“How were the petitioners, dad?” Jane asked, as she sat down across the table from Erick and Poi.
The windows were dark; the sun had set not too long ago.
“Only 33 kills completed today, and 31 other problems,” Erick said, smiling as he stuck his fork into the roast Jane had saved for him. “Many of those issues— Except for a few ‘finding’ missions, for sure— Almost all of them could have been done by someone else, too, but they would have had a lot of trouble. I’m almost tempted to have people submit monster kill applications with everything on them, as almost all of those are normal, and I don’t need to actually speak to those people. But I think people just wanted to talk to me. Which is fine, but… not a great use of my time.”
Poi nodded. “This is getting more like work, and less like a vacation, too.”
“Yes; that too, but it is slowing down… somewhat.” Erick said, “Anyway. I’ll put out a second type of application tonight and people can take one of two forms; monster kills, or ‘other’. That should split up the jobs from ones that need to be handled with care, and ones that just need to get done. In fact, I will do that right now.” And so he did, using the Ophiels outside to complete that task while he ate dinner. “Blessing the Cultists and cultists and such has slowed down, too. Only a hundred of those, today. A few more priests of Koyabez are out at the mountain, helping. I think that’s going to turn out really well, actually.”
“I hope so.” Jane said, “The first debate on Clan Pale Cow’s behalf is taking place tomorrow, at noon. Are you going to be there?”
“Oh. Uh.” Erick asked, “That’s tomorrow? I guess I will. I’ll need to talk to Niyazo before then.”
Jane said, “You’re under no obligation to actually help them. It doesn’t matter if they Integrate or not; not to you, anyway.”
“True.” Erick said, “But I do have an obligation to ensure that I leave no strong enemies to strike at my back, and the dragon Ordoonarati qualifies as such a potential enemy, for me, or for the other people who live here. He thought I was coming after him, and I can’t blame him for thinking that, but I can blame him for how he went about trying to kill me. Perhaps, if we were to talk again, or if I were to show my own thoughts on the subject of Integration, I will know if Ordoonarati is simply lashing out, or if he needs to die like all the other monsters out there.”
Jane went a little wide-eyed.
But Teressa, Nirzir, and Poi all nodded along.
“I get the distinct impression that Ordoonarati has lived here for a long time, and these grass travelers truly are his people.” Erick continued, “In that case, we might be on something of the same side, if all he actually wants is to be left alone. But besides that, I’m interested in seeing how a Polite War works.” He smiled as he changed the subject, “I saw the motor you made. Want to test it out?”
Jane looked like she wanted to go back a bit in the conversation, but she said, “No motor tests right now. I do want to hear more about electricity, though.”
Nirzir perked up from her chair, to the side of the yurt. “Can I listen in, too?”
“Sure!” Erick asked, “How about I tell the story tonight?”
Teressa spoke up, “An actual story? Or a lesson?”
Erick smirked. “You can head to bed if you don’t want to learn the secrets of the New Cosmology, Teressa.”
“Then I shall head to bed.”
And so, as Teressa zonked out on her bed, Erick spoke of electricity and left hand rules and poles and electrons traveling down conductive materials, and what it meant for a material to be conductive in the first place. He got pretty deep into the actual physics of it all, but eventually he moved on to experimental evidence of how electrical and magnetic fields were related.
Partway through, Erick wondered how Kiri was doing; she should have been here for this talk.
And now Erick wanted to get back home. Back to someplace safe.
And yet, he was doing a lot of good out here.
- - - -
The next morning Erick made a much larger, much better motor using a few design changes he had thought of last night, when he was explaining how motors worked. Simply upping the size of the rotor to a meter long and half a meter wide, and going from three coils to six (with some of the wiring being more like metal bars than wires), as well as changing how the brushes touched the commutator, helped with quite a few problems. The heat was a lot lower on the larger system, for one, and with [Alter Friction] cast on the brushes, Erick greatly extended the life of those heavily used metal bits. Centrifugal forces on the rotor still caused problems, breaking apart the entire machine more than once, but Erick fixed those problems, too; mostly. As the rotor spun fast and strong, and then faster, heat almost became an issue, but a simple [Cooling Ward] ended that problem before it spiraled out of control.
The motor continued to have problems, though, and at this new, larger size, those problems were problems.
It was spinning too damned fast, and Erick’s mechanical engineering was not up to the stress of it all. Stress fractures abounded, from the rotor to the housing. Erick needed to work on his metallurgy, and he needed to refine the metals that the elders had sent him. They might have been high-grade steel, or they might have been shit. Erick had no idea.
