Sobon con-sid-ered the "hid-den base-ment" sta-bi-lized only af-ter every cor-ner and edge was lined with a sta-bi-liz-ing rod. The next step re-quired a bit of con-vo-lut-ed log-ic that Sobon had to work out with a men-tal scratch pad; it reg-u-lat-ed the ef-fect of grav-i-ty, pro-tect-ed the rods from harm, sealed off out-side ob-ser-va-tion, and iso-lat-ed the in-ter-nal space, ex-clud-ing the nar-row re-gion by the edges where the rods were. From in-side, you wouldn't even know there was a nar-row me-chan-i-cal space pro-tect-ing the base-ment, while from the out-side, there was al-most noth-ing to de-tect--just a very odd bunch of rods, none of them aether-rich, in a very nar-row space.

  All in all, by the time that part was done, you'd be hard pressed to jump down the hole and not be-lieve you were in a base-ment, if one with weird, qi-formed walls. That didn't mean it was done; ide-al-ly, an-oth-er set of rods in-side of that would be the real de-fens-es for the space, and then a phys-i-cal set of walls and floors would be fab-ri-cat-ed on top to hide those. But what Sobon want-ed most was the abil-i-ty to prac-tice his art with the cer-tain-ty of no out-side ob-ser-va-tion, and this pro-vid-ed that much.

  Ac-cord-ing to the Ri'lef notes on qi, Sobon was sup-posed to acclimate his body to high aether lev-els by soak-ing each or-gan in it one at a time. For the lo-cals, this was com-pli-cat-ed; even at Sobon's Gold Qi rank, many of them were still learn-ing to use qi, with-out un-der-stand-ing the un-der-lay-ing prin-ci-ples. Most-ly, they didn't have the in-stinct to cre-ate pure, at-tuned aether, so there was a se-ri-ous dan-ger they would sat-u-rate their or-gans with qi that be-longed to oth-er peo-ple and things in the world around them--an easy way to com-plete-ly cor-rupt an aether struc-ture. For-eign aether would con-tin-ue to op-er-ate by its own rules, and it was dan-ger-ous to leave that in-side of your own sys-tem.

  Of course, Sobon's dy-namos pro-duced pure, at-tuned aether--it was their pri-ma-ry pur-pose. So while the lo-cals would spend ages very slow-ly pu-ri-fy-ing ex-ter-nal qi in or-der to sat-u-rate their or-gans with aether, Sobon could do it al-most at will. That didn't mean it was wise to dump in un-lim-it-ed amounts, of course, but Sobon had nev-er in-tend-ed that. If any-thing, her ex-per-i-ment with try-ing to evolve her pre-vi-ous squir-rel body, which had end-ed dis-as-trous-ly, proved that the lo-cal 'qi' wasn't some mir-a-cle pow-er ca-pa-ble of more than raw aether. No, Sobon intended to act on the safe side, and acclimate her-self in a man-ner sim-i-lar to the Crestan Marines Aether Adap-ta-tion Pro-gram.

  That it-self was es-sen-tial-ly an au-to-mat-ed, sur-gi-cal ver-sion of the same con-cept. Sobon had un-der-gone it when he was pro-mot-ed to a Class VI cy-borg; his own per-son-al aether gen-er-a-tors were mon-i-tored for their pu-ri-ty, but once they were churn-ing out raw at-tuned aether, he was put to sleep for a few days while the aether was pumped into one fleshy bit af-ter an-oth-er, mak-ing sure that they could all han-dle enough aether to not be poi-soned when his cy-borg bits were work-ing at their rat-ed ca-pac-i-ty. In the-o-ry, it shouldn't have been nec-es-sary--the cy-borg bits were well shield-ed, and the aether rou-tines locked into spec-i-fied re-gions that shouldn't have even need-ed shield-ing--but war put stress on even the best laid plans, and war-riors need-ed to be ready for any-thing.

