbs up signal.
“Thank order.” Charles said relaxing.
“She or Sandy have been in here the whole time.” The healer continued, “You are one lucky young man. They have taken as good of care of you as they have their own. Now I know you have this whole vengeance thing to take care. But I recommend you allow her to humble you for a couple of more weeks to allow yourself to heal now that we can allow you to at full speed, rather than matching what Sinda could do.”
“I have some things to do.” Charles said referring to the fight, it had happened less than a bell ago to him.
“Look, she will take care of you. Be glad, be very glad. You’re a very lucky young man. However, if you don’t give yourself time to heal before using your powers very much, it will do permanent damage we can’t help you with. We healers and the Techist doctors have several ways to help you heal, but if you insist on doing this now there will not be much of anything to heal.”
“That bad?”
“Worse. You can run Brenhar and company around in dog collars for all I care and take them for walks on leashes, but do it after you have healed.”
“All right, I can take a hint.” Charles replied feeling very tired.
“We’ll talk later.” Lisa promised and Charles’s world dissolved into bliss once more.
“He must trust you a lot.”
“We understand each other.” Lisa replied smiling, “Have them both delivered to my room. Since they aren’t linked anymore they don’t need to monitored full time.” She continued finding it easy now to use all sorts of words that were new to her but said exactly what she wanted to say.
“Sounds safe enough. I’ll have the necessary medicines delivered as well.”
“Thank you. I have some things to check on, Sandy will be here shortly to escort them.” Lisa said and wandered off to think.
“Even merely damping your powers helps doesn’t it?” Someone asked a bell later startling Lisa out of her reverie of despair in the archives she had retreated to for solace.
“What?” Lisa asked startled looking up.
“I take it your Land Mother told you the control he placed on you will fade with time?” He asks and Lisa realizes who he is.
“Yes Legent.” She replied reaching into her pocket for his ring and holding it toward him, “Here, this is yours.”
“Keep it for now, you’re not done yet.”
“Done with what?” Lisa asked not even caring about the raw fear in her voice.
“You and he, are the right people in the right place at the right time, you have my sympathies. I, we, the Legents, have been waiting for quite a while for the right sort of mind to be born.”
“You have?”
“Yes. Centuries in fact. Amina and Kara both despaired of having a high enough birth rate to breed what we needed this millennium at all.”
“They did?”
“Yes. You see, much of what you know as history is a lie. A lie constructed in order to allow us to sculpt the kind of society mankind needed in order to survive.”
“This millennium?”
“Yes. This millennium.”
“I thought you were generational like us, how old are you?”
“We watched the world fall.”
“That’s impossible.”
“So is magic, but that’s a discussion for another day. For now, just know that we have been waiting a very long time for someone to solve this puzzle, besides us.”
“But the same forces that brought him about, and you.” A new voice says and Lisa sees a woman enter.
“Also bring about war.” Yet another new woman says entering.
“Chaos and Order.” A man says entering.
“In their eternal conflict.” Another man says entering.
“The use of destruction.” A woman says joining them.
“To power creation.” Another woman says stepping in.
“Is the act of a creator.” Another woman says smiling, “Is he a destructor or a creator?”
“That is the question.” The Legent Wilhelm who’s ring she bears asks.
“Legents?” Lisa asks in awe.
“Yes.” Legent Wilhelm answers gently.
“I am Amina Lisa, and if you had freed yourself, you would have been trapped forever.”
“I am Kara, the controls lapse with disuse. By having him order you to evaluate, the controls would have always been active.”
“I am Arie, after that every choice you made to comply would have made you more likely to comply.”
“I am Anna, eventually you would have always chosen to comply and been bound not by his controls, but by your own will.”
“I would have doomed myself?”
“Yes.” Legent Wilhelm said softly, “You would have bound yourself to him, eventually taking all your thoughts except those devoted to serving him.”
“I almost.” Lisa shuddered at the idea of how close she came to enslaving herself, permanently.
