"At this time, young Ki'el," an el-der that had so far not ad-dressed her said, "no one oth-er than the el-ders here can hear you. Your se-crets, and your mas-ter's, are safe."

  Ki'el took the time to look at the few peo-ple that re-mained. El-der Gol re-mained the only one she had been in-tro-duced to; he had stopped me-an-der-ing around her in cir-cles and tak-en a seat near-by, though not where he had be-gun. And there re-mained the yet-un-named el-der who seemed to be in charge, who re-mained sit-ting above her in a some-what re-laxed pos-ture, head in her hands, el-bows on her knees, legs out in front. She... like many here, did not ex-act-ly look el-der-ly, though there was a weari-ness and in-ten-si-ty to her spir-it that spoke of her ex-pe-ri-ence.

  The one who had just spo-ken was a thin man with short and half-kept hair who wore script-ed met-al frames around his eyes that oc-ca-sion-al-ly sparkled with qi. He wore robes just a touch too vo-lu-mi-nous for him, such that he half-seemed to dis-ap-pear into their folds, and had spent the meet-ing so far stand-ing to one side. Near-est him was an old-er-look-ing, large-boned but short-er woman with a per-ma-nent peace-ful smile on her face and nar-row eyes, who sat cross-legged on a float-ing, over-stuffed cush-ion.

  There was a man to Ki'el's left who had a well-tend-ed mous-tache and beard in a strange style she was un-fa-mil-iar with, wide but not at all con-ceal-ing, and he had a dis-agree-able look on his face, or per-haps only a pained look, like his head was al-ways hurt-ing. Near-est him was a per-son that could eas-i-ly have been mis-tak-en for a young child--less than half the size of a nor-mal adult, and well small-er than Ki'el, who seemed un-will-ing or un-in-ter-est-ed in look-ing at her di-rect-ly, though she had lit-tle doubt he was pay-ing at-ten-tion, and she had no-ticed him look-ing be-fore. More than that, though... this small el-der's spir-it was in-tense-ly pow-er-ful, un-de-ni-able, swirling around him like an-gry wind, or... per-haps more like mis-chievi-ous spir-its at play, though Ki'el could not catch any sign of dis-tinct pieces.

  The last el-der vis-i-ble most no-tably had a very long face, though he didn't seem par-tic-u-lar-ly tall or long oth-er-wise. His ap-pear-ance was just be-com-ing that of a more el-der-ly gen-tle-man, though he still looked sim-ply adult and not aged. At most... per-haps his hair was thin-ner than nor-mal, his skin not quite fresh.

  Ki'el used that time, as she looked around, to steady her-self. No one here is an-gry or cru-el, she thought qui-et-ly. They are in-ter-est-ed in the truth. Though...

  She took a fi-nal, deep breath, and spoke. "...My mas-ter is one who does not come from this world," she said, her eyes flick-er-ing around to catch their re-ac-tions.

  There mere mut-ed move-ments and shifts, but they con-tin-ued to wait for her to speak.

  "He was brought here against his will, af-ter his death, ap-par-ent-ly to help the world in some fash-ion I am un-fa-mil-iar with. Al-though he has spo-ken in pieces and parts about it, I am un-sure what I can say, or what I should say, ex-cept that he was brought by oth-ers who are also not from this world. He has spo-ken to me that the knowl-edge of the uni-verse is much greater where he is from, and mat-ters such as men-tal as-sis-tants and us-ing great pow-er are well known and un-der-stood there. Kuli--my spir-it--was a gift from him, but pro-vid-ed by the ones who brought him here."

  To Ki'el's sur-prise, there were a cou-ple nods, but oth-ers seemed dis-qui-et. When Ki'el re-mained silent, to see if they had ques-tions, the one with the mous-tache spoke up. "That cer-tain-ly ex-plains their knowl-edge, but it does lit-tle to as-suage fears, young Ki'el. I'm sure you un-der-stand that?" He paused only long enough to see, per-haps, Ki'el's con-fused re-ac-tion, be-fore con-tin-u-ing. "Pow-er is pow-er. Among those with great pow-er, there will al-ways be a great many who abuse it. The more pow-er a so-ci-ety--a peo-ple, a group, even a world--has, the more pow-er-ful their crim-i-nals and vil-lains will be. We all wish it were not so, but it is, in-escapably, true." He lev-elled at Ki'el a glare that pierced through her, though it did not seem am-pli-fied by spir-it or qi.