But, even though the rotor was spinning fast, it was also spinning too slow. Too weak. While it was running, Erick managed to take a measurement of the RPM at just under 700 revolutions per minute. There were losses of inefficiency everywhere. He already knew he needed a transmission system in order to use the power present in his new motor, but he needed a quality motor first. 1500 RPM, minimum.
Some [Mend]s brought the system back together after each failure, but after the third break, something had thoroughly broken in the actual history of the motor, and [Mend] would not restore the motor to functionality. Oh well. With half an hour to go till the debates, Erick called it quits for the day, leaving everything like it was—
Staring down at his motor, Erick had an idea.
“I can put a flywheel outside of the motor, which is structurally strong, and put an [Anti Gravity Ward] on the actual motor, which is structurally weak, thus eliminating the need for perfect engineering of… the rotor…” Erick frowned. “No… That’s solving for failure. That might not work in the first place, and who wants a flywheel in their car? Bad idea.” He mumbled to himself, “All this is useless without the transmission, though...”
He shook his head and walked away, telling Jane and Poi that he was headed out as he walked toward Clan Pale Cow. Poi rapidly followed. Jane caught up, soon enough. Nirzir and Teressa were already at Clan Pale Cow, working at the cooking yurt and at the schoolhouse yurt, respectively. Erick would pick them up on his way through the space.
- - - -
Clan Pale Cow’s occupied land had become much more occupied in the last few days, all while Erick was barely looking. Most of the clan was still scattered to the winds, but Erick saw a lot of new faces as he walked past the outer edge of yurts, toward Warlord Niyazo’s yurt about half a kilometer away, at the center of the whole clan. There were about five cooking yurts now, each lined up next to each other, and about 900 yurts scattered over the kilometer of space provided to Clan Pale Cow, so Erick guessed that there were five collections of people, here.
Nirzir hopped off of the central cooking yurt as soon as she saw Erick for herself; she had been looking out for him, for Erick had made no attempt at subtlety as he strode into Clan Pale Cow’s designated land, so other people had noticed him long before now. Word got around rather fast when it came to that sort of stuff.
As Nirzir joined Erick, falling in behind him, Teressa was already on her way to him, having also heard of his movements through the camp. With his full party assembled, Erick went to the yurt of Warlord Niyazo.
When Erick got to Niyazo’s yurt, there were four other yurts almost exactly like the warlord’s, situated just outside. All of those yurts were unoccupied by the leaders of Pale Cow, save a few kids and grandmothers and fathers who had been left behind.
For beyond that area, a very large yurt overshadowed the size of almost every other yurt within sight. It was a gathering space, and it was there that Niyazo and his lesser clan leaders had been holding meetings and gatherings ever since they had arrived at Ooloraptoor. Erick walked that way.
Cowherd Amasar sat on the porch of that larger yurt, alongside a few other cowherds of other branch clans. They hopped to attention as Erick came toward them. They bowed as Erick hopped up onto the yurt.
Amasar rose, saying, “Erick. Welcome.”
“Hello, Amasar.” Erick pointed at the flap to the yurt. “Are they speaking of today’s debate?”
“They have been discussing the upcoming debates for days, but mostly just to understand who our opponents might field in battle. It could change depending on who we choose to field in battle.” Amasar said, “The actual debate isn’t going to take place for another hour, but we don’t expect the battle to occur until late into the evening. Possibly not until twilight. It does infringe on the help that you have chosen to give other people, though.”
Amasar had tried to become a part of Erick’s cohort, due to some cultural ideas around what it meant to save someone’s life. Erick had denied the man, and it had hurt him, perhaps more than Erick had expected to hurt him. Some of that hurt was on clear display to those who were capable of seeing such a thing, and Erick was one of those people.
Erick said, “I know that being a clanfriend to Pale Cow requires me to take responsibility to be aware of events like this on my own, but I could use some small help with this honor. In exchange for the life I helped you to retain, I require your help in this, Amasar. Keep me better informed of events like this.”
Amasar, and all the other cowherds, perked up. Amasar stood straight. He controlled his sudden, overwhelming relief, and the washing away of a black mark on his life, to something smaller. With quiet joy, he said, “I will do this for you, Erick.”
Erick didn’t really get whatever cultural thing was going on there, but he understood enough to be able to make the guy feel better about himself, and that’s what was important. Erick gestured to the flap to the yurt, saying, “I’m going in, now.”
Amasar hopped to the flap and silently pulled it back.
Erick walked into the firelit space beyond, where four leaders spoke around a low hearth, and a few other people held out in the shadows behind them. Poi and Nirzir joined Erick as he walked forward, but Jane and Teressa remained outside.
Niyazo said to Erick, “Welcome to our bonfire. Glad you could make it. Take a seat.”
