« Back
Generated:
Post last updated:
they will walk behind the plough-share
imrainai in Silmaril
Permalink Mark Unread

#780 has one inhabited planet, an Earth, in 1032, and already diverging from the standard timeline. Historians are fascinated; that's the earliest an Earth has gone notably off-track, not counting the ones still roamed by dinosaurs or the one ruled by cephalopods. The administrator responsible for this planet gets a stack of seventy thousand applications to do field work on the new Earth. She asks for an increase in personnel.

Her team approves sixty-four thousand of those, puts in a request for Cam to terraform the local Mars, and publishes bus routes from Mars to Earth and across Earth's politically unusual surface. A week after #780 rose to the top of the priority queue, they visit it. 

 

 

A group of six humans walks into a temple in a small town in Sweden. Similar groups of six humans are walking into temples elsewhere. Three of them are men and three of them are women; they are of six different races; they are dressed conservatively by the local norms, and their clothing is unreasonably well-made and well-dyed. 

 

This religion isn't known to any of them; its prominence is one of the main divergences between this timeline and the standard ones. They stop uncertainly once they enter, and bow. 

Permalink Mark Unread

The temple is mostly staffed by women, though there are male guards at the door. They are greeted by a teenage girl who is somewhat braver than her friends. "Hello. We've not been told to expect any important visitors today. From where do you hail?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hello! I'm Mark, and I'm from very far away - a place called Texas, originally. These are Sfara, from Essier, and Caroline, from Australia, and Xekede, from Saluci II, and Ennet and Araw, from Bassada. I'm terribly sorry we didn't announce ourselves in advance. We are visiting from very far away; we have goods to trade and gifts for anyone here who might desire them."

Permalink Mark Unread

The girl shares a look with one of her friends. "Gydja Thora commands the temple of Örebro. Do you have specific business here?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'd love to meet with them, and if they'd prefer that we offer healing to the people of this town from this temple, rather than independently, we can do that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Healing?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Mark pulls out his other hand, which has a nasty, bleeding gash; he shows it to her and touches it with his good hand. It heals instantly. "Is there anyone here who is injured? It's much easier to demonstrate in that fashion."

Permalink Mark Unread

The girls stare in amazement.

" - Nanna, get the gydja."

"She'll be busy preparing for the ceremony."

"They're magicians, Nanna."

Nanna is actually already leaving, apparently disinterested in defending her point.

Permalink Mark Unread

Mark wipes dried blood off his healed arm with a handkerchief of truly remarkable make. "What ceremony is she preparing for?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Chief of Nerike has died; there's to be a funeral and a sacrifice."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am terribly sorry to hear it."

"How do sacrifices work?" asks Araw.

Permalink Mark Unread

"The sacrifice is performed to expedite the deceased's passing to the land of the dead," says the girl, frowning a little, as if she's only just realized that there are heathens in her shrine. "What faith do they practice in - Texas?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I was raised Episcopalian," says Mark. "These days I consider myself agnostic - not sure what the answers are. This religion isn't widely known where I'm from."

"But you'll have the chance to present it to people," says Sfara, "there's actually a popular TV show where people present their religions to the audience. You can reach billions of people."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What's a - " starts the girl, and then can't decide whether to ask about Episcopalians or TV. "I don't think there are billions of people."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suspect you're right, about your world," says Mark. "And about Texas, for that matter; Texas doesn't have billions of people. But Saluci II does, and Bassada. They are very tightly packed -" and he steps back and creates a three-dimensional visual image in the air at his feet, of a city of towering glass and steel spires, with winding bridges between them, going on and on in all directions. "Saluci II is, I think, the state with the most people out of all of the ones we know of."

Permalink Mark Unread

The girl takes a half a step in the direction she'd need to go to run, then remembers that her friend has already gone to get the gydja and that she probably can't outrun a bunch of powerful magicians if she wants to escape, and it won't do to piss a bunch of powerful magicians off. Some of the other people in the temple don't make it all the way through this thought process; several of them do leave, though a few of them crowd closer.

"You are obviously very powerful," says the girl.

Permalink Mark Unread

He dismisses the illusion, and holds out his hands apologetically. "Yes. Texas is a place of abundance. I have been very much favored by fortune."

 

 

Permalink Mark Unread

"You will want to speak to the Emperor," she says, as evenly as she can, eyeing the doors to see if anyone remotely qualified to deal with the insanely powerful magician is going to arrive and distract him long enough to cover her escape.

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are other people speaking to the Emperor. We came here because people might want healing, or gifts, or to trade with us, here as well as in the city of your Emperor."

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh they've already advanced on the Emperor, this is the forward arm of an invasion by some kind of - advanced Chinese magician army, that one there looks like what she imagines Chinese people might look like, of course the empire has finally grown large enough to piss off Chinese magician armies, holy shit holy shit holy shit - 

"Oh," she says, lamely. "Well then I should go tell the Gydja."

Permalink Mark Unread

He does not point out that she already sent someone to do that, because she's clearly looking for an excuse to leave. "Thank you so much! Should we wait in here or outside for the Gydja?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Here is fine!" If they're inside then at least they're contained, maybe if they burn them alive inside the temple or something - no, they'll be expecting that - maybe if they pray to the gods - but she's never heard of the gods granting this sort of power to someone - "I'm so sorry we didn't know you were coming in advance!"

She runs off to find the Gydja so that she can warn her about the incredibly powerful magicians before leaving to find her mother and hopefully waiting out the changing powers someplace very unimportant.

Permalink Mark Unread

The extremely powerful wizards stand around admiring the local architecture as sincerely as they can manage. They do not do any more magic, or make sudden movements, though they vary in how approachable they're managing to look.

Permalink Mark Unread

By the time she reaches her temple, Gydja Thora has been warned of the magicians three times, which seems to her a very appropriate number. The first time she was told that they were noble and wealthy guests from lands unknown, and she ignored them. The second time, she was told that they were magicians, capable of healing grievous injuries on demand, and she abandoned her preparations to go meet with them. The third time, she was accosted by a girl nearly in tears, who reported that the magicians were part of a large force of similarly powerful people who claimed to already be in contact with the Emperor, and that they would not say what they had come for, and would the gods forgive her cowardice if she ran to her mother's household to warn her?

The gydja herself is pushing seventy, and could not be less impressed with implicit threats of death.

"Hello," she says to her guests, when she arrives. "I am sorry to have kept you waiting."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not at all!" and they introduce themselves. "We've come to trade with the people here, and learn more about one another."

Permalink Mark Unread

"This is not the place for sweeping trade negotiations. Have you spoken to the King of Sweden?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are people visiting him, yes. We've found that every town, of any size, has much to offer us, and we much to offer them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"People. What power do you represent, the servants were unclear."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We are members of an alliance of worlds known as Vanda Nossëo."

Permalink Mark Unread

"An alliance of worlds."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I remember how ridiculous it sounded when I learned of it. There are many worlds. We have the means to travel between them. Some worlds prefer to remain independent, but many of them have become allied. We seek out worlds not in contact with anyone else, and we build trade routes between those worlds and ours. We heal people, and we take immigrants."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see," says the gydja, calmly, although she is quite sure that she does not. "Witchcraft is allowed within the county of Nerike; you may work your magicks within Örebro, for the benefit of its residents."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you! Will we cause alarm if we go to each house offering healing? If so, would you honor us with an announcement that might reduce the alarm?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Of course you will. No mere announcement will prevent that, if the reports I have heard of your powers are correct."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'd appreciate one anyway, if it might make people more willing to come to us with illnesses and injuries, or goods to trade."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you would like an announcement then I will make one at the funeral tomorrow. If you wish to avoid causing alarm then you should offer your services from a shop or the town square or this temple. I have already sent one girl home to hide with her mother, and I think she will be disappointed if you follow her there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you have recommendations, among a shop or the town square or the temple?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose a shop would cause less inconvenience for those who are already using the temple and the town square."

Permalink Mark Unread

He points at an empty space. “Can we set up there?”

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't see why not." Or at least she sees no reason why this spot should be more objectionable than any other. "I'll assign you a guide to the area, if you don't mind having one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'd be delighted to have one." Two of the visitors go over to the designated spot, pull something out of their backpack, and begin expanding it into a tent; it's truly astonishing how so much fabric could have fit into a bag so compact. They start setting up various shiny objects; Mark gestures and now the tent has a halo of sparkles.

Permalink Mark Unread

That should attract lots of attention!

The gydja assigns them three men from her personal staff, who should be capable of answering questions about the town and other ordinary things. One of them wants to know whether they plan to depose the king.

Permalink Mark Unread

"No," Mark says immediately. "We will work very hard to convince him to join Vanda Nossëo, and if there are several potential successors we'll favor one who wants to join Vanda Nossëo, but war is a great evil and we do everything we can to avoid it, and with a situation like this it will definitely be avoided."

Permalink Mark Unread

The guides find this very confusing on several levels, so they round it off to the wizards claiming to be peaceful and call it a day.

Most people initially think the tent is pretty sketchy, and most of them are preparing for the ceremony besides. At some point a boy brings a sick horse to see if the wizards can successfully heal it.

Permalink Mark Unread

Five of them can't do animals for one reason or another but one has it wished on differently and can. The horse is healed.

"Would you like anything while you're here?" she asks after patting the horse on the head. They have stands out, by now, with mirrors and jewelry and little singing boxes and timepieces and compasses and exotic foods.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, I don't have any money for stuff like this. Thanks, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, we don't get paid in money mostly, we accept pay in stories. Stories about the way newly-encountered people live their lives are very valuable in our society, because everything changes so quickly once we arrive."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, huh. Uh... one time the emperor called for people to fight the muslims, way back before I was born. So my uncle Akë went and fought, and he didn't come back for seventeen years, because after we drove out the muslims they had to go fight agains the Hungarians and the Russians. He says he killed about sixty men in battle just himself, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

She writes this down exactly as he said it. "Thank you! You can pick something out."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thanks! My friends can too, if they can come up with stuff to say?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Absolutely!"

Permalink Mark Unread

The boy picks out a watch and runs off back home to tell his friends about the basically free merchandise. In another hour the area is crawling with people, some of them seeking healing and many of them offering stories for free stuff. The men talk about battles they fought in and disputes that were resolved and bad harvests and good ones. The women talk about their husbands and their children (or the husbands and children of their friends). Some people talk about the ways the gods have answered their prayers. There's a very old woman who comes by wanting to pick things out for all of her grandchildren. She starts out talking about a feud that began when a man killed another man's slave and refused to pay restitution for it, so the feud went on a long time until the chief stepped in and executed the man who wouldn't pay, then paid the price for both the man and the slave himself. Eventually she runs out of feud-related stories and decides that she's going to impart all of her cooking-related knowledge and see if that gets her anywhere.

Permalink Mark Unread

They will take feud-related stories and cooking-related stories and harvest-related stories and everything else. In addition to mirrors and jewelry and singing boxes and timepieces and compasses, they now have eyeglasses and pain medications and vitamins. The singing boxes are labeled; some help with crops, some with restful sleep. Some heat your home and some keep you healthy. 

Permalink Mark Unread

People are interested in all of these things! Some people call it a scam, but it's hard to see what sort of scam you don't try to make any money on, so most of them take the boxes, too.

Some people stay far away from the tent and head out into the countryside to visit relatives for a week, but the view from the tent suggests that the people are in general pretty happy about all of this.

Permalink Mark Unread

After about six hours Mark leaves with Xekede and returns five minutes later with someone else, who he introduces as Matyas; a few hours later he leaves with Araw and Caroline, and returns with Jejemi and Cseze. If anyone goes to substantial effort to follow him they'll notice he's ducking out of sight and then outright disappearing.

Permalink Mark Unread

One of their guides will, and will report it to the gydja. She adds it to a report of everything they have witnessed thus far. She prefers the king to the emperor, but the emperor happens to be closer, only a fortnight away for an expert rider. She entrusts her report to the hands of a messenger, and sends the messenger off to Akershus. 

She returns to preparing for the funeral ceremony.

Permalink Mark Unread

All of the mysterious strangers rotate out over the course of the night. They bring more trinkets with them, based on what seems to be popular and what is going quickly.

 

The singing boxes that promise to heat a room work, very noticeably so overnight; the effects of the other singing boxes aren't clear as quickly. 

Permalink Mark Unread

All of the boxes become more popular at this discovery, though the room-heating ones in particular are now in very high demand. The townspeople aren't so obsessed with the strangers that they forget about the funeral, though. They invite their guests to take part in the festivities.

They have sewn new clothes for the dead chief, who has been laid out on a bed within a boat that lies on the shore of the nearby lake. He is surrounded with fruit and flowers and alcohol. The townspeople have pitched tents on the shore, one or two for each family, and have brought animals to slaughter for the feast.

Permalink Mark Unread

The strangers come to watch. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Animals are slaughtered and roasted over fires and eaten. Wine is consumed. Songs are sung and stories are told. The sacrifice, a teenage girl who is the daughter of one of the dead chief's slaves, travels from tent to tent, sometimes exiting in various states of dishevelment or undress.

In the afternoon they lift her up in front of a structure that looks like a massive door frame, and the girl calls out what she sees. She tells them that she sees the land of the dead, and the land of those who are not yet born, and finally her master in paradise. She announces that her master calls her to join him. There are shouts of triumph. The townspeople give her a lamb, which she beheads and places in the boat. There is more feasting; they make sure the girl has plenty more wine. 

Permalink Mark Unread

The strangers observe and take notes and offer more trinkets.

Permalink Mark Unread

At sunset the gydja leads the girl onto the ship, outside the tent that stretches over the dead chief. The girl sings for a while, mostly incoherently. Eventually she is urged into the tent, and she obediently goes. Six men follow her in.

The men on the shore begin beating on their shields with sticks, but it's not quite loud enough to drown out the girl's screams.

Permalink Mark Unread

Shortly after that she vanishes.

 

All of the strangers on this shift are still watching quite peaceably on the shore.

Permalink Mark Unread

The townspeople are pretty sure that they know who around here has the power to make people vanish at will. Some of the men grab their spears; the gydja stops them with a gesture.

"Do you object to the passage of the chief's soul?" asks the gydja.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not at all," say the strangers, "but it will have to take the time it naturally would, as we object to the torment and killing of all persons." Also animals but they don't typically pick that fight right away.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It cannot be helped," says the gydja to the men on the shore, though some of them shout in anger at her. "Do you object to the deaths of those who choose to die?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not always."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then let this be," says the gydja, before cutting her own throat.

Permalink Mark Unread

The strangers nod solemnly and look around to see whether there's going to be trouble now.

Permalink Mark Unread

The townspeople are surprised, but accept this as a suitable replacement, and hope the gods will as well. They carry the gydja's body to the bed and lay her out beside the dead chief. A man walks up to the boat and sets it ablaze, and then other men push the boat into the lake, where it burns.

