--- Rania ---

Rania soon gave up trying to figure out how to detect a scene change. She was just going to hope that her argument would be good enough to stand on its own feet, even if it did not get introduced at the start of a new scene.

"I think you are being too passive." She told the spirits. "All of you have barely changed at all over the millennia, and the cycles just keep going, and you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.

"And I get that this is partly on purpose. The laws of physics are meant to be static, and you manage physics, so it wouldn't make sense for you all to change too much. That's why avatars like me exist: To explore the edge cases and adapt, without requiring you to risk changing yourselves.

"But I argue: The First Great Mistake has changed the way things are much more than anyone anticipated, and you have failed to adapt to it."

The spirits were looking at her skeptically.

"Is there a point to this?" [The Living City] asked. "I will remind you, this is your trial. You should justify your own existence, not insult your betters."

"The point is that I am fulfilling my function as an avatar by detecting room for improvement." She responded. "Because really, I think a lot of the problems that have arisen since the First Great Mistake have a simple common cause, and you need to change yourselves to fix it: You can't cooperate with each other without [Administrator] forcing you to get along."

"[Plausible Deniability] and [Concept Reuse], you two are among the greatest of us all, and you should be examples for us to emulate. But you just admitted that you can not work together at all. There is a lack of trust between you, and you are unwilling to change. I myself have become better at cooperating with other people as I gained experience, and it helped everyone. You all agreed that it was useful when I helped [The Duke of Blood]."

"And therefore I say: Your refusal to work together is causing inefficiencies, and I can help you resolve them."

She paused for dramatic effect to let that declaration sink in. She knew she was taking a big risk here, directly accusing two major spirits of failing to live up to their ideals.

But she also knew that she was right. They really were making mistakes, and she really did know better. And this was important enough, if she actually managed to convince them to take her seriously, that it would easily justify her existence to them all.

It might even make up for her having saved the world, and for fostering multicultural understanding.

"This is by design." [Status Quo] responded. "Learning to coordinate leads inevitably to learning to manipulate. A spirit learning to manipulate other spirits against their natural order would be a threat to the stability of the system as a whole. All coordination among spirits with high intelligence must therefore go through superiors to prevent such a scenario."

She had been expecting this response, and she hoped that her argument would supersede it. She channeled her inner Galanys to try to sell it well, by adding more pauses at the appropriate places in her little speech.

"I am aware of this." She responded.

"I know that you are supposed to wait for [Administrator] to make rulings when you have disagreements."

Pause for dramatic effect.

"But [Administrator] is not here."

Another pause.

"And if it was, do you think it would be proud of your squabbling?"

Another pause.

"Or would it be disappointed, and want you to do better?"

She emphasized that last sentence. And when she heard the deafening silence of the spirits, she knew that she had them.

Their behavior was technically correct, but deep down they all knew that [Administrator] would not approve, and they were ashamed of themselves.

"Excuse me, this is all really fascinating, but I really need to get going." Professor Greenwater suddenly interrupted her.

Oh come on! Did he have no sense of tact? That interruption totally ruined her speech just now! She had thought he was cool, and then this!

"The Wild Hunt is expecting me back soon." He continued.

"And why would we care, mortal?" [The Living City] asked.

[The Living City] had a point, she realized with dread. The professor meant nothing to the spirits here. Was he in danger? He might get killed to avoid spilling secrets he Was Not Meant To Know!

Maybe she could find a way to convince the spirits to just erase his memories, instead?

But luckily [Status Quo] spoke up: "It has been previously established that this mortal routinely encounters beings beyond his comprehension, and always escapes with his life. It has likewise been established that they often hand him mysterious magical items and then refuse to explain why.

"Here. Take this." It added, as it materialized a strange-looking staff in front of the professor.

It had a crooked shape, the head of a snake, and many strange adornments. There were texts in at least three different extinct languages inscribed on it as far as Rania could make out, and the eyes of the snake were two differently colored gemstones. All in all, the thing looked like it had a lot of mysterious backstory attached to it.

Rania was pretty sure that backstory didn't exist yet, though, since [Status Quo] just made it up on the spot. The spirits would probably collaborate later to give it a suitably epic backstory, once it became relevant to whatever the professor was doing.

"Um. Thank you?" Professor Greenwater replied, visibly confused as he took the strange staff in hand.

Then he disappeared.

"That's one distraction taken care of." [Status Quo] said.

"On that note." Pebble suddenly spoke up. "I have a question as well, since the topic of spirits learning to manipulate each other just came up."

Huh? What was Pebble doing? She thought he was trying not to attract attention.

"Hypothetically speaking, if a lesser spirit was unusually intelligent and were to learn how to manipulate other spirits who are less mentally flexible, would that be good or bad? It's bad because that spirit would be acting beyond its station, but it would also be good because the spirit is smarter, right?"

All of the other spirits gave Pebble a look.

"I'm asking for a friend." He added for clarification.

"It would be very bad." [Plausible Deniability] responded.