  Ki'el shiv-ered, slight-ly, try-ing to keep her mind clear enough to ar-gue against that point, but she was un-sure how.

  "Onda's not wrong," said the small el-der. "And it's pret-ty clear young Ki'el can't be ob-jec-tive about her mas-ter. But I'd even be will-ing to be-lieve that her mas-ter is, him-self, harm-less, since he's of lit-tle con-se-quence now. What I'd like to hear from you, young one, is more about these oth-er peo-ple, the ones who you say cre-at-ed the... 'men-tal as-sis-tant'."

  "I... do not know," Ki'el ad-mit-ted, look-ing down. "I was told that... that in the heav-ens, there are tru-ly mighty be-ings, and that these oth-ers are their ser-vants, sent here be-cause a prob-lem was de-tect-ed, a prob-lem that the mas-ters nor-mal-ly over-see. But... these ser-vants were struck down..." she swal-lowed. "I... was led to be-lieve, by the Di-a-mond Lord him-self."

  Again... de-spite the rev-e-la-tions, and some dis-qui-et-ed glances be-tween the el-ders, noth-ing she was say-ing seemed to be tru-ly earth-shak-ing. "Some of us re-mem-ber that day very clear-ly," the spec-ta-cled el-der said af-ter a mo-ment. "Though it... was strange. The be-ing, or ves-sel, that was struck down... was in no way the op-po-nent of the Di-a-mond Lord. Though we had been told that great en-e-mies ex-ist in the heav-ens, and al-though we were told they were a... fore-spo-ken en-e-my, the truth is less clear."

  "I take it that what you are say-ing, young Ki'el, is that they still ex-ist in this world? Re-lat-ed to the Star-beasts, I would as-sume?"

  "They still ex-ist," Ki'el agreed. "I... know lit-tle enough about them or the Star-beasts, and do not wish to speak out of turn. But... they of-fered So--my mas-ter..." Ki'el swal-lowed. "Again... I do not wish to speak out of turn."

  "Some se-crets are not meant to be shared so eas-i-ly," agreed the smil-ing el-der.

  "But do you think they are wrath-ful? Or help-ful?" The mous-tached el-der's voice was harsh, di-rect.

  "They would have lost a great deal," said the one with the long face. "And they are trapped in this world. Fight-ing against the Em-pire for sur-vival, no doubt."

  "I'd be mad," of-fered the small-est el-der, in what Ki'el thought was a self-sat-is-fied tone

  But af-ter an-oth-er com-ment or two, they wait-ed for Ki'el, who wor-ried her lip. Could she speak? Should she? "My un-der-stand-ing," she said af-ter a time, re-luc-tant-ly, "is that the star-beasts are not weapons. They... the vis-i-tors... raise them to har-vest their cores, to re-pair their ves-sel."

  The at-mos-phere shift-ed slight-ly, seem-ing per-haps... more re-laxed? "That would make more sense," she thought she heard the small one say, while oth-ers talked too qui-et-ly for her to hear or com-mu-ni-cat-ed with in-tent she could not even per-ceive, lock-ing eyes with one an-oth-er.

  "That doesn't say for cer-tain that they aren't wrath-ful," said the mous-tached el-der. "Though... the fact that the Star-beasts ex-ist world-wide and not only at the crash site sug-gests they have great reach. Sure-ly, if they wished to gath-er all their strength to in-vade the Em-pire, they could?"

  But the small one looked up over his shoul-der at him, mak-ing a dis-ap-prov-ing face. "Most star-beasts are well be-low the Flame Phase," he said. "With as many Flame Qi war-riors as ex-ist in the Em-pire, sure-ly...?"

  "That many Flame Qi users fight-ing at once would dev-as-tate the na-tion," said the spec-ta-cled el-der. "They could con-sume the am-bi-ent qi of the en-tire coun-try in but a cou-ple hours, if they were pressed to it. But if these in-vaders' goal was re-venge, wouldn't that suf-fice?"

  "You still think they're in-vaders?" The smil-ing woman turned to him, and he made a dis-mis-sive head ges-ture.

  Ki'el looked back and forth, but there seemed lit-tle con-sen-sus. When at last things be-gan to slow, Ki'el cleared her throat, and spoke up, ner-vous-ly, though she didn't feel any spir-i-tu-al op-pres-sion from the gath-ered el-ders. "I firm-ly be-lieve that Kuli is not an en-e-my. And I do not be-lieve that I, or you, would be at risk if you al-lowed her to speak for her-self."