The gydja wakes up in the body of her only living daughter, a married woman living in Akershus who has just inherited rulership of the temple of Örebro. She sighs, mildly disappointed at not getting to go on to paradise just yet.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ignorant of this, the strangers return to their elaborate tents to give out more presents as desired.

 

 

(Elsewhere, a no-longer-sacrifice finds herself lying in a meadow of soft grass, uninjured and now sober.)

Permalink Mark Unread

The people return to feasting, then pack up their tents and return to their homes. Another messenger rides off to alert the temple's heir that the previous gydja has died.

Permalink Mark Unread

Emissaries of a very similar sort approach the Emperor of Scandanavia a week later, after first contact has gone off with a normal number of difficulties in every city in his realm. They come bearing gifts - chests full of fabrics and spices, a television - and ask for permission to set up near the temples and offer their healing and their goods.

Permalink Mark Unread

The emperor is informed of the invasion only through the woman who was previously Gydja Thora (who believes that the wizards moved her from her own body into that of her daughter, though she can't imagine what their purpose could have been). From her description it sounds as if the wizards are capable of disappearing and reappearing at will, perhaps crossing vast distances or visiting the other worlds they speak of in the mean time, rather than merely rendering themselves invisible. It's unclear whether the wizards can be killed, but there are many of them and they can evidently disappear any attackers at range, and their healing powers will leave them fine unless they're killed with a single clean blow anyway. He's definitely outgunned here. He's not about to allow this to threaten his hold on Scandinavia.

He receives the emissaries as welcome guests and prepares a feast in their honor.

Permalink Mark Unread

The emissaries appreciate the feast in total ignorance that he knows any more of their capabilities than the illusions and healing they've demonstrated. They're terribly curious about Scandanavia's traditions and history and recent conquests. The lead emissary, the one with the ability to do illusions, introduces herself as Sofia.

Permalink Mark Unread

He will of course be delighted to regale them with tales of his rule and recent wars. He's gathered from Thora that the strangers quite dislike both war and unnecessary killing, and therefore positions himself as an enlightened ruler who fights to defend his people from the encroaching armies of the muslims, as well as to free other peoples from tyrannical despots who lack Scandinavia's level of wealth or respect for life. His vassals will notice the unusual emphasis but will hardly be inclined to contradict him.

He hates talking history (it's hard to be the correct amount of wrong about it), so he tells his guests that they had better hear the accounts of his ancestors from his court poet, who will do a much better job of narrativizing than he will.

Permalink Mark Unread

The court poet of Scandinavia will of course be delighted to tell their guests about Dyre's ancestors. Absolutely delighted. This is her absolutely delighted face.

She recites poetry. She tries to make her delivery good enough that anyone who conquers Akershus in the next few days will remember that it would be a terrible shame to kill her.

Permalink Mark Unread

The guests are fascinated!

"Your people will not be menaced again by enemy invaders," Sofia assures the Emperor cheerfully. "Vanda Nossëo comes to the defense of all who ask for it."

Permalink Mark Unread

Well that's inconvenient, but it could be worse. There are ways to work your way up from vassal king to independent emperor, if you're clever enough and sufficiently ambitious. He doesn't see why the situation with Vanda Nossëo should be any different, given the timelines he's working with. At least this means he's not going to lose any more territory to the King of Egypt for a good long while.

"Excellent. We will be most grateful for your protection. I do worry about the Greek states, whose people now bow to an Egyptian king. Four years ago they were one with the rest of the empire, but the Egyptians overwhelmed us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That kind of situation is always complicated. Sometimes we can resolve it with generous gifts in exchange for a transfer of sovereignty, and sometimes it's possible to meaningfully hold a referendum. When neither of those are an option we just attempt to enable very quick and easy transportation and communication so if they desire to immigrate here they can, and if they desire to stay they can at least see anyone who they were separated from by the violence."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We bow to your superior expertise."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are there other situations like that which we should be aware of?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Countless ones. My chancellor and I would be delighted to explain the whole of Scandinavia's political situation to you in the morning, after the festivities have concluded. I expect he will want to prepare a very orderly presentation, he'll not stand for our guests thinking he's any less than the best in the world at his job."

That should give them time to discuss how they're going to present the important situations tonight; they won't be able to outright lie, given that the wizards are no doubt equally capable of contacting rival powers, but perhaps they can spin the truth enough to earn a highly sympathetic ear.

Permalink Mark Unread

They seem delighted he's being so reasonable. "We'll look forward to that tomorrow, then. That's always one of the trickiest parts of new contact, that and immigration and emigration, and slavery."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Slavery?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Vanda Nossëo does not permit it. We have all kinds of appealing alternatives, and we can go over them and see which ones suit you best."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'd love to hear about them."

Fuck, he's going to have a slave revolt on his hands, he hates those. Almost as bad as the religious fanatics. Or a revolt from wealthy landholders who are pissed that he can't protect their property rights. Either way. Oh, fuck, they're going to object to the concubines too, that sucks. Maybe they permit imprisonment of criminals, if they object so strenuously to execution. Maybe he can do something on that front. He supposes he can probably get by on only women who really want the privilege of being a royal concubine, but it'll be a pain for making sure everyone else gets enough heirs. But it's not like he was going to get to capture any more princesses in the near future anyway.

"Do all the peoples you contact join Vanda Nossëo? I am sure the majority must, given how much you have to offer them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Certainly not all of them. Some people have religious objections, many want to maintain their sovereignty, and some simply don't find their preferred style of governance compatible with ours. We are delighted to be a friend and ally to free nations with no affiliation with us, as long as they can work with us on slavery, immigration and emigration, and stable peace."

Permalink Mark Unread

So the slavery thing is non-negotiable. So go the winds of fortune. He's handled worse.

"I see! We shall have to discuss the future of Scandinavia when we have learned more about your alliance of worlds."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll be delighted!" They enjoy the feast and drink a great deal without seeming to become intoxicated in the slightest and set up his television for him.

Permalink Mark Unread

The television is honestly pretty cool. He's happy to watch it for an hour or so, then leaves his vassals and his eldest sons to continue observing it, leaving Catherine with instructions to offer more poetry if such is desired. He bids his guests goodnight and then retires to his private chambers, where he calls his councillors and the gydja to him and instructs them as to how they will represent the Empire of Scandinavia and its complicated politics in the morning. They're also going to need to brainstorm ways to prevent the end of slavery from massively disrupting the economy and the favor of his more important subjects. Or anything else important, such as his sex life.

He tucks his favorite children in to bed and kisses his wife goodnight.

Permalink Mark Unread

Catherine stands by as instructed. The television is pretty cool. She feels like she should have opinions on incredibly powerful foreign wizards but she's mostly trying not to think about it right now.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sofia would like some more poetry if it happens to be convenient!

Permalink Mark Unread

It is literally her job. (Well, one of them, but the only one she occasionally likes.)

She'll just give them her version of Beowulf, that's always popular with everyone else. It is far from identical to any existing versions of Beowulf's tale - the lens is neither Christian nor pagan, but determinedly neutral on all moral matters, though it lingers more than usual on the death of Grendel's mother. The lens there is grimly admiring. Ask anyone here and they'll tell you she's as much a hero as Beowulf himself, she just happens to be on the wrong side of the relevant conflict. Unless maybe you get someone very old and very stubborn who prefers whatever version they heard before Catherine got her hands on the story.

Permalink Mark Unread

These people do not have enough context on the original Beowulf to appreciate whatever this implies about her as a person, but they are sincerely fascinated nonetheless. 

 

"How does one come to be a court poet?" Sofia asks when she's done.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Take an interest in poetry and be passable at reciting it, mostly. The emperor likes to have one, but it's not so important that he'll go out of his way."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Surely in such a large kingdom there must be lots of people who'd like to recite poetry, though?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Most of them are farmers," she says, and subtly looks up to see how many people are paying attention to her. Several, given that she only just finished her hours-long story. "Which is to say that most of them have much more important things to do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Perhaps more of them will be poets once the crops grow better."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Perhaps."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You could perform that anywhere in the universe, you know, it's really very lovely and a lot of people'd want to hear it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I expect the emperor prefers that I stay here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, if you ever decide you want to leave anyway, you'd just have to let one of us know."

Permalink Mark Unread

Would that it were so simple. "I expect I couldn't leave my children."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Or take them along?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I doubt their father would approve." And if they continue this line of discussion she's sure to interfere with their infant diplomatic ties, and that is sure to land her in the sort of trouble that she'd rather not think about. "But I'm sure you must have more important matters to attend to than the logistics of my possible future travels."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No doubt! But I'd be delighted if you were able to make it to our tent near the temple for some trinkets tomorrow. We trade them for stories, you know, so you could pick out whatever you liked, and you could meet a friend of mine who had a similar dilemma."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll see whether that's possible." It's almost definitely not, but she'd rather be rude than beaten, though she doesn't particularly relish the choice. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll save something for you!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I appreciate it!"

She doesn't want to retire to her room. She really, really doesn't want to. But life is almost synonymous with doing things you don't want to do, now, isn't it. She excuses herself from the party and finds her niece in a different part of the castle.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're very popular."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So it would seem. One of the visitors invited me to visit their temple and pick out an item in exchange for a story. I will of course be tragically unable to leave the castle tomorrow, and most likely all days after tomorrow, at least for the next long while."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You want me to sneak out of the castle and visit the temple for you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Only if you don't think you can charm the guards."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I shall carry out my mission to the highest standards of secrecy and competence."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do be at least moderately careful. If you get caught you were curious."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So I don't even hafta lie."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's lovely when that happens. Goodnight, Vigdis."

And now she has to return to her room, which predictably has an emperor in it.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. How did it go, were you popular?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Quite. They offered to transport me to their world to perform for all of their subjects."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I had no idea I had such good taste. Perhaps you're useful for more than your cunt after all." He bites his lip with something approaching thoughtfulness. "I was planning to set you aside in another decade or so, but perhaps having a trained songbird around will be worth the cost of feeding it even after it's grown old."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Birds needn't stop singing after they marry."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Birds don't marry. We'll see whether you do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...they will find out what you are. Not today and not tomorrow, but they will."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll see, my darling. I trust they won't learn through you. It would be a pity to have to find a new songbird, wouldn't it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I've no plans to make you find another."

She'll just lie back and think of England now, then, and pray that eleven-year-old girls are better agents than one might naively assume.

Permalink Mark Unread

This eleven-year-old girl is definitely gonna try her best! 

She sneaks out of the palace before sunrise, in inconspicuous clothing she traded one of the cook's children for, and makes her way to the temple without a soul realizing she's gone.

Permalink Mark Unread

There's a tent with all the goods they were offering in the smaller towns, plus oil paints and glass beads and lipstick and porcelain dishware and someone doing sketches of anyone who asks.

 

A friendly magician named Mreta tells her that everything's available for a story.

Permalink Mark Unread

She tells them she's here for her aunt, the court poet of Scandinavia, who is tragically occupied with a very fussy infant today. So she'll pick up something for herself and something for her aunt, if that's all right.

She tells them that her mother and her aunt were kidnapped from Mercia twelve years ago, by the last emperor, and then brought here to the emperor's palace to be concubines.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh," Mreta says, "Sofia wanted your aunt to talk to Amoli, over there. Maybe she can come back to the palace with you and tap the baby in case the baby's sick?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Hmmm. If they come back trying to heal a sick baby then maybe her aunt will be able to talk to them in private for a bit, and if she doesn't want to do that her aunt can probably get them to leave in a timely manner. Though she'll have a heck of a time getting back into the palace with an adult.

"Sure! Only maybe come back in an hour or so, so I can let her know you're coming. Just tell the people at the gate that Saga sent for you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay! You can go ahead and pick something out, if you'd like."

Permalink Mark Unread

"OK!"

She wants one of the magic boxes, but she wants to make sure she gets the best ones, have they got anything besides health and crops and warmth and sleeping well? Though maybe her aunt would appreciate sleeping well, with the baby and stuff.

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's all we have today, but we'll have more tomorrow if you come back. We change everything we sell so that people will visit us often."

Permalink Mark Unread

One box of sleeping well it is, then. And a watch, she's not gonna be the only kid in town without a watch.

Permalink Mark Unread

"See you soon!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"See you!"

She'll just run back to the palace, then. She's fast enough and it's early enough that no one but the cook has noticed her absence, and she just figures she was busy doing something other than raiding the kitchen on this particular morning.

Permalink Mark Unread

Amoli comes by an hour later claiming Saga sent her to heal a sick baby.

Permalink Mark Unread

Well if Saga sent her.

The guards wave her in and, oh, there's one of the princesses in respectable princess attire, does she know this about a sick baby? Yes? Perhaps she could just send them up to the relevant set of chambers, then.

Vigdis leads Amoli up to Catherine's chambers, where there's a baby that actually appears fairly chill, insofar as it's possible to get emotional valence from tiny babies.

Permalink Mark Unread

Amoli taps the baby anyway. "Hi," she says to Catherine. "I'm sorry I missed the performance last night, everyone said you were very impressive."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Everyone is very kind."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What an adorable baby, how old are they?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Two months. Her name is Ragna."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Awww. Is she your first?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The fifth born alive."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm so sorry. I know someone on the waiting list to get a baby back who they lost at birth, it's very hard."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - I'm sorry?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We can resurrect people, but not as fast as they die, so there's a waiting list. The wait is usually less than a month for a person with young children, or a person who otherwise can't live their life just as well if they come back to it in a few decades, but it's longer for anyone who can."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I see."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Your gods must be way stronger than ours."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We're trying to end all of the bad things happening anywhere. It's very hard, so it's good we have all of forever."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well that's the thing to do with it, I guess."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, there are lots of fun things to do with it, we've just got to get this done first."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...thank you for the visit. You should go now, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"But I'm not gonna be able to get them into the palace again."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It was very clever but I think we're better off not pushing our luck."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can go invisible," Amoli says, doing that; it includes her clothes. "And inaudible but then I don't think I'd be a very good guest, really."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Niiice."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I just - I don't think it's wise to go over the emperor's head."

Permalink Mark Unread

She turns visible again. "He prohibits you guests?"