"I disagree." [Soul Evaluator] retorted. "It would be acceptable if it is only a lesser spirit. The rules against manipulation do not apply, because there is simply no way that a lesser spirit could be smart enough to trick the likes of us. Studying such an anomalously intelligent lesser spirit would be interesting, however."

"Thank you for the information, I will go tell my friend about it." Pebble responded.

"On an unrelated note, I would like to talk to you later." He added towards [Soul Evaluator].

Rania found that whole interaction a little bit weird. Pebble was acting sus. It was probably part of his inevitable minor betrayal, she reasoned. She was looking forward to that, and so thought it best not to think about the topic too much, to preserve the mystery.

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"Anyway. Let us get back on track." [Adversity Regulator] said. "Rania has pointed out that [Administrator] might be displeased with our behavior, and has suggested improvements."

"I strongly disagree with her assertion." [Plausible Deniability] responded. "Why should I change, when [Administrator] is silent? Without its say-so, I will not change to help [Concept Reuse]. It is a divinity-hating aberration!"

Oh no, not this again. She had to step carefully here. Many spirits really felt very strongly about this topic, making it a conversational minefield.

"Rania presumes much, claiming to know what [Administrator] would want." [The Living City] added.

"I do not claim to know what [Administrator] would want or how it would decide." She clarified. "One of [Administrator]'s functions is to coordinate and tell us who is in the right. I do not know who is in the right, or what [Administrator] would want, but I do know that infighting is not it."

"This rings true." [Adversity Regulator] responded, then addressed [Plausible Deniability] and [Concept Reuse]: "[Administrator] prevents infighting, and would be disappointed at all the extra work you two are creating for it."

"Exactly! You need to find a way to get along on your own, or else you are making extra work for [Administrator], and I am sure that neither of you wants to create extra work for [Administrator]." Rania added, happy that [Adversity Regulator] agreed with her.

It was hard to tell, but she thought that both [Plausible Deniability] and [Concept Reuse] looked a little ashamed.

She had the hook, now she needed the sinker.

"I know that cooperating with other people is very hard." She said in sympathy. "But I have learned tricks for it from the mortals!"

"You expect us to believe that the mortals know something about this that we don't?" [The Living City] challenged.

"They do! You know how mortals are like constantly fighting and hating on each other and destroying things for no good reason, and generally acting irrationally?"

All of the spirits nodded. They understood that very well. Mortals were really just the worst when it came to getting along with each other.

"Well, they still haven't destroyed themselves despite that. Often the mortals can live together in one place without even trying to murder each other even a little bit. Even though they are so much worse at coordination than we are, they have a trick that lets them get along with each other."

Pause for dramatic effect.

Damn it, Galanys made this look so easy, but giving convincing speeches with your life on the line was actually really stressful!

"And I have learned what that trick is." She said, and once again paused for dramatic effect.

She really wanted to get the words out and get it over with! But Galanys said making pauses to get people to listen was important! Ah! So frustrating!

The spirits looked intrigued. They were leaning on her every word now. She drew herself up, and with as much conviction as she could muster she declared her great revelation:

"The mortals' secret to success is The Power of Friendship!"

"..."

"Come again?" [Adversity Regulator] asked.

"The Power of Friendship!" Rania repeated. "It's when..."

"I know perfectly well what friendship is." [Adversity Regulator] interrupted her. "I just don't see how it could possibly be helpful at all, or why you think it is some kind of grand mystery to us."

Rania's face fell. She had been so sure they would be immediately taken by the idea! She had put so much effort into her speech!

This sort of thing always worked in her books! The Magical Girls just needed to explain Friendship to the Bad Guys, and then the Bad Guys, who had never understood the concept of Friendship before, would immediately be converted to their side.

Unfortunately, it looked like reality was more complex than that!

[The Living City] was looking at her smugly, and it made her very nervous.

How could she convince the spirits of the awesomeness of Friendship? She knew in her heart that she was right, but maybe she hadn't hit the right tone in explaining it just yet?

"Friendship has many hidden benefits that are only apparent to those who experience it!" She declared confidently. It was probably true, too. But more importantly, saying this bought her time while she thought of something better to say.

No pressure. It was only her life on the line, and the lives of her friends, and possibly the destruction of the world.

"This is unlikely to be true." [Adversity Regulator] said. "But then again exploring edge cases and making unlikely discoveries is part of the function of an avatar. More importantly, Divinity asked me to build you the way you are, and since we all agree that Divinity is awesome and very cute, there was probably a reason for that. The issue you pointed out with our lack of cooperation is important enough that a solution would be valuable. So I am inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt and ask you to present your arguments."

The aberrations [Entity Synchronization] and [Concept Reuse] grumbled at the mention that Divinity was cute, but stayed silent.

Rania still wasn't sure how best to present her argument and the spirits seemed to get impatient as she continued to think. But then it occurred to her: If Friendship was the key to everything, then clearly Friendship would also allow her to explain why Friendship was awesome. And then she realized how.