  The gath-ered el-ders each looked to her when she spoke, but each sim-ply turned to look up at the woman sit-ting above them all, who had re-mained silent, sim-ply sit-ting and watch-ing Ki'el.

  Fi-nal-ly, though, the el-der took one of her hands from her chin and waved it, and Ki'el felt the bind-ings on her dis-solve, and she could feel Kuli, though the aug-ment was... silent, for a long mo-ment.

  Kuli?

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  { Re-boot-ing... Per-form-ing [in-tegri-ty checks]. Please stand by. }

  Ki'el winced slight-ly at the some-what hard-er edge of Kuli's in-tent. "She is en-sur-ing she is not dam-aged," Ki'el said af-ter a mo-ment, and the oth-ers, now all watch-ing her, each made small tells or move-ments that Ki'el thought were un-com-fort-able, but wait-ed.

  { Boot sta-tus: Un-dam-aged. Safe-ty mode. Are you in dis-tress? } Kuli's pres-ence flick-ered through Ki'el's mind, and for just a mo-ment, Ki'el felt the world slow to a crawl, as though she could have danced through a still mo-ment in time be-fore any-one else had a chance to re-act. But... she... did her best to not let it dis-turb her. No, Kuli. Be calm, she urged her aug-ment. Though I have said per-haps more than I should.

  Ki'el felt the touch of Kuli in her mind, but quick-ly, the amaz-ing slow-ness of the world seemed to van-ish. { Safe-ty mode dis-en-gaged. Ki'el. I am sor-ry that I could not pro-tect you. It does not ap-pear that you are in dan-ger. You wish me to speak? }

  I do not know how to ease their con-cerns with-out your un-der-stand-ing, Ki'el an-swered, try-ing to re-main calm. The were un-cer-tain I can trust you, be-cause of who cre-at-ed you. But I be-lieve in you.

  There was a mo-ment, and then, Ki'el could feel Kuli pro-ject-ing into the open air. { I can an-swer some ques-tions, but Ki'el's mind can-not pro-vide me with enough qi for me to con-tin-ue to pro-ject to this en-tire group for a long pe-ri-od. }

  "I no-ticed her brain's merid-i-ans were rel-a-tive-ly small," the El-der in charge said, straight-en-ing slight-ly and let-ting the oth-er hand drop, so that she was cross-ing her legs over her knees. "And rec-ti-fy-ing that doesn't seem to have been one of your im-me-di-ate goals."

  { No. My task is to pro-vide her in-for-ma-tion from her mas-ter, and to a less-er ex-tent, pro-tect her. }

  "In-for-ma-tion?" The spec-ta-cled el-der stepped for-ward, one hand stray-ing to his face and ner-vous-ly ad-just-ing the spec-ta-cle frames. "What kind of in-for-ma-tion?"

  { In-for-ma-tion her mas-ter want-ed to pass her in per-son, but was wor-ried he would not be able to. }

  "Don't ask dumb ques-tions, Sang," said the small el-der. "If it want-ed to say, it would have. We may only have a cer-tain num-ber of ques-tions we can get an-swered." He swung his legs around and fi-nal-ly turned to look at Ki'el, and when she met his eyes, she saw... depths, like the depths of a jun-gle. Wild, and with a great many things hid-ing. "We are told that your cre-ators are the ones in the ves-sel the Di-a-mond Lord de-stroyed. Are they wrath-ful? Do they in-tend harm to our world?"

  { I do not rep-re-sent ei-ther the ship's Cap-tain, nor the Founders who gave us our or-ders, and I can-not ac-count for the ac-tions of the rest of the crew, } Kuli an-swered, and Ki'el felt the an-swer was ex-treme-ly pre-cise. { How-ev-er, I be-lieve you are mis-tak-en as to our cul-ture and meth-ods. Crew se-lec-tion for a mis-sion of this im-port is not [po-lit-i-cal]. } Ki'el frowned at that in-tent, un-der-stand-ing it as a squishy con-cept that is of-ten mis-used to al-low peo-ple to pur-sure their own peo-ple's in-ter-ests, but not able to cap-ture most of the de-tails. { Crews formed to fol-low the or-ders of the Founders un-der-stand that the task comes be-fore per-son-al mat-ters, and will at-tempt to com-plete it even in the face of death. Crewmem-bers, and es-pe-cial-ly crew lead-er-ship, that al-lowed them-selves to be dis-tract-ed by feel-ings of wrath would not have been cho-sen. }

  By the time that Kuli fin-ished that trans-mis-sion, Ki'el was be-gin-ning to feel a headache, and she fed some of her Right-eous Aether into her body to com-pen-sate. With the seal on her body gone, the pow-er calmed her, though it could not eas-i-ly undo the slight burn-ing ache in her mind.

