ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE: What do you know about chaos?

185

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“Yes,” said Yenu-pezth, after a few moments of consideration. “This is a good plan.”

She was speaking to them from Alden’s tablet, which was propped on the floor table in the cottage. Alden had just carefully explained his ideal nightmare replacement to her. He resisted saying, “Told you so!” to Stuart, who had suggested they make this call because he wasn’t sure Yenu-pezth would approve of the plan.

Something, something…a realistic survival dream complete with demon fighting doesn’t sound like any treatment I’ve ever had, Alden.

“Preparing thoroughly for this and thinking in this way may bring you as much help as the dream itself,” Yenu-pezth added. “And I have some thoughts on how to make it more effective. Try to identify four possible <<scenarios>> of unexpected trouble that you might encounter in this dream and solve with your current strengths. Let’s meet six nights from now. If you’re not ready to adjust the dream at that time, we can speak of other matters. Do you agree with this?”

“I do, Healer Yenu,” said Alden. “I’ll be ready with the scenarios for the dream by then.”

“When you feel sure of them, then you will be ready,” Yenu-pezth said crisply. “I will not argue with your surety, nor will I rush it. You may call me again at this hour when you have questions.”

They both thanked her, and Alden ended the call.

“So now will you help me figure out how to kill the big Thegund demon?”

“If it would bring you comfort to know how to defend yourself, I would help you learn anyway,” said Stuart, rubbing his ryeh-b’t’s back near the base of her tail with one hand while he spoke. “Of course. I was only worried because adding danger and hardship to your dream sounded very different than what I imagined you would be doing. You don’t have to kill the demon to be safe from it, though. Escaping, hiding, and <<repelling>> may all be better options.”

Alden adjusted his seat on the floor cushion to get more comfortable. “You think it doesn’t need killing?”

Stuart moved his hands in a shrug, and the ryeh-b’t snapped at his sleeve to protest the end of her massage session. “I think it depends on the nature of the demon. And if getting away from the area of danger is your main objective, completely destroying it may not be necessary. We’ll know more after we have selected some characteristics for it.”

He interpreted Alden’s slightly blank look correctly and added, “It’s unlikely someone saw the specific demon that was active near the laboratory and recorded its behavior. If you didn’t see it either, we’ll have to <<make educated guesses>> about what it was and what it could have done.”

Alden remembered asking Kibby if she had any idea what it was or what it could do and getting a lot of “I don’t know” in reply.

“That’s right,” he muttered. “Other things on Thegund that changed wouldn’t be as predictable as the bugs.”

“Those are unusual,” Stuart agreed. “They almost all become demons. Very odd. And most of them have similar behaviors once they do, but not every one of them. Master Ro-den is quite obsessed with figuring out why they are the way they are. Even though he’s less famous for that than he is for…”

He seemed to have been warming to the topic only to trail off suddenly. “What do you know about chaos?” he asked.

“Not as much as I’d like to. But I don’t want you to be in trouble for telling me something you shouldn’t.”

Stuart took a while to reply, and when he did, there was regret in his voice. “I do not understand the reasoning for why some matters are being kept discreet from humans. I haven’t even identified all of the topics that are. In a few years, if I were a traditional student who hoped to have summoning rights for your species after graduation, I would study the subject at LeafSong so that I could properly manage the transfer of knowledge without risking the destabilization of your planet’s Contract.”

“If telling me things destabilizes our Contract, I don’t want to know them,” Alden said at once. “How does telling secrets harm a Contract, though? If that’s not a secret, too.”

Stuart tilted his head. “Did you not learn about the <<establishment>> of the Earth Contract in school when you were younger? Is that something humans don’t teach you until you’re adult…no, that can’t be correct. It should be explained prior to your selection as an Avowed.”

“Of course I learned about it. Artonans and Avowed traveling the world, speaking to all governments and peoples, showing them magic, and giving them things in exchange for their agreement—all of that. We even have a Contract Day celebration. But I still don’t understand how you telling me certain specific facts could damage the Contract.”

“So you do understand that the Contract between Earth and the Triplanets is perpetually being <<reaffirmed>> by both our peoples? And shall be for as long as it exists?”

