“Who was that?” Felix asked.

“Web Communications. Farris called in ‘urgently’ again. I guess the usual major isn’t on duty because the woman I was talking to sounded incredibly freaked out.”

“Most people would freak out if they get an urgent assignment from the guy at the top of the chain. I told you two this plenty of times before, but you don’t really understand what kind of effect a person like Farris, or even Dan, has on the ordinary solider.”

“I do understand that,” Yvessa said. “I just treat Farris the way I know he wants me to treat him.”

Sam shrugged. “And I have no frame of reference for how I should interact with and regard him, so I just act in the way that comes most naturally from his behavior and my instincts.”

“To be fair, that worked out very well for you, as you two are pretty similar overall.”

“I really don’t see it.”

“I do.”

“Me too.” Felix nodded.

“Whatever. I’m finished with breakfast. You coming or staying?”

“We’re allowed to come?” Yvessa asked.

“I wasn’t told otherwise. Besides, you’re obligated to keep me company anyway. I’m sure Farris won’t begrudge you joining the call by forcing you to wait outside.”

“Am I invited too?” Felix asked.

“If you want to come, you can come. He’s probably just going to… console me or whatever. You guys don’t really have to be there. You’ve heard the same message a dozen times just yesterday.”

“Nah, I’m definitely coming. I want to be on a private call with the guy in charge of my military.”

“He’s not in charge of your military,” Yvessa said.

“He pretty much is. And I didn’t mean anything bad by it. Stop enunciating what I’m saying to make me sound like a prick.”

Sam stood up. “Look, I don’t want to make the day of the woman on the other side of the phone any worse. You coming or not?”

Felix took a hurried bite of his food before standing up as well. “We already said we were.”

Yvessa calmly finished the rest of her orange juice before standing up herself. “Let’s go.”

“You know,” Felix said once they were outside of the mess hall, “I have to give Farris credit for how seriously he’s taking his position as your mentor. From his demeanor when we first met, I thought he was mostly joking about that.”

Yvessa shook her head. “Unfortunately, one thing Farris doesn’t joke about is his ‘mentoring.’ I assure you, if he had the time and was at the same place as Sam, then he would’ve acted in both the roles of Dan and Lin. As well as some extra ones. I’m pretty sure that if Sam went to Larsus to study threads like all other Thread-Weavers, then Farris would’ve taken it upon himself to be the one to teach him.”

“He must be pretty bummed that he can’t be the one to teach you about threads, then, Sam.”

Sam shrugged. “He hadn’t commented anything to that effect. Although, I’m pretty sure that he still hasn’t made up his mind on who to send to teach me, so maybe that’s a part of it.”

“Yeah,” Yvessa said, “last time I mentioned it to Erianna, she said that Farris keeps stonewalling her.”

“Well, you can tell her to drop it at this point. I don’t really feel comfortable having someone I never met interrogate another person for my sake.”

“Alright. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t too comfortable doing that as well. She didn’t say so, but it must be pretty weird for her to have you as a fellow mentee. She might not like to admit it, but she definitely took some amount of pride in being the sole person under her uncle’s tutelage.”

Felix laughed. “What’s this Yvessa? Spreading gossip about your best friend? I thought the gossip was only supposed to go one way, from you to her.”

“It’s not gossip. I’m just telling Sam what I think. I’m being honest. And it’s not like I said anything negative about Erianna. I just said that she feels the same way Sam does.”

“Well maybe we ought to have a call between the two. Get them to sort out their differences and similarities.”

“Why?” Sam asked.

“Why not? She’s Yvessa’s best friend. Don’t you want to get to know her?”

“Not especially. And doesn’t the same extend to you? Or does my relationship with Yvessa’s friends somehow matters more than your relationship with her friends?”

“With this friend? Certainly. You’re both Farris’ proteges. When adding this to the fact that she’s the best friend of one of your very close friends, don’t you think it’s weird that you never talked with her?”

“No. It’s not like her being Yvessa’s friend makes her my friend as well. And the whole Farris angle is just superfluous. It’s even less important than her being Yvessa’s friend. Just another indirect connection. That’s not a reason to meet with someone.”