Erick nodded to everyone around the fire, as he took his seat in an empty space, saying, “I would have been here sooner, but I was busy. Before you continue with tactical discussions, I would have a refresher on the possible outcomes of this debate.”
While the four lesser leaders watched Erick, Niyazo said, “If we lose any of our three planned debates, we are to cut ties with Songli for a year. If all three of our opponent clans lose, then they are honor bound to accept a year of envoys from Songli; from Severing Crescent of Alaralti, in particular.”
Erick nodded. “And the three clans you are facing?”
“Green Grass, with Leader Linxel is first. Today. Clan Blue Sky, another True Traveler Clan and formerly a part of Green Grass decades ago, is tomorrow. Leader Roodi of Blue Sky is distantly related to Linxel.” Niyazo said, “Then we have Clan Brown Dog, they are a lesser True Traveler Clan, but their Leader Fara is a well known power among grass travelers. That debate might be three days from now, or seven. We’re not sure. We expect the most difficulty from Brown Dog since Green Grass and Blue Sky have both been massively upset by recent events, as you know.”
Another leader spoke up, “We still expect Green Grass to put up a heavy defense of words. Hours of debate, at least. They could still win over the judging Elders, forcing us into an actual polite battle, of which they would also likely win.”
A different leader said, “Unless you wish to participate in battle yourself, clanfriend Erick? Honestly, we did not know if you would show.”
Erick nodded. “Then that makes this decision easy: Instead of the multi-hour affair that you expect, I would like to speak on Pale Cow’s and Integration’s behalf, and then get right to battle if they decide to keep debating. I expect to take… half an hour? Till we get to the actual fight? Of which I will take the field, alongside 9 of your other people.” He asked, “Unless I can use Ophiel in my stead?”
While the four leaders looked suddenly happy—
Niyazo said, “It would require an actual ruling from the Elders, but we have already asked around and there are rules against [Familiar]s; we don’t expect Ophiel to be allowed, except as a part of you, in which case the battle is as good as won.”
Erick said, “I wouldn’t expect to be allowed to take myself out of mortal danger, either, but I had to ask. So with that out of the way,” Erick glanced around, saying, “I don’t believe we’ve met, yet. And I don’t know much about your arguments for Integration, either. I have my own, most of which will center around kicking out bad actors in your society.”
The other leaders looked happy, and yet worried at the same time.
Niyazo began with the man on Erick’s right, saying, “This is Leader Birobar, who…”
Names and faces. Introductions to people, and then ideas. Erick caught up rather quickly, while he also took care of twenty monster kill requests waiting for him outside of his yurt, Blessed people on the mountain, and scoped out where the debate would actually take place.
Before he knew it, it was time.
- - - -
The Elder House was a large, misshapen blob of a building, located directly next to the waters of Lake Ooloraptoor. In it were housed the fifty or so elevated elders of the grass traveling clans, as well as twice that number of caretakers. The only natural tree that Erick had seen upon all the grasslands lived here too, crawling into the air alongside the house; it was simultaneously a sickly and healthy looking thing of burls and twists and bright green leaves. This blobby, stone house was the second permanent structure of the grass travelers, with the other one being the stone fence that separated the fishable waters of the lake from the greater depths beyond.
It was near there, about a hundred meters from that blobby house, where the lands had been cleared of yurts and two and half podiums had been raised on a platform on the beach. The two main podiums were turned halfway toward each other, so that the speakers there could talk to each other and the audience. The elders were the primary audience, who would sit upon chairs in front of the platform to listen, and judge. All other clansmen were welcome to stand behind the elders to listen to the debates, but the elders were the only ones allowed to sit and voice their objections or questions to the speakers, though Erick was assured that mostly, the elders just judged, silently.
The half podium was reserved for the moderator, who also silently judged the proceedings.
On their way to the stage, Erick saw the elders he had met before; mainly Elder Uriol Red Dog, Elder Teer Silver Yurt, Elder Puuroi Yellow Fish, and others of which he had seen in passing, or briefly worked with when he helped with all the recent face stealer searching.
Actually getting to the debates had required walking near the semi-permanent territories of more than a few different clans. This caused a lot of people to come out to see him walk past. Getting this close to the waters, which was a very popular area for trade and the selling of food, and the fishing of fish, had even drawn a crowd to watch Erick pass. A few people had called out thanks to him, for helping them in some way that Erick had to think about to remember; he was still running a lot of side jobs while he had walked through Ooloraptoor, and so he wasn’t fully present all the time.
But now he was here, standing to one side of the stage, alongside Niyazo and a few other people. Koori had come to the debates, too, sliding into the entourage at the last moment, while Erick’s own people stood back, with the audience.
