The Better Angels of Our Nature

"The Red King gathered to him all his advisors and asked what should be done with all the criminals and traitors and lower creatures within his nation. He listened to each one present their case. There were six advisors, and the Red King sat before them on his throne.

They came up in pairs to speak.

'Criminals are a blight on society. If one cannot respect the rule of law, one has no right to live in a place where law rules. They should be captured, sentenced by a judge, and executed,' said Mayazar.

'Criminals are brought low by their circumstance. No man would be required to steal food if food were given to him. No man would kill another if disputes could be adjudicated fairly. If we are to be a society that protects our citizens, we must shield them from that which would turn them towards crime, and give them what they need to prevent them from committing crimes again. Punishments should be lenient, and generosity should be great,' said Qalia.

'Traitors will only spread more treachery, and they will fight until their last breath to remove you from your throne. If they cannot bear to live under your rule, they should die under it, by your just sword. A king must show no weakness against those who oppose him, or the whole kingdom will fall,' Ciharris said.

'Traitors should be sent away to foreign lands. If they are outside of our borders, they will cause no trouble. If we show that we are merciful to those who oppose us, we will gain the respect of all,' Vashti said.

'All those who cannot contribute to our society are stealing from it. They are a blight upon our nation, and a leech upon the side of your great kingdom. If they are allowed to remain as they are, they will only multiply in number, and you will someday rule over a nation of useless men. They should be destroyed, without any exception,' said Wiltham.

'For what reason does a king exist, if not to rule justly over all of his subjects? Should a king not protect them equally? From enemies both within and without? The enemies of hunger, and cruelty of man, and the cold wind that comes down in the winter, are not all those things that we should conquer? If a king shall not provide food, and justice, and a place for all to live in peace, should he remain a king?' asked Jenaiah.

And the Red King considered their words, and made the following judgements..."

-from 'Fourth Song: Reign of the Red King'

The Vortex had not reported back in on time. Sid had left Hanathue on schedule, and then the ship had apparently vanished from the face of the universe. Aymon had grown first annoyed by the delay, then worried, and then, when the Son of Emerri had jumped back in to the edge of the system, ferociously angry.

He had a suspicion of what happened, and it was confirmed when he spoke over the radio with the captain of the Vortex, with all his crew riding home in shame on the other ship. Aymon did his best to keep his cool while speaking with the captain, but as soon as the conversation was over, he wanted to yell.

Halen, standing in his office alone with him, didn't try to calm him down as Aymon paced back and forth. "If Sid were here, I would be half tempted to kill him," Aymon said.

"It's a good thing he's not, then." Halen's voice didn't betray any hint of his own feelings. This only made Aymon more unhappy.

"Do you not feel the same?"

"You only have one apprentice left," Halen said. "I think it's to your benefit not to kill him."

"That didn't answer the question."

"Of course I'm furious."

"You don't look it."

"What do you want me to do, Aymon? Yell? Break something?"

The anger crested. Aymon turned to Halen to say some kind of cruel retort, then it broke and he collapsed instead on the couch, feeling all too much like his teenage self. It was as though Sid's actions were entirely a reflection on him, which they were, in a way. He had failed to keep Sid in line. If his own master were here, what would she have done? He could ask the Emperor, of course, and the piece of the Emperor who was Caron Herrault would gladly answer, but he didn't want to once again feel like a misbehaving apprentice, crawling back home for advice.

"What am I going to do with him?" Aymon asked. Sid had lied in order to effectively commandeer a Fleet ship, which had then been completely destroyed, costing hundreds of lives and an unbelievable number of charges. And Yan and Kino had slipped away once again, with the help of some pirates. It could have been worse, but only by the barest margins. Sid was lucky that he had survived. The fact that the trick Yan pulled to destroy the Vortex had not managed to hit the bridge was a matter of sheer luck. Had it happened half a minute later, the section of the ship that Sid had been in would have been in the direct path of the First Star.

"I can't tell you how to punish him," Halen said. "I believe you already used up the standard punishment."

"I'm not going to send him to the Emperor," Aymon said, closing his eyes. "It wouldn't do either of us any good." Even if stripping Sid of his powers would be as effective as it was the first time (which it wouldn't be, Aymon knew), the risk of having him be defenseless was too much. As much as he was furious with his apprentice, the thought of having Yan or Kino or one of their agents come in and try to kill him was far worse.

Halen sat down across from him; Aymon knew it because the couch creaked in mild protest. The furniture here was not designed for Halen, which was why he usually stood.

"You know he's going to punish himself, right?" Halen asked. "Did you look at the dead and missing list?"