“What about the whole part where Farris said you’ll be her second-in-command in the future?”

“That’s just one of his stupid jokes that best showcases why it doesn’t actually mean anything that we’re both his mentees.”

“I thought he never joked about being a mentor.”

“That’s not a joke about him being a mentor. That’s a joke about what will happen after he ‘mentors’ me successfully.”

“I’m not sure what the difference is, but alright. Also, don’t think that you’ve convinced me with your flimsy reasoning or anything. I was already was your side. Just because she’s Yvessa’s best friend, it’s no reason for us to need to meet her and set up a call or whatever. I just thought that it’s a little weird that you have this connection through both her uncle and Yvessa, and yet you’ve never once spoke to each other.”

“Did you ever speak with any of Dan’s other major charges?” Yvessa asked.

“You got me there. But there’s way more of them and we don’t have the connection of shared friends. Also, they’re probably not holding a grudge about being less special as a result of Dan taking us under his wing.”

Yvessa burst out laughing. “Holding a grudge? Erianna’s not holding any grudge. I just said she might be uncomfortable, but she doesn’t hold that against Sam one bit. If anything bothers her, it’s all directed at her uncle. What’s the big deal anyway? You guys are going to meet her eventually. We’ll be fighting together for the rest of our life. It’s just a matter of time.”

“It’s not a big deal, it’s just a funny one. I was just pointing out that they have all this stuff in common, that they both know and talk about each other, at least we about her, I suppose, and yet they never talked with each other. I mean, I feel like I already know her and yet we’ve never met.”

“I’ve also never met your childhood friend Paul, and yet I somehow know when, where, and how he lost his virginity.”

“What?” Sam asked.

“Oh, I haven’t told you about that?” Felix perked up. “It’s a great story. And Paul’s a great guy. You’re gonna love it.”

“I don’t think I will and fortunately we don’t have the time for it right now.” Sam gestured at the guarded complex right before them.

“Well, maybe Farris will want to hear that story.”

The security check, which was already pretty fast usually, was further expedited this time by the presence of the person on the other end of Sam’s phone. The incredibly anxious captain quickly guided them into the building and then to the room where the call was set up. Felix made a told you so gesture at them after she left them alone in the room. Less than half a minute later and the image of Farris sitting at his desk materialized in front of them.

“Hmm…” Farris smiled. “Three out of four, not bad. Hello Sam, please take a sit, I obviously won’t keep you on your feet on a day such as this.”

They all sat down, with Sam taking his time doing so. Once on the floor, he closed his eyes, fatigue suddenly dawning on him and stretched his head back and legs forward. Rubbing his nape, he let out a tired sigh.

“Tough day, huh?” Farris asked.

“No more than usual. Which unfortunately means yes.”

“I can only imagine. So how come all three of you are here? Were you two already with Sam and just decided to tag along?”

Yvessa nodded. “We made a plan to keep him company for most of today. Felix was with him until breakfast, and I was supposed to take over after it. Which is when you called and we decided to come as well. I hope that’s alright.”

“More than alright. Although, I suppose that means that I have to start taking the other combinations into account.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

“Oh, c’mon Sam. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. I mean, I know that you’re not feeling like yourself today, but I’m pretty sure you’re still you enough to have come upon this line of thought.”

Sam felt a blush creeping up his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t. So the thought about the different combinations of which of your friends were present during your call with me hadn’t once crossed you mind? Because first, it was you and Yvessa, then it was just you, and now it’s you, Felix and Yvessa. Which means that unless we count that breakfast from when we first met, and I don’t. For a full set, we need to have… one, three, at least five extra calls that aren’t just me and you. Two more for just Felix and Sarah alone with you. Two combinations with Sarah. And one where you’re all together. Unless, we also need to take into account other people from your side? Let’s see… there’s Dan, there’s Maurice, there’s—Uh… that complicates it a lot. I don’t like it.”

“Then just don’t think about it. I didn’t.”

