9. Narrative

“And so naturally we thought of you,” Lady Di Tonilla said.

Taimei flushed and remained silent for a moment as she thought, her mind racing and her heart thumping.

It wasn’t like that she told herself. She would be posing as the mother of her master’s child to prevent confusion in the masses. Master wasn’t actually interested in her that way, thank goodness! He just needed her help with this matter.

“I accept,” she said, because when phrased as a request for assistance from her master there could be no other outcome. “What do you need me to do?”

“Nothing directly. We need your servants to begin spreading rumors that you had returned from your time as Little Bug’s apprentice with a child. Once they have lain the groundwork and created interest in the matter, we will announce the child and his parentage at the same time,” Tonilla explained.

“And, the child? Are they aware of and part of this deception?” Taimei asked. “I don’t want them feeling that they—”

“Why don’t we go and meet him, and we can explain matters yourself,” Tonilla suggested.

Taimei nodded, and they got up from the tea room where the discussion had taken place, moving to the courtyard where a young boy was play-fighting with Little Bug.

“You are getting very good at moving your Eidolon,” Little Bug praised. “I’m proud of you Atla.”

The boy laughed and threw a haymaker that set him off balance before falling on his butt. He laughed some more. “I didn’t realize being a human required so much balance!”

“Let’s take a break. I believe that the women have come to discuss matters with us.”

“I don’t want to talk with them. I want to keep playing with you,” Atla complained.

“Sometimes matters of the world get in front of playtime, Atla,” Little Bug said. “But I promise that after we have discussed matters we can play again.”

“Okay,” the child said, and they sat down in the courtyard near an elm tree that grew in the center. The tree had not been there six hours ago, but it was now nearly fully grown.

“Atla,” Little Bug said, “I would have you by my side if you choose to continue to manifest in this form. I would not ever wish to hide any part of you, except to keep you safe from the other Xian lords. But the masses, they will rightly assume that you are my child and question where you came from. You know how it is that human children are born, and so they will say ‘if Little Bug is the father, who is the mother?’ And the best way to silence these questions is to give them an answer that will make them stop asking.”

“Okay. But I don’t have a mother. Unless you count the sun. But maybe the sun is my father and you are my mother? I don’t know it’s confusing,” Atla said.

“Yes, but we don’t need to figure out the confusing bits right now,” Little Bug persisted. “We just need to decide what we will tell the people who ask ‘who is that little child who follows Little Bug around these days?’ And Taimei has volunteered to help us answer that question by posing as your mother.”

The child burst into laughter. “But she’s too skinny!”

Taimei flushed, for she’d never thought of that particular objection. She remained silent as the world-child-eidolon’s laughter died down. Then Atla turned contemplative. “We are going to be lying to people. Is lying bad?”

“The control of information is an exertion of power,” Lady Tonilla explained. “By using this fiction, we are controlling the narrative that might otherwise be turned against us. Our cause is righteous, for it is to protect you and give you a place in the world where you may stand proudly, Atla. So while it might be ‘bad’ to lie to cover up a misdeed, in this case the fiction we are presenting the world is ‘good’ because it is being done for a good reason.”

Atla considered her words, then nodded. “I want to be a good world. Taimei you are not my mother but we can play pretend. I’ve never played pretend before, it’s supposed to be fun!”

Taimei nodded, relieved to have passed the world-child’s test, whatever test that might have been. “Perhaps you would like to go on a walk with me and talk about matters that interest you?” she suggested. “If I am to be your pretend-mother then I should know things about you so that when people ask me of you I can give them answers.”

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“Okay,” Atla agreed, and so they went for a walk around the compound.

