euhddu8g

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3The sun was laying low on the western horizon as the river opened out into a delta of marshes and fields of cattails and reeds. Our little boat cruised on through channels that Heksi seemed quite familiar with, the sail barely swelling in the slow evening. Lesser channels branched out all over the place, cutting the delta into a jigsaw of land and swampy water. Some patches of solid land were just isolated clumps of trees and brush, others large enough for small settlements. Flocks of birds cruised overhead, flapping down into groves and thickets of trees to roost for the night. And there were mosquitoes everywhere. Swarms of the little beggars flocked in to form persistent and whining clouds around us. Heksi sneezed and snorted as they lit on his nose, his ears flicking like the wings of some bizarre ornithopter . I pulled the tarpaulin around me to cover as much bare skin as I could and swatted what I couldn't.
4Thank christ that whining torture eased as the marshes spread aside and the river delta gave way to the lake of Seasons Door. Open water and clear breezes stretched away ahead of us, the wavelet-rippled lake reflecting a twilight purple sky accented with touches of gold from the setting sun. The last time I'd sailed over this water had been on the Ironheart, the most advanced vessel on the water, fresh from his majesty's shipyards, and I'd been looking forward to a busy if otherwise uneventful week. Now I was being smuggled in aboard a fishing boat which barely even classified as a dingy.
5And I was damned lucky to have even that.
6The Wideweather Way entered Season's Door lake at the north eastern side of the lake. Open Fields was over to the west. With that little craft it wasn't a matter of just cutting across the lake, we had to skirt around the shoreline in the growing darkness. That wasn't a problem for Heksi. Even with only the faint glow from the stars and rising moon he steered the dingy through delta channels and shallows with an ease and deftness borne from familiarity and a literally inhuman night vision.
7By the time the firefly specks of the beacons at the harbor entrance became visible in the distance, the day was long gone. The night sky over the lake was spectacular, with stars and the wisps of distant galaxies reflected in the black waters. Shoreline was basically where they weren't: a deeper gloom in the darkness. Not too far away, I judged. Time to get ready.
8I rummaged around in the murk in the bottom of the boat. It took a while before I found what I was looking for, and when I came up the silhouette of Heksi's head was facing me with ears pricked. "I was wondering why you needed that," he said.
9The jar's stopper was stubborn. I fumbled with it for a while in the darkness before I realized it was a screw-top, of all things. Just a twist and the top came off. The contents were black as night, which was the general idea.
10"Makes me a bit less noticeable," I said as I applied the lamp black.
11I couldn't see his expression but I think it was dubious as he watched me smear jet-black powder across my face, across forehead and cheeks and the bridge of my nose. Places where highlights might stand out on my face, then down over the rest of my body. The stuff was essentially fine carbon dust, like a primitive toner. Heksi used it for blackening ironmongery, and it blackened quite admirably. Skin that'd been pale in the moonlight became... black. Essentially vanishing, to my eyes anyway.
12"How's that look?" I asked.
13"Bit less noticeable?" the shadow of Heksi hissed derisively. "I think that would scare off a bear!"
14"Less visible though?"
15"A," he conceded, "It is. If you stay still. Where did you learn that trick? Done it before?"
16"It's..." I hesitated. "It's an old trick, where I come from. Done in stories."
17"Huhn, and you're just going to walk onto the docks like that? It's a good trick, but not that good."
18I paused in the application of the stuff and almost grinned. "Who said anything about walking?"
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22Water sluiced quietly around the little boat's hull as it passed by the walls of the breakwater. From under the tarp, pressed against the wet boards of the hull, that sound was quite audible. I could hear the water, hear the sails creak and flutter as Heksi pulled them in. There was a distant call from another Rris, one of the sentries on the walls most likely.
23"Not late," Heksi called back. "Plenty of time until sunrise."
24I didn't hear the response. There was a short time when the boat rocked as Heksi reefed the sails, then a clatter as he unlimbered oars. Presently there was a creaking of oarlocks and a rocking motion as the boat sculled through the harbor and a while after that a foot prodded me.
25"Anyone around?" I murmured.
26"Unless they're under there with you, then no," he retorted.
27I peeked. We were in the middle of the harbor. There were ships moored there, some with lights showing but most dark shapes with masts like spindly trees silhouetted against the stars. Nobody watching though. Over at the docks there were more lights burning, gas and oil flames reflecting across the dark waters. I nodded.
28"Hai," he said, then as I rocked the boat, "What are you doing?"
29"This is my stop," I said.
30"We're in the middle of the harbor!"
31"I did say I was a good swimmer," I returned and then said. "Thank you. For everything. And tell Ea'rest, I wish her the best. Oh, and this is hers."
32He caught the kilt I tossed at him and looked at it as if he'd never seen the like before.
33"Thank you," I said again, and then rolled over the side.
34Underwater was quiet and suddenly very cool. I resurfaced carefully a distance away, in the shadow of a sleek bow. I treaded water and saw a long figure in the small boat looking around, then leaning back to the oars. Slowly the little sailboat sculled off into the dark. I turned and struck out for the part of the docks where the light burned the brightest; where another sleek vessel was moored.
35For a moment I reflected that it seemed that every town I visited I ended up going for a swim in the local harbor. It wasn't a habit I wanted to continue. The harbor wasn't full of diesel oil, illegally dumped waste tanks and other detritus of a technological age. But while the Rris cities might have been comparable to human cities of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, they had surprisingly good sewage and drainage systems. It was a shame those systems were only designed to shift the stuff, usually into the nearest body of water. I was quite aware of the outflows and sewer openings along and under the docks and was glad Rris won't put up with a population density that humans might tolerate. But I wasn't taking a midnight swim for the hell of it.
36I worked my way toward the docks, moving slowly and trying not to splash or disturb the water too much. When I could I stayed near the hull of moored ships, diving under to swim from one to another. Occasionally I heard voices in the boats, once from the deck directly overhead and stayed close to the hull, treading water until the voices were gone.
37Then there was a point beyond which there were no handy hulls for concealment. The water around the VIP docks was a black mirror, ripples of amber light reflecting from the few lamps burning on the shore. One of them blinked off for a second and then reappeared, momentarily eclipsed by a figure moving around on the dock. Guards, of course.
38I lurked for a few seconds, watching, and then took a couple of deep breaths and dove.
39Underwater was another world: silent, cold, dark. Flickers of light filtered down from above: the grey glow of the moon way over there, a couple of orange sparks from the lamps on the dock. Just flickers from beyond the surface; barely enough to navigate by. Everything else was black. Something small and silver flashed across in front of my face and was gone almost before I'd registered it. I kept going, glancing up occasionally to track the glimmers of orange light above creeping higher and higher until they vanished. A second later my hands met slimy wood: pilings of the pier.
40I followed the piling upwards. My lungs were starting to ache, but I still forced myself to break the surface slowly, barely rippling the surface. Water-borne sounds changed, clearing: a distant clatter of iron wheels on stone, faint shouts and other sounds of the city. Closer to hand was the slapping of liquid against solids and from overhead a murmur of voices. I looked up, at where threads of lamp light shone through the planks of the pier, but couldn't see the speakers. If they were the usual guards, they'd be stationed at the gangplank, and hopefully that was where they'd stay. I pushed off slowly through the black water, trying not to make a sound.
41The ship was still the only vessel in the berth. Bow in toward the shore, the gangplank bridging the narrow gap between the hull and the pier. No lights burned on board, there were no sounds of conversation or sign of movement. The crew would be bunked down on shore, I hoped, or at least asleep. If I did run into someone... that I'd have to handle if it happened. Their reaction wasn't something I could predict. Better if no-one saw me at all. So the shadows were a place to hide as I slowly worked my way through the supports under the pier, then along the overhang of the ship's hull, back to the stern. If a Rris had looked my way the darkness might not have been as much of a cloak as I felt it was, but I was relying on their blind spot when it came to water. A human might place sentries against infiltration from the water: Rris might do the same and watch for boats, but a single swimmer? Underwater at that? It was outside their frame of reference; Rris couldn't do it so therefore it couldn't happen.
42Very human, in a way.
43There were handholds at the stern: ladder grips alongside the dingy slung there. I caught hold and drew myself out and then froze. Water sluiced off my skin, out of my hair, pattered back to the lake's surface. I froze, waiting for someone to investigate the slight noise, but nobody appeared, no alarm was sounded. Slowly, I started climbing again, wincing at every slight splash as I drew my blackened body out of the water, cautiously raising my head above the level of the deck.
44 The rear deck was deserted. The pilothouse stood empty, so did the companionway down to the cabin. Slowly I hauled myself onto deck, using the twin smokestacks for cover. Down on the dock I could see the figures of two guards, their backs to the vessel. One of them scratched at an itch and there was a muted exchange and quiet chitter. They were wearing Land of Water livery.
45They didn't spot me stealing across the deck and down the ladder.
46Below decks was quiet and still.  Behind me, the steps back to the engine room were black shadows. Ahead, the narrow companionway was nearly as dark, illuminated by a mere glimmer of pale light spilling from the first cabin on the left. It was moonlight, finding its way in through the small porthole. Not bright enough to read by: just enough to let me see what I was doing without fumbling blindly.
47From what I could see, my cabin was undisturbed. The tiny foldout desk was still down and best of all, the clothing was still in the nook that passed for a closet. I hauled out pants, shirts, a pair of ragged moccasins and a storm-cloak. Then I turned to the box bed in its narrow nook and lifted the mattress, then the slats underneath.
48The 'emergency kit' was still there. I silently thanked Chaeitch, then lifted out the bundles wrapped in their oilskins. There was the roll of gold coinage; the documents bearing the Land of Water Royal seal that stated I was in fact an intelligent being and under the sponsorship and protection of their government; the knife modeled on a bowie knife with the fire starting kit in the handle; and of course, the guns.
49The guns. I almost left those. The shotgun I picked up and laid aside, but the pistols... I picked one of the black steel revolvers pair up, feeling the solid weight, the wooden grips contouring to my hand. Those would be the most aesthetic part of the weapons. They weren't built to look good; all black iron and steel angles, the hexagonal barrels bearing none of the engraving I'd seen on the painstakingly crafted Rris flintlock handguns and muskets. Those things were an. . . Unpleasantness that Chaeitch had produced, tailoring them for my hand. I had no idea if they were sanctioned by the Palace and wasn't entirely happy about them myself. He'd said their existence didn't necessitate their use; they were an insurance policy that'd he'd hoped I'd never have to use.
50I weighed the pistol and my options. I'd been assaulted, kidnapped, my life had been threatened. Hurting people wasn't something I wanted to do, but obviously someone else didn't feel the same way about me. Didn't I have the right to try and defend myself? But if I were armed, then perhaps I'd become a legitimate target.
51More so than I already appeared to be?
52"Shit," I muttered and rewrapped the pistols along with the bandolier of cartridges in oilskins. Everything – the clothes, the gear from Chaeitch's little stash – I stowed in a leather carry bag and cinched it tight. The thing was supposed to be waterproof. Supposed to be. I looked at the Rris-manufactured leather and guessed I was going to find out just how true that was. After that there was a few minutes at the desk, cursing the bad light, the damned inconvenience of the separate inkwell and pen and my pre-school skills at the chicken-scratch Rris script.
53Then I paid a quick trip to the darkness of the engine room. That took a bit longer and some fumbling in the blackness, but I knew what I was looking for and got the job done reasonably quickly.
54Up on deck the guards were still talking quietly. It'd be a boring duty, just standing for hours making sure nobody ran off with a seventy ton boat. I suppose in a way I did them a favor, livening up their evening when I picked up my end of the gangplank and dumped it overboard. The ridged planks swung down, clattered and splashed and banged as they were drawn up by the lined securing them to the pier. Both the guards lifted off. They both spun and crouched, hands going to weapons. In the faint light from the lantern hanging from a stanchion above them I could see the expressions on their faces, running the gamut of emotions as narrow lips pulled back and jaws dropped to bare teeth, the eyes going wide and black, ears twitching back and forth furiously. I suppose I must've been quite a shock; naked, smeared in black camouflage patterns. It wasn’t entirely unpredictable, but  it did take longer for them to recognize me than I'd expected.
55"Hi, gu... ladies," I greeted them.
56"Sir?" their hands moved away from the hilts of their pistols, their shock turning to incredulity. "Sir? What are you... you're..."
57"Sorry," I interrupted. The gap where the gangplank had been wasn't that wide. They could probably jump it quite easily. But the water down there was dark and they were wearing amour. I hoped they weren't going to risk it. "But I haven't really got time to stop and talk. Please, tell Chaeitch I stopped by to get some stuff from my cabin. Got that?"
58"Sir? I... yes, sir." The guard looked confused. The other one was eyeing the gap between dock and boat with a calculating eye.
59"Good," I said and turned away, then back again and raised a finger. The guards flinched. "Oh, and one other thing; Tell him not to go anywhere without me. A? That's quite important."
60One of the guards waved an uncertain acknowledgement. "Yes, sir."
61"Thank you," I said and gave them a quick duck of my head before retreating back behind the wheelhouse.
62"Sir!" I heard one of them call. "Sir!" but by then I already had my bag and was over the side, back down into the dark water.
63By the time they got the gangplank hauled back up, I was lurking in the shadows under the dingy at the stern. When they clattered their way on board I went the other way, stroking away into the darkness among the piers and struts beneath the pier with my haul in tow.
64It wasn't pleasant down there, but it wasn't something I was doing for fun. I worked my way along the dock, from pier to pier. After the government berth there was an area of open water, black like coffee on which the odd light rippled and reflected. Then there was the cover of commercial docks  and the dozens, hundreds of small and medium and large sized vessels docked there. The abutting hulls providing a maze of tangled waterways for concealment. There was rubbish and detritus down there: scraps of nets and ropes, old bottles and jars and fishing floats, dead fish, leather and other unpleasant organic scraps. So getting out was a mixed blessing.
65Down the far end of the docks, as far from the government berths as one could get, was a low, deserted jetty. The boats moored to the rickety planks there were little more than rowboats; some obviously rotting, one sunk to the gunwales in the dark water. Nets were hung from frames to dry out, moonlight filtering through the links to paint tangled lines across the jetty. I lurked and watched, just long enough to be sure it was deserted, then heaved the leather bag up onto the boards and hauled myself out after it. Water dripped onto the bone-dry wood, creating dark splatters across the bleached surface and when I took a step the dock creaked ominously. Still, it held. I took a moment to dig into the bag and pull out the storm cloak, mildly surprised to find the contents a little damp, but not as soaking wet as I'd expected.
66The night was warm. A rain cloak would be out of place, but not as out of place as I'd be without it. Perhaps in the darkness and at a distance I could pass as... well, not as not a Rris. I know if I noticed a figure skulking around in a cloak I might suspect they didn't want to be recognized, but I probably wouldn't suspect they were an alien. So I pulled the cloak around, raised the hood and moved gingerly along the pier, along to the solidity of steps cut out of the quayside. I touched time-worn steps, the flagstones still retaining a trace of daytime warmth as I couched to peek over the top. Back down the dock, way back at the beginning, there were lights shining and figures milling about.
67So the alarm was out. I shrugged. They were a bit slower than I'd expected. And I really hoped those guards would give Chaeitch my message. He'd be the only one who could understand it properly. But, it did mean I'd have to get moving. I turned away from the scene, away from the waterfront and set off through the tangle of dockside huts, headed into the city.
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71The night in the wilderness had been frightening. Night in a strange and alien city was every bit as unnerving.
72I stuck to the darkness and alleyways; the backstreets and narrow throughways where walls of crude brick and wood and even wattle and daub pressed close. Underfoot were flagstones or rough cobbles or nothing but packed dirt or viscous mud or trash and detritus or worse. Eaves arched overhead, almost roofing the narrow streets. And the gaps where they didn't quite meet were filled with stars. The light that filtered down was a pale glimmer, not enough to read a book by, but just enough to let me find my way.
73And I had a destination. I knew where I was going. It was simply a matter of getting there.
74Those back ways were deserted. Mostly. The darkness that might have kept a human population inside huddling around their light sources and being afraid of the unseeable wasn't such an obstacle to Rris. I saw more than a few individuals going about their business. And a few of those saw me. Once a Rris figure rounded a corner right in front of me. All I saw was an abrupt silhouette and a flash of those multichromatic eyes meeting my own gaze, seeing under my cloak's hood and the smeared lamp black, and then those eyes went wider and there was a yowl and the figure was gone. Scurrying off into the night with a fading cry. A clatter as something was knocked over and then a yelp echoed along the alley it'd vanished down. 
75I hastened away before others turned up to investigate.
76The alleyways twisted and turned, becoming blind ends and courtyards and occasionally opening onto broad thoroughfares that I had to avoid or hurry across. Like the Cracks in Shattered Water, this part of the city was old, dating from back when the city had huddled in its protective walls. It was a maze, a warren, a hodgepodge of ad hock housing that'd evolved spontaneously as the city grew. Buildings slotted in wherever there was room. Wood tacked onto brick and stone. Some walls were askew or downright bent, entire buildings leaning alarmingly. In some cases upper floors tipped far enough out over narrow alleys to butt into adjacent buildings, holding each other up and turning the way below into a black tunnel. Plants grew and flourished where they could, piggybacking on Rris architecture in cracks and drains and spouting, in between flagstones and cobblestones. Leaking and standing water turned patches of alleyway to trampled mud and muck and more than a few places reeked of garbage and bodily wastes - animal and otherwise. And through this tangle of alien architecture I fumbled along.
77I knew where I wanted to go. I just wasn't exactly sure how to get there.
78Of course everything was different at night. I just tried to keep going in the right direction, relying on the few landmarks I could identify, things I'd seen on my tours around the city. There was the graphically mutilated statue commemorating some ancient Rris battle; the smoking chimneys of the foundry I'd visited; the old west gate. All that remained of that old structure was half a tower rising like a broken tooth above the rooftops. The rest of it was low walls already being overgrown by newer buildings. It reminded me of Shattered Water, of the old walls there, a place I'd visited once. It was a cherished memory.
79A faint light flickered in the darkness at the base of the ruins where a tiny fire guttered. I circled around.
80Out on the western outskirts was one of the grain storehouses. I'd been there before, as part of the inspection of the granaries. The place was a storehouse, one of a row set aside as an overflow for the winter grain. It was dark and empty and deserted and would be until late summer and autumn. Since there was nothing in it, the place was deserted. I knew a guard went by every so often, but I didn't expect to be there long enough for that to matter.
81The small door around the side was locked, but the flimsy latch gave way after I rammed my shoulder against it. Inside it was dark and quiet. There were a few barrels in the middle of the floor, in the huge open space where sacks of grain would eventually be stacked. A utilitarian staircase led up the right wall, up to a catwalk running around the second floor. In the shadows above that ropes and wooden pulleys hung from ceiling beams. More block and tackle equipment looped down from an overhead rail: equipment for hauling in the goods. Sheets of cobwebs shone ghostlike in moonlight, wafting in some breeze.
82I nodded quietly. Okay. Now, there was just the waiting.
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86The old lantern put out a feeble glow that set shadows to dancing on the walls, the light almost lost in the space of the store. There'd been a bit of oil in the lamp. Not much; just enough for something to fight the night back a bit. 
87I waited.
88Draughts toyed with the flame, the shadows creeping in, then skipping back again as the single speck flickered at the end of the wick. A lone island of warm light in the middle of the storeroom. Outside, the cobbled courtyard out front was lit by moonlight, cool and pale. A single poplar tree threw black tessellated shadows across the street beyond. I tensed as a couple of Rris pedestrians passed on the far side, but they didn't even glance in my direction and kept going until they were out of sight. I let a breath out and shifted on the barrel I was using as a seat. It hadn't been the first time and each false alarm plucked at my already taut nerves; I had to force myself to relax. My fingers flexed on the butt of the revolver, then I angled for a better view out the dusty window. And waited.
89Outside, the moon climbed higher. A cloud drifted in front of it, the world dimming even more. And out in the shadows of the poplar a single light flared as a lantern's storm shutters were opened. A single Rris stalked across the courtyard toward me. A familiar figure in familiar clothes. He stopped and looked up, his face in the light of his lantern as he looked over the facade of the storehouse and then headed toward the door. There was no sign that he'd been followed.
90"Thank god," I hissed. The empty barrel rolled across the floor as I hastened back to the stairs, jamming the pistol into my pocket.
91Chaeitch was closing the door behind him, looking slowly around the room. He saw me coming down the stairs and hesitated, his head tipping to the side. Then he started across the empty space toward me.
92"Hey," I said, "Sorry about the note, but I didn't know who I could trust and ... Everything is..." I hesitated. There was something odd about the way he was staring at me. "Chaeitch?"
93He barely slowed to put his lantern alongside the one already sitting, flickering on one of the barrels in the middle of the room. And as he came around the barrels he was drawing a pistol of his own, an ornate flintlock, leveling it at me.
94 "Chae..." I froze.
95Unflinching amber eyes gazed over the black bore of the muzzle which suddenly seemed huge.
96"What? What are…what… " I stuttered in disbelief and the eyes didn't flicker but the gun moved as I moved, tracking me as I frantically dodged back and there was an explosion and something whipped past my head and knocked splinters from the staircase, where I'd been a fraction of a second ago. I turned back, in time to see him striding forward through the swirls of grey gunsmoke and briefly twirling firefly sparks of burning wadding. With a blur of movement the spent gun was tucked back into his waistband even as a knife glinted in his other hand. His eyes were pure black holes, as black as the bore of the gun.
97"Chaetich!" I yelled and my own pistol was in my hand, raised toward him. The eyes narrowed slightly, his stance shifting, the knife held in a grip that curled it back like a claw as he shifted to the side, crouching. "What're you doing?!" I pleaded desperately, my hand shaking as I cocked the gun. I could see what he was doing; it was damned obvious what he was doing, but I couldn’t… didn’t want to believe it. "Don't. Chaeitch, please don't," I begged.
98He kept coming. I retreated, backing away. He lunged and I jerked away and the back of my shoulder impacted something – one of the wooden columns supporting the catwalk I think, not that it really matters – and jolted and the gun in my hand cracked and kicked.
99There was an indeterminably short space of time that seemed to last forever where I didn't realize what'd happened. The gun was a metal weight in my hand. Acrid smoke hazed the air, slowly clearing and Chaeitch grimaced and then crumpled forward, his knees buckling abruptly and he just folded facefirst to the floor. The knife clattered against crude floorboards.
100 I stared. Incredulous. Not believing what'd just happened.
101What lay before me was just a crumpled form: face down on the grimy floorboards, awkwardly twisted with tail in the air, one leg tucked, the other trailing behind. Nothing dignified or noble about it. And when I reached his side his breath was rasping, making fluid noises. Dark stains were spreading from beneath his chin, dribbling from his mouth. I caught his shoulders and when I turned him he made painful mewling sounds. Blood was colored black in the dim light as it bubbled in a nostril, from a hole dead in the middle of his chest, his jaw spasming while his eyes focused on something that wasn't in the room. I stared in shock, not knowing what to do. 
102"Chaeitch?" I choked out and just touched his face, stroking his cheek tufts.
103And he trembled violently and then his eyes locked on me, the pupils absolutely black. Then his head lolled, searching for something. I followed his gaze, to where his hand was spasming, desperately clutching for the knife. I just recoiled, scrambling away and staring in utter incomprehension as he clawed for the blade. I could only watch in a disconnected horror as he convulsed again and coughed a spray of blood across the floor and died.
104I sat and stared at the body and just couldn't feel anything. I just didn't understand. He hadn't said a word. He'd come, to where the note I'd left in that hidden cubby under the bunk had said I’d be waiting, and he hadn't said a word and he'd just tried to kill me. Tried until his last breath.
105I crawled closer and stopped. Didn't quite believe it. But he was utterly still when I touched him. Didn't move when I tried to close those staring eyes like they do in the movies. They wouldn't close.
106There were noises outside. Subdued voices hissed and snarled.
107They'd done it. They'd tricked him; they'd forced him. Somehow, I didn't know how. But it was their fault. It wasn't logic doing the thinking, it was just sheer shock, disbelief, confusion and fear and anger. So when the door was thrown open I just fired. Screamed a string of abuse incoherent in any tongue and just unloaded the other five rounds in the revolver one after another as fast as I could cock the hammer. Black-clad figures in the doorway vanished in a blur of movement. The gun clicked on empty and I found myself standing amongst the stink of gunpowder and blood and death.
108And then I ran.
109A reason I'd chosen that place was that I'd seen out the back on the previous tour: the high wall there, the way one could climb out an upstairs window, onto a roof, then cross that wall into a yard stocked with barrels. After that... there were alleys and streets, branching from those more alleyways and places where one might lose oneself. In one direction the city, the other way the farms and countryside. I'd never expected anything like what'd happened that night to happen, but I'd thought he might be followed and I might need a quick way out.
110The bag was propping the window open. I grabbed it automatically and clambered through the small frame. Tiles clattered and cracked under my moccasins as I ran across the roof, not really watching where I stepped. It was probably just sheer chance that I didn't crash right on through. Shouts yowled out and dark-clad figures blurred across the yard below. Several crouched to level and aim longarms and shots rang out, fire and smoke and sparks flaring, but I was already jumping across the alleyway to the wall, then down onto a stack of barrels.
111Then I wasn't thinking about anything but running and being far, far away from that place.
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115Dawn brushed the sky in the east. Stars faded as the black lightened to golds, to salmons and pale blues, high clouds glowing with the first touches of light. Dew glittered on the fields, on the trees, on the leaves of the hedgerow I was huddled beneath.
116I watched the sun rising without really seeing it. I was still seeing Chaeitch die.
117I felt… numb. It just... it just didn't make any sense. None of it. He hadn't spoke a word, just come straight at me with one purpose. The Mediators... they must've done it. Somehow. How? Lied to him? Told him something, but what? What could have just made him go off like that? There'd been nothing there but... intent. Clear and focused and determined intent. I thought we were... I mean we'd worked together; we'd shared drinks and stories. We'd been friends. Hadn't we? Or was it another case of me totally misreading alien body language? The blackening on my face, that'd scared him? He'd seen the gun and was trying to defend himself?
118No. No and no. It just didn't make sense. I rocked back and turned my face to the rising sun. The morning sky fragmented, tears blurring the world and my hands made helpless fists; clenching and unclenching. In the dawning light I looked at them. There was dirt there and grime and smeared lamp black. Somewhere I'd touched wet paint, something that stained my fingers muddy brown. And they reeked of gunpowder and were tacky with drying blood.
119Everything gone in one horrible night. The help I'd been banking on; someone else I'd thought a friend, gone in one unbelievable incident. And with that went the plans and the embers of optimism that'd started to smolder somewhere inside.
120Once again I was utterly adrift and without a clue what to do next. And my hope, my friend, was dead.
121While the dew burned off the fields, the wisps of evaporating moisture retreated before the growing warmth of day; while on the hillsides the farmers went about their morning chores, I shook and cried.
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124
125Where to from there? I didn't know. There was the Palace of course. Would the Shattered Water delegation still be there? Would they even want to have anything to do with me after... after what I'd done. Perhaps they'd been taken. Perhaps they were the leverage that'd set Chaeitch to try and kill me. My mind painted scenarios where Chaeitch was being threatened or blackmailed or coerced somehow; where Rraerch was a hostage and Chaeitch had been told to kill me or she would die.
126But would he do that? Rris don't form such strong emotional bonds as humans. Would such a threat be enough? I recalled that the individuals who'd kidnapped Chihirae hadn't really understood just what lengths I'd go to in order to keep her safe. Thankfully they'd never realized what sort of leverage that could've given them over me. And anyway, if he'd killed me the Shattered Water government would doubtless kill him. There just didn't seem to be any reason he'd do something like that.
127But that mental self-flagellation wouldn't get me answers to anything. Not without seeing, without asking someone who knew.
128The palace lay cupped in the center of that broad vale, surrounded by those open meadows. Hillsides of summer gold grasses rippled in the breeze. Carefully tended paths spread out from the Palace, wending in geometric patterns through gardens and hedgerows and shade trees. Rris went about their businesses; gardeners, stable hands, groundskeepers, window cleaners and of course the guards and Mediators. A regular trickle of vehicles trundled in and out along the access roads; goods and passenger wagons and coaches. All very picturesque.
129And Eisher House was guarded by Mediators.
130I could see them from the hilltops, from the cover of trees that were beyond normal Rris visual range. They'd need a spyglass to see what my unaided eyes could see, and those eyes could see the figures who weren't guards and who walked in that way that said they owned the place. Their presences was as unobtrusive as their understated uniforms, but it was there.
131It made me want to scream in frustration. Just what was happening?! What had made me kill my friend? What'd made him try to kill me? The answers were... they were down there, but if I showed myself would I even get a chance to ask?
132More questions. And everywhere I turned there was someone blocking me.
133So, then, where? Somewhere they wouldn't think. Someone who would know.
134I sat on that hillside and watched the Palace and tried to think. While my stomach growled and exhaustion clouded judgment and images of the previous night kept scrabbling in the recesses of my brain. Away down there, the distant figures of Rris came and went about their business. Sunlight flared off the sculptured bronze of the front door, glaring like a giant mirror. I remembered back to the night I'd arrived here. I'd been an honored – if somewhat unusual - guest. Now I was a fugitive.
135Thinking back to that  reminded me of something else. That night I'd arrived the Queen's colors had been flying from the flagpole on the roof high above the main doors. Now that flagpole was bare, the royal colors absent. Oddly enough, that meant the same thing as it did at Buckingham Palace in England, back home. Her highness wasn't in residence at the time.
136That meant... there was somewhere else to go. It was stupid and risky and a long shot, but hopefully it was so stupid and out of bounds that whoever was on the other side of the board wouldn't think of it. Hell, it couldn't be any dumber than hanging around a city where I'd stand out like a bear in a ballet. And it wasn't like I had much choice.
137
138------<o>------
139
140Traveling by carriage had been slow, dusty and uncomfortable, but it'd been a ride. Making the same journey on foot was only marginally slower, but it meant trekking across miles of countryside. At any other time it might have been a pleasant stroll in the country. At any other time.
141While I didn't know the exact way I could remember the road we'd taken last time and the general direction we'd gone. I headed south from the Palace and found that road, and then I followed it. Using the road itself wasn't a good idea. There was traffic – not heavy, but regular.  It'd have been all too easy to round a corner and run into a group of easily-alarmed farmers. So I stuck to the fields and woods alongside the road and when traffic went by I'd take cover. Sometimes just ducking behind a hedgerow, sometimes laying facedown in leaves in a ditch or behind long grass while Rris  - mounted or on foot – passed by or a farmer driving a loaded wagon drawn by a dusty bison creaked through on its way to market or wherever it was they were going.
142And I couldn't just follow the road. There were times when I had to detour miles out of my way: whenever there was traffic or I had to pass fields where farmhands were working at ploughing and tilling; when there were homesteads with Rris moving around. Once I almost blundered into a bunch of cubs playing in a small pine copse. I got out of there as fast as I could before they saw me. Frightened children might be enough to get an angry posse out hunting for what might've threatened them.
143So while the road wound its way across the countryside, I cut back and forth across it. Detouring, circling around and sometimes doubling back. I tried to move at a steady jog which covered ground at almost the same rate as a carriage, but always the need for caution tended to slow that pace.
144There was one fork in the road I didn't remember. Of course I took the wrong one and lost an hour or two discovering my mistake and retracing my steps. It was hot, it was dusty and dry. A few times I found water in streams or even animal watering troughs, but since I didn't have any means of carrying it with me, I got thirsty. And hungry. Oh, yeah, hungry: my stomach felt like it was knotting around my backbone
145I tried to ignore it. There wasn't a lot more I could do. Just ignore it and hope there was some relief somewhere in the future. Otherwise it'd be back to a life of stealing odds and ends from farms. And when it felt like it was getting too much, I remembered Chaeitch's face and all that blood and the anger helped a little.
146Everything considered, I made pretty good time. And it was only mid afternoon when I crested a hill and saw the green copper rooftops peeking over the trees ahead. Another hill, just another hill and I'd be there. That knowledge helped fuel the anger, helped push the exhaustion and pain from my feet back a bit, enough to keep me going.
147
148------<o>------
149
150The manor house was still perched atop the hill, no different from the last time I'd been here. The hillsides were green and gold and verdant under blue skies and summer sun. Gardens and wild meadows abutted the manor, the wild grasses growing up to the chateaux in that style I was becoming accustomed to. Wildflowers were in bloom, transforming squares of meadows to pointillated cacophonies of color above which insects and birds darted in the hot afternoon air. Further away were cultivated fields of corn, maize, potatoes, barely and wheat; buffalo grazing in pastures behind stone and wood fences.
