The
refugees, when they came, were not many. Two men and a woman who had been
inmates or guards. The line between those was not clear, though the floating
cities had been the prisons of this world. Way they saw it, it didn’t matter
how you got in there, only how you got out. So you worked your way up the
ranks. Your fellows voted you your freedom.
Amazing,
the things a world will think of. All gone now, of course, the cities sinking
in the swamp. Whatever formed anew on Thaeron, it could be nothing like the
old. There weren’t enough people left.
I
vowed to keep that in mind as I welcomed my guests.
They
seemed surprised by the modesty of my tent. But that’s just old military
wisdom. Separate, do not elevate. So I was part of no circle, and kept my fire
as I liked it. But I had nothing I had not ordered my men to have for
themselves. And I never would. My tent was only larger than most for the
purpose of accommodating meetings such as this.
“Please
sit,” I said. We all sat, on sacks of flour absconded from a barge sitting at
the docks. At least they were carefully arranged. Ash had seen to that. We ate
mostly in silence.
“Tell
me what it was like,” I said, near the end. “Tell me what it’s like to be an
Auger. What it’s like being infected by the nightwind.” It was not the purpose
of the meeting. But it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t hurt.
Ki,
the woman, began, wrapping her arms around her knees. “Guardian, it’s not like
you think,” she said. “There’s no...you’re not mindless. They don’t take
everything away. They add things. I finally thought my body was great. I felt
attractive, like all the men would want me. You feel included and important. I
thought I’d finally understood the secrets of the universe. The meaning of
life, death, it’s all so clear. It’s the New Profusion. All our lives had been
pointing toward the moment we accepted it. And when I did I was finally
complete.”
The
stories of the men were much the same. Tevantes, a tall wiry man, had
discovered a nascient gift for mathematics and abstract theory. Renly, absurdly
handsome, had finally healed from the deaths of his parents when he was a small
child. The common denominator was that it had all come so quickly, an epiphany
the moment the nightwind figured out what would work to switch you over.
Then
one of the questions I’d actually called the meeting for. “And now? Now that
there is no nightwind? What do you think? How do you feel?” I needed to know
what I could expect from them.
Tevantes
spoke up. “Guardian, my father was a drunk,” he said, looking down at the reed
mat which I passed off as carpet. “Had been all his life. Said there were years
he couldn’t remember. When I was ten, the Temple finally convinced him he
needed to sober up, or he finally decided it himself. Well, he did. He really
did. And it was good. He was calmer than he used to be. He spent more time with
us.
But
every now and then something would happen, a surprise or something, and you
could see that he was scared. Not terrified, just wary. Like he half-expected
the universe to trick him. Funny, huh? Anyway, this is like that, I think.
We’re okay. We know the nightwind was a lie. But what’s to say you’re not
lying, too?”
His
eyes widened. He bowed quickly, almost hitting his head. “Our Guardian! I
apologize.”
“Nonsense,”
I said. I helped him up. “I am leading you off to war. But if I have lied to
you it has been poorly. I have told you we would work. I have given you work
aplenty. I have told you we will fight the enemy. We will see enemies very
soon. I have told you we will reclaim the world. And we are leaving tonight.”
Three
pairs of eyes on me. “Ash tells me you all hail from Redmarak. I don’t care why
you were there or your status when released. I’m giving you your status now.
Ash is overburdened. I need senior commanders. You know the swamps where you’re
going. Each of you now directs a third of our boats. The individual captains
report to you. You report to Ash. Ash reports to me. If anyone changes that,
it’s going to be me. Understood?”
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