01.121 Astray

The next day (Saturday, May 20, 2022)

Charlie’s apartment, TriBeCa, Manhattan, New York, United States

“Ella you promised we could chat.” Jade said.

“You are right, I did.” Ella had walked into their apartment to find Jade waiting patiently for her.

“Let me make some tea first.”

“Non-caffeinated for me,” said Ella, “I intend to go sleep after this.”

“Where is Charlie?”

“She stayed at the office. I needed her there.”'

Jade took a moment to brew some tea and the man sat down at the small table and motioned Ella to do the same.

“Ella, where is your head at?” Jade started with.

Ella stared at her roommate and thought, “I don’t know. I have the Aqrabuamelu finally. I have recruited Xu. Now I need to take the fight to Ekerri.”

“To what end?”

“He killed Etana, my friend. He tried to kill me.”

“And that is it? You have an army of immortal soldiers, a dragon, and you will point them at Ekerri and kill him and then what?”

Ella looked at her friend. “I… I don’t know.”

“Because to me, you are accumulating power to go to war. And that, I am not sure, is a good or just reason. How many more will die for this?”

Ella sat back. She took a moment to clear her head. She tried again, “He hurt me. You know. When I was unconscious, he tortured me.”

“Yes, and that does make him a bad person. But are you a better one? Will you go after Kothin? The other drow - will you exterminate them? I spent two weeks at your bedside listening. And the list of enemies is quite long.”

Jade looked at her and said, “Is your life worth how ever many innocents will die along the way? Everyone is the hero of their own story, even the soldiers you are going to feed into this war. the Aqrabuamelu, they are a slave army, right now they have no choice but to follow you.”

Ella had nothing to say to that.

“Let me put it another way. Do you know how we say power corrupts? Well imagine how much more corrupted you will be starting from down here,” and Jade held her hand at her waist, “as opposed to having higher ideals.” She raised her hand high.

“Think on it and get some sleep. By the way, one day a week you are going to take off - no training. no magic, no physics, instead you will be spending it with me or Charlie or other friends.”

Jade got up, “Anyway. Good talk.” She picked up her mug and walked to the kitchen.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Jade called back.

Three hours later, Ella still hadn’t fallen asleep. She remembered reading policy books to try and understand what a good ruler would do. But now that she had people, she was going to send them to war. She worried more about combat readiness and force multipliers than how she could make the Aqrabuamelu happier as a people. Or how she would broker a peace between humans and the People.

She pulled out her book on policy and read for a bit and settled on circling one passage before falling asleep.

The identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute.¹

She fell asleep then and slept for a good ten hours.

Ixus Capital, Midtown, Manhattan, New York, United States

She made it back to Ixus at 11 p.m. and walked in to see Arcsa, Xu and Charlie in a conference room arguing about something. When she knocked, they waved her in and kept arguing. Something about a saddle option.

“Arcsa, can you give us a moment? Charlie, you should go home and rest. I’d like to speak to Xu please. Actually, Arcsa, go home. And take the soldiers with you.”

Arcsa looked like he would protest but one sharp look from Ella and he backed down.

Xu sat back and rubbed his eyes. It was a profoundly normal gesture. He looked weary.

“How may I help you, gōngzhǔ?”

Ella was taken back by the title which she did not know, and she worried it was either an insult or something even worse, the address one would make to a slaver. Well she would not be one.

“Xu, I am here to apologize. I came here yesterday to break you to my will, and I threatened you with a gunship to make that happen. It was wrong of me. I don’t want slaves and and conquered servants but allies, and I wish to reset our relationship yet again.”

Xu sat back and regarded her.

Ella debated bowing to him but felt it would be insincere. And she was hardly graceful enough to do it justice anyway. She stood there with her hands in front of her.

“Does this mean you are firing me as your Minister of Finance?”

“What! No…” she stopped as he was laughing at her.

“Sit down, gōngzhǔ.”

She took a seat and waited.

“I think you are very dangerous. And this? This convinces me of it. I’ll stay I think,” he got up and walked to the window overlooking Central Park, his hands held behind his back as he looked out into the park. “I think I have hidden too long. Become too greedy. You were right, I enjoy the accumulation of wealth more than the wealth itself. It became a game, and a venality that we, the lung, had always held ourselves above. We used to mock the other dragons for their greed, but now I look around me and I might as well be a cartoon villain of a dragon lying on a horde of golden coins.”

He turned around to look at her, “I might as well have been locked in one of these hidden kingdoms the past thirty thousand years. But now I feel awake and alive. The tianlong are all dead now. Advisors to Heaven, guardians of the gate. So I must become more to take on their burdens as well. I will stay, if you will have me.”

Ella stood up and went for it, she bowed in the traditional way she had seen Xu do once, it was inelegant and crude, but she followed it with a smile, “Of course. Thank you.”

She looked at him and had to ask, “What does ‘gon-chu’ mean?”