While Little Bug took his first nap in five years that didn’t end with Atla suddenly bursting into his thoughts with a new thought, question, or ‘emergency.’

~~~~~~

I awoke from my nap into a moment of perfect silence, and my first instinct was that something was intensely wrong. Then I remembered that Atla had managed to manifest himself as an Eidolon, and that he was currently distracted by my allies. I calmed down. I rose from my bed and did several things that one usually does after waking up, then went to lay eyes on my beautiful child once more.

It was not just a matter of having a face to go with a name. The manifestation of an Eidolon was a significant step in the development of a world like Atla. It marked the transition from being a stage eleven world; a world with potent latent energy and also a voice, into a stage fifteen world, having skipped straight past stages twelve, thirteen and fourteen, in which a world was expected to bring forth partial manifestations rather than a perfect one like Atla’s new body.

At the same point, the boy that was currently playing with Taimei and regaling her with how many different types of fish were in his ocean was decidedly not human. He wouldn’t bleed when he got a scrape on his knee, he couldn’t die of a fever, and he might suddenly disappear if something happened on the other side of the world to draw his attention.

But at the moment he was happily distracted playing a counting game, so I considered myself lucky.

Di Ram stepped up beside me. “We have to talk about what this means, you know,” he said.

“I know,” I agreed.

“So …” he paused. “What does it mean? I gather that it’s a good thing, but I know nothing about the raising of worlds. Until recently I thought that a world was a world and there was nothing to be done to change it.”

“It means that Atla is growing and becoming stronger,” I answered. “Being able to contextualize himself as a human will allow him to actively channel his energy as a world in new ways. He’ll be able to reach new heights.”

I paused, considering what to share. “There are Xian Lords who would attempt to subsume him at this point,” I confided. “To merge their mind with their world’s mind and become more than they were alone. But while that would make us, together, very powerful, I cannot bring myself to suggest it to Atla. Atla would no longer be Atla if I merged my mind with his, and I would no longer be Little Bug. Even if I must guide his development at a slower pace instead of taking direct control, I refuse to take that path.”

Di Ram just nodded. “I can understand your conviction on the matter. More strategically, however, I have to ask. Will this effect the alliances? The Qi of this world is already becoming so thick that formerly barren areas are as Qi laden as the focal points of the meditation rooms that the sects once used in the before times. Some formations have stopped working or caused problems because they were designed to work in low Qi density zones. There are a thousand issues that are popping up around the world because of how Atla is changing.”

“I know, and I refuse to apologize for them,” I said stubbornly. “Especially the spread of cultivation through the masses.”

“Yes, that’s another sticky spot,” Di Ram agreed. “We have commoners who are coming forward to their sects for testing and exceeding all of the established criteria for admittance by the hundreds. Commoners who are more advanced in simply self-exploratory methods, cultivating in their back yards, than students of the sects who have trained for decades. This world is one that I don’t recognize anymore.”

“Once more I refuse to apologize. I will be happy once everyone on Atla has a chance to walk the silver, or even golden path. That will be the mark that this is a true Xian world, I think. That only children are below the silver path, and that is only so that they might grow.”

Di Ram nodded. “And the golden path?”

“Is not for everyone in every lifetime,” I said honestly. “I hope that those who set foot on it are a fifth as just and honorable as you are, Di Ram, but there will be problems, just as there were in the old world. But the power dynamics between the strong and the weak will continue to change in the coming years, and I cannot predict how they will turn out.”

“Even with your ability to see the future?”

“I see the ways that fate is pulling people, or places, or things,” I explained. “I can tell when one is better or worse, mostly. But not the exact future. When the world was in peril, I saw two options to save it. One was that Lord Loshi would step in and fulfill his duty as Lord of the Realm. If this happened, then I would have served him in whatever capacity he required in order to drive off Ant. Instead, the weight fell upon my shoulders. But because I had seen this possibility, I had prepared for it. And thus was Atla born.”

“You saw the Xian lords coming,” he pointed out.

“Yes. I saw five titans walking Atla and shaking things up, so I took steps to minimize the damage they would cause,” I admitted. “And I haven’t had a chance to look at fate recently. I will remedy that in due time. For now, let me just enjoy the sight of my son playing with Taimei and we can talk of futures and alliances tomorrow.”

Di Ram nodded. “Of course. I will schedule a meeting for tomorrow morning and we will discuss the state of the Alliance at that time.”

I sighed and nodded my agreement. He stepped away, and I spent the rest of the evening watching a child-world play.

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