“Really?” Farris tsked while rolling his eyes. “Not cool, Sam, not cool. Just because you’re not feeling well, that’s not a reason to be untruthful. But I’m a benevolent mentor, so even if you won’t admit it, I’ll take care of it. So don’t worry, I’ll make sure to go through all possible combinations before our last call. We still have plenty of time.”

“Fine, whatever you say. So why’d you call me here?”

“Why do you think? I’m your mentor. Even if your current state of mind had no effect on your education, as your personal and spiritual guide, I have my finger on the pulse for all matters related to your heart. It’s my outright duty to check up on you during times like this and help you through them.”

“I already have a therapist appointment tomorrow morning.”

“I am well aware. But a therapist can only help you so far. Understand you so much. They do not have the intrinsic mental connection that we have as mentor and mentee.”

“Ah. So you called me here to make jokes in the hopes that’ll cheer me up.”

“Jokes? What jokes have I made? Yvessa, Felix, did I make any jokes?”

“I’m not getting involved with whatever this is.” Felix shook his head.

“Ugh! Then what are you here for?”

“I honestly don’t know. Just wanted to keep Sam company, I guess.”

“Hm, I can certainly respect that reason. It’s a good one. But might I suggest that since the two of you are already here that you’ll also play a role as befits your character? You’ll be the spineless comedic relief that agrees with everyone. Yvessa, you will be the serious and overcautious type that’s very reluctant to give her opinion when it conflicts with what Sam thinks. And I, of course, will be the great fount of knowledge and wisdom that has a dozen years of experience in guiding troubled young souls. Sam, you’ll play the incredibly talented, troubled young soul that’s going through a major depressive episode.”

Sam exhaled a small laugh. “Fuck you, man. I knew you had no idea for what you were going to say.”

“No, I had some idea. But Felix and Yvessa being here threw me for a loop. Now I’m scrambling for the best way to incorporate them into the conversation. We don’t want them to just sit here and listen to us talk now, now do we?”

“Why not?” Yvessa asked. “We’re here for Sam. If you think you’ll be able to best… ‘help’ him without us here or with us keeping silence than there’s no reason for us to take part.”

“There’s no best way to help Sam. If you’re already here, then you might as well just take part in whatever this is. Sam is understandably suffering from a lot of different emotions and conflicting thoughts. Nothing anyone can say is going to change it. The only thing anyone of us can do is help him feel better. Or less worse, I should probably say, right?”

Sam pursed his lips. “There’s no way you thought of that last part on your own.”

“I admit that the exact wording was in both Dan and Maurice’s reports. But… I’d like to think that I know you well enough by now that I would’ve been able to come up with that on my own. It’s a very you thing to say, after all.”

“Funny you should say that, because me and Felix already spent some time this morning talking about who is the real me. Whether it’s the me from today and yesterday or the me from two days ago. So according to you, I’m pretty much the same, since just based on knowledge of the me from before, you knew how I would act now.”

Farris scratched his chin in thought. “Hmm… I haven’t thought of it like that. Of course, you realize that for that whole line of questioning to make sense, to be possible, we must accept the conjecture that there is a ‘real you,’ and not only that, but that it is a singular entity. After all, you know me: I don’t really subscribe to that point of view that there is any real, underlying personality that is the singular true essence of a person’s behavior.”

“You’re were talking about social behavior, though, interacting with other people. I’m talking about the state of mind between one and one’s self. The underlying nature of a person’s consciousness and personality instinctively guiding his every action.”

“Not deterministically, though, right?”

“Not without the presence of free will, yes. Otherwise, the question is completely moot, because without free will, there can only be one true self. Well, you can argue that point of course, but on the face of it, if you have no ability to choose, then at any given moment you are the real you because there is no alternative version of yourself, capable of acting in any other way.”

“May I just point out that the same line of reasoning can be extended to a world with free will? Where our actions our ultimately our own but reflect, at each moment, our true self because we picked them ourself? But we’ve digressed. So let me counter your previous claim and ask if there really is any difference between acting according to your true self in a social environment and acting according to your true self as a whole? By saying that I do not believe there is a real me, even if I was just speaking about myself coming into interaction with other people, I make the claim that there is no underlying state of consciousnesses that guides my social interactions. The moment that claim is true, that must mean that there is no underlying state of consciousness that guides any of my actions. In my humble opinion, a base level of personality that isn’t concerned with social interaction is too blank to be considered a personality.”