And what an audience it was. Thousands of people had come out to listen to the debates; a lot more than Erick had glimpsed here before, in the many times Ophiel had flown past this stage while he was doing something else. There might be three thousand people out there. Maybe 3500. The crowd stretched out in a half circle for a good 200 meters away.
… And now that he took a moment to actually look, with Perception and Intelligence working together Erick counted 3758 people out there, with the number growing every passing second, as more and more people trickled in from elsewhere. Almost everyone spoke to their neighbors, filling the air with a susurrus of sound, some of which Erick caught, but most of which he let flow past him, like the northern wind, unremarked.
In that moment, Erick found himself quite enamored with the political engagement he was seeing in front of him.
Most nations of Veird did not have anything approaching democracy. The grass travelers were mostly the same in this regard, but the separation between heads of state and the population of this land was almost nonexistent. Erick saw obvious clan leaders in the audience, but he also saw cowherds and grandmothers and children raised on the shoulders of fathers, all so that they could see how their nation worked at its best. The powerful stood right beside those people whom most would call ‘commoners’. It was a nice thing to see.
Erick did a quick calculation to truly understand what he was seeing, there on that sandy ground before him.
A full clan was usually three hundred to two thousand people, with almost all of the clans being on the smaller end. Pale Cow only had around 1150 people, while Green Grass had about 500. There were only about 180 clans in the entire grass traveler ‘nation’. So of an estimated 125,000 grass travelers, the number of people who physically turned out to see this debate was about 3% of their entire population.
And that didn’t include the thousands and thousands of [Scry] eyes hanging out in the air above; Erick wasn’t even going to attempt to count those, but he guessed there were 35,000 of them. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye was the only one allowed near anyone, as it had remained on one of Erick’s shoulders the whole time, while a tiny Ophiel sat on the other.
There was a lot of transparency in these proceedings, and Erick really liked it.
He wasn’t sure if he liked being on stage in front of so many people, though, but that fleeting emotion was easy to squash.
The Elders of Ooloraptoor cared about the audience, too; though the 33 elders had set their chairs on the ground in front of the stage, facing the stage, more than a few elders craned their heads around to glance at the massive crowd behind them, or to look at the [Scry] eyes in the sky. They were also impressed by the turnout.
Elder Teer Silver Yurt sat in front, looking stoic. At a hundred and ten, she was perhaps the oldest elder of Ooloraptoor. It was her duty to bring the debate to order, and she did so by standing, her cane firmly gripped in her hand, helping to keep her upright. She turned to face the audience and tapped her cane on the ground.
A small magic amplified Teer’s voice, to ring out across the land, “We bring today’s debate of Integration to order.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Voices fell silent. Eyes focused. Attentions narrowed.
Teer nodded. She turned back to the stage. “Clan Pale Cow versus Clan Green Grass. Integrator, versus True Traveler. Leader Niyazo, versus Leader Linxel.”
Erick hadn’t seen Linxel for a few days now. The warlord was looking about as… attractive as Erick remembered. Erick didn’t have time for that sort of thing, and he hadn’t in a long while, but facts were facts. Linxel was still tall. Rather tall, at over two meters, but not nearly as tall as an orcol. Muscular. Dark blue skin. Spiraling horns that sprung out of short black hair and rolled around his head like a crown. A deep blue soul. No changes there. No changes in his deep blue eyes, either, Erick saw, as they briefly locked gazes.
Linxel nodded at Erick; he seemed a bit... Happy? To see Erick? Mixed feelings? Why the mixed feelings— Oh. They were on the other side of the battlefield. Right. But then why mixed? There were lots of reasons for—
Ah.
Erick ignored a slightly stirring part of himself that recognized a similarly stirring part of Linxel.
Best ignore all of that.
People were always watching for weakness.
Teer spoke, “As the one wishing for change, Leader Niyazo will put forth his first speaker for his side, then Leader Linxel will counter. This was just a private debate between Pale Cow, and the three True Traveler clans of Green Grass, Blue Sky, and Brown Dog. But that has changed due to some recent events. The actual outcome of the debates has not changed, but since the recognition of the participants is of particular interest, I will be going over the rules for the benefit of those watching.
“Each speaker will get five minutes to state their side. After both sides get their five minutes, we will either vote someone off the podium, or allow for a full discussion between the two opposing viewpoints, which will take place in switching five minute segments.