151I'd circled around. It hadn't been difficult to get past the wrought iron fence that surrounded the grounds, and the woods beyond had been quiet. The fields around the manor, however, were patrolled. The guards and groundskeepers were discreet, but they were there. From the woods on the next hill I watched armed figures following paths through the fields. Guards, pairs of royal guards in their gaudy uniforms standing out with polished metal glaring in the sun. No sign of Mediators.
152From behind grass and bushes I watched the figures stalking along the paths. Guards, of course, but there didn't seem to be that many of them. Back home a place like this would have dozens of guards out around the perimeter, along with all sorts of electronic surveillance. But I supposed the Rris weren't so concerned about trying to cover outlying areas. Since they didn't have toys like long range sniper rifles, any intruder bent on mischief would have to get in close. And without radios it'd be more efficient to place more guards at the house itself where they could respond faster. If there were more sentries up there, I couldn't see them.
153 But I was able to see the patrolling guards well enough to learn their movements. Their rounds were spaced out far enough apart that there were intervals between them. Not enough time to get all the way up the hillside to the Manor, but enough time to get part of the way. So I'd have to take it slow.
154More hours.
155Hours of moving forward and then lying flat in the shadow of a bush or a stump or a stone wall, or simply flattening out in the long grass while guards passed near by. Sometimes close enough for me to hear their equipment rattling. Once laying flat in a riot of wildflowers, close enough that one of a pair of guards hesitated and sniffed the air a few times, looked puzzled, then shook it off and went on his way. When they'd passed I'd wait, then grab my bag and move forward, to the next piece of available cover, all the time expecting a cry to go up. If there'd been sentries on the roof or just someone looking out a window, I felt sure they'd see me. The shirt I'd grabbed from the Ironheart boat was an grey-dyed expensive cotton while the pants were tan linen, with blue trim; not too conspicuous against the summer-dry grass, but I fervently wished I'd had time to make up something like a ghillie cloak, something that'd let me blend in a little better. Every time I raised my head to move a little further up the hillside I half-expected to see Rris boiling out the doors towards me.
156So when I reached the stone walls of the manor it was with a mixture of relief, exhaustion and more than a bit of disbelief. If their idea of groundskeeping had tended to the human norm, with lawns immaculately trimmed to a fingers length, then things would have been a great deal more difficult. I tucked into a corner provided by an external buttress. Directly above overhead was the balcony I wanted, two stories up.
157Compared with what I'd just done, that climb was pretty easy. The facade was rusticated: faced with large blocks of grey stone, set with inches between each piece of cladding. That gave me plenty of places to grab hold of. My feet hurt like hell when I wedged them into the cracks in the stone, and if a guards had looked up at the wrong moment it'd have all been over. But there wasn't anything I could do about any of that save clamber up as fast as I could. I banged a knee and scraped my suddenly-sweaty hands hastening up that wall, but I made it to the balustrade and hauled myself over, half tumbling to the balcony and scrambling to tuck down into the corner, clutching my gear. The doors were to my right: big, expensive french-style doors with lots of glass panes, and they were closed. When I moved a bit closer I could hear faint voices from inside, too quiet to make out what they were saying. I withdrew and huddled in the corner made by the balustrade and the cool stone wall, catching my breath.
158I was thirsty, incredibly so. My stomach groaned and tied itself in empty knots and I felt giddy when I closed my eyes. Over in the west the sun was getting lower. About what... five... six o'clock I guessed. That meant it'd been... it'd been over thirty hours since I'd last eaten, since I'd last slept. I'd done longer than that before, but not after a gun battle and then running a marathon.
159Abruptly the voices from inside got louder as someone came toward the door. The latch rattled and my hand was inside my bag, grabbing the wood and metal of the pistol grip and the doors swung open. Escaping Rris voices were abruptly clearer; chittering laughter and fragments of conversation from inside.
160The Lady H'risnth stalked out onto the balcony, wearing only dappled fur which rippled in the breeze like the grass in the fields. She laid hands on the balustrade and stretched, mouth slightly open as she sniffed the air. I could see muscles rippling across her back and down her flanks as she rolled her shoulder, her tail curling from side to side. Someone called something from inside and she chittered, reached back and scratched idly at the back of her neck and called back, "Ah, the green one, I believe."
161Then she turned and saw me. Crouching beside the door, frozen motionless, the gun clutched in my hand.
162Those eyes, amber and black, stared. Just stared at me. For a split second something flickered across her face and was gone almost as soon as it'd appeared and her expression was almost reproachful. I sagged, sighed and let my hand drop. The gun drooped, the muzzle chinking against the balcony while I slumped back against the stone.
163"Huhn," she vocalized, or something like. Then she twitched back to the doors and raised her voice. "Out. Everyone out. Now."
164Queries sounded from others inside. Uncertainty.
165She stalked back inside, her tail lashing, and I heard her. "Out. Everyone. Now! No, leave it, just go!"
166Distant doors slamming.
167I was shaking wildly, the gun in my hand feeling like a lead weight as the seconds ticked by. Finally her voice drifted out from just inside the door. "Alright you, I think you'd better come in here."
168My legs barely got me up off the gritty stone. They felt like half-cooked noodles as I stepped in through the doors onto deep carpet, stopped at the threshold to cautiously look, left and right. It was a bedroom in there; it must've been her ladyship's quarters. There were paintings on the walls, carvings and gilt and elegance, trappings of affluence... From a door to my left came the sound of running water. Off to my right was the expanse of a bed: a huge low platform with white linen sheets. Beyond that was an archway through to another room, a sunlit study or reception chamber perhaps. Lady H'risnth aesh Esrisa was at that archway, standing and watching me. Wearing nothing save her fur, standing with a poise, carrying a bearing and dignity that somehow overwhelmed everything else and made her nudity utterly incidental. She regarded me, almost warily, her eyes flashing in the light spilling in behind me. Then she heaved a sigh that flexed ribs under her hide. "Mikah, what the rot did you come here for?"
169Even though it felt as if it weighed a ton I was still holding the pistol. I think I was too scared, too angry and frustrated to drop it. "Answers, Ma'am," I croaked.
170"Answers, huh?" Her head tipped a little. "Do you have any idea what sort of problems this could cause?"
171"No," I shook my head. She might not understand the gesture: I didn't care. "No. Ma'am, I don't understand. You ask me question like that as though it's remarkable. But... I'm not Rris; all of this is different to me. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's happening. I want some answers! Goddamit, I killed him last night. You understand that? I shot him. He was my friend and I shot him, I watched him die and I don't know why!"
172Her ears went back. "What's this?"
173"Ma'am," the exhaustion kept sweeping back in waves, eroding the anger that was keeping me going. In my mind's eye I saw the agony and blood again and flexed my fingers on the wooden butt. "No games. Please."
174"Games?" She regarded me and there was nothing but confusion there. "Mikah, I don't understand. What do you mean? Who did you kill?"
175"Chaeitch!" I exploded. "Ah Ties! Godamn it! You know that! You must know!"
176Her gaze went down to the gun, then back up to meet my eyes. I saw puzzlement. Nothing else I could perceive, just confusion. "But I just spoke with him this morning. Perhaps ten hours ago."
177"No. No you... No."
178"I assure you, it's true. He was concerned for you, but he was quite well."
179I stared.
180"Mediators came last night," she said. " He was taken to the docks, where I understand there had been a bit of a disturbance. You know something about that, a? But he returned to his quarters at the Palace last night. Of that I'm certain."
181She couldn't...
182"My agents are quite thorough in their reports," she said, looking slightly abashed. "And he's certainly got appointments at the shipyards over the next few days."
183Was she lying? Why? She had to be. "I saw him die," I said again. 
184"Mikah, I don't know what to say. I know he's alive. You don't want to go to the Palace to see for yourself? No." She hissed softly, "I don't know what you saw... It cannot possibly have been him."
185"It was..."
186"Mikah," she interjected quietly, "you told me yourself you have trouble with peoples' faces. Your own art, the features are... unusual. Perhaps you were... mistaken?"
187But it had been him. It had been. I wouldn't forget the coloration of his fur, the blaize on his left ear, the... the utter blankness of that stare. Like someone else staring out through his eyes. But it hadn't been a mask. It hadn't been...
188Oh. Oh, no. There was a sinking feeling as bits clicked into place. I held up my left hand and looked at it. Under the dirt and grime my fingers were still stained with that paint. They couldn't have... I couldn't have been so easy to fool...
189I didn't know how to feel. It meant Chaeitch could be alive. I wanted to believe that, but that would make me such a damned fool. Makeup. They'd just painted someone's face with those markings I'd identified with Chaeitch, and I'd fallen for it hook, line, sinker and rod. I groaned and shook my head, then just sank to the floor with the bed against my back, feeling exhausted and bedraggled and battered and stupid. The gun hit the rug beside me with a dull thud.
190"Mikah?" Her Ladyship was crouching in front of me, her face level with mine. I held out my hand and she hesitated, then took it. I could feel the pads on her palm, her finger pressing against my flesh as she turned my hand, looking puzzled, then dipped her head to sniff my fingers. She inhaled then pulled back. "Ah," she said 
191 "Paint?" I asked resignedly.
192"Dye," she corrected. "Actors use the like. To color fur. Expensive stuff though."
193I wasn't sure how to feel. I'd been completely taken in, but... "Then, he is still alive?"
194"Most assuredly."
195For a long time I stared and then I think I just breathed, "Thank god."
196"What?"
197"I am... relieved," I said faintly. That was an understatement. He was alive. I'd thought he'd gone mad, I'd thought I'd killed him, now she was telling me that no, he was fine. And I'd been taken in by some makeup. I wanted to believe it, but at the same time it seemed too preposterous to be true. And incidentally, it probably made me look like a complete idiot in her eyes.
198"A," the Lady acknowledged, looking me up and down. Her muzzle creased and she leaned forward, then in a blink her hand was at my chin, gently tipping my head back, and I heard a hiss of breath. Then she was pushing the cuff of my sleeve back a bit: the bruises and scabs on my wrist were quite lurid.  She let me go and sat back, rearranging herself so she was kneeling, sitting back on her ankles, hands on knees and staring at me. "Mikah, what's happened to you? Who did this?"
199I pulled the cuff back down over the marks, flexing my hand and rasped: "Your Mediators."
200"My... No," she said. "Not mine. You know..."
201"I don't know," I interrupted quietly, as levelly as I could. That took an effort. "I don't. I thought I did. I thought Mediators were guards, were guards of the law. I thought they were like the law in my world. I thought they answered to the government. I found out differently, a? Nobody told me this."
202She blinked. "No. Mikah. No. How can they be law if the Government could control them?"
203"Then... then they can do whatever they want?"
204The Lady's muzzle wrinkled again and when she spoke it was gently, like a teacher I'd known might speak to a cub. "Again, no. They are the law. They are bound by it. There are conventions they must follow or the law is void."
205I ran permutations of that sentence through in my head. God, I was so tired the words didn't make sense. Rather, in Rris they sort of worked, but when I thought of them in English the concept melted through my metaphorical fingers. It ran in circles that, rather than reinforcing, became mutually exclusive, I started to form a reply, then sagged, "Ma'am, I just don't understand. Then why did they take me?"
206"For routine questioning, they said," she replied. "There were things they wished to ask you. That's why they were holding you. Tell me: why'd you run from them? Why did you come here?"
207And I looked at her. "They..." I croaked. "Routine questioning? That's what they told you? And they told you they were holding me here? In Open Fields?"
208"A," the Lady replied and then slowly cocked her head. I saw muscles under her fur set in place. Her tail had frozen, motionless. "You wish to say otherwise."
209"Milady..." I started to say, searching for words. Words that would stand up to Mediators'. "Ma'am, I suppose they may have taken me for questioning; that may be true. Initially. But... I was told otherwise. And it certainly didn't seem like that to me. I was afraid for my life. That's why I ran."
210"You didn't know they were Mediators?"
211"Would Mediators abduct me from Mediators?"
212She flinched visibly and her ears twitched as though a fly had buzzed into them. For a long second she was motionless, and then she leaned forward to look me right in the eyes; I could see the tiny flecks of amber and orange and brown around the dark of her iris. "Mikah, I think it might be best if you tell me what happened to you, from that night they took you."
213"Yes, Ma'am." I nodded and took a breath. "Chaeitch and I were returning to the Palace, after attending to business at the Chartz works... the glassworks." She just waved acknowledgement.
214"On the way back to the Palace we were stopped. Mediators stopped us. One of them I knew, from years ago. Shyia. He was the Mediator sent to Westwater to... investigate me when I first arrived here. He brought me to Shattered Water. He said that I had to go with him to the Guild Hall. Chaeitch looked concerned, but told me I should cooperate. I did so.
215"I asked Shyia why I was going with them. He never really answered me. And before we got to the hall we were attacked. Mediators were fighting in the dark; I couldn't see with whom at the time, and Shyia just made me run. We were caught. I tried fighting... they beat the... they beat me badly. The next thing I really remember I was chained in the back of a wagon, heading somewhere. North. I don't know where exactly. They were Mediators as well, they said. They said they'd saved me from being executed.
216"I don't know if that was true. I don't know if they were Mediators. They dressed like it; they acted like it, but I'm not so familiar with such things. I could be wrong."
217Lady H'risnth hadn't taken her eyes from me while I told my tale. I'd watched them as I talked, seeing her pupils contracting and dilating; flicking from slivers of obsidian in that glowing amber to pools of black. Kneeling there, just an arms length away with the waning afternoon sunlight spilling in through the balcony doors behind her washing across a marble wall; across a small landscape painting, bringing out brilliant colors; haloing her Ladyship in a soft nimbus of white.
218"That's all true?" she finally asked.
219"Yes, Ma'am."
220"Huhn," she mused. "Mikah, you know, I pride myself on being able to read people. But you... you're an exception. I just can't be sure. As you said before, it does work both ways, and sometime not for the best."
221"Ma'am, it is the truth. That's all I can say."
222"You have witnesses?"
223I opened my mouth, closed it again. "Ma'am, I don't want to get anybody else in trouble."
224"I'll take that as a yes then," she said, and huffed air. "I think you should tell me again. This time, everything. Including how you ended up here."
225"Yes, ma'am," I said. "But..."
226"Yes?" she prompted.
227"Do you have any food?" I ventured. "It's been... a couple of days since I ate. I'm... quite hungry."
228"A. Of course," she said, then hesitated and asked, "and how long since you last slept? About the same?"
229I did some rough calculations, then tipped my hand in an affirmative. She hissed and rubbed at her cheek, ruffling the previously immaculately groomed fur there. "Huhn, rot. It shows. Look, I can't protect you here, understand that? Mediators will come and I cannot stop them. And my staff will soon know that something unusual is going on here. They are loyal, but I would not expect them to tell unsupportable lies to Mediators.
230"Still..." She glanced over her shoulder at the light, then back to me. "I think you can stay the night, that should be safe enough. Eat. Get some rest."
231I was too tired to rein in my human smile. "Thank you Ma'am."
232"A. And there are plenty of questions for you. I want to hear what's happened to you. Every detail."
233"Yes, Ma'am."
234"Now, I'm sure there's food you can eat. I'll have something brought. And while we're doing that, through there is the bath, which I suggest you use while you still can." She sniffed delicately. "Which I really suggest you use."
235
236------<o>------
237
238The bathroom was all pale stone and polished veined marble. It echoed with the sound of running water rebounding from wall to wall. Fixtures were elegant and expensive, with silver rails and shelves and narrow, high-set windows admitting gold sunlight, the light fracturing and splintering through the crude panes. Gleaming brass pipes carried hot water from a central boiler and the bath was the size of a small pool. Steaming hot water streamed out of a black marble sluice: a hot waterfall the width of the tub. Wisps of vapor curled from the surface, along with a subtle amalgamation of aromas from the scented oils swirling across the bath, mingling with grime floating there: dirt and grass and leaves, clean water turned grey and leaving a ring around the tub from the lampblack and dust.
239I could've cared less. The caustic soaps and oils stung on my open wounds, but the warmth sank in, easing the aches in tired muscles. Exhaustion sung in my head like a single high-pitched note whining across my nerves. I could feel it twitching my limbs as I lay back against blood-warm stone, watching the ceiling, listening to water reverberating from marble and tiles. The bottom of the tub was carved marble, contoured to alien shapes that didn't exactly match my own.
240Could I trust her? I didn't know. Was she involved? I didn't know. What would she have to gain from involvement?
241Me?
242I ran the scenario through my head. She could create dispute. Make me conveniently disappear with plausible deniability. Keep me where they could extract what they wanted later, at their leisure. It was possible. But how possible? Would she do that?
243I didn't know. It didn't feel right. And why would she go so far as to hide me and not just call the guards? I felt as if I could trust her, but then my feelings had been wrong before. Damn, I was too tired to think.
244Water splashed across the pale stone as I hauled myself out. A cut on my foot had opened a bit. It stung and I was leaving a faint trail of pink footprints on the floor tiles. There were towels: huge soft cotton things of immaculate white that also became smeared with more red. Blood was seeping from the abrasion on my neck where a scab had pulled away. I patted at it carefully, drying it as best I could. At least I was feeling clean again, and there was the smell of food from the next room.
245"How are you doing?"
246Her Ladyship was standing in the doorway, watching me. As I turned her ears laid back, plastered flat against her skull. "I didn't realize..." she said, and gestured distractedly toward her own neck and torso, then just clenched her hand. "Do you need a doctor?"
247I shook my head and returned to drying myself. She was royalty, a queen. I was naked and dripping out of a bath. It really didn't matter. "I don't think so. They're clean. I think."
248Toe claws clicked, the sound loud against the bathroom tiles, and then her fingertips touched my arm. As she circled she looked me up and down, at the greenish-back bruises, the scrapes and cuts and lacerations, the sunburn. And I flinched, then stood rigid as a finger touched my back, running over the corrugations of the scar tissue there. The sensations were... I shivered and clenched my teeth as numb tissue transmitted only the pressure of her finger. It made my skin crawl.
249"This, what did this?"
250"Rris," I said quietly.
251She said something, quietly; I couldn't quite make out what it was. Claws ticked on the tiles again as she stalked around and looked at my neck, then took my hands one at a time and inspected the damage there carefully.
252"Shackles?" she asked.
253"A."
254"You removed them?"
255"A."
256"How?"
257"With difficulty," I said and she glanced up, studying my face for a second before she just said, "A," once again. Then she moved her attention back to my arm, up to the biceps, then she gently took arm and raised it slightly to see my side. The bruises I'd acquired from my abduction were fading, but the baton marks were still garish green-purple against my hide. "Those... is anything broken?"
258"No. I don't think so."
259"Is there anything you need?"
260"Just to rest for a while. Please."
261Her ladyship stepped back, looking me up and then down again. Despite everything I felt a flush crawl up my neck. Hastily I wrapped the towel around my waist. She looked slightly chagrined, or was it amused?
262"Apologies. But for a thinking mind to inhabit such a frame... it is remarkable."
263"So I've been told."
264She chuffed air, then patted my arm; like one might pat a skittish horse. "When you're ready, there's food."
265
266------<o>------
267
268The meat was Rris rare, dripping, almost tartar; the bread a little stale. I couldn't care less. I went through the meats and breads, the stew and pastries like they weren't there. And when I came up for air, Lady H'risnth was looking a little startled as she surveyed the debris littering the low coffee table sitting between us in her study.
269"Is that sufficient?" she asked, perhaps with a little sarcastic tint to the question.
270When I put the remains of the drumstick down on the dish with the rest of the ex-wood pigeon silverware clinked. Cluttered dishes bumped against the swanlike crystal decanters in the centerpiece and almost upset it. I sat back on the cushion, a little embarrassed. I'd been starving, but I'd been surprised at how ravenous I'd been. "Yes, Ma'am. Most. Thank you."
271Then it was time to retell my story. Every little detail this time. From the time we'd left the palace that morning, the tour through the glassworks, when Shyia and the other Mediators had stopped us. I recounted it as best I could, elaborating when she pressed for more information.
272Outside the shadows were growing longer, denser, as the sun sank low. I told her about the city, about my abduction, about their treatment of me and described my captors as best I could. She was interested in hearing about the ferry and wanted details about that, about the number of Mediators who'd been there, if I'd heard any names or places mentioned. I related all I could.
273But not everything.
274There were things that were better not said. Some details, like the names of the Rris who'd helped me I... edited. I thought it best. And it couldn't hurt to keep them anonymous.
275My escape, I told her about that. My escape and then the days slogging lost through the wilderness. There wasn't a lot to say about that: there were a lot of trees and they all looked pretty much the same. Then there was the farm, the Rris who'd... no, they hadn't taken me in, but they'd believed me. And there was Heksi and his help, which had been far more generous than I'd expected. Their names, I didn't tell her those. Instead, the names became those of some of the Rris carpenters who'd worked on the house back in Shattered Water. If her Ladyship were on the level, nobody would ever find out. And if they did find out, well, then I was being only as honest as she was. 
276She seemed a little surprised that someone had given me a lift back to Open Fields. I caught a slight shift in her posture when I simply told her I managed to get a ride back in a boat. She'd have known that no Rris would just offer me a ride, not just like that, so there had to be something more to my story. In other words, she knew I was being deliberately vague, but she didn't interrupt or try to pry more information out of me.
277 The sequence of events that'd taken place since I'd returned to Open Fields were still fresh in my mind. Some were crystal clear snapshots Chaeitch's features... what I'd thought were Chaeitch's features contorted in agony and fury... while others were blurs careering through a maze of unknown streets in the night . But I told her what I could as best I remembered. From the swim across the harbor to the moment she'd found me on the balcony.
278When I finished her Ladyship sat and stared at me for a while. "You know," she said eventually. "You're luckier than anyone has a right to be."
279I almost laughed out aloud. "And what sort of luck would that be?" I asked, "because it didn't feel like the good kind."
280"Hai," she flicked her ears. "If half of what you've said is true, then... You've told this story to anyone else?"
281"No. Why?"
282"Because the repercussions of this are likely to be extreme," she said quietly. 
283I stared back at her unblinking gaze, then gestured to the decanter and glasses on the tray vying for table space with the remains of my meal. "Is that alcohol?"
284She gestured an affirmative and I just un-stoppered the crystal and poured a generous shot glass.
285"You're supposed to..." she started to say but I tossed my head back and downed it in one hit. Damn, the stuff went down easy, then snuck up again and punched me behind the eyes. I coughed and wiped sudden tears away. She snorted and waved a dismissive gesture. "Mikah, do you understand? Did you speak to anyone?"
286I gazed down into the little shot glass. "No. I don't understand. This is to do with the Mediators? Why? I always thought they were police. They help to enforce the law. You said they answer to no government. I don't understand how that can be."
287A soft exhalation of breath. "Your kind, you don't have Mediators?"
288I toyed with the glass, turning it between my fingers. "We have something I thought was the same. The governments dictate the law and these departments of the government enforce that. I believed that was what the Mediators were."
289"It sounds... corruptible," she ventured.
290"But if you can't control the Guild, then who does? They're all-powerful?"
291 "Yes, and no," she leaned forward.
292"Can you please give me a straight answer? I'm sorry Ma'am, but I'm very tired. I've heard they have authority over government troops; I've heard they have influence in the highest government; I've heard about the... Reshara Charter, but I don't know what any of it means."
293"The Reichis Charter," she corrected me. "Interesting you should bring that up. Perhaps a good place to begin." She clicked forefinger claws together a few times as she gathered her thoughts and then took a breath:
294"Mediators have always been with us. As far back as telling goes there've always been facilitators; individuals to whom people would go to for a resolution to problems or disputes. If there was a murderer to be brought to trial or just a squabble over boundaries or possessions or even less significant matters, they would look to a Mediator. Their decisions were generally fair and respected.
295"They've always looked after their own, training and teaching from master to apprentice. Early stories don't mention a Guild, just individuals; some achieving things that are perhaps just the other side of incredible, and thereby raising the esteem in which their work was held. As they grained in [face?], their scattered numbers coalesced and organized. The Guild formed from that and now takes in and looks after its own.
296"The Reichis Charter came about hundreds of years ago. I don't think the original parchments still exist, but there are copies of essential [tenets?] in all Guild halls and Royal archives. It essentially ratified what had been custom for a long time: the Guild had authority over Governments where matters of Guild business were involved. Guild business was law, the law is the maintenance of the peace and justice. The greater the [instability?] the greater their authority. You understand this?"
297I blinked, then rubbed my eyes. "The words, make sense but the idea behind it... "
298"You don't understand?"
299"Ma'am, I think that I don't think the same way Rris do. It's to do with the way my kind grew. Something that might see quite normal to you can be quite unusual to me. This is one of those things."
300"That sounds unusual in itself. But what you told me about your methods... that really doesn't make sense to me."
301"I should tell you about the Roman Catholic Church sometime," I sighed as I refilled the glass. I took another shot, grimaced, then raised my hand to ward off her question. "Don't ask. Perhaps... is there some history behind this agreement?" That might help me put things into perspective and perhaps get some grasp on why they did it.
302"A," she said and rocked back on her cushion, tipping her head back to regard the ceiling as she gathered her thoughts. "Alright. Mediators have intervened in politics where the disputes were seen to have wider ranging implications, especially threatening common ground. Things like disputes over roads and rivers, crossings, open trade points, things like that. I suppose the earliest documented intercession was during the Swampy River wars, long before the Charter. The skirmishing was disrupting travel on the river, at a vital fork. The trade embargoes were not only hurting the participants, they were starting to draw neighbors into the dispute. The Mediators interceded during the Battle of Three Sides. They appeared on the field with forces that outnumbered the combatants. Thrisi aesh Cho and Eshe ah Feta were brought to a [parley table] where the Mediators dictated terms. 
303"Then there were instances at Mishi Sounds and The Ford of Broken Legs and the siege of Sharsi Says. All historical conflicts where Mediators intervened in one way or another. Sometimes the intervention was requested, other times not. Sceri ah Nhires [something] Es'erithri aseh Re'aeth's claim to the Wandering titles. A Mediator tribunal was requested by Guild houses and found that neither was the legitimate title-bearer. There were..."
304She went on. I just closed my eyes for a second.
305
306------<o>------
307
308The branches were brambles that tore at me as I ran through a maze of stark grey  trees. Branches and darkness, that's all there was, until the first door of weather-split planks. The latch turned, but the further I opened it the more it pushed back, until I managed to squeeze through.
309"You're still running?" Mai asked, holding the shuttered lantern high.
310There was nothing behind me. No way back.
311"Where can I go?"
312"Follow me," she chittered and turned her back, flicking her tail as she ran up the hill. I chased her, but I was so slow and she was now just a glimmer in the darkness ahead. When I reached it, that glimmer was a lamp, hanging above another door, plated with battered tin sheeting like a service entrance in an alleyway.
313I was in the old classroom, sunlight streaming in through the tall windows. Jackie was there, sitting in the back. Her ears twitched and her muzzle pursed in amusement.
314"This isn't right," I said.
315"How can you tell?" Chihirae asked and turned from the chalkboard, colored dust coating her hands.
316"She's not here."
317"Of course not," Jackie agreed and she wasn't there. Just a Rris.
318"See?" Chihirae said and then smiled whitely. "How's your history, ape?"
319"I'm not an ape."
320 Chaeitch walked across the front of the room and put his arms around her and grinned at me, then they kissed and then he starting tearing at her blouse, tearing at her hide, biting into her.
321I shouted. When his face came up it was a bloodied, vacant mask. Snarling as he lunged.
322And then I shot him.
323I saw him die again; saw the blood spattering on dusty floorboards. Saw the body twitching and then saw the face that'd betrayed me.
324"Mai!"
325It was dark. I was standing in an island of light. Shapes rose into the heights, into the darkness, slender columns supporting crowns of gargoyle figures watching me with stone eyes over snarling muzzles. Huge flagstones lay beneath my feet, the cold granite etched with words I couldn't read. The grey light was filtering through high windows that might've been stained glass once, now they were just monochromatic slivers forming a pattern that refused to resolve into a coherent shape. And out there beyond the light were shapes, tiers of benches rising up to cathedral heights where indistinct forms watched, and from those heights the darkness closed in, pouring in like a palpable black wave with uncountable black wings whirling around and clutching and tearing and bearing me down. Then the figure was over me and the whip was coming down again and again and I tried to get away but the inhuman figures were pinning me and there were lines of fire searing across my back and white teeth lunged at my face.... 
326"Mikah!"
327A grinning face still loomed over me, gaping jaws hissing something while baring glistening teeth. A furry hand with leathery palm was pressed tight over my mouth, trying to stifle me while the other was trying to pin one of my arms. I went rigid, about to thrash wildly before realization sunk in.
328Oh. God. My heart was still racing furiously; I was shaking. Her hand was clamped over my open mouth. Where her disheveled fur was pressed against me it tickled, sticking to cooling sweat. I shuddered, then dropped back and only when I lay still did she slowly draw her hand away from my mouth. I gasped air, taking in my surroundings again. Pillows, and carpet. Lady H'risnth. Her study. It was dark out, real night, and the light was from a little oil lamp flickering on her desk. There was a noise from elsewhere in her apartments and her head went around, ears pricking. With a curse she flowed to her feet and vanished across the room.
329Sounds of a door opening came from an adjoining vestibule. I flinched violently, looking around at flickering lamp light casting moving shadows on a wall in the next room. There were low voices, then a louder one issuing curt orders. A door was slammed and the voices stopped. I heaved a trembling breath, closing my eyes. When I opened them her Ladyship was kneeling in front of me, panting gently, watching. 
330"What... happened?" I croaked.
331The light behind her silhouetted her in a pale nimbus, leaving her face in shadow. It was enough to let me see her cock her head but not enough to make out her expression. "You fell asleep," she said. "I had no idea I was such a dull orator."
332I swallowed on a raw throat, feeling my heart settling again. "Sorry, Ma'am."
333"I didn't want to wake you. But later you... You were making a lot of noise. Screaming? Something like that. What was it?"
334"They were... dreams," I said, looking down at my hands. All along my back muscles around the scars flinched and twitched.
335 "Rotted sight more than that from the sounds of it," she huffed. The cushions were strewn left and right. There'd been a blanket, now it was twisted and tangled. "Alarmed the staff. They won't ask questions though."
336"Sorry," I rubbed at my face. "Those dreams...They've been... I thought they were done with."
337"Apparently not," she noted. "You've had them before?"
338"A." I shuddered.
339There was a pause, as if she were expecting me to elaborate on that. I didn't. Eventually she stood and just said, "Come on."
340I looked at the extended hand. "Ma'am?"
341"The bed's a stretch more comfortable than the floor. Come on."
342Bed. A bed sounded very good. I was aching, in my shoulder and in the scar across my cheek and I staggered when she hauled me up. So did she, just about coming down. "Hai, you're a weight," she growled and then touched my back, just guiding me as the room slowly steadied. Had I had too much on an empty stomach? That drink? What'd been in it? "Here. Come along."
343And we were at the door before I realized what she'd meant. "Ma'am? That's your bed."
344"More than big enough for two," she said. And that took me back enough that we were a bit further before I realized the blanket was on the floor back there somewhere. Hell with it.
345Moonlight filtered through the windows, through the balcony doors I'd entered through. I saw my bag and my gun were gone. Couldn't expect them to be left lying around, although I hoped I'd be able to get them back.
346She was right about the bed; it was more than queen sized. A small patch of sheets away on the far side were already rumpled around a depression where a body had been laying. The other side of the bed was smooth linen and it was there she let me collapse and  stepped back as I laid back and sank in: Whatever the mattress was stuffed with, it was deep and soft. The sheets were cool, fresh linen. After a week sleeping under trees and in barns it felt strange.
347Her ladyship cocked her head. "Are you all right? Do you need more blankets?"
348"This is... comfortable," I said. 
349"Better than the floor," I heard, her voice moving around the room. There was a movement through the moonlight, then I felt the bed shift as she settled, curling up. On the bed, but not too close. 
350"A," I laid back, trying to relax again. There was plenty of room, but of course no pillows. I lay under the crisp sheet and stared up at the ceiling, the shadows and darkness. The bed smelt of dry grass; of potpourri; of musty Rris. Outside, in the fields and grasses, choruses of insects buzzed and chirruped; wind blew, the moonlight changing as clouds crossed the night and the drapes stirred gently. Adrenaline was still twitching nerves, singing in my head.
