* * *
Alestere
* * *
I feel I've been put on the spot; as soon as Jhe Valtoryeh stops talking, everyone looks at me. All I can do is hold this silly crown that's already caused so much trouble and wonder what to say to them. Jhe Luci looks especially expectant.
Oh goodness, they think I'll know what this is all about. They'll find out I know nothing, and then none of them will take me seriously again. Strange that I don't feel so nervous about it, then, even though I've no idea what to say.
Jhe Luci's hawkish expression breaks as he lets out a sudden chuckle. "Stop staring at poor Alestere. He's just as clueless as the rest of us. And why shouldn't he be?" He laughs, almost bending double with the mirth. "If he'd been that far into the past and done all that in the two months since his rebirth, I'd imagine he'd have mentioned it sometime before now." He keeps laughing. Goodness, is it really that funny?
Katherine pats my shoulder, smiling. "You're almost as high-strung as Jhe Val. We don't expect you to solve everything, you know. That would be unrealistic." She sighs heavily. "Much as it would be nice for someone to have all the answers for everything."
I squeeze her shoulder. "It'll all be clear eventually, I'm sure." I stand a little straighter. "My future self hasn't seen fit to tell me when I ever flit off into the past to assist with the Crown, nor how or why it happens, but I do sense a faint admonition to not panic over that. Sometimes Time happens in order, even for a Time Lord." I look up at Jhe Valtoryeh. "Or rather the Blue Lord, as you said? I rather like the sound of that. My brother is the Green Lord, Mother the White Lord, and Father... well, not mine, but Mother's husband who was Eistinn's Father, was the Red Lord. Perhaps Blue concludes the spectrum? Mother was always so secretive about it that I never could find any clear definition of what I was... just a deep resentment and scorn that I was anything but what she intended."
Jhe Luci looks up with me, his expression deepening into something sorrowful. I almost look away, but remind myself that I have nothing to be ashamed of. "Go on," he says.
"But I don't really know anything besides that. As it is, much of what I've already said is conjecture." I don't like to admit just how much of what Elete said in the past was so much fluff and made-up nothing pulled from the very air. He just managed to say it with confidence, whereas I keep forgetting not to admit it's all nearly tripe.
We call that honesty, Jhe h'Logos. An appreciated, admirable quality. Katherine's gaze flicks over to me, but otherwise she doesn't acknowledge that bit of encouragement slipped between my ears. Still, I hope she senses how grateful I am for it.
Of course, Jhe Luci laughs again. "Well, you make it sound like it makes sense, so it's a start. Katherine is right - it would be nice if someone had all the answers for us, but I've yet to meet that someone, so until then we'll have to just make it all up. You're the Poet King, I'm the Song, and the rest of us in here are either Poets or know enough about what's going on that they could reliably pretend to be one in a pinch. So let's solve a problem instead of waiting for the solution to fall into our laps."
Katherine sighs with relief. "You know, it's so nice to hear someone wants me to get something done. On that note, Eistinn, can you help me with the coffee and the tea? I think we're going to be in here for awhile."
I start. I remember why it is I came here in the first place, and feel chagrined. Surely we'll address Ebrelle's matter soon, but until then I'd rather Stevane not be waiting for me to get back to her on a matter I told her would be settled as soon as possible. I poke her mind gently to ensure I'm not interjecting my thoughts in the middle of a conversation, but it seems I'm in the clear - she is in fact waiting for results.
It shall be awhile, Jhe Stevane. It seems we have a lot of matters to attend to for Jhe o'Radia. I shall let you know as soon as I can, but... I close my eyes for a moment, feeling out the future as I can see it, reaching for any hints my future selves may have passed backwards along to me. It would likely be prudent to start drawing up plans for a laboratory no matter which way this discussion goes, so why don't you and Ebrelle--
Stevane interjects before I can get to the end of my admittedly rather winding statement. He overheard you mention 'laboratory,' and now he's going on about something and I can't focus on you. Don't fret about him, he'll keep himself busy now. Let me know when Unkie says yes! I know he will, I'm sure of it! I can hear Ebrelle's mutterings on the other side of her thoughts. Of course, I forgot that their link will make it easy for him to hear anything told to her, and vice-versa. That was the point, really.
Well, it seems I don't have to worry on my brother's account. I turn my attention back to our impromptu meeting. Katherine and Eistinn have returned, the tea and coffee are well-supplied, and by the amount handy we'll be stocked for however long this all takes to work out.