Permalink Mark Unread

" - no, not under all circumstances." Ugh, ugh, ugh, the longer this goes on - she's probably already passed the point where this isn't going to in any way obviously affect diplomatic ties with these people. Lovely.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't want to cause you any trouble. Sofia thought I should perhaps talk to you because my husband beat me and when we made contact I ran away with our children to a Vanda Nossëo planet."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I see."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We had four. Our oldest is twelve now. She wants to study animals in the ocean when she's all grown up. This summer she went on a trip through the jungle to track a herd of migratory dolphins."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Uh. She sounds very talented."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're really bad at this whole escaping thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - even if we assumed, for the sake of argument, that these people could get you and me and Ragna and Ingolfr and Frey and Tyr and Sigrun somewhere else without the emperor preventing it, one, we would then have to accept the consequences of kidnapping three of the emperor's heirs, which is likely to lead to countless diplomatic complications that will harm far more than just our family. And two, I do not, actually, believe that Tyr has any desire to forfeit his claim to a jarldom, and I doubt we can prevent him from returning here for it. I have no idea what Ingolfr or Frey will choose when they're old enough to have the capacity for meaningful choices. I understand that you wish for this to be simple, and if you want to go yourself then godspeed, Vigdis, but forgive me for having to think about it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There's no hurry. I can visit again next week, if you'd like." She will likely have this conversation two hundred more times in the meantime.

Permalink Mark Unread

"No hurry unless he finds out you contacted the wizards and murders you for it, anyway. I guess the wizards could bring you back but I hear getting murdered sucks."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're welcome to leave, Vigdis."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're being really - selfish, that's what you are. And dumb. And you don't even care about fixing anything if it means you have to give up one single thing you want."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...well that sure is an interesting read of refusing to kidnap the emperor's children."

Permalink Mark Unread

 

"So - there are a lot of worlds, right? And there are - a lot of men like him, and a lot of women like you. And something I think about - all the time, it's what I do - is which ones should stay. Lots of them do. I don't think I know any who told me later 'I'm glad I did, it was the right call', but maybe they wouldn't need to say it. There are billions of them. You could talk with them, instead of with me, if you'd like."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, there are no men like the emperor," she says, laughing. "And you must know a truly fascinating selection of women if you believe that any one of them would, with the benefit of hindsight, choose to abandon some number of children and to perhaps irreversibly poison relations between two incredibly powerful nations for the sake of her own personal relief."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is remarkable. I think it shakes out like that because people know all the things about staying, and almost none of the things about leaving, and so all of the information they'll learn in the future is going to land on one side of the scale."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Obviously there are better circumstances one could be in! I simply doubt that there is any personal circumstance so glorious that it's worth abandoning a child for, or worth triggering - I suppose he won't go to war, not with you. But the emperor will forever see you as the power that stole his children from him, and he does not forgive easily. The people of Scandinavia do not forgive easily."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are circumstances so much better that it's worth getting your children access to them, even if it causes trouble at home. And we've dealt with Kings who will let us heal their people and bless their crops only if we let him keep up whatever horrid personal vice he's fond of. We debated what to do about it. We decided not to be a paradise full of festering pockets of horror permitted to continue for the greater good. Kings usually find themselves quite unpopular when they're trying to convince their people not to accept healing. We've been in the rest of this world for weeks already. People know where to go to board the shuttlebuses that take them on tours of our worlds. They know our songs work. They know our eyeglasses work, and our medicines. Next week there'll be schools, and they'll learn how to read. I am sure your Emperor will be upset. I am much less sure that everyone will listen to him, if he tries to cut them off from the galaxy.

When I left I went before a judge and I explained to the judge when I had married my husband and how he had treated me and why I had not been able to get a divorce before and why I wanted one now. And he granted one and he said that the children would stay with me, but my husband could visit them every day for up to three hours, supervised by a social worker so I didn't have to be present or worry about them. The court arranged him transportation and arranged him compensation for lost income so he could take all his visitation time if he wished even though it'd mean less work. He visits them, sometimes, especially the boys. Not very often. My two oldest have both said they don't want to see him anymore, so now they don't. I would have been failing them if I had stayed."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You think he will be upset? That you made his people healthy, wealthy, and wise? No, not at all. They will still be Scandinavians, they will still be loyal to him in the end. That you took his favorite concubine? Momentarily; he'll find another. That you kept his children from him? For a while - perhaps he'll tell his people what he has suffered, being separated from his sons for so long. No doubt he will suffer something. But Frey will come back to him. Perhaps the others will, too, when he dangles fiefdoms or princes in front of them. And I will have - what, the knowledge that I abandoned my children to the greatest evil this world has ever known? The knowledge that Scandinavia is now a realm without legally recognized slavery, but where all people barely cling to free choice because they fear an army of unkillable wizards more than they love their kings, more than they love their spouses? The knowledge that Mercia is still there, should I wish to return to it, but that it will be unrecognizeable and no longer a pocket of the true faith? The pride of defending my own virtue, ten years too late? I hope I can enjoy that pride alone, because there is no one in this world and very likely no one in any other who will not see these circumstances or their bearer and fail to perceive how entirely pathetic they are."

Well. That made her feel much worse. Hooray. 

" - I had a life to recover once. I don't anymore. I have children and I have stories and I have a burning need to see the thing that rules this country either rot in hell or successfully repent of its seemingly boundless capacity for evil."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm confused."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well I'm probably doing a really terrible job of explaining things because I'm kind of upset right now." She sighs. Probably she can keep herself from crying if she thinks about being very dignified and continuing to hold this baby. "Sorry."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I want to get to know you better but it can wait until next week, if you want, or the week after. You're - putting a lot on yourself if you want to figure everything out now. It took me two years."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well you're welcome to stop by in the future, in the sense that it won't bother me and I couldn't prevent it if it did."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, I wouldn't come if you asked me not to."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then - no, I shouldn't say anything to that, I'll only be pointlessly rude. Thank you for taking the time to visit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Of course. Take care."

Permalink Mark Unread

Then Vigdis will show her out, making a valiant if not quite successful attempt to hide how exasperated she is.

Permalink Mark Unread

"She's your aunt?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yup. Mother's sister."

Permalink Mark Unread

"She seems very brave."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess," says Vigdis, doubtfully. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"You also seem very brave."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well I am, but I haven't done anything brave today, so you couldn't know."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You snuck out to find us and you got in an argument with your aunt today. What do you do on a brave day?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sneaking out is only brave if you figure you'll get caught, and arguing's not brave if you're doing it with someone who's basically a wounded puppy. Brave is doing something that'll hurt you if you don't do it right, and not knowing if you will. Like, one time I killed a viper with my sword before it could bite my brother, and that was brave because I didn't know if it was gonna bite me."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think it's brave to do things that will hurt even if you do them right."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess. Then you have to be really sure you're right about what the right thing to do is, though, and not just so scared of getting things wrong that you keep doing a thing that's hurting you for no reason. 'Cause I don't think that's brave at all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you can sneak out the day after tomorrow, there'll be a shuttlebus leaving from our tent for Mars and from there on to Crossroads. You could be back about an hour later."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Cool. I can make it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll see you then!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Bye!"

She will, in fact, sneak out the day after tomorrow. Early in the morning again, because that's the best time for sneaking.

Permalink Mark Unread

The shuttlebus is made of metal; it's shiny and chrome and looks out of place in a muddy field. You have to pay to get on - shiny silver tokens, not local currency - but you can get shiny silver tokens from the magicians' tents in exchange for a story, or you can get ten tokens if you let them stab you with a needle which prevents most illnesses.

Permalink Mark Unread

Stabbing is cooler. She takes the needle and hops onto the bus.

Permalink Mark Unread

She will still have nine shiny tokens to spare! 

 

When the bus is full it abruptly vanishes. It appears somewhere else, with a butterscotch sky. The air is warm and dry. They are herded off the bus and into a big tall atrium with white walls, open to the sky. There are vendors selling food at the edges of the atrium, and people bustling all about.

Permalink Mark Unread

Coooool.

OK. Focus. She has to find something that'll convince Catherine to leave Scandinavia. Food is cool but not gonna do it. She looks around to see what else there is.

Permalink Mark Unread

The streets are wide and have paths for various tiny wheeled vehicles, which people are using to zip around. There are staircases descending underground every block or so. The first floor of most of the buildings looks to be restaurants and game stores and clothing stores and coffee shops and play areas for children and a yoga studio and a climbing wall and an urgent care and a gym and a dog grooming shop; the upper floors look to be residences. Every few blocks there's a park. 

 

Most of these humans are dressed outrageously immodestly and some of them are of ambiguous gender. 

 

Near the bus stop there's an information booth that keeps announcing loudly, every few minutes, 'this is an information booth'.

Permalink Mark Unread

Information booth it is!

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hi! Can I help you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hi! I'm trying to convince my aunt to come here, but she doesn't wanna mess up diplomatic relations between Scandinavia and Vanda Nossëo, so I gotta bring her back something really impressive. Also how did all the wizards get their magic, and can I have magic too?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh, that sounds like you want a social worker probably, I can walk you there? It's just around that corner. There are a lot of kinds of magic. Some are free, like the boxes of songs, and some you have to pass tests for and prove that you're very qualified, like driving a shuttlebus. A flashlight isn't technically magic but you could buy one of those and they're very like magic, they can make bright light any time just by pushing a button."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I want the magic healing. And invisibility! But if you have more than four kinds of boxes here then I wanna see the other boxes, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"For healing and invisibility you go on a waitlist and do an interview and for healing the people who get priority are people who promise to use it to heal people in need for the next ten years. I don't think you should promise that, you don't know all the other ways you could spend your time! I can put you on the waitlist for invisibility, though, what's your name?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Vigdis Yngling, Princess of Scandinavia."

Permalink Mark Unread

She pulls out a sheet of glass and taps it rapidly. "They'll get back to us in a couple minutes and tell us how long the waitlist is and how you can move up it if you want. Did you want to go see a social worker about your aunt?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I dunno what a social worker is, but I guess."

Permalink Mark Unread

"One of their jobs is to help people resettle." She starts walking. "Why do you want your aunt to move?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"'Cause she's miserable, but she's too bad at things to go be somewhere less miserable without any help."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's a good thing she has you looking out for her! Do you know where you want to live?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nah, I dunno anything about Vanda Nossëo except that you don't have slaves and you have televisions and magic stuff and an army of unkillable wizards."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess those are good things to know. There are hundreds of planets but this one is set up to be good for people coming from your world - for example, it doesn't assume any literacy, and it doesn't have any nonhumans, and it should have a justice system you'll find comprehensible. Do you have a mom or a dad?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. My mom's dead but I have a dad."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are they going to come to, or just your aunt? Does your aunt have children?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"She's got five kids not counting me. I think we don't want my dad to come, on account of he's an evil tyrant who sacrificed mom to Odin. And also he's the Emperor of Scandinavia."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm really sorry to hear that." They round a corner. "Have you already requested a resurrection for your mom, or not yet?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She should just give up on trying to impress this guy with the drama of the situation. "Nah, Amoli said you could resurrect people but she didn't say how."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It takes two powerful magic users working together. We can't do it enough to get everyone who dies yet but the social worker can help you put together an application."

Permalink Mark Unread

"All right. Can I get the resurrection magic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's like with the healing - the people who get it promise to spend most of their time resurrecting people, which is quite a lot to promise when you're still a kid and don't know how else you might spend it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well if you gave it to more people then they could do other things, too. But I have to save my aunt and my siblings and defeat my evil tyrant father first. Then I want to be a wizard, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds like a good plan." They stop in front of a building. "It's this one. Do you want me to go in with you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not if you have stuff to do. Thanks for walking me over here, though." 

She walks into the building.

Permalink Mark Unread

There are seats and a desk. "Hi!" says the person at the desk. "This is relocation services. What's your name?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Vigdis Yngling, Princess of Scandinavia."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hi, Vigdis! It's wonderful to have you here. What can I help you with?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I want my aunt to leave Scandinavia, but she won't, because she thinks she wouldn't get to keep her kids with her, and also the emperor would be mad if she left with them and it would mess up diplomatic relations between Scandinavia and Vanda Nossëo. Also my mom is dead and I am supposed to ask if you can resurrect her."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you want us to resurrect your mom?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess? My dad says she was pretty cool."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Do you want to come over here and sit down in my office? We can talk about a plan so your aunt and her kids can leave Scandanavia, and maybe talk more about your mom."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess. Also I put in a request for invisibility magic but I don't know how that works."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We can check on the status of your request for invisibility magic, too. Do you want anything to eat or drink while we talk?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess. It's strictly less important than all of the other things, but I did skip breakfast today."

Permalink Mark Unread

She pulls out a tray of unfamiliar snacks. "We stock lots of things so you can see what you like, all right? How long do you have to be here today, are you expected back?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well I snuck out of the castle and eventually someone'll notice I'm gone, but I guess I can probably tell them that I snuck out to beat up the baker's son or something."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. So if I set up an apartment right now for you and your aunt and her children and a live-in assistant, what do you think your aunt would say to that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"She'd say that she's gonna get in trouble for kidnapping the emperor's kids. And also that it'll make things more complicated between Scandinavia and Vanda Nossëo because you can't just go kidnapping kids."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Our courts resolve custody disputes. They would be very likely to resolve this one by giving your aunt full custody and the father of her children visitation. If she did the court appearance and got the custody ruling before leaving, would that help?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe? Why would they let her keep them?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It says here in my notes from your conversation with the guide that their father had your mother murdered?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well he had her sacrificed to the gods 'cause she tried to murder him. He had it coming though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you know anything about what he did to have it coming?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"He abducted her and a bunch of other people and made 'em be his concubines. And he's an evil pagan tyrant who does human sacrifices." Probably one of those things works out to having it coming even if you're really against murder and stuff.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So there are a lot of things that would make the judge think that your aunt should have the children, like that he abducts people and that he does human sacrifices. That does not sound like a good environment for children to be raised in. How old are your cousins?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"They're my siblings. Nine, eight, five, two, and two months."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you know whether the older three would want to live with their mom or their dad?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That depends on a lot of stuff. Like what I do and what the other world's like and whether it looks like there'll still be any titles to inherit in a few years."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you know what you want to do?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I wanna save my aunt and I wanna meet my mom and I wanna defeat my dad, and then I think maybe I want to take over Scandinavia, and then I want to become a wizard."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Would you want to live with your aunt and your mom here while you were working on all that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well it depends on how I'm going to defeat my dad. It might be that I need to stay in Scandinavia so I can make allies, or it might be that the best thing to do is to become a wizard first and defeat him with magic. But people don't like it if you stay away too long and they feel like you're a foreigner."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You will not be able to use Vanda Nossëo magic to go to war."

Permalink Mark Unread

"See, that's the sort of thing I need to know before I can tell you where I'm going to have to live. I bet I can do it without going to war, though that makes it harder. It all depends on what my options are, you see?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods. "So your aunt is worried that her children will choose to stay with their father?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, she's partly worried that they'll want to stay with him, and she's partly worried that they'll come with her but then he'll say that she kidnapped them, and then everyone in Scandinavia will be upset with you because you kidnap royal heirs, and maybe you kidnap lots of children and maybe theirs will be next."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How many concubines does the Emperor have?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Like a dozen I guess? He's had a ton of 'em but he mostly gets bored of them and marries them off pretty fast."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then it seems likely some of them will want to leave and he will have this complaint regardless of what your aunt does."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess that's a fair point."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you think your aunt would have other worries if other concubines were already leaving and if her children were excited about living here with her?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well she'll probably say you're all godless heathens, but most of Scandinavia is, too, so I guess she'll come around."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is she religious?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess she's like the most religious person I know. Except for my dad, but I dunno if it counts if you're in charge of your own religion."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What religion is your aunt? We could maybe arrange to match her with some people who share her religion."

