Two hours after Rose Dion slammed her gate shut behind me, I stood waiting at the gate of the first estate of House Usher. After some time a shaggy young man with a painful posture appeared. He mumbled something that sounded like an apology and unlocked the gate.

“Thank you,” I told him. “Might you be Brendan?” I assumed.

He barked a laugh. “Oh no. No, I work for Sir with the printing.”

“My mistake. I didn’t know that House Usher had direct staff.”

Another bark. “Sir says I’m to take you to the publishing house. It’s off the back courtyard, not far. A great treat for you. It’s a very exciting place, but hardly anyone ever gets to see it.”

“I’m honored,” I tell him.

Unlike the Dion estate, the Ushers seemed entirely unchanged since my last visit. Entirely barren despite a recorded five residents. Six, including the silly cretin that was assigned as my guide. Langston Usher’s publishing house looked only slightly less barren than the rest of the estate due to a single lamp left on in the second-floor window. My guide slid open a massive stable door and waved me into the publishing press of House Usher.

The guide pointed to a spiral stair, endless and iron, before he scurried off among the colossal printers. The dizzying stairs carried me to a dimly lit loft. Empty end-to-end but for a large oak desk where Langston Usher sat smiling grimly at my approach. His mother, Magdalinda, stood behind his seat.

“Nice to see you again, Lady Usher.” My voice echoed off the rafters.

She smiled her old, glamorous smile. “I’m sure. You’ve yet to meet my son. This is Langston, patriarch of House Usher.” Langston nodded to me but made no move to stand. His seat was the only one in the room, so when I reached his desk I was left to stand there like a schoolboy.

“I’m visiting today to hear any concerns you may have about the marital contract which will soon close. Your daughter is welcome to be part of this conversation if she pleases.”

“She doesn’t.” Langston spat under his mustache. “Besides, she and her mother are occupied. I speak for her and my House when I say that she is not pleased to be marrying into a House whose members have such a history of violence.”

“Are you referring to the altercation between yourself and Rose Dion?”

“That’s only one occasion, and only the most recent. I’m afraid it seems to be standard conduct among the family, judging by the reports I’ve received.”

“I’m curious what these reports may be, as I know the Directory keeps their communications tightly sealed.”

“I’m a newspaperman, Mitigator, the reports I build are my own. Clive down there isn’t the only one who helps these papers to print. If some of my information has been sourced from the Directory archives, I do not know of it. But I suppose even the grandest ships can spring leaks.”

“My own experiences with House Dion haven’t concerned any violence, though I’ll agree that the incident in the Court hall was out of hand. And I do believe that Rose understands that.”

“I don’t agree.” Langston pulled up a cluttered parcel and flipped open its leather cover. “Drunkenness, narcotics, an event in which the patriarch assaulted a known narcotics broker, numerous loud arguments which were heard beyond the bounds of the estate, several instances of transience on the part of the boy you’d marry my daughter to, in addition to that famous dereliction of the elder boy, the compromised state of the daughter you tried to besmirch my House with. I could go on but, and I hope this doesn’t offend you terribly, it’s becoming quite suspicious how much this House has been allowed to get away with. Does this not embarrass the Directory?”

“I couldn’t say. They keep us so compartmentalized, unfortunately. This offensive behavior you claim of House Dion, is that the motivation for your publication’s recent focus on the House’s matriarch?”

“There it is. That’s why you’re really here. Your betters sent you to tell me to stop making trouble, is it? After so much championing of their supposed ‘freeing of the press’ in the last era, now the party minds have changed. That’s amusing.”

“It certainly would be, in a sad, cynical way. I’m afraid the truth is much less intriguing. I’ve been sent to identify any potential snags in the final processing of a handful of union contracts. Your House is one of these, as is House Dion.”

Langston mused at the window. “The day is late. My guess is that you’ve already been to see House Dion. They would have asked you to do something about my irritating articles.”

“As I said, I have several Houses on my list for this assignment, and in every corner of our nation. Since you bring it up, I’ll actually be visiting House Dion once I’m finished here. My concern for your recent work is partially professional and partially personal. Professionally speaking, harmonious unions are in my, and the Directory’s, interest. Particularly mine as the Mitigation Overseer. Happy marriages are less likely to cause me stress and excess work down the line, you see. Personally speaking, I don’t think an antagonistic relationship between your two Houses will make a happy life for your daughter once the union is finalized. And it will be finalized. That much my ‘betters’ made clear.”

Langston dropped his sly smile. “Have you heard the rumors about the boy? Something is wrong with him, no one can say what exactly, only that it’s something corrupt with his mind. I’d be interested to know more about this, and if it isn’t true, why the boy has been so little seen by others outside of his House for his entire life. I’d also be interested to know what the Directory has done to insure that House Dion’s heir is of sound constitution.”

“Have you requested an inspection? I assumed you had, considering the case of your son’s former contract with Isme Dion and how that ended.” I flipped through my folio and found something to pretend I was reading. “I believe you still have time to request an inspection, but of course, you’ll need to take your daughter in for an examination as well. Nothing you aren’t already familiar with.”

I let them chew that bit before putting my mock papers up. The sun was low in the sky. Magdalinda spoke next.

“We’ve heard enough to know that the boy has a troubled disposition, we don’t know how well he controls it. You’ve made clear we have no choices about the marriage, but what can we do to ensure the well-being of Mercia once she’s in that House?”

“Good relations with House Dion would be a helpful start.”

“Even if I stopped writing today and issued some made-up retraction, that does nothing to guarantee they won’t punish her for their grievances once she’s locked away on that hovel of an estate,” Langston said.

“Would you like a more formalized agreement?”

“Depends on the agreement.”

“I have the authority to draft a contract of this sort. Any incident of domestic abuse could be used as grounds to remove your daughter back to your care, on probational terms pending an investigation on our part. I would assume that they will want you to cease all articles about their House, likely indefinitely. As for insuring that they keep up their side, I would say that if your own reports are truly substantial and you allow the Directory access to these, they’d probably agree to punitive motions against House Dion if they were to breach the contract.”

“You can’t be sure they’ll sign such a statement,” said Magdalinda.

“Perhaps not, but it’s up to you on whether or not I’ll ask them to.”

Langston laughed bitterly as he pushed a nib and paper at me. “Let’s see how well your writing fares.”

AIRTEL TO [REDACTED]

V.2 Social Engine Flow Chart

ACTION OUTCOME Public Ignorance media briefs Less public organization.

Access to control points (prices, sales)

Required reactions to outputs for feedback.

Manufactured Pre-occupation

Lower agitation.

Weakened family unit

Control of generational education.

Less cash, more credit and doles

Increased self-indulgence and more readable data.

Weakened spiritual institutions

Increased faith in government.

Social conformity

Predictive data.

Neutralization of taxation protests

Maximum economic data/ Minimum enforcement issues.

Stabilize the consent coefficients

Operation Simplicity.

Stable control of variables

Simpler data, greater predictability.

Establishment of boundary conditions

Solution of differential and difference equations.

Proper timing

Less data snifting and blurring.

Minimization of general resistance

Maximum containment control.

Maximize control

Equilibrium of most efficient order.

Collapse of currency

Disunity of the commons.