“Hm…” Sam tilted his head left and right in consideration. “I suppose you’re right. As long as we do buy that version of self as you’re painting it. However, I think that the more realistic, and honest, description of your supposed worldview is that there does exist a ‘real you’ deep inside your psyche. And that all the other versions that you present to the world in social interactions build upon it in some fashion. And we can then give your behavior the generous interpretation that all of your other selves, which socially interact differently depending on the context, are doing so in consideration to you true self; that they are operating within the parameters dictated by your real personality. Or, the harsh interpretation, which is that while you do have a real self, you’ve alienated your active mind from it. That, were you able to, you would act in completely different ways sometimes, but are forced not to because of practical constraints.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“But is that really alienation? Even if I am not able to act and behave as I would ideally like, that doesn’t mean that I’m acting against my true self, were it to exist, of course. It could very well be that your first interpretation still stands, and my true self allows me that operating room to act not as I would wish. If the true self exists, it does not exist in an ideal setting where it is all powerful, since it was borne of experiencing the real world, it must also be built with the ability to make comprises and act in ways it would prefer not to. That brings us back to my digressed point, that even in a scenario where free will exists, we might always be acting according to our true self because we are always, ultimately, choosing something by ourself.”

“Even if we agree on that, and I don’t, it doesn’t do away with the problem of alienation. The alienation comes from you believing that there isn’t a real self guiding you at all times. By not believing in the existence of your true self, which, in the argument you’ve presented, is objectively true and ever present, and thinking that you are acting in every interaction as a different version of yourself, you are essentially lying to yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are ultimately forced to act in accord with your true self. By not recognizing its existence, you are consciously choosing to act—or, to be more accurate—to believe yourself acting in opposition to it. And since we are assuming that it is real, that must mean that you are alienating yourself from it.”

“But if that’s the case, what is the real self even worth that I would care about alienating myself from it? After all, if I’m always guided by my real self, and I’ve made the free-will choice to disregard it, aren’t I’m guided by my real self to do so? I can’t give much consideration to something that doesn’t think it deserves consideration, right?”

“First of all, no. Because that’s pretty much what you’ve been doing with ever since we met. Extrapolate from that a broader statement about people with self-confidence issue and you’d realize how wrong you are. And secondly, our real self isn’t some universal ideal. People can be true to themselves and behave like assholes. You can change your real self. By internalizing that it exits and you’re always acting according to it, it would change in how it guides you, and you would no longer be alienated from it.”

“You guys realize that you’ve completely side-tracked from the point of the conversation, right?” Felix asked.

“We have left Sam’s original inquiry behind for the meantime, yes,” Farris said. “But that is only because in order to answer it, we must have a clearer definition of what the real self is and whether it exists.”

“But you’re not even talking about whether there is a real self anymore or what’s it like. You’re talking about what acting true to that real self looks like. That’s not important to either discussion. You can define a real self without figuring out what it means to act according to it. And Sam’s question wasn’t about whether he acts according to his real self, but which version of him was the real him.”

“Hm…” Sam nodded. “I’m not sure that it’s completely unrelated. But I will admit that, at the very least, it is of a tertiary concern. Obviously, my actions and behavior today and two days ago were different, but I’m concerned with my consciousness and the way I think and feel about things. My underlying state of mind.”

“Why does your underlying state of mind even matter, though?” Yvessa asked. “Leaving aside which ‘version’ of you is closer to the real you. It’s obvious you are not going to feel like you are now forever and that you don’t want to feel like this. And it’s not as though finding out the answer will make how you’re feeling pass faster.”