Permalink Mark Unread

"She's Catholic. D'you have Catholics in Vanda Nossëo? ...d'you have Norse pagans?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We have both of those!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh. I was gonna see which god came out on top, but then I found out I could be a wizard and now I'm gonna follow whatever gods're handing out wizardry."

Permalink Mark Unread

"....Loki is a Norse god in Earth mythology, right?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. People don't mostly pray to him, though. I think he's pretty neat but I'm not gonna follow him unless he gives me magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, uh, the invisibility and the teleport and the illusions and the healing, those are Loki's spells."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...wow, OK." She's gonna have to take a second to process this. Second up. "I guess I'm gonna be a Norse pagan after all then. 'Cept I can just follow Loki and not have to go through my dad anymore."

Permalink Mark Unread

The social worker shrugs helplessly. "All right. Asgard doesn't take immigrants, I don't think, but Loki spends most of her time on Vanda Nossëo's capital planet and on Jotunheim and they both do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What do I have to do to get Loki to make me a wizard? Also does Loki want human sacrifices, and can Loki ask the other gods if they do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Loki most definitely does not want human sacrifices. Would that be a useful thing for her to come tell all of Scandanavia? She runs Vanda Nossëo, this is what she wants people to be doing." She gestures around the room. "Being immortal and modernizing everywhere. During the Ascension War she had a bunch of humans she protected and tutored and she definitely didn't teach them any human-sacrificing. And she looks out for orcs. And front-giants."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...so you're, like, all Norse pagans. You should tell the Scandinavian Norse pagans all that."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - I don't know if we are. We don't worship Loki we just, ah, are aware that she exists and controls all of space within a hop of Edda at will, and we think very highly of her and pursue her priorities because they are just and good priorities."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's the same thing, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe so. I will make a note for Loki that she might consider coming to speak with the people of your world, and for the volunteers there that they can drop her name."

Permalink Mark Unread

She is totally gonna tell everybody that she found the gods and they gave her a divine revelation as to what their current priorities are. "OK. Sounds good."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And we can find some Catholics to talk to your aunt, if that'd be helpful."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess. She's lonely and stuff. Why d'you bother having Catholics if you have gods that make you into wizards?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, some people are still Catholic even given that, probably because they conclude Loki is just an astonishingly powerful person and not a god, and Loki would definitely not want us to make them stop being Catholic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Astonishingly powerful people and gods are the same thing. Unless you mean astonishingly powerful like my dad, 'cause he's only astonishingly powerful because he's the emperor. But if you can turn other people into wizards so they can heal people and teleport and turn invisible, then that means you're a god."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think Catholics disagree on that, though I am not a Catholic so I could be wrong."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess I could ask my aunt."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds like a good idea. Do you think the Emperor would agree to encourage all of his children to emigrate with his concubines to live in Loki's service on Vanda Nossëo's capital?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...no? But I guess maybe I could tell him that I want to get in good with the gods for him, he might buy that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Are you, or your aunt, or your siblings, in danger right now? Is there a significant chance the Emperor will hurt or kill any of you before we can next talk?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"He might hit me for saying I was gonna go beat up the baker's son. Or maybe he'll give me a really long lecture, he likes really long lectures more. S'not any danger either way, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Has anyone in the emperor's palace tried to convince you to touch them naked, or to touch you in a way that bothered you, or tried to kiss you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You can't go kissing princesses if they're not yours, you'll get in trouble. Also if someone kissed me I'd probably punch them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good for you. If you do not come back here within a week, is it okay with you if I go try to find you and make sure you're safe and okay?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. But you should do it invisible so that the guards don't see you and mess things up."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Gotcha. Do I have permission to tell other people about this situation of yours, or would you like me to keep it a secret? If I tell people they can help, but I won't tell people if you would like me not to."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hmmm. Well there're some things that if they got out they might make it harder for me to take over Scandinavia later. Maybe you should ask me before you tell people specifics."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay." She makes a note. "Is there anything else you want to talk about while you are here?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"D'you have any more of those song boxes? I want to see if they have any that do any really cool things."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure -" she reads off a long list. "reflexes, strength, attentional capacity, perception, sleep, restful sleep, crops, warmth, cold, ardor - let's say not that one, okay, - health, healing, wind, mist, speed, precision, stealth..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How much healing does the healing one do? Strength and stealth and reflexes and attentional capacity all sound really good. I have nine coins but I gotta keep one so I can take the bus back. Oh, and some of all that stuff I told you should count as a story."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Actually, we pay people for attending meetings with their social workers." She digs around in her bag and then passes over ten coins to Vigdis. "The healing one means you recover from things about twice as quickly, if you play it continuously. You can have all of those songs but you won't get any effects if you play them all at once."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's good to know. How much effect do I get from each of them?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think strength makes you as strong as an Elf, but only for bursts - you can't do heavy labor all afternoon with it. Stealth is supposed to be good enough that you can walk past people who aren't specifically on the lookout for you, but I haven't tried it and I encourage you not to take any risks. Reflexes is mostly good for fighting or video games, attentional capacity helps you study."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can I take all five of them home and test them?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"All right. Be careful, okay? Loki doesn't want any children to get beaten."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm being careful! If I were any more careful I wouldn't've gotten to come here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am very glad that you did!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am too. Thanks for everything," she says, stuffing her boxes and her coins into various oversized pockets on her person. 

She heads back to the bus and goes back to earth and stops by the bakery to punch the baker's son in the face ("You know what you did!" 'cause he probably did something), then plays her stealth box by a tree for a bit and sneaks back into the living quarters.

Her father prepares a truly colossal lecture for her, but in a while she's free, free, free to report back to her aunt.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I trust you've been up to no good."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I've been up to the most good. I went to see the wizards on their wizard world and they said that their magic is from Loki and that if I follow her I can have magic and also that she doesn't like human sacrifices and also she's a girl."

Permalink Mark Unread

"....well."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - anyway, they said some of the emperor's other concubines are going to leave and try to take their kids too, and that'll cause a diplomatic situation anyway, so you might as well be one of 'em. Also their judges don't think that kids should be raised by parents who do human sacrifices so probably you'll get to keep the kids and they won't send 'em back unless they really really want to go back."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...well. It's a barbaric practice."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So are you gonna go?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't know."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Come on, what else is there? Is it that they're all Norse pagans? 'Cause they do know Loki but they said that they have Catholics there too and you can live with the Catholics if you want."

Permalink Mark Unread

".....your father is a demonic abomination that passes from his own body to that of his heir upon death, making him effectively immortal."

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

"What."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I realize that probably sounds really weird? Uh. I have to, like, stop him from continuing to do evil stuff forever. Somehow."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...see, you have to tell me this sort of critical strategic information if I'm going to make good decisions about stuff."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You believe me?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Uh, I mean I guess I want some evidence, but there's like a metal box outside that teleports people to the world that all the singing boxes come from, so I dunno, I'll take some stuff on faith if you swear by your dumb god that you're really super sure?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I swear by all that is holy that he's a thing that leaps to a new body when he dies, and I was pretty sure that meant he was a demon but I guess I have no idea what he is, given, you know, recent events."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oookay. Right then. Hang tight and I'll... see if they have anything that takes care of bodysnatching demons, I guess." 

She pauses in the doorway. "...what were you even going to do to him?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I hadn't figured that out yet."

Permalink Mark Unread

She gives her a hug, 'cause she looks like maybe she could use one. "You're really bad at this. But that's OK. Your dumb god made you really good at babies and stories and really bad at subterfuge, I guess."

All right. She's gonna need a plan. 

Her first option is to kill her dad. Once he's dead - if she, hopefully, manages to kill him without being detected - Scandinavia will pass to his current heir, and hopefully so will the spirit. She can request a resurrection, and if they say yes then hopefully she gets the original Dyre back without his creepy hitchhiker, and then she'll have someone in a relevant political position who's hopefully inclined to both destroy the demon and inclined to look to the future of Scandinavia. The main problem is that that's a lot of hopefullies, and if she doesn't manage to kill him (or immediately gets caught) then she probably gets tried for attempted murder, and getting tried for attempted murder is not on her to-do list. 

Her second option is to convince her dad to send her on a diplomatic mission to wherever Loki is, which she could probably do without burning any bridges, especially if she gets her aunt out separately. She can study magic and history and combat and come back really prepared to help Scandinavia succeed. She can maybe ask Loki for advice, except even the random plebs from Loki's empire aren't impressed with her being a princess, so probably Loki isn't going to be impressed at all, either, and there's no guarantee that Loki'll even want to talk to her at all. The main problem with leaving is that there might not even be a Scandinavia by the time she comes back, even if she only leaves for five years or so, and she likes Scandinavia.

She decides that she will do what she usually does when presented with difficult decisions. She asks her dad.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Vigdis! Applying yourself to your studies today, I hope?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yessir. And I'm going over a very complicated problem that needs your legendary wisdom. I've been talking to the wizards and telling them what a great ruler you are, and telling them about Odin and Thor and everyone, and how they can lead good and upright lives. Only then they told me that they already knew about Odin and Thor and everyone, and that's who they serve, and that's who gave them their magic. And I was thinking, I bet if I go back to their nation and meet Odin and Thor, then I can tell them about Scandinavia and secure their blessings for us and make it so that we can do great magic, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see that you've thought a lot about this."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yessir. And if it's important and it'll help you then I want to be the one to do it for you. But I'm also worried that if I leave to secure the gods' blessings, then when I come back Scandinavia might be completely different than it was when I left it, and maybe it won't matter that I learned magic from the gods because maybe Scandinavia will've moved on entirely."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see," says the emperor, motioning for her to sit down by his desk. "Vigdis, you're very clever, you can see that the wizards are going to change our entire way of life. There's no stopping that, whether you're here or in Vanda Nossëo."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yessir. I was hoping maybe you had a brilliant plan, but I guess if you don't then we'll just have to kiss up to our new masters and wait until we can hatch one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It seems that way. You know Vigdis, I used to wish you were a boy, I think of all my children you might be the one who understands me best."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think I might be. I guess the gods must have their reasons, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose they must! And I wonder whether their reason wasn't to make sure that we had someone clever around who I knew would never be able to succeed me. The people don't need to love you, Vigdis, you're not going to be the one they bow to. But you must be a clever and trustworthy advisor to the man who succeeds me. You must know things that he doesn't know, and see things that he doesn't see."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And you think I'll know more and see more if I study in Vanda Nossëo."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It seems likely. It will be very dangerous, being a hostage in a foreign power. I'd not send you if I were any less sure of your courage. But if you can learn their ways, learn their magic and the way they see the world, then Scandinavia will have no better defense against them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You don't worry that there'll stop being a Scandinavia in the meantime?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The thought has crossed my mind. But whatever happens to us will happen regardless of where you are. In ten years that may no longer be the case." He claps her on the shoulder. "I'll see about who to send with you on your mission. Go back to studying."

Permalink Mark Unread

Vigdis decides that she maybe doesn't want to try killing her dad yet, even if he is an evil pagan tyrant who sacrificed her mom to the gods. And he's right about Scandinavia; she could maybe get Dyre back by killing the emperor, but Dyre wouldn't be able to hold Scandinavia any better than the emperor would. If you want to be able to successfully paint within the lines the gods leave you, then you have to figure out where the lines are.

"I think probably we should leave Scandinavia and secretly figure out whether Vanda Nossëo has any magic for killing unkillable demons, and then we can come back and sort this all out when we have a better idea of what our options are."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You thought of something, but you didn't like how it was likely to go?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. Also if I'd done it right then the emperor might die, and I kind of don't want him to die, because he's kind of my dad and stuff. But I swear I wanna rule Scandinavia as much as you want him to not. Though I'm gonna have to find a way to do it without getting possessed by an ancient evil demon emperor. And I bet that if we want to do something that complicated then probably the gods're the only ones who can do it. Or at least the gods' magic can maybe do it, and if I can get my hands on the gods' magic then maybe I can do it, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

She sighs. "You are so very much his daughter."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess I am."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I...suppose I'll wait for Amoli to come back. And try not to yell at her this time."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You've had a rough time. Try your best, though. And tell her I'm gonna have to get out after, I gotta do it all officially."

Permalink Mark Unread

Amoli comes back a couple days later. She looks happy, but very very tired. "Catherine! How are you, how are the children -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"They're well." The baby and the toddler are, anyway. She hasn't seen her two eldest in days, and the middle one is running about the castle somewhere. The toddler sucks his fingers and stares up in quiet fascination at the miraculous appearing woman. "You look tired, would you like to sit down?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That'd be nice." She waves at the toddler and sits. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"I've been thinking about what you said. The situation is - complicated."

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I hate to think that I'm making the wrong decisions, but I don't know what the right decision is, and I haven't been able to talk to anyone about it in - a very long time. I don't know that I should trust you, either, but if you give me your word not to discuss it without my knowledge then I suppose I can try to explain it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I absolutely won't discuss anything you tell me without your knowledge, except that one of the rules of my job is that I'll inform someone about ongoing risk to someone's life other than yours. If that doesn't work, I can get you someone to talk to who is not allowed to share that either."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...yes, I think you had better. Thank you for telling me."

Permalink Mark Unread

She pulls out a little glass square and draws her index finger across it in a series of swoops. "Is it urgent?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I... suppose it isn't particularly."

Permalink Mark Unread

Amoli looks kind of concerned anyway but doesn't ask anything else. She puts the glass square away. "There were a few other things I wanted to talk with you about, but it might make sense for it to wait until you've talked this over with someone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It might. I suppose you can say them if you like."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you want to avoid becoming pregnant while you work these things out we have some options for you. They aren't dangerous and aren't noticeable to anyone else."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't particularly expect that to happen?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. It's completely your choice."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Would you like me to leave them here or take them with me? Babies should not eat them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Perhaps you should take them with you, then."

Permalink Mark Unread

"All right." She checks her glass device again. "Someone can visit in two days, is that okay?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. Take care of yourself."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you. You too."

Permalink Mark Unread

She'll just... sit here praying rosaries on her fingers or something. Maybe see whether her second son has found any frogs, or produce an endless supply of English and Norwegian and Arabic vocabulary for the two-year-old. Truly she is qualified to slay ageless demons.