"No," Aymon said. He cracked open his eyes. Halen held out a tablet to him, displaying a long list. One of the names was circled: Lt. Ervantes Cesper, missing and presumed dead. "Damn."

"I don't like to use people's lives as a lever," Halen said. "But, in this case, the choice was made by God."

"You think that this will cause him to rethink some of his stupidity?"

"It might, if nothing else will."

"I should still do something," Aymon said. "I can't let him think that I will allow him to do things without my permission."

"It wouldn't be more of a punishment to simply ignore it, and force him to continue as though nothing has happened?"

"That might have worked for Yan, if she had ever done something like this. She was always introspective enough that it would grate on her," Aymon said. "I think Sid is a little too literal, and would accept that he, at least on the surface, wasn't being punished."

"Why do you say that?"

"He's like I was, in some ways."

Halen hummed, a non-agreement. "So what are you thinking?"

"My mentor kicked me out when I misbehaved."

"I think that sending him out on another ship is the last thing you want to do."

"I'll put him on quiet administrative leave," Aymon said decisively. "Take everything off of his calendar. I don't want to speak with him. I don't want to see him. I don't want him to do anything public."

"Interesting strategy."

"And you don't talk to him either."

"Oh?"

"Complete isolation."

"You don't think that will drive him to become even more reckless?"

"I think he'll realize that he's being punished. He might be grateful that it's not worse. I'm hopeful that he will learn his lesson and come to his senses on his own."

"I'm not sure that this will work."

"You think he'll be resentful?"

"Maybe." Halen paused. "When I look at Sid, I see a man whose every avenue of friendship has been cut off, without him having any closure. He wasn't here when everything changed; he didn't get an opportunity to make his own decision."

"Good!" Aymon snapped.

"Yes." Halen's tone was muted and even.

That gave Aymon pause. "You think he would have gone with Yan?"

"Seeing how he's behaved now, there's not a doubt in my mind that he would have," Halen said. "They were extremely close."

"You didn't tell me that before."

"What good does it do to speculate on what Sid would have done if things had been different?" Halen asked.

"I don't like the idea that his loyalty to her is higher than to me."

"It isn't anymore. Her leaving without him was the end of that. But if he had been here, the situation would have looked very different."

Aymon nodded slowly. "So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that making Sid completely isolated and miserable, when he's already going to punish himself, without giving any indication of when the punishment will end or any way to redeem himself..." He paused. "You know he's already an impulsive man. Not always driven by reason."

"Is he a danger?"

"To you? No. To himself, quite possibly."

Aymon sighed. "I don't think there's a punishment that I could give that doesn't end with him being a danger to himself. But I need to do something to stop this from happening in the future."

"If the problem is that he has no one, give him someone," Halen said.

"I can't just manufacture a replacement for Yan for him. Or for his lieutenant, for that matter," Aymon said. His voice was tight.

"There are other people he has ties to," Halen said. "You could bring in one of them."

"Such as?"

Halen hesitated for a long second. "He certainly had friends at the Academy."

"He never mentioned them," Aymon said, dismissing the suggestion out of hand.

"I think he gets along well with Yuuni Olms."

"Ms. Olms does not operate at my beck and call. And he barely knows her. Say what you really want to say and get it over with." He could tell that Halen was hesitating for some reason.

Halen leaned forward in his seat. "He's close with his younger sister," he finally said. "Closer with her than the other members of his family. I believe if she were here, she could provide some sense of stability."

"Fine," Aymon said. "Draft a letter inviting her here." He had no issue with it.

But still, Halen hesitated, even though he had been the one to make the suggestion. "It might backfire."

"Why?"

"Sid might interpret it as a threat." Aymon saw immediately that Halen was right. After all, the mission he had just been on was to apologize to Shoto Warez for the death of Kino's sister. By putting his own sister so close to him, Sid might interpret it as a warning to stay on a tight leash, or else there would be consequences to her.

"Would he actually think that, or are you thinking four steps ahead?" Aymon asked.

"I wouldn't know until I saw them both together," Halen said. "Right now, I think Sid understands that his family is not in danger. But if we involve his family, that is a signal on our end, and he could interpret it in many, many different ways."

"So make it look as though his sister is coming under her own banner, without any suggestion from us."

"Many things are possible," Halen said. "But that one I believe is beyond the realm of possibility. You know the whole point would be for them to talk to eachother."

Aymon did smile at Halen's wry voice. "Fine."

"It's your choice. You weigh the costs."

"Do you think he will self destruct without someone around?"

"There's a good chance of it."

"Then it's worth it to bring her in," Aymon said. "If she'll come."

