An adoring smile.

And an hour of logistics. 

And then - I can't wait to hear how your world handles ensuring there aren't soul wars.

(The adoring smile makes him glow a little inside, but he doesn't quite notice. It's hard to tell why, because he isn't thinking about it, because he isn't noticing.)

So, he starts, for a couple thousand years, the world was mostly just a bunch of scattered territories controlled by whoever'd won the latest bunch of fights. Every so often someone tried to grab a bigger piece, and it didn't work, or it worked for one generation and then they'd die and their kingdoms would fall apart. Then came Tezru Zierni Diakor, the First Emperor.

('Tezru' is a Nuimena word that translates as something like 'true, strong, right, just'; Taliar helpfully includes the meaning.)

He did two things nobody else managed before him: conquered the whole entire world, and built a government strong enough to survive his own death. Unfortunately, he left it to his son Alo-tentire Zierni Arime, who promptly went paranoid and started assassinating all his relatives for fear that they might threaten his power - a set of people that included my grandmother and nearly included my mother, who was a child at the time. My grandfather, Indre-rithal Kazaryne Fariol, got together with another survivor of the purge, Dekha-fanshel Zierni Esarkan. They decided Arime had to go. So they went to war with him. No armies of soulbearers - a few on each side, but not enough to add up to another Soul War. It helped a lot that Esarkan is exceptionally immortal - his soul is self-resurrecting, so if you kill him he just pops back up again with a sarcastic comment.

(Alo-tentire - 'far-seeing'; Indre-rithal - 'broad oak'; Dekha-fanshel - 'all-enduring'.)

Esarkan fixed everything Arime broke, made restitution to the families of the other victims, and spent the next few decades building on the foundation Tezru Diakor left for him. He's a really good world emperor. But then he had a kid, Tekhesin Zierni Seofar.

Tekhesin means 'mighty'. It is not a very creative soulname. Seofar was that sort of person.

Seofar decided he didn't feel like spending his whole life as a prince, waiting for a crown that could never pass to him. He mustered some political support and headed down to Atialemain, an island province off the south coast of the continent, where he declared himself the local king. Esarkan was kind of stuck. He could've gone to war, but he absolutely did not trust Seofar not to try to raise an army of soulbearers against him. He could've tried assassination, but Arime was a little too fresh in everyone's minds for that to be a comfortable option. And Seofar was pretty awful - didn't care about his people at all, just wanted to live in luxury and order people around and occasionally torture somebody - but he never quite got bad enough that deposing him by force would've been worth it. Esarkan was just about resigned to waiting him out and taking back the province once Seofar was safely dead of old age. And then I came along.

He's still not sure how Esarkan managed to predict subsequent events so accurately. Esarkan just smirks whenever he asks.

He paid a lot of attention to me growing up because I'm Fariol's grandson and he's been really consistently impressed with everyone in my family so far. So he noticed what kind of a person I am, and he made some guesses about what might happen if he sent me down to Atialemain and I saw what it was like there. Seofar has a daughter about my age, Princess Kelora. Esarkan arranged a marriage between us.

The conversation went, pretty much verbatim: "How would you feel about marrying a princess?" "Do I get a choice?" "No."

And I went down to Atialemain and met Kelora and her family, and... it was really bad. Kelora was just about the only person there with a detectable conscience.

He is eliding over the details because he really doesn't want to think about them.

I manifested my soul - got lucky and didn't hurt myself doing it - and asked Kelora if she'd prefer a revolution to a wedding, and she said that sounded like a much better deal all round, and I figured out why my soul was more powerful than it had any right to be, and three weeks later Seofar was dead. I took Elaneth-imire as my soulname because, well, he gestures at his soul. 'Dawn-shining' is a very accurate description.

That is an incredible story.

And suggestive that he should tread carefully. Well, Findekáno's out west, under orders that'll encourage him to confirm whatever story's needed. Everything else he's done has at least looked justifiable, and Taliar trusts him already - congratulations. You said your emperor might somehow be the reason you're here - is that because sending you somewhere you could fight an evil god seems in character, or does he have that kind of magic?

Purely because it seems in-character. If he has magic that can send people between worlds, I've never heard of it, and I'd expect to have heard of it, he'd be all over establishing trade between worlds and stuff. But it does seem very much in character.

Esarkan is amazingly competent and deeply invested in the safety and happiness and prosperity of his subjects and all together he makes an excellent world emperor, but he does not really have any scruples as such. If he heard about this world and happened to be able to throw Taliar at it, he would not at all consider it necessary to warn Taliar first.

It is good that he considers those the criteria for an excellent world emperor. Well, let's hope it was that since otherwise I do not know our prospects to send you home. 

We have eighty years before I need to start worrying that people will be dying of old age again. I don't expect it to take me eighty years to defeat your Enemy, and once that's done with I can turn my attention to interworld travel.

I like the way you think. Okay. I will ask if there's anyone who'd like to try to become a soul bearer, and I will introduce you to some people who I expect you to get along with well...

Sounds like a plan. At some point I should also eat something - it was midmorning in my world; what time is it here...?

Afternoon. I don't even know if our days are the same length - he sends vaguely what could get done in a day - before the Sun they weren't.

Sounds like about the same day length. Also sounds like I have totally missed lunch.

Taliar is not always the best at remembering to take care of himself. In his defense, watching Maitimo run his empire is really distracting.

He has someone bring them in a very generous lunch to make up for its lateness. My father had the same problem. My brothers and I would trade off responsibility for making sure he ate and slept and got some light sometimes.

That sounds like Maitimo's father is not currently around forgetting to eat and sleep and go outside. Perhaps Mandos does not in fact have the reembodiment thing covered.

My father's good at reminding me. Kelora, too, nothing escapes her.

Your would-have-been wife?

Yeah.

Taliar is in fact in love with her, he discovered that not long after they met, but having grown up in Seofar's court Kelora is inclined to stay far far away from the entire subject and Taliar wouldn't dream of trying to convince her otherwise. They're very good friends, it works very well for them, his soul shines brighter whenever she's in the room...

Awwwww.

Taliar grins. Being in love is very good for my soul!

Good to know. 

Everyone's, or just yours?

Mostly just mine. Some people get a little bit of an effect, if they find it exalting, but I'm the only one who can draw power from other people directly. Kelora is... you remember I said most people I make friends with are one more person's worth of soul-multiplier? She's... more than that. A lot more.

Why's that? Extraordinary compatibility, or personality in its own right?

It's hard to define or explain, and he only has the one example to go on, but it seems like what's happening is that being in love with her magnifies the effect she has on his soul - something to do with the way he feels about her, something like his soul being wrapped up in her in a way that doesn't happen with friends he isn't in love with. There is an exceptional amount of compatibility going on there, but it's not just that, he's exceptionally good friends with Esarkan too and Esarkan does not make his soul shine.

Either way, it's lovely. And the more I understand the people you end up close to the better-advisedly I can introduce you to people you can become friends with...

Does that mean it would be a valid strategic use of both our time for me to spend the next several hours gushing about Kelora and all the other amazing people I know?

Yes, I think it totally would!

Excellent.

So, this is the princess Zierni Kelora. Isn't she pretty? When they met, she was so sad, living in a constant storm of fear and frustrated compassion. He hasn't actually asked, but it's possible that the first time he made her smile was her first smile since early childhood. She was so stifled on so many levels by her father's court, and when she finally got to leave, it's amazing how fast she blossomed. She's actually happy now. Still very very quiet, shy, closed-off, you'd barely know to look at her that she has feelings at all - but Taliar can tell. She gets along with her grandfather - they're not close, but they work well together, and Esarkan has confided in Taliar that if he had any use for an heir he'd have no qualms about appointing Kelora. She is close with Taliar's father, Corino. They clicked really well from the moment they met. Both of them are wise compassionate thoughtful types, and Corino is... restful. Taliar is many things but restful definitely isn't one of them. It's good for Kelora to have friends who are closer to her energy level.

Kelora is not a soulbearer, but Taliar can imagine what her soul would say about her if she held it in her hand. It would call her wise and thoughtful and fair-minded, shy and reserved and slow to make friends but deeply loyal to those she cares about. It would tell people about her courage, her patience, her incredible sense of responsibility, how careful she is about making sure that she's doing right by people, how dedicated she is to learning from her grandfather how his empire is run and pointing out when she doesn't think he's doing a good enough job. (People willing to tell Esarkan he's wrong about something and worth listening to when they do are a rare commodity. Taliar's family, Kelora, and not many more. He values them highly.)

He can't comment on pretty, but the rest of what'd make Taliar fall for her is very apparent. As well as the general case what-sort-of-people-does-he-work-with, and the answer seems to be people with no personal vices at all, or perhaps he's very naive and they're all hiding some.