* * *
Katherine bites her lip. "Well, I can't blame Grandmother for having her little snits over it. Still, is that really what she said about Blue Lords?"
Eistinn grins. "Might've been the biggest snit I ever saw Mother get into, and believe me, she had her moments. Yeah, she really only mentioned them that one time, but I'm sure she said it. 'Wily Blue Lords and their scheming, cheating ways. Thanks be to the King that he always manages to sniff them out before they become any harm. And the way the Lords follow the royal Xaillyndesse family line, it's certainly a possibility, but I'd be utterly scandalized if ever I had a Blue Lord come from my stock."
I laugh. I laugh so hard that I cry, and a few drops of my tea manage to shake on the table. I laugh so hard that Jhe Valtoryeh pats my back to make sure that I'm not choking.
Jhe Luci just smiles, a hint of smugness to his expression.
* * *
"I can't recall that a Green Lord's ever died." Eistinn frowns, his fist digging into his cheek as he props his head up. "That's been an important thing - that they not die. Before there's another one, I mean." He frowns, looking into nothing as he thinks through what he's picked up from so many years ago. "But that's the same for any of em. A Lord dies, another Lord rises. There's always one of each... and only one, I think." He bites his lip. "I'm not sure. There's got to be some overlap, right? Only, it's really important that Green Lords not die early. I think Mother was trying to get herself another Red Lord. I'm pretty sure the puppet rulers have always been Red Lords, but she was getting desperate."
Jhe Luci frowns. "Puppet rulers?"
Eistinn shrugs, playing it off as if it's insignificant, or just a normality. "Yeah, the Kings who sit on the Throne of Lyiannethe. We're bred to be the Jherent Nul's little sockpuppets. White Lords control the Kings, or maybe just talk to the Jherent Nul, I'm not sure. They're like handlers." He says it so flippantly, and then I realize he's just trying not to be angry about it all. Eistinn was the first Heir, after all. It was only after he died that the role fell to Ebrelle. "So it's really weird that the King was a Green Lord this time, but I think Mother's been killing off her options and had to work with what she had. By Ebrelle's account, it seems that the Jherent Nul wasn't entirely pleased with having to use a Green Lord, and didn't at all like having to make do with what was available. But Mother killed me off, so..." His vision unfocuses again, and doesn't focus again for almost a minute. His brows slowly draw together as he thinks something through to his logical conclusion.
Then, he laughs.
"Heh. I just now realized that logic makes me a Red Lord." He chuckles, burying his hands into his hair and twisting the dark curly locks. "Ohhh man. That's kind of weird. No wonder she always talked about this Lords stuff around me, but never answered my questions about Red Lords. She controlled Father so strictly, it figures that she'd try to leash me with ignorance."
He holds up his hand, studying the fingers. "I wonder how I'm gonna be a Red Lord? No one's around to teach me how to blow stuff up. As far as I know, that's all Father did."
He laughs again, a little sad, and none of us know what to tell him.
* * *
"Alright." Katherine taps my parchment, where I've been writing all of the pertinent facts down. I've a diagram for our findings, and it's quite illuminating. "Green Lord is pretty easy since Father took to the role pretty early and openly talked about being one. Green Lords help things grow and stay alive. They control vitality. They're affected by the health of plants most specifically, but have power over animals as well." She blinks. "In fact, you might call them a kind of Animism. The relationship is similar."
Jhe Luci goes stark white. "I am relieved, then, that Diyn didn't Judge Ebrelle guilty."
We all pause for a moment, letting that sink in. It's a sobering thought, and also a question I never want to see answered - just how many people, plants and animals would die if Ebrelle were killed premature to another Green Lord rising? After it sinks in... well, it certainly adds another degree of urgency and importance to protecting him.
"The Blue Lord," Katherine says, moving us along. Jhe Valtoryeh nods. I feel a bit self-conscious. Jhe h'Logos is a role I was given, and sometimes worry I will lose. The Blue Lord is something I cannot stop being, nor help being, and the anticipation of being defined so clearly by it is eerie.
Jhe Valtoryeh clears his throat. "The Blue Lord has been intertwined with the Song since before we left Chethar, and was vital to the Song surviving being unbound from Emperor Theos. So has the blue thread been that of all Blue Lords, or just the present one? We can assume that there has always been a Blue Lord, however briefly they've managed to live before being culled off by the Xaillyndessen."