True to his word, Aymon did not see Sid when Sid did return all the way home. He knew that Sid had tried to see him, of course, because Rosario had turned him away several times. She gave Aymon a soft but judgmental stare when she told him about it. Although Aymon respected his secretary greatly, and thought she generally had good advice to give him, he was not going to be turned away from the path he was on as easily as Sid was dismissed from his office.

All official information had stopped flowing to Sid. It was as though he were a non-entity in Stonecourt. He could come and go as he pleased, but he would receive no visitors, have no work to do, have no meetings to attend or duties to perform. Aymon wondered how Sid was taking it.

He did see Sid, once, in the corridors of Stonecourt, on the third day that he was back, and Sid looked up at him, a kid of hopeful expression plain on his face, but Aymon turned away the other direction without acknowledgement. He hoped that it would serve to communicate to his apprentice that this was a deliberate punishment, and not some kind of personal confusion.

Halen had sent the letter to Sid's sister, requesting her presence, and her passage had been paid aboard several Guild ships, to take her from Galena to Emerri. It was to be her first trip off planet, and Aymon spared a thought for how that must be for her, but then turned back towards his work. He would meet with her when she came, he decided. He had met with the BarCarran clan, after all. It seemed fair that he should have some contact with his remaining apprentice's family. Sid could know about the meeting but would not be in attendance.

It was a fortuitous thing that Sid was not getting briefed daily, as he had been, Aymon learned. This was because, one day, a message arrived at his desk through private Fleet channels, one that made him put down the dossier and stare at the wall for a few seconds. Some of the missing Fleet soldiers were not as dead as had been supposed. Lieutenant Cesper was very much alive and awaiting pickup from Hanathue, along with a whole gaggle of other soldiers. They had come in on a shuttle that had been scrubbed of all identification (but one that, to Aymon's eyes, was very recognizably one from the First Star), and had waited for rescue on the outskirts of the Hanathue system. It was, among other things, politically inconvenient for all of these people to have suddenly turned up alive.

The cover story for the Vortex was that it had been accosted by pirates upon return from Hanathue, and the Son of Emerri had been sent out to retrace its path and see if there were survivors when it didn't show up on time. It was a lie that wouldn't hold up to intense scrutiny from anyone with intimate knowledge of the workings of Fleet ships, but since no one outside the Fleet had that knowledge, and even the lie was being kept as quiet as possible (after all, it would be very bad optics for a Fleet ship to be able to be overwhelmed by common pirates), the negative impact of it was lessened. But when survivors showed up in a shuttle, somewhere they were emphatically not supposed to be able to reach in a shuttle, it put a kink in the narrative.

Aymon consulted Halen about it.

"I suggest you impugn the good name of pirates further," Halen said. "Say that they had taken these ones as slaves, and that they were able to steal a shuttle and escape."

Aymon huffed. "Ah, yes, a bunch of people with assorted broken limbs make perfect forced laborers. And escapees."

"I'd love to hear the better story that you could come up with," Halen said, ignoring Aymon's poor mood.

"What are we going to do about that Cesper?" Aymon asked.

"Do about him?" Halen was clearly confused.

"Him being dead is part of Sid's punishment," Aymon reminded.

Halen looked at Aymon with a skeptical expression. "You're going to hide the fact that he's alive?"

"You say that like it's too much."

"I am opposed to playing too many games with people's lives."

"You say that," Aymon said.

Halen sighed. "I want to speak with him personally, at least, before you consign him to some kind of false identity for the rest of time. I'm interested in knowing more about Yan's strategy."

"You think that this is strategy on Yan's part?"

"Oh, no. But I think it could give insights to what Yan's strategy actually is. And we should discuss with Sid at some point what, if anything, he learned from Warez on Hanathue."

"When his punishment is over."

"And how long is that going to last?"

"It's barely even started."

"I'm not going to fight with you over this, but I think there's a line that's reasonable, and a line that is unnecessarily cruel."

"Those are two different lines?"

"Of course."

"And which ones have I crossed?" Aymon kept his voice light. He felt like he had been walking on eggshells with Halen ever since their fight when Yan left, trying not to re-open that wound. It was difficult. Lashing out was an instinct that he worked hard to tamp down. Halen may have been the same steady presence that he always was, but Aymon found it hard not to rise to this kind of provocation. It wasn't really provocation here— it was a genuine concern that Halen was raising— but Aymon did feel protective over Sid being his apprentice, and the blurring of that boundary, even when Aymon himself invited Halen to intervene, felt like a dig when Halen exercised the powers he had been given.

"Neither, yet," Halen said. He stared at Aymon, and Aymon knew that his feelings were out in the air between them, that Halen was also very carefully pressing on this boundary. Somehow they were stupid and young again, not sure where they stood with eachother.