Permalink Mark Unread

Two days later someone else visits. She introduced herself as Elina. “Anoli said you needed to talk to someone who couldn’t reveal any confidence.”

Permalink Mark Unread

"I did ask for that. I don't know whether it's necessary, and I suspect that if it were then the responsible thing would be not to tell anyone at all, certainly not the representative of an incomprehensible foreign power, but my allies are somewhat limited."

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods. "I promise that I will not tell anyone anything you tell me in confidence."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Emperor of Scandinavia is possessed by a demon."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What makes you say that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"When I was first brought to Scandinavia the emperor was - in a different body. Anyone else would tell you he was a different man. His manner was different. His interests were in some ways different. He had no children younger than twenty, and so he amused himself by tutoring his younger captives. He loves children, the emperor. He died when I was fifteen, and the realm passed to Dyre, then Jarl of Skane. They never had a chance to speak to one another about me. But he knew, he knew things about me, things I'd said to no one but him, things he would betray in offhand comments. I noticed his English was bad in the same ways that the other emperor's had been."

"I told him I knew what he was, knew enough to know that he had killed the Jarl of Skane and that now he wore his face. And he laughed at me. I thought how stupid I'd been, that he would kill me then, but he didn't. He just laughed, and - he told me that he was Scandinavia, that as long as it had been a nation it had been his, that as long as it existed and was held by Yngling hands then it would be his. He told me that whenever he died he passed into the body of his heir. And he told me that I was a fool, that he could kill me now if he wanted, he simply happened not to want to. That no one would ever believe me anyway. But he had an audience now, he had someone who could appreciate the particular dramatic ironies of various situations. So he left me alive, knowing. And so I know."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - I see. Thank you for telling me. It would be very good for my people to know that, so they could protect other people, but I understand why you would not want to tell anyone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not against telling people in full generality. I just - need to figure out how to stop him and am not at all sure how to do that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How to stop him from doing this to another person?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"How to stop him. The fact that he kills his heirs is objectionable, but it is hardly the worst thing he does, and if he can't be destroyed - or removed from power and prevented from returning to it - or changed somehow - then he will continue doing all the terrible things he does forever."

Permalink Mark Unread


"Do you think what we're doing right now will not be sufficient to change him?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you want to talk about that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"He'll play your game. He'll free all of his slaves and brand himself a reformer. He'll stop his human sacrifices and call it righteous obedience to the gods. But he will always, as long as one of him draws breath, be biding his time and nursing his ambitions and plotting some way to restore his independence, so that he can heighten the glory of Scandinavia and do as he pleases and prey on the weak once more."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And we don't care, and that must seem to you like the height of foolishness, or like we could only care so little about his ambitions if we'd care very little if they were realized."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No. You don't care because he's a child to you. Because we are all children to you, because each of us is a frightened toddler with a knife, and we can hurt no one but ourselves. You suppose that you will take the knife and swaddle us, leaving us unable to do anything of consequence, and that will be justice because there is nothing of value in our ambitions in the first place. Either you are wrong, and you are in danger, or you are right, and there will never be a superior alternative to the emperor anyway. You'll only send us to a larger castle with more competent guards and fill it with more elaborate toys."

- oh, darn, she wasn't going to argue this time. Why is she so terrible at not arguing.

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

"My world made contact four years ago. I'm twenty-five."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then perhaps you can imagine why the knowledge that everything that matters to you will henceforward be decided by either a muzzled ageless demon or a collection of worlds with incomprehensible foreign values might be slightly upsetting."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They showed us movies to get us up to speed on how they work but I guess they can't do that here. Or they could but it doesn't work as well. I'm just saying that you will get infinite opportunities to spend the rest of eternity hurting yourself, if you want, and that if I'm not worried about the demon of Scandanavia it's not because I think he's a child. 

It's - I am not actually the best person to explain this, I didn't grow up with it - 

So not all people are human. On some planets there are other kinds of people and some of them look sort of like us and some of them look like animals and some of them look like odd monsters. One of the founding species of Vanda Nossëo are the Quendi. Quendi are all good. They do not break any laws. They do not have any bullies. They all want to make the world better and they all keep their word.  Something like... five percent of humans end up joining Vanda Nossëo and doing humanitarian work? Seventy percent of the Quendi do. It's only that low because they're obsessed with staying home while they have children. My job is mostly Quendi, because they can make a magically binding promise never to repeat anything told to them in confidence, and who'd trust someone bound only by their honor, when there's that? 

Quendi planets work by assuming everyone is good. No one locks their doors, no one ties up their horses, no one enforces the law, no one breaks it. They're supposed to be very nice. For Quendi, because anyone else would break them.

The other planets are nice too, but they can't be nice the same way. Because humans aren't good. To make a human planet nice it has to be nice even though lots of the people on it will be evil, it has to be nice even when some of its people are trying to break it, it has to be nice for people who aren't, and aren't trying to be, and don't plan to start. Everywhere in Scandinavia right now, the crops are thriving, because fed people have more options and are less tired and are more able to fight for what they want. Everywhere in Scandinavia right now, they're doing songs and theatre, about us, so we seem less foreign, so people are less afraid to look to us if they want anything. Everywhere in Scandinavia right now, there are shuttlebus stops taking people bouncing all around the universe. Just to get them acquainted to the idea it's there. Just to get them acquainted to the idea that if they ever wanted to leave, there are grassy green fields three hops away where they could settle. If your Emperor starts to prey on the weak, someday, the weak will be strong, and they'll have spent their childhoods exploring the stars, and they'll know half a hundred places they can go. If your Emperor starts to prey on the weak, they'll have made friends, who will notice.

We didn't do that because we knew he was an immortal demon. We did that because we thought he was human. And making places nice for humans means making them places that will be nice even when their rulers are selfish and cruel and clever. That's not something extra we have to do now that he's an immortal demon, that's what we have to do everywhere for everyone, because a paradise for humans can't just be a paradise for nice people, it has to be a paradise for horrid ones."

Permalink Mark Unread

She starts tearing up at humans aren't good, because, after all, they're not. 

"You can't make a paradise for horrible people. But I suppose it's sweet of you to try."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't think you could make a paradise that was all horrible people. None of them would think to try, for one thing. I think - you can make a paradise that horrible people can't break, and that's for them, too. It's not easy and you need a lot of miracles, but we have those, and a lot of people working very hard, but we have that, too. But you don't have to believe that it's a paradise, that doesn't seem like something one decides by argument anyway. Just that it has its share of clever evil tyrants, and that none of them can prey on anyone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds very unlikely."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I assume you're not allowed to attend the theatre presentations that are telling our story to people?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not at the moment. But it seems very unlikely, whatever your story, that you can prevent any person from preying on another. Not if you leave your people any meaningful decisions at all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hmm, I think there's different kinds of - you've been staying here. So you know we're the kind of world that lets you stay here. People stay in situations that are bad for them, all the time. Until they're done, and they leave, and they're immortal, and have all of forever still ahead of them. There really is a lot you can do just by making sure that everyone can leave, and knows they can leave, and then building everything they might need if they choose to, and then, well, trying to listen."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose if they have forever to get it right," she says, laughing weakly. "You make people immortal?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. Well, people who aren't already. I don't think it's very good for people to feel like they're running out of time, or have already missed everything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"....I would like to be immortal."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You'll be immortal. Even if somehow you die of something, we'll get you back, and you'll wake up in a garden with your family and then be immortal again. No one's gone for good. It's just a lot of hard work to get them back, and there are lots of us working very hard on it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see. I'm - sorry for being upset with you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...why?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Because I'd like to be kinder to - I was going to say people who mean well, but I think I'd like to be kinder to everyone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's really good of you. But, well, you told me that your country is ruled by an evil demon embodying Scandinavia, it seems pretty reasonable to be really upset."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - yeah I've been holding some of that in for a while."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He sounds awful."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He is, uh, a very complicated person who is also evil."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's charitable of you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He's not really the sort of person who you can accurately sum up with a single word. Not that there are likely to be very many people like that, I suppose. But if there were he wouldn't be one of them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It seems like it'd be a very good thing if more of the people he's hurting were out of his reach."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I think it would be. It would probably be complicated in several cases. And most of his country seems to... love him."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I know much less about this than you, but it does seem like living in his palace you mostly wouldn't hear from the ones who despise him."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose that's true. Perhaps I'll get the chance to ask the Russians what they think of him at some point."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are those some of the people he's warred with?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Most of Russia was taken from its Buddhist king in a holy war several years ago. I think he's probably warred with everyone at some point, though not all in this lifetime."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That does sound like a recipe for a lot of people to hate you. Even more once we get them all back."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Less than you might think! Traditional Norse pagans used to get upset if their liege failed to declare any wars for longer than a few years, and they'd typically forgive their conquerors in a generation or so. I'm sure their Christian victims were quite upset, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are lots of Earths but yours is weird. Usually most people in Europe are Christian and Norse pagans are teenagers who are upset about religion. I'm not from an Earth, I just read an article about this this morning."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...wow." She's going to process 'lots of Earths' later. "There are Christians in Italy and there are Christians in Hungary and in whatever's left of France, and of course there are some Christians in occupied lands, but the emperor rather objects to that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There're Christians everywhere in Vanda Nossëo but mostly on Earths because Earths are where they start."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. Vigdis is going to have such a time deciding which of her warring gods won."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's an interesting theology."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's the sort of theology you develop when you're a very combat-minded eleven year old and your aunt keeps telling you that her God is omnipotent while his followers are slowly driven into extinction. I think."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you want to live somewhere Christian?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I... think that would be nice. For now. And I suppose I have forever."

...oh.

This was not what she expected the end of the world to look like, but hey, OK, she'll take it.

Permalink Mark Unread

She's smiling. "Mind, I can't tell anyone you said that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, do I have to repeat it all? I mean, I can, I'm good at repeating things, but I was sort of hoping I could just give you permission to repeat parts."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, no, you can absolutely do that, you just need to let me know which parts you'd like me to share."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I would appreciate it if you explained that the Emperor of Scandinavia is an immortal demon after I and my children have left this castle. Assuming you can cause us to be somewhere that isn't this castle."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can absolutely do that. I will need to coordinate with some people to make sure we get all of your children at the same time."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't actually know where the eldest two are."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It might be a few hours until we know where everyone is and can move them without startling them too much, is that okay?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I wouldn't have expected it to be that fast."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll see you soon, then!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She considers whether she has any earthly possessions that matter to her. Not many, as it should be. She has one thin book of already memorized poetry (a gift from the emperor, as virtually all of her possessions are), which she places in a bag with a candle and a crust of stale bread and a very old and very ordinary ribbon whose owner has been dead for very nearly nine years. 

She scoops her baby up and sings to her and tells her a story about the end of the world.

Permalink Mark Unread

A request gets submitted to the forensics demon on duty and half an hour later when the next non-urgent batch gets done they get locations. They bring the kids to Catherine so she can explain why they're leaving. They coordinate it, and appear all at once, four teleporters and four kids. Three of them immediately leave; they're very busy.

 

The fourth one is the one who talked with Catherine before. "Hey!" she says. "Do you want to explain everything before we leave, or after?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Now would be nice," says Tyr, as commandingly as an eight-year-old can, and she is gratified that she at least knows this much about him. She wordlessly hands Ragna off to Sigrun and kneels at her son's feet.

"We are leaving the castle. Things are very complicated and we want to be able to make decisions about our futures without the Emperor preventing us from doing so."

Her son frowns angrily at her. "Are you kidnapping us?"

She almost says no. "Would you like me to be?"

"...that would be simpler." Because that way it isn't his fault, of course, that way he can rebel later and return an escapee, and not a prodigal.

"Then I am kidnapping you. I promise not to kidnap you for very long. Will you come quietly?"

"I suppose," says Tyr, eyeing the wizard. 

"Sigrun?"

"Vigdis and Helka aren't here," she says.

"Vigdis will arrive later. Helka will have to leave with her own mother."

Her daughter nods seriously. 

"Frey?"

He looks frightened, like he doesn't have any idea what's going on - which is fair - but he gives an exaggerated nod.

She takes his little hands in hers. "It'll be all right. As all right as I can make it. I know it's very scary, but it's very important, and sometimes we have to be able to do scary things when they're important. And it's easier when the people we love are helping us."

"All right," he says, quietly.

"All right," she echoes, ruffling his hair. Ingolfr stares wordlessly up at her, sucking his fingers. She can't explain it to him, really, but she pats his head, too. "All right. We're ready."

Permalink Mark Unread

They vanish. A few different places blur past them. Then they're somewhere else; it's a big cathedralish room, nothing in it impossible to build with technologies they've seen before but all of it astoundingly impressive, given those.

"These are Melody and Ez," says the teleporter, waving over an oddly-dressed couple against the opposite wall. "They work in resettlement, and they'll get you all set up from here, okay?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"....OK."

She is pretty sure that a more sensible person would have something to add here but she seems to have misplaced most of her ability to think.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I know this is a lot to take in," Melody says. "And I'm sorry we've shuffled you off between so many people. That isn't going to happen any more; as the resettlement coordinators for this district we will live right next to you, with my sister and our children, and we'll be available to help with things as they come up. Now, there are two things we need to do. One is to take you to your house, and the other one is to get you your money. Which one do you want to do first?" This last question is directed at the children as much as at Catherine.

Permalink Mark Unread

"We're not going to be settling anywhere," says Tyr, crossing his arms. Frey sees this and crosses his arms, too.

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll show you your rooms, and then we'll show you your bus stop. From the bus stop, you may go anywhere in the universe, except places that prohibit children, or prohibit humans, or prohibit boys, and if you want to go places without any gravity you need to prove you know how to be safe without it. Rooms first, or money first?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Rooms."

"Rooms!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Rooms are fine."

Permalink Mark Unread

They walk out onto the street. The city is built around canals, with bridges over them; the houses are narrow, four or five stories tall, and squeezed up against each other facing the water. People are riding wheeled vehicles about. They cross the street and Melody shows them a pad on the door with numbers. "The passcode is 49001," she explains to them."You type it in, and then the door will open. Do you want to try it -"

Permalink Mark Unread

Tyr wants to try it. He is very serious about making sure he understands the commands for the magic door. Catherine waits for him to finish before attempting it herself, trying not to think too much about whether specific interactions constitute the use of witchcraft. 

Frey thinks it is very important to get an immediate sense of what their rooms contain and how they are structured and where one can hide, and he bursts through the door immediately in search of answers to these questions.

Permalink Mark Unread

It's four stories. It has a spiral staircase and an elevator between the four stories. There's a kitchen and a formal sitting room that looks out on the river and a playroom full of toys and a spacious pantry and five bedrooms, one of which has a nursery attached and the others of which each have two loft beds, with the space underneath the loft bed curtained. All of the bedrooms have closets. There is an attic; its ceiling is too low for grownups, but it has four rooms of its own, each with a view in a different direction, and the floor is outrageously soft and fluffy and giving. The attic opens out onto the roof and from there you can walk along an awning (with a railing) to the next house over. 