351It'd been a dream; a nightmare. Chihirae wasn't here and Chaeitch was alive. It hadn't been him who'd died, but was my subconscious going to insist it was and keep dredging that up? She'd told me that it wasn't him, and I wanted to believe that.
352What she'd said... I remembered what she'd been talking about, back before I'd just flaked out. And in the darkness in the middle of the night it made some weird sort of sense, for a species that seemed so much more... pragmatic than human. I'd mentioned the Church, and in a way the Mediators were the church; a concept that would be as strange to Rris as their system seemed to me. An institution that people followed because it was there; it provided security and explanations and thinking.
353Was that what Mediators were? No. Saying they were the same thing, that wasn't correct, and was a risky way of thinking. It was an analogy, that was all. But the Rris seemed to believe in them, enough to give them jurisdiction over their own government in matters of law. Was that like the human faith in the church? But faith is simply unwavering trust. Following blindly in other words. I couldn't see Rris doing that, not without a good reason.
354Was that the problem? There was a reason they wanted to follow the Guild? Or had to?
355And I'd seen Mediators fighting Mediators. What did that herald? A schism in the Guild? How would Rris governments react if their overseers were bickering amongst themselves? What effect would dissention in the church have?
356Ask the Irish. The English. Ask most of the Human race.
357I sighed. Quietly, I thought, but there came the rustling grass-quiet sound of fur brushing on cloth beside me and then an alien voice in the dark: "Mikah? You're still awake?"
358"A."
359"I thought you were tired."
360"Yes, but... I was thinking about what you said, about the Mediators."
361"Huhn, that put you to sleep before. Not this time?"
362I smiled. "I'm sorry. I think I was more tired than I thought."
363"That and you put away enough Haisa for four on an empty stomach," she said, sounding a little reproachful. "It was supposed to be mixed with water and citrus juice. What you drank would have laid a Rris out flat."
364"Oh. That explains why I'm feeling a little... dizzy."
365A soft sound of amusement. "But what were you thinking about?"
366"I think perhaps I understand now. I think..." I tried to articulate the tenuous connection I'd made. "They have authority over even governments, but the price of that power is their credibility. If that credibility were to be brought into doubt, so is their authority. A line from an old play, 'with great power comes great responsibility'."
367"Trite, but...A," she murmured. "That is the essence, in a way."
368"But, it would have such an effect?"
369In the darkness was a low sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl. "I could tell you the terms of the charter and what dissolution of the Mediator Guild would mean, but it might send you to sleep again."
370I felt my face heating. "Apologies, Ma'am."
371"That was a joke, Mikah," she said and I felt the bed shift. She was propped up on one elbow, watching me. Her face was in shadow but highlights glittered on the sheen of her eyes. She'd helped me; broken Mediator law, deceived her staff... why?
372"Why're you doing this?" I asked. "Why didn't you just turn me in?"
373Her ears flicked. "Just because tradition requires us to acquiesce to the guild, doesn't mean we have to do it blindly. Because I wanted to hear your side of the story; and the story you told is a whole lot more believable than the tapestry of discord I've been receiving from the Guild; and also because I like you."
374"Oh. Thank you."
375A soft chitter sounded in the evening. "And you might have such advanced knowledge, but I think when it comes to matters of politics you are actually quite naive. Honesty can be a rare trait. It's quite endearing."
376"Oh." I wasn't sure if that was entirely flattering. "I don't know how I can repay this."
377There was another movement, another stirring of the bed, and then she said, "Well, there are a few more questions I would like to ask you."
378I hesitated. "Is that a good idea? His lordship might be upset if I tried offering deals outside the specified trade parameters. Going behind his back..."
379"Not that sort of question," she quietly interjected. "No, there are some other things I was wondering about."
380"Umm... you asked me last time."
381Another muted chitter of laughter and the bed moved. "No, Mikah. No. I couldn't. Not then. It was business. No, you showed me pictures of your world. From your home. I never had the chance to ask you: do you miss it?"
382I lay still, feeling the cool sheets against skin, hearing her breathe.
383"Mikah?"
384"Yes, Ma'am," I swallowed. "Yes, every day."
385"Oh," the Lady said, and I thought there was a trace of disappointment there. Then she said, "Anything in particular? Can you tell me?"
386"Miss?" I stared up at the ceiling for a while, gathering my thoughts. Images  - memories  - flickered. "So much," I murmured. "My family, my friends. The comforts and convenience. The city at night, the lights and sound. Central heating in winter. Pizza and bad movies. Fast cars. Fast food. Coffee, tea, Dr. Pepper. God, I miss that. Proper wine. The latest films and music. To be able to be alone in a crowd; to be normal. To smile properly without frightening children. I miss women. I miss her. I miss my mate... the woman I was with before this all started."
387She was quiet after that babble; most of it meaningless to her. Then her low voice said, "I know a few women."
388"Women," I said. "My kind of women. Not so much fur and claws and teeth. Softer. More... " I grinned in the darkness and lifted my hands, describing an hourglass figure. Was I drunk? I felt like I had a bit of a buzz on. Not much, just enough. "I miss breasts," I sighed.
389"Breasts?"
390"A. Breasts." No, Jackie hadn't been overly endowed. But perhaps my imagination overcompensated sometimes.
391A pause. "Pregnant females?" the voice in the darkness sounded puzzled. "Their breasts are quite prominent."
392"It's different," I said.
393"Ah. Mating habits?"
394"Yes."
395"That different?"
396"In some respects, yes. Very."
397Another silence, then she said. "You know, there have been some very interesting rumors lurking in the undergrowth regarding that."
398"Oh really."
399Another chitter. A hand touched my shoulder, just patting gently. "I was wondering just how much is true. Suggestions that sex with you is a very interesting experience indeed. Stories that you are quite... unique?"
400"Huhn," I sighed. "Those stories."
401"Huhn?" she made a little querying noise. "You know them?"
402"'of them'," I corrected. "I've heard of them. Where did you hear these?"
403"Ah... sources," she chittered gently.
404I guessed what that meant. "How drunk did you have to get him?" I asked dryly.
405"Ah," her hand touched me again. Not patting this time; not a transitory brushing of her against me, but actually laying on this time. Studying the moment. There was the oddly-familiar sensation of a leathery fingerpad against my shoulder: touching, pressing gently, stroking as she watched the skin distorting slightly beneath her expoloration; the clawtip just tickling slightly. "Not just him," she said and I'm sure she was amused. "But he was concerned for you. Worried. Don't blame him. But are they true?"
406"What did he tell you?"
407She told me. She told me in specific, unrelenting detail. And if I'd had ears like her's they would have laid back. As it was, I felt a glowing heat climbing there. Obviously Chihirae had filled Chaeitch in on more than just the broad picture. There were specifics. There were details. There were personal details.
408I shouldn't have been surprised: they're far more open about bodily functions of all types and their idea of privacy is considerably different from mine, so Chihirae had probably never seen anything wrong with a bit of gossip. That material was embarrassing enough, but her ladyship obviously also had sources that were either not so reliable or were just a great deal more imaginative. A great deal of what she related there in the darkness was utterly... preposterous. But there were enough kernels of truth there to tell me someone had been quite a blabbermouth.
409"You know," I said to the ceiling when she was done, "perhaps I will shoot him after all."
410"Mikah? What?"
411"That was a joke. Sort of. I am… annoyed. Stories like that complicate things."
412"Then they're lies?"
413"Ummm. Some of it... or exaggerations might be better.... I wish it was true, but I think your sources are a bit fanciful. To say the least. I'm not... built like that. Biting doesn't really do anything for me and that thing with the honey is... strange."
414"Ah?" she laid a hand on me, fingers spread and laid splayed on my chest. I could feel the cool leathery pads of her palm and fingers pressed against me. The skin under her fur was warmer, almost hot. One of the few patches of skin on her body touching mine and I knew she could feel my heartbeat drubbing with a rhythm that wasn't like her own. "All lies?"
415I moved slowly to take her hand. She didn't pull back, letting me hold it, stroking and exploring it absently. The fur on the back of her hand and the fingers wasn't as dense as on the rest of the body but was still soft and the bone structure in there wasn't anything human. Short fingers, missing a joint by my standards. There was a reflex which made the claws partially express when I pressed the pad of a fingertip. "Not all. But they don't tell everything."
416"Such as?"
417I sighed. "Milady, it's not sex. Not as you would know it, nor like I knew it with my kind. There are physical differences - not as…as extreme as they say, but they are there. It's like… it's like putting a glove on the wrong hand – it feels... unusual, I think would be close to describing it. And what's normal for one can be strange for the other. I think I'm learning what Rris women enjoy, what I can enjoy with them, but I can't treat them like a Rris male would, and I can't treat them like a woman of my kind. That, I think, is not something they consider. And they tend to treat me like a Rris male. That can hurt. I mean physically."
418Her ears tipped back. "Hurt badly?"
419"I still have scars from… from the first time I had sex with a woman… a Rris. You tend to use claws and teeth, even without intention. Your term 'scruff biting'... I can't really do that."
420"Huhn," she leaned in, a bit closer still. "I think I can understand that. Your skin is quite delicate, isn't it." Her hand moved again, stroking again. "Soft, smooth. Like vellum. Scars though. A lot of scars. And yet you persevere. Why?"
421I shrugged and considered that question. "Because it can be enjoyable," I said eventually, and then for some reason added, "And because it means that for a while I can be close to someone who is willing to be that close. I don't... do you know how rare moments like that can be here?"
422Her hand wandered across my chest and she watched intently as she toyed with and tugged at hairs here and there. She was sniffing the air and her ears twitched slightly in time to a rhythm I couldn't hear. But I could feel it. It was my heartbeat.
423"Ma'am,” I ventured, "honestly, do you find me attractive? Attractive in the same way as a you might find a Rris male?"
424A pause. "You have startling eyes... and what fur you have is quite exquisite. Your hide is... intriguing, but otherwise no; not like that."
425"Then why are you doing... this?" 
426"Huhn, curiosity," she said quietly, the mattress dimpling beneath her weight as she leaned over. Her eyes were all iris, glimmering like light on oil, her breath washing against me; as harsh as a predator's. "Very much so. I like to think I'm a connoisseur. Of the rare, the exotic things in life. Sometimes that can be fine wine, or rare art, or perhaps an experience. And from all accounts," she growled softly, "you can be quite an experience."
427"You wouldn't just be happy with a signed picture?" I swallowed.
428There came a soft sound of amusement and then she said, "You don't consider this an honor? I am a Queen, you know."
429"Milady, yes, I... I know."
430A pause, and then she said, "And I could call out, you know. That would be easy. There could be guards in here."
431I felt a lurch inside; a clench and stutter of my heart. And with her hand on my chest she could probably feel it also. "Would you?" I asked
432A hesitation as the thin ice creaked. "I could."
433I met the abalone-shimmer of her night eyes. "Is the bed big enough? It'd be a bit crowded. They'd have to wait their turn."
434Another pause, and then she laughed again. "Amusing," she said, patting my scraggly beard and then stroking my chest, watching her hand pressing against my bare flesh. "And you don't find me attractive? Perhaps in the same way I regard you, a?"
435"Similar, I think," I hedged, still aware the subject could turn again. "You are quite... you are beautiful. But you aren't a woman... I mean, a woman of my kind."
436"Huhn," she mused with a soft, meat-eater's growl. "I can't offer you bare skin and breasts. I can't offer you a woman of your kind. But perhaps I can offer you some time with someone who is willing to be that close to you, a?" She stroked my chest and shoulder gently, touching the smooth skin around the puckered scar tissue there. 
437I was tired. I was nervous and in uncertain surrounds, but my body reacted to the touches. After these few years and some other experiences alien hands were no longer so strange that the sensations were unbearably eerie. There'd been time for me to learn them, for some sensations to become interpreted as arousing. And the dim moonlight and lightweight sheets weren't enough to hide it.
438She was amused, I could see that, as she hooked the blanket with a finger and slowly pulled it aside. Even in the dimness I saw her expression change as she abruptly froze and stared.
439"I said different," I said, a little defensively for some reason. She'd seen me in the bath earlier. What'd she expect? "The stories don't really convey it all, a?"
440"A," she replied quietly, her ears quivering as if they didn't know whether to flatten or not. "A. I hadn't thought... They said you were... unusually endowed, but... you're... Well, I'd thought you might be more like a normal male when erect."
441I coughed something that was almost a laugh. "Me? Normal?"
442She ducked her head, making a small, choking sound that may have been a smothered chitter. "It works in the same way? It just looks... strange."
443"I really can't help that," I said quietly. "But it works the same."
444"You're... larger," I saw her ears go back again. "Considerably."
445"I've been told there can be... discomfort if I'm not careful," I said and touched her hand and traced a finger. "But I could mention your claws and teeth. There has to be some care taken on both sides."
446For a second she drew back a bit, the alien profile of her head tipping as she regarded me.
447Diaphanous curtains stirred in an errant draught, ghostly in pale moonlight. I'd half expected her to retreat then, to change her mind as the reality of what she'd be laying with sunk it. But after a few heartbeats there was a touch on my sternum and leathery fingertips stroked over my skin. I let her explore some more, flinching a little at touches and stroking, allowing inquisitiveness that infiltrated the defenses I usually kept up around Rris. And when she finally took my flesh in her grip she hissed softly and regarded her handful in some emotion that in the dimness could have been surprise or amusement or apprehension. I tensed and my own hands clenched in her fur as she explored. I knew where this was leading, of course. I understood that. And even through the fog of arousal I thought I could see what she was doing, and why. And her assumptions were almost funny. But at that moment it didn't really matter to me.
448I'd told her. And she'd heard, but perhaps she'd never truly grasped the implications when I'd said it was different. But I think she started to when I took her over onto her back and looked down on her looking up at me with uncertainty and less definable expressions flickering across her half-lit visage. She was pressed against me, pelt against bare skin prickling like a living bearskin rug. Through it her heartbeat was racing with a tempo I could feel through her ribs and flesh and fur, her breath fast and short and her muzzle was like velvet under my fingertips as I stroked. I think she realized when I pinioned her arms and hands and claws back against the mattress, as I had to, and she bucked against my grip; just once.
449"Is that no, Milady?" I whispered.
450For two, three heartbeats she hesitated before she hissed a barely audible, "No."
451And I know she did when I adjusted myself and moved gently forward and her glittering eyes went wide.
452
453------<o>------
454
455I was gone with the first morning light.
456Meadow grass made slick and slippery with dew was cool against my feet and legs as I loped away across the open fields. To the eastward horizon a glimmer of sun painted the morning sky in golds and reds. Higher, the arching vault of the sky was crisp and clear. A flight of ducks or geese... some kind of bird flew high enough to catch the sunlight, flaring into a V of brilliant white specks against the blue. Poplars and oak stood still in the cool air, moisture beading and sparkling on leaves.
457There were no sentries. Her Ladyship had called an early inspection of the outlying guards. Unusual, but her prerogative. Bells had pealed out across the pre-dawn fields and the guards had trooped back up the hillside. I'd watched, from the balcony windows of her bedroom as the figures congregated toward the front of the manor. And when there were no more to be seen, I'd gone out the way I'd come in.
458My pack was weighted with fresh food, with fresh water. There was Open Fields coinage, a goodly amount of it. I had a map of the local area. It was crude handiwork – a print from a woodcut, but it was better than dead reckoning. I had information that was going to stand me in good stead. And Lady H'risnth had given me something else as well.
459Before she'd left me to go and keep the staff busy, she'd taken my wrist in one hand and with the other pressed something into my palm. It was a key. An old, iron key: bulky and weighty, with an intricately wrought curlicue at the end. By the rust oxidizing along the length it hadn't been used for some time. A place to stay, she'd told me. Perhaps somewhere the Mediators wouldn't think to go.
460The morning seemed brighter than the previous day had been. I had a destination. I had the beginnings of a plan. And Chaeitch was alive – or rather I'd been told he was alive and the evidence seemed to support that claim. And I'd managed to survive the last night mostly intact. Perhaps that had something to do with it as well.
461Short shadows on the ground signaled midday. Insects rasped in the undergrowth and heat shimmered in the air, hazing the blue horizon. I stopped under trees atop a hill and watched farmers in the valley below laboring away behind ploughs and barrows. Building a wall, it looked like. Replacing the zig-zag lines of an old wooden fence with something a little more robust. Huh, must be the time of year for that sort of thing. I settled myself further back in the shade of a sycamore, amongst the roots and tumbled seed pods, and dipped into the provisions I'd been given. There was bread with a crust the consistency of granite; the Rris versions of spring rolls with their suspicious meat fillings; and plain slivers of smoked turkey. While I ate I took the opportunity to pull my right sleeve up and inspect my upper arm and the crescent of bruises and small punctures there.
462She'd bitten me last night. Quite hard.
463I suppose that in a way it'd been my fault. I'd been careless, forgetting – somehow – that this was new to her. We'd been face to face, which isn't normal for Rris in that sort of situation. It'd been dark and I'd been somewhat... preoccupied and she'd been growling and tensing like someone was cranking her spine tighter and tighter and in the heat of the moment - so to speak - that tension had snapped like an overstressed hawser and she'd just whipped her head up and sunk her teeth in. It'd been at a moment when other sensations were in the driver's seat, so it hadn't hurt at the time. Not... badly; I'd been more startled than hurt, but I'd seen reactions like that before. Was it something hardwired into Rris females? A reflex to extend claws, to bite and claw? Or was it just a reaction to something they hadn't experienced before. Chihirae still had a tendency to do it, so it seemed to be something as reflexive as a sneeze.
464Oh, her Ladyship had been apologetic about it afterwards - almost mortified – but reflexes like that were one of the reasons that casual sex here was so risky. Protection? You'd be talking about a full suit of plate armor.
465In the warmth and dappled sunlight sifting through the leaves above I rubbed the bruise and grimaced, then looked at the water bottle I'd been holding for the past few minutes. Enough woolgathering. Down the hillside the farmhands were breaking for their own lunch, tawny bodies lost as they sprawled out in the golden grasses.
466And why was I dwelling on the last night? Feeling guilty?
467I was. Dammit, I was. Chihirae. Did I tell her?
468I knew that for Chihirae it wouldn't matter. Their interpretation of monogamy was as an aberration; something that society eyed askance for reasons I wasn't sure of. Chihirae'd had trouble understanding why I'd been upset after finding her and Chaeitch together, but the fact remained that I had been upset about that. It'd felt like a betrayal.
469 And now I'd been the one to take another partner. I think the word that was nagging at me was hypocrite.
470I'd thought I could try and reason my way through it; tell myself that I was reciprocating her hospitality. And, if I hadn't done it her Ladyship might have made things more difficult for me. All she'd have had to do would be to call out, to bring guards in there. She hadn't done that, but there'd been that mention of calling for guards – that mention that hadn't quite been a threat that we'd sidestepped away from. And when I played those arguments back in my minds, they just sounded more like excuses. Of course, would Rris care about that dalliance? Chihirae would probably just tease and ask for details, but I still felt twinges of remorse from that part of me that was human.
471Did I tell her? Assuming I got the opportunity. Damn it.
472And why had her Ladyship done it? Curiosity she'd said. Hmmm, yeah. Perhaps. Or perhaps there was another logic working there. From their point of view I formed unusually strong attachments with individuals. And it seemed to be getting around that I was inordinately – by their standards – attached to the women I'd slept with. Perhaps she'd concluded that that was usual for me, that I bonded with whomever I slept with. So therefore she was thinking that if she seduced me I would become attached to her. Why? I didn't know. Perhaps...
473Perhaps I was being too paranoid and thinking myself into a corner. I snorted and grabbed my gear, rewrapping the food and throwing it back into my bag. What'd happened was in the past now and the future was still coming on, looming ahead like a storm cloud. There wasn't a lot to do but whatever I could.
474I looked down at the meadow below, at the line of the unfinished wall, the part under construction reminding me vaguely of a snapped piece of twine: the thread of the existing wall and the multitude of stone and rocks scattered at the working end waiting to be slotted into place. Like a jigsaw: Take the small parts, work to fit them into the final picture.
475Which was what I was going to have to do. I had the small parts, thanks to her Ladyship. Only I didn't know if I had them all, or even what that final big picture looked like.
476I'd have to find out.
477So, I returned to Open Fields.
478
479------<o>------
480
481As dusk crept over the city of Open Fields a thick fog drifted in from the lake. That sort of weather wasn't uncommon for a lakeside city, and for me it was a welcome stroke of fortune. Under the grey cover of the evening mist I left my position where I'd been waiting on the overlooking hill and headed down into town.
482On a misty night back home that fog would be aglow. Reflected light from the city would diffuse through the mist, tinting it with a sodium glow visible from miles away. Here, it was dark. The only light came from the half moon riding across a clear sky. 
483Intangible pale clouds seeped through the city, insinuated themselves through the twilit streets. Up close it was just minute droplets of moisture in the air, but beyond fifty meters buildings vanished into drifting veils of white mist. Through the mist and darkness diffuse smears of orange light became visible as city servants went about their jobs of lighting streetlamps. Cut stone and black wrought metal glistened as moisture condensed on cool surfaces. A line of droplets beaded along the crosspieces of a cast-iron lamp post, quivering and shimmering like jewels as gaslight caught them.
484She'd given me the key and directions, but the fog was making things a bit difficult. I didn't know my way around that well. What landmarks I could recognize were obscured by fog. Street signs were almost non-existent, a luxury I remembered from home that weren't that prevalent in this world. At least the directions I'd been given were clear enough.
485I waited in the shadows of the alley as the wagon rattled by. Quietly I waited until it'd been swallowed by the fog, the echoes of its passing clattering from buildings. By the sign over the wrought iron gates the yard opposite was the Fehiserath Hold goods warehouse. That was good. That was in the directions she'd given me. From there it was to the north west, on the outskirts of the central district.
486Take the southern road in. From the foundry head north to Ithri Cross. West to the warehouse. West of that is the Long Walk plaza. North from there to High road and the HighLand district. So west was... that way. I was pretty sure it was that way. 
487But meantime I had business elsewhere in town. It wasn't something I wanted to do. I'd been wanting an excuse to be able to put it off, but the fog and darkness offered an opportunity I couldn't ignore: the chance to be able to move through the town relatively incognito. I pulled the moisture-beaded hood of my rain cloak down a bit further to cover my face and set off into the mist.
488
489------<o>------
490
491Despite the near pitch-black streets and the clammy night fog reducing visibility to a few meters, moving unobtrusively through the center of town was amazingly difficult. Even in that murk there were Rris out and about. I stuck to the shadows, kept away from lamps, but even so I drew curious stares and a few starts from the few who caught glimpses of me in the mist. The storm cloak may have covered a lot, but not everything. I hoped those who saw me might just think me a cripple or otherwise deformed.
492Toward the center of town various shops and businesses were still open. I turned my cowled face to a wall as a nearby door opened and light, noise and Rris spilled out. A good half dozen of them, but they either ignored or most probably didn't notice me and set off down the street, yowling like a sack of cats, reeling and staggering on those weird Rris ankle joints. One tripped over his own legs and landed face first on the cobblestones of the street. His friends managed to haul him up and they tottered off into the fog, the yowls of their carousing audible even after they'd been lost to sight in the whiteout.
493At best they'd probably attract guards. At worst... I hurried off down another alleyway.
494Finding the place was taking longer than I liked. The town was still mostly unfamiliar. All I'd seen of it was what I'd been show on the tours. Of course, at those times I'd never thought my life might be depending on the fact that I memorize the town's layout. I had an idea of the general location of the place I was looking for, but not the exact address. The square with the four fountains and the store with the orange and green striped awning. It was central, on one of the boulevards leading to the palace in the northwest. I remembered that, but exactly where it was eluded me.
495Cursing quietly to myself I stalked the dark alleyways, looking for a recognizable landmark. Those narrow, convoluted lanes were almost pitch black, and the fog didn't help any. A diffuse glow from the midnight moon overhead filtered though the mist. It was just enough to see by, also enough to throw shadows into sharp relief. And in one rotting crate-and-barrel-littered junction of several alleys a Rris voice piped out, "Spare some coin?"
496I stopped, hesitated, and then looked toward the alleyway from where the voice had originated. There was a Rris figure there, indistinct in the gloom but I could see it was considerably smaller than adult, all gangly limbs and glistening fog-sodden fur. I had my hood up, my collar covering my lower face, but even so as I turned in its direction alien eyes flashed wide in the gloom and there was a mewling sound and the youngster scrambled away from me. An empty crate clattered as it was overturned and the teenager scrambled off down the alley, half-falling and skidding around a corner, grabbing at the crumbling plaster wall to steady itself. The urchin hesitated there, peeking around the corner, poised and ready for flight but still watching me.
497For a second I stared back, then turned and started off on my way before halting again as an idea popped up. It wasn't a bad idea. At least, while I stood there and turned it over in my mind it didn't seem to be a bad idea. The cub was still there, watching. It flinched when I reached into a pocket and produced a single gold coin, tipping it back and forth. I saw the Rris teen's eyes glittering as the coin did the same in the moonlight. "I've got coin," I said quietly.
498There was a visible flinch at that. The head came up, the ears back, but the Rris didn't run.
499"In exchange for a service," I finished.
500You could practically see the conflicting choices churning away behind the eyes. But in a couple of seconds, the greed - or perhaps necessity - won out. A pink tongue flashed and licked white teeth and the teen asked, "What you want?"
501There was a strange lilt to the voice. A speech impediment? I wasn't in any position to criticize.
502"Directions," I said. "Just directions."
503"You're lost?"
504Never admit to weakness or a need when negotiating, it was one of Hirht's lessons that'd stuck with me. "I just want a location."
505"Coin first."
506I snorted and the urchin flinched. "I don't think so," I said and clicked the gold piece down on a rotting wooden case. It was a lot of money, that one bit of gold. A helluva lot of money for that scraggly little shadow. "Tell me and this is yours."
507"Where?"
508"Five-Corner Square," I said and watched round two of greed vs. caution ensue. Greed took out caution with a chair to the back of the head and the urchin pointed to my two o'clock.
509"That way. Two streets over. Off Stone Throw alley."
510I stared for a second. There were white teeth glittering in those features. I picked up the coin again and set off.
511"Hai, coin!"
512"When I get there, it's yours," I said.
513"Red tie you!" stormed from behind me along with a flood of Rris swearing that contributed to my limited vocabulary, then a resigned, "Hai, no! That way." 
514'That way' wasn't in the direction that'd originally been indicated. No great surprise. But it was closer to the direction I'd originally been headed, and that felt right. I just nodded and continued, aware of the swearing little shadow I'd picked up.
515Five-Corner Square was just a bit off my original estimates, but not by much. From the concealment of an alleyway I surveyed the plaza. There were the shapes of the nearer of the fountains, like stone trees off in the mist. I could hear the water running. Over there were building fronts that looked familiar, which was saying something: sometimes the insular quality of Rris architecture doesn't lend itself to distinctive facades on most buildings, but businesses tended to want to be noticed. So there were carvings and painted hoardings and a manner of other basic types of advertising. All up, it told me that it was the place.
516"Thanks, kid," I murmured and tossed the coin to a figure lurking behind me. The gold was snatched out of the air and the urchin was gone. I waited a bit to be sure, then nodded and leaned a shoulder against the damp brick wall, surveying the plaster and beam facade of the big building across the way. That was the place I was interested in. Chriét had pointed it out on one of my tours of the city, giving me a brief history that'd been lost in all the other information I'd been trying to process at the time and telling me I'd was supposed to attend a function held there. Looked like I was going to miss that party. Can't say I was sorry: I'd attended a similar one in Shattered Water and had found the whole thing quite embarrassing.
517Now the big place was dark, save for a single lantern burning at a postern gate in the big wooden doors sealing the entryway. Banners hung limp from the second-story eaves, their colors washed out in the darkness. As usual, the only windows were the narrow slits up on the second floor. The place was closed and locked up, but there was always a way in.
518I found it around the back in a narrow back street. Scaling a wall there let me into a small muddy area cluttered with debris. The doors there were closed, but it was easy to slip a sliver of wood in between the door and jamb and lift the basic latch. Inside it was pitch black and musty, with a lingering trace of the heat of the day. A short hall followed the outside wall for a few meters then opened into another dark area that simply felt big. Tangles of ropes and pulleys and other paraphernalia hung from dark heights. Beams and ladders and scaffolds rose and vanished back into those same heights. A few glimmers of moonlight found their way in and caught peeling gilt and gold and the air smelled of dust and paint and moldy canvass. An incredible jumble of stacked furniture, wheels, brooms, poles, statues and carvings, buckets and barrels, paintings, door frames... stacks of assorted junk of all description catching my shins while low overhead beams threatened to concuss me. I ducked my way through them, past hanging racks of painted canvasses, then up steps and into echoing open space.
519Wan light peeped through dirty little windows spaced high around the circumference of the auditorium, illuminating everything in shades of grey and shadow. There was a framework overhead; from my perspective a flimsy construction of wood and canvass, with ropes and bits of furniture scattered here and there. Seen from another perspective, I knew it'd take on the semblance of a building - a cross section of house or a business or whatever was needed for the moment.
520As quietly as I could I crossed the stage, pausing once to look out into the gloom of the theatre. Below the stage, the space was open flagstones. Further back were a few tiers of benches. Above that were the private balconies. I'd sat in a booth like that once, eating cheese and wine with a good friend while she laughed at my reaction to what was onstage. That had been for pleasure. This was business. 
521I chased those memories away with a shake of my head and moved on across the boards, beneath the multistory framework of the set.
522The theatre was dark and still, but doubtless it wasn't deserted. Rris couldn't commute so easily and in this society actors and performers aren't overly paid, so there would probably be at least a few living here. Probably upstairs, in the lofts and attics I guessed, up where it'd be warm and cheap. But there was at least one down in the flys, burning the midnight oil. Literally. A flicker of orange lamplight glimmered past a half-open door of heavy timber painted rust-red. There was a name scratched in chalk on a black slate alongside: Res'hat and something else indecipherable. And under that a Rris crosshatch that I worked out was telling people Quiet.
523Inside was a small, cluttered room that stank of burnt lamp oil and other, stranger scents. A single lamp flickered, illuminating a wall that was a pantheon of garish colors and textures and staring eyes. I blinked and the jumble resolved into a wall of masks. Hundreds of masks, hanging in neat rows. The orange light glittered from slivers of polished metal and glass and tiny mirrors fashioned into caricatures of Rris and animals, staring at me. The overall effect was... creepy, to say the least. 
524There was a living creature in there as well. A Rris was seated on a cushion at a low desk, muzzle creased over papers that spread across the workspace. A charcoal stub clutched in stubby fingers was busy scratching characters, occasionally crossing them out and then trying again. The Rris didn't even glance up as I pushed the door open and stood in the doorway.
525"Excuse me," I said. "I'd like to ask you some questions."
526The Rris just glanced up for a split second before returning to work. That wasn't quite what I'd been expecting. "Rot you, Herth, take that rotted costume off or I'll shave you for real. But the voice is much better."
527I blinked, somewhat taken aback. "Um, Herth couldn't be here tonight."
528The pencil faltered, and then stopped. There was a quiet crack as the sharpened tip snapped and charcoal smeared across the paper, forgotten as the head slowly came up again. Ah, that was more like it.
529"Hi," I grinned slowly and ducked my head to pass through the doorway. "As I said; I've a few questions I'd like to ask you."
530"You're... you're really him, aren't you," the Rris stared, those tufted ears tipping back. I couldn't be sure of gender, a 'he'... possibly. Whatever this individual was, it was a scraggly Rris, with matted fur and a marked squint in those amber eyes. 
531"No, I'm his evil twin," I retorted, leaning against the wall in a handy position to block the door.
532"Huhn...? I thought there was only one." The Rris just looked confused and worried. "Why're you here? What'd you want?"
533I sighed. For the third time... "I'd like to ask you some questions, about Mediators. They were here the other night?"
534I saw the expression flicker as the fellow remembered something and then the look was one of sudden panic. "Ai, they demanded we make those changes! Please, I'm sorry. I know it's not true but we don't have any choice!"
535Changes? I wasn't about to blurt out that I didn't know what the hell that was supposed to mean. "Anything else they demanded?" I asked. "Anything that wasn't entirely... usual?"
536Those eyes were rims of amber circumnavigating pools of black. A dirty hand scrubbed at a cheek tuft, smearing charcoal into the speckled grey fur. Male, I decided, though I still wasn't entirely sure. "They said I wasn't supposed to..."
