The Testimony of the Right Honorable Tubar Danak, Lord Chamberlain of the Skarsian Matriarchy
I accompanied Malik to the foot of the Atlas Tree. Sir Kaman was already waiting with a young man, a fresh-faced lad in his early twenties. “I’m William,” he introduced. I glanced over at Ashkaman’s nau’gsh. A scraggly branch jutted over the Sea of Illusion. It didn’t give me much confidence.
“It’s peculiar,” said Sir Kaman, carefully examining a leaf. “Atlas hasn’t gone dormant. That’s what usually happens in circumstances like these. If His Holiness isn’t dormant, I don’t know why we can’t communicate with the emanation.”
“I have the feeling it isn’t that he can’t communicate, but that he won’t,” I speculated. “It’s as though his attention is focused on something else. If Molly is involved, my guess is that he’s fighting her telepathically, but I really can’t comprehend how she’s managing to attack him from Skarsia.” I didn’t tell them that soon it would be a miracle if she could speak a coherent sentence. The interrogation had begun.
On the slope below us, I could see Lilith, ascending in the company of an unfamiliar woman. She was a platinum blonde, lanky, with eyes the color of the sea. The wind blew through her dress, a simple kottawn tunic.
“This is Windsong,” said Lilith. “Why can’t Elma’ashra ever have a name like Wanda or Brigitte?”
William shot a glance over to Kaman, which I read clearly as Because Elma’ashra is a pretentious twat.
“Elma prefers us not to have human names,” Windsong answered.
“It was a rhetorical question,” said Lilith, “but fair enough.”
“It’s part of her strategy to depersonalize us,” Windsong continued sweetly. “And so I and I assumes nauseatingly sentimental names to annoy her.”
“Nice relationship you’ve got there,” Lilith said. “And to think she wanted me kicked out of the convocation for marrying an AI.”
“Can we focus on the task at hand?” I suggested rather strongly.
“The weird thing,” whispered William, “is that on some level, Elma must be into this, or it wouldn’t be happening.”
“Let’s get to business,” said Lilith, stepping forward and skipping into the air. Suddenly, I was surrounded, as one mothman after another unfurled its wings. I had never been so close to so many of them before, and my heart leaped into my mouth. They were alien, truly alien – and they weren’t Ashtara. How far could I trust them?
The Lilith-moth – Philosophia – was small, angular, and icy blue-white. She soared upwards, then turned sharply and plunged beneath the roots of the tree. She was followed by Elma’ashra, stern and enormous, and then by the smaller Ashkaman, who banked gracefully on diaphanous wings.
Little Ashpremma hovered timidly, then dove after them.
“And on such beings, the fate of our empire, no of all humanity rests,” I murmured.
When I returned to Court Emmere, I had a message waiting. It was from the acting director of SSOps. I returned his call immediately. “She broke,” he said. “Or maybe it’s more like she’s broken. But the pieces don’t add up.”
I encouraged him to continue.
“One minute, she was composed and defiant, claiming she knew nothing about what we were asking. The next minute, she was limp as a busted android, claiming she knew nothing about what we were asking.”
“I fail to see the progress.”
“Look, it’s hard to explain, but in this business, you get a feel for people. And it’s like, well, it’s like she wasn’t even the same person. The first one definitely knew what we were talking about. She was calm, confident in her lie. The second was confused, distracted…she was weak.”
“Couldn’t that be the result of the interrogation?”
“Nah. There’s a sense of defeat when you break them. She wasn’t defeated. She was surprised. I was surprised. All of a sudden I got that gut feeling when you know the mark really doesn’t have any information. That’s when the professional quits. I quit, at least. Some of my guys are still slapping her around a bit, for shits and giggles.”
I returned to the beach, where I tried to explain this to Ashtara. As I expected, there was no response.