"Then what is the problem?"

"Letting this go on for too long will cross the line of reasonableness. You have some time on that. And it won't be the end of the world if you do. But if you play with Sid and his friends like they're toys, you might end up breaking something that can't be fixed."

Aymon relaxed in his seat, consciously loosening himself. "I want Sid to have a little more time to sit on the guilt. Maybe until after his sister comes. And then he can know that Cesper is alive. But I still don't want him nearby, at least not for now."

"Put him on medical leave and send him home to his family until his leg heals," Halen said. "Reassess if he should be reassigned after that."

Aymon nodded slowly. "Do you actually like that idea, or are you saying this because it feels like compromise?"

Halen smiled a little. "The latter. But I'll take it."

"Someday, I'll have to tell Sid to thank you for saving me from the worse impulses of my nature."

"He already knows that I do that."

"Yes, but he doesn't know quite how much." Aymon thought back to his own apprenticeship. Although he had appreciated, indeed loved, Caron Herrault, there had been no one to stop her from being as cruel and capricious as she chose to be with her apprentices. She could have been worse, but when she was angry, she was a pillar of fire.

"I think you sometimes underestimate just how much Sid understands," Halen said. "And that might be part of the fundamental problem."

"When I find myself speaking to him again, I'll be sure to ask him just how deep his thoughts are," Aymon said, rather cuttingly.

Of the two people in Sid's orbit who he would deign to meet with, he met with his sister first. She wore the same thick rimmed glasses that Sid did, which was the first thing he noticed about her when she was let into his office. He stood from his desk to greet her, walking over to shake her hand.

"Welcome, Ms. Welslak," he said, smiling.

She was probably seventeen and she had a kind of elfish face, framed by hair in a neat bob. The resemblance to Sid was clear. The only remarkable difference between them was that she was tanned from working outdoors, while Sid was the sallow shade of an academic.

"It's an honor to meet you, First Sandreas," Renay Welslak said. That was the other notable difference between them. Aymon had grown used to Sid's unmoderated tone: sometimes too loud, sometimes too soft, occasionally the completely wrong register for the situation. Sid, though, had the questionable benefit of years of speech training while at the Academy, one of the masters having entered his mind to impose the knowledge of how to speak aloud on him. Sid had hated it. Renay had not had this training, and so her voice was thick and choppy sounding, belying her deafness instantly. "Where's Sid?" she asked as she looked around his office,as though Sid would be waiting in the corner.

"I'm sorry that I called you here before you had a chance to go meet him. My schedule limits my available time, I'm afraid." This was a lie. Aymon had purposefully had Renay escorted from the airport. Sid didn't know she was coming. He wanted to speak with her first, to put some cushioning between her and what she was about to experience with Sid.

She narrowed her eyes. Like Sid, she was direct and unafraid to ask questions, even to the leader of the Empire. "That does not answer the question."

"Please, take a seat," Aymon said, gesturing at the couch. She did sit, crossing her legs and smoothing down her blue patterned skirt atop them. She was probably wearing the nicest outfit she owned, Aymon thought. He sat on the couch across from her, leaning forward slightly and trying to project an aura of magnanimity and calm. "Sid doesn't know you're here," he said. "It's a surprise."

She looked as though she didn't know if she should smile or continue to be suspicious. "First Sandreas, please don't think I'm rude," Renay said, a bit of a non sequitur.

"Ms. Welslak, I have spent quite a lot of time with your brother. I believe myself to be completely immune to rudeness." That did make Renay smile, genuinely, this time. Aymon felt like he had cracked a kind of code.

"Sid doesn't tell me anything. I had to find out from the news that Apprentice BarCarran had died. You know I met her, once, right?"

"Yes, I was aware that Sid made a detour to the surface of Galena with her, at one point."

"She was nice." Renay looked thoughtful for a second, and her hands twitched in a way that was so familiar to Aymon: she wanted to move just as Sid did. "What I mean is, please tell me what is wrong with Sid that made me come here, if he won't tell me himself."

Perhaps she was too perceptive, or the invitation that Halen had written was too direct. Aymon kept a pleasant expression on his face. "Ms. Welslak, you are a keen one."

"I try to be." She hadn't been put off by the compliment, though, and stared him down, looking directly into his eyes. It was an odd experience, to be put on the back foot by some teenage girl. He found it amusing rather than grating, which was a surprise. Perhaps it was true that Sid had immunized him against all these kinds of directness.

"Sid has, unfortunately, made me very angry in the past few weeks."

"Angry?"

