"It can be taught, but it's very sensitive - not because of the healing, but because of other things that are learned in order to master it," says Ligaya. "But we can distribute it! It's our custom when in a new place to distribute that and other things that we have in abundance in exchange for stories or songs, so that we can learn more about the places we can explore."

The President (he happens to be named Cenric Fowler) thinks he's going to like Vanda Nosseo!

"Your people's generosity astounds us," he says. "I can only hope that Wolcyn may prove to be as generous in turn."

Ligaya grins. (Her teeth are toothpaste-commercial perfect, and her skin almost glossy with its flawlessness.) "I'm delighted to get such a positive reception. Can I tell you a little more about Vanda Nossëo?"

"Of course!"

"There is a planet called Vanda Nossëo, but it's not the whole thing, just the home base of the federal structure. It's made up of thousands of countries on hundreds of planets, from several dozen worlds, where a world is a set of places that relate to each other spatially. This means we have lots of different kinds of magic and some technology that looks a lot like magic at first glance! Some particularly ambitiously altruistic sorts, upon making contact with each other and realizing there was more than their own world out there, decided to band together to turn their ambition and altruism into wealth and prosperity, not just for them but for everyone they could find who wanted to join them. Eventually most planets can contribute to the project, with some help catching up, so our ability to do this snowballs over time." She creates an illusion of the map-of-worlds as she goes, various shapes appearing and getting linked up to other shapes till there are the several dozen she described. "And now we're here! Every major polity on the planet - that we noticed, it's not impossible we missed somebody - has gotten a team like mine sent down to say hi. I'm hoping to get some new entrants into Vanda Nossëo, but even if you aren't interested, we can still do plenty of stuff for you guys. You can visit us, and we can sell you stuff for a literal song, and if you want to skip ahead some on science - you know those metal things following Escan around? They make bigger ones that can talk, and they can teach you science too, if you want, you can have a bunch for free."

"We'd be very grateful for them," says Cenric. So the catch is - 

"How much do you know about the political situation here?"

"Not very much. We could tell there was a war on, but we don't know what it's about. We aren't going to talk directly to our counterparts in the other countries unless both you and they want us to, though we're willing to serve as go-betweens if you do want that; the idea is it will help you feel like we're here for you if we get the story only from you."

"I can understand that. But it is important background.,,"

He pauses.

"Nicolas Montrege was a champion and general of Rocciosa - a small peak near Ostal, it was independent then - who foreswore violence and joined the Maioran admiralty; ah, the religious administration of the majority religion in most countries, if that didn't translate - in a minor role thirty years ago, and Amraterre, the state of the Admiralty, appointed him as chief of the army immediately. Nine years ago he talked them into making him Admiral, then immediately declared that the Admiral had the right to issue orders if demons threatened and demons threatened, so all countries needed to 'admit the authority of the Admiralty over all planetary monarchs.' Then he invaded his neighbors." He still looks thin and pale and small, but when he's speaking it is very easy to forget that. "Demons, sir and madams, do not exist. Wolcyn has called for coalitions against him since his invasions began, but he is a brilliant general whatever else he may be, and so the war is still on. The terms of the Fourth Coalition forbid making peace with Montrege under any terms less than his abdication and the surrender of all his conquests in land and hero crests."

"Hm. Can the terms be changed? Does he have to abdicate or just cease to be in power? What constitutes the surrender of the conquests?" says Ligaya.

"Not without betraying our allies," he says. "No country will permit Montrege to gain by this senseless warfare. He needs to cease to wield any power, military or religious, in any country. All territories occupied by him and his allies must be returned to the status quo ante bellum unless their former possessor has surrendered all claims or is now fighting for Montrege, in which case we will do our best to establish responsible government in those regions according to their public will." 'Public will' being the best compromise between 'republic' and 'no, we will not help you establish republics across a quarter of the known world just because you're singlehandedly funding this war'.

"We'd very much like to see the war brought to an end," says Ligaya, "but interfering with people's religious practices usually doesn't work well. Does it help at all if I mention that a given territory can join Vanda Nossëo by a vote of its populace and would then be defended against all outside threats?"

"I'm sorry," says Cenric, with calm confidence. "I don't think you understand."

He takes a breath. "Montrege began a war for the sake of universal conquest, and has campaigned against every country under the sun, burning and pillaging as he does. The generals under him - the Weaver, the Old Eagle, the Tiger Cub and the Prince of Scars - are monsters who butcher women and children, burning towns and desecrating fields; the Weaver is the only Ace in history ever to betray his nation, and in his train the beasts follow. Wolcyn will be grateful for Vanda Nosseo's protection and support, and we rejoice that it values freedom as we do, but Nicolas Montrege is too dangerous to be allowed to remain in power and I urge you to recognize that - whatever he may claim - he is your enemy as well as ours. If you value honesty he is an oathbreaker, loyalty he is a traitor to his nation, peace he is a warmonger; if you value the rule of law he casts old laws at naught; liberty to choose your fate he drafts men of all lands for his army, liberty to speak your mind he will shut his prison doors on you. Religious freedom? This is a war because he denies all religions save his own. A citizen's right to share in the public good? The only good he knows is conquest. The people of Wolcyn would rather he and the Weaver be gone than be free of plague forever, and we are not alone when we say this."

"We value universal flourishing," says Ligaya.

"They're very, very serious about the universal part," says Tuturio dryly.