“They’re separate things. Like I told Felix, I care way more about stopping feeling like these than whether me feeling like this is more in line with my true self, if it does exist. So you’re right on that part. But the ‘purpose’ of me thinking about all of this stuff isn’t to make how I’m feeling pass faster. The point is that I also care about being sure that I am really me, still me. My world literally changed; my body is different; the truth of my reality, as I saw it, has proven false. The only thing I still have that is potentially unchanged is my mind. I want to be the real me, whatever that real me will look and feel like. And in this aspect, the real me isn’t some abstract psychological or philosophical concept, it’s just who I was, what I thought and how I behaved before being taken. Obviously, I’m not going to go back to that version of myself. And no matter what the real me currently is, it’s going to change in the future, possibly including, I guess, not feeling like I do today. But I still want to know whether I was a Sam Anders that didn’t feel like shit because he had an alien substance divorcing him from his real emotions and thoughts. Or whether I am a Sam Anders that feels like shit because he is struggling with the weight of the emotions and thoughts that are too heavy and recent to allow him to be who he really is.”

Farris chuckled. “You just made it clear why the debate doesn’t even matter. Because whomever the real Sam Anders is, it is clear that, ultimately, when all is said and done, he is not supposed to feel like shit, like you are currently. Now, I’ve never been to a therapist myself, but I’m pretty sure they fucking love that line of thought, that you will surely, eventually, be happy.”

Sam scoffed. “Don’t put words in my mouth. But you’re right, functionally, this question might not really matter. Whether I was closer to my true self two days ago, or today, or in the future, when I’m feeling better. None of that matter as long as I’m sure that I’m still me at the end of the road.”

“Surely not the same you…”

Sam bared his teeth in half a smile. “Fair enough, that whatever changes happened in my personality, that they were all my choice and consciously done. That the only changes that happened to me when becoming Taken, were external, that even if all the boards were changed to a different sort of wood, that I’m still the same ship. And because I worry about that, I fixate on comparing between me today and me two days ago, and wondering which one was the real me. In essence, all I care about is not having outside influence affecting my mind. That if it was possible to separate between my personality and experiences, and put that personality on a robot with no experiences, that we would behave the same way. Obviously it’s impossible, and obviously, talking about what the real self is and whether I was closer to it today or two days ago isn’t going to help me with my wish, but that doesn’t mean talking about it was worthless. I certainly don’t regret the time we spent talking about it.”

Farris leaned in. “Don’t regret as in ‘not feeling worse?’ Or as in happy it happened?”

Sam shrugged.

“Ha! That tells me all I need to know. Anyway, we can move on to other topics, but let me write this one down for the future. It’s certainly a good enough catalyst for discussion for when I have nothing to talk with you about, but need to kill time to make my calls seem worthwhile.”

“Is this the kind of stuff that you usually talk about?” Felix asked.

“Why would you be asking that question? Hasn’t Sam given you detailed reports of all two of our calls so far? He hasn’t? Appalling.”

“That’s not something you really think he should be doing, right? You’re just being sarcastic.”

“Hey, if he wants to give you the whole court record, I’m fine with it. I haven’t begun teaching him about state secrets yet, so whether he tells other people about what we talked about is up to him.”

Yvessa raised her eyebrow. “State secrets?”

“But of course. I got to give some leg up to my precious mentees don’t I? That way, after they become Rulers in the future and are told of the secret cabal that controls the Web from the shadows, they could just nod their heads and look cool in front of all the other new Rulers.”

“Secret cabal? So you’re just telling them about the Council of Chosen?”

“No… they’re just the front of it. Behind them are the actual powerhouses of the Web. And of course, behind those is a single, all-powerful individual, representing the will of the Web itself.”

Sam rubbed his eyes to hide the flash of alarm that passed through them.

“Where do you come up with this bullshit?” Yvessa asked.

“What do you mean? It’s not like it’s hard or creative. This is some pretty basic crap. I just came up with this on the spot.”

Felix leaned in to whisper in Sam’s ears. “You know, I’m starting to reconsider what I said about Farris taking his mentor role seriously.”

“I heard that!”

Sam shook his head at Felix. “Don’t. This is him trying to accommodate his behavior to best… I don’t know, suit mine. He probably did have an actual plan for what we should talk about today before I came here with you.”