"He has gone against my express wishes on a very important matter, one that could have cost him his life if he was just slightly unluckier."

"You're not going to tell me what that is?"

"No. Sid may use his best judgement to tell you himself, if he wishes."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh?"

"You believe he will continue to be secretive to you in person?"

"I don't know what to believe," Renay said.

"You may tell Sid, and use these words, that he is welcome to describe how his comforting fantasies came apart."

"Why don't you tell me yourself?"

"It would take too long to explain," Aymon said dismissively. He paused for a moment. "And I believe, and perhaps this is cruel of me, that him telling you himself will help get the message through to him."

"Message?"

"He needs to learn that his actions have consequences. Perhaps by forcing him to say exactly what he did aloud to another person he cares about, he will realize that he cannot behave as though he were the only person in the universe."

"You say he almost died," Renay said. "Is he alright?"

"Physically, yes."

"And in other ways he isn't?"

"Ms. Welslak, your brother is currently on a kind of administrative leave as punishment. I have no desire to speak to him at the moment, so I cannot tell you how he is feeling. I do know that he is probably intensely lonely, which is why I brought you here."

Renay didn't say anything, but rolled her hand in a 'continue' motion. Aymon continued.

"You already know that my other apprentice, Yan BarCarran, who Sid was very close with, is gone. My third apprentice, Kino Mejia, is also out of contact range at the moment. Sid's little stunt killed another person who he was very close with. I will not speak with him. He has no one."

"And what do you think that I can do?"

"You're his sister," Aymon said. "Aside from the people I just mentioned, I'm told that you know him better than anyone in the world."

"First Sandreas... I think that you misunderstand the amount that I know about Sid. He doesn't tell me anything about his life." She shook her head. "I couldn't have said more about you than what I see on the news. When he came back home to visit, he showed up by surprise. He doesn't even like our family."

"Which is why your whole family is not here. If I had thought it would help, I would have had your other brother, and your father, and your mother put on a ship here as well. He sends you more letters than anyone else."

Renay frowned. "And what do you want me to do?"

"Ensure that he sees sense, perhaps. Although I am punishing him, I have no desire to see him destroy himself through complete isolation."

"Would he do that?"

"Once he threw his shoes at my head because I dared to come bother him when he was in a bad mood," Aymon said, thinking of the time after Sid had come back from Olar.

Renay grinned widely. "I wish I could have seen it."

"I think it's for the best that you didn't."

"What if he doesn't want to see me?"

"You are better suited to answer that question than I am."

She frowned, pressing her lips into a tight line. "And can I tell him when his punishment will be over?"

"I don't have an answer to that question."

"How long will I stay here?"

"Until you are no longer needed."

"That's not an answer."

"I think it depends on Sid, and his mood. If he can behave rationally, and you tell me that he behaves rationally, then I will consider returning him to his former status."

"He really did something bad, didn't he?"

"He did."

"Why don't you kick him out?"

"I'm afraid that against all my better judgement, I have some affection for my apprentice. It would be unwise for me to cut those ties out of a fit of anger."

"It seems strange to me that you want me to spy on my brother. I'm a nobody."

"I would not class you as a nobody, Ms. Welslak. And even if you were, Sid currently has nobody else. And I think spying is rather the improper term. If I wanted to spy on Sid, I simply would do so."

"You say you like Sid?" she asked.

"He is a fine man, and a fine apprentice. When he is not causing problems, we get along well."

"Then why don't you just talk to him?"

"There's little that I could say that he doesn't already know that I would say. And he might throw another shoe at my head, besides." He meant this in jest, but Renay was no longer smiling.

"I don't know a lot about you, First Sandreas. But I bet I'm going to in a bit. I hope that whatever Sid has to tell me doesn't make me think that he was right in doing what he did. Because I won't lie to him to get him to do what you want, even if you are First." She said this with a defiant expression, body language tight. Aymon wondered what exactly he had said to cause this change in her.

"Speaking truth to power is a bold move," he said. "I certainly hope you're still willing to do it when Sid takes my place."

Her face shifted through what seemed to be the full range of human emotions as she processed his words. She finally settled back on mischievous. "I certainly hope that I will have as much courage to throw a shoe at him as he does to you."

"Not sure if it's courage or a particular brand of stupidity that he possesses," Aymon said. "Regardless, I am serious when I say that he will need someone, or more than one someone, in the coming years to provide a voice of reason, or even just a listening ear."

Renay wiggled in her seat a little, clearly uncomfortable again. "First Sandreas, may I say one more rude thing?"

"Be my guest."