537He trailed off and watched as I crossed over to the wall of masks. I picked out an emerald green one, made of felt with hundreds of little beaten squares of polished green metal sewn to it. I held it up to my own face, but the eye holes were positioned for Rris eyes, with a flared space for the muzzle. No way it would fit me. "Weren't to tell anyone?" I suggested. "Mediators were playing with costuming and paints?"
538He started, his ears pricked in surprise. "You know?"
539"They required that someone be made up to look like someone else?" It was a guess, actually. She'd said the dye was expensive. And the mediators would want an expert to do a good job. A theatre with royal patronage would be the best choice, and there was only one of those. So it was a guess, but it seemed like it was a good guess. A bit of luck for once.
540I saw his gaze flicker, perhaps looking for a way out. "A. It was Shirc. She was supposed to keep..." he faltered, his ears laying back.
541I gazed down at the mask in my hand, turning it over and over. So, she was right. She was telling the truth. It hadn't been Chaeitch I'd killed. But it'd been someone who'd been intent on killing me.
542"It's not true, is it?" the Rris at the desk ventured in a small voice.
543"Hmm?" I looked up. "What isn't?"
544He shrank back, his ears going down flat against his furry skull. "What they said about you. What they want me to say," he gestured vaguely at the papers on the desk. All things considered, he was taking this surprisingly well. He hadn't screeched for help or even made a break for the door. And he was obviously more concerned about those changes he'd mentioned than the Mediators' makeover party.
545"And what's that?" I asked quietly.
546He glanced at the door, then back to me. "That you're dangerous. Unpredictable." He ducked his head, "a 'vicious animal' they said. That you've killed people."
547I stared, then slowly said, "Now, just pretend I haven't heard about this and tell me: what exactly do they want you to change to say that?"
548He looked a little taken aback then touched the paper in front of him. "This! The whole script will have to be re-written," he snorted, then slapped a hand down on it. "But I've heard tell about you. There are descriptions, other writings that say while you look grotesque and fearsome..." he looked alarmed. "Ah, no offence."
549"None taken," I shrugged.
550There was another uncertain look, then he coughed and continued, "But they say you're also personable and intelligent; more like a normal person than you look." He picked up a sheet of paper and looked from it to me. "I don't understand why the Mediators now say you're dangerous."
551I squatted at the low desk and picked up a page: the paper was the cheapest available, covered with errant inkblots and the perceptual cross-hatch that was closely-spaced Rris writing. That in turn had bits crossed out, notes in the margins, scrawls and addendums and amendments... And the handwriting itself was idiosyncratic, to say the least. I could only make out a few words. "This is a script?" I asked. "For a play?"
552"A," he looked at me as if I were asking if water were wet.
553"It's popular?"
554"Quite." His ears pricked up a bit.
555"Huhn," I let the paper float back down to the desk. It wasn't too difficult to see what the motive behind that move was. Propaganda. Making me seem to be a threat. But why? What would that do? Would Rris be more likely to go to the Mediators? Or would they just be more likely to go after me themselves. Either way, it'd make things difficult for me.
556"You're going to do this?" I asked.
557"Mediator decree," he said, as if that explained everything. And thinking back to what I'd heard the other night, perhaps it did. But it was an unusual move... I grimaced as I tried to figure out the ramifications of this. 
558"You're... angry?" he asked.
559I sighed and shook my head. He just looked worried again. I amended the gesture to a Rris-style tip of my hand and then kicked a threadbare floor cushion over against the wall. He was watching as I sat and leant back.
560"No, not angry," I said. "Not at you, anyway. These Mediators, who was in charge? Did he have a name?"
561"Hai, no. I mean, they didn't introduce themselves. I heard the others though. They called him Shyia."
562A leaden weight dropped into my guts. "Shyia," I echoed.
563"A. I think..."
564"Shit!" I thumped my fist against the wall, the boom reverberating through the building. He shut up, fast. Shyia. It would be him. Someone who knew me well enough to try a ploy like that disguise gambit. It'd never have worked on a Rris, but he knew me well enough to know I might make a mistake like that. And as for the propaganda he was having that Rris write...
565The Rris in question was looking absolutely petrified, with those tufted ears flattened so they were practically molded to his skull. "And you're actually going to write that?" I asked.
566His jaw chattered and muscles in his muzzle spasmed as he obviously tried not to bare teeth.
567I sighed again. "I apologize. I didn't mean to scare you... Did you ever have one of those days? Sorry, I mean it's been a long and tiring day and that was a bit of bad news I wasn't expecting. He insisted you write that?"
568He waved a cautious affirmative.
569Shit. I slowly knocked my head back against the planks behind me. On the wall opposite, the masks stared mutely back. I had killed, several times. They'd been Rris. Back when I'd first arrived perhaps it hadn't been... No. That wasn't right. It'd been a  big deal, it'd always been that, but perhaps there'd been the subconscious feeling that they weren't human, they aren't real people... That was two years ago. Now, of course that'd changed, but could a Rris look back on the last two years and determine I was a ruthless killer? Character assassination as well as physical. It'd mean I'd be a lot less likely to find help from the populace if they wanted to shoot first and ask questions later.
570"What would it take for you not to?" I asked.
571"Not to?" His ears flickered back again. "Going against the word of the Mediators?"
572"A, how much?"
573His expression would've probably been the same if I'd asked him to drink the ocean. "That's just... not possible," he choked.
574I swore under my breath and slumped back. I could threaten him, but that would probably just compound my problems. If he thought I actually was a psychotic thug...
575"But perhaps..." he ventured. That shocked expression had changed to something a little more calculating. It was an expression that made him vaguely resemble a scruffy, ink-stained weasel.
576"That much?" I growled. At this rate of bribery the moderate fortune I as carrying would be gone in no time.
577"Huhn," his ears flagged down and up again. "I have to do as they said. Ah, I will do that. But I might be able to do that in a way that profits the both of us?"
578Now I stared. Surprised, and not more than a little suspicious. "How?"
579"The stories I've heard... They've been very popular, but I must confess I don't know what is true and what isn't. Perhaps if you could tell me your story, I could do what the Mediators require and also tell your side of the tale. If you did these things they say you did, it would explain why. If you had a good reason for those acts, if they were justifiable, then how can they be wrong?"
580I opened my mouth, then paused and closed it again and frowned. It was an... interesting proposition. "Not money," I prodded at the idea. "Just my story?"
581"A."
582"That would appease the mediators?"
583"A."
584"And you wouldn't portray me as... some sort of animal?"
585There was a flicker of nervousness. "That... it depends on your account. It depends if it is true."
586"How can you be sure what I tell you is the entire truth?"
587"Stories are my business. I like to think I can tell when people are embellishing. It happens often enough."
588Despite myself, I felt a wry smile twitch my face. "I think my story is probably a fair bit different from most of the ones you've heard. I think it's pretty hard to believe, even without... embellishment."
589Carefully he inclined his head. "No doubt," he said and then his gaze flicked up, past me.
590I twitched around and found my hand was already inside my rain cloak, touching the lethal assembly of wood and metal tucked into the bandolier there. There were Rris just outside the door, right on the edge of the shadows. Three of them I could see, three pairs of eyes shimmering with reflected candlelight. "We heard voices," one said uncertainly. "Res'hat, you're alright?"
591They weren't Mediators, that was obvious. Two were undressed, their fur looking rumpled and matted from sleep, while the third was wearing a pair of paint-spattered breeches. That one was carrying a bit of wood, clutched like a cudgel. How long had they been there? How much had they heard?
592"It's alright," the Rris I'd been talking to quickly said to them and me. "It's fine. I'm fine. They're friends. Not dangerous, right?"
593"This," one of them gestured, "It's really him?"
594"Come to complain about your costumes a, Shirc?" I caught the whispered aside from one of the newcomers to the one in the breeches. She glared back.
595"He was about to tell me his story," Res'hat said. "I don't know if he's willing to do so before an audience," he said, cocking his head toward me.
596I shrugged, then carefully tipped my hand in the corresponding Rris gesture. "I don't mind, but I don't have a lot of time. I have to be gone before light."
597"A," Res'hat acknowledged and I looked from him to the others and took a breath:
598"I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning, and I think that was a bit over two years ago, back where I come from. It was a place like this -  a world like yours'. There are villages and towns and cities bigger than you can imagine. But there the people look like me.
599"I don't really know what happened. It was in the countryside, far to the east of Shattered Water. One moment I was walking through familiar and safe land, the next there was a flash of light, like lightning all around me and a feeling... it was like... every part of me was falling into the universe, I suppose. It was like nothing else I can describe and then the next thing I know I woke up somewhere completely different. I'd been in the middle of a field; I woke up in a forest by a stream."
600For a while Res'hat sat and listened with the others, his ears pricked up. Then he started scratching a few notes. Before long he was scribbling furiously as I talked and talked into the night.
601
602------<o>------
603
604At four o'clock in the morning back home there was always noise of some description: the occasional car passing, sirens, distant aircraft. Here, in the Rris world, even in the middle of a city it's almost silent in the small hours. I slipped out the back of the theater into the strange silence of a sleeping city. Somewhere an owl hooted, but that was the only thing I could hear.
605Overhead, the grey overcast had thickened and the mist turned to a thin but steady drizzle. What light there was gleamed off streets and roofs turned slick and wet. I climbed the wall, hesitating on the crest to make sure there wasn't anyone around before dropping down to the muddy street and hurrying off on my way.
606There was only an hour or so till dawn and then the streets would get very busy, very quickly so I had to be out of sight before then. Well, that was arranged. I fingered the key in my pocket. I had a place I could stay, I just had to get across to the western side of the city.
607There were still Rris out and about, even at that hour and in that weather. I stuck to the shadows, kept away from lamps and the open streets. The rain cloak may have covered a lot, but not even the dark and the hood would help if a Rris got a close look. And it didn't hide my gait. I hoped those who saw me might just think me a cripple to be walking that way. And as I headed further west away from the center of the city there was less foot traffic.
608Not entirely deserted though. Even at that hour there were Rris with business to attend to. There were cartiers and couriers with early deliveries, workers from industries that never shut down, and others. Which I found as I ducked away from a rattling cart practically filling a narrow street. Yet another of those reeking little alleyways...
609A scuffling in the dimness and an impression of a scraggly shape scuttling toward me, but the sharp line of reflected light that glinted in one hand was galvanizing enough. I was still reaching for my own gun when the figure abruptly drew up short. I slowly grinned and there was a mewling noise and a sudden flurry of motion and the alley was empty again.
610Hmmm, after a shock like that he wouldn't be accosting strange figures in dark alleyways again any time soon. I slowly lowered the gun. None of that 'stand and deliver' shit. The ones here would just slit your throat and then help themselves. Sometimes it was easy to forget that despite everything that'd happened to me since my arrival, I'd ended up on the better side of the poverty line and some of the individuals on the other side were nasty and desperate.
611And there was still a chance he might come back and bring friends. I hurried on my way.
612That encounter made me a little jumpier; a little more paranoid. I was warier about those twisted little back ways where anything and anyone could be lurking in the shadows or around a corner. I kept glancing back over my shoulder for anything that looked out of place. That was probably the only reason I found I was being followed.
613It wasn't an obvious shadow I'd picked up. In fact, I didn't notice at first and only after I'd done it a few times did I notice a figure moving in the gloom behind me. At first I thought it was chance, but it happened again and again. I took a few random twists and turns through winding streets and thought I'd lost whoever it was, but then as I turned into the High Road caught another glimpse of the furtive shape nipping back into the shadows.
614The High Road ran arrow-straight through the center of the Highland district, named not because of its topology, but because of its occupants in days gone. Back in wilder times when most of the populace had huddled within the city walls - back before the city began to demand the land - the district had been in the countryside outside the walls. Prestigious, isolated out-of-town houses for the lords and ladies and merchant leaders away from the crowding and reek inside the fortifications. Then the city had grown, exploded beyond the walls and enveloped these properties and they'd become town houses: places where the wealthy could stay when they were in the city. Now their respectable country homes were way out in the hills and while these places weren't as big as those countryside holdings, it was still expensive land.
615Tall hedgerows and ancient, huge and twisted oaks marched in twin rows down either side of the High Road. Mist condensed on leaves high overhead and dripped in streams of moisture from foliage and boughs, pattering down through leaves and darkness, spattering from the hood of my rain cloak. The long grass of the verge was just as damp, soaking through my moccasins and leggings as I brushed through it, weaving in and out of the huge old oaks. To either side of the road lay the estates, insulated from the road by hedges, brick and high wrought iron, all ensuring that privacy that Rris architecture revolved around. I passed by gates, all closed and locked. Far beyond them, through mist and trees, in big houses up long drives, the warm glimmer of lights burned in the darkness. Otherwise, it was deserted.
616 Time to do something about that tail.
617One of my weaves between the trees put the two meter-wide bole of a gnarled old oak between me and whoever was back there. Lower branches had been kept pruned back, but they provided handholds enough for me to haul myself up into the crotch and work my way a little higher. A couple of meters above head height I settled among black, mossy bark and pulled my rain cloak a little closer and rested my hand on the butt of my pistol.
618Rain hissed and pattered through leaves for minutes.
619A scrawny little figure came into view down below, moving cautiously along the route I'd taken. It rounded the trunk and hesitated looking confused. I blinked, surprised myself: That panhandling adolescent. What the hell was he doing sneaking around after me?
620Nothing that boded well, I feared.
621I landed behind him, close enough to grab a wiry arm, and then the other as he spun with claws slashing.
622"Looking for someone?" I asked.
623Like holding a damn pneumatic hose. The youngling squirmed and twisted and tried to bring toe claws into play. He might've been a kid, but I didn't have any illusions about the risk those claws posed: each one was like a miniature knife. Legs kicked out with claws extruded and teeth snapped. I managed to get twist an arm behind his back and grab his scruff and pin him up against the tree while he snarled and spat. He had the claws and wiry energy, but I was more than twice his size.
624"Finished?" I asked when he finally wound down.
625"Let me go!" he snarled. His chest was heaving as he panted fast, furiously, like a wounded animal.
626"Why were you following me?"
627"I wasn't!"
628"Just out here for a walk, a? Just as you were walking behind me through town. Now, once again I'll be pleasant: why were you following me?"
629A sullen hiss.
630"Don't make me angry," I said quietly and then grinned quite slowly and deliberately. "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
631Ears went flat.
632I leaned down and hissed into one: "Tell me."
633A strangled mewling sound worked out of chattering jaws. "To see..."
634"See what?"
635"Where you were going."
636"You had a reason for this?"
637"Because you... you killed them!" he spat out and then recoiled.
638I also flinched back, more in surprise than anything else. "What? Who? Killed whom? What are you talking about?"
639"At the theatre," he hissed, shaking like a leaf. It was the same one as before, with that same peculiar infliction in his speech. "You killed them."
640I wasn't sure if that was an accusation or a question, but I was getting sick of everyone I met assuming I was a psycho. And now a kid, a goddamned kid just assumed... I pushed him away, up against the tree and he twisted as I took a couple of steps back. In that one movement there was a sliver of sharp metal in his hand: a bit of sharpened scrap metal tied to a makeshift handle. He snarled at me and I looked him up and down. Wiry, scrawny, bedraggled and scarred; dark lines were scored through the grubby fur across his features and one ear was already notched. This kid lived a life I'd never be able to experience or probably comprehend; that probably even kids back home who considered themselves streetkids had never dreamt of.
641"Kid," I sighed. "I didn't kill anyone."
642"You..."
643"Look, you don't believe me, why don't you just go back there and ask Res'hat what happened, a?" I snapped and he just stared at me. Dammit, he was just a kid. He might've grown up in the rancid underbelly of a world where there was so much less material wealth to trickle down through the layers of society; an ugly place where there were no social workers, where guns and shivs were almost a part of everyday attire and violence was a ready solution. But I'd still probably given him the fright of his life.
644"I haven't killed anyone." I cocked my head and regarded the scared youth. "What made you think that anyway?"
645"You stole in there. Later you sneak out again. I thought you didn't like those stories of you."
646Those stories. I almost laughed and choked it back before I scared him even more. "Those stories.  You saw those, a?" I said and he twitched, his tail lashing. I'd be willing to lay money that he hadn't paid money to see those plays.
647"They said you could get angry," he said and I wondered what else they said. Shyia knew more about those plays than I did and perhaps his little propaganda scheme would've caused more problems than I'd first thought.
648"You shouldn't believe everything you see, you know. And there are some things you shouldn't poke your nose into. You know how much trouble you could be getting yourself into?"
649"I can bite back," he hissed, his hand weaving the shiv in tight circles.
650"I'm sure you can," I said, eyeing him thoughtfully. He'd noticed me, so had that mugger. For what I needed to do I'd have to be able to get around the city. Inconspicuously.  Obviously, I'd have problems doing that, but perhaps someone who was more familiar with the city might do better.
651"Tell me: are you interested in earning some more coin?" I asked. "Golds?"
652At that his tail froze, and then just the tip twitched back and forth. A single gold coin would be more than he'd probably see in years; several in one night would be more than he'd have dreamt possible. Very cautiously he waved an affirmative.
653"Then I might have some work for you," I said.
654"Huhn. What would I have to do?"
655"Just some errands," I said. "Nothing difficult. I give you some coin to buy some food. You bring it back and I'll pay you two golds."
656Those cash registers went off again. "Two gold?"
657"A."
658The pupils contracted in sudden suspicion. "Why so much?"
659"To ensure promptness and discretion," I said. 
660"You're hiding," he said. "From whom?"
661"I'm not sure," I said. "That's what I want to find out. I require someone who knows the city. A guide who knows his way around? I would suppose you are somewhat of an expert in that regard?"
662"I know the trails," he growled.
663"Then would you be interested? Or should I look elsewhere?"
664"Hai, I'll do it," he snapped.
665"Then it's a deal," I said.
666The pewter fingers I gave him were worth a fraction of the gold pieces, but they were far less likely to raise eyebrows when traded in. Although, they were still a sight more than he'd probably see in months. I told him what to get and then gave a second's thought as to where and when to deliver them. He took the coins and counted them, all five, painstakingly, with his tongue poking from his mouth as he did so, then made them vanish into a belt pouch.
667"Two golds on delivery. And do a good job and there'll be more." Then I hesitated. "You've got a name?"
668"A," he hesitated before saying, "T'chier."
669"I'm Michael."
670"Mika... Mikal," he repeated and cocked his head. "Weird name," was all he said, then turned and pelted off down the road.
671I watched after him until he was gone in the gloom and drizzle. It was only then that I frowned. "Wait a second. Did he...say my name?" I wasn't sure if I'd heard correctly. For a second I stared off down the avenue after him, but he'd vanished into the mist. I shook my head and waited another short time to be sure he'd actually gone before I resumed my journey.
672Trust him? No way. Her Ladyship had called me naive, and by the standards of their political players I was, but it didn't mean I had to go out of my way to be stupid. He could get it into his head that he could simply go to the Mediators and charge them some handsome sum in exchange for leading them to me.
673That was assuming he knew they were after me. He hadn't said anything about it, but it would only be a matter of time before he found out 
674I kept going along between the rows of old, expensive estates and their old, expensive houses. Until the one gate that was flanked by a pair of statues: Rris holding bowls out before them. Not in the fashion of beggars, but standing larger than life and holding the vessels as though demanding the world see what they had. At one time those ceramic bowls would've been filled with oil and lit as lamps. Now, they were filling with pooling water and rimmed with moss. Beyond them the gates were black wrought iron twisted into forms that depicted curled branches. They were chained shut. There was a gatehouse arching over them; a porters lodge entangled in a burst of climbing ivy, the main gate nestled in an arched passage beneath it. There was no way the thing would ever have been an effective defense: the whole construction was mostly form over function, with plastered walls and ornately carved eaves. Small glazed windows watched down from the transverse over the gate. There were no lights, no sign of life.
675That looked like the place she'd described.
676I climbed the gate carefully. The spikes on top were decorative, but still sharp and I gingerly balanced myself on the top crosspiece of the rattling gate as I ducked between them and the roof of the tunnel, then dropped down onto damp flagstones. Damn. I winced at the pain that caused my moccasin-clad feet. 
677Limping awkwardly, I headed up the drive toward the dark house.
678It was a big place. Compared with all the other properties around it was big. Comparing it with something I was familiar with, I'd have had to liken it to a classical Georgian style, with some gothic touches in the gables and turrets. The timbers weren't painted, but were doubtless treated with something. Condensing mist beaded in droplets across the unruly lawn in front of the building and made the black slate roof glisten. Windows on the lower floors were shuttered; those few that weren't stared back with diamond lattice panes. The place had that certain Adams Family air to it.
679The front door was dark oak, with ornately cast brass crosspieces that were probably more ornamentation than reinforcement. Touches of tarnish fogged and pitted the metal. It was also locked. The key fitted neatly into the lock and turned. Stiffly, but it turned.
680This house was property of Ladyship's family. Her mother's side, I think she'd said.  I wasn't sure. She'd told me it went back a long way, but wasn't used so often now that they'd moved to estates further out in the country. There were periodic groundskeepers and guards, but she'd said their orders would be subtly amended. I'd have the place to myself.
681Hinges squealed as the front door swung closed behind me and I stood in the dusty gloom of the main hall. It was high, a dark and dim place, paneled in dark wood, paved with grey and green checkered tiles. A musty smell hung in the air, stale: the smell of a place that hadn't been disturbed for some time. Opposite, a grand staircase climbed to a landing, a pair of smaller staircases branching up to the first floor. Above the landing a circular window: cut and shaped panes forming an intricate geometric pattern filtered anemic moonlight through a coating of grime. Not enough to light the place, but just enough to emphasize the shadows. And the cobwebs, and the dust. There was a lot of dust.
682Cautiously, I prowled from room to room. With the shutters drawn everything was pitch black. The pale needles of nightglow seeping in through chinks in the shutters provided scarcely enough light to make out empty spaces strewn with ghostly white shapes; furniture under dustcloths. Understairs was the same. The places where staff and servants had lived and worked were bare, dark and empty.
683The stairs creaked as I went up, to more of the same. More light got in through the unshuttered windows on that floor, so I could actually see. Not that there was anything spectacular waiting, just more rooms of white-covered furniture. Still, I went through them one at a time, assuring myself that the place was deserted. Even though it felt empty.
684In some ways it was like any large house you might've found back home. Form did follow function, after all. But there were differences in the Rris psyche that translated into the architecture. Bedrooms and bathrooms and water closets were clustered into private areas widely separated by halls and discreet doors, giving the occupants their personal space. The bedrooms were bare, with huddles of cloth-covered furniture. Some of the bathrooms still had tubs: huge things of old tiles that were built in, but no pipes or fixtures. They predated those modern innovations.
685The house was deserted. Undoubtedly and uncomfortably so. I stopped at the doorway of one room and looked around. It'd been a bedroom once, perhaps even a room her Ladyship had called her own. Now there was just the empty box of a bed frame and few pieces of anonymous furniture stacked away in   a corner, covered with dust cloths. A couple of slivers of moonlight peeked through slots in the window shutters, an eddy of dust swirled in a moonbeam. I shivered. I'd dreamt about rooms in dark houses like this before.
686Just a quiet, empty building. Nothing more. A Rris would find my emotional associations peculiar and wonder why an empty house would produce feelings like that. I wouldn't be able to offer any answers. Shaking my head I retreated to one of the larger bedrooms. There'd been more furniture stored there, including a recliner-couch thing that still had some stuffing and would be more comfortable than the bare floorboards.
687At least it was a roof over my head. Outside, beyond the window on the other side of the heavy drapes, the sky was brightening. There was no way I could show my face out there in daylight so I'd have to wait for night again. That was acceptable; I could do with a few hours rest. I lay in darkness and watched cobwebs up on the ceiling swaying in a draft. The next day was going to be... interesting. I just had to plan how I was going to do it. Of course I was all too aware of that old saw that no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
688------<o>------
689
690The stifling heat woke me.
691Sunlight stabbed through pinholes in the old velvet drapes, specks of dust eddying in the threads of light sketched through the air. The room was hot and airless, heated to a blood-warm stuffiness from the sunlight behind the curtains. Choruses of insects rasped and ticked in the world outside. Afternoon already. Time to rise.
692At a low side-table of garishly inlaid wood I breakfasted on coarse bread, jerked meat and water from my kit. There was enough there for a couple of days, if I rationed it. I could've carried more, but there was no way to keep it. As I sat and munched at my dry and somewhat gritty bread I poked at the meager rations in their vellum and paper wrappers and remembered things like Tupperware boxes and clingfilm. I hadn't included those in my reminiscing to her Ladyship. I guess it's the little things you really end up missing.
693There was still more work for me to do. A primary ingredient in my working plan was still a wild card: That adolescent Rris. I didn't know if I could trust him. Actually, putting it bluntly, I didn't trust him. That'd have been crazy. If he did come back that night with what I'd asked for; if he came back without a contingent of Mediators in tow, then I'd trust him more. More, but not entirely.
694Hopefully, he would prove trustworthy. If I was going to do what I was planning then there were going to be instances in which having a gofer like that would be very useful. Meantime, I'd need the time I had before I was due to meet him to write a few notes.
695That took considerably longer than I'd intended. I had a stub of charcoal pencil and some scraps of cheap paper and a primary school grasp of the written language. There was nobody to ask for help with vocabulary, grammar or spelling tips. I also had to be somewhat exact in my wording. All that teamed up to mean it took a ridiculously long time just to write the notes. Long enough that the light outside was turning to orange and softer hues as the shadows lengthened.
696Time to keep an appointment.
697------<o>------
698
699From the vantage of a low roof I watched the kid come down the street toward the yard. He was walking quickly, a small sack slung over his shoulder. From what I could tell he seemed nervous, I noted as I leaned back, staying in the shadows of the building the shed abutted.
700I'd ensured that I arrived at the appointed spot well ahead of time. Over an hour ahead of time. That'd let me get into the closed warehouse yard and get into place. I'd settled on the roof of a low shed adjoining a larger building, the eaves of that building overhanging enough to offer some nice shadows. I wasn't under any illusions that Rris couldn't see in that gloom, but their sight wasn't so good at discerning motionless detail. So I sat still and watched the street, looking for individuals who might also be lingering. As yet, I hadn't spotted anything out of the ordinary.
701The night was clear, with a spill of bright stars smeared across the sky. A crescent moon hung low over rooftops and chimneys, turning dribbles of smoke into faint ghosts in the air. That was a mixed blessing: I could at least see to move, but it made the shadows seemed darker than ever. Away to the south an aqueduct loomed above the outlying town, streets and smaller building crammed in between the arched supports. I saw bats flitting and jinking around the old mossy stones, their dark forms eclipsing the slightly brighter night sky. Out the front of the yard a couple of gas lamps flickered feebly, more to light the signage on the place than illuminate the street.
702The kid was on time. Well, as punctual as could be expected for someone who didn't have a watch and who lived in a town where the public clocks seemed to each run on their own little time zones that could be half an hour out of sync with others. He looked nervous; glancing around at corners and alleyways, which I figured was a good sign. If he'd been too cocky or fixated on not looking around I'd have suspected he'd brought backup of some kind and had been carefully coached on not looking at them.
703He was waiting outside on the street, at the corner of the yard where an adjacent alleyway opened onto the main street. His ears flickered and then he whirled around as I dropped from the top of the brick wall around down into the alleyway. The only other people visible in the moonlight were a couple heading away from us further down the street, but I was still twitchy.
704"On time," I said. "That's good."
705"Coin," he said, fur bristling as he drew himself up to his full height; barely a meter tall. "You promised."
706"On delivery of goods," I said and held up the lump of metal where he could see it. "Show me, first. I'm not paying for a bag of rocks or dead rats."
707He grinned, then showed me the contents of his package: A small wheel of cheese in wax, smoked bison, bison jerky, bread and hard biscuits. All stuff that would keep. I nodded and flipped the coin to him and he handed the bag across then his eyes fixed on the new Gold I held up.
708"You interested in another job?" I asked.
709I saw his tongue flash out to lick his lips. "What?"
710"This one's a bit more challenging," I said. "I need you to deliver a note to someone. Unobtrusively."
711"What's that mean?"
712That was a first: A Rris word I knew and a local didn't. "I mean quietly. Without anyone else knowing."
713"Ah, who is for?"
714"His name's Chaeitch ah Ties," I said. "And tomorrow his carriage will be at the shipyards..."
715
716------<o>------
717
718Gas lamps were burning inside. The soft glow filtered out through a crack in the curtains, through the panes in the closed doors. The wedge of light spilled across the balcony and a corner of an ornamental planter, the leaves of the shrubbery growing within shifting in the warm night breeze. Overhead, the overhang of the eaves were a dark line across the faint glow of moonlit clouds. Back in the shadows, I leaned against the cool stone wall and listened to the voices emanating from inside and tried to ignore the mosquito whining around my head. I remember thinking how that'd felt familiar, how I'd done something similar not a few days before.
719The voices were loud enough to be heard, not loud enough to be able to make out what was being said. They continued for a few minutes and then there was the sound of a door being closed, then silence. The mosquito whined and nocturnal insects buzzed in the grasses, then the line of light across the balcony abruptly widened as the drapes were pulled apart. The doors rattled and then swung out.
720I just waited off to the side, in the gloom beyond the light cast from inside while a Rris shadow fell across the balcony and a hand raised to ruffle chest and shoulder fur. I heard a hiss, a sigh, and then the shadow shrank again as the Rris turned and went back inside. A few seconds later I moved quietly after.
721The room was nice. Not as luxurious and elaborate as my suite had been, but still up to the standards accorded VIP guests. Green satin wallpaper in a paisley pattern and trimmed with gold foil. Plaster Rris and animal heads gazed down from the cornice. A couple of gas lamps flickered dimly, their copper pipes leading down into the floor on either side of the cotton-sheeted bed. He was alone, his back to me and tail lashing as he folded his tunic.
722My hand felt for my bandolier and the reassuring weight of metal and wood tucked away there. Then I quietly asked, "Tough day?"
723Chaeitch leapt and spun at the same time, his fur bottling and tunic falling forgotten. For a second he gaped, "Mikah?!"
724It looked like him, but so had the other one. "Back in Shattered Water, what did you and Rraerch find out that day in your office; that I'd asked you not to tell."
725"What..." he started to protest and then I saw his gaze lower and take in where my hand was resting. His ears went absolutely flat as he realized I was serious. "Your back," he said, answering my question. "What that Maithris had done to it. Those scratches."
726That was good enough. I sighed and used a finger to pull down the black mask covering the lower half of my face. I wasn't foolish enough to believe it did anything to disguise me, but it did make me harder to see at night.
727"Rot you Mikah, what're you doing here?!" he hissed.
728"I need to talk with you."
729"But that note said the mill..." he blinked then shook his head as he caught on.
730"Which is where most of the Mediators are camping out waiting for me, right?" I said. "It was the only way to talk to you without them... interrupting."
731"Shave you!" he hissed, stepped toward me. I retreated and he halted. "Stop this now," he growled urgently. "Give yourself up. They can help you."
732"Help me?" I quietly asked. "Chaeitch, do you know what happened to me? After that Mediator took me away? Do you have any idea?!"
733"They said you ran from them."
734"Actually, I was kidnapped," I said, surprised at how level I was able to keep my tone. "Taken from them quite violently. I didn't have any choice in the matter. And then my captors said they saved my life; that I was originally to be executed."
735"You..." he started to say.
736"And," I continued, "you know what makes things really interesting? They were also Mediators."
737He stared again. Then said, "What are you talking about?"
738I sighed and glanced at the closed door. Were there guards? I didn't think so, but I kept my voice down. "Please, I'm not sure what's happening. I haven't been able to get any answers and I was hoping you could help. What have they been telling you?"
739"That you escaped. That you've been hiding from them. You raided the Ironheart and left that note and they said that you resisted arrest then; that you killed a Mediator."
740I sagged.
741"Tell me you didn't do this," he said. His eyes flared as the light caught them.
742"I killed someone," I said quietly. "I thought it was you. I mean... I was at the warehouse and someone came, I thought it was you. It looked like you and I couldn't tell... He just... he just shot at me, then tried to finish it with a knife. I... the gun went off. I thought I'd killed you."
743"You thought it was me?" he said, incredulously.
744"I... can't tell Rris apart very well," I confessed miserably. "Not properly. Not even you. Someone knew this. A Mediator was made up to look like you and sent to kill me. Not arrest... kill me. And yet other Mediators were trying to keep me alive."