“Yes. We’ve seen it before.” Legent Amina said gravelly, “You would have become a vessel for extending his will, nothing more, costing him his dearest friend and the only stable point in his life.”
“I am not his friend.”
“He values you more than anyone else on the whole of the world.” Legent Wilhelm said with a smile.
“He trusted your word enough to allow you to humble him without a fight or even resistance, even after Sinda no longer required him in order to breath and have a pulse.” Legent Kara said smiling. “He willingly placed himself and his life in your hands.”
“Trust me,” Legent Anna laughed, “That kind of trust is rare.”
“I’m Simon and believe you me, far rarer than you know.” A Legent said
“We need to ask you to do us a favor.” Legent Wilhelm said softly.
“What could I possibly do for you?”
“Trust us, please.”
“Of course, the word of a Legent is law.”
“We didn’t say obey.” Legent Anna laughed with a knowing smile.
“We asked you trust us.” Legent Arie says again, “We need your help to accomplish something we can’t.”
“What could I do that you can’t?”
“You would refuse if we didn’t explain first, and rightly so.” Legent Kara said gently, “So please, allow us to show you some of what really happened.”
“Ok.” Lisa replied trying to sound calm despite the fear congealing in her stomach.
“Open your mind.” Legent Amina said laughing, “The boys will keep watch, let us girls show you.”
“Show me?” Lisa asked with much more bravery than she felt, not hard. Lisa found herself in a world overflowing with Techist things. She has known intellectually all her life that the world used to have seven billion people in it. The signs litter the whole of the world, but actually seeing it from living memory is different. A place teaming with humans, with human things. An overflowing cornucopia of Techist items of every form shape or type, both with and without convention. Enclosed carriages that moved themselves. Machines that look like mirrors. The view looking down from the things hanging impossibly high in the sky that they still use to look down even now.
The races of man and the continents that made them. The thing called countries, teeming with masses of people undrempt of in her time. Religions as living things, not historical artifacts. Flying machines delivering death from the sky and moving people like airborne trains. They showed her a world completely different and beginning with the countries they showed her the structure of what was. They showed her the machines of life and death. Things made to kill and things made to save. Businesses given the rights of people and the result of a century old thing with no mind or conscience of it’s own being allowed to run rampant. The result of amorality gifted with immortality, and the people who ran those faceless things with no fear of rules or retribution for they were just following the rules of the company.
They eventually showed her the Under Cover corp. A parent corporation forming a foundation for a collection of businesses centered around of all things, sex. After an overview of that and other companies, she found she could direct what she saw. That is when Lisa began exploring what made the world different, besides there being no magic that is. What she saw sickened her in some ways, yet reassured her in others. She saw people being people. Even then people fought pointless wars over things they should have shared freely. Because someone coveted something they had not earned. Because they coveted things they had no use for. Or because they just wanted to be in charge, or thought being who they were, they were just entitled.
“What was their hang up with sex?” Lisa asked herself staring at the aspects of a society that valued virginity and promiscuity in equal measure, yet was able to look down on those who performed sex for money, “Who charges for sex?”
“It was common then to charge for it. Governments had been publicly trying to eliminate the trade for centuries, but in reality they themselves were some of the biggest customers.” Legent Amina said appearing in the vision in response to Lisa’s spoken question.
“Why the emphasis on keeping the young inexperienced? How are they supposed to be able to keep it up enough to have children if they don’t practice, do it well enough to keep a partner coming back until you have a child?” Lisa asked staring at the emphasis put on keeping the young virginal, though looking experienced. While other parts tried to make the older more experienced, look virginal and inexperienced.
“Look at this.” Legent Amina says and the vision changes. Lisa is shown a world filled with STDs and pictures of girls even younger than her with swollen bellies. Then pictures of them older with children of their own, ready to have children of their own by the time they are simply mature in Lisa’s eyes.