"I think that you have to understand-- maybe you don't know, or maybe you've just forgotten, or maybe it doesn't matter, but I have a life outside of this." She waved her hand to encompass the room, Sandreas, Sid, the planet, the Empire. "People can't be at your call just because you are who you are. And I won't be for Sid. He makes his own choices, and I can't be someone who gets eaten up and spit out to support him." She stared at Aymon again.

"What are you saying?" Aymon asked her. "You don't want to be here?"

"I'm happy to be here now. And I'm happy that Sid has a future. But he has never once wanted to involve me in his life, and I don't know why that should start now, just because he's going to be important, or he already is important." She shook her head. "I'm not explaining this well. Do you understand?"

"I think I have never once had the experience that you are attempting to avoid," Aymon said, wry and slightly confused. "For my own part, I always wanted my family as far away from me as possible, and was annoyed when a few of them attached their names to mine."

"Maybe we come from too different worlds," Renay said. "I just don't want Sid's bald head to get too big." She rapped her knuckles on her own skull.

"Oh, he grew his hair out," Aymon said.

This, more than anything else, made Renay start. "Maybe power and fame have changed him."

"I'm certain it's not those things that caused him to grow his hair. He'll probably explain it to you."

She had a pensive look. "Okay."

Aymon didn't have much more to say to her, as he would let Sid tell it himself. "Ms. Welslak, thank you for coming all this way. I'm sorry for dragging you halfway across the galaxy, if you don't want to be in Sid's orbit."

"I'm willing to do a lot for my brother," she said. "And it was nice to travel. Most people don't ever get the chance to leave their home planet, so it's pretty exciting. I'm sure it's all everyday business to Sid by now, though, so he won't want me to tell him all about my first starship ride."

"To be honest," Aymon said, "I don't know if Sid has had an uneventful ride on a starship since he's been with me. He might appreciate a story of things being calm and going exactly according to travel plans."

Renay pursed her lips and nodded. Aymon couldn't tell what she was thinking. Perhaps she was simply afraid for her brother. That would have been a normal response.

He pulled a piece of thick printed cardstock from his pocket and passed it to Renay. She took it and flipped it over, reading the text on it. Aymon gave her a moment to finish before he started talking. "That's my personal contact information: phone, net, and ansible. If you need anything, you can get in contact with me directly. I trust you will not abuse this power."

She slipped the card into her own pocket, nodding thoughtfully. "Thank you." Renay looked at him again, and he felt like a bug under a microscope. There was a certain way that she studied him, that made it clear that she did not consider him her superior in any way. It was the peculiar confidence of a teenage girl with nothing to lose. "Why do you trust me?"

"Do you want the nice answer or the honest answer?" Aymon asked.

"Honest," she said without any hesitation.

Aymon shrugged then, and provided it. "Your family has been under surveillance since I chose Sid to be my apprentice. From the information that has provided me, I feel reasonably confident that I can trust you."

"Thanks for the answer. I do prefer not to be lied to."

"If you hadn't known it was a lie, you might have enjoyed the nice answer more. It would have been more flattering to you."

She smiled again, the cheeky grin that reminded him of Sid. "I don't need flattery."

"I can tell." Aymon stood, and she followed him up. "Thank you again for your time."

"Thank you for your perhaps misplaced trust in me. It's not everybody from Galena who gets to meet the head of the Empire."

"It would take far too long to line them all up for me to shake their hands." He ushered her to the door. "My assistant will bring you to Sid, and set you up with a place to stay while you're here. Goodbye, Ms. Welslak. I may or may not see you again."

She nodded. "Bye, First Sandreas." And then she was out the door, being ushered through the halls of Stonecourt and out to her brother.

On the off chance that Sid was monitoring the comings and goings in Stonecourt, Aymon did not meet with Lieutenant Cesper in his office. Instead, the two had a meeting at the Fleet headquarters building in Yora, in a private room with a window that looked across the city to the big hill on which the Academy stood. Aymon stood looking out the window, with the sun three quarters of the way down, orange light spilling over everything in the room. There was a knock on the door behind him, and then it opened as Halen let in Cesper. Halen himself didn't come in, leaving Aymon to have this conversation alone.

Cesper was on crutches and wearing his dress uniform, a combination that implied quite a lot to the casual observer. Aymon was silent as he waited for the gangly man to come up next to him and stand near the window.

"I heard you needed surgery," Aymon said.

"Yes, sir," Cesper said. "The break had begun to heal wrong."

Aymon was silent for a second. "Lieutenant, if I were a less merciful man, you would have been quietly shot before you ever set foot on this planet again."

Cesper stared out the window. "I know, sir," he said. "I expected to be court martialed, at the least."