  So Sobon sim-ply put to-geth-er a se-ries of scripts that would build up aether in-side of her or-gans and bones, one at a time, and ded-i-cat-ed a cou-ple right-hand dy-namos to the same. She could have used high-er forms of aether--and may in time--but she had the most right-hand dy-namos, and this first pass pro-vid-ed the most im-por-tant ben-e-fit--at-tune-ment. While Sobon had been able to get Jom's body to ac-cept his will, even un-der duress, it had fought him, be-cause in the end, it had nev-er be-longed to him--in fact, it had nev-er be-longed to Jom. Aether at-tune-ment made one a mas-ter of one's own flesh, and when the first lit-tle bits of Alas-si be-gan to prop-er-ly re-spond to Sobon's will and in-tent, she fi-nal-ly be-gan to breathe a sigh of re-lief.

  This had nev-er been so dif-fi-cult with the cy-borg parts of Sobon's body. Un-like bi-ol-o-gy, they were pure from the start. Bar-ring soft-ware is-sues, good aether-tech pros-thet-ics were what-ev-er you need-ed them to be. Ex-cept of course af-ter tak-ing sig-nif-i-cant dam-age, like from your ship ex-plod-ing around you.

  At the end of that day, Mian re-turned from the city look-ing brighter than Sobon had ever seen him. "Lui, Alas-si," he said, near-ly bounc-ing as he shut the gates be-hind him. "I spoke to-day with an al-chemist, Fau Mide. When I said that Lui was a very sen-si-tive girl, she seemed in-ter-est-ed. I said I would bring you to speak to with her to-mor-row." At that, Lui perked up. It was nice, Sobon and Alas-si agreed, to see a look of hope on her face.

  Still, Sobon con-sid-ered qui-et-ly. She could take the op-por-tu-ni-ty to vet the so-called al-chemist, or al-low Lui and Mian to do it. The choice had con-se-quences; be-ing too pro-tec-tive might cause a re-ac-tion in the al-chemist, and the oth-er lo-cals, but not pro-tect-ing Lui if she need-ed it might lead to some-thing worse.

  "Grand-ma Alas-si?" Lui's voice broke through Sobon's thoughts, and she made her choice in that mo-ment, turn-ing to look at the body's grand-daugh-ter, who Sobon him-self had start-ed to think of as her own.

  "Tell me about this al-chemist," she or-dered Mian, and the man's face--which had been shad-owed by some-thing, doubt per-haps--cleared up and be-came thought-ful.

  "Thought-ful, I think. She had a hard edge, but the air in her shop was clean. The qi around it was straight-for-ward. I as-sume there were wards to make sure of that."

  Sobon fit those to-geth-er into a rough im-age, and nod-ded. "Al-right. If you think she's worth trust-ing, then I'll leave it to the two of you." Lui bright-ened again, but in Sobon's mind, it was equal-ly im-por-tant to see the sat-is-fied look on Mian's face. Be-cause Sobon want-ed the girl to be hap-py--but she also trust-ed that Mian was an adult, and put at least a lit-tle thought into things.

  That evening, they all went out to get food in the city in-stead of cook-ing for them-selves. Al-though Sobon wasn't keen to spend the boun-ty mon-ey quick-ly, she wasn't too stuffy to want to cel-e-brate, at least from time to time. It did mean can-celling the aether-at-tune-ment pat-tern, but Sobon trust-ed that she still had time.

  The restau-rant that Mian had found was not just a com-mon inn, and its price was a match for its at-mos-phere. The three of them were tak-en to a side booth, and a po-lite Djang woman in a de-cent ap-prox-i-ma-tion of fine clothes took their or-ders. All three of them had a healthy ap-petite. Mian had a heavy rice and meat dish, with some very heav-i-ly spiced pep-pers lay-ered thick, and sauces thick enough that Sobon had no idea their con-sti-tu-tion. Lui had some-thing more like a meat and veg-etable pie, al-though it was sealed on the top and di-vid-ed into sec-tions. Sobon her-self had a meat-gar-nished sal-ad, which the serv-er as-sured her was made from qi-rich plants. It was tasty, with var-ied tex-tures and spices, and Sobon could tell that the qi was calm and di-gestable, some-how, but Sobon re-gret-ted not get-ting some-thing more in-ter-est-ing af-ter smelling both of the oth-ers' din-ners.