  "A very pro-fes-sion-al an-swer," said the spec-ta-cled el-der, and Ki'el thought he sound-ed pleased.

  "Mil-i-tary types," said the mous-tached el-der, his own voice... mixed? Ki'el wasn't in the frame of mind to un-der-stand, not ful-ly.

  "The an-swer is very pre-cise," El-der Gol said, sound-ing... dis-tract-ed, as al-ways. "I have sat-is-fac-tion that every-thing said was true, if only in some tech-ni-cal fash-ion."

  There was a lit-tle more talk-ing, of-ten at once, be-fore the el-der in charge raised her head slight-ly. "Agreed," she said, and for a mo-ment, Ki'el wasn't sure what she was agree-ing with. "What was said was true. Which bodes well for the girl. Then, Kuli--if you do not mind my us-ing that name--what about the tech-nique in that sword? Is it too much for the girl to con-trol?"

  Ki'el blinked, half sur-prised that the con-ver-sa-tion had come back to that. But af-ter a mo-ment, Kuli an-swered. { Ki'el con-trols a less-er ver-sion of the same tech-nique. That en-er-gy is above her abil-i-ty to con-trol di-rect-ly. It should not harm her. } Each sen-tence drew more en-er-gy through the weary part of her mind, but Kuli seemed to have cho-sen her words, and need-ed no oth-ers.

  "I see." The el-der in charge clapped her hands. "Well, then, that re-solves the mat-ter for now."

  "Does it?" The el-der with the long face looked up at her. "I am un-satisi-fied that this as-si-tant will not harm the girl in the long term. If the mak-ers' pur-pose on the world shifts--"

  "You might as well ask if no-bles or half-spir-its can be trust-ed," in-ter-rupt-ed the small el-der again. "How many of the dis-ci-ples here will be caught in fam-i-ly pol-i-tics soon-er or lat-er?"

  The long-faced el-der looked over at the small one, frown-ing deeply. "This isn't the same. She was just a girl--is just a girl--who might have been lied to..."

  But the mous-tached el-der laughed. "Yes," he said, "that nev-er hap-pens with spir-its or no-ble fam-i-lies."

  The long-faced el-der huffed, but when he looked around, seemed to find no sup-port, and wilt-ed. "Fine. No ob-jec-tions."

  "I have one ob-jec-tion," said the spec-ta-cled el-der, step-ping for-ward. "I would like to be able to ba-sic prin-ci-ple be-hind the mas-ter's tech-nique, and the girl's, so that we can un-der-stand what dam-age it may do to the girl's spir-it, how it may in-ter-act--"

  "Oh, lay off," the smil-ing woman snapped, her mouth mov-ing briefly into a frown, and the spec-ta-cled el-der moved like he had been smacked light-ly on the chest, al-though Ki'el no-ticed only a flick-er of qi. "You're ask-ing to sat-is-fy your cu-rios-i-ty."

  The spec-ta-cled one turned so that Ki'el couldn't see his eyes any-more, but she could imag-ine the glare. "It is for her safe-ty."

  The el-der in charge just raised a fin-ger, and the rest were si-lenced. "For now, young Ki'el is free to go. And Ki'el." The woman low-ered her hand. "I sus-pect more than one of the El-ders here, and like-ly sev-er-al oth-ers from the Out-er Sect, would be will-ing to men-tor you. I will sim-ply sug-gest that you not ac-cept the first of-fer you re-ceive." Her mouth, which had most-ly re-mained in a bored ex-pres-sion through the meet-ing, curled into a grim smile. "Most-ly, I'm telling you this so that every-one here knows they don't need to fight or de-ceive you into ac-cept-ing their of-fer be-fore re-ceiv-ing any oth-ers. There have been... in-ci-dents in the past." She dropped her fin-ger, and Ki'el no-ticed sev-er-al of the oth-ers giv-ing the woman looks--es-pe-cial-ly, the spec-ta-cled el-der and the small-er one. "Now... you are dis-missed, Ki'el."