“To facilitate this vote, we have these markers, here. If we do not hold up our signs, we wish to hear more. If we hold up our signs, that means we have heard enough of you.” She held up a two-sided paddle. One side was orange, the other side was blue; this matched the podiums on the stage. Erick’s side was blue. “If we elders hold up your color, that is bad. That means we want you off the stage.” Teer gestured to the side, where Sin Seeker Vania stood beside the moderator’s podium. A large 5-minute sand timer sat on the podium, while ten little figures sat on both sides of that timer. “Vania will be the moderator. She is the one to count colors and inform you that you have lost, though whichever speaker has lost does not have to vacate the stage because of her moderation. How today’s debate will actually end is when one side loses 10 speaker opportunities. When someone is voted off, that side might decide to keep that person up there, talking. Not always a good idea, as we elders will have likely voted you off because we have heard enough, but you do what you want; this is your debate.
“We elders won’t raise our signs if we believe that there is more to be heard, though any speakers may retire whenever they wish. We’re only here to facilitate a clean debate between the two sides. Ultimately, our decisions of winners and losers are not binding for either party. Ultimately, both sides might choose to have a polite battle to settle their differences. Those results will be binding with the force of honor at stake.
“It is our understanding that such a martial debate will be of the standard variety. Orthodoxy and Variant battles will not be happening.
“It may be that battles won’t happen at all. It is our hope that by facilitating these verbal debates, that both sides, and the rest of us, might come to understand each other better, so that wisdom may rule instead of power.” Teer said, “Pale Cow Leader Niyazo. You have the stage. Your first speaker.” She sat down.
Niyazo and his subordinate leaders had told Erick that they would try to get through this as quickly as possible, but Erick would not be speaking first. The usual arguments had to be tried, and Erick had no true knowledge of those arguments, and also no history with them. He was glad for that, now that they were here, standing in front of everyone. It would have felt wrong to step into that role of true clansman, anyway. He was here as a guest; a clanfriend.
This was very low stakes, and that felt kinda good.
Erick hadn’t done low-stakes in a while.
… And yet, this was not low stakes at all. There were dragons watching this. And Erick didn’t like that one dragon, in particular, was fucking over people with face stealers and soul mutilation to keep this land un-Integrated.
Niyazo’s first speaker was Birobar, one of the lesser leaders of Pale Cow. While Birobar took his spot at the blue podium, Linxel sent forward his own first speaker to stand at the orange podium. Erick knew the other speaker; she was Forage Leader Ooloori. The last time Erick had interacted with the woman, she had been aiming to take Linxel’s place as clan leader, while Linxel was knocked out with soul damage.
What Linxel had done, by putting Ooloori forward, was rather devious.
The first speakers were always the sacrificial pawns, but it was highly possible for a sacrificial pawn to annihilate the entire other side of the board. Mostly, people expected the first speakers to fail—
Well.
There was a lot of nuance to this debate that Erick didn’t feel the need to explore too deeply. So he watched and listened to the speakers speak, growing more and more invested as the right to speak seamlessly passed back and forth between the two sides. There was no yelling. There was no name calling, or snide remarks that were best left to nobility in other nations, or even to the nobility of certain parts of Songli. Erick quickly realized that he was witnessing the workings of what was perhaps the most open and honest system of governance that he had seen, all throughout all his time on Veird.
… If this was what the dragon Ordoonarati was trying to preserve, then Erick could get behind that; this was pretty honorable, actually.
The people in the audience listened intently. Moderator Vania kept track of time with a large hourglass that took five minutes to empty, while she kept track of ‘lost soldiers’ on both sides with two sets of 10-piece statuettes; one side painted orange, the other blue. The speakers spoke simply, and they went over everything. There was a bit of plea toward emotions on both sides, but that was perfectly fine. The whole argument was not complicated to follow.
Birobar spoke of how trade would be better for them if they could leverage the purchasing power of their entire nation against that of other nations. Didn’t you dislike it when you had to pay tolls to enter Alaralti's outer cities? Didn’t you dislike it when they didn’t treat you like the proper clansmen, just because your home didn’t look like theirs? Like you were some sort of homeless adventurer?
Erick found himself smirking when the man spoke of ‘adventurers’ like it was a bad word.
Ooloori’s argument was about the benefits of tradition. About how this very debate they were having right here would be impossible in a land like that of Songli, where there were homeless people (which was apparently impossible in the grasslands), and where the heads of state disdained the lives of those at the bottom unless those people were of actual use. Did you truly want to change your way of life, to include overseers in some far away place; to let others decide the laws of your land? Wouldn’t you rather have your leader live in the yurt three yurts down the way?
Birobar countered, of course, with words over the recent bouts of face stealers, and about how, if there was a central authority, that perhaps the inadequacies in face stealer protocols would have been noticed before those inadequacies became a problem. Pale Cow had 2 face stealers among them; how many did Green Grass have?
Everyone knew Green Grass’s numbers, and so Ooloori glossed over that fact.
The answer was 47, though.