“Impossible. Diseases from having sex, having babies that young and often, they would have gone extinct from bodily damage trying to have children.” She cried in denial and horror staring the images of a world gone by. Images of a yesteryear built of Chaos and Order mixed freely yet randomly into a stew of disorder and madness fit to eat the mind of any rational being.
“No, this is what we’ve been fighting. This is why we made the world we made.”
“You made the world this way?” She asked thinking of the world she knows and comparing it the one shown to her.
“Yes. What you see here were typical. Girls only eighteen, your age, though often as young as fifteen or sixteen having children of their own. There were a few as young as thirteen, they generally had problems though. The thing is, women used to be able to get pregnant from having sex just once.”
“Impossible, it takes time for our bodies to adjust to a guy, any guy, enough to have a child with him.” Lisa said stunned at the very idea.
“Sadly, that did not used to be the case. Some women used to be literal baby factories, having children every twenty to twenty four moons, as many as eight to ten, then there bodies would be worn out and they would suffer for the rest of their lives.”
“Impossible, Why? How?”
“April Fools. It wasn’t war, it was a mistake. Medical devices designed to prolong life and health went wrong and fertility went from having kids at the drop of a hat, to a sometimes decade long struggle to have a single child. The same thing that helped preserve Sinda’s life and mind, that made Charles’s efforts possible and really work, also helps mankind lives longer now, but at what cost?”
“Longer?” Lisa asked unsure what they meant helped Sinda.
“Yes. Life span used to be three score and ten of good health then another score of debilitated years of watching your health go downhill.”
“Three score and ten? You mean seventy?”
“Yes.” Legent Anna said with a sad smile, “Things changed after April Fools.”
“The world no longer worked the way it had before.” Legent Arie said fading in with a sad smile, “Fertility of males and females both dropped off. Some lucky couples were able to keep having children, the Amish for instance, didn’t notice for the first few centuries. They ignored it and they are still more or less stable in their own way, even the Kallows and Yasan leave them alone. Donalson does as well as Yasan and Kalsini because we have pronounced them protected. They are not war like and only want to tend their land as their god intended.”
“We though,” Legent Kara said appearing with laughing eyes, “noticed some other effects. The medical devices, tiny pieces of technology in our bodies designed to keep us healthy, both malfunctioned and did their jobs perfectly. People lived longer more productive lives afterwards. The thing he laced your body with, his Seed Magic, is not despite what the name implies, his seed at all. He, like every male born since, has next to no sperm count and you have next to no eggs.”
“I have no eggs?” Lisa asked confused, “He has no sperm?”
“I said almost none, not none.” Legent Kara said with no laughter in her eyes this time, “You only drop an egg at solstice. He drops no seed until you orgasm with him. Either alone or too far out of Sync does nothing, only together.”
“Twice a year? But in class they teach it happens with the moon.” Lisa said wondering at that last.
“The monthly, sorry you won’t know that word, lunar or on the moon cycle does, eggs don’t. The egg that drops responds to whatever tiny traces of seed magic or other male input is available at equinox. Your body then drops an egg at solstice that is as friendly to that male as you yourself are. If you get input from him, with orgasm enough, with enough sperm to count, with enough seed magic to keep it alive in you. If you accept him and it instead of rejecting either of them, even if only for a while, then and only then CAN you become pregnant with his child. Even then only so long as you are relaxed with him and you are both faithful in a manner that pleases you both. Depending on circumstances, it can take years of effort now if the couples are not in proper sync.”
“The odds of a compatible match up are astronomical.” Legent Arie said grimly, “Then there is whether you keep the egg protected from him until it dies, if you do then nothing happens. This is why births are scattered the way they are, conception happens most likely in the moon after solstice. Half as often the next moon, then half that each moon, after five moons maximum, the egg is reabsorbed, though often sooner.”
“Hence the promiscuous world we designed.” Legent Amina said flatly, “While the occasional child is lost because one or the other has an affair, having both relaxed makes the child much more likely to occur. It is a case of lose one in a hundred to gain three or more in a hundred. It is the only reason we, humans, are still here at all.”
