"A few things. Your parents are worried about you," she says. "I'm sure you've noticed."

"They made me go to a doctor," agrees Mehitabel. "I think I'm okay though."

"Do you know what it is they're worried about?"

"Something about paying attention to announcements."

"The morning announcements," Aelise agrees. "What do you think of them?"

"They're not interesting, I don't know why everyone likes them so much. Half the time there isn't even anything to announce and Chelsa just says good morning and stares at the camera."

"Why do you suppose everyone else likes them so much?" she inquires.

"Mommy says it's because Chelsa is very likeable."

"She is," says Aelise. "That's her Gift."

"Right, that's what it was," says Mehitabel. "I dunno. I think it's weird how much everybody likes her. She doesn't even do anything like you."

"Am I more likeable than Chelsa, then?"

"You do stuff," says Mehitabel. "I don't know all of it but you're the Empress and you made there not be wars and stuff. Chelsa doesn't do anything but make everybody pay attention to her every day for no reason."

"I see," says Aelise. "Well, that's interesting. Is doing stuff what makes people likeable?"

"If it's good stuff. Not if it's bad stuff."

"Naturally," Aelise agrees. "What if I told you that Chelsa is the reason there are no wars?"

"Is she?"

"Partly, yes," says Aelise. "And partly it's me."

"How?"

"What do you know about what the world was like before I was Empress?"

"There were a lot of wars."

"That's true," says Aelise. "Do you know why?"

"No."

"There were a lot of complicated reasons," she says. "But what it boils down to is that there were a lot of people with a lot of power and none of them liked each other very much. So they fought. And because they had a lot of power, and they weren't being very careful with it, a lot of people died when they did that."

"Why weren't they being careful?"

"Good question," she says. "Some of them didn't care who they killed as long as they got what they wanted. Some of them did care, but they wanted to get ahead more than they wanted not to hurt anybody. Some of them thought that if they were too careful, they might get killed by the people who weren't. And some of them were just too scared to think it through."