There's a laundry chute big enough for children to slide down it. It goes to a basement with a cellar and two square chrome machines.

There are also five mysterious rooms with a tiled floor and weird metal contraptions everywhere. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Ingolfr likes the toys; Frey likes the attic. Tyr does not comment.

"Be a very nice set of living quarters for people who hadn't been kidnapped," remarks Sigrun, blandly.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you want to see the bus stop now, or do you want to learn how the appliances work?" asks Melody, walking with Catherine through it at a somewhat slower pace. "This door here opens directly into my unit - it's entirely your choice whether to leave it open all the time or not, but with five children I'm expecting you'll want one or two or possibly all three of us over most of the time, which is easier this way -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am sure the children will be glad for friends. I - doubt I will be able to learn everything at once, but perhaps if there are a few essential things to know?"

Sigrun shoots a look at Tyr, as if to ask what their plan is. Tyr chews his lip.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think the most essential one is this." She demonstrates the functions of a toilet and a sink. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Oooh, indoor plumbing. A concept. Ingolfr wants to play with the sink.

Sigrun and Tyr head to one of the bedrooms, probably to conspire.

"How does the - bus stop - work, they can return to their father at any time?"

 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Tomorrow we'll go to a judge, and the judge will talk with you and with the kids and try to understand everything relevant to this situation. It's really hard to make general rules here, every family's situation is very different. For the children too young to have an opinion, they will almost certainly stay here with you, with their father assisted in visiting them regularly. - we arrange the visits so you never, ever have to see him again. For the older children, unless returning is going to put them or anybody else in danger, they'll get to choose how they spend their time.

I know their father has committed horrific crimes. I take it they do not know very much of that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh no, they - well, they aren't aware of all of the details, but Sigrun and Tyr are perfectly aware that he oversees human sacrifices and has kidnapped women from all corners of Europe."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It takes fairly unusual circumstances for a judge to decide to restrict a child's travel but that certainly sounds like a situation where it'd be really important to us that they grow up in a better environment than that. I'm sorry I can't give you a better answer than that, I know it's nowhere near good enough. I can say that I've seen a lot of complicated situations and they can make for very painful intermediate stages but - kids are smart, and they pick up pretty fast on what's okay and what isn't, once they're around people who'll say out loud that evil is evil. I really believe that they'll figure him out, at their own pace, if they haven't started to already."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...well, we can pray. Tyr - adores him, I think. There are very many people who adore him."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We can pray for all of them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. Oh, but you must have churches here. I haven't attended mass since I was a child. The children never have."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds so hard. Yes, we do, three houses down from here. I go on Wednesdays and Sundays but there's events there almost all the time, you could go every day if you'd like."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I might."

Permalink Mark Unread

"One of my friends is bringing dinner over for us tonight. Do you want a little time to yourself before that? I could take your baby out for a walk, my daughter loved the fresh air and the smell of the water when she was so very small..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I - perhaps if Sigrun will go with you? Someone should stay with her, but I've hardly had a moment apart from her since she was born."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hey, Sigrun! Do you want to go for a walk with your sister and I? We could go down to my office and get you your money, if you'd like, or we could walk to the zoo from here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Money sounds useful," says Sigrun, poking her head out of the other room. She looks back in for a moment. "Tyr will come, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Great!" She takes the baby from Catherine. "Money is useful. You'll want something to hold it in securely, do you have anything that might do for that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We don't have objects," says Sigrun. "Everything we have is in Akershus."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll have to stop by a store so you can get something suitable, then." She snuggles the baby and heads out the front door. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigrun glares a little at her mother, who is not entirely sure what in particular has earned her the scorn of her oldest daughter, and then follows Melody and Ragna out the door. Tyr follows; he doesn't bother glaring.

She checks that Ingolfr and Frey are playing nicely together, then shuts herself in the bathroom and silently cries.

Permalink Mark Unread

Melody walks down the street with them. In her office, she pulls out shiny coins like the ones Vignis has been collecting. "So the way this works is that everyone who lives on a member planet gets ten of these a week. You can collect more for work you do, and you can spend them on pretty much everything - including houses and boats and magic and resurrections. About the only thing that doesn't take currency is demons. You get a thousand for starting out, because starting out is really hard and having some money makes it easier."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You shouldn't buy things from demons anyway," says Sigrun, accepting her coins.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You absolutely shouldn't. You should have nothing to do with demons. Loki does, but that's one thing, she's Loki. Do you want to go to a store and get a pouch for all of those?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, OK."

Permalink Mark Unread

The store sells backpacks and purses and hip packs and holsters and stealthy bags you tape to your spine and boots with hidden compartments and shirts with hidden compartments and jackets with hidden compartments and backpacks with dozens of hidden compartments. Melody demonstrates zippers and velcro. Most things cost between twenty and thirty coins.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigrun wants a backpack and a jacket. Tyr really wants the spine pack until it occurs to him that having a ton of metal in a bag along his spine might not be the best idea. He settles on another backpack.

Permalink Mark Unread

The storeowner tries to convince them to get little glass screens as well. 

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Melody says, "they are planning to go back to Scandanavia and they won't be able to charge them there yet."

           "Ah, but there'll be charging stations soon enough. These are the best thing to have," he tells them earnestly, "they play music and show bus schedules and tell you how to get anywhere in the universe you want to go, and they let you know about available tasks you can do for money in your area."

"He's entirely right," Melody says, "but they won't be useful yet except when you're here, and that's a lot of money to spend for something that won't work in Scandinavia."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How much are they?" asks Sigrun.

Permalink Mark Unread

"A hundred fifty for the old model and two hundred fifty for the new."

Permalink Mark Unread

She turns to her brother.

"It's a bribe," says Tyr, flatly.

"It's not a bribe if you pay for it."

"That's why they make you pay for it, so you'll think it isn't a bribe."

"It hardly prevents you from leaving." She turns back to the store owner. "One old model, please, we'll share."

Permalink Mark Unread

He gives them an old model and a charging cord, shows them how to attach the charging cord to an outlet - "there'll be lots of them in your house" - and shows them how to turn it on. "Do either of you read?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We read Norwegian and Arabic."

Permalink Mark Unread

“10th century,” says Melody.

“We have that! Thanks to Revelation... okay, I’ve got it set up with Arabic because I expect the translation will be better, but you can switch to Norwegian here. It has a few features installed by default, and you can add more. The most important one is map mode - it’s your guide to getting anywhere in the universe. It also shows if there are tasks for money listed anywhere near you.” (There are; the tasks, and the payment amounts, float above the map). 

Permalink Mark Unread

Ooooh, what tasks?

Permalink Mark Unread

Someone would pay 3 coins plus expenses for someone to bring them a sandwich from the corner store; someone would pay five for help assembling a bookshelf; someone will pay ten for someone to come playtest their new game; someone will pay 8/hour for someone to practice French with them; someone is offering thirty for anyone who will go to Edda and get them a scone from their favorite food cart.

Permalink Mark Unread

Shame nobody wants to learn tenth century Norwegian and Arabic. Tyr hands the screen off to Sigrun and tells her to keep checking whether anything interesting comes up, and then they are ready to leave the store.

Permalink Mark Unread

“Dinner is probably going to be ready by now,” Melody says. “I’m going to head back. If you two would like to explore some more, I can drop a pin on the map for our house and then you can get instructions to return there later.”

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll go home now," says Sigrun.

Permalink Mark Unread

Melody’s friend Zuzu and Melody’s husband are setting up dinner when they get back. The dishes are all unfamiliar but smell good. 

Melody goes upstairs looking for Catherine.

Permalink Mark Unread

Catherine is doing a wonderful impression of a functional human being, sitting on one of the beds and listening to Frey provide a very detailed list of the house's virtues and shortcomings. The laundry chute and the attic with a very short ceiling are virtues. The lack of a place to hunt frogs is a shortcoming.

Permalink Mark Unread

“Hello, you two! My friend Zuzu brought us dinner. It’s hamburgers and chicken nuggets and tater tots and milkshakes from the place down the street, if you happen to like any of them you can get them all the time.”

Permalink Mark Unread

Frey knows what chicken and ham are, and this is sufficient to get him to run to the kitchen. Catherine scoops up Ingolfr from the corner, where he's investigating a toy car. "Thank you. You're very generous."

Permalink Mark Unread

“Loving your neighbor is both the easiest commandment and the hardest, you know. Easy because every person God has put in my path has been such a gift to me, and taught me more than I could possibly teach them. I am glad you’re here, Catherine, and you’re here for a reason.

It’s the hardest commandment because worlds have neighbors, usually hundreds of them, so every one we discover is a hundred more.”

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods. She feels like she should maybe have something profound to say, but she doesn't actually have anything on hand, so she heads downstairs to eat dinner with her children.

Permalink Mark Unread

Dinner is the promised selection of foods. Melody's friend leaves; Melody and her husband stay, talking quietly in the corner. Apparently the popular grace before meals around here is 'God, you have blessed us with abundance; bless us with enjoyment, and with the strength to share our abundance with everyone'. 

Permalink Mark Unread

She hasn't gotten to eat dinner with all her children present and no one else particularly worrying in - ah. Far too long. It would be easier to enjoy it if she knew them better, though.

"Did you have fun with Melody?"

"We bought one of the magic screens," says Sigrun, neutrally. "It has maps and tells you how to earn money."

"We don't need money," puts in Tyr. "Father has plenty, and if he doesn't have any foreign money yet, then he will soon."

"like money," says Frey.

"You're too small to do anything useful," objects Tyr.

"Am not!"

"Are too."

Sigrun cuts her hamburger into little pieces and daintily eats them. "I'll tell you if I see anything a little kid could do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It also plays music and movies," Melody says. "I can show you how to set it up after dinner, if you'd like."

        "And Angry Birds," says her husband.

"Aren't all the kids over that by now?"

        "A new one came out, it's called Angry Birds: War. Half the kids at church were playing it and the other half were piously refraining."

"- all right, music and movies and little games."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Does it do anything else useful?" asks Tyr.

"Music is useful," says Sigrun.

"No it's not."

"Father likes it."

"Not everything Father likes is useful."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not really sure what kinds of things you consider useful."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - you know," says Sigrun, looking slightly puzzled. "Things that make you a better and more capable person."

"Music doesn't make you more capable," mumbles Tyr.

"Yes it does, it makes you better at music."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It can tutor you in math and geography and history and the sciences. Most people get a bigger screen for that, and the smaller one is for recreation and travel and things you do on the go, but I think it should work fine with just the one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We should learn about history," declares Sigrun.

"Yeah," says Tyr, dispiritedly stabbing his chicken nuggets with a fork.

"Father would want you to learn."

"Yeah."

"You don't want him to think you've been wasting your time."

"I think you get to waste at least one day if you're kidnapped."

"Well wouldn't, and then I'd be a day ahead of everyone else who wasted it."

"Does it tell you about what's happening in the world right now?" asks Tyr, after kicking his sister under the table. She does not kick him back.

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are news articles and news videos you can watch or read, yes. The translation is going to be a little choppy for something like that, but I bet it's good enough to get a general idea."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We should learn whatever most people speak here, too," says Sigrun.

Permalink Mark Unread

"A lot of people here have bought themselves a magic universal translator, so they sound to everyone like they're speaking their native language. I have. But the local language is Italian, and I'd be happy to find you tutors for it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll learn Italian," says Sigrun.

"They don't speak Italian at home," says Tyr.

"Some people do."

"Not important people."

"Sigrun," says Catherine, "You can study whatever you want, but you're not in charge of your brother. It's not unreasonable to want a few days to settle in."

"Fine," says Sigrun, mildly. "If he wants to be murdered by a Catholic uprising when he's twenty."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think it might make more sense to start with history and current events, if you're worried about dying in uprisings."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well I'm not," says Sigrun.

Permalink Mark Unread

"My best friend was actually murdered once," says Melody's husband cheerfully. "It took us three years to get him back, and now he constantly tells us we're so elderly he can barely relate to us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds like it would be highly inconvenient for someone who's supposed to be doing things of political importance," says Sigrun, sipping her milkshake.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, it doesn't take that long if you're doing things of political importance."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well it'll still look bad," she says. "If you get murdered by peasants all the time."

"It'd look bad for the peasants," mutters Tyr.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, are you planning to rule here?" asks Melody. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, of course not. But Tyr's an heir, and he has a responsibility to study things that will make him a better ruler, and Vanda Nossëo's history will be relevant to - things."

"You don't need to. What're you even going to do with history?"

"Talk to my husband. I'm sure Father can find someone in the world who's more concerned with responsible stewardship of his lands than you are."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's actually traditional to find someone yourself, these days," says Melody's husband. 

"There's a reality show where they do arranged marriages, the old-fashioned way, and then film the subsequent relationships," Melody says. "I haven't watched it, but I think one of the couples arranged that way is still together."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...why would I want to do that?" asks Sigrun, as if the idea of finding her own husband is something distasteful that's stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, since no one is ever going to die, marriages as a way of securing political alliances fell out of favor," said Melody's husband.

    "I think marriages as a way of securing political alliances fell out of favor long before it became the case that no one died."

"Huh, did it really?"

    "Yes. I'm not a historian but if I were trying to summarize the trajectory of things, broadly... changes to the nature of warfare made feudalism stop being viable as a political system. Monarchies centralized. Land stopped being the primary form of capital you'd hold to maintain power. Marriages ceased to function as alliances between families and turned into an alliance between two individuals. Immortality happened, and immortality means it's incredibly important to marry someone you're so deeply compatible with that you are sure you'll still be close to them in a thousand years, and that kind of compatibility became the top priority, and no one else can really assess it for you. People started thinking that other people were shortsighted and foolish and irresponsible unless they married for long-term compatibility."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigrun looks deeply confused. Catherine would help except that she actually doesn't know anything about this. 

"Well," says Sigrun, sounding irritated. "Even if I were going to choose someone I'm sure Father would find them first."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose if he meets lots of people he might be well-positioned to do that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Father knows everyone. Everyone important, anyway." She pauses. "Everyone important in Scandinavia, anyway."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's a lot of people! They say the same thing about the Elf King. I guess it's a good trait for kings to have."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. He's very good at what he does."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can imagine it'd be really complicated to have someone you loved who had so many good traits and also murdered and cruelly mistreated people."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Father doesn't murder people," declares Sigrun. "Cowards murder people."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Murdering people is a very terrible thing to do but I don't actually know that I'd call it cowardly, what makes you say that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you have so much of a problem with someone that you want to kill them then you should do it to their face," says Sigrun.

"Yeah. If Father had a problem with someone and they hadn't broken any laws then he would duel them," says Tyr.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see."