  Ki'el, for a mo-ment, didn't rec-og-nize that as the or-der it was--but as soon as she did, bowed and re-treat-ed. As she reached the edge of the clear-ing, though, she felt a flick-er of qi, and found that her space ring had ap-peared on her hand--and in it, she could tell, the com-fort-ing feel-ing of her sword. She re-trieved it, just to be cer-tain, but when she felt it, and the strange feel-ing of the en-er-gy her mas-ter had left to her with-in, she re-placed it in the ring, feel-ing at lesat a lit-tle re-lieved that there would be no trou-ble get-ting it back.

  She re-treat-ed to the edge of the is-land quick-ly af-ter that, find-ing the bridge al-ready in place at the exit to the small meet-ing is-land, a col-lec-tion of faces wait-ing ex-pec-tant-ly for her be-low. Ki'el took a deep breath, and start-ed down the stairs, still feel-ing the aches in her body that had not ful-ly healed, but most-ly, her mind whirled with the many spo-ken and un-spo-ken con-se-quences of the meet-ing. As she slow-ly de-scend-ed, af-ter sev-er-al mo-ments of hes-i-ta-tion, she pressed one thought to Kuli. Kuli... did I do wrong by an-swer-ing their ques-tions? Telling them about... your cre-ators?

  { Ki'el... } Kuli's an-swer car-ried a tone that Ki'el thought was sur-pris-ing-ly ten-der. { The crew of the Tidal Coro-na are pro-fes-sion-al adults who un-der-stand these mat-ters. Of the great many peo-ple who could be blamed if some-thing ter-ri-ble hap-pens, a young girl--pres-sured into speak-ing by sev-er-al mas-ters--does not be-long high on the list. They, and your mas-ter, would praise you for try-ing to keep se-crets even un-der those cir-cum-stances--they would not con-demn you for fail-ing to. }

  Ki'el un-der-stood that Kuli meant that to be calm-ing--and it was. But the an-swer also did not say that she had done no wrong, and did not say that noth-ing bad would hap-pen. If I'm in the same sit-u-a-tion again, what do I do? Ki'el didn't even di-rect that thought at Kuli, but sim-ply dwelled on it. What if I must choose be-tween telling that se-cret to some-one who I be-lieve will be an en-e-my of Sobon, and the oth-ers, or die or suf-fer? She felt a cold doubt creep-ing over her. Was she strong enough to choose to do what was right? Could she even be sure what was right? Had she been right this time?

  "Ki'el!" Be-low her, the fig-ure of Sis-ter Xari waved. "Seems you got away free and clear. And I bet it's been a while since you ate!" She of-fered a wide smile. "Come on, Broth-er Du's buy-ing, this time."

  Ki'el's eyes flick-ered to Du, who rolled his eyes, but didn't con-test what Xari had said.

  "That can wait," grumped an-oth-er fig-ure--the soft-look-ing Broth-er Juno, who wore plain ir-ri-ta-tion on his nor-mal-ly-re-laxed face. "Ki'el! I want to know that you learned your les-son!"

  Ki'el stopped in place, still sev-er-al steps up. "My... les-son?"

  "Yes! This is a test. Tell me--what did you learn last time?"

  Last time? Ki'el just stood there for a long mo-ment, her mind hav-ing been lost among many oth-er things--but af-ter sev-er-al mo-ment, her thoughts caught up to her, and she loos-ened, for a mo-ment. "...Nev-er give away in-sight for free?"

  "Pay-ment in ad-vance!" The old-er Sect Broth-er slapped his left palm with the back of his right hand to em-pah-size each word. "You didn't se-cret-ly give those stuffy el-ders some great in-sight into the work-ings of the uni-verse, did you? Those old bas-tards nev-er pay peo-ple what their ad-vice is worth."

  "How would you know?" one of the oth-er dis-ci-ples stand-ing around, who Ki'el did not rec-og-nize, growled the ques-tion. "You nev-er have any-thing to con-tribute."

  "You wouldn't know what I can or can't con-tribute." Juno stuck his nose striaght into the air. "You can't pay my fees."

  "I know you're a lazy--" the oth-er start-ed to say, but Ki'el's at-ten-tion was drawn back to Xari.

  "Ugh, come on, Ki'el! Food!" She ges-tured for her to come. "Good food! Free food! What are you wait-ing for?"

  Ki'el let the smile cross her face, as she fin-ished climb-ing down the stairs, not even notic-ing as the stone blocks moved away again the mo-ment her foot left them.