“Well. At least someone appreciates me and realizes my greatness and boundless generosity. And indeed, I did have a plan. I got here a paper with the all notes I made of your recent progress. I was going to go over them and congratulate you. Tell you how incredible and amazing you are, what great talent, great speed, and so on and so on. Then I was going to conclude by telling you that you’ve progressed far enough, and exceeded my wildest expectation, for you to allow yourself to take a break until you start feeling better. And then I was going to lie and say that you could even take a whole month off without worrying about it.”

“Did you really write that paper?”

“I did! See?” An A4 sheet of paper appeared in Farris’ hand and he started waving it around in front of Sam’s face. From the brief glimpses Sam caught of it that he could read, it did cover his progress since he and Farris last talked. “Of course, I wasn’t actually going to go over them with you. The real bit was what I just did, telling you about how I planned this whole thing in order to make you feel better, and ending with telling you about the lie.”

Sam smiled. “I’m also assuming that you telling me about how it wasn’t the real plan was also part of your real plan.”

“Of course. See, I imagined us starting with some inane chit chat or whatever. You telling me about what you did today, something along those lines. I’d rather have avoided that whole cliche bit of asking you how you feel and nodding my head as though it’s possible for me to understand what you’re going through, but I was willing to fall back on it if I found you uninterested in directing us to a conversational topic of your own. From there, I would’ve tried directing the conversation to something that got you engaged”—he made a rolling motion with his hand—“something that we can count as an actual substance for the conversation. Sort of like what we ended up talking about. Then, eventually, there would’ve been a lull in the conversation, or maybe you would’ve raised that question that you love so much and asked me if this was really the reason I wanted to talk with you today, and I would’ve brought up the whole notes bit.”

“So you telling him about the entire plan was also a part of the plan?” Felix asked with furrowed brows.

“No.” Sam shook his hand.

Farris pointed at him in agreement. “Yeah. I just rolled into that because you two are here and I wanted to explain what I would’ve originally done.”

“There’s no way that’s true,” Felix said, turning to Sam, “is there? How the hell did you know that him telling you about one part of the plan was… planned, but telling about the other wasn’t?”

Sam shrugged. “Seemed too on the nose to have planned for that last bit as well. He only brought it up because he wanted to prove to you that he pre-planned for this or whatever.” He turned to Farris. “So? What was the plan for after we finished ‘talking’ about progress?”

Farris smiled and spent a second regarding both Felix and Yvessa before answering. “Do take note. I did plan for Sam asking me this. Although, I originally saw it as something more along the lines of, ‘So was that the whole plan?’ because, you must remember, I did not originally intend to reveal the entire conversational plan to him.”

Yvessa sighed. “You’re really feeling in your element right now, aren’t you?”

“You know it. I finally met someone who truly understands me while also having a sense of humor. And who isn’t a family member. You’re close, though, Yvessa, you’re close. Just need to work a bit more on understanding me and being funny. I’m expecting great things from your close acquaintance with Sam.”

“So you didn’t plan anything for after talking about talking of my progression,” Sam said.

“No… I tried to think of something. I thought of a bunch of things, actually. But nothing concrete. I could say that I wanted to gauge how you were feeling and responding to the conversation, so I didn’t want to commit to anything. But that’ll be stretching it. I simply couldn’t come up with something I felt happy with. I did have the fallback of teaching you some state secrets, though, if nothing else worked, and I felt like I had to liven you up a little bit.”

“Wait, actual state secretes this time?” Felix asked.

“Yeah. But in the practical sense. Politics and the like, nothing magical or esoteric. Stuff that I was sure Sam would be forced to engage with because he would be too curious not to, and have no problem understanding. Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary today. And I hope that it won’t be in the future, because I very much do not want to taint my relationship with Sam by talking about politics and all the ‘real world’ bullshit. Instead, we got this wonderful bit of talking about my full plans for the conversation itself. Which is all thanks to you two, because, like Sam said, if you weren’t here, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable bringing it up.”

“So what would you have told Sam about politics?” Yvessa asked.

“I said no! Stop being your mother’s daughter for just one day and try being more like your best friend, who is the reason why you’re a swordfighter.”

Yvessa let out a half-angry laugh. “I didn’t start fighting with a sword because of Erianna. Don’t be an asshole.”

“She totally did.” Farris leaned in towards Sam and Felix.