745The Rris was staring at me as if I was telling him that the sky was an interesting shade of plaid that night. Slowly, his ears laid back and then visibly struggled up again. "Mikah, please, you are not feeling well."
746I had felt better, but I knew that wasn't what he meant. "I think I am as sane as I've ever been since I came here," I said. "The one who told you that, he wouldn't be called Shyia, by any chance?"
747"You know him?" he said, then must've remembered. "A, of course you do."
748"Oh, yeah, From a way back. And he told you I was... what? Ill? Mentally unstable? Insane?" I saw by the reaction that I wasn't hitting far from the mark. "Great. And he's in charge?"
749"He's answering to the Guild Lord," Chaeitch said quietly.
750"He told me he was taking me to... ah... ah Richtkah? The Guildmaster? But why is he suddenly doing this? He was surely informed of my visit here, why didn't he say something to Hirht, to her Ladyship..."
751"No, Mikah," Cheaitch interjected. "He's not the local master, he's the Mediator Guild Lord. Shyia had documents... they were quite authentic. From the Guild Hall in Meetings, bestowing on him provisional authority. He said he had taken you into custody and was returning to the local Guild Hall when you ran from him, injuring several Mediators in the process. He asked for our help in finding you. For your own good."
752"He said that? That I ran from him?"
753"A."
754I shook my head and eyed him. "You helped him with that note on the Ironheart," I said flatly. "Telling them where I'd be."
755"A," he waved an affirmative. "They brought the note to me and asked where that location was. He said they didn't want you running around the city. There was danger. You could be injured, or someone could..." He trailed off with a hiss.
756"Did he ever say just why I was to be taken into custody in the first place?"
757"Said they had some questions for you," Cheaitch said, flicking an ear back and then rubbing it.
758"They said," I noted. "You never saw those actual orders in writing?"
759"No, not those," he said quietly. "Mikah, that night they took you, what happened? In your words?"
760"I don't have much time."
761"Then be quick. Sit, tell me."
762We sat on basic leather cushions and I told him. I could see him struggling not to interject as I spoke, as I told him things that no doubt contradicted what the Mediators had told him. I told him what happened that night, after Shyia took me away, after the attack in that narrow street and my flight; then the unknown mediators who'd taken me and claimed to have saved my life. Then the long days following that. And again I omitted names and other details. I wanted to trust Chaeitch, I really wanted to, but after the notes, after the fact he'd helped the Mediators I just couldn't risk it. For the sakes of those who'd helped me.
763I was angry at him. After what he'd done - the way he'd helped the Mediators. It felt like a betrayal. And that hit me where it hurt. But I was telling myself that it was through mistaken beliefs on his part, because of the misinformation he'd been fed. And there was something more than that. The Mediators seemed to have the same sort of effect on Rris that a charismatic leader does on humans: despite what common sense might dictate they can be led to do things that are just plain crazy.
764So perhaps he'd never had any choice. Which might have removed the blame, but it also removed the reliability. I realized that I just couldn't trust him entirely, not where Mediators were involved.
765When I was done he sat quietly, then said, "That can't be right."
766I sighed. "It's... Look, I'm sorry but there isn't time. They'll be back soon." I looked back over my shoulder at the window and the grounds beyond, but it was still quiet out there. "Everything I told you is the truth. It happened. I don't know why; I was hoping you'd have some idea. If you don't then... Chaeitch, be careful. They're trying to hide something. If they think you're not buying their story they might get nasty." I frowned and added, "And I don't think it would be a good idea to let them know I was here."
767He laid his ears back, "Mikah, can you hear what you're saying?! They're Mediators, rot it!"
768"Doesn't mean they're perfect. I know they're supposed to be, but... Fuck! They've lied. They've lied to me, they've lied to you. Just... be careful, a?"
769Chaeitch hissed in exasperation and then snapped his teeth. "And if they find out you've been here and I didn't raise the alarm?"
770I felt a surge of annoyance. He thought he had problems? "Then tell them I held you at gunpoint.  You were afraid for your life. After all, I'm a dangerous killer, aren't I?" I turned back to the balcony.
771"You're going?" he said.
772"A, there's someone else I have to talk to," I said, and then hesitated in the doorway.
773"One other thing," I said and turned, raising a finger, "don't leave on the Ironheart without me, a? That's quite important."
774He looked puzzle but waved a hesitant affirmative.
775I pulled my black scarf back up over my face, climbed over the parapet and dropped down into the darkness.
776Getting away from the Palace was as tricky as getting in had been. I had to get across the moonlit meadows, staying low and making myself one with the dew-soaked grass when guards made their rounds. Beyond those fields lay the belt of the woods: a world of blackness and faint dapples of moonlight and strange noises in the gloom. I hurried through there as best I could, all the time expecting a yowl of alarm in the darkness.
777That didn't come till I was over the fence. When I dropped from the top rail a quizzical vocalization called from some way behind. I went flat amongst bracken and leaves and fallen needles, facefirst into the earthy scent of the forest floor, letting the black of the rain cloak settle over me.
778Voices coming closer:
779"... thought I saw something."
780"Where?"
781"Right here."
782A pause. I wasn't breathing, becoming one with ground.
783"Nothing there now, a? Smell anything?"
784"A." Another pause. "That's an odd scent."
785"Another raccoon, probably. Rotted things after the midden heaps again."
786"Huhn, a."
787"Come on. Get this watch over with."
788Voices fading.
789I waited a while, then ran again.
790Out of those woods and away up a hillside I stopped and turned, panting and dripping sweat as I gazed back down a the Palace. There were lights, but not nearly as many as that night I'd first seen it. There was however a column of torches crawling up the Palace drive: a large convoy of riders and carriages bound back to the palace at quite a clip. It didn't take too much to guess who that was.
791I didn't hesitate to put more distance between myself and that place.
792
793------<o>------
794
795In the stuffy heat of the loft I took another swig of lukewarm water from the wineskin and grimaced. The water was body temperature and tasted of leather, but it was still wet. I drank and then returned to the dazzling point of the peephole.
796That loft was a tiny triangular spider-web and bird dropping littered wedge just below the wood-chip shingle roof of a shed abutting a store of some kind. I'd broken in by lifting some tiles and crawling down inside. It was cramped and hot and dusty and littered with the remains of nests and rodent and bird shit, but it overlooked the square. A  crack served as a peephole where I could see the square and three sides.
797It wasn't a busy place. Small enough that overhanging buildings blocked out the morning sunlight. Stonework on that side was patched and discolored with moss. In the center stood a fountain: a modestly sized bronze statue of a stunted tree atop a pile of rocks. The metal was green with age and quite a few branches were obviously broken off. Water dribbled down to four spouts on the short plinth, one on each side. The local water supply where periodically Rris would bring pitchers and jugs to fill.
798It wasn't a prosperous part of town.
799Down by the fountain were stone benches. On one of those benches a lone figure was sitting, right in the middle of the stone slab, tail twitching as he waited. His dark leather Mediator uniform kept others away, leaving him waiting quietly.
800The note had been delivered to the Guild Hall a few hours earlier that morning by T'chier, probably by brick through a window. It'd requested that Shyia meet me at that appointed place at an appointed time. By the time he'd arrived I'd already been there for a couple of hours, time enough to see the two figures settle in at half-open windows, spot another lurking in the greenery beyond a wrought-iron gateway. They were all armed with long guns of some description. I was sure that some of the individuals who occasionally wandered through the square weren't all they appeared to be.
801I wasn't surprised.
802As minutes ticked by the lashing of Shyia's tail became more agitated, then eventually it simply froze motionless. That meant he was pissed. Good. I didn't want him thinking too clearly. Especially when a small figure appeared in front of him and hesitantly approached, then handed over a small piece of paper and hastily scampered off again.
803Shyia opened the note and read it, then looked in the direction the cub had gone. I saw him snarl, then glance at the shadows and get up. On his way out of the square he paused by a nondescript female apparently carrying a load of laundry and muttered a few words to her, then hastened on his way.
804I moved out as well, stretching as I climbed out of my hiding place and dropping down into one of the streets behind the square. He'd be taking the quickest way to where he thought the next meeting would be; where he'd just told his associates he'd be heading. He wasn't going to make it.
805The back streets were the familiar mix of warrens of muddy, narrow, unpaved streets and fetid, dank little alleyways. But I already had my route through the city planned out. There were short cuts through back alleys, fences and walls to scale. Several times I came face to face with locals. They fled or cowered back with shocked expressions, but they didn't impede me and I didn't wait around. Perhaps they'd go to the Mediators or Guards. Perhaps. But I had no intention of being there by they time they returned.
806The ruined barbican was a remaining part of old city walls, standing above the peaked roofs of the tenement districts like a rotting tooth. The crenellations were mostly gone. A jagged bite was missing out of the eastern tower, revealing tumbled floors inside. Narrow windows slits were stained white with bird droppings where they'd been used as a means of ingress. Now the whole structure squatted over a public street, the gateway below forming a dark tunnel through which traffic passed. Not a great deal; it was no longer one of the city's major thoroughfares. 
807It reeked in there. It reeked of animal and Rris wastes, of rotting things and dampness. The shattered side was gutted, the outer walls collapsed down to the first floor, the floors above that just rickety frameworks whitened with bird shit. Any loose stone or good wood had long ago been recycled into local buildings. Still, there were signs that the gutted shell of the gatehouse was being used: charcoal fire pits, scattered remains of food. Whoever that belonged to, there was no sign of them at that time.
808In the gutted remains of one of the innermost broken rooms there was a small arched passageway, a doorway through the thick wall connecting to the tunnel through the barbican. Blocking that door was an ancient gate, a cross-hatch of rusting iron strips forming a grid, the holes little larger than my head offering metal-framed views of the dark stone of the gateway beyond. It was firmly rusted shut by years of neglect. That suited me fine.
809I'd been expecting the ambush. Which was why the second note had told Shyia to go to another location. Fast. He'd have a limited time to get there. So he was hurrying on the most direct route there.
810Pattering claws sounded in the gateway and when the panting figure passed by on the other side of the metal grill I called, "Shyia!"
811The Rris spun, crouching and reaching in one movement. He froze when he saw my gun already leveled. His glacial green eyes narrowed.
812"You're fast," I said, "but not that fast. I'll defend myself if I have to."
813Shyia hesitated, then dropped his hand and straightened. Standing in cool dignity as he surveyed first the gate separating us, then me. I was meters beyond it, ready to duck away behind a wall. By the time he got around the outside of the tower I could be long gone. And if he drew I could either fire, or just leave.
814"Mikah," he said, "stop this. Give yourself up. You're only making this worse."
815"Worse?" I snorted. "That's lame. You've already tried to kill me, how can it possibly get worse?!"
816"You're upset," he said. "We just want to help you."
817"Like you did at the warehouse?" I said. "Like the shooters and agents in the square back there? Don't give me that 'we want to help' shit."
818"Then why are you here?" he asked in a horribly calm tone of voice, just loud enough for me to hear.
819"I want to know why you want to kill me. I want to know why I was abducted and now why you're trying to kill me."
820 He stared, stonefaced. "You can't imagine?"
821"I upset someone, but what did I do? I don't know!"
822He didn't take his eyes off me. Standing motionless, hands clasped behind his back. "You exist. You're here."
823 I didn't really understand what I was hearing. Or perhaps I didn't want to hear it. "What are you talking about?"
824"I believe I warned you," he replied quietly. "There is equilibrium to the peace. It wouldn't take much to tip that. His Lordship believes you are more than enough and he has sent his orders."
825 Again, it was one of those times when there were words I could understand, but not the real sentiment behind them. I heard him speak coolly and dispassionately and didn't feel anything but a growing anger.
826"And you just follow them," I growled.
827His face didn't flicker. "His lordship's orders will always be obeyed."
828"I've heard this before," I said. "I don't have a say? I don't have chance to defend myself? In Westwater there was at least a trial."
829"Things have changed since then."
830"What about those others? The ones who attacked us that night? They were imposters? Impersonating Mediators?"
831"Nobody would be that foolish."
832"Then they were real Mediators?"
833His expression never flickered. "They were misguided."
834"Then Mediators are fighting Mediators."
835"That doesn't happen."
836"Ah, of course it doesn't," I said sarcastically. "Because Mediators wouldn't do that, do they? If people found out there was dissention in the Guild that would affect your authority, wouldn't it? And that would be bad for you, wouldn't it?" 
837"You've been studying," Shyia said slowly. "You've been listening to people. And does that education tell you what your presence is doing?"
838"It's telling me that if an institution can be upset as easily as that, then they shouldn't be looking outside their own ranks for the problem," I retorted. "Just what the fuck  is going on? Why are you fighting? You want me dead, what does the other side want?"
839"There is no..."
840"Don't feed me that line!" I hissed. "You're trying to kill me. They're not. From my point of view, whom would you be inclined to trust?"
841An ear twitched slightly, rotating to the side as if he'd heard something and then he said. "This is not the place to be discussing this. Mikah, stop this whole thing now."
842Alarm bells went off in my head. That line felt... like he was performing for an audience. "I'll be in touch," I said angrily.
843"Mikah!"
844I ducked away through the ruins of the barbican, grimacing in fury and frustration as broken stones and assorted debris poked through the soft soles of my moccasins.
845"Mikah!"
846The yell was more distant, echoing through the ruins as I clambered out through the tumbled wall. A yowling cry that would doubtless be audible to any other nearby Mediators. I hastened into a nearby alleyway, slammed my fist against a wall and proceeded to try and get as far away from there as quickly as I could.
847
848------<o>------
849
850I'd been hoping that something would come of that meeting; That there'd be some way to talk to him; that they'd offer terms or give me an explanation; that there'd be some sort of resolution.
851It hadn't happened.  I hadn't found out what the problem was. In fact, he'd denied there even was a problem.
852In the dim and dusty stillness of her Ladyship's house, I sat on an obscure piece of furniture that probably had some name I hadn't learned yet and fumed and glumly ran over and over that short exchange in my head. He'd said he was going to kill me because I'd upset some sort of status quo... No, that wasn't right. That wasn't exactly what he'd said. He'd been ordered to kill me... No, that wasn't right either. He'd said his Lordship had sent those orders.
853That was it. Those were the words he'd used. And it was odd wording. What did that mean?
854Was all this because I knew that there was fighting within the Mediator Guild? It'd all started that night Shyia had picked me up. He'd said I was being taken to see the Guild Lord. If he'd wanted to kill me, then why hadn't he done it there? Too public? They certainly hadn't had any reservations with their other attempt. So, something had changed.
855Those other Mediators had kidnapped me; they'd held me against my will, but they hadn't actually tried to kill me. They'd warned me that I was to be executed. Perhaps they knew something else as well? Perhaps they had some answers.
856I chewed on day-old bread and brooded, watching dust motes swirling in the threads of sunlight sneaking past chinks in the drapes. Despite the stuffy heat in there I shivered. Now the fear was settling in. They were actually trying to kill me. I was an alien in city where I could never blend in and the law was hunting me. One miss-step and they'd be on me. And options were running thin. I could run. There was always that. It was something I'd considered before, but where to? Back to Shattered Water, which wouldn't get me away from the Mediator Guild. Or out into the wilderness.
857They'd come after me. They'd hunt me and my life would simply become surviving from one day to the next. Running.
858At least I'd be alive.
859But, I'd been hunted by Rris before.
860So, before it came to that I'd see what I could find out about those Mediators that Shyia so vehemently insisted didn't exist. And that meant that it looked like I'd have to grease some greedy little palms again.
861
862------<o>------
863
864Ruddy evening sunlight slanted down through the broken remains of the roof, sifting through the bare and broken ribs of what remained of the rafters. Somewhere up there birds rustled and twittered as they settled in to roost for the night.
865Once the ruin had been a small brick building on the outskirts of town, but at some point in the past a fire had gutted much of it. Half the building was soot-stained, collapsed ruin, the other half still capped by the remains of a clay tile roof. Charred wooden beams and joists were tumbled about gloomy interior while the unwanted rubble of collapsed stone walls were littered among weeds and dirt. Looking up through the gaping holes in the ceiling and roof, past the skeleton of the rafters, the evening sky was glowing red as the set sun set the clouds aglow.
866A couple of rooms survived. One of them was a decent-sized room, in the center of which stood a several-foot wide columnar piece of timber that'd been a post going right up to the ridgeline. The fire had blackened and charred outer layers of wood, but the thing still seemed solid enough. I stayed back behind it, lurking in the shadows. It was a pastime I felt I was getting quite good at.
867God, I was tired. Sleep had been rare over the past few days; nonexistent over the past forty-eight or so hours and I was really starting to feel it. I tried not to yawn, to pay attention while gazing out past piles of debris as the figure of the cub half-scrambled, half tumbled over a creeper-entangled low stone garden wall. As he hurried toward the house his legs were almost lost in the overgrown grass and undergrowth in what'd been a garden, or perhaps a small orchard with a half-dozen orange trees. Beyond were a few other small dwellings, a sliver of street visible. A cart slowly rumbled along that; some washing flapped on a line, but there was no sign of anyone else.
868There was a gaping hole in the wall. It'd either collapsed or was in the process of being cannibalized by neighbors. He stopped at the jagged bite, peering inside. "Mikhal?"
869"Here," I said and the backlit silhouette of the teen's ears flickered, twitching toward me. It really was quite remarkable. He could pronounce my name. He could actually say the letter 'l', which all other Rris had been utterly unable to articulate. And I wasn't in any position to investigate the matter further and find out if he was unique or if other Rris just hadn't been exposed to such sounds before. Like Japanese brought up without exposure to English.
870T'chier clambered in through the broken wall. Debris clattered under his feet as he picked his way through the ruin. 
871 "Good job today," I told him.
872He looked up at me and hesitated as if thinking, and then thrust his hand out. I dropped the heavy lumpy coins into it and they promptly vanished in a blur of movement. "It was easy," he proclaimed.
873"Easy, huh?" I rubbed my chin and the beard that was starting to get out of control. "Then something similar would be no problem?"
874"You'll pay?"
875"Same as last time," I said. "And that's being generous. Since it was so easy I should pay less, a?"
876His tail lashed. "Ai! Not that easy. They could have caught me."
877"True," I smiled carefully.
878"And pay first," he demanded, holding his hand out again. I regarded it and then his eyes in the gloom. They were wide open, glittering in the growing darkness, his ears were still back. I nodded and weighed the coins in my hand; the soft metal cold and so battered that the things were no longer round. Pure gold, not some alloy or amalgam.   
879He took the coins in his hand and looked at them for a few seconds, then started moving away. Back toward the hole in the wall.
880"You don't want to hear the details?" I said softly.
881His ears laid back.
882"They're out there, aren't they," I looked past him at the tumbled wall, and then back at him and the sudden fright on his face. "They paid you enough?"
883He rallied, raising his head and turning that fear into a defiant look. "A lot."
884"Uh-huh, I'd hope so." I nodded. "I wouldn't want to be sold cheaply."
885He was staring at where my rain cloak hung open, at where the pistols in my hands would be visible. Those eyes were in shadow, but I could see the tension in his stance, the cant of his head as his gaze twitched up toward my face.
886"You should leave now," I said and nodded toward the fallen wall.
887"You're not angry?" he sounded uncertain.
888"Disappointed," I said dryly. "I'm getting used to surprises like this. Now, get out of here before I change my mind."
889His ears went absolutely flat and his muzzle fleered back from small, sharp teeth and then he coiled around and was gone in a flurry of movement and a clatter of tottering masonry.
890 I shook my head and exhaled, forcing myself to relax. My fists were clenched tight around the pistol grips, slick with sweat and my jaw was tight. It wasn't entirely a surprise. I'd been half-expecting something to go wrong, but another betrayal...
891No, it wasn't entirely a surprise. He was a survivor. Surviving in the best way he knew. And he'd had the chance to make more money than he'd ever dreamed of and it was legal. Doubtless he'd backstabbed before and he'd probably do it again, unless someone did it to him first. Thinking of him as an innocent little street urchin with a heart of gold would've been a big mistake.
892But I didn't have time to reflect on that. There'd be Mediators out there, probably using the time to make sure the place was well surrounded. I had two six-shooters with a couple of reload packs so I could do a Butch Cassidy vs the Bolivian Army re-enactment. But that would have been suicidal, and there was another reason I'd picked that location for a meeting: there was more than one way out. One of those routes was something I'd hoped the Mediators wouldn't consider.
893Charred wooden beams creaked and shifted and black charcoal dust covered on my hands as I climbed. Collapsed beams and supports offered enough handholds for me to scramble up onto the treacherous flooring of what had been the attic. What remained of the roof was a skeletal hood of soot-caked red-clay tiles hanging out over the gutted end of the house below. At that broken end a lattice of charred wood jutted out from beneath the tiles, the remains of the frame that'd supported the roof. When I peeked out through the struts I could see the overgrown garden and the scraggly trees Through gaps in the branches I saw the movement of black-clad figures in the street beyond as a line of them closed in.
894A black bit of framework cracked aside as I pushed through and old clay tiles clinked and clattered as I clambered around onto the roof. The whole structure bowed, the wooden supports creaking and groaning as I shifted my weight, on all fours to keep my balance on the steep slope.
895And sure enough there was a shout from behind me which was more than enough incentive to move faster. I scrambled. Tiles skidded out from under my feet, clattering away and I scrambled faster, causing more to shed in a clanking rain behind me. More shouts yowled and gunshots clapped out. Things blurred past me with a sound like furious bees and a tile beside my hand shattered with a sharp crack and a spray of chips that stung where they struck exposed skin. Clouds of dense grey smoke were swirling through the orchard, a skirmish line of Mediators pushing through and taking position.
896I reached the ridgeline and then frantically ducked as more guns in the street on the other side of the building belched fire and smoke. Finger-sized slugs whirred past overhead and pulverized more tiles. Beneath me the roof sagged and there were audible snapping sounds from beneath and I just started sprinting from a crouch along the ridgeline that buckled beneath me with every step, collapsing in on itself behind me in a cascade of tiles and dust and splintering wood. But it held just long enough for me to reach the end and jump.
897Damn rain cloak streamed out, dragging at me as I dropped and landed hard on the lower edge of the roof of the house opposite. That roof was intact, but I hadn't anticipated the tile shattering under my left foot and the edges were as sharp as glass as my leg went through the hole. I gasped and felt the material of my pants legs tearing as I yanked my foot out again and scrambled up the slope of that roof. Another volley barked out as I went over the ridgeline.
898It's something I've experienced before. It's something I'll experience again. Being hunted. It's happened and perhaps I've become better at dealing with it, but it'll never become something that I'll become accustomed to. Heart pounding, gasping air into burning lungs, the fear building like a dark wave until it threatens to break and drown rational thought and reason.
899I was learning I couldn't let that happen. This was their city, full of their kind. I couldn't escape by hiding in a dark corner somewhere or by simply fleeing like a mindless animal. I had to be able to think. I had to fight that paralyzing fear back and use what resources I had. At the moment the best I had was climbing ability. Rris are agile, their claws are helpful with bark, but when clambering over harder surfaces the contour-hugging human foot combined with a much better grip had the edge.
900I used it. Over that roof and along the top of a wall, then onto another roof. That building was part of a row of closely packed buildings. They'd have to go around to catch up.
901Despite the hour the street on the other side was still busy. Shop doors and windows were open, stalls lined the avenue with wares on display. Brightly colored banners and awnings showed names and icons of products for the illiterate. Which effectively included me. Fires and grills burned merrily in the twilight, the smell of cooking food filling the street. Crowds of Rris were there. If they'd been going about their business, that was forgotten. Groups of them were standing looking toward the sound of the gunfire. They saw me as I skidded down the incline of the roof along with a shower of tiles that fell to shatter on the cobbles. I could see the consternation spreading out as I dropped down, onto a lower awning, then to the street.
902The crowd spilled away. Front rows backpedaled and wide eyes stared at me as I dropped down to land in a crouch on the cobbles, and then yelped as my leg buckled. I glanced down: my pant leg was sopping wet, that and the stuff dribbling onto the dusty street were black in the dim light. I grimaced and set off again, yelling, "Move!" at the staring Rris.
903They did, parting before me as I ran as bet I could, trying to ignore the pain that was starting to cut through the adrenaline. Voices rose around me in consternation and surprise and I thought I heard some saying, "it's him," but didn't have time to stop and chat. Across the street was a wall between two buildings. I jumped and caught the top, hauling myself up. Crashes and more yells sounded behind me. The Mediators hadn't gone around the buildings, they'd just barged through. But it'd slowed them enough that I could swing myself over the wall and come down hard in a dusty little dirt yard with scraggly bushes growing in planters and rows of grey sheets hanging from lines. They flapped over and around me as I pushed through. At the gateway on the far side I turned, my back slamming into the wobbling wooden fence there as I drew a pistol and fired into the air over the wall, the retort shockingly loud in the narrow yard. Once, and then again. Not aiming, just firing into the air to make them think twice about climbing that wall. Then I left the gunsmoke swirling in the yard while I ran again.
904Along the narrow path, the slats of the wooden fence whipping by as I ran. Hard right into another alley between two old buildings, the walls overhead leaning out so far that they were supporting one another and turning the path into a black tunnel. An ill-smelling gutter flowing down the middle splashed around my moccasins as I pelted down that alley, half turning to fit through the gap in places. From there I turned onto another narrow street, headed downhill toward the port. Underfoot the weathered cobbles were terraced with low steps every few meters and obviously weren't intended for wheeled traffic. The buildings on either side were blank-faced Rris constructions; facades of old wooden frame constructions with plaster peeling from the wattle and daub between the timbers. A constriction in the road was bridged by a stone archway atop which more recently dwellings perched. I remember seeing faces peering down in surprise as I sprinted down the street. Yowls rose from somewhere in the sprawl of buildings behind me.
905I cut into a courtyard of what looked like a local coach house, intending to bolt through the stables themselves to throw off any keen-nosed trackers. The building was a wooden one, looking like a stereotypical barn with rough plank walls and double doors and for a second I flashed back to that building where I'd first encountered a Rris face to face. Stablehands yowled and jumped in shock as I ran past, darting in through the stable doors, into the lamplit interior. Then skidding to a halt on the slippery straw-covered earthen floor.
906Stalls lined each side of the building, almost all occupied by animals. Oil lamps hanging from supports threw dim light and hard shadows around the interior. Another pair of doors down the far end were open. Between those doors and myself a trio of Rris garbed in those long Mediator roadcoats were gathered at a stall. They glanced around and their hands blurred as they immediately drew their own pistols, even as I drew one of my own revolvers, going into a crouch and leveling it at the closest target.
907Standoff. Their eyes were black pinpoints in amber as they watched me just like a big cat watches its prey, ears pricked and tails motionless. I stared back, at the trio of gun muzzles pointed at me. Those guns wasn't accurate, but the range was short enough that a skilled marksman could handily hit a man-sized target with a slug of metal. I could fire first. My guns were more accurate, I could almost certainly take one out first. But the others would certainly shoot back and gambling on them missing or their weapons misfiring was a long shot. But they could have fired already. Why weren't they?
908We held that tableau for many long seconds, then their ears twitched and then I heard it also: shouting from the street outside. I risked a glance back over my shoulder at the stable doors, just for a split second, then back at the Rris before me.
909"They're after you, a? Getting closer?" the Mediator in the center said, and then lowered his pistol. At a quick gesture the others followed suit and the speaker cocked his head. "If you want to live, then you should come with us."
910I didn't move, just looked from one to another. They stared back, looking just like Mediators; like the ones who were chasing me. "And I should trust you because...?"
911"Because we didn't kill you on sight," he said.
912"Valid point," I said, cautiously lowered my pistol and then stood. It wasn't an easy decision, but I didn't have much choice.
913They didn't fire. The spokesman hissed something to his associates and then waved a curt gesture at me. "This way."
914The two others stood aside as he led the way to the doors at the opposite end of the stables. I passed them with misgiving looks and they fell in behind. One of them, a female, seemed... familiar, but I had other things to concentrate on as the leader glanced out the doors, then led the way out into the street there. It was another cobbled lane, paralleling the other one. It was dark and looked deserted.
915"Move," the Rris hissed, urging me along.
916I hurried, limping as the burning in my leg got worse. When I looked back the other two were hustling from the stables. In the doorway behind them I saw the glow of flames rising. They hadn't...
917"A few minutes delay," one of them growled as they caught up. "We need to move faster."
918 Clawed hands caught my arm, trying to urge me to go faster. I tried and my leg gave out on a corner. I staggered hard, my shoulder driving against a wall as my leg buckled and I went halfway to my knees, gritting my teeth at the pain in my leg.
919"Now what?!"
920"Rot, he's injured," one of the Mediators knelt and looked. "His leg, under the cloth."
921"Bad?"
922"Leaving a trail."
923"Rot you...Can you move?"
924"Yes," I said through gritted teeth. "Don't know about running though."
925"Huhn, get a tie on it. Stop the bleeding. We don't have time for more."
926There was a sound of tearing cloth and the kneeling Mediator was wrapping strips around my calf. I grimaced as it was cinched tight and then we were running again.
927Now it was truly night. The Mediators led the way through the darkness. Down reeking pitch-black alleys and streets, through iron gateways that squealed as they swung on rusty hinges. We were headed southeast, I thought. Higher into the town, away from the lake, but I wasn't entirely sure. I struggled to keep pace while the Mediators urged and pulled me along ways that were near black to my eyes. Nothing gentle about it, they were just trying to make me keep up.
928Eventually we halted in a small, dark industrial yard. Some moonlight snuck over the brick wall, over the deep shadows where we rested behind a stack of barrels, throwing a pale wedge on the weatherboards of the ramshackle workshop opposite. It hadn't been that far, but still I was panting hard. My leg was throbbing, my calf feeling swollen and hot. It was too dark to see the extent of the wound, but my pants leg felt soaked with blood and I was dizzy, nauseous. The Mediators were talking in low voices:
929"They'll be watching. We can't just take him in."
930"...due back soon."
931A glance my way.
932"... be less conspicuous. Do it."
933One of them hurried off and the other two melted back into the shadows. I could feel them watching me. I leaned back against the cool bricks and closed my eyes and held on, trying not to collapse. I was trembling. Shock? Or just exhaustion.
934The angle of the moonlight on the wall opposite had shifted. A figure appeared in the gateway we'd come in through and beckoned. The two Mediators rematerialized from the shadows and grabbed my arm and hauled me over to the gate. A team of elk were headed down the street, a carriage in tow with its lamps glowing in the darkness. It slowed as it passed. Didn't stop, just slowed enough that when the door opened the Mediators could hustle me over and bundled me in. The black lacquered cab was riding high and unsprung on those delicate-looking wheels, high enough that the floor of the cab hit my thighs and hands inside caught my rain cloak and half-dragged me in. I gave a choked scream and almost blacked out when my wounded leg banged the lintel.
935"Stay down," someone hissed, pressing me down to the carpeted floor that, although clean, smelled like wet dog. "Keep your head down."
936I had to bend my legs up to fit into that space. A pair of Rris feet were planted right in front of my face, too dark for me to see if the claws were out but the wet fur reek was strong there as well. There was no conversation from those in the carriage. Save for the sounds of iron-rimmed wheels on the cobbles we traveled in silence.
937It wasn't far. A couple of corners, the sound from the wheels changing from one kind of cobble to another and then passing lights flashing through the windows. We stopped, the steps folded down and door opened. The Rris stood and the carriage rocked as they climbed out. Not all; one of the remaining pair told me to, "wait."
938I did, while the carriage moved again. Not nearly as far this time. It was literally just around the corner. When the door opened the next time the Rris grabbed me by my scruff and my arm and hauled, hustling me out of the carriage. I took the two foot drop to the ground and nearly fell again when my legged buckled and a flashbulb of pain went off behind my eyes. I gasped - something between a scream and a curse – staggered and Mediators grabbed my arms, threw them over their shoulders and staggered slightly as they took my weight to move me along. I was aware of stalls and the smell of animals, the humpbacked forms of other coaches off in the shadows to the side. My escorts hurried me past them, through a colonnade of wooden posts and then out under the open night sky. I limped along, trying to keep up the pace across a flagstone courtyard toward a much larger brick building, a doorway in an archway where a lamp burned.
939It was a backdoor. A servants' entrance. It led into a dim room that smelled of dampness and soap. Steam hung in the air, water condensing on the walls and pooling on a stone floor. Copper tubs sat over banked fires, articles of damp cloth hung from wranglers and lines. A laundry. And more Mediators were waiting, half a dozen of them in their quilted uniforms with weapons handy.