Alden thought about it. “I know that. I didn’t quite connect it to…that’s not the only thing making it work, is it? Didn’t the wizards back then enchant the planet itself and the universe and…. More has to be involved than people agreeing that they accept the Contract every time they receive healing treatments or other Contract benefits, doesn’t it?”

“‘More’ is involved,” Stuart said, “but if the most important part of it was the enchantment of your planet, we’d call it the Enchantment. We call it the Contract because it’s a contract. Humans and Artonans have much in common, including concepts of some obligation to <<ancestral promise>>, but an ancestral promise isn’t enough to provide Contract stability if the people currently living under the Contract reject its terms.”

A terrible foreboding knotted Alden’s stomach. “The Earth Contract goes away if enough humans stop liking it?”

“You don’t have to like something to agree to it,” Stuart pointed out. “But it would be a problem if a large percentage of your species refused to agree to it. The Earth Contract probably wouldn’t go away. At first. The terms are such that the accumulated history of human acceptance and the Artonan desire for the Contract’s continuation should <<outweigh>> the rejection of a generation of humans. But friction between our peoples would delay your Contract’s growth and weaken its response to <<stresses>>, which would necessitate more assistance on our part, which would increase the likelihood of future friction.”

He made a gesture with both hands like he was breaking a twig.

“At this point, it is best for the Triplanets’ relationship with Earth to be made as strong as possible, thus some truths become matters of proper discretion. The wide release of that kind of information is supposed to be managed in whatever way works best for humans.”

“You mean in whatever way makes us the happiest?”

Stuart pet his ryeh-b’t some more and slowly purpled.

Alden wondered if he was thinking about lying, but he just swallowed, met Alden’s eyes, and said, “I mean in whatever way makes your species, as a whole, least likely to resist the continuation of the Contract. The factors taken into consideration are unique to every resource world, so the management of each one is slightly different. Pragmatism is balanced by our morals and our abilities. But encouraging other species to follow our lead and be satisfied with our dominant position isn’t always the same as ensuring their maximum happiness. I’m not naive to that, so I don’t think I should avoid admitting it to you.”

He looked like someone who thought he’d just plunged into dangerous waters.

“You’re worrying too much,” Alden said dryly. “I’ve never thought that the Triplanetary Government’s goal was maximum human happiness. I’m sorry if that question made it sound like I did. I don’t even think humanity’s goal has ever been maximum human happiness on a global level.”

Stuart inhaled. “I see…and you have already told me that your feelings about being an Avowed are complicated, so…I suppose I don’t need to mention that the various ways wizards call upon Avowed are not always for the greater…”

He was obviously struggling with what to say, but since Alden didn’t know where Stuart was ultimately going with this he didn’t know how to help.

I was right. The power dynamic is always going to be a gnarly problem to work around.

Embarrassing for Stuart to run into, rankling for Alden.

Finally, after fumbling a bit more, Stuart said, “I will move the conversation down its path!” a little too forcefully. “You are only asking about one demon on Thegund, so telling you everything about chaos today is unnecessary, isn’t it? And we will have many more conversations about such matters in the future I am sure.”

So that’s what he was hoping to tell me, Alden thought. Just…literally everything about chaos. Apparently that’s not proper discretion by even his loose, undertrained standards. Maybe he couldn’t work it out with his knightly oaths.

Stuart was looking at Alden hard again, and Alden honestly couldn’t tell what that face meant. He decided to assume it was some version of, “Please don’t be mad at me.”

“If I can kill the demon—or run from it or hide from it—that’s all I care about,” he said. “For now.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Stuart’s unreadable expression shifted to recognizable relief. “Yes! Good! Can we start by assuming it might have been a bokabv that was turned by the chaos? There are a few small herds there, and I did hear one of Aunt Alis’s spouses saying something about how Kraaaa snuck off to eat a demon that was probably a bokabv.”

“Yuck….he ate one?!”

“That’s what I heard.”

“How do you put a demon in your mouth?”

“It died almost as soon as he got his tongue around it, and he was mad about it.” Stuart looked like he was talking about the weather suddenly. “He should probably have used his skills on it instead, but you can’t really be annoyed with grivecks for taking unnecessary risks, can you? Now, normal bokabvs are herdcreatures with shy personalities and excellent senses of smell. I think a bokabv that became a demon rather than dying in the corrupted environment would be slightly more likely to be the herdmother instead of a regular…”