“Whatever, so you’re just going to ignore my question?”

“I told you, I don’t want to talk about politics if I don’t have to. What’s the problem with what we were talking about so far? Sam was engaged, he was amused, hopefully his spirits were uplifted. Why do we have to bring in politics when I don’t want to talk about it and there’s plenty else on offer?”

Yvessa nudged Sam. “C’mon, Sam, say that you want to hear some state secrets. Ask him about the Amgwoyne Report.”

Even though he initially intended to acquiesce to Farris’ wishes, Sam couldn’t help but ask Yvessa, “What’s that?”

Yvessa crossed her hands and gestured towards Farris, inviting him to explain. With a sigh, Farris said, “It was a paper commissioned by the assholes in the Chamber of The Elected after my grandfather’s decision to ‘grant’ the Terran Republic Yppollas, our old name for New Terra, without anything in return. It found that the maximum capacity for cultivation of the world—which the assholes still called Yppollas in the report, despite all the new inhabitants and the official royal recognition of the new name—was much greater than it was during the last recorded test. It also found that the monarchy knew about that beforehand and called for an ‘explanation’ of that ‘grave misstep.’ Really, there’s nothing else to talk about. It was just a bunch of nobles acting like assholes, practically saying, ‘I’m not racist, but…’ Besides, it was all in the past. It might not be common knowledge, but it’s not that big of a state secret. I was going to talk about more interesting stuff if I had to.”

“Like what?” Yvessa asked.

Farris gave Sam a pleading look. Sam waved him to relax. “It’s fine. You don’t have to talk about politics.”

“How come I never heard of that report?” Felix asked.

“It was never made public,” Yvessa explained. “No motion in the Chamber does by default. It has to vote on releasing it or the monarch has to write a decree that it will. But neither side wanted the report and the resulting… discussions, to come out, so it’s still relatively unknown.”

“Also,” Farris said, “because there’s a censorship order about all undisclosed motions of the Chamber, the only way you’re going to legally find out about it—unless you dive really deep into the internet—is by word of mouth. Like you just did. And with that, I’m changing the topic. Sam, give me your top ten movies to watch when you’re depressed.”

“Hm…” Sam considered the question. “That depends. Do I want to cry or not?”

“Why would you want to cry when you’re depressed?” Felix asked.

“For the catharsis. Obviously, you’re not going to watch something that ends on a sad note. But you might want to watch something that gets your heartstrings going on the way to the happy ending.”

“Like Shawshank Redemption,” Farris suggested.

“No… I won’t watch it when I’m depressed. I know that the ending is technically a happy one, and obviously I love the movie, but I feel like it’d be pretty dangerous for me to watch it on days like these. Honestly… I’m not sure that there is a top ten list. It’s just some movies that I know make me feel better, or that I remember making me feel better when I watched them while sad. Why, are you planning a watch party to fill the rest of our time today?”

“Not today, but maybe for next week.”

“Next week?”

“Of course. We’re moving our meetings to a weekly basis until you’re feeling better.”

“Are we?”

“Now what problem could you possibly have with that? What, you don’t think I can allow myself those extra couple of hours of talking with you? I assure you, both myself, the entire Sarechi military apparatus and the Web at large can more than allow that. Unless, you don’t want to…”

“You’re already well aware that right now I don’t particularly want to do anything.”

“And yet you’re still here now. Which means that you also don’t particularly not want to be here talking with me. So unless your disposition to me changes for the worst, what reason could there be for us not having a meeting next week? Unless you get much better, and are able to go back to making ‘good’ use of your Saturdays.”

“Point taken. My next point, because I still feel very uncomfortable with the prospect: don’t you think it’s really not OK to be using these state resources for such a petty reason like watching a movie together?”

Farris laughed. “No. It’s literally investing in one of the brightest talents in the history of the Web. But fine, if it makes you feel bad, then I’ll keep paying the cost from my own pocket. Which, by the way, is pretty much the same as me not paying it. Because, if you remember, as the initiator of the call, my side carries the burden of the energy cost, and since the state is paying for my communication, and the state is the monarchy and the monarchy is my family…”

“I get your point. So are you really planning to have me watch a movie with you next week? How the hell does that even work?”