I think it over, but Jhe Luci has an answer before I give mine. "It's... all Blue Lords. Or you could say only one, since there is technically only one at a time. The next Blue Lord will not awaken until the previous one's death, but the line is unbroken... if a bit tangled at certain points." He winces. "Especially recently, with our Blue Lord split into several pieces, and being actively warped by the Jherent Nul. That was almost a coup. We are very lucky 'Sy Judged Elete when he did. To think of what would have happened to the Song had Nul fully corrupted the Blue Lord..." He shudders.
I can't help but smile. "So it is a good idea to Judge the Blue Lords, but not the Green ones. Should I write that one down?"
He shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "Please, Alestere, don't encourage 'Sy."
Katherine laughs, but it sounds sad.
"Red Lords." Jhe Valtoryeh turns to Eistinn, pride glinting in his eyes. "I do remember Father being rather handy with detonations of all kinds."
Eistinn cocks his head. "Hey, Val, maybe you're the Red Lord instead. Or maybe we're both..."
Jhe Valtoryeh shakes his head, eyes closed, smiling in a content manner. "All that I am is Valtoryeh. An Archo, formerly of Chethar, and not of Xaillyndesse lineage, though certainly touched by the traditions of the family now. I am no heir of Father's, and I prefer it that way."
"Every time you say 'Father,' I think of our time in Chethar and get confused." Jhe Luci brushes his bangs out of his eyes as if brushing away memories from his mind. "What we could call a Father was no Xaillyndesse."
Jhe Valtoryeh laughs, the sound a tad bitter. "One did me just as good as the other, in the end. In any case, the Red Lord?" He's eager to move away from that subject. But he doesn't look the worse for this conversation - in fact, he appears more focused and alert now than I've ever seen him before, as if his earlier realization pulled his sense of self in place. Sometimes a bit of shock can undo the damage of all the previous shocks, like a sudden leap into icy waters.
Eistinn nods, eager to move from an uncomfortable spot in conversation. "Seems like it's all about energy. Not life, like it is with the Green Lord, but the energy life has to it. And the energy of fire, or gunpowder igniting, all that. Not the thought of it or the heart of it, just the power." His eyes unfocus as he thinks that over. "Yeah, that describes Father entirely, to be honest. There uh, wasn't much heart to him."
Jhe Valtoryeh lets out a sarcastic chuckle. "Father couldn't have a heart left after Mother got through with him. The last few years of his life are a bit hard for me to remember from our perspective, but I have a feeling that he... wasn't truly alive during them."
Eistinn pales. I myself pale. "Mother... animated him?" I realize that I'm asking the question, after having trouble identifying the voice at first. I'm rather more disturbed about it than I expected. "She is the White Lord, after all. I shouldn't sound so surprised." I blink. "Still. They were married. Wedded Xaillyndessen die together." I feel betrayed. I never thought I would feel betrayed like this by Mother. She's done enough to me, and to those I love, that I thought she could do nothing else to shock me or hurt me. "The pain Elete went through to survive Ivae's passing and struggle onwards from that to live... it ripped him apart to have her in the Void and him without. It took all he had in himself, and more from the Crown, to survive it..." My eyes widen. "The Crown. He was being slowly eaten away at, and the Crown stopped it from happening. Stopped him from following the natural progression of death. 'Sy even had him remove it before he executed... yes. I wonder if... hm."
Everyone is staring at me as if I've been rambling in some other language, except Katherine, who has that patient 'waiting for him to turn the page' face on.
I wave my hand. "I don't know where this is going. But Elete was a Blue Lord and he overcame his wedding vows, so a White Lord would have a similar ability, I suppose. What's more important is the Crown. I am fairly sure Elete tainted it as it lent power to him to extend his life. He did not mean to at all, and he could not help it, but Nul was ripping him open slowly with every breath he took. It was unavoidable." I sigh, then look down at it. "So this thing is cursed. But I suppose we fix that. I wear it in my future when I... help create it, in the past. Goodness, I think that confuses even me."
"I can't imagine why." Jhe Luci massages his temples. "I'm getting a headache, but I can't entirely blame that on your explanation making less sense than I'd like. This is a lot of information to take in, and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I think you can keep the Crown until we figure it all out. You'll know what to look out for, and so far you look unaffected by it. I've no idea how to clean it, though, unless Judging it does anything." He snorts. "'Sy would be rather gleeful to run Diyn through it, but I'm not sure if Diyn would agree to it unless it was on someone's head at the time."