Ooloori explained that Ooloraptoor had face stealers, too. They were everywhere, and a central authority would have been just as vulnerable to them as the traditional clan system.
That earned her a bunch of orange markers from the elders. Even those that Erick knew were aligned with the True Travelers had voted her gone, for Songli had just gone through a purge of their own, and before that, Treehome, and before that, the entire Crystal Forest. Erick’s magics and his searches worked; trying to insinuate a lie that didn’t follow established truth had cost Ooloori a lot of clout.
Vania announced the loss of one of Green Grass’s speakers.
Ooloori remained at Green Grass’s podium, though.
Birobar spoke of how the problem of a theoretically corrupted Sin Seeker organization would easily be solved by having multiple organizations, which would be possible with a city, with a ruling body capable of organizing such a thing. He went on to speak of what such an organization would look like—
And he ran into the 5 minute mark, so he stopped.
Ooloori tore down all of Birobar’s ideas, as she spoke of how putting the safety of one’s family into the hands of a ruling body was asking to be treated like lower clan citizens. It happened in Songli, and it would happen here, if they allowed it to happen.
It was here that Niyazo looked to Erick, nodding to him.
Erick nodded back.
Birobar had been keeping an eye on Niyazo and his backup speakers, and so, he said, “It is here, that I must retire my position to the next in line.”
He stepped away from the podium.
Erick walked forward, taking Birobar’s place at the podium.
The audience was a bit bored with arguments that they had heard in many other places besides here, but now, at Erick’s movements, they focused once again; this was what they had come here for, and they did not expect it to happen so soon.
Linxel had been waiting for this moment, too. He mirrored Erick’s movements, to come to stand to the side of the orange podium just as Erick reached the blue podium. “Objection. Erick is not a member of Pale Cow. He has no cow in this race.”
A good two hundred people in the audience openly booed the leader of Clan Green Grass. The actual sound was more like the groan of a cow than an actual ‘boo’, but Erick understood the intent.
Teer arched her head back and spoke from her seat, her voice booming out, “Silence in the audience!” After the gathered people went quiet, Teer faced forward, and continued, “Your objection is noted and declared inadequate. Erick has proven himself a clanfriend to all who come to him, and that includes your clan, too.” Teer said to Erick, “But in the interest of fairness, please keep your words to a single 5 minute segment. Unless Green Grass decides to allow you to remain after those five minutes, please vacate the stage.”
Teer Silver Yurt was playing many sides of the political spectrum, if half of what Erick had heard about the old woman was true. She had been an Elder of Ooloraptoor for nigh on 75 years; everyone knew her. So that made sense.
What didn’t make sense was that Linxel, surprisingly, stayed at the orange podium. Ooloori stepped away. Erick would get to speak to Linxel, directly… And now that he thought about it for half a second, of course Linxel would take Ooloori’s spot. It was only honorable that Linxel face Erick, himself.
Down at moderator Vania’s podium, she took off another soldier from the orange side, leaving Pale Cow with 9 speakers left, and Green Grass with 8.
Erick spoke simply, “I will not take up too much of everyone’s valuable time, for Linxel is at least partially right: I do not have my best cows in this race, but I have one cow, for sure.
“I want to help people, and it’s hard to do that when I have no central authority that can help me help others. I ran into this problem just this last week, when I inadvertently set off a face stealer search throughout all of your lands, and your clans. That went about as well as it possibly could have, considering the unknown severity of the problem, but even so, it went rather poorly, too. I will tell you straight: that could have gone a lot better.
“When I offered this same service to Songli, they were able to organize a massive amount of people in order to help me, help them, hunt down every single face stealer and Hunter in all of Songli. Took us about 20 hours to end the threats of a thousand killers, each of which were responsible for dozens or hundreds of murders apiece. One guy, the Divider… I think I’ll remember watching that face stealer’s end for the rest of my life. That killer was one small part of a major problem. A problem that was scattered among 41 million people. And in 20 hours, we cleared up every single major case and busted thousands of Hunter rings, and face stealer rings.
“If the grass travelers had such a central organization capable of doing the same, then someone like me could come along and offer this service to them. We could have cleared out the face stealers and Hunter problems from this land in a very timely manner, and based on the numbers, you might have only had fifty face stealers, total. It was because of the lack of organization, and the lack of proper protocols, that this happened, at all.
“You need organization. You need a central authority you can trust; one of your own making, too. I can’t help you with that, and it’d be wrong of me to try, so I won’t.
“I will say that I’m running into a ‘lack of organization’ problem myself, personally.