940The two who'd half carried me stood aside to see if I could manage on my own. I could, although I had to favor my injured leg. One of the Mediators was standing in front of me, a hand outstretched. "Your weapons."
941Behind the officer the others had their own weapons handy. I slowly produced my pistols, one at a time and held between two fingers. The officer took them, examining them with wrinkled muzzle and then tucking them away behind a broad black leather belt. I hesitated a second before handing over the knife and the Rris regarded me for a few seconds, as if expecting more, then just told me, "Follow."
942From the laundry it was through a kitchen, then out to an entry hall that was two floors of grand staircase and marble floor and columns. A complexly wrought iron balustrade flanked the staircase, a trophy to the Rris industrial revolution that contrasted with finely carved stone statues. I clutched at the polished wooden handrail as I hauled myself up where the Mediators led, taking it one step at a time. They didn't hurry me, just kept me moving, watching me, quietly enough that I could hear the insectile clicking of foot claws on the floor. Otherwise they were silent, even the rattling of their metal buckles and equipment was muted.
943A nondescript wooden door was opened and I was ushered in. It was a small room with shuttered windows in the far wall; a bare floor and a low pallet of a bed; a simple table and floor cushion. Not shabby, just austere. On the table a single candle burned, the flame streamed and guttered in the draught from the open door, doing more to emphasis the darkness than provide illumination for my eyes.
944I stepped in, the smooth floor sliding under my moccasins, and stopped in the middle of the room. I sagged, feeling exhausted. I'd run, and this was where it'd taken me: right back to the ones I'd run from. I turned to look at them, the dark feline forms watching me from the door. Multiple pairs of eyes flared in the candlelight, burning back at me. Now a metal rattling and tinkling sounded and forms shifted, one coming forward carrying chains.
945My heart lurched and I took a step away. The warning snarl that arose from the Mediators froze me on the spot with the hair on the back of my neck standing right up. A sound that reached below intelligence and yanked on that dark part of the ancient brain that screamed 'danger'. I was shaking again, wanting to pull away from those fetters but not daring to. I didn't want to wear those again. I really didn't.
946"No," a voice interjected. The Mediators at the door stood aside to let another through. He came in and stopped, cocking his head to regard me and then the chains. "I don't think those will be necessary."
947"Ma'am?" the officer said. "He's run once."
948"But now I think he knows there's nowhere else to go, a?" Not male, female. Stocky. Not old, but the features were still worn. Dressed in cutoff breeches, a tan quilted vest with overlapping thicker patches of tooled leather on the breast and a silver gorget around the neck. Her fur was salt and pepper, stippled grays and blacks and whites. That wasn't from age, it was natural coloration. Patches on the right side of her face and down her neck didn't grow straight, hinting at scars underneath.
949"We thought that before, Ma'am."
950She looked at me, seeming amused. I didn't move, not sure what was happening. "You created quite an embarrassment for him, you know."
951I blinked and looked again. That was when it clicked and I realized the officer with the irons was one of my earlier abductors who'd been carting me north. I was back with them again. Right back where I'd started. And if she couldn't precisely identify my body language, she could see that I'd reacted to something. "Created problems all around, you did," she said. "But you won't be doing that again, a?"
952I sagged. "As you said: where can I go?"
953She stared for a second and then cocked her head to the other side. "Very good. If you cooperate with us, then we won't have to take precautions like... this." A hand gestured toward the chains.
954"I understand," I said.
955Her tufted ears flicked once and she turned to the other Mediators. "Get a fixer for that leg. Get him cleaned. I want to see him when you're done. Watch him, but treat him with courtesy."
956"Yes, Ma'am," the officer said and stood aside as she turned and stalked out. Then, almost as one, their heads swung around to look at me.
957
958------<o>------
959
960The medical type they produced was another Mediator. He took one look at me and started explaining to the others that he wasn't a vet. They told him to go to work anyway. 
961They took my clothes. All of them. Along with the last of my possessions. Mediators watched impassively as I stripped the remnants of my stained clothing and handed it over. They had to cut my pants away: clotting blood had glued the coarse material to my legs, matting in with leg hairs. One of them bundled the clothing up in the storm cloak and carted it away.
962There wasn't just one cut: I had a good half-dozen vertical lacerations around my leg, some scratches, others deep gouges that'd bled freely. I sat on the low table, my bloody hairy leg stuck out as the twitchy medic cleaned the blood away and dusted sulfur powder into the wounds. That wasn't pleasant. I clenched eyes and teeth, hissing quick breaths to keep from yelling out loud as the doctor worked quickly and nervously. After that the applications of freshly boiled and steaming bandages was almost easy.
963A porcelain bowl of hot water and a washcloth were provided and I was told to make myself presentable. I tried to ignore the stares as I washed dirt and grime and sweat away, surprised at just how cloudy the water became. I guess I had been letting myself go a bit, what with all the running for my life and everything.
964The Mediator who'd taken my clothes away earlier returned and tossed another bundle onto the bed. I hesitated before unfolding it. There was just a plain shortsleeved tunic and a pair of breeches. Certainly nothing fancy, but it was clothing. That was a gesture I hadn't been expecting. Nothing like that had been offered last time they'd taken me.
965Uncertainly, I stood in the candlelight, brushing the tunic down. It was plain, tight across the shoulder and chest and too short - tailored for a Rris, but it was clean. The pair of guards at the opened door shifted slightly and I looked around as the officer returned.
966He looked me up and down and the fur of his muzzle twitched, wrinkling briefly before he said, "Come along. Follow."
967I limped along, out into the hall. The four guards at the door fell in behind. I still had no idea where I was and the hallway didn't offer many answers. The Mediator Guild perhaps? Wherever it was, it was up-market. There were hints of that in the embroidered carpet on the wooden floor; in the watered glass oil lamps and the brass knobs on the closed doors down the length of the hall. Down the far end of the corridor was a window; shuttered and dark.
968The officer halted at one particular door and scratched on the already-gouged announcement plate. For a few seconds he waited and stared at me with amber and black eyes, then an ear twitched to an acknowledgement I couldn't hear and he lifted the latch.
969I was ushered in. Two of the guards followed, taking up station on either side behind me. The room was quite long, dimly lit and sparsely furnished: one wall paneled in dark wood, the others white plaster above carved wooden wainscoting. Opposite me was a window niche: blue-velvet curtains drawn across the glass. In front of that cupola was a low table -  a low desk with a brass and milk-glass lamp casting a warm glow. And she was seated at the desk, that light turning her feline features into a study of light and dark as she studied the object in her hands - one of my pistols. There were cartridges neatly arrayed on the desk, standing on end like a line of little brass soldiers. Those shadows and highlights shifted, emphasizing the patches of scaring and where disheveled fur didn't lay smooth as she looked up and waved a dismissive gesture. Behind me, the officer stepped out, closing the door. The two guards stayed.
970"Be seated," she said, nodding toward a white cushion on my side of the desk. It wasn't a request, but the opportunity to take some weight off wasn't one I was going to argue with.
971"You're looking better," she said as I sat myself down and I saw her glance at the bandages. "Your leg has been attended to satisfactorily?"
972"Yes, Ma'am," I said nervously. Always pays to be polite when there're armed guards right at your back.
973"Good. You know who I am?"
974"No, Ma'am."
975Her ears twitched and then she blinked: a slow, lazy scrunching of her features that carried overtones of a sated predator watching prey. "I'm Jaesith aesh Raeshon, Guild Lord."
976That... was news to me. Shyia and Chaeitch had both mentioned the Guild Lord's name, and that hadn't been it. Tired as I was, I didn't think it'd be a good idea to rock the boat. "Yes, Ma'am," was all I said.
977An ear twitched again. "'Yes, Ma'am. No Ma'am'. I know your [repertoire] is more extensive than that."
978"Apologies," I said quietly but didn't offer anything else. I still didn't know exactly what was happening, so playing dumb seemed to be a good idea. It'd worked for me in the past, and at that moment it wasn't all acting.
979"Ah," she raised her muzzle a fraction. Her hands were still holding the pistol. Having been designed for my hands it was too large for her to grip comfortably, but she wasn't holding it like that; just cradling it in her hands. A single claw was tapping, clicking against the metal of the frame as she studied me.
980"Quite grotesque, aren't you," she said finally. "I saw some sketches, but they never really did you justice. I'd thought perhaps you might really turn out to be a deformed Rris, or perhaps a trained animal, but you're something else. Really, quite intriguing."
981I swallowed a retort and I think she saw that. An ear flickered.
982"Hai, anyway, caused a lot of commotion, haven't you. Quite surprising really; something like you hiding from the Guild for so long, and in the middle of a city where one might have thought you'd be a little... conspicuous.  It's quite remarkable. And quite a problem. I wasn't planning on traveling all the way to Open Fields and becoming involved like this, but you seem to have a way of changing plans. You were told we were trying to help you and you still ran. Why?"
983I took a breath. "You... your people... abducted me. They didn't go out of their way to make me trust them."
984She cocked her head. "You were mistreated?"
985I held up my hands, moving carefully as I was all too aware of the armed guards watching me intently from over by the door. The marks around my wrists were livid and scabbed.
986"Huhn," Jaesith mused, finger still stroking the dark metal. "They were a little over-zealous in their duties. They had their orders to make sure nothing happened to you. Those wounds... that was not intentional."
987"And why did they take me in the first place?" I ventured.
988The clicking of that tapping finger paused and I swallowed again as she regarded me. I still wasn't sure exactly what capacity I was there under. A guest, as she said? Or was my attendance less than voluntary? If that was the case, then my asking questions wouldn't be welcome.
989"Because," she said eventually and slowly, "they were trying to save your life. Events moved quickly and there wasn't much time to get updated orders, so they acted on their own discretion and removed you from the immediate danger. You chose to run straight back into the fire."
990"Fire?"
991A notched ear flickered back. "You do understand a figure of speech? A? You ran right back to the worst place you could. You know that they, the usurpers, will kill you on sight? They've been trying to."
992"I know now."
993"Huhn, without much success, fortunately. And now perhaps we can help each other."
994"Ah," I said quietly. "And how can we do that?"
995"We can help you stay alive. We can give you transportation out of Open Fields. We can provide you with Guild protection and patronage."
996I hesitated a second and then carefully asked, "Who, exactly, is after me? They claimed to be Guild."
997Jaesith hissed softly. "No. Not Guild. They're a group of renegades. Outcasts who've decided that you're too dangerous to live."
998"Dangerous?" I protested. "I'm not dangerous. I don't want any trouble. I just want to live my life and they want me dead?!"
999"A," Jaesith aesh Raeshon said, calmly regarding me through amber eyes in a scared face.
1000"But why?"
1001"You bring new ideas. Ideas that necessitate change. Those changes promise to be threatening. The Mediator charter is to maintain the law and maintain the peace, and some decided that could best be performed by simply... removing the source of those problems."
1002I stared.
1003"Foolish," she continued in the same conversational tone. "Wasteful foolishness. A great opportunity is placed in our grasp and discarding it in a fit of mindless fear at what might be is just foolishness. There will be change; there will be turmoil; there always is; that is a certainty, but that passes, as all things do. After the storm the air is always so fresh and clear, a? And there is so much you can do, so much you can tell us, so much we can learn from you."
1004The pistol was laid down on the polished wooden desk with a solid thud and she leaned forward, eyes glinting.
1005"With your assistance the Guild can finally fulfill its original charter. With your knowledge we can feed the populace; we can heal and treat disease; we can bring peace to the lands.. You will give us the means to bring the countries together under unified order."
1006"Ma'am?" I asked carefully, suddenly really not liking where this was going. But displaying that might not be such a good idea.
1007"This."
1008I glanced down at the desktop, at her finger claw tapping the pistol. When I looked up, her expression was one I'd seen on Chaeitch's face sometimes when he was intent on something: an intensity, a fervor. "The Mediator Guild was created to bring balance, to keep the peace. This we try to do, but at the moment it's like trying to sweep the tide out. Every country has its own plans, it's own disagreements and skirmishes. When we smooth the hides in one location, trouble flares elsewhere. The governments adhere to the wording of the charter, but they always find ways to undermine and worm around that wording."
1009She picked the gun up, hooked by a finger through the trigger guard so it dangled between us. Swinging back and forth between us. "You made this tool. I know you have knowledge of larger, more powerful devices. In the right hands these would produce a [force majeur] that none would even want to oppose. I know you have knowledge of other devices for communicating instantly over great distances, for transportation. They are the means for bringing the lands under singular control; they are the means for holding it."
1010Oh. Oh shit. I thought it, and was so careful not to express it.
1011"And the Guild can do that. We can end the squabbling and bickering over lands and borders. We can bring the countries together into one entity under the guidance of the Guild. Instead of being divided, we can become one. And as one, we become so much stronger than the sum of the parts."
1012"One people under Guild, a?" I ventured and regretted it instantly.
1013She blinked, slowly. "A. Quite. Interesting phrasing, but yes." Carefully she put the gun down on top of a pile of papers. "I've heard some of the stories about you; about where you come from. A land occupied solely by creatures like yourself, remarkable. And it's also said that that land is controlled by one body. One government."
1014"Yes," I slowly gestured affirmative. Someone had been talking. Again. And I didn't know how much they'd told her so I'd have to be very careful with my responses. If she caught a lie, that could go badly for me.
1015"Then you know that this is what must happen. This is the only way our people can grow."
1016And I didn't know what to say. Sure, the States were united, but the cost that'd been paid for that... It'd been a civil war! The country had been torn apart before it'd been rebuilt. And she was advocating...
1017"And you doubtless have other abilities and knowledge. Strategic and tactical suggestions. Medical assistance... we can certainly help each other. We can help you live. You can help us undertake this unification. Together we can repair this world."
1018I gaped helplessly.
1019Again she dipped her head slightly and said, "A big decision, I understand that. Perhaps a few hours to think on it, a?"
1020Cautiously I tipped my hand in an affirmative. "Thank you, Ma'am."
1021 There was a gesture of dismissal and behind me the guards stirred. I looked at aesh Raeshon's cool gaze and then stiffly clambered back up to my feet. A guard opened the door and stepped aside, holding it open for me.
1022"A moment," aesh Raeshon's voice stopped me. "I've also heard that you can become quite... attached to people. There's someone in Shattered Water? A Chihirae? A teacher, I believe?"
1023The muscles in my face felt like glass as they froze.
1024"Yes, I heard you are quite fond of her. I'm sure we can find a way to take care of her as well," she said through that calm stare. "Depending on your cooperation, of course."
1025"Of course," I said, aware of how choked it sounded.
1026"Until later," she said and the door closed.
1027------<o>------
1028
1029Someone was shouting outside. The yowling drifted up through the stillness of the early morning, only slightly muffled by the shuttered window.
1030I sat on the stuffed ticking pad of the bed, leaning back against the wall and listened to the noises with a corner of my mind. With the rest I was worrying.
1031I'd found trouble again. More than I'd imagined. Two factions of Mediators and – putting it simply - the good guys wanted me dead and the bad guys wanted to save my life. And on top of that, the bad guy was as mad as a meataxe.
1032God, she made it sound so simple and sanitized, but no matter how she spun it, what she was advocating was fucking civil war. There was no way that it'd be as simple and as clean as she said. There wasn't anything I could give her that'd make nations simply bow to the will of a faction. There'd be fighting; there'd be upheaval and bloodshed. No matter what sort of weapons she had, people would fight. And before long, they'd have the same technology she did.
1033She was giving me time to think about it, so she said. Very generous. Of course there was that parting comment. The way she'd worded it, it hadn't sounded like a threat. I'm sure she'd say it was more like a promise. Something overly dramatic like that. Whatever she called it, I didn't have any doubt it was quite sincere and that Chihirae would be dragged into it if I didn't give her the answer she wanted.
1034Even if I did say yes she'd still be in danger. They'd want leverage, to make absolutely sure I co-operated. Or even just ensure that nobody else could use her against me.
1035Outside was quiet now. The shouting had stopped and the only sound I could hear was the occasional creak of floorboards as Rris guards moved in the corridor. For the next few hours I sat with that silence ringing in my ears and those thoughts churning relentlessly in my head.
1036
1037------<o>------
1038
1039They came for me a lot earlier than I'd expected. I'd been hoping for a few more hours. Some time in which to plan and perhaps get some sleep, but they had other ideas. It was still early out there, maybe about 3AM, when there was a metallic rattling from the lock as a key was turned and then the door swung in. The pair of guards outside warily looked around the room before stepping inside and beckoning to me.
1040I stood. Slowly and stiffly. They watched, talking steps aside as I passed them and then falling into step behind me. Back to that room down the hall.
1041 That proclaimed Mediator Lord Jaesith aesh Raeshon was still seated at her desk. The revolver was gone, the paperwork was still there. When I came in she didn't look up from the ratty piece of paper she was reading. A guard hooked one of my sleeves with a claw to stop me in the center of the room. I stood there, watching her as she finished. There was something amusing there because she chittered, laid the stained and creased parchment on the desk and looked up at me. "You really needed this?"
1042I looked again. It was that bit of paper that said I was actually a person, officially notarized and signed to prove it. I just waved an affirmative.
1043"And you managed to elude capture for so long? Without assistance? Remarkable," she mused. Then flicked her ears and gestured to the cushion. "Please, sit."
1044I did so, crossing my legs and putting hands on knees.
1045"You've had enough time to think about my offer," said Jaesith. "Your answer is?"
1046I slowly nodded, glanced at the paper on the desk and then met her steady gaze. "Count me in."
1047"That is yes?"
1048"A."
1049"Huhn, just like that?" If she'd been human, perhaps she'd have arched an eyebrow.
1050"Not that simple," I said. "It's not an easy choice, but on other hand, where else am I going to go? Those other want to kill me; the governments can't protect me. And your argument... is not without its merits." 
1051"You think so?" she said, her tone inviting further explanation. She'd planned this, I knew. She'd given me enough time to think, but not enough time to really come up with a detailed plan. That'd been her intention, I suspected. Now, in the middle of the night, when the thoughts might be muddled and disorganized, she'd called me onto the floor to prod and see what my choice really was.
1052"You were right about my kind," I said slowly, carefully. "We did go through a similar time... when the country was divided into north and south and those two factions had to join. Now, my nation is among the most influential. Not the largest, but because we are united, we are more productive, stronger, and peaceful."
1053She rumbled; a low, thoughtful growl.
1054"I think that has to happen here," I said. "As small countries they can be only... fragments of what they could be. Just shards. And as time goes on joining them would only become more difficult. I think you were right: now is a time when they can be united with a... ah... not as much trouble, especially with what help I can offer."
1055"And you would be willing to do that?"
1056I shrugged. "My options would be... what? I don't think I have anywhere else to go."
1057Jaesith aesh Raeshon studied me quietly for a few seconds, her black pupils catching the lamplight and glittering like bronze mirrors. Then she tipped her head, just slightly. "Not entirely altruistic motives then. I think I would be surprised if they were."
1058"None of us are perfect," I said quietly.
1059"No," she said and hissed softly. "Very well, then I think the next step is going to be to get you out of Open fields."
1060"Will that be a problem?"
1061"Oh, I don't believe so."
1062"The gates are being watched, aren't they?" I asked. "I'll be hiding under hay or something?"
1063"I thought the water route would be faster," she replied."
1064"But the Ironheart can catch anything else on the water..." I started to say and then trailed off, catching her confidently expectant expression. I felt my jaw drop and gasped, "You're not..."
1065Her tufted ears flickered. "As you said, the Ironheart is fast."
1066"It needs a crew. And the guards..." I protested and shook my head. "That can't possibly work."
1067"I think it has an excellent chance of success," she said. "The guards are a non-issue, and as for the crew... we are prepared for that as well. Once out on the lake I believe that vessel can outrun anything else."
1068"To where?"
1069"North. There are safe harbors for us there. Places where we can consolidate our position. Where we can muster our forces. Where you can help us prepare for what is to come."
1070To prepare for war. She didn't say it. Was she living in her own little happy place to think that wouldn't happen? I looked at her and tried to read something in the metal shimmers of her eyes; to find something in her expression, but it was a futile as it'd been with so many of the other noble Rris I'd encountered. Important Rris who played important games and had experience hiding their cards. Was she really as mad as I thought? Or was she fully aware of what would ensue and just didn't care?
1071She must've noticed my stare. She bared teeth, just a small flash of white behind thin black lips and stone-textured fur. "You will be ready? We leave just before dawn."
1072 
1073------<o>------
1074
1075Dawn proved to be a couple of away hours at the most. Before then we were moving out.
1076The coach was rattling its way through the brick-arch of the gateway as the stars began to dim. We weren't alone: other coaches had gone before us and there was another pulling out behind us; Mediator cavalry on elk and llamas were clattering out into the waking streets, all of them spreading out and scattering to all points of the compass. Our carriage was bound for the docks. 
1077Through a gap in the drawn curtains I got a glimpse out over the city as we turned a hilltop corner: a sky of fading stars above while below stood serried rows of dark rooftops, chimney tops and weather vanes silhouetted against a sprawling swathe of rippling dimness. That was the lake, stretching away to a distant shore and reflecting the brightening heavens and horizon; the streamers of cloud turning to gold under the touch of the rising sun. Two dim red pinpoints were the signal towers at the harbor entrance, their light soon to be eclipsed by the coming morning.
1078Iron rimmed wheels hammered on the cobblestones. Every bump was transmitted straight through the axles to the cab. The jolting was alleviated a little by the upholstered seats, but the bumps still rattled my teeth as the carriage took the hill at what seemed like a risky pace. Brakes squealed gratingly as the driver applied them liberally to prevent the carriage overrunning the team drawing it.
1079 I caught a handhold as the carriage swayed and jolted around a corner. It smelled of musky, hairy bodies in there, a smell that permeated the interior padding and wasn't helped any by the other Rris in there. Jaesith aesh Raeshon and the armed Mediator officer beside her were holding onto loops of velvet cord hanging from the ceiling to brace themselves against the swaying and were watching me steadily. When I tried to nudge the curtains aside to see outside again she said, "Don't. We don't need someone seeing you before time. We'll be cutting things close as it is."
1080I sat back while we clattered along our way and they watched me. If they were wondering if I was thinking about making a break for it they'd be disappointed. I didn't have any intention of running. Not just then. I had… something in mind, but I couldn’t be sure of just how successful it might be.
1081"You understand that this is just temporary," aesh Raeshon said.
1082"Ma'am?" I blinked.
1083"This... skulking about," she elaborated with a fluid little gesture that managed to encompassed the cab and the city outside. "It won't last. You're our guest. Once established you will be able to whatever you need, whatever you want. You help us, and we can help you."
1084"That would be... nice," I said, carefully.
1085"Huhn." Tendons under her fur flexed visibly when she tightened her grip on the handhold as the carriage rounded another corner and she cocked her head. "It would be. I would like to do that. But there is just the possibility that perhaps you're not being entirely honest with me," she said with those amber eyes scrutinizing my face. "For you I suppose it would be tempting to simply wait. To say what you think I want to hear. Do you think that's an unreasonable supposition?"
1086My heart lurched, hammering through my exhaustion. I'm not sure how well I hid that, but how well could she read expressions that'd have to be alien to her? And what could she misconstrue, to my disadvantage? I just tried to hide it as best I could and go on the offensive. "No, ma'am. But would it be unreasonable for me to not be sure whom to place my trust in? Rris... People I thought were my friends have been trying to kill me. I've been running for my life."
1087"And we gave it to you. That counts for nothing?"
1088"It counts for a great deal," I said. "I'm afraid I find all this very confusing. And frightening. Your world is quite different from mine and it seems like every day I find something I'd... taken as normal isn't normal here. And the other way around also."
1089Her ears twitched and then the carriage was passing through another gateway, this one familiar to me.
1090"Almost there," she smiled serenely at me. It may have been completely fake: I couldn't tell. "We'll just have to find a way to persuade you, a? Huhn," she mused and then my heart lurched anew when she said, "I think we will collect that teacher. I've heard she has been a good influence on you."
1091The coach drew to a halt. "Ma'am, I would prefer that she were left alone," I tried to sound calm.
1092A Mediator outside opened the door and held it. Jaesith aesh Raeshon stood, bending under the overhead. "No, I don't think so," she said as she dropped out of the car. I followed, wincing as my battered feet landed on rough cobbles. The docks; the V.I.P section where the Ironheart was berthed. There were Mediators where the guards should be, all heavily armed. I gawked for a second, then hurried after their commander as she strode toward that one particular berth.
1093"Ma'am, she isn't involved..." I said to her back as she stalked ahead. Her officer was behind me, more Mediators falling in behind him.
1094She didn't look around. "I think she became involved when she met you," Jaesith replied. "You have an affection for her that's goes beyond the normal, that is a fact that is known. To myself and others. And given the chance they will use this fact against you. I don't want to have you worrying about her. Perhaps someone would seize her and threaten to harm her, just to keep you under their control. Safer to have her where you can see her, a?"
1095I swallowed hard, choking back a protest. She wasn't threatening; she was telling me how it could be, but she wasn't threatening. That would probably come later.
1096So I followed her, from the old cobbles of the quayside to the newer flagstones of the wharf. The officer was right behind me and behind him Mediators fell in at a respectful distance, but also blocked any retreat back onto the quayside. There was a guardhouse further along, at a point where a spiky-toped iron fence crossed the wharf. Beyond that lay the Ironheart, looking so out of place amongst the forests of masts and tangled webworks of rigging prevalent on the masted vessels in the harbor. Dark curls of smoke rose from the twin stacks into the still morning air.
1097"You have the engines started," I noted.
1098"A. As I said, we have experts in such matters," she said.
1099Whatever I was going to say next was forgotten. Near the gangplank stood a stack of crates and barrels and assorted baggage waiting to be loaded. A pair of furry feet were jutting from behind one of them. They belonged to the two guards who'd been assigned to me back in Shattered Water. They were laying there, just pulled out of the way like castoff garbage; laying there staring up at the dawning sky with gore-besotted fur and slashed throats and horrible expressions. I swallowed hard and then turned back at the Mediator lord waiting on the gangplank. She just looked slightly puzzled.
1100"That... was not necessary," I choked, staring down at the surprised-looking faces again.
1101"Yes, it was," she said and made a curt gesture to the Mediators behind me. "Get him on board. We don't have time to play around."
1102I counted over a dozen Mediators loaded on board the Ironheart. I stayed at the stern, waiting uneasily behind the wheelhouse as the guards from the dock hurriedly untied the mooring lines. I could see into the cockpit from there and watched as another Mediator carefully went over the valves and gauges and engine room signaling tabs with a checklist. From below my feet came the pervasive thump of the idling engine as it stood ready.
1103"We're ready," Jaesith said as she stepped up behind the pilot. "Everything's working?" 
1104"Ma'am," the other acknowledged. "Although...the pressure in the boiler seems high."
1105She turned around to look at me. "He's the expert. Is that normal?"
1106I shrugged. "Yes, ma'am. It should be. That's why the engine works well. Hot and high pressure. If it cools too much you will have less power and use more fuel."
1107"And we can tell if that is going to happen?"
1108"That tube," I said, pointing to a slim vertical glass window dotted with condensation. "If the water level falls there, you lose pressure."
1109Jaesith looked at the pilot who in turn glanced at his notes. "That is accurate," he said.
1110She snorted and wrinkled her muzzle. "Then we go," she said.
1111Mooring lines were cast off, the big hemp ropes splashing down into the water. In the wheelhouse the pilot shifted the throttle indicator and the throbbing beneath the deck picked up the pace slightly. The light of the direct morning sun was only just beginning to flow over the highest hilltop chimney and roofs as the Ironheart pulled away from the berth and out into the millpond mirror of the harbor. Moving slowly and cautiously at first the pilot brought the ship around to point the sharp end toward the harbor mouth. Water beneath the stern roiled as the throttle was opened another notch and the propellers pushed the mass of the ship toward the open lakes.
1112Jaesith stood beside me to watch the docks falling away. There were armed guards and other Rris racing onto the waterfront. I didn't have to guess who they'd be. They were too late anyway.
1113"A lot more convenient than sails," Jaesith mused. "I could get used to this."
1114"You need more than just ships," I said. "You need a whole system to maintain and supply them."
1115"Which is what you are going to assist in providing," she said and cocked her head as the pace of the engine picked up again. Then I flinched as she cuffed my arm, just hard enough for me to feel the scrape of claws against my skin. "I'm sure you're going to enjoy your stay with us."
1116I closed my eyes for a second and around me the world seemed to reel: a combination of the movement of the ship and the waves of exhaustion that were becoming harder to ignore. How long now? Three days since I'd slept? At least that. I grinned while cool morning air and the smell of coal smoke brushed past, then blinked myself awake again. Twin walls of stone drifted past on either side as the ship drove its way out between the twin towers at the harbor mouth.
1117"That look is... amusement?" she said.
1118"Sometimes," I said and looked at her. Something must've alerted her because she stepped back, unfortunately. Just out of reach. And there were too many guards around... I grinned again, this time completely humorlessly. "Those guards... you really shouldn't have done that."
1119Then I dove over the stern railing. Cries from behind me were cut off as I hit and cool water closed over me. For a second I was surrounded by roiling bubbles from the wake and the pervasive thump of the Ironheart's engine and then twisted and got myself oriented and started swimming. The deep drumming of the engine sound pulled away toward the lake as I struck out in an underwater breaststroke and I remember thinking that if I never saw another city from underwater again it would be too soon.
1120Eventually, towards the limits of my air, my hands hit stone. That would be the tower on the right hand side of the harbor mouth. I surfaced for a gasping breath and then followed the curve of wet stone. Around the back, in the lee of the tower and the lake wall, was a little stone jetty. It wasn't much more than a ledge with a rusty mooring ring where a rowboat might tie up, but it was the spot handy. Water streamed from my hair and my clothes as I hauled myself onto the lichen-coated stones, still chill from the night before. It'd be some time before the sun came around to warm them up.
1121A narrow staircase climbed up the stone face from the dock, doglegging back on itself four times before reaching the top of the harbor wall. I limped hurriedly up the worn steps, my feet slapping against the cold stone. At the top I crouched to check out the length of the battlements. They were wider than I'd expected and at intervals along their length semicircular towers protruded lakeward. The brutal metallic logs of canon were arrayed along the battlement, their covered muzzles nuzzling at the crenelles. Further clusters of cannons were arranged on those semicircular parapet towers, splayed out so the cannons were able to come to bear along the wall as well as on targets out on the water.
1122Closer to hand on my other side, to my right, the signal tower rose another couple of floors higher still. The door from my level was wood and iron and closed fast. Higher up on that tower smoke was still rising from the guttering navigation beacon.
1123Carefully, my wet feet leaving prints on the flagstones, I started off along the parapet. Once I paused at one of those wedge-shaped openings cut into the top of the wall to provided the big cast cannon there with a wide arc of fire. That wall was over a meter thick, built to withstand fire from other weapons like that. Through that embrasure I could see a rectangle of lake and in that frame the shape of the Ironheart, idling. As I watched it started moving again, swinging around to head south. I felt my stomach clench in anxiety. Was it the right thing to do? Would this work? They'd go after Chihirae now, there wasn't much doubt about that. If I had to, could I catch them? That vessel was the fastest thing around and I'd jumped off.
1124It'd seemed like a good idea at the time. Like the only way. But that was before, and now there suddenly seemed like so many things could go wrong. So while I furtively made my way along that wall toward the next tower I couldn't help but worry. I stayed close to the parapet, also aware that it was only a matter of time before...
1125I'd cut it too close. Half way along the wall there was a shout from someone on the signal tower behind me. Then a yowl. Then the frantic hammering of a bell pealed out across the water.
1126 I started to run. Cut flagstones were cold against my bare feet as I half-ran half-limped along, then staggered to a stop in shock as the door in the tower ahead of me was slammed open and Rris spilled out. Again there was shouting, guns being raised. I dodged sideways onto the semicircular rampart of one of the projecting buttress towers. A shot was fired. Chips of stone sprayed from the corner of the crenel as I ducked around. How the hell had they gotten there so quickly?!
1127The top of the tower was an arc about ten meters in diameter with four cannon aimed out through their ports in the wall. And of course it was a dead end. Only one way to go then and that was over the parapet. The lake was right below and it should be deep enough, that was all I could hope as I ran for the wall. I took a running jump up onto the unmoving cold metal mass of one of the old muzzle-loading cannon and ran along the top, to the meter-deep embrasure. Where I stopped dead in my tracks, holding up my arm and squinting against the rising sun shining into my eyes.