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the Crown being Judged. "You've never liked this thing, have you?"
"Never." He grins at Katherine. "I suppose it was hereditary."
She just scowls. "It's not right to talk lightly of Judging, you know. Besides, Judging doesn't cleanse, it destroys the flaws, leaving nothing whole behind... if it doesn't simply destroy the whole in the process. It's why Father's taken so long to recover! And you don't Judge inanimate objects!" Fury glows in her eyes, gold on green. Her glare is upon me now, and I wonder for a moment just where I transgressed.
The room goes silent.
Katherine breaks the silence with a huff of exasperation. "None of you know what it means, fully, for something to be Judged. You have all watched. Jhe h'Logos, you've gotten rather glib about it yourself because of Elete, but he died, and that wasn't you. You didn't survive his Judging! So don't make jokes about it. You don't know, and you never should." Somewhere under that anger, she looks hurt, and even a little afraid.
Ah. I see where I've been treading over a line, repeatedly, or perhaps even dancing upon it. "I apologize."
"Don't even start! Stop being such an idiot and try to live a long life this time. I'm fed up with you dying?"
I bit my lip. "I only did it once, dear."
"That was more than enough!" Her eyes blaze. She's beautiful like that, and I only feel a little bad for baiting her on purpose that last time. "Why are you asking 'Sy to Judge anything, anyway?" She crosses her arms. Apparently there's something else at play here--
"Would you be willing to make a suggestion, Advocate?"
She closes her eyes, composure gliding over her like a new slip. She opens them, and I'm greeted by a gaze that's gold and blue, and not green in any way. It's then that I remember that the Advocate cannot help with anything unless she is asked to, and I understand the other part of Katherine's frustration. She steps forward, then scrutinizes the headpiece in my hands.
She reaches out one finger to touch it. Her gaze remains steady. After a few moments, her mouth twists to the side. "It's hiding something. Once you find what it is hiding, the problem will be solved. It's..." she blinks, then looks up at me. "It will be your problem to fix, but don't worry about it until it's the time to. The moment for you to act shall arrive exactly when it arrives, and no earlier. Until then, put this aside and do not wear it. Wearing it won't help you now." Her eyes still glow gold and blue, and my mouth has gone so dry for some reason that I cannot find a reply in me.
"Thank you, Advocate." Jhe o'Radia speaks for me, thankfully. "Your assistance is always appreciated."
She snorts in return, the dignified gaze contrasting with the mannerism. "No it's not, but it's nice of you to say." She sighs, closes her eyes again, and then feels about ten feet shorter in comparison to me. When she opens them again, they're green, and she is back to as normal as she ever gets.
Eistinn's eyes are wide, and he can't stop staring at Katherine. I suppose to him that was very unexpected. Whereas Jhe Valtoryeh...
It's hard to look at him now. That would be because sometime during Katherine's reading of the Crown, he left. I close my eyes and sigh. I only know so much of his past entanglements with the previous Advocate, but I know enough to know that it must hurt to watch another. After he tires of gawking at Katherine, Eistinn looks up and realizes that his twin is gone. "Aww, crap. He's got into one of his moods--"
"I'll go with you." And then Katherine and Eistinn rush out without another word said, least of all to either I or Jhe Luci.
The latter looks chagrined, but not surprised. Then he looks up at me. "We've had a bit of a busy day already, and apparently you have an appointment for me with Ebrelle."
I blink. I hadn't really had a chance to discuss anything about it yet, but...
"I'll see him tomorrow. I think you'll agree that it's best he and I limit our visits with each other to a maximum of once every twenty-four hours. Let him know that I'm not... angry with him." He sighs. "I've still to see off Rahellene today. But you have literally taken a load off of my mind. Whatever Ebrelle says, I can deal with." He closes his eyes. "I've a feeling I already know. It's easier to feel it all out now, you know. The Song. Even if the Crown isn't as it should be yet, it's certainly better in your hands."
I smile. "I am happy to be of service." I bow.
He chuckles. "You're happy to have something bigger and heavier than a circlet to eventually put on your head. Don't bother to hide it. Go on, move along. I've got an Empire to run, you know, and I'm sure there's lots of mischief afoot in your Hall."
I smile. "Indeed. I'll see if I can add to it."
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