“I’m sure many of you have seen me out there at my yurt, assisting people who come in here from all over Nelboor. It’s nice to rescue some kidnapped scion from some clan, or to save a coastal village from a tangled hydra swarm, or to kill every sky tether swarm from Songli to the Tribulations. But this world is always going to be dangerous. Problems solved yesterday need to be solved again tomorrow, and thus, I’m realizing that the sort of assistance I am providing people is not sustainable, at all.
“I need an organization, too.
“So that’s what I’m going to do, soon enough. I’m going to make something that will allow me to help others in a better, more coherent fashion. Perhaps I can try for an organization like the Headmaster has set up, with Elites and such. Or, I can just be like a normal archmage, and let people come to me. Whatever the case, I need a lot of like-minded people on my side, and some sort of organization to hold them all together, so that we can get work done. I’ll figure it out, just as I’m sure you’ll figure out your own organizational necessities in this new world, too.
“Make no mistake: the Veird of today is different from the Veird of a year ago. The shadows are less than what they have been, but that does not mean that all the usual problems of this world have stopped being problems.
“Monsters still exist. Nations still war. Face stealers still exist, and Hunters are still out there.
“I suggest you prepare yourselves for the coming changes by banding together.
“But it need not be a full denouncement of your traditions. I truly like what I have seen here, today. This calm, rational debate between various sides? And the transparency! It’s amazing; truly. I wouldn’t want this form of debate to ever vanish from Veird.
“I feel that if you wanted to, you could start with a single city, and with a governing body composed of representatives from every clan. Something that would allow a better collection of protocols that will enable you to prevent the face stealer problem from happening again.
“As for my own sort of organization, my instinct is to try and make something that lasts. Perhaps something that others can keep running long after I’m gone. I imagine such an organization to have at least three branches, each of which has checks and balances on the others, enabling everyone to watch over everyone else, while denying absolute power to any central body. Perhaps, an executive branch, responsible for enacting the law, a congressional branch, responsible for creating the laws and paying everyone, and a judicial branch, responsible for judging if the laws are good, or not.
“These are just a few thoughts, though. Nothing solid. Thank you for your time, and good luck making your own future.”
He hadn’t planned on offering actual suggestions, or on speaking of a governing body with checks and balances, but he had the time, so he filled it. Erick’s speech ended right as Vania’s timer ran out.
Not a single elder held up a blue sign, or otherwise indicated that they wanted Erick off the stage. A few of the elders, including Uriol and Puuroi, but not Teer, even held up preemptive orange signs.
The rest of the audience was of mixed emotions. According to the furrowed brows and the small words passed between people, who were not nearly as quiet as they thought they were, many people had no idea what to make of Erick’s suggestions. Was Erick trying to build support here? In this land that was not his? Was he moving here? Was he more than just a clanfriend? Or was that about Candlepoint, and the Crystal Forest? What was going on, here?
It took Linxel a second to formulate a response, but he did. “Green Grass honors Archmage Erick Flatt for the service he provided in illuminating our recent face stealer problems. We ask the archmage to come to Green Grass at his leisure, so that we might honor him with words and with a feast worthy of his accomplishment, and to talk of whatever he might want to discuss.” Linxel stood straighter, and his voice was more solid, “Though Green Grass does not believe in Integration, and we denounce the use of such an honorable figure to get your win, Clan Green Grass accepts the loss against Clan Pale Cow. Good day.” He stepped away from the podium, to stand with his people. They were ready to leave, right then, but they did not; they were waiting for something else to happen.
Erick stood a bit stunned, unsure of what to think. And then he stepped back a bit, to stand with Pale Cow.
A few people in the crowd asked, “What?” A few shouted, “What!”
Smaller, louder talks happened all at once.
Niyazo was already smiling a controlled smile, not wanting to display his open joy at the easy win. The other speakers lined up on both sides had mixed reactions. For Pale Cow, there was a bit of incredulity; it couldn’t be that easy. For Green Grass, there was no disbelief; They knew this might happen.
Elder Teer stood up, her voice ringing out, suppressing all others, “Attention.” A few people at the front of the crowd had been stepping forward, not willing to stay back when they didn’t like what they were seeing. A few others had laughed loud at Linxel’s response; happy for what they saw. A few smaller groupings of those two groups were almost to the point of fighting, but Teer’s single word stopped all that. Now, with everyone stilled, she spoke softer, but no less loud, “The debate between Pale Cow and Green Grass comes to an expected close. To that end: It is the judgment of these elders that Archmage Flatt has now discharged his goodwill as a clanfriend to Pale Cow. Unless he wishes to become a true part of Integration efforts, then he can no longer participate in these debates.” She said, “We’re done here.”