Permalink Mark Unread

The children nod decisively. Catherine sips her milkshake.

Permalink Mark Unread

When they're done Melody puts the leftovers in the refrigerator and explains refrigerators, and freezers, and the ice machine in the door. She puts the dishes in the dishwasher and explains that, too. She puts breakfast croissants in the oven and sets a timer on the oven - "so it'll start cooking them tomorrow, just after sunrise" - and then she shows Sigrun how to pull up history and current events articles and videos on the smartphone.

Permalink Mark Unread

Catherine is only moderately overwhelmed by this many new appliances. Hopefully she'll still remember how to use them in the morning. (Hopefully she won't be dead on her feet by morning; she doesn't have any servants here and she feels like it would be a bit unreasonable to ask anyone else to help Ragna go to sleep when she inevitably wakes up three or four times.)

She hovers around the children and tries to get a sense of what they're all planning to do with themselves (and how long Sigrun and Tyr are planning to wait before marching back to their father). She nurses her baby. She turns in early and prays at her bedside and thanks the Lord for deliverance. She asks Him to tell her how not to be superfluous.

She sleeps.

Permalink Mark Unread

The top headlines in Vanda Nossëo are:

The group of researchers studying the effects of atmospheric gas mixtures on human cognition saw startlingly large effect sizes in their early studies, prompting them to call for much larger-scale studies even before they've published the first results; the news anchors are speculating about whether it'd be a good idea to change the atmospheric composition of every human-dominated planet, and if so how to do it. 

New member state Alllavia is under investigation for unlawfully taking provocative actions against their neighbors in the hopes their neighbors would declare war and trigger Vanda Nossëo's defense agreement. Thirty top officials have been indicted. 

All two million chickens rescued from a factory farm on a newly-contacted industrial planet have been rehomed, thanks to a massive volunteer effort; the news anchors talk with some rescuers about everything known about managing trauma in chickens.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigrun and Tyr talk about the fact that these people have weird priorities. Eventually they go to bed and quietly talk about when they should leave until one of them insults the other and both of them go to sleep upset. Sigrun wakes up at some point, when she hears Ragna crying, and scrolls through the news website with her head under a blanket for several hours.

Such weird priorities. She's mentally making a list of weird priorities, not because she expects them to make any sense as a whole but because maybe that way she can memorize the full list of things they hate and things they think are great, and then she'll be better at predicting them, if nothing else.

Permalink Mark Unread

Other things on the news: 

- there's a new member state, Mxeir. It accepts immigrants from the following twelve species. Humans aren't on there. There's some incomprehensible speculation about which political coalitions it might align itself with.

- twenty orc planets are considering prohibitions on forking. this is causing intense controversy, and some emigration. 

- the price of resurrections fell for the third year straight despite a thousandfold increase in demand; an opinion columnist is of the opinion that this suggests insufficient caution with the powerful abilities that enable resurrection.

- the price of immortality necklaces, on the other hand, just keeps going up; it's debated whether it makes sense to sell them on the open market at all rather than distributing by need.

- Elendil has reopened talks with the Federation, last derailed due to profound differences of opinion over genetic engineering.

- a man who murdered someone in a fight, and whose victim turned out to be nonreductionist, is arguing that this unlawfully influenced his sentencing.

- here's a transcript of Loki's speech to the general assembly about project priorities for the next decade, and the Q&A that followed the speech. 

- it's Smallpox Eradication Day, observed on most Earths! visit your local Earth and buy a bauble and attend a ceremony!

- member planet Sfax bans Loki's boyfriend from visiting; this is purportedly because they're scared of him but widely interpreted as a protest against a change in policies on religious tolerance

Permalink Mark Unread

Such interesting opinions. It's a good thing she's reading this, because it's going to take her a long, long time to understand all the potentially relevant things about these people's situations. Fortunately she is a very diligent person.

Permalink Mark Unread

Vanda Nossëo presents the emperor with a bunch of options for ending slavery. For example, they can help compensate all the ex-slaves and ex-slaveowners, and if desired they can replace slave labor with robots, and if that's not workable they can try to arrange immigration of people who are interested in doing that work. Or if he'd rather, they can just send guards to assure the freedom of all the slaves and not interfere beyond that.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh but this is going to be troublesome.

He sees no reason to assume that the majority of slaves will seek to leave their current work, though it is of course natural that they will jump at the chance to be free men. Compensation for the ex-slaveowners will of course be necessary, and as he does not independently have the power to offer it he will be more than willing to accept Vanda Nossëo's assistance in solving the problem that they caused. Starting the new freedmen off with some amount of resources to get started in life sounds like a fine idea, although it should be noted that many of the villages do not use currency for internal transactions and that monetary aid alone is likely to be insufficient. He will leave it to his individual vassals to report labor shortages and request aid in the form of robots or other available options, though the electors of Scandinavia are considering some form of immigration restrictions and would prefer not to be immediately overwhelmed by foreigners.

Permalink Mark Unread

They set off to arrange nonmonetary compensation as needed to keep the slaveowners happy and get the freed people on their feet. They set up communications for necessities.

 

They let him know that he's no doubt noticed several of his concubines have fled; amazing what happens when you kidnap women and rape them. They'll arrange for him to visit the kids every day, if he'd like, and for any other supports he needs in order to make that possible.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I had noticed that," he says, much less delighted than he's been. "I thought I'd give you the chance to offer an explanation that doesn't involve you having kidnapped eleven of my children on no notice."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, I thought that you didn't consider kidnapping objectionable, since by all accounts it's one of your major preoccupations."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I understand it to be an act of war, which I've been told you people don't favor as a problem-solving method."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Custody cases are decided by a judge, who evaluates which adult is best suited to be the primary guardian of the child. Kidnapping and raping people is fairly disqualifying, on that front. But we want to enable any parent who can safely be in their child's life to do so, which is why we'll help you with visitation."

Permalink Mark Unread

Vigdis pipes up; she's allowed to pipe up if she's got a good point. "What, are you gonna kidnap the kids of everyone who's ever kept slaves, too? You going to kidnap me?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're old enough to decide where you want to live; custody cases are for children too young to express such a preference, or who decline to do so, or whose preferences are somehow impossible to accommodate."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see. I take it those who are as old as Vigdis will be given the chance to return, then, when they wish to."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Absolutely."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That is less concerning, then."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That'll still be five or six they've taken, majesty."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes! Yes, it will be." He sighs. "But those who have neither the strength nor the respect necessary to enforce their laws should not be permitted to write them. We've no choice."

Permalink Mark Unread

They explain how he can arrange to visit his kids.

Permalink Mark Unread

He will have to think about whether to do this. On the one hand, Scandinavia has never been in more dire need of its ruler, its ruler has never been more busy, and he very much dislikes having to crawl to someone else's hostages. On the other hand, he likes his kids, it will likely give him a better idea of what's happened here and what's likely to happen in the future, and he's going to have to get used to crawling at some point.

He'd like to visit his kids.

Permalink Mark Unread

Melody is by the next morning to get the croissants out of the oven and tell the kids this. "There's a building right near here where you can meet with your dad and with anyone else you want supervised visitation with, if there's anyone else."

Permalink Mark Unread

The kids would like to see their father! Including Ingolfr, according to Sigrun, who claims that he nodded very emphatically when asked. There are other people they would miss if they were staying here for very long, but they won't be, so they shouldn't need to visit them immediately.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are there other people Frey and Ingolfr might miss, since they will be staying here?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Nobody's quite sure who Ingolfr will miss, since Ingolfr's very quiet and he doesn't see many people except his mother anyway. Frey didn't know he was staying here and is not used to making decisions like this and actually just wants to talk to his dad first please.

Permalink Mark Unread

The visitation center is a big park and playground and attached arts and crafts center. Excursions to the zoo or pool are also supported. There are a lot of kids there, and parents - mostly fathers but also some mothers - coming to meet them.

Permalink Mark Unread

Well. This is clearly mostly for show, and is much less impressive than it would be somewhere else, given the massive wealth levels that this new empire has to work with, but they could be keeping his children in worse conditions.

Frey runs to his father and hugs him, and gets a hug back in return. Tyr and Sigrun report being kidnapped but tell him that they can return whenever they like, and they think they would like to go soon, unless he has some reason why they shouldn't. He doesn't, not at the moment - perhaps he will have a reason later, but for the moment he he would like to be assured that they can, in fact, return - so they tell him that they will come back as soon as possible and perhaps they will visit their mother again later. He asks them how the baby is and they tell him that she's about how babies typically are; she doesn't sleep through the night yet. They ask him if anything's happened to Scandinavia and he tells him about the plans to turn all the thralls into freedmen. Eventually they investigate the playground together.

He sends them back to their mother after a while, then repeats the process with his other children, who are at various other visitation centers.

His children return to their mother and report that they would like to go back to Scandinavia now.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Would you like someone to go with you or do you want to use your phone to navigate? It can give you instructions all the way there, but we can also go with you if you'd like - it can be confusing figuring out the bus transfers."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Someone can go with us," says Sigrun, before Tyr can declare that they don't need help. She frowns at her mother, who looks fairly disappointed in all this. "We'll visit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay," Melody says. "I'll ask Zuzu to walk you two there - is it just you two?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigrun and Tyr are pretty sure that Frey wants to come. Frey is not very sure of this.

Permalink Mark Unread

" - you two, and if Frey wants to come later, we'll take him over with you then. He will still get to see his dad all the time, his dad will visit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Where do you want to live," asks Sigrun, kneeling next to him.

"I don't know," says Frey.

"You like hunting frogs in the courtyard, and you like that the chef knows all your favorite pastries, and you like your room and you like being able to run all around the castle."

"Yeah... but I like mama."

"You can visit mama."

"But she won't be able to tell me bedtime stories every night then."

"I guess not."

So they leave without Frey, and he bursts into tears afterwards.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's up to you, of course," says Melody when Catherine is done comforting him, "but I think maybe we should spend today at church. It - it seems like it would be good to seek God's guidance in this, and also they're resurrecting your sister today and it's traditional to spend the day in prayer, for that..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, that sounds like a fine idea," she says. "Would you like to come with us, Frey?"

He nods tiredly and holds her hand as they walk to the church. She holds Ragna in the other and checks to see that Ingolfr is following along as well.

She prays. She tries not to think too much about what it will mean if her sister is alive again.

Permalink Mark Unread

The church has a big children's play area that goes up five stories high in a set of little plastic tubes and nets and so on. There's also a water fountain; kids are running in it. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Frey and Ingolfr will play in the play area, then. 

She'll just... pray.

Permalink Mark Unread

Elsewhere, several people hurry down a field of thirty thousand unconscious bodies. The field helpfully changes around them as they go through, so the reawakening people don't awaken in too uncomfortable a setting.

 

This one awakens in a field of soft grass, with tree branches meeting in the sky above her.

Permalink Mark Unread

...huh.

Heaven looks lovely this time of year, doesn't it. She supposes it probably does at every time of year.

Permalink Mark Unread

Probably. It's quiet. There's the sound of a stream in the distance. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Ahuh.

Welp. Time to find out what sort of place heaven is. She stands and checks if there's anyone else around.

Permalink Mark Unread

There's no one immediately within view; there might be people talking down near the water, or it might just be the sound of the water. 

Permalink Mark Unread

She'll look around for water, then.

Permalink Mark Unread

It's both! A brook and a few women sitting on a bridge over it, dangling their feet in the water and talking.

 

They wave at her. "Hey!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hey. I'm, uh, dead and stuff."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yep! Welcome to Lórien! It's, um - what kind of background do you have on things that might happen when you die -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Uh. I figured this was heaven 'cause I didn't figure the norse would let me into - Valhalla or wherever the shit - should I not be swearing in heaven - "

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, you're good! So, there's a world - not the one you grew up in - where Eru, the creator of the world, created powerful beings to carry out the work of creation in the world. One of them is called Lórien, and he made this place, and it's supposed to be a place where you feel comfortable, no matter the context you're coming from. So you're not very wrong if you assume you're in Heaven."

"Except there's more to do."

"Oh, yeah, there's that. You can return to the world any time you want, and the world's busy."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. OK. Uh." That sounds kind of bullshit but she's never been terribly clear on the afterlife so maybe that's just how it is. "Last I checked the world they were having a great blott and killing me in front of my sister and my kids, so maybe take a raincheck on that for a bit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can look up how they're doing if you want? You don't have to, though, there's no rush."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That'd be cool. I'm Anne."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hot damn, you're from an Earth? I'm from an Earth," the girl says, poking around on a little handheld device. "Anne - yeah, okay, your sister and daughter wanted you back. Which doesn't mean you have to go back, if you don't want to, you can stay here as long as you want."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are they like... OK?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It says that your sister is living on Maria, a mostly-Catholic all-human planet a couple hops from here. She just moved a few days ago, so I ....bet she's not okay yet? Being okay takes years and years and some people start from, like, worse than scratch."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...so they're not in Scandinavia."

Permalink Mark Unread

"- you said that you were murdered, right? I bet they wanted to leave."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Does the thingy tell you where my daughter is?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's not listed, I'm sorry. It says she's alive and okay and interested in working for Loki."

Permalink Mark Unread

"....I guess she's that kind of kid. You said I can see my sister?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. I can take you to someone who can take you there, if you'd like."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That'd be good. Thanks for the help."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah for sure!" She stands up and splashes through the river and clambers onto the shore. "We just gotta walk around those trees."

Permalink Mark Unread

She follows her guide because heck if she knows where she's going.

Permalink Mark Unread

Lórien takes you to where you should be, more or less. It takes them to a bus stop. "She's going to Maria," her guide tells the bus driver, "can you make sure she gets there?"

"Yeah, okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

Into the mysterious metal box!

"Hey," she says to the bus driver. "I'm Anne."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Dave! We leave in ten minutes, is that gonna be okay?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, I got - I'm a little unclear on how much time I have but I don't think I'm in a hurry."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh good. Maria, huh? I've never been there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Neither have I! I have been dead."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ouch, how'd that happen?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Human sacrificed by a pagan emperor who abducted me and made me be one of his concubines."