"Do you understand why you weren't?" Aymon asked.

"I believe Second Welslak intervened on my behalf."

Aymon barked out a laugh, which startled Cesper so much that he scooted back half a step, quite difficult on crutches. "No. I haven't spoken to Sid since he returned."

"Oh."

"In fact, he still believes that you are dead, unless he has found a way around the information that is being fed to him."

Cesper bit his lip, obviously wanting to say something, but hesitating.

"What?" Aymon asked. "Spit it out. You could hardly make more of a fool of yourself, at this point."

"Sir, I have no desire to say something that would cause you insult."

"Yet you so clearly wish to insult me regardless. You're too tactful." Aymon paused. "Lieutenant, what in God's name possessed you to allow Sid to behave in the way that he did? I'm looking for a simple answer, and tact is not required."

"I believed he would find a way to follow through on his plan, even if I tried to stop him."

"But you didn't try."

"No, sir. I told him that it was a bad idea."

"Why didn't you try?"

"I didn't want to undermine his authority."

"And yet, undermining his authority would have saved hundreds of lives and an entire ship. And possibly your career. It might have even allowed us to reign in my other apprentices, who decided to make terrible choices with their lives as well."

"Sir, I believe my career is the least of the things that I should be concerned about now."

Aymon laughed again. "You're correct about that."

"May I ask a question?" Cesper asked. Aymon hadn't thought he would be so bold.

"If you must."

"What happened to Second Welslak's attache, Hernan?"

"His reasons for allowing Sid to perform this manoeuvre were more personal than yours, and even more stupid. He has been dealt with." Aymon didn't actually know how Halen had chosen to punish the man he had chosen to take care of Sid, and he didn't care to ask after the details. Hernan had once had an affection for Maedes, Yan's minder, who had vanished along with Yan. Trying to chase down that affection was Hernan's reason for not stopping Sid, and it was even more on his shoulders what had happened.

"Oh." Cesper fell silent once more.

"I didn't come here to talk about you," Aymon said, changing the subject. "I want as much information as you have on Yan and Kino."

"Yes, sir," Cesper said. "I can tell you about their crew strength."

"Sure, start with that."

"The only people aboard the First Star that I saw were Ms. BarCarran, Ms. Mejia, Ms. Calor, Ms. Maedes, and a child named Chanam. I believe that is their only crew."

"A child?"

"He claimed to be a spy. He was maybe fifteen or sixteen years old."

"Do you have any idea where he came from?" Aymon was so startled by this confusing piece of information that he focused on it, even though it had nothing to do with what he actually wanted to learn.

"He spoke Old Imperial with a heavy accent, and he was too small to be a spacer of any kind, though he seemed used to living on a ship. Aside from that, I don't know."

"Odd. He wasn't related to Yan in any way?"

"No, they look completely different."

"Fine. And the First Star itself, what was its status?"

"I believe most of the damage it sustained were to its sensor arrays and weaponry. Before the crash happened, shuttles from the Vortex had been able to approach close enough to begin the boarding process. After the crash, the First Star had major damage to several bays, though the ring appeared to be intact. Bays on the other side of the ship seemed to be unaffected. The ring had been stopped, but I doubt it is irreparably damaged. The stardrive and engines were both in working order."

"So the Vortex took the brunt of it?"

"Yes, sir. That is part of the nature of the attack."

Aymon sighed. "Is there any other relevant information about her crew or ship capabilities? Facts, numbers, anything like that?"

"Nothing that was not already in the Vortex report," Cesper said.

"I suppose I should move to more personal matters, then," Aymon said. "What was her psyche like? Do you know anything about her future plans?"

"In my opinion, and in her own, Yan is highly committed to this endeavor, but she is also conflicted, as she regrets needing to attack people she considers her friends. That list includes yourself, Second Welslak, and Halen. She wishes you well."

"Of course she does. Did she say anything about her plans for the future?"

"Sir, I'm certain Ms. BarCarran would not be so stupid as to divulge that information to her prisoners."

"She has allies, though?"

"We know that at least one pirate ship is on her side. That is the only information that I have."

Aymon huffed a little. "She's not going to fight a war with one pirate ship and my personal vessel."

"I doubt that outright war is her strategy," Cesper said. "You received the information about the books?"

"Yes, I saw the photos."

"I believe that she would prefer to keep her campaign cultural, rather than military."

"She won't be able to do much, if that's the case," Aymon said. "We have plenty of ways of stopping information from spreading."

"I do not doubt it, sir."

"Did she say anything about why she took you prisoner?"

"She couldn't bear to let people die for no reason, I believe was the rationale, sir."