“The first century the world went from seven billion to seven hundred million.” Legent Wilhelm says sadly as he joins them, “The second it went to seventy million. The third it went to seven million.”
“Seven million?” Lisa asks stunned.
“Seven million. By that time we were finally understanding what was happening and what it would take to keep mankind alive. The fact that STDs along with most other diseases had been eliminated on April Fools gave us one chance, a slim one, but still a chance. However, other groups had seen the end coming as well and they weren’t all looking forward to us saving everyone.”
“As you have no doubt inferred, we are essentially immortal. Originally we were not the only ones, three other groups also got the same gifts we did, for the same reasons.”
“Four groups of immortals existed?” Lisa asked as though fearing drowning in new information.
“Yes. One of them was a branch of an intelligence service for a country called the United States, they stayed loyal centuries after that country like the rest, was dust. A second one was a formerly wealthy group dedicated to humanitarian principles and human rights. The third group though, they were not nice at all, they were an offshoot of a group we had been fighting when the end of the world came about. We all gained effective immortality.”
“How many?”
“Six hundred sixty plus of us total.”
“Tell her the whole truth.” Legent Amina demanded.
“Alright, we’ll try it your way this time. God knows we’ve tried everything else that should work enough times.” Legent Wilhelm laughed.
“What happened next was the three other groups split into two or so sides apiece.” Legent Amina said sadly, “They set against each other as only close allies can. Over the course of the first three centuries it was a seven sided war between the six hundred sixty or so of us, with a few minor sides that never had enough power or numbers to matter. They forced us to kill the ones who didn’t manage to kill each other. We survived. God knows nobody won the war.”
“God?” Lisa asks unsure exactly what they mean.
“You would know him as Yea Wah now.” Legent Amina said with a smile back to years ago.
“The Father figure desert god of war and water?” Lisa asks.
“I can see how you got there.” Legent Amina says with a smile, “Let’s call that close enough for now. Nobody actually won the war though we did survive, and mankind was reduced to a paltry seven million by that time. It took time to design and implement a society capable of surviving the new reality with out turning men or women into things, that is to say, property. We eventually decided to do a little of both. We used part of what the Blood Lords discovered before we were forced to reduce them. It is part of why there is no female Seed Magic. Women always have stronger Magic because of the way it works. However, men are stabler with what they have. The Blood Lords found a way to lend the stability of the men, the lords, to the women, the queens. That is why they were called the Blood Lords even though the real power was the Blood Queens, the wielders of the Blood Seed. The lords were not strong enough to hold and rule by force on their own, the queens were not stable enough to hold alone. Sometimes they would self-confilgrate, others, they would go insane if alone. Eventually that balance between them changed so we took the female Seed Magic eliminating the Blood Seed and ending the Blood Lords by reducing the families.”
“Is that why the Techists are mostly male oriented and their rulers’ women tend to be kept secluded and be well taken care of?” Lisa asked as new ideas began to take shape now that she knew more of what was.
“Yes.”
“Is that also why we Magists tend toward female run families and blood lines with a tendency to put up with the foibles of the men we want to have children with. We Thomsons don’t lock them away like a lot of Techists do their women or some Magists do their men, but still.”
“Yes some Magist families do lock their breeding men away, just as some Techists lock their women away.” Legent Amina agreed, “What took time was designing and setting in motion a society that would survive if anything happened to us. We had some really bright idea’s early on, to borrow from old time entertainment, the only thing that exceeded the beauty of our solutions, was the dismalness of their failures.”
“Sounds bad.” Lisa replied confused by the references and the words.
“It was. What we learned was that we couldn’t tell people how to fix the problem, we do know how by the way, we have to allow them to find it on their own.”
“And watch whole generations die in the mean time.” Legent Wilhelm says with pain.
“I’m guessing if this many of you are here the situation is worse than I know?” Lisa asked.