“You have projectors in these rooms. You turn them on, face the opposite direction you are now, and I move myself to sit next to you instead of behind you. But I didn’t say the movie was a certainty. I just raised the possibility. Also, I was more thinking about our meeting in two weeks rather than next week. I already have an idea for what to talk about next week and I need to make sure I don’t waste it so that I wouldn’t have to talk to talk about politics.”

“So these weekly meetings are pretty much a social call and you’re completely abandoning even the facade of this having any… educational or mentorship merit?”

“Must we really reopen that discussion?”

“I don’t think we ever closed it, if I’m honest.”

“I’m pretty sure we did. We concluded that even without any obvious educational or training-minded avenue of discussion during our meeting, meaning even if they’re purely a ‘social call.’ That even then, they still fall under the purview of my mentoring of you. That it is the social aspect of our relationship, which is the bedrock of all else. Also, that if you keep insinuating that you don’t actually want to talk to me about stuff that doesn’t directly pertain to me mentoring you, I’m gonna get offended and start thinking you don’t actually want to be my friend.”

Felix barked a laugh. “I never thought I’d hear a Ruler complaining about someone not wanting to be his friend.”

“Why not? I can’t speak for all Rulers, but I’m sure there are plenty of us who didn’t let the power get to our heads. As such, we still behave like normal enough people. Won’t you be offended if Sam was only using you for your help with his training and criticizing every moment that you spent talking about something he considered banal to that effort?”

“I don’t criticize every moment,” Sam said. “I just raised the question that, since you called for these meetings under the guise of mentorship, is simply talking about nothing important really what you planned for them? I don’t have a particular problem if that is indeed the case. I just want to be clear of the terminology.”

“The terminology is still the same. Just because I’m your mentor and want to meet you as part of my duties under that role, doesn’t mean that we can’t spend that meeting talking about stuff that doesn’t pertain to our status as mentor-mentee. Case in point, I did some looking up online; which fantasy duo has your favorite mentor-mentee relationship?”

“Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan.”

“That’s not true.”

Sam nodded.

“You just said that to be contrarian. I asked for a fantasy duo and you gave me sci-fi.”

“Not sci-fi. And also not the reason I lied.”

“Give me the real answer, then.”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. I can think of a dozen. No idea which one of them is my favorite. What’s your point?”

“My point is that I’m willing to bet that a fair number of those relationships have plenty of scenes that aren’t dedicated to just furthering the mentee’s training. But instead are just… ‘social calls.’ Movements when the characters talk like friends. So, if characters in a book—a book that has to make sure to get its story across to the reader in a limited amount of pages or else they would get bored and step away from the page—can allow themselves those moments of casual conversation. So can we. While still remaining under the guise of a mentorship call.”

“Fine. All I wanted to know was whether to slot my meetings with you under training or leisure time so that I could plan my day accordingly. Right now, that probably doesn’t matter that much anyway.”

“Then we will return to this discussion when it does matter to you. I’ll argue that it should be counted as both. But, another time. For now, we need to focus on just improving your mood.”

“Uh-huh. And how do you plan on doing that exactly? Watching movies during our weekly meetings, I guess.”

“That was but one plan. I have many more. For example, you could adopt a pet. Wouldn’t a cat help brighten up your day immediately?”

“Cadets aren’t allowed to keep pets,” Yvessa said.

“And even if we were,” Sam said, “I’m not going to adopt a cat for just these two and a half years.”

Farris nodded. “Fair point, fair point. Still think you ought to go looking for some feline, or any animal really, companionship. It would do you wonders.”

“I’ll take that under advertisement. Any other… ‘suggestions?’”

“Not really. You should really be doing stuff that you want to do in order to get you through this time. Eventually, you’ll go back to wanting to do stuff. I’m fine with the one concrete suggestion I gave you since I figured you might not have thought of it. But anyway, since you’re already here, and you’ve got some time to kill, there are a couple of questions about the twentieth century I’d love to ask you. First off, Beatlemania, did some people really think that Ringo wasn’t the hottest Beatle?”