"Of course she couldn't," Aymon said, bitter. He was feeling quite uncharitable towards his former apprentice, and her acts of supposed mercy and friendship were making him annoyed. It would have been simpler for everyone if Yan had been hard and unyielding. It would have been simpler for everyone if Yan had died when she had been kidnapped. Neither of those things were the case, though. "And Kino? What about her?"

"I only saw Ms. Mejia briefly, and did not speak to her. Ms. BarCarran instructed me not to."

"And you obeyed?"

"I did not have the opportunity to disobey, sir."

"Do you have any idea of her status?"

"She is extremely upset about her sister's death."

"Is she upset in a way that will cause her to be non-functional, or is she upset in a way that will cause her to pursue revenge?" Aymon asked.

"I would assume the latter, sir, though I can't speak with real authority on it."

"Why do you say that?"

"She's surrounded by other people who seem committed to their rebellion, and if she were truly that devastated, she probably would not be there any more."

Aymon nodded slowly. "And the others?"

"I don't know them well enough to comment. They seemed in good spirits, for the most part."

Aymon was silent for a moment as he considered this. "Did anyone say anything of interest to you, while you were aboard the ship?"

Cesper was also silent for a moment. "I wrote down and submitted to you everything that I could remember. All I can say, sir, is that I know two things Yan believes: she believes that it is her responsibility to stop injury, in whatever form that takes, and she also believes herself selfish for wanting to do so." He shook his head slightly. "That may compromise her, in the future."

"Yes," Aymon said. "It might." It probably already had. He thought back to the incident aboard the Sky Boat, and how Yan had behaved then. It was the same pattern of taking responsibility and feeling personally burdened by it. Aymon didn't understand his former apprentice in that respect. He understood responsibility, of course, but he didn't recall ever as an apprentice being so emotionally driven to make the choices he did. It was a weight he was glad not to have too much of.

Still, even if Yan felt that way, it clearly hadn't stopped her from destroying the Vortex, killing many people.

"In my report," Cesper said. "She gave me a starmap showing the place where she had left the Vortex wreckage that I was rescued out of, so that the bodies could be retrieved."

"I don't think that there's a question that she has a sense of honor about that kind of thing," Aymon said. "But it's rather negated by the fact that she killed them in the first place, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir," Cesper said.

Aymon didn't respond for a long second, still staring out the window. The sun's rays were catching on the buildings, casting them into a fierce golden glow, like the whole city was on fire.

Cesper spoke up again, then. "Sir, may I ask another question."

"Fine."

"Why am I not being punished?"

"You're being put on leave," Aymon said.

"Sir, in the grand scheme of things, that is not a punishment."

"You may consider it payment for saving Sid's life."

"I may consider it that?"

"Lieutenant, I have no desire to justify myself to you. Take your life as a gift, if you choose." Aymon had spared Cesper for Sid's sake, though Sid didn't know that yet. It would be unwise, he thought, to drive an even larger wedge between them, by killing Sid's lover, or even by putting him in some prison on an asteroid somewhere. At best, it would have made Sid resent him. At worst, it might have driven Sid to run off to join Yan and Kino. And besides the logical unwiseness of it, the decision to spare Cesper came from some deep held part of Aymon, one that he didn't ever want to verbalize or admit to himself. Better to keep with the logical justifications.

"Will I be allowed to see Sid again?"

"You're trying my patience, now," Aymon said. "I don't have an answer to that question."

Cesper fell silent, not risking asking more.

"You're a competent officer, Lieutenant," Aymon said. "But the wrong choice you made there could have cost too much. It probably should have cost your own life, and it almost cost Sid his. That's not something that I take lightly."

"I know, sir."

"Do you feel grateful to Yan for saving your life?" Aymon asked. "I'm curious."

"First Sandreas, I wish very much that Ms. BarCarran were not our enemy. But she is, and I will continue to treat her that way, regardless of any personal feelings I may have."

"I see."

"She offered me the chance to defect to her, and I declined."

"Even though you knew that you would probably be put on trial?"

"Yes, sir."

"Courageous of you."

"Not in particular, sir."

Aymon turned to look at Cesper, looking him straight in the eyes for the first time since he had arrived. "Here's what's going to happen to you," Aymon said. "You're going to go on medical leave, at least until your leg heals. You will not attempt to contact my apprentice during that time, or until I put you back in contact. If he attempts to contact you through some other channel, you will not respond. Once your leave is over, I will reassess exactly what your future role will be in the Fleet. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. You're dismissed. I hope your leg heals well."

"Thank you, sir," Cesper said. He gave one last look at Aymon, then left the room, crutches thumping on the floor as he went.