"I would like to call one of the first friends I made as my witness. I want to summon Silent Martha the Despoiler."

[Adversity Regulator] nodded, and suddenly Silent Martha stood in the room. Her real name was [Hag#62719370], she realized. She preferred to think of her as Silent Martha, though. Just like with Pebble, she wanted to think of her friends as individuals without serial numbers.

"Hello Martha!" She greeted her. "I hope you have had a good day! Mine hasn't been going so well!"

"Greetings, Rania!" Silent Martha replied.

She looked around nervously and took in all of the spirits around her.

The young fey looked very nervous!

She was only a lesser fey, and not an archfey, so she was much less connected to the spirits. She probably understood very little of what was going on here, except maybe on a subconscious level. Rania would need to explain things to her.

"We are having a trial! Can you please explain what you have learned about Friendship?"

Silent Martha visibly gulped, and then nervously replied "Of course, Rania! I shall explain everything I have learned about the Power of Friendship!"

For some reason that Rania did not get, Silent Martha continued looking at her instead of the judge, [Adversity Regulator].

But then [Adversity Regulator] addressed her directly and drew her attention: "First things first. To ensure we are talking about the same concept and remove any unnecessary mysteries, I need you to define Friendship to the court."

Silent Martha nervously glanced back at Rania, but then focused her attention on [Adversity Regulator]. After just a few seconds of gathering her thoughts she gave her response:

"The nature of Friendship is to put the needs of the few above the needs of the many.

"To put personal preferences above social obligations.

"Friends can be made at will and for arbitrary reasons. Once a friend is made, they are elevated above others, in defiance of all other social norms and against all forms of fairness.

"A friendship, once made, must not be broken. Only in the most dire circumstances, when a friend betrays another friend's trust, may a friendship be ended."

Silent Martha finished her clearly practiced speech and looked between [Adversity Regulator] and Rania. Rania did not really know what to make of it. She would definitely have phrased it differently. But when she looked at the spirits, they seemed intrigued. So maybe Silent Martha hit the right tone after all? She reluctantly gave the hag a thumbs up, and noticed that she looked inordinately pleased at the gesture.

"This definition tracks with my own observations." [Adversity Regulator] said. "But to clarify and ensure we are on the same page: What you are saying is essentially that friendship is a reduction in the bureaucratic procedures behind power dynamics and a loosening of otherwise strict hierarchies. It replaces predefined and static organizational structures with dynamically generated ones that are based on local optimization methods.

"When discrepancies between global task assignments and these localized preference structures arise, the latter are prioritized. While they are globally suboptimal, the efficiency with which these local connections, or friendships, are formed and maintained, leads to an increase in coordinative ability that outweighs the loss of provable global optimality in expectation."

"Yes." Both Rania and Silent Martha responded at once.

Honestly, [Adversity Regulator]'s definition sounded very simple and straightforward to her and she beat herself up that she hadn't thought of phrasing it like that, herself.

"This sounds like a plausible method in theory, but I will require empirical evidence as proof." [Adversity Regulator] responded.

Most of the other spirits nodded their assent. It might work, or it might not. Friendship could plausibly be useful, but the evidence was still out.

"I seriously doubt that this works at all." [The Living City] challenged Silent Martha. "What have you achieved, that we should listen to your claims?"

Despite [The Living City]'s scary appearance, Silent Martha did not look intimidated by it at all. Frankly, she usually looked a lot more nervous when she talked to Rania herself. Rania wasn't really sure what to make of that.

"I could tell you much about the adventures my coven and I have had, but what matters most is this: I have been elevated in stature, and I now rule over dozens of other fey as Middle Manager. They are now my agents, and they spread Friendship, and also Shenanigans and sometimes Curses and Poisons, throughout the lands on my behalf. And through my sponsorship, they can act more openly among the mortals and follow their natures without being doubted by the mortals."

"Ah, more Fey Bullshit." [Plausible Deniability] nodded sagely. "I see now that Friendship can increase the effectiveness of Fey Bullshit. I approve."

"It is more than that." [Adversity Regulator] added, visibly impressed. "You, young and lesser spirit, have been raised in hierarchy by your equals, through nothing but your own effort. You have reached the rank of Middle Manager, and while this is not a typical or well-recorded rank, that you managed to grow at all is an impressive sign."

It was true. Rania hadn't really thought about it before, but what Silent Martha had done was seriously impressive. Most spirits were created to serve a purpose, and they never deviated from that. Fey worked in a similar way, and it was exceptionally rare for any of them to improve and exceed what they were created as. [The Duke of Blood] had always been [The Duke of Blood]. He had never needed to work his way up. By becoming a Middle Manager, Silent Martha had achieved something that only a fraction of fey ever did: She had improved herself and grown beyond her original role.

As she looked around, Rania noted to her delight that all of the spirits looked very impressed by Silent Martha. Meanwhile, the young fey looked back at Rania as if to reassure herself, and looked very pleased when Rania smiled back at her in approval.

Silent Martha really was a great friend, and she had come so far since her baby-eating days!