Permalink Mark Unread

" - well, that's a shitty roll of the dice. Super not allowed these days, in case no one told you that yet. None of it. No human sacrifices, no abductions, no concubines. I guess there are still some emperors but all the good planets are democracies."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What's a democracy?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Rule of the people by the people for the people! In a democracy, every single person gets a vote on who the new ruler will be, and whoever gets the most is the ruler - but only until the next election, with rules so no one sticks around forever."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ahuh. Emperor's elected."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That doesn't sound like an Emperor, then, if you can just vote against him a couple years later if he turned out to be a homicidal maniac. - also in democracies you arrest the president if they're a homicidal maniac."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh. I mean he's elected for life. I suppose he's a homicidal maniac, but I kind of figure they all are, Scandinavians. Though I'm not really an expert on Scandinavian politics, it's not really my department."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, democracy doesn't really seem like it'd solve the problem if the whole country was homicidal maniacs. Scandinavia, huh, really? All you ever hear about Sweden in my world is that their jails are really cushy and they have a lot of taxes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Spent the last six months in a dungeon, but I don't think 'cushy' would be in my top five words for it, honestly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What year was this, do you know?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Year of our lord ten twenty-four I think. It might have been twenty-five. I dunno how the pagans count it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We find Earths at lots of different points in their history, but I think that's the earliest that didn't have dinosaurs. Unlucky for you, I'm sorry."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nah, it's all right. I think things are going better now for me than they were."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No dungeons here! To get to Maria you'll want to transfer in Revelation."

And the bus jumps to somewhere else; some people get off, and others get on.

The bus does this three more times before it reaches Revelation.

Permalink Mark Unread

She hops off the bus! Is there anyone who looks like they might know where a place called Maria is.

Permalink Mark Unread

He points her at another bus! The second bus driver confirms that he goes to Maria. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Cool, cool. She thanks Dave and heads on over to the second weird metal box thing.

Permalink Mark Unread

The second weird metal box makes its own weird magic hops and drops her off somewhere with canals and tall houses facing them, and people racing up and down the streets. "Do you know where you're going from here?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not a blessed clue. I'm supposed to be finding my sister."

Permalink Mark Unread

So the bus driver walks with her down to the resettlement office to figure that out.

Resettlement knows her address, and knows the door code for that address, and knows (after texting Catherine's neighbor) that Catherine is presently at church.

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds good for her! Where should I be going exactly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you'd like to go to the house where she lives, I can take you there! If you'd rather live somewhere else, I can set that up for you. If you'd like me to take you to the church to meet her, I can do that, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think I will go meet my sister, yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay!" He walks her to the church.

Permalink Mark Unread

Wow that sure is a - structure that may be a church, yes. She'll just waltz in and see if she sees her sister anywhere.

Permalink Mark Unread

"....Anne?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"In the flesh! Wow, you don't look seventeen anymore, how long was I dead."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Uh, eight years or so?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wow, so are we, like, the same age?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I guess so?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Neat. You look new to this heaven thing, are you new to this heaven thing?" she asks, and then doesn't wait for an answer before hugging her.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pretty new to it. I don't know that we're actually there yet but we seem like we might be on the way."

Permalink Mark Unread

Various people come over to watch and blink rapidly and ask if there's anything they can do.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Absolutely. The other person I'd like to see is my daughter, who has got to be like this tall by now, and - oooh can I see my husband."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Vigdis is in Scandinavia at present," says Melody, "though she's expressed an interested in meeting Loki and I think someone's trying to set that up. Who's your husband?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah, man, so she's still with that - Catherine, we should get out of church so I can curse people. My husband is a guy named John who lives in Mercia with our son - or did, five - sorry, thirteen years ago, but I don't really expect that to be enough to find him. Though I guess you found Catherine and Vigdis, you must be pretty good at finding people around here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We have a whole department for reunions, I'll submit a request."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nice. Well, we know where Vigdis is, can we go see her?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll send someone to let her know you're back! It seems like it might not be a good idea for you to go to Scandinavia at this time. I don't know if our treaties with them are all hammered out yet, but 'no reentry of people we executed' is a common stipulation in agreements between planets."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Aww, I'm sure he's forgotten all about that. And my parents and children and everyone are in England, can I not go see them then?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You ....expect he's forgotten all about that? .....I don't expect England would be a problem."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I mean he executes like a zillion people a year, he can't remember them all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're the mother of one of his children and you were imprisoned for trying to assassinate him."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess he might remember that. England then, is England still part of Scandinavia?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It was last I heard. No doubt not entirely by choice."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The reunification people should get back to me by tomorrow with instructions on how to track down your family in England."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds great. So, Catherine, Sigrun doing OK? Next one make it too? I guess they must both be talking in complete sentences and questioning your judgement and stuff by now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"A fair bit. They've both decided to remain with their father. The three younger ones are here, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh. Sorry, then. Happy to meet the new ones, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, you've met one. Ragna, say hi to your aunt, she's been asleep for a while. Frey's having a hard time today since his siblings left, but he adores the house."

Permalink Mark Unread

Anne is, indeed, delighted to meet her new nephews. Cool how these ones are instantly larger than infants and can answer her back with words. (Well, the bigger one can, the toddler just stares at everything and occasionally points or nods.) 

They return to the house.

Permalink Mark Unread

Melody shows Anne appliances, which might also be convenient for Catherine if she didn't retain all of that yesterday. "My daughter really liked bubble baths when she was little, I bet these kids would like that too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Bubble baths sound like a fantastic invention, should we investigate them Ingolfr?"

Ingolfr nods, so they investigate them. Frey is sort of weirded out by the concept of bathing, but Ingolfr takes it in stride.

Permalink Mark Unread

If Frey instead wants to play on his own, or go through the connecting door into Melody's apartment and play piano or watch television, he can do those things.

Permalink Mark Unread

Frey will maybe do those things once he is done making sure that Ingolfr's not going to get sick from being wet for so long. Television and pianos are cool but he's really more excited about figuring out how much running he can do without actually having to leave the safety of his house.

Permalink Mark Unread

Quite a lot, with the four flights of stairs and the attic! Some of the bedrooms turn out to have little secret passages in the closets, connecting them.

Permalink Mark Unread

This house is really neat! It doesn't make up for the fact that he's away from his siblings and his friends and his father and his entire country, but it's a decent consolation prize.

Eventually Ingolfr gets out of the tub and joins his brother in running around the house.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hey. You holding up all right?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"For certain values of all right."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Dumb ones, it sounds like."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I'm trying to be all right. It's embarrassing thinking that I've held up so much worse than you have. And we're safe here, Sigrun and Tyr can come back if they want, there's nothing preventing us from going wherever we wish, except perhaps home - "

Permalink Mark Unread

"But it hasn't been fixed." She kisses her forehead. "We'll fix it. Don't you worry."

They investigate television shows and see if they can cook anything and wait for word on Anne's husband and other children.

Permalink Mark Unread

Melody will happily show them how to heat up frozen things in their oven.

 

The television has news shows and (recommended) history-of-Vanda-Nossëo-for-newcomers shows and incomprehensible sports and cooking shows.

Permalink Mark Unread

Catherine wants to watch the history for newcomers stuff. Anne wants to watch sports, and points out that Frey also wants to watch sports, so the three of them spend an evening attempting to decode the game's rules and scoring system.

Permalink Mark Unread

In the morning Melody has waffles and fruit salad and maple syrup and whipped cream and news of Anne's family. She has one surviving son, her eldest, and one now in the queue for resurrection ("though unfortunately it will probably be a while, I'm very sorry"). Her husband is alive and well but eventually remarried. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well that's... awkward but reasonable." She has not read enough of the Bible (or, indeed, any) to have much of an idea of how heaven is supposed to deal with the logistics of remarried people. "We should go visit Thomas though! And our parents, are our parents OK?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Fine, and living in the same town as your husband! I think a visit is a great idea."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Great, let's go!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're sure it won't be a problem that Anne is, uh, responsible for an attempt to assassinate their ruler?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's looking pretty likely that England will vote to stop being part of Scandinavia. I think a visit to England should work out okay, though if we are asked to leave we'll have to leave and though a visit to the city you recently left from wouldn't be permitted."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Naturally. Frey, Ingolfr, let's go meet your grandparents and cousins!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Melody accompanies them to England and from there to the village so they don't have to deal with confusing magic bus transfers. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thanks so much! I think I'm getting the hang of these, though. We'll just hang out here with my parents for a couple weeks until we get all the lovey dovey out of our systems, all right?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She looks at Catherine. "Do they have space and food for all of you for an unannounced several-week visit?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"They're not likely to be prepared, but we'll manage. We'll help with the farm, of course, and - if they were really in need I expect their friends and neighbors would help them. One doesn't put off visiting with one's long-lost daughters and grandchildren for the sake of logistics."

Permalink Mark Unread

"All right, if that's what works best for you. I'll visit every day to pick the kids up for visitation, and I can bring anything you think of when I visit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you so much! For everything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Of course! Have a wonderful visit."

Permalink Mark Unread

They do, at first, have a wonderful visit. Their parents are overjoyed to see them - they had been assuming they were dead, or taken never to return. Most of the brothers she remembers are alive, though two who died without children are waiting on resurrections and will likely be waiting a long time.  She has so many nieces and nephews she never knew she had.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm so sorry, Anne," says her husband, when he sees her.

"For what, for being married again?"

"I thought you were dead."

"Well, hell, I was." From the ages of his children she wasn't when he remarried, but that's nothing to lose sleep over. "Anyway, you were better at keeping your vows than I was."

Her son is so tall. And so responsible, though she can't imagine who he got that from. She's never done a responsible thing in her life. Case in point: when she's gotten a fair bit of lovey dovey out of her system, and when her parents have begun to talk seriously with Catherine about whether she wouldn't rather stay in England with them and find some nice young man to settle down with, she begins plotting her revenge.

She tells her sister that she's remembered a long list of friends she'd like to visit who are now in London, and she'd like to spend another while paying visits to them. She does, in fact, go to London, and she does, in fact, visit friends, for perhaps a single afternoon. And then she looks around for a bus that's going to Akershus.

Permalink Mark Unread

There aren't buses directly from London to elsewhere in this world, perhaps because someone expected, and wanted to mitigate, things like this. There are buses from London out into the multiverse, though.

Permalink Mark Unread

Damn officials with their damn foresight. 

Fine, she'll take a bus somewhere else and see where that gets her.

Permalink Mark Unread

She can take a bus to most places in the multiverse!! Not to Asgard, apparently, they restrict tourism, but to a bewildering number of other planets. "Just exploring?" asks the driver.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah! I've never been traveling before, it's great how many places there are to see. When I was a kid I had this big long list of places I wanted to see on my planet. Didn't really realize how impossible it'd be to actually go to them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You could go visit them on a different Earth? Revelation's really nice, and just two hops from here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hey, maybe! I bet it'll be entirely different, though, I hear all the others are years and years in the future."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They are, in Revelation I think it's 2200 or something. And there are angels and fairies and demons. But most of the ancient wonders of the world are still there and as nice as the day they were built, because of the demons."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh. I dunno if that counts, but hey, what the heck? Can we get there from here?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, absolutely! You can probably get a daeva to be your guide while you're there in exchange for the language, they've got a whole system set up for that. I'll let you know when it's your stop."

Permalink Mark Unread

Then she'll wait for her stop and observe the other passengers and attempt to formulate some sort of plan. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Revelation has a big spacious gleaming bus transfer station. The bus driver points her at a kiosk - "that's the help desk, they'll be able to get you set up with a guide. Have a lovely time!" and then the bus bops off. Other buses bop in. Signs which she can't read would presumably tell her which ones go where. 

Permalink Mark Unread

She feels like she's not going to get to Akershus today, but the more she finds out about the multiverse, the better her odds will be. 

She heads over to the help desk.

Permalink Mark Unread

The guy at the helpdesk is attractive and clean-shaven and has three piercings in each ear and a weird, ridged nose. "Hey!" he says. "Welcome to Earth, do you have a tour guide booked?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I actually have only the vaguest idea what that even means."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh man, sorry! Okay, so Earths all have their own flavor - something different going on with them. The thing going on with our Earth is that you can draw on the floor and summon daeva - angels, demons, and fairies. Summoning while you're here is not allowed, with a couple of exceptions. In particular, we've got a list of fairies in our tour guide program who want to learn alien languages, and you can summon them and get a tour of Earth in exchange for a token payment - what they're really getting in exchange are your native languages. If that's not of interest, you can also just take the shuttle to places you want to go."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The fairy thing sounds... intriguing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's pretty cool! Where're you from?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Scandinavia."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What year?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Shit, what year is it, if she's been dead for eight years then - "Ten thirty-two."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Cool, I bet there'll be someone interested in ancient, uh, Scandinavian." He taps on a device. "How're you finding everything?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's been all right so far! Sorta just got here, but it looks very, uh, interesting."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I like to think we can beat the tenth century. ....eleventh century? I forget how you count centuries...anyway, you shouldn't hesitate to say if you need anything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"All right! I'll keep it in mind." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yep, found you someone! Her name is Aurelius and she's interested in early Earth history, doesn't want longer than six hours, is that long enough for you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sounds great."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Awesome. You gotta push a button - don't do this at home -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I will definitely not push any buttons at home," she says, solemnly, before pushing the button.

Permalink Mark Unread

A person appears!

She has very light skin and black curly hair and odd foreign features and insect wings, and she's hovering. "- huh," she says. "What language is this? Nice to meet you!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's English. I'd give you Norwegian if I knew how to do that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, no, I've got everything you've got, that's how it works! First time, huh?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah! Neat. So you understand this too?" she says, switching back.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah huh! Ancient Norwegian! I don't think I know anyone with ancient Norwegian."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh, I feel all special."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, my friends will be so jealous. We collect them, you know. I hang out with someone who has six hundred twenty but I don't think any of them are ancient Norwegian because he only got summoned six times before Revelation - I forgot it's your first time, how much should I be providing exposition -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, you know, I have no idea what's going on, so if you did too much we could be here all day. And I came here to see, like, pyramids or whatever. Maybe see what your Norway looks like. But I can ask about stuff if I decide I'm really confused."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Did you slip your minder? They're supposed to make you sit through the introductory videos. But pyramids it is." 

 

There's a whoosh and then they are flying. There's a tiny bit of wind in her hair but not too much, not nearly enough for how fast they're going.

Permalink Mark Unread

Flying is pretty awesome.

"I feel like I learn better by doing, you know?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Knock yourself out, I guess." Oh look they're at the pyramids.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wow. They're really big. Any idea how old these guys are?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You bet, I'm a tour guide!" She points them out and names them - "....all built between 2589 and 2504 BC. ...that's BC the dating system, Christ was actually born in year 3, I don't know if you knew that or care or anything but they didn't want to change all the dates around once they could check."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I did not know that, but that's cool." She dutifully looks at the pyramids for a bit. "Well, that was cool, can I see what your Norway looks like?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yep!" And they're off again. "It's cool you're getting out. One thing people complain about a lot is that the people with a lotta culture shock don't have a smooth gradient from their world to ours? So it's dive right in or stay out entirely."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That makes sense. I've done the whole culture shock thing before, though, so I bet I have an easier time of it than most people."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sorta got kidnapped by a power-hungry dictator with delusions of godhood and got taken back to his palace to have his babies. Still working on getting the babies back. Learned Norwegian along the way, though."