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  Over din-ner, Mian talked more about the al-chemist's shop and the woman her-self. Short and thin, he said, with a freck-led face and deep-col-ored hair that she kept wrapped up in a scarf. She looked young, but with enough qi that she could be old-er than she looked. She scowled when she thought Mian was wast-ing her time, but took him se-ri-ous-ly when he spoke. Her shop was clean, with lit-tle on dis-play but what ap-peared to be an ex-ten-sive back room. Al-though Mian didn't know enough to re-al-ly test her, she didn't seem to be idle. Mian fig-ured that meant that she kept busy.

  In the end, by the time they all were home and abed, Sobon was hope-ful that, if she ac-cept-ed Lui, it would be good for the girl. Noth-ing was ever cer-tain, but the pic-ture added up to some-thing good.

  The two left rel-a-tive-ly ear-ly in the morn-ing, and when they did, Sobon felt tru-ly alone for the first time in a bit. Not in a dis-tress-ing way; it sim-ply meant that Lui and Mian had their fo-cus else-where, and weren't think-ing about her, and that was fine. She found her-self stand-ing in the mid-dle of the court-yard, con-tem-plat-ing, when she de-tect-ed a spir-i-tu-al pres-ence. That might have meant a num-ber of dif-fer-ent things--every-thing from an ac-tu-al lo-cal spir-it of some kind, to a lo-cal mage, to a plan-e-tary spir-i-tu-al god, or pos-si-bly one of the Ri'lef en-gi-neers, pro-ject-ing across the world with an ad-vanced aether mech-a-nism.

  She kept a men-tal eye firm-ly fixed on the spir-it, but couldn't tell much of any-thing from its form or aether sig-na-ture. It chose to ap-pear hu-manoid, but its pres-ence was bare-ly a shad-ow, hid-ing what-ev-er it was ca-pa-ble of. What-ev-er it was, it passed through Sobon's de-fens-es like they didn't ex-ist, and paused to look at Sobon, watch-ing her watch-ing it. Sobon didn't speak first, though she did pro-ject a gen-er-al, in-quis-i-tive spir-it wave.

  [ Crestan, ] the spir-it sent back. [ What does 'myth' mean to you? ]

  Ri'lef, then. Sobon con-sid-ered the ques-tion, and how best to an-swer it. Even hav-ing thought about sim-i-lar ques-tions re-cent-ly, it was a very open-end-ed ques-tion with a lot of very deep and mean-ing-ful prob-lems buried in it. In-stead of try-ing to bun-dle up her thoughts, Sobon spoke slow-ly, out loud, trust-ing that the spir-it was pay-ing care-ful enough at-ten-tion to 'hear' her.

  "Myth... is some-thing wide-ly be-lieved, but rarely or nev-er ver-i-fied. It is both very dan-ger-ous, but also nec-es-sary for so-ci-ety to func-tion."

  There was a re-ac-tion in the spir-it when Sobon said 'nec-es-sary', or per-haps just be-fore, when she was putting the thought to-geth-er. [ Why do you be-lieve it is nec-es-sary? ]

  "Not all myths are. My peo-ple have spent cen-turies think-ing about the foun-da-tion-al so-cial myth--the ones that give lead-ers the right to rule. Ul-ti-mate-ly, it is nec-es-sary for it to be myth, be-cause the process of con-firm-ing that it's true in-ter-feres with gov-er-nance. But in those times when you aren't con-firm-ing it, when you aren't pos-i-tive that some-one de-serves to rule, then that gives oth-er pow-ers a chance to sneak in and at-tempt to cor-rupt the sys-tem."

  The spir-it, in her mind's eye, shift-ed its pro-jec-tion to be a hu-manoid fig-ure, if in-dis-tinct, with its hands clasped be-hind its back--with a sort of in-for-mal, but schol-ar-ly air about it. [ As long as a leader has the pow-er to rule, why do they need a myth of le-git-i-ma-cy? ]

  "That's an old ar-gu-ment," Sobon said. Sobon had first heard it him-self in pub-lic school-ing, and al-though he hadn't been sat-is-fied by the an-swers back then, in ret-ro-spect, it was much clear-er. "If you are al-right with your rule slow-ly de-cay-ing, then you don't need the myth of le-git-i-ma-cy. But you ei-ther de-lib-er-ate-ly cre-ate a myth of le-git-i-ma-cy, or the peo-ple cre-ate one for you, and the myth cre-at-ed by the peo-ple will be flawed. When-ev-er your ac-tions don't line up with the myth, peo-ple start to be-lieve that you shouldn't rule. If that hap-pens con-stant-ly, be-cause the myth doesn't rep-re-sent the ac-tu-al lead-ers, then peo-ple start to be-lieve that the rule is ac-tive-ly il-le-git-i-mate. Peo-ple work-ing for an il-le-git-i-mate ruler will sab-o-tage it in small ways, and those add up over time."