“Yes.” Legent Amina said flatly, “If something doesn’t change soon, The Techist enclave Donalson with or without stable alliances will be forced to invade the Familydom Michelson within ten years.”
“I had heard of the conflict, but forced, why?”
“Their constant struggles to hold in some areas and expand their territory in others is draining them of population.” Legent Wilhelm answered sadly, “With in three years of over running Michelson, the combined Donalson, Dest and Michelson territories allied with the Kallows, will invade the Thomson lands looking for people and farm land.”
“I’ll graduate just in time to see my family, Familydom, fall?” Lisa asked horrified.
“Yes.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Yes, but no.” Legent Amina said taking a deep breath, “Yes we could easily force Donalson to stop at Michelson, but no we won’t, can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Society, the whole of society must be able to survive if we fall.” Legent Wilhelm answered, “If we interfere like this constantly, then society can not outgrow these impulses and it will destroy itself if something happens to us.”
“Then why tell me?”
“We can’t do anything.”
“And you think I can?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any idea of the position I’m in?”
“Yes,” Legent Amina laughed, “We have a VERY good idea of EXACTLY the position you’re in.”
“I don’t think so. I am currently a sex or bedroom toy of a third year.”
“And?” Legent Kara asked also laughing.
“My body obeys his words even when I want to do something else, it belongs to him now. My mind turns my very thoughts whenever I want to hurt him, it makes me desire to service him instead. I have or don’t have my powers based on his whim or a damn butt plug he put in me. I think about stabbing him and all my body will do is start sucking him off and swallowing, the latter only on command though, and I can’t spit it out. Until he does command or releases me, I just kneel there, waiting with it in my mouth as though I were humble little Pinocchio. That is my punishment if I try to hurt him.”
“And?” Legent Arie asked with smiling eyes.
“I’m a sex slave to a damn third year, I’m helpless in my own body, every time I think about him too hard my body desires to ride him, no matter what I want. He doesn’t even need words, simple hand gestures and I’m a passenger in my own damn body. Yet you people think I can do something about anything at all like this?” Lisa asked and pleaded, unsure she understood any of what was going on.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Faith.” Legent Arie replies with a knowing smile, “He took your body and warped your mind, but he didn’t take the latter, only protected himself against it.”
“So?”
“So use it. Don’t look at what you see, look at and learn to see what is.” Legent Anna quips.
“I don’t understand.”
“Can you trust us?” Legent Arie asks as the scene fades leaving them back in the archives again.
“I think so?”
“Then trust us. Renew the seed magic Charles has in you, make it every bit as strong as it was before the fight with Brenhar. Wake him from his resting Humble and ask him to renew it and make it so that you can keep it up to strength yourself while he heals.”
“Why?”
“Then go to the Techist library at their portion of the campus. Look up a book by Sun Tzu. If you are the one we are looking for you will understand, if not, you have our sympathies.”
“How am I supposed to do that? Magists are not allowed in there because we upset the machinery they use.”
“Do not look at what you expect to see, look instead at what is. When you have him renew your deposit of seed magic, have him do the same with the others as well. That way you can have them suck him off daily while he heals and they will be well laced and waiting when he wakes.”
“I have to admit watching Brenhar suck him off daily on command would be fun. I don’t see how that gets me to the Techist library though.” Lisa replies with confusion.
“You will.” Legent Wilhelm said and they began filing out leaving Lisa alone with her thoughts.
Charles is confused but very happy to renew the seed magic in her. At her suggestion he begins the process of lacing the bodies of the other girls as well. She makes a trade with him, if she can have the one guy to play with. With the understanding of course that he goes to Sinda as a toy or for revenge since he was instrumental in killing her after all, but only once she has healed fully. Lisa will ensure that Brenhar and company get further laced every day. That way by the time he heals they are ready for anything he chooses to do with or to them as revenge or simply as sexual or other toys.