Niyazo and Linxel both wordlessly went to stand in front of their respective podiums. They both bowed toward one another, and then Linxel bowed a second time. And then, they broke apart. Both leaders went back to their groups. Green Grass walked off toward the west. Pale Cow, alongside Erick and Poi, walked east. Erick went with the group.
Various allies for both sides were already waiting in the wings for the joint departures.
Erick and Poi rejoined with Teressa, Jane, and Nirzir, and the five of them walked alongside Pale Cow’s procession for a little while, through the massive, dispersing crowds. Soon enough, Niyazo and his people had to go their own way, for they were already being mobbed by questions and tactics from other allies, and from those who watched the debate.
Niyazo left off saying, “I wish to speak to you of what you said up there. Later. After sundown?”
“Of course.” Erick shook his head at a few people who tried to talk to him. “Not right now. Take an application, at my yurt.”
As Niyazo was forced to walk further away, he called out over the crowd separating him from Erick, “You’re still a clanfriend, no matter what the elders say!”
Erick smiled at that, and waved in recognition, then he told another pair of people who hadn’t heard the first time he said it, “Take an application at the yurt.”
As soon as it wasn’t incredibly rude, Erick lightstepped everyone into the protected space around the yurt.
Under dense air, and the light of an [Undertow Star], Jane finally blurted out what she had been holding back for the last ten minutes, “So you are bringing democracy to Veird.”
Nirzir, who had been looking marginally interested, suddenly scowled. “That wasn’t democracy. A three part system? No…” She glanced to Erick. “Was it?”
“Democracy killed Quintlan,” Teressa said. “I don’t know the details about it, but ‘Democracy’ is a bad word in most learned venues.”
Jane said, “Okay. Fine. Republicanism.”
“Bah! Jane. I’m not getting political, but there is a certain need to think about these sorts of things.”
Jane said, “Suure.”
Erick said, “And that’s not what you’d call a three-branch system, anyway. I don’t think it actually has a name, as it’s just a three part system that splits power to ensure that the people at the top are accountable to each other in ways beyond assassination and murder or other heavy-handed solutions.” Erick said to everyone, “The people here have fine forms of government, but that debate was all about Integration into a state, so I felt the need to speak on my own experiences.”
Jane said, “I rather like it as it is, dad. People are accountable to themselves, or some guy who lives right down the street, or in a city just over the way. Even in Songli, or in other parts of the world; it’s like that everywhere here. Back on Earth, no one was accountable for their own actions, and if you wanted to point at a problem, all you could point at was a nebulous conglomeration of people.” She said, “Almost no one was living their lives the way they wanted to live, and everyone was subject to laws which they had no say in. There were no free spaces at all on Earth. I don’t think you should bring that three-branch structure here.”
“I agree with… some of that. Most of the problems back home are solvable with some foresight.” Erick said, “Look. I wanna talk more, but there’s a lot of people out there at the meeting platform. We’ll talk at dinner, okay?”
Jane waved him off, saying, “Yeah. I know. I just… felt weird there. Uh. Yeah. Kill all those monsters. Right.”
Erick paused. He looked at his daughter for a moment. She was slightly distraught about a dozen things, for sure, but he would have to ask her about them later… No.
Erick asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jane paused, frowning. Then she blurted, “Seeing you on that stage. I thought that I was watching the moments before your assassination. I mean. Yes. I know you’ve been in danger before. But this was different. It felt… too real. Too exposed.”
“Ah.” Erick said, “I’m sorry that I worried you.”
“I’m just being stupid, dad.” Jane said, “Don’t worry about it.”
Nirzir spoke in a whisper, “I was worried about that, too. It’s what I’m always worried about, being out in the open.”
Everyone looked to Nirzir. Nirzir reluctantly met Erick’s eyes.
Teressa said, “I was watching the whole time. There was nothing in [Future Sight].” She added, “I’m doing that almost all the time, now.”
Poi said, “There were various problematic thoughts all around us, but none that verged on action. He was about as safe up there as he was anywhere else.”
Jane burst a sad laugh. “Oh, gods. Yeah. That’s true.”
Poi said, “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Nirzir looked a lot less comfortable, while Teressa frowned a little, as she looked down at Poi.
Poi said, “Okay. Fine. Yes; we are in danger, but not more than usual.”
“Yeah. I get that.” Jane said, “I do. But. Eh. Forget about it. Go save some lives, dad. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Erick said, taking his daughter in for a hug.
Jane sighed, and patted his back. She pulled away.
Teressa said, “If you don’t mind, I’ll come out there and guard you, too, alongside Poi. I’ll stay out of the privacy bubble to better mana sense, though.”
Jane smiled briefly. Nirzir looked conflicted, but she said nothing.
Erick said, “The more the merrier.”
And then he went to work.