1128It wasn't. The wall was a sheer drop that flared out at the bottom into rocks and water. And it wasn't deep enough. I could see driftwood piled up along the craggy shoreline, and more rocks lurking just beneath the surface of the water. From that height there was no way it was deep enough to dive into. Not and survive.
1129Panting, still dripping wet, I turned to face Mediators. My black shadow was thrown across the flagstones of the tower to where a cordon of them were blocking any hope of escape that way. Pistols and long arms were raised, aiming at me up on top of the wall. Shyia was in front, leveling a pistol. I could see his green eyes, could look down the bore of the muzzle, the hammer was cocked and at that range even those weapon were unlikely to miss.
1130Then a sound like a giant striking a metal drum rolled in across the battlements. As one, all their ears pricked up and they looked out beyond me.  From behind me, from out on the lake where the noise was still reverberating like distant thunder. I automatically twisted around to see what the noise had been and found myself looking at... at where the Ironheart had been.
1131Out in the water an expanding white column of steam and smoke was climbing crookedly into the sky from the epicenter of a spreading ring of concentric ripples, marking the spot where the ship had been. Smoking streamers of debris arced like dozens of spider-legs from that cloud, spattering into the water for a hundred meters around epicenter. High overhead, trailing a fading contrail of steam, a bulky shape climbed improbably high into the clear sky before curving back down to splash into the lake. Slowly, while smaller pieces pattered back to stipple the surface of the lake, the cloud quietly dispersed. Someone said, "Oh." I realized it was me.
1132"Mikah!"a voice from behind me growled.
1133Slowly, carefully, I turned around again to stare down a semi-circle of dark muzzles. Guns held by Mediators were aimed at me, more than I wanted to count. More Rris  -  city guards – were in the background. Keeping their distance but watching. Shyia still had his pistol raised, still had his finger on the trigger, but was watching me with an expressionless mask. 
1134"She was on that?" he rumbled.
1135I just nodded. The fur between on the bridge of his muzzle creased momentarily while those unblinking amber eyes studied me, then he jerked his muzzle at the parapet and said, "Come here. Now."
1136I hesitated momentarily but really didn't have much choice. There was nowhere else to go. Besides, I'd been expecting to be shot; any alternative was preferable to that. I slowly made my way back along the cannon, carefully stepped down onto the carriage, then down onto the flagstones, grimacing as my feet ached and my leg twinged.
1137Shyia huffed and then snapped to the others, "Secure him. Bring him."
1138It was an improvement over being shot, although at the time it didn't feel like one. The Mediators who grabbed me weren't careful with their claws. I didn't resist, but they still caught my arms with claws extruded and I flinched as the damn things lacerated me. And once again the irons they clamped around my wrists and ankles were too small.
1139They took me down the narrow, winding staircase in the tower. Down through cramped stone corridors and tiny rooms with solid timber doors that were holdovers from the days before the guns came. Always with the chains rattling and Mediators in front and behind, their toe claws tick-ticking on the rock. It didn't take very long, but by the time we emerged from a small gateway I was limping. My leg was throbbing, my hands were shaking and there was only so much adrenaline could do. I was exhausted.
1140We were back on the Open Fields waterfront again. A quayside busy with fishing vessels and traders to my left side, warehouses and storerooms on the other. Mediators and Cover-My-Tail troops, their animals and their vehicles, were everywhere, with more arriving from streets along the dockside. Closest to hand, the Mediators were a lose crowd; the Rris spread out with plenty of room between individuals. City troops clustered in little knots on the periphery, looking like spectators at someone else's game. My escort marched me through them all, the ranks of Mediators parting before us. Until we met one Rris who didn't move; who just stood in our path and that was enough to bring my escort to a halt.
1141A tall Rris, dressed in functional grey tunic and well worn leather kilt and a vest that bore scars from what might have been knife slashes. Male, I was pretty sure, with one ear notched so bad it was more like confetti. And where most Rris I knew had greyish pelts, there was a distinctly russet tinge to that one's. That individual just favored me with a brief glance. "You brought it here?"
1142"Yes, Sir," Shyia stepped forward.
1143"There were orders. It was to be disposed of."
1144"Sir," Shyia acknowledged. "There have been extenuating circumstances. There was an incident with the steam vessel, the boiler [something], I believe. The vessel was completely destroyed. Raeshon was aboard. I sent another ship to examine the wreckage, but the presence of survivors seems doubtful."
1145"You believe that changes my orders?"
1146"Sir, I believe it changes the situation enough that following those instructions would be premature. We would lose more than we would gain."
1147"Mediator, the problem still exists so the orders stand," the other said quietly and flexed his hand, flexing his fingers to extrude claws. "You can do it, or I can do it myself. Your response?"
1148"Then it would have to be tribunal, Sir."
1149If that meant nothing to me, it meant something to the Mediators around us. There was a reaction. Nothing major, just a rustling as bodies took more attentive stances, but it was a reaction. 
1150"Huhn," I heard the other rumble and go stock-still for a few heartbeats. "You are serious?"
1151"Quite, Sir."
1152"You have seconds who think the situation qualifies that?"
1153Several of the Rris around Shyia stepped forward, inclining their heads. The russet-furred Rris looked from one to another and then back to Shyia. "We will finish this at the hall. Finish your business and report there."
1154"Yes, Sir," Shyia said again and turned back to me and my guard. "Take him," he said and then stepped up to me. "And you behave yourself," he said, and when I opened my mouth he interrupted with a snarl and told the guard, "If he causes problems, shoot him."
1155"Sir," a Mediator said and tugged my arm to get me moving again, on to the coaches. They weren't the fancy conveyances I'd been shuttled about in as a guest of the government. These were utilitarian boxes, designed to move people around while still offering some shelter: just unadorned wood and black iron. Getting in with the leg irons on was awkward. Then I was sat down upon a hard rear-facing bench in a creaky cab that smelled of wet fur. Two armed Mediators sprang in and sat opposite with loaded firearms on their laps and then the door was slammed and locked from the outside. Wooden slats on the windows let light in but I couldn't see anything outside.
1156"Can you tell me what's going on?" I asked the Mediators opposite as the carriage lurched into motion.
1157There was a harsh metallic clack as one of them cocked the lock on a flintlock.
1158"I guess that's 'no'," I sighed, grimaced and glanced at the lacerations on my arms, then looked back to the window. Those wooden slats wouldn't be too hard to break. I could distract the guards and...
1159What the hell was I thinking? What was the point in that? I just closed my eyes. I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep, but I was too scared, too uncertain, too keyed. The jolting of the wagon continually threw me off balance and I kept snapping back to awareness, staring into the muzzles of the Mediators' weapons.
1160A half hour or so later we stopped. The door was opened. I climbed out.
1161There was only a second to take in my surroundings. There were high brick walls around a cobbled courtyard. Four old, gnarled oak trees pushed up through the cobblestones, forming their own shaded square where older Rris were supervising youngsters who were busy sparring with wooden blades. Clacks of wood striking wood snapped loudly over the background hum of the city. Large, multi-story buildings faced the square, some of old stone construction with ivy on the walls and copper on the roofs, others of newer and cheaper brick. White-painted windows looked down on the court and sunlight glinted from glass lurking behind ornate iron grillwork. I saw figures watching from the windows before the Mediators led me away.
1162It wasn't a residential building they took me to. I knew that as soon as they stopped in the building's entry passage and turned off into a narrow arched tunnel blocked by a solid black-iron grill. That was opened and they took me down a narrow staircase into gloom and shadows. In a guard room they cut my clothes away with knives. I stood stock-still, trying not to shiver as the lines of metal pressed against my skin as they sliced the tunic and pants away. They searched me, impassively and embarrassingly thoroughly. Even the bandage over my gashed leg was cut away and inspected. Of course, they found nothing, except that my injury was genuine and I wasn't built quite the same as their usual prisoners.
1163One of them took a lantern and lit the wick from one of the lamps in the room. Then the guards told me to move. Naked, I was taken down another narrow, turning staircase. Down far enough that we had to be deep underground when we emerged into a dark, brick-lined corridor. That hall was lined with heavy iron doors on either side. A set of iron keys opened one.
1164I saw a black hole. No windows, not a glimmer of light, just earthen darkness and the reek of ammonia and other less definable things. "You're kidding," I choked.
1165Ears went back and weapons came up and I didn't have any choice. I had to duck my head to enter and once I was in the door swung shut, the wedge of light from the guard's lamp shrunk and then was gone as the iron door clunked shut and metal rasped as the bolt was thrown. Then the splinters of light from around the door faded as the Mediators left and then all the light was gone.
1166Groping in the darkness I could feel out dimensions of a cell that wasn't large enough to stretch out in. A hard clay floor with a reeking hole down the back, brick walls and a low, arched ceiling. It smelt of alien piss and dankness and earth and in that stygian blackness there wasn't a single glimmer of light. I fumbled after the clammy metal of the door and the iron felt as yielding as the walls. Once again, all I could do was hunker myself down on the cold floor and wait.
1167
1168------<o>------
1169
1170
1171After days on the run I was exhausted. Utterly exhausted, but my mind was spinning through questions that I really wasn't sure I wanted answered. What was going to happen next? What were they going to do with me? Were they just going to leave me there?
1172I don't know if I slept or not.
1173In the darkness it was difficult to tell, but I think I closed my eyes. There was movement I couldn't define in the tail of my vision, skittering and scratching noises that I wasn't sure were in the darkness or in my head. I kept finding myself flinching wildly, staring into blackness with my heart pounding.
1174Waiting for a dark forever. Until metal scraped on metal as a key slid into the lock. Tumblers turned and then hinged rasped. I blinked, turning my head away from a flare of lamplight. It was just a candle, but it was the brightest thing my eyes had seen for... hour. Figures moved into the cells narrow doorway, momentarily eclipsing the light and then being backlit by it.
1175"You. Get out," a voice growled.
1176That cell was a reeking hole, but I actually hesitated. Squinting at the silhouetted Rris figure and feeling my heart start to hammer.
1177"Now," the Mediator growled.
1178I struggled to my feet, bending under the low overhead and grimacing as stiff and aching muscles protested. The Mediators didn't care, and when I cautiously emerged from the cell I heard the skittering patter of claws on stone as they just moved to surround me in the dark. I was bigger than they were. Head and shoulders taller and heavier and stronger, but I was naked and manacled and wounded and exhausted and in the darkness around me there were silken hisses of sharp metal being drawn and someone growled for me to move.
1179 My hair was still damp and clammy from my swim. It just hadn't dried in that hole. The dankness had set me shivering and during those endless hours the chill had had time to sink in to the bone. Upstairs, just in the guard room, it was noticeably warmer, which was a welcome relief. And when they took me from there up to the entranceway I automatically raised my hands at the glare spilling into either end of the tunnel from the scorching afternoon sun. Mediators ears flinched at the rattle of chains but they didn't overreact.
1180I was taken through the atrium; through a small, cloistered garden where water trickled from a fountain and blooming flowers filled the air with scent and color. A pair of corroded-green bronze doors opened into a main hall that was all pale stone and double rows of fluted black iron columns which gave it an air that wasn't as much majestic as gothic. Then it was upstairs to the first floor where Mediators were standing sentry at the entry to one of the wings. They looked me up and down and one of my escort handed over a piece of paper that was examined closely before we were passed through the door.
1181Light spilled in through the hundreds of small leaded panes in the tall windows down the right hand side of the hallway, throwing caustic creases across the white plaster wall opposite. Green and yellow paisley patterned carpet damped the sound of padding claws so the only noise was the clinking of my chains as I was led down the hall. It all seemed surreal, numb, all save the pounding of my own heart that increased as we approached the far end and the single door there, the surface inlaid with hundreds of sliver-thin wedges of individually-toned wood that had been sanded and polished to a liquid sheen. The Mediators halted at the door and the lead one looked me up and down before hooking a claw under the latch. When a claw jabbed me to get me moving again, two mediators followed me in, staying close behind.
1182An office. A decent sized one. Scents of wood and oil and warm dust hung in the air, along with the musk smell of Rris. The walls were lined with shelves, all well-stocked with leather bound books, their spines in all varieties of shapes and sizes and colors. Scrolls stood in neat racks, and I even saw what looked like a couple of stone tablets on display stands and speckled with the traces of worn and indistinct characters. On the walls a few framed maps hung where pictures might have been. Unlit copper braziers stood near the shelves - curved metal uprights on three splayed feet polished to a gleaming mirror finish. A window consisting of a lattice of smaller diamond-shaped panes in a lead matrix filled the left wall, facing south and looking out over the cobbled court and front gate. Some of the panes had been swiveled around on their vertical axis, enough to let some air and occasional city noise in. In front of the window was a desk, a Rris seated cross-legged behind it with golden afternoon sunlight streaming over his shoulder. It was that Mediator from the docks, the russet one  with the ragged ear whom Shyia had called sir. The one who had said I was to be... disposed of. The Mediator Guild Lord. Whatshisname...  Richtkah, that was what I'd been told.
1183Other Mediators were sitting off to the side of that desk. Three of them sitting in their amour cross-legged on white leather cushions. They watched me as I came, their expressions studies of careful neutrality.
1184And opposite them - off on the other side of the desk – cross-legged on another cushion was another mediator. Shyia. Also watching me intently.
1185Hands laid on my shoulder and I yelped aloud as claws were used and something struck the back of my legs. Hard. They buckled and with a clattering of irons and a gasp I went to my knees on the rug before the desk, kneeling naked before the watching aliens. Clawed hands pressing on my shoulders made sure I didn't get up.
1186The Mediator Lord there cocked his head then waved a hand toward the guards behind me, "Thank you, First. Leave us, please. Wait outside."
1187They released me and stepped away, then equipment rattled quietly as the guards shifted and filed out. Suddenly the room was a lot emptier and it was quiet while the one behind the desk studied me. No guards, but they were all Mediators. They outnumbered me and I didn't doubt that they were all quite capable of taking care of themselves. I could feel my heart drubbing like an engine; my mouth was dry, palms slick; I was sweating. If they were going to kill me, would they do it on an expensive rug?
1188Finally there was a flick of that ragged ear and he glanced toward Shyia. "This is what's responsible for all this trouble. You're familiar with it?"
1189"We have met before. A while ago. I was familiar with him then."
1190"It's changed since then?"
1191"There seem to be a number of scars that weren't present the last time we met, sir."
1192"Are there, huhn," he rumbled and narrowed his eyes as he looked me up and down. "And you would do this thing just for this... hairless ape?"
1193Shyia inclined his head slightly. "Sir, no. Not for him. For us."
1194"You're quite determined to follow that trail, a? After everything you've seen."
1195"A, sir."
1196The other huffed air, clicked claws on the ochre and gold parquet-inlaid desktop in a staccato ticking, and then addressed me directly. "You have a name. Micah?"
1197I looked down at the black iron manacles on my wrist and nodded. "Yes."
1198"Ahhh," ah Richtkah tipped his head slightly and asked, "Why did you come here?"
1199Was that a trick question? Here? Because they'd brought me? Because Hirht sent me? I guess my confusion must've manifested in some way obvious enough to someone who knew me.
1200"Why did you come here, to our lands," Shyia elaborated with a quiet growl. "From your own."
1201"That?" I turned, looking from one of the impassive Rris to the other. "I've told you. I don't know. I was home, and then I was here. I can't explain it. I don't understand how it happened."
1202"A," the Mediator Lord acknowledged. "I was told strange things about you. Extraordinary things about you; that you claim to be from another world. That it is a world where... beings such as yourself – hairless apes – live in the place of Rris. This is true?"
1203He'd been told this, but he was asking me. I was too tired for these games. "Yes."
1204"Huhn? A simpler explanation might be that you are from somewhere closer, from a land we haven't discovered yet."
1205I almost laughed. "I would like that to be true."
1206"A? Why is that?"
1207"Because then I might have a hope of getting home."
1208"You would if possible?"
1209I hesitated, not sure where these questions were leading. "Do you really think I want to be here? I don't have much choice."
1210 "Or you're here for a reason?"
1211"A reason?"
1212"That you're here to watch us, to scout the way for others."
1213It took a second before that made sense to me. "You think I'm a spy?" I said duly. "Is that what this is about?"
1214"I do find that the simplest explanations are usually the correct ones," he said. Then lowered his muzzle as he added, "However, I have been informed that in your case this does seem unlikely. And there is this."
1215My laptop. He produced it from a drawer, placed it on the desk and fumbled with the latch that would've been quite unfamiliar to him.  "Both Commissioner ah Charis and Mediator ah Ehrasai said this was what helped persuade them. They say it showed views of your world. It does not seem to do that anymore," he said as he opened the screen and turned it toward me. The password prompt was blinking quietly.
1216"It's... locked."
1217"Locked?" his ears pricked up. "You did this for a reason?"
1218I looked around to find the other Rris in the room were all staring at me. All of them watching intently. And Shyia tipped his head in a very slightly nod. 
1219"Rris were ... taking information. Knowledge. About dangerous things that could hurt others."
1220"You're referring to weapons," the Mediator Lord said.
1221"Mostly."
1222"Mostly," he repeated, then clicked claws on the table and pushed the laptop over. "Unlock this."
1223It wasn't a request, but I looked at the keyboard and then back at his face and drew myself up as best I could. "Why should I?"
1224The room was abruptly silent. Even more so, if that was possible. A soundless, tense, expectation. And he tipped his head slightly and slowly bared teeth in something which was far from a smile. "Because the Guild demands it," he said quietly.
1225I swallowed and met those slitted eyes are steadily as I could. "The Mediator Guild?"
1226"Of course."
1227"The last Mediator I met, she said she wanted that information for the Guild," said a voice that was too level to be mine. "She said she was going to use it to bring peace by starting a war. That was... insane. It was something I wanted no part of. I should believe you're different?"
1228Hisses of breath sounded from points around the room. Richtkah's ears went down. "You should. What happened with aesh Raeshon was unpleasant and unfortunate. However, the unexpected resolution to that issue has changed many things"
1229"I did noticed that you've been trying to kill me. Now you've got a perfect opportunity, you don't use it. Perhaps it's because of something I've got?"
1230"Presumptuous," the Mediator Lord growled. "Because of what you've got, it would be better for all if you were dead. Sparks set another house afire and that's why you're still alive."
1231I flinched back in shock. "Hey, I didn't start any fires..."
1232"Figure of speech," Shyia interrupted quietly.
1233"Oh."
1234Richtkah gave Shyia a cool glance, then swung back to me. "We brought you here alive for a reason. Judgment has been questioned. Tribunal has been called. Guild Masters have gathered. There will be a decision, arm and hand and the claw. And the balance is in the evidence; for yourself as much as for us."
1235"I don't understand. Tribunal? I know the word but... what do you mean? Am I on trial?"
1236"No. I am."
1237I stared, then screwed my eyes shut and shook my head, trying to clear it. When I looked around again at the other Rris in the room, the Mediators were watching me without showing any outward emotion. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what they wanted. If I keyed my password, would they just kill me once they thought they'd gotten access? What did he mean he was on trial? He was the Guild Lord. Shyia had said something...
1238He was sitting calmly, patiently at ease. And he tipped his head again, ever so slightly.
1239When I tried typing my password my hands were so unsteady I could hardly hit the keys. My fingers just didn't want to go where I wanted them to. Chains rattled as I laboriously entered my passphrase and got it right on the second go...
1240My voice is my passport. Verify me.
1241The laptop chimed and flicked to desktop and a shot of earth, of the blue and green of the east coast of the US from space. Deskstat also said the batteries were at sixty percent and there'd been seventy two failed attempted logins. I leaned back, steadying myself.
1242Richtkah beckoned Shyia forward and he knelt by the desk to take the laptop. His expression was almost comical: ears tipped, brow creased, tongue peeking from his muzzle as he hunted and pecked over the keyboard and screen. Then he turned the screen toward the Mediator Lord and I heard the music start, the screen sub swelling it to something that filled the room. It was the same clip I'd first shown him all that time ago: that montage of video clips of scenes from another world.
1243"Hai," the Mediator Lord exclaimed, then leaned forward to peer intently at the screen. I could see his pupils dilate, then contract, his head moving in rapid little twitched as he scanned the display in front of him. The strains of Vanessa Mae pulsed from the laptop screen speaker, anachronistic in those surrounds. He pulled his head back and reach forward to poke at the screen, then reached behind it and touched the plastic there as though it was a trick magic box. His ears flicked back and the other Mediators in the room looked uncertain or curious or a mixture of both.
1244When the clip was done and the music had faded, Richtkah sat back on his cushion and cocked his head at the screen. "This is all?"
1245"No Sir, there is a lot more," Shyia said. "Moving pictures like that, pictures and writing. Several libraries worth of books."
1246"In this little box?" Richtkah's ears laid back. "That's not possible."
1247"I assure you, Sir, it is."
1248"Huh," he coughed and tapped at the laptop's casing with a claw. "Do you know how it's done?"
1249"Mikah has attempted to explain it. I'm not sure I understand. There are principles involved that I'm not sure anyone is familiar with."
1250"And this has persuaded you his story is true?"
1251"Sir, there are pictures on there that show places that seem familiar, yet are completely different. There are maps that show his world in intricate detail. That very image there, he says it is a picture of his world from so high that the land lies like a map. Certainly, you can see the shoreline there."
1252"That... the eastern shore? Bluebetter? What are those white patterns?"
1253"He says clouds, sir."
1254"Clouds? From above?"
1255"Yes, sir. What you saw, those are moving pictures of his world. There are hundreds like that, and they all show a society that is aggressive and expansionist and more powerful than any country I know of. I think if they could have been here by now, they would have. Even if it is a fabrication, it's one we couldn't duplicate. It is probably more desirable that they are on another world than simply on another continent."
1256The Mediator Lord turned to the other side, to the other three Rris who'd been sitting quietly, patiently. "Ah Charis, you support the Mediator's assessment?"
1257"Yes, sir," said one of those, a grizzled individual with fur that had been dark once and now was shot through with white swathes. Was he familiar? I wasn't sure.
1258"And you're willing to second him on this action."
1259"Yes sir, I am. He's always proven to be accurate and precise in his judgments. This time... it's exceptional and I believe his actions are in accordance with the [something] of the situation."
1260The Lord looked at the laptop again and flicked his ears. "Very well. And the images on this device show more of this creature's home?"
1261"Yes, sir?"
1262"And you don't believe they're biased?"
1263"No."
1264"I will want to see these."
1265"Yes, sir."
1266"And I want that examined." A hand flicked toward me. "Life-studiers, physiologers, doctors... the best available to tell us what it is. If there are any previous records or accounts of deformed apes."
1267"Sir."
1268"Excuse me," I ventured.
1269Amber eyes locked on me. I saw nostrils flaring in hissing intakes of breath, but Richtkah growled, "Speak." 
1270"Can someone tell me what is going on? I don't understand."
1271Now he looked a little puzzled and gestured toward Shyia. "Mediator."
1272"Sir, there's a surprising amount about which he's completely ignorant. Mikah, do you know tribunal?"
1273I tried to think back through all the lessons that'd been bounced off me over the past couple of years but it was a foggy molasses. I just couldn't think. "I know word... the word, but I don't know what means here."
1274 "Constable," Richtkah said, "I suggest you find time at some point to further its... his education."
1275"Yes, sir."
1276"For now, remove him to holding," he said, flicking a hand in dismissal. "Show me what else is on this device," he said to Shyia, as if I were already gone.
1277Guards returned and furry hands with leathery palms caught my arms. I quickly tried to get up, to prevent those hands using claws to goad me along and adding to my collection of scratches, and the room seemed to float away to the side and then spun. I staggered, chains clattered, and I was down on hands and knees again, my eyes closed as waves of giddiness and prickling heat washed over me and I tried desperately not to throw up. Lines on my arms burned and someone was saying my name.
1278"Mikah!"
1279That was Shyia. I gasped air and tried to pull myself together, shaking. "I'm... all right," I managed to say as I worked on standing up again, taking it one stage at a time.
1280"Is he ill?"  Richtkah inquired.
1281Guards grabbed my arms and held tight this time as they half-hauled me to my feet. I must've been a weight for them, but they managed it. My legs... held, but my muscles were telling me they'd reached their limits. "Just tired."
1282"Mikah," Shyia's eyes narrowed. "When was the last time you slept? Ate?"
1283I started to answer and then realized I had no idea. "I think... three days? I don't know."
1284"Huhn," Shyia growled and looked to Richtkah, "Sir, with your permission?"
1285The Guild Lord gave a languid wave of his hand and Shyia flowed to his feet, snapped another gesture to the guards. Moving my feet helped get the blood flowing again, but I was still staggering as they half-carried me out the door. In the hallway outside, Shyia spoke in low tones with one of the guards. What he was saying I really didn't hear or care about. The guards let go of me and I saw their hands were smeared in blood. So were my arms. When I'd collapsed they'd grabbed at me, adding to my collection of scratches. Now I bore matching red sets of slashes on both arms, stinging and seeping blood. Which were the least of my concerns.
1286Shyia and the other Mediator finished their quiet conversation. The guard ducked his head in acknowledgement and Shyia didn't give me a second look as he returned to the office. The arabesque mosaic of a door swung closed behind him and the guards led me away.
1287That hole. I was dreading returning to that pit, but I didn't have much of a choice. The guards weren't dragging me. In fact, their hands helped steady me as I took the stairs one stone step at a time, a guard in front and behind and to either side. As we crossed through the foyer a trio of younger-looking Mediators stood aside and watched, staring at me as I passed by. Outside in the atrium, sunlight cut across the upper floors, lighting and warming the tiled roofs but leaving the lower garden in cool shade. There were more Mediators there: sitting on a stone bench eating something from a basket; reading quietly; playing a board game of some kind. More heads tracked us as we passed on through. Not, however, the way they'd brought me in.
1288Off to the left this time, to another wing. The corridor in that part of the building was whitewashed, with a ceiling of grey wood and a floor of clay-red glazed tiles with lighter grouting. Heavy black doors lined the right wall, each one spaced a few meters apart. My guards stopped at an open one and it was obvious where I was supposed to go. Hesitantly, I approached the threshold and stopped there. I'd seen a room like this before; I'd been in a room like this before: A compact cell with neatly tiled floor, white walls, a pallet of straw ticking, a small desk and chair, a narrow window high up in the wall admitting a slant of warm sunlight. There was a scent of soap, of lemons. It was a cell, but it was a far cry from that black pit under the ground.
1289I stepped in, then stopped and nervously looked back. A guard was standing in the door behind me. "The commander said that there would be food brought to you," the Mediator said. I just nodded and was rewarded with a puzzled look, then the guard stepped back and the heavy black door swung closed with a very final sound.
1290For a few seconds I stared at the solid planks, and then turned back to the mattress. Slowly, carefully, I sat myself down on the thin ticking and leaned back against the wall. I should think about what happened, I remember telling myself. I just didn't have time to rest. Nevertheless, I don't remember my head hitting the mattress, just oblivion coming down like a theatre curtain.
1291
1292------<o>------
1293
1294Dreaming of a huge, shadowy expanse of a room, dining table scattered like islands of white linen and gleaming silverware in an ocean of dark. I looked around at the other diners at my table. They were bright figures, dressed in brilliant colors and masks laughing and joking as they tore into the plentiful foodstuffs that stacked their plates high.
1295My own plate was empty.
1296Then, when their own meals were reduced to racks of gnawed bones and empty platters, their eyes turned to me. Amber and ivory flared in the darkness and I recoiled away from the knives, scrambling across the floor...
1297"Hai! Mikah!" I heard. The half-lit Rris figure crouching over me drew back a bit. Light from a small lamp threw shadows across the anonymous individual and set a thread of orange glinting on the edge of the knife. I recoiled violently, back into the corner between the mattress and the wall.
1298"Calm down," the Rris was saying. "What is..." then it glanced down toward the knife and I heard, "Ah. I was trying to trim the dressing." A hand shifted, pointing.
1299I looked: one arm had already been dressed, as had my leg. A clean white bandage held a poultice over the throbbing gouge on my calf. I'd slept through that? The gauze on my other arm was in disarray, the bandage unraveling and the dressing fallen to the mattress, which was liberally smeared with dark, congealing stains. So, she was being honest, but my heart was still hammering.
1300"You understand me?" the Rris asked carefully. "Mikah?"
1301I nodded slowly, not even thinking that that gestured wouldn't be understood. "Who are you?"
1302"It has been a while, but I'm surprised you don't remember me."
1303"I can't see you."
1304"Hai, that's right: I forget. This is still too dark? Ah, well, but I can see you're growing your fur long again. Looking very inelegant as well, after all that work I did on it." A hand lifted into the lamplight and there was a slim bracelet around the wrist, woven from some pale fibers that looked very familiar. I looked up at the features that were shadow and fur.
1305"Esseri?" I ventured.
1306"Escheri," she corrected. "Hai, you see? You do remember."
1307Escheri. A Mediator. The last time I'd met her had been in Lying Scales, the town to which Shyia had taken me after my time in Westwater. She'd been assigned as a steward to help me in my brief time there. She'd been friendly toward me; she'd helped me make myself presentable for Shyia's immediate superior. And she'd kept some of the hair she'd cut, to make that bracelet. Said it'd be unique. It was, but I also realized that I couldn't see her features and, well, anyone could wear a bracelet, couldn't they? But she'd said some things that not many people knew.
1308"What're you doing here?"
1309"The same thing as everyone else: trying to stop those ripples of yours drowning someone."
1310Manacles and chains clinked as I worked myself upright, sitting on the mattress with my back to the wall. I had to lift both my manacled hands to brush tangled hair out of my eyes. Night outside, that was why it was so dark. There were distant sounds drifting in from outside: an owl hooting, far-off Rris voices, the sounds of night sneaking in along with a ghost of moonlight mixing with the glow of the small oil lantern sitting on the table. She was kneeling, watching me with her head tipped to one side. On the floor at her side a small bag was open and some pots, vials, and gauze strips were spread out on a white cloth. That much I could see. And behind her the door was securely closed.
1311"There are guards outside," she told me matter-of-factly as she saw where I was looking. 
1312"Ah, good. That makes me feel much safer."
1313I saw her head tip the other way and then she coughed a laugh. "That was a joke, a? That means you're feeling better?"
1314"Better?"
1315"They told me you collapsed. Upstairs. You could barely walk."
1316"I was... tired."
1317"Tired enough to sleep through my [something]," Escheri said. "Most of it."
1318"A," I reached up to rub my eyes and the chains clattered again. "Could you take these off?" I asked.
1319She tipped her hand. "Sorry. Orders."
1320"Of course," I sighed.
1321"Then do you mind if I finish up?"
1322I nodded. Her muzzle wrinkled, but she knew enough about me to know what that meant. She gestured for my arm. I slowly raised it and her coarse fur and leathery finger pads pressed against my flesh as she worked at retying the loosened bandage. "Just claw scratches, but they seem bad on you. Thin skin, a?"
1323"I've noticed."
1324"Huhn!" she grunted and used the back of a claw to trace a scar running up my arm. "You've picked up a few more scratches since I last saw you. Rotted patchwork quilt now, aren't you? Your leg there. And your back... rot me, how did that happen?'
1325I felt the flinches run up my spine. That was something I didn't want to talk about, but I wasn't sure of where I stood. Could I refuse to answer? And that indecision stretched the moment out until she filled it by saying, "That bad, a? I won't chase it."
1326"Thank you."
1327"Others might," she said as she took up the little scalpel again and sliced off the excess gauze. "Hai, there," she laid the blade down and rolled the remaining bandage. "Done and done," she told me as she packed the gauze away and then reached down to my feet. I flinched and she gave me a reproachful look. I sighed and let her lift one foot and then the other, examining them like a pack animal's hooves. 
1328"The soles shouldn't be that color, I think," she noted, poking carefully. "Bruising, a?"
1329"A."
1330"Huh. Unpleasant, but they are healing. No infection. Your leg... how does that feel?"
1331"Sore," I said. It was, aching.
1332"Huhn, watch it. It looks inflamed. I cleaned it and applied a [something], but it could be better. Watch out for it."
1333I snorted. "So it'll be good and healthy when you execute me?"
1334"Don't be like that. Shyia is trying to take things by the throat."
1335And what did that mean? "Shyia?" I half-laughed, "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
1336Her ears went back. "You know he's been trying to help you."
1337"To what? Make my life a living... a nightmare come true? He's been very successful at that."
1338Those ears stayed back. "He's kept your ragged hide intact," she said. "You have no idea what he's done for you."