The next morning Lisa sets out, leaving Sandy to watch over Charles and the brood. She takes a few companions from among the students who know who she is from her Familydom. Shopping in the common markets gets her a simple dress of the Techist style. A public restroom provides all the cover she needs to change and pull the now fully functional plug, switching her powers off like a Techist light.
The feeling of both terror and relaxation at being both powerless and unable to feel the people around her is confusing. She knows girls are stronger than guys in Magic, yet this shows her that advantage comes not from where she thought it did, but somewhere else. Ordering her escort to spend the day shopping, she heads off. In less than an eighth bell she is at the Techist library, a near perfect copy of the Magist’s own. She finds herself at the wards guarding the library and celebrates not feeling them at all.
“Here goes nothing.” She says to herself with a smile. Then she is in a library almost exactly like the one she knows and uses, only backwards. She is surprised by this, no one had ever said anything about the school being a symmetric, a new word she picked up days ago, design. Yet in a way it reflects the Magist and Techist asymmetric, another new word, approaches to life.
“How may I guide you today?” A mirror asks as she enters.
“Umm,” Lisa stammers. She has never seen a mirror so directly interactive except the one in Charles’s room the night Sinda died; then undied.
“Are you ok? Do you require assistance?” It asks when she just stands there staring.
“No, umm, I’m fine. I’m looking for a book by someone named Sun Tzu.” Lisa says hoping she got the ‘pronunciation’ correct, another new word she has learned and likes.
“Translations of his works are in the philosophy section, books in that section are sorted by original author of core work, then author of reference or concordance edition. Please follow the path indicated, it will guide you to the section you desire and to the row where the book is stored.” The mirror replied showing a map of the library from overhead with a path marked in blue to a red dot.
“Thank you.” Lisa replies automatically. It had spoken like a person so she responded in kind without thinking about it, it somehow seemed the natural thing to do, though talking to a mirror even a moon ago would never have occurred to her.
“You’re welcome. Guide mirrors are available in all major hallways, there are also specialty mirrors for each section on each shelf end. I, via my copies, am available in both the study nooks and carrels at the end of each aisle. I will track your progress to make sure you reach your goal, have a nice day.”
“I hope to.” Lisa whispers in shock at the difference in the behavior of the mirror compared to what she is used to, her first job after finding the book to look up yet another new word. The path is easy to follow and she finds the section in an eighth bell.
“Sun Tzu.” Lisa is whispering to herself as she walks into the philosophy section looking at the unfamiliar names lining the markers separating the shelves into master works and derivatives.
“Here it is.” She says finally locating it on a half empty shelf all of it’s own.
“The art of War” She whispers staring at a reprint of a translation, the only possible book the Legents could have meant. She nearly picks up the thinnest book, by far the most tempting given the thickness of the others. Then her eye catches the word concordance, a word the mirror had used in the entryway. Also this book is covered with a thin patina of dust indicating years of dis or unuse. Unlike the rest of his works here, no one has taken it down to read in a generation, maybe longer.
“Concordance.” Lisa whispers gingerly pulling it off the shelf instead and heading to the end of the aisle where the nooks and carrels reside. The difference is easy to see. On the Magist side the aisles all end in nooks. A nook is basically a desk built into a small curved opening in the wall. The carrel on the other hand actually has a door for privacy, shelves and a light, obviously intended for long term or long stretch studying unlike the Magist side where study happens in short busts. Once inside the carrel and sure she is alone, she opens the book and begins reading. It is a struggle because of the number of new words and new ideas. Numerous times she must ask for help translating words and checking what ideas mean with the small mirror on the desk, but she never quits.
“Mirror?” Lisa asks two bells later, her heart racing.
“Yes.”
“Is it possible to borrow this book?” She asks hesitantly.
“Of course, this is a library after all.” It answers, “If you are a student you can show your student ID. If not then you can just show your regular ID if you have an account with us?”
“Unfortunately I am not a student on this side, so I do not have an account.” Lisa replies then digs in her pocket for the ring, “Will this do instead.”
“Book, Sun Tzu, a concordance.” The mirror replies, “Checked out of Techist Centerversity Library to agent of the Legent Wilhelm. Do you know how long he or you will require the book?”
“No I do not.”
“So noted on his account. Reference reason for book loan?” It requests.
“Lets call it assigned historical research into long term trends.” Lisa laughs.
“Very good.” It replies.
“Thank you.” Lisa replies tucking the book into her dress so it is not readily visible as she makes her way out of the library. Late afternoon finds her on the peak of the hill partially dividing the city of “Center”, the town grown around Centerversity over the years, in two. The promontory hill is a permanent park dedicated to children lost during pregnancy and childbirth. It is always peaceful here since it is a place of mourning and contemplation.
“Wow.” She whispers looking at the opening pages rereading them for easily the twentieth time since she first opened it. She still struggles with the wording of the oldest translations, but they seem to be the purest, they speak to her in simple terms.
“Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.
Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one’s deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.
These are:
- The Moral Law.
- Heaven.
- Earth.
- The Commander.
- Method and Discipline.
The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.
By Method and Discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.
These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.
Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:
- Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?
- Which of the two generals has most ability?
- With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?
- On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced?
- Which army is stronger?
- On which side are officers and men more highly trained?
- In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?
By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat : let such a one be dismissed!
While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules. According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one’s plans.
All warfare is based on deception.
Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Hold out baits to entice the enemy.
Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.
If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him.
Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.”
“I see.” Lisa whispers another bell later trembling as the Legent’s plans unfold in her mind like a Chinese puzzle box made of thoughts and ideas. Terrifying in simplicity, thundering in boldness, it chills her in the raw potential of the idea, no one could see this coming. No one could prepare because, she finally understands, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and the first job she has is defining the hardest part, the enemy. Only then can she plan, only then can she do more than improvise and hope.
“I am Third Heir of the Familydom of Thomson.” Lisa says to the wind holding up watching birds.
“My Familydom will be gone before I graduate.” She continues, speaking louder as she goes.
“We will be at war with the larger Michelson Familydom within that time, if they are not gone before us.”
“They will be engaged in war with the Techist enclave Donalson, forcing them to fight us as well for what they will have to have if they want even a prayer of surviving.”
“Donalson has allied themselves with the Techist King Dest and the Kallows Collective.”
“I have behaved badly. I have been punished.”
“My body is no longer my own, it obeys another’s words when he orders it or me.”
“My powers come and go with a plug he put in my butt, or his whim.”
“My very mind has been bent against me, it turns my thoughts of harm against him to those of his succor and a desire to service him.”
“I am betrayed and alone within and without. My body and my mind are his, only my will is my own.”
“Everything I know and love will be destroyed before I am even an adult.” She cries out as the first tear leaks.
“War marches onward at it’s steady pace, eating peace, snacking on contentment and engorging itself on apathy as it always has.”
“The Legents fear becoming involved in something so local and so inevitable because they are responsible for the whole of the world.” She says as her nose becomes stuffy and her eyes begin feeling swollen.
“Well world, you know what, I don’t accept this as inevitable anymore. I think it can be changed and I am going to, not try, I am going to.”
“You want to stop me world?” Lisa screams in challenge into the afternoon sun and wind, “You think you can stop me, you think you have what it takes?”
“Well then world; in that case I’ll tell you what.” She screams at the top of her lungs. Tears flow while emotions held in check by terror and uncertainty finally pour out as her soul purges itself of the last trappings of childhood. One lone girl who doesn’t even control her own body or her own mind, challenges the world to stop her from saving what she holds dear. It may be impossible, but she sees nothing to lose. Having only her will on her side, she pushes herself onward. No longer the child. No longer the young woman of a gross of hearts ago. The woman she is now she shouts defiance at and to the world, daring it to defy her, daring it to try to stop her.
“Bring it!”