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24.XIII \ 206

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The two progressed along this business thoroughfare with residential side streets. The hills were on the side of the reservoir where they came from. “I suppose I hadn’t reached an active enough role to be given the confidential information regarding these issues,” mused Soleil. At six, there was no way she could have been relevant, and at twenty-four they’d hoped it was long buried.

“They were wise enough not to include additional people in the decisions of wrongdoing. It’s part of why I was willing to give you half a chance.” Raev glanced to his side, regarding Soleil. “You’ve thus far shown yourself to be decent, and honest. If you were hiding something nefarious, like what we’re discussing now, the Aureny would have tossed you over the edge when you were matching forces.”

She recalled clarifying her intentions before walking into the chamber. “You’d have been just as happy if they did away with me in the case of my having compromised integrity.”

“You are right about that.” Sturlusson’s voice was steely and ruthless, though not cruel. “But they didn’t. You also made no misstep throughout the Tempering, which means you were able to respect them as well. So, I’m giving you that much.”

24.XII \ 206

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This street ended at a t-junction, facing a defunct corner store bearing a sign that read Convenience in large script.

Here the Princess stopped to speak, and her guide regarded her. “I know how this might sound, but – the Imperium is founded on cooperation and inclusion. It can’t even exist today without the collective skill sets of different planetary peoples. Cooperation is the force that propelled it to the present moment, even the spark of its inception. Relation is the mandate. That includes all known… all known…”

Soleil let out a sigh and dropped forward, empathetic pain wrenching her face where it could scarcely be seen. Her brow remained furrowed, gaze on her thoughts. “I know it sounds like I’m harping on an ideal, yet – any civilization is little else than an ideal. That I can name it means it exists, though it mightn’t have guided every action. I’m not the only one who knows where the backbone lays. But the power…” She looked up and faced Raev to show him her expression: the internal accumulation of assessment, graced with stunned acknowledgment of all the reality she’d faced. “…The power is acting against itself.” Her continuing readiness to act held her together, and her sword of logic sharpened as she continued applying it in cogitation.

He took this in with a frank and direct gaze before replying to the skyline. “How often does an established power structure depart from the ideals which created it? It happens, when those with power are afraid they might lose it. They can betray what empowered them, which may empower another.” Sturlusson lifted his hand to direct them to the right, where a wind whistled down a long, hard road.

24.X \ 206

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[Note: this lengthy chapter being released in many small pieces has turned an unprecedented corner, and so shall I by using numeral decimals.]

The trail was reasonably long by the reckoning of a child, easy switchbacks descending the face of the hill. The trees thinned against the edge of a cul de sac. The two stepped out into a semicircle of modest yet comfortable dwellings. “Like most of us with a miracle resistance, I lost my entire family.” He hung his head for half a beat and led them down the center of the street. “The Affliction created its own vengeance that way.”

“Once I was old enough, I dug it out. I gouged the secrets out of hiding, with unparalleled resources via my allies. The blood costs I incurred were… small in comparison. Yet, I bereaved myself again, through my own actions. I know very well what I’ve done.” Raev walked with floating steps as through the mists of time. Soleil glided with him, focused, letting the block roll slowly by. “Many agree the regime must fall. While you are almost convincing enough to make people believe there exists something redeemable.”

“Not all Hirylien survivors wanted to pursue vengeance. Pliskin for one, he was content to bring advances to market… in clever silence regarding the Vedani. The Pan-Galactic Imperium benefitted as they had before, scavenging under denial.”

 

24.8 \ 206

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“Advance intelligence reached Queen Celeste and her Ascendants. You had probably just begun your own schooling. They already had awareness of the Vedani. They had a dark policy of shutout and information suppression. The rapidly evolving possibility of a politically independent-minded planet gaining the sudden edge of an outright alliance with what they’d treated as an exploitable danger caused them to react with violence. Maybe facing full fragmentation and with too many shameful secrets they wished to contain, they decided they could continue their control of the Pan-Galactic Imperium by creating one more.”

The Princess’ eyes were narrowed, gaze turned inward examining scenes in her memory as though on a tiny screen. They paced each other evenly. Lips pressed tightly together, at his pauses she met Sturlusson’s look sidelong to confirm that she was following keenly.

As they passed the end of the oblong school building, it appeared as on some holiday, but the big double doors that would have been at the end were missing. The other shore of this little lake – a reservoir – was easier to examine from here. There was an outlet that flowed for some way toward a ledge. This path would soon depart from the shore, into trees.

Raev continued. “They didn’t have time, or they didn’t act like they examined branches of reasonable strategy. They reached into their arsenal to come up with something efficacious and brutal. How often do the leaders of entrenched governments retain power by acting against the founding principles? Occasional accounting is performed.”

24.7 \ 206

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Soleil nodded her agreement to the requested conversation, and the others dispersed thoughtfully, leaving her at the playground with Raev. He massaged his right arm stump, still with no prosthesis, and turned to face her directly, in the Vedani manner. “I have a lot to communicate upon this occasion. Are you ready to listen?”

The tragedy of this planet seeping in at the corners of her eyes, Soleil carefully laced her fingers into a mudra she called the Recording Device, a reminder to keep her thoughts receptive and perception clear. “I’m here, and I can hear you. Speak.”

”Walk with me.” They went along the lake, in the direction past the playground and toward the school. “I graduated from crayons at this school. My father was a Magistrate, and brilliant with systems. I heard from the Vedani, about how you gleaned mirror coordinates to their ship from our contact session with you. My father, Rence Sturlusson, did something similar with system interruption data that translated out to intentional messages. His discoveries were inspiring and invigorating. Vedani hadn’t been able to establish recognition from any other Imperium contacts, but were ready to share technology and make exchanges. We were beginning to create infrastructure for interaction and inclusion, proud to be the bringers of a paradigm shift. I was about ten.”

Large butterflies occupied the shoreline, flapping lackadaisically between spaced out bunchgrasses. Soleil did not try to make out any unusual shapes on the ground, but appreciated the moment’s clement weather. Her hands still held each other, interlaced.