1339"No, I don't." I leaned back against the wall and regarded the half-lit shadow of the Rris kneeling opposite. "What has he done for me? What is going on? What is going to happen? People are saying tribunal... I don't know what that is. I thought I was on trial, but his Lordship said he was the one being judged. Can you tell me?"
1340Her hands moved. Glass and metal clinked as she tidied her kit away but otherwise there was silence.
1341"Will you?" I ventured.
1342There was a low exhalation. A sigh or a hiss, I wasn't sure, but she looked at me. "Listen, there are things I can't tell you..."
1343"Can't as in don't know or are not allowed to." 
1344An irritated twitch. "Not everything is clear water. Now, listen: I can tell you that tribunal is used for Guild affairs. If a decision is made by a Guild Lord that is deemed... inappropriate, it can be challenged. Another Mediator can call tribunal."
1345"Just like that?"
1346"Not just like that. He needs seconds... he needs other Mediators to support the claims; reputable officers who'll sponsor his challenge. If those are forthcoming, the tribunal is formed from representatives of the Guild, of other guilds, of city lords. They weigh and decide."
1347"And Shyia's doing this," I said. 
1348"A," Escheri said, taking her kit and seeming to flow to her feet with that grace inherent in her species.
1349"Why?"
1350Her eyes flashed as she looked at me. "What do you mean?"
1351"Chasing me, trying to kill me, then this... it wasn't leading up to this?"
1352Ears twitched. "Mikha, I can't tell you too much. It could unduly influence things," she said and scratched at the door. Bolts on the other side rattled and she took her lantern.
1353"You don't think he's just doing this to increase his standing in the guild? Get rid of the current lord? Make room at the top?"
1354The heavy white-painted wood of the door swung open, silent on well-oiled hinges. In the doorway, a shadow behind the light of the lantern, Escheri turned and her ears were flat against her skull, "Mikah," she almost hissed, "understand this: the one who calls tribunal can never – never -  rise to high rank in the guild. Now, good night. Sleep. You'll need it."
1355The door swung closed with a dull thud and the lantern light was gone. In the feeble glimmer of moonlight seeping through the slit of a window high in the wall I leaned back and sighed. What she'd said, that changed things yet again.
1356
1357------<o>------
1358
1359The cell was lit by the rising sun streaming in through the small window, casting an incandescent rectangle on the wall opposite. I woke squinting into that glare and then at the faces of the Mediators in the open door. None of them were familiar and all looked as though they'd had their sense of humor forcibly removed.
1360They had some breakfast for me. It was a simple meal of bread and meat and water, but the bread was fresh and the meat had been cooked to something I could eat and the water seemed clean. They gave me five or so minutes to eat and after that I was taken upstairs again, to a room paneled with maple and shelves and fronted with tall latticed windows. It was a classroom of a sort I was getting to be quite familiar with. Low stools – square cushions upholstered in emerald green squatting on stubby curved legs of dark oak -   were arranged in a gentle arc before a single cushion, a low desk and black slate hung on a wall. The expressionless guards told me to sit myself on the cushion and wait, and then they took positions by the door. I wondered just what exactly I was waiting for.
1361It turned out to be that examination the Mediator Lord had called for. They hadn't wasted any time. The Mediators had gathered biologists of sorts, all the specialists and quacks they could find: Mediator medics and physicians, life studiers and naturalists from the university, even a local merchant whose interest turned out – to my disconcertion – to be taxidermy, over a dozen individuals. They'd all been gathered there at his Lordship's request, solely for the purpose of finding out just what I was. Apparently my explanation hadn't satisfied him.
1362At least it wasn't an open forum. They were brought in one at a time. Some of them had seen me before – we'd been introduced before, under less extraordinary conditions, but there were more than a few for whom I was a new experience and they gawped and stared and poked and prodded and when I tried to protest the Mediator stepped in and insisted I comply. So when a studier from the local university wanted samples, to compare with other beasts', I was forced to relent to giving blood, dripped from a needle prick into a glass vial and used for god-knew-what. And I started getting really scared at what sort of medieval torture of a medical procedure they might insist on next.
1363That turned out to be wanting more samples: urine, bile and semen, nail and hair clippings. Things that made me, things that really weren't that important but in which the fledgling Rris sciences placed stock, even though they'd be of very limited use to them. And that time the Rris wasn't interesting in hearing what other techniques I might be able to offer, he was only interested in sticking a tube down my throat to harvest bile. So I was uncommonly relieved when Escheri chose that time to appear in the doorway, pausing to mutter to the guards and then exchanging words with the Rris scholar. He protested. Her ears laid flat.
1364"No," the resulting exchange boiled down to her telling him, "You were asked what else he could be. Whether you knew of others like him, if your studies had any records of such. We weren't granting you leave to add to your samples. Simply do as we require."
1365And that was that.
1366I submitted to more poking and prodding while academics pondered whether or not I might be some freakish sort of bear. An ape of some sort, perhaps. I'd been through this sort of thing before, all with various levels of lack of success. So I'd resigned myself to listening to them talk and speculate and ultimately come up with nothing. Until one, a raffishly-attired academic on a visit from the southern country of Bluebetter, was ushered into the room, took a look at me and his ears came up; "A, I've seen the like before."
1367I gaped. Other ears went up and Escheri looked from him to me and back again. "You're sure?"
1368"A. Quite," he said, stalking over to peer at me through spectacles that looked oddly familiar.
1369I managed to find my voice. "You've seen people like me before?" I choked and he recoiled two steps.
1370"It talks!" he snarled in astonishment. I felt somewhat affronted.
1371"You were told," Escheri said.
1372"Indeed, but ... I thought noises like a [something] bird. Hearing it is something else altogether," he said, adjusting his spectacles and staring again.
1373"You said you'd seen his kind before."
1374"Huhn? Oh, ah. A, that's right. There are several specimens in his lordship's menagerie back in Red Leaves. Although they don't talk. Not that I've heard." He scratched at his chin. "It's dangerous?"
1375"I don't believe you're in any danger," Escheri said quietly.
1376"But... you said you've seen more of my kind?" I had to say again. Was he telling the truth? It was incredible that someone could walk into a room and just say, 'oh, one of those,' if he hadn't seen other people. My kind of people. And that one little concern suddenly eclipsed all my other worries. "Have you? Like me?"
1377"Mikah," Escheri cautioned me with a glare and I subsided, reluctantly. With her tail still lashing, she turned back to the life studier. "Now, you say that ah Thes'ita actually has some of this kind in captivity?"
1378"A," he said, walking around me and leaning in to squint through the glasses, to sniff, to cock his head. "Although, they weren't nearly as tall. They did seem... darker. And there was more hair. And their scent was different, I recall."
1379I opened my mouth and Escheri snapped, "Mikah!" Then she calmly asked, "Where did they come from? Do you know that?"
1380"Oh, Africa," he said. "A, they were brought back by an expedition."
1381"Apes," I slumped.
1382"A. Like yourself, no?"
1383"No," I sighed. "No. Not quite."
1384"No? I must say there is a remarkable resemblance. Perhaps a freak specimen?"
1385I started to offer a retort to that and caught Escheri's look. I shut up. She nodded her muzzle just once and turned back to the biologist. "We want to consider all possibilities. Your suggestions will be noted."
1386'Will be noted...' I shuddered and gritted my teeth. Would they really listen to something as preposterous as that? It was ridiculous. It was as bad as... as saying I was something from a parallel reality. From another world. What was more believable? What was the court more likely to believe?
1387So while the biologists and learned scholars came and went and poked and prodded, I had enough time to worry away at those questions. I just did as they asked: turned this way, raised this or that limb, answered questions that I'd been asked so many times that they'd become rote while I churned my own problems over in my head. And the answers I kept coming up with didn't do anything to reassure me.
1388So, some time later it was a while before I realized that the last quack physician had just left and nobody else had come in. The room was empty, save for the guards and Escheri. Tipping her head as she regarded me sitting on that cushion, as she probably had been for the past minute or so. Outside the windows over her shoulder I could see the day had turned dark. Fleeting sunbeams peeked through scudding purple clouds. "I said, 'we're done'," she told me.
1389"Oh," I said, then nodded. "That's all?"
1390"For now," she said and tipped her head the other way. "You seem... preoccupied."
1391I think I managed a grimace of a smile. "I've got a lot to think about."
1392"Perhaps you might be better concentrating on matters at hand?" she suggested.
1393"A," I nodded resignedly.
1394She sighed and scratched her jaw, "Just as I remembered you: flippant, but still so nervous."
1395My jaw twitched. "You think I haven't got reason?"
1396"Huhn," she huffed and stalked around, circling around behind me. "I think you've got excellent reason." I half turned my head and froze when a hand ruffled my hair; claws curling through overgrown strands to lay on either side of my neck. "But perhaps..."
1397"Perhaps?"
1398Another soft snort and the hand patted my head. "Mikah, just do as you're told. That's all I can tell you."
1399"I'm trying," I shuddered and Escheri stroked my neck. "Dammit! I'm trying. But it's just... It just feels like I'm running out over a cliff." I twisted around, looking up at her as she pulled her hand back. "Nobody is telling me anything. I'm not on trial, but you keep me here. In chains. What am I supposed to do? How can I..."
1400Her hand moved again and I stopped talking. A finger was under my jaw, a single claw digging in just behind my chin. "Enough," she said quietly and slowly she crouched, to squat in front of me, those amber eyes regarding me dispassionately.
1401With a human it's the muscles around the eyes that offer the emotion clues: fractional flickers of features that we're programmed to read from birth. All our lives, all our history, we're exposed to those cues and learn them at a level that must rival the instinctual. Look into the eyes of something not human and those cues aren't there. They're completely absent; or they're replaced by movements that might be tantalizingly familiar but mean something utterly different.
1402And that's what I found myself facing: lambent orange, slit-pupil eyes set in a face that was never designed as the signaling device that the human face is. There were emotions there that I could read: wariness, concern, perhaps annoyance... and certainly many other nuances that I couldn't.
1403"Just calm down, a?" the Mediator growled softly. "I told you, there are things I can't say."
1404I swallowed, then carefully waved an affirmative. The point pressing into my skin pulled back slightly, then slowly slid down my throat, tickling as it traced my skin. She watched, her fingertip and my eyes. Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance. When she pulled her hand away I swallowed, then carefully said, "I'm supposed to be a... a witness?"
1405"A witness," she echoed and cocked her head as if mulling something over in her head. Then her ears flicked. "No. Not a witness. I think a better word would be evidence."
1406"Evidence?! What the hell does that..." I squeaked, cut off as she raised her finger again.
1407"A," she said. "An important piece, mind you. That is why we are taking all this... care with you."
1408"I'm truly touched," I forced out from between clenched teeth and carefully rubbed my throat, my manacles rattling.
1409She blinked, "Just be calm, be good. And behave, A?"
1410I tried not to look at the guards behind her as I just nodded, "A."
1411"Good," she said and her furry hand came up for a quick bat at my cheek with claws not quite entirely pulled. "Then I think we're done here."
1412
1413------<o>------
1414
1415It was raining outside. Thunder rolled in from off across the lake. Through the slit of a window in my cell I could smell the tang of ozone; could hear the hiss of a steady downpour sheeting straight down onto bricks outside. As it'd been doing all night long.
1416Waiting. That was the worst bit. I waited on the little cot, finding myself shivering uncontrollably even though the night wasn't that cold. Jangling nerves and numbing boredom kept see-sawing. Tedium dragged the hours out and I slept fitfully, snapped wide awake every time there was a noise. A couple of times it'd been guards bringing me food or just checking on me. They didn't speak, didn't offer any information or respond to questions, they just carried out their duties with impersonal Mediator efficiency.
1417I'd been on trial before. Once. When I'd first come here. Out in that little town of Westwater the locals and a Mediator tried me for murder. It'd been a confused affair that hadn't gone well. The verdict had been not guilty, but it'd been a nightmare for me. I dreaded it happening again.
1418Idle time gave other concerns time to boil and fester. Chihirae, what about her? Was she all right? There were no immediate communications between Shattered Water and Open Fields, so unless a courier had specifically informed her she probably had no idea what was going on, so she wouldn't be worrying. Thank god she wasn't here, but that wasn't any guarantee that she wouldn't be dragged down into this whole morass. Shyia knew I was... fond of her. He had once warned me about that; that there were those individuals who might use that sort of attachment against me. Now, he was in a position where he might be one of those individuals.
1419At some time before dawn I again woke blinking into the glow of a lantern. This time there were more Rris figures behind the light. One stepped forward, eclipsing the light and becoming an unearthly silhouette haloed in a fringe of backlit fur. Metal glittered.
1420"Come on," Escheri said, fiddling with her grooming kit as she stepped forward. "They'll be ready soon. We have to make you look civilized."
1421"What time is it?"
1422"Almost too late. Rot, you do look a mess. Well, we'll see what we can do with that fur of yours," she said as she knelt beside me and pulled a metal comb from her kit. Mediators at the door watched on, their eyes looking like discs of copper in the light.
1423"Now you're worried about my hair?"
1424"It might help if you look like an intelligent being, not some animal dragged in from a field somewhere. Rot, grooming is important if you want to be taken seriously. Now hold still."
1425I winced as she raked the comb through knots, ripping a few out by the roots. "Don't you take care of this?" she grumbled.
1426"Sorry, but my groomer had another appointment today," I growled and flinched again as Escheri flicked me with a claw.
1427"Don't do that," she chided and I gritted my teeth, my whole head being yanked to and fro as she raked at my hair.
1428There was movement in the doorway as another Mediator entered and laid cloth down on the table. I recognized the material.
1429"A," Escheri must've caught my glance. "Your clothing. Shyia wants you to wear it."
1430"And that's all you're telling me? He wants me to wear clothes. Anything else you'd like me to do? Perhaps balance a ball on my nose? Ow!"
1431"I warned you. Rot it, Mikah, I can't tell you any more. If you said the wrong thing at the wrong time then perhaps our decision could have charges of [bias? Corruption?] lowered against it. Not likely, but this... this is serious. He's being careful. He's juggling gunpowder and torches," she said simply. "I really think you have no idea."
1432"Don't worry," I grumbled. "I don't."
1433A soft snort escaped Escheri and she set to working at my hair again. "You've been on trial before, I know that. This shouldn't be entirely new to you."
1434I stiffened. "It will be like that?"
1435"It will be a Tribunal," she huffed. "Not a backwoods court. A position will be defended and assailed. It will be civilized. There will be no physical assaults this time."
1436Slowly, I nodded. "Ah, that kind of civilized. Ah!" 
1437After a while she'd yanked the worst of the birds' nests out and it wasn't an uncontrolled mat anymore. The comb was running smoothly and she sat back, proclaiming it, "Better. Like I remembered. A little more civilized, a? Now, we just have to get you dressed. I'm going to remove those manacles. You will behave?"
1438Uh-oh. I grimaced and then slowly held out my hands. She produced a clunky key and barely just touched them to the locks and the black iron manacles fell open, clattering to the floor. She flinched, stared at them and then her muzzle snapped up as she glared at me. I could only shrug, "I was bored."
1439"Those locks..."
1440"...aren't very good," I shrugged again.
1441She grinned at me, an expression that bared only needle teeth and exasperation. I quickly ducked my head and she cuffed me with claws not quite pulled. "Get dressed, rot you."
1442They'd bought me my jeans, my Eldritch t-shirt, one halfway-respectable button shirt, boots and a single sock. I held up the pants and looked at Escheri. "Ah, I can't dress with the shackles on."
1443She hesitated, eyeing me. "You're not trying games. If you try to run…"
1444I gave her a pretty watery smile. "No. I can hardly even walk."
1445So she knelt and undid the metal bands and chains around my ankles and took the clanking iron away and then she and the other Mediators watched as I dressed, pulling on the jeans and t-shirt. She turned one of my boots over and over, stretching out the ankle support and watching it snap back again.
1446"How does it do that?"
1447They didn't have elastic. They didn't have rubber or spidersilk or even common silk. I smiled thinly, "It's simple when you know how."
1448She snorted and held the boot out. "You need this?"
1449"Ah, I'd prefer not to. My feet... I think they're still too swollen."
1450"A," she said simply and watched as I also took the other shirt. I could always lose it if needed.
1451"Done?" Escheri asked. "Then we'd best go."
1452"Hai," she observed as we left, "you're limping. Your feet or your leg?"
1453"Leg," I said.
1454"I'll have to look at that," she said. "Later, though. Now, come along."
1455I didn't know what time it was. It was still dark out, still drizzling hard enough to set my escorts' ears twitching as our way took us outside across that courtyard. I had a chance to look up, past dark windows. Overhead, the cloud cover was a lid over the city that blotted out any sight of the sky. Back home the underbelly of that cloud would be glowing sodium red, lit from below by city lights. Here, in this world, those city lights were too few and too feeble. The night remained black and wet.
1456  The building they took me to was one of the older ones, constructed from blocks of pale stone that must've been shipped in from a long ways off. The halls were big and dark and echoing. There was a dreamlike feel to the whole experience as we moved along in the small pools of light cast by my escorts' lamps. That light didn't reach the upper reaches of the corridors and was barely enough to let me see where I was going. With their night vision I knew the Rris didn't really need them at all, so I supposed they'd only brought them along for my sake. Thoughtful of them. At least the shackles were gone, although there were still some bruises where the metal had chafed and dug in.
1457 And through those halls I didn't see a single ornamental embellishment. There were no statues, no extraneous paintings or decoration, just clean functionality rendered in proportions that were decorative in their own alien intricacies. There were undertones of power and authority that came through beneath even that starkness, like something sleek and deadly coursing beneath smooth water. It didn't feel anything like the authority totems such as ornate materials and decorations and oversized spaces that were so prevalent back home - it was after all aimed at a different psyche - but I was still able to notice it. I wondered if it was supposed to intimidate me.
1458In truth, it did.
1459Rris were moving around those dark corridors. There were Mediators as well as others. We passed a corridor where I saw what looked like troops in the uniforms of Royal Guards standing at a door. Further along a group of civilians were talking in hushed voices. They looked up as we passed and their ears went flat. I could feel their eyes on me as we passed.
1460When we halted it was at a door that literally glowed in the light of the lamps. It wasn't big -  no larger than normal - but the entire surface was hammered copper. It hadn't been planished; it'd been polished, but not smooth, keeping every hammer bowl intact. Those metal dimples glowed in my escorts' lamp light, blurrily reflecting us in a galaxy of tiny beaten dishes. I was a pale form, flanked by shorter blurs. One of them stepped up to my side.
1461"Here," Escheri said, "We'll take you in. You sit where we tell you. You know what to do."
1462I stared down at her, my heart hammering. "Escheri, I... I haven't got the faintest idea."
1463Her tufted ears laid back. "Look, be quiet. Just answer direct questions and that's all. Be respectful; be honest," the Mediator muttered and patted at my shirt, trying to straighten the alien garb out a little. "You're shivering. You're still cold?"
1464"I don't know," I said. "I can't help it. Nervous."
1465"Huh, do your best, a?" she said and patted my arm, then – fleetingly – reached up to stroke my cheek. "Good fortune."
1466One of the other Mediators flicked an ear, but swung that copper door open on a lot of darkness.
1467Two of the others closed up behind me, not quite pushing but making it clear that I was to move.
1468I stepped through.
1469My imagination had been presenting me with something like a courtroom I was familiar with from back home: a large room with lots of polished wood, a judges bench and jurors stand. Of course the reality was different.
1470There was polished wood. There was a great deal of that - it was a big room; a basilica of sorts. I was at one end, standing on the fringe of a broad apse. Two stories overhead the ceiling was in darkness, but just below it a faint glow that might have been wan morning light seeped through a row of dirty windows circumnavigating the white plaster walls of room. Underfoot the floor was darker-than-blood red wood, a circular stage polished to a nearly mirror finish and half of it embraced by the arc of the apse. Oil lamps hung from polished silver stands guttered, turned low, their wicks a feeble glow that was just enough to bring shadows out to play. Just enough for Rris vision: Not enough for me to make out the faces of the Rris seated around the periphery of that semi circle, sitting cross-legged on cushions set on the floor with low desks placed in front of them.
1471And that light didn't reach the ceiling high above where rain still thrummed against the roof. Nor did it reach to the far ends of the hall where the floor rose into gradual tiers of wood-paneled steps. There were Rris seated on those tiers, rows and rows of ill-defined feline forms. As I moved into view those figures stirred, a susurrus of movement and conversation drifted through the hall and their eyes caught the light.
1472Like two hundred discs of molten aluminum flaring in the darkness. A sight that made something in my hindbrain scream and my hackles stand up. I should've been used to it after the time I'd spent at the front of lecture halls at the university in Shattered Water, but I guess it was still a shock. I stopped dead, like a deer in headlights.
1473One of my escorts prodded me in the back and I flinched. Someone had said something and I'd missed it. Panicked, I looked around and from nearby a Rris voice growled, "Sit down." 
1474There was one cushion set apart from the others, out in the middle of the stage. I had a pretty good idea who that was for. My Mediator escort stayed close while I sat myself down. My gashed leg ached enough that I couldn't sit cross-legged, instead having to adopt a less dignified posture with that leg straightened. That put the studio audience at my back and the semi-circle of Rris before me. My escort melted back into the shadows.
1475There was a pattern in there in the way the Rris around me were seated. Facing me at the rear of the apse was an arc of five Rris cross-legged at their black lacquered desks, all of them Mediators as best I could tell. Older Rris, I thought, from the hint of grey fur, although that wasn't a reliable indicator – more than a few younger ones I'd met had salt n pepper fur. One of them was wearing glasses, I could see that much: a set of small wireframe spectacles. The others wore somber tones, but nothing like a uniform.
1476There were other two smaller groups: three individuals seated to my left and three more to my right.
1477 "He's certainly more than I'd expected," one of the five Rris directly before me said eventually. "Mikah aesh Riehee, it was?"
1478That question wasn't addressed to me. "Yes, Ma'am," one of the group over to my left responded. 
1479"Mikah," the other said, "You can speak? You can understand us?"
1480I waved a careful affirmative. "Yes. I can speak. I am still learning... much, but I can speak."
1481"Huhn, and do you understand why you're here?"
1482"Not really, no." I glanced around for Escheri, for anybody I could recognize. They were all anonymous shadows in the gloom. "Nobody has told me anything."
1483I thought I saw several pairs of ears flicker at that. The one who'd spoken looked down at a sheet of paper. Lightning flared outside, strobed through that row of high windows. Spectacles caught light and flared briefly in the shadows. "We tell you now that you've been summoned before this Tribunal today in response to several charges. There is a considerable list of broaches here: I see instances of evading arrest, assaulting Mediators, disobeying a Mediator's direct orders, the murder of a Mediator, arson and property damage... you deny these?"
1484I felt the weight of all those eyes on my back and swallowed, "Except for the arson and murder of a Mediator, no."
1485"Huhn. It was reported you set a fire to evade pursuit. There was extensive damage."
1486I shook my head. "No. Not me. Some of your Mediators."
1487The circles of the spectacles glowed silver. "You did kill a Mediator."
1488I stared back. "No. Not a Mediator. He looked like... I thought it was a Rris I knew. He was... painted to look like someone I knew, to get close to me. He shot at me then attacked me with a knife. I defended myself." 
1489"Knife range, yet you still couldn't see it was a Mediator? He was closer to you than we are, yet you can see us all right, can't you?" 
1490I suppose that remark was intended to be humorous. I shrugged. There might have been a hint of morning light on the high windows, but that was all. Just the grey touch of first light filtering through the rain clouds. "No. I can't."
1491"He's mostly blind in dim light," came a calm voice from the Mediators seated to my left.
1492"But that would be Shyia," I sighed.
1493There were sounds of amusement. One of the Rris in front of me made a gesture and guards shifted around the periphery of the room, turning the wicks on the oil lamps up. Flames flickered and became and brightened marginally and things became a little more defined. I could see who my audience was. It was Shyia to my left, flanked by two others seated behind a trio of little black lacquered tables. To my right ah Richtkah and a pair of flunkies were similarly ensconced behind identical desks.
1494"That's better?"
1495"Yes, sir," I said.
1496Ears flicked back and then erect again. "Ma'am," the Rris replied calmly. "It's 'Ma'am'."
1497"Oh," I said. "Sorry." I think Shyia briefly closed his eyes.
1498"You really can't tell, can you?" one of the ones before me said.
1499I swallowed. "Apologies. I'm still not... I haven't spent my life amongst Rris. I didn't grow up with your kind. I thought I was getting better, but I'm... I'm still learning. I think you'd have problems telling my kind apart."
1500"Huh, yes, your kind. There are others like you?"
1501"A."
1502"Where?"
1503Surely they'd been briefed on that? Was there a reason they were bringing it up? I carefully waved a shrug. "I'm not sure. I'm not sure how I came to your world."
1504"Our world. What does that mean? That you're from the moon perhaps?"
1505I glanced at Shyia. "I'm... not sure it's like that."
1506"Explain."
1507"Ma'am, there was a theory amongst savants of my kind that I know of. I don't know the particulars, I am just aware of it."
1508"Tell us."
1509"It basically says there isn't just one universe, there is an... an unlimited number of them. Every possible alternative... every decision made at every tiniest moment of time creates a new universe. A universe where this earth never formed; a universe where it was made but life never evolved; a universe where your kind grew to dominance; one where my kind did; a world where I never arrived, one where I... every possibility in between. They called them, ah, parallel worlds. That comes close in Rris words."
1510Heads turned as the members of the tribunal exchanged looks. "Other worlds? I've never heard of such a thing."
1511"Quite a stretch of the imagination, a," another murmured.
1512One of them leaned forward, toward me. "Your kind actually has savants? Scholars and the such?"
1513"A."
1514"Did they perhaps mention how would one get from one of these universes to another?"
1515There'd been theories relating to the composition of the universe; how all of what we perceived as reality, as solid matter, was a foam of sub-atomic knurls of space-time, a multi-dimensional matrix in which all of existence was suspended like insects in amber. As countless blades of grass seen from a distance might be defined as a field, those distortions blurred into what we saw as reality. And every one of those elemental tangles of nothing, all were potentially portals tunneling through the substance of existence to other existences.
1516Try explaining that in an alien tongue in which you're still not fluent. I felt my brain cringing as I tried to parse the concept and had to tip my hand in a Rris shrug again. "I really... don't know."
1517Ears flickered. "You don't know?"
1518"I said that was a theory. I don't know exactly how I came here. I was walking and something happened. I don't know what. I remember there was a flash of light and the next thing I was waking up in a place that was nothing like where I'd been. I don't know exactly what happened. Perhaps I died and this is what happens then."
1519That might not have been the wisest choice of words. It rewarded me with a few odd looks from various Rris.
1520The spokeswoman coughed quietly. "Huhn, this does seem quite remarkable," she said. "You are aware that other claims have been made that while still... extraordinary, are more... plausible?"
1521"That I'm from somewhere over the sea? That I might be a spy?" I sighed and glanced at the Mediator Guild Lord. "I've heard that before."
1522"You do refute it."
1523"Of course I do. I always have."
1524"And your own claims, can you support them?"
1525"Prove them?" I asked, not quite sure if I were hearing correctly. The Mediators around the rotunda all watched me, their expressions unreadable as I looked from one to another. "I... suppose the obvious way would be to send a ship to sail around until they don't find them."
1526Stony silence.
1527"That... is your best suggestion, is it," said the spokeswoman eventually.
1528"Hey, I'm sorry, but what would be proof to you? All I have is what I brought with me. I'd have thought some of that would be proof enough. If my people were on this world, you would have heard from them before now."
1529"Why would that be? I understand the world is a big place. There are still many places we haven't explored."
1530"But there aren't many we haven't," I sighed. "Look, I've dealt with this with Shyia before. My kind... We are more knowledgeable than Rris in many areas. We have traveled everywhere on our world. Everywhere. The continents, the oceans and skies... the oceans are no barrier to us. If my kind were here, you would certainly have encountered them before."
1531"So powerful/advanced?" one of the others asked, sounding more than a little dubious. "You aren't just bragging?"
1532"Perhaps all those people wanted to talk to me because of my sparkling personality," I retorted and out of the corner of my eye saw Shyia go absolutely motionless. From the audience behind me I heard a couple of stifled snorts.
1533The Tribunal members regarded me. "Unlikely," the spokeswoman said eventually. "But it is a valid point. Ah Ehrasai?"
1534"Ma'am," Shyia ducked his head.
1535"You've had experience with this one's possessions. I've heard that they're quite complex. Remarkably so?"
1536"Some of them, yes, Ma'am. Some of the items are ingeniously simple in design, but made of materials I've never seen before. Others... they could be duplicated, but not fashioned so easily that they are cheap and readily available to all, as Mikah claims them to be. And other devices... the best craftsmen and [mechanicalists] are unable to see how they even work, let alone how they could reproduce them."
1537"There are others who can verify this?" 
1538"Yes, Ma'am. Many individuals and businesses who've dealt with Mikah recently will."
1539 "A," she picked up a sheaf of paper. "I see you've already provided a list."
1540He inclined his head. "A list of [something], Ma'am."
1541"Of course," she said, laying the document back down. "They're willing to testify?"
1542"On issues regarding Mikah, yes."
1543The spokeswoman leaned to murmur into the ear of the Rris beside her. That one waved an affirmative gesture and scribbled a note down with a fountain pen while the spokeswoman turned back to me.
1544"A question: You came here accidentally; you were in need of help. Then why didn't you ask for it? By all accounts, you lurked on the outskirts of a town and by your own admission, spied upon the occupants. Why didn't you approach them?"
1545I'd have thought that was obvious. "Because I had no idea of what was going on. Ma'am, with all respect, Rris look as peculiar to me as I do to them. Especially back then. I didn't know what they were. You scared me."
1546"You never tried to just talk with the people there?"
1547"I did try. It was never as easy as that," I said.
1548"Explain."
1549I glanced at Shyia and he looked back impassively. Surely he'd already related my story. So was there a reason he wanted me to explain it personally? "The first Rris who saw me were... criminals, I understand. They spread stories about me to cover their own activities. They called me a dangerous animal. Whenever others saw me, they treated me like one. Every time someone saw me, they ran or shot at me.
1550"I couldn't speak Rris, so I couldn't talk to anyone to tell them otherwise. All I could do was to keep my distance and try and learn your speech by watching. There was a winter school where I could watch the classes and learn some words. I thought I might be able to figure out where I was, what had happened to me; at the least learn enough so I could ask for help without being shot. If that's spying, then I guess I'm guilty."
1551"Huhn," a tribunal member snorted. They didn't look impressed.
1552Another said, "Ah Ehrasai, this is all on record, isn't it?"
1553"Yes, sir. The particulars of that case have also been submitted."
1554"His claims are...?"
1555"Accurate, sir. It is as he claims: there were smugglers using a property in Westwater as a transit house. They did see him. They used him as a scapegoat to cover the murder of one of their own people who'd become problematic to them. The locals did come to believe he was dangerous and did react in what they thought was self defense. They tried to kill him. If he hadn't learned what he had, they most probably would have succeeded."
1556 "Fortunate for him."
1557"Yes, sir."
1558"And you found his tale about his origins believable?"
1559"A."
1560"Your reason?"
1561"Its sheer [preposterousness] was one reason. I'm sure a spy could come up with a more plausible story. Also, doctors and life studiers have examined him and found no [something] with anything they've had experience with. They don't know what he is exactly, or where he comes from. They do agree that there is some superficial similarity with apes from Africa. But they bear as much relationship to him as we do to those [jungle] predators. 
1562"His possessions were a more compelling reason. They told of a people who are...  very advanced, with knowledge and abilities far exceeding our own. There is also evidence that they are quite obviously aggressive and expansionist. I have no doubt that if they could be here, they would be."
1563"A bluff?"
1564"Ma'am, our best craftsmen can't even guess at how some of those devices work. If it's a hoax, it's one we couldn't perpetrate. And I would question why anyone would willingly give away samples of their technology."
1565"Huhhn," the chairman rumbled, watching me thoughtfully over a lowered muzzle. "And ah Richtkah;  Sir, you refuted this claim quite vehemently with your claims that this outsider was here with an agenda and nefarious intentions. Now I understand you've dropped charges?"
1566"Amended," the Clan Lord replied. "Based on the more recent evidence constable Ehrasai has produced, I've conceded that he is most likely correct: our visitor here is an unlikely spy."
1567"What swayed your decision?" 
1568"The constable had an item he said belonged to our absconded guest. It was a library, he claimed, an entire library in a device not much larger than this." His hands described a small rectangle. "However, he was unable