  The spir-it's fig-ure re-act-ed sub-tly, but its in-dis-tinct form made read-ing the re-ac-tions dif-fi-cult. [ What qual-i-ties make a leader worthy of rule? ]

  "That--" Sobon start-ed to say one thing, and then an-oth-er, and then a third, be-fore qui-et-ing. "I think if I could an-swer that ques-tion, I would be do-ing some-thing else with my life be-sides risk-ing it in a bat-tle for an-oth-er world's fu-ture. I'm a Ma-rine, not a philoso-pher."

  [ You could have fooled me. ] The fig-ure's spir-i-tu-al voice car-ried an un-der-tone of hu-mor, but Sobon thought it was the kind of 'pure' tonal ad-di-tion that meant it was pho-ny. [ What makes a leader un-wor-thy of rule? ]

  "There's no an-swer to that. Or, no sin-gle an-swer." Sobon shook her head. "If an en-tire so-ci-ety wants to be led by a bru-tal dic-ta-tor, can an out-sider say that their leader is wrong to an-swer that call? If a so-ci-ety wants to be meek and pow-er-less, can an out-sider say the leader is wrong by let-ting them stag-nate? If a leader does some-thing that so-ci-ety doesn't want, suc-ceeds, and ar-gues that their ac-tions were nec-es-sary to suc-ceed, is the leader right? And even if they are, should so-ci-ety for-give them?"

  "Mas-ters Cuil and Tare--they were fa-mous Crestan philoso-phers--talked a lot about the spir-i-tu-al health of a so-ci-ety. In the-o-ry, you mea-sure a good or a bad leader by whether they im-proved or harmed the spir-i-tu-al health of so-ci-ety. But a lot of peo-ple who came af-ter seemed to hold to that phi-los-o-phy while be-ing so..." Sobon shook her head. "I don't even know. What-ev-er they did, it wasn't right. But why? I could spend years study-ing my own peo-ple's his-to-ry and not be able to tell you."

  [ So you do not be-lieve it is as sim-ple as suc-cess. ] The spir-it's tone was even, if some-what un-pleas-ant.

  "It can't be. Suc-cess is a mea-sure of pow-er, and so-ci-ety grants every new gen-er-a-tion pow-er. How much varies by class, ed-u-ca-tion... and many oth-er things. You can't just say that some-one is wor-thy of lead-er-ship be-cause they were giv-en pow-er. They also have to have goals that align with..." Sobon paused, look-ing for words, then shook her head. "...with some-thing that So-ci-ety wants. I don't know. A greater good, maybe."

  [ Is the dri-ve to cre-ate greater good enough to for-give sins? ]

  Sobon paused, then stud-ied the spir-it again. Some-thing about the ques-tion seemed out of char-ac-ter for the Ri'lef, at least, giv-en what she had seen of them so far. "That's a means and ends ar-gu-ment. I was taught not to trust any-one who tries to ra-tio-nal-ize evil, but then I joined the mil-i-tary. We are..." She con-sid-ered her words very care-ful-ly. "We are the em-bod-i-ment of bring-ing about good by do-ing evil. Ob-vi-ous-ly, we be-lieve it is pos-si-ble to do so. We also take care not to do too much evil, not by our own will. But we are be-ing com-mand-ed from above, and we can't do much about those or-ders."

  "In short," Sobon fin-ished, "It's com-pli-cat-ed, and I don't have an an-swer for you. Now..." Sobon stud-ied it. "Who... or what, are you ex-act-ly?"

  The spir-it pro-ject-ed a sense of amuse-ment, and van-ished, leav-ing Sobon with no an-swers.

  specifically a rant on modern politics! Not that there's any need to be specific. In fact, this isn't quite the discussion on this topic that I was expecting to write. But this is how it came out, so.