"We don't want Montrege to hurt anyone," Ligaya goes on. "We want his draftees discharged and his swords turned to plowshares and his attempts at censorship and religious suppression so impotent as to be laughable. But we want that for the same reason that we can't promise to wholeheartedly put Vanda Nossëo's power behind you in crushing him. We usually find that a lot of monstrous behavior is driven by problems we can fix. Maybe he's really scared of demons! Whether they exist or not, maybe he can be convinced that Vanda Nossëo can handle them if they show up. Maybe he's not really scared of demons, but wants something else, something we can hand over as a signing perk for a rounding error in the budget, and thereafter he'll be a citizen like any of us and can't start up a campaign of warfare again without answering to the Vanda Nossëo justice system. Maybe he's a completely irredeemable megalomaniac and he'll stab an envoy and we will have to resurrect the envoy and put him in jail and take a vote without consulting him, and maybe his people will vote to join us and maybe they won't, and even if they don't we can take every individual's free choice as to whether they'd like to move to a Vanda Nossëo state or not."

"If there are demons, I invite you to deal with them! And I urge you to try diplomacy first; if he will yield his stolen hero crests and free his enslaved peoples the Coalition will let him live on in exile. But children will not sleep well in their beds while Montrege commands an army. And I think you may be underestimating him, as we did, and just how much power he possesses, with a hero crest and a nation's might together, and the voice that won him both."

"What do the hero crests do?" inquires Ligaya.

"Aces can heal or protect themselves or others from physical harm or the dangerous effects of environment, poison, or hostile animals, propel objects or themselves to fly through the air at astonishing speeds and create force projections that are near-harmless to humans but effective against wild beasts or for mining or construction. Before we invented airships, they were the only means of traveling from peak to peak." He pauses. "Moreover, the hero crests can only be wielded by people who are loyal, honest, and brave - or are the Weaver. They date from before the Silent Era, and are as of yet little understood by our science."

"Why is the Weaver an exception?" asks Tuturio.

"We don't know. Jiu is a very different place than the rest of the world, in the toxic lowlands where no other men can dwell, and their customs for selecting officers are very different than ours. But when he was taken by - or slipped away to - Montrege, he gave him everything he knew and joined him - without Jiu's approval, or their departure from the Coalition."

He pauses, and says, drily, "We live in interesting times."

"Are the hero crests important separately from the abilities they confer?" Ligaya asks.

"They're historical relics," he says, "and of great cultural importance - and religious, to most. Supposedly they were given to us by angels when they were brought from our original world, but they've all been possessed by heroes since ancient times and most countries care a great deal about getting theirs back, not just replacements."

"That's understandable. It sounds like it will be hard to move forward with membership here until our counterparts in Amraterre have had a little longer to work. The things I can offer without membership are shops that distribute certain items and services in exchange for songs, or stories, anecdotes and snippets and poems to get a sense of how your culture is right now before we change it completely just by saying hello. We hand out contraception, translation magic like we use, food, healing like what I did for you, anything else that's reasonably cheap for us and desirable to the populace. We can also let people visit, or immigrate to, Vanda Nossëo. Usually we do that by teleporting people in batches from a 'bus stop'; they can get tokens from the shops. And if you'd like to catch up on science and math and the like, we've got some automata - like the ones Escan left outside, but bigger, and able to talk - that will stand around delivering lectures and answering questions all day long, if anyone's interested."

"Madam, Wolcyn is a free country. If you want to open a shop or a stall, that is your legal right so long as you pay taxes or tariffs as according to the law. Every citizen has the right to leave, and every foreigner has the right to enter, unless charged or convicted of a crime under the law. You do not need to speak to the President of the Heremethyl to trade here." There's clear pride in his voice when he says it.

(But he still looks uncomfortable when she says 'contraception'.)

"All right! How do you prefer to implement tariffs for an establishment that takes payments in stories rather than currency, can you offer us some guidance on buying or renting land in which we may put up a building, and are there any goods that are themselves illegal to trade in here?" Ligaya says brightly.

Great! He's happy to discuss these!

The tariffs are mostly very low (for all countries Wolcyn isn't at war with; they're seventy to a hundred percent on anything imported from enemy-controlled territory), but set per individual good; legally speaking Vanda Nosseo owes them money (in gold, silver, or treasury notes, a new institution to pay for the war) for stuff they bring in, with specific rates for stuff that Wolcyn knows exist - per bottle of wine, say, regardless of the price you sell it for. Stuff that Wolcyn doesn't know exist has rates that assume it is unspecified luxury goods, and consequently valued at a high rate, but the taxes aren't based on how much you sell it for - that's none of the government's business.

Shops also need to pay taxes, taxes are on land area, on windows, and on production of a few easy-to-monitor staples which are of no concern to Vanda Nosseo. There's also a progressive income tax (a temporary war measure, he assures them, capped at ten percent) on all residents.

All goods are legal to trade except hero crests (though the government will buy those), Bestowals, libelous material or stolen goods.

And he's happy to explain how they can buy or rent land, it's really very simple.

"So you should be aware that in the broader multiverse, precious metals are just about worthless," Ligaya says. "There's several people up on our ship in orbit who can just make it out of nothing any time they want in any quantity. We are happy to pay our taxes in that form, but it's possible you'll want to make some revisions to your monetary policy. If you join Vanda Nossëo we're happy to buy up all the gold and silver at the going rate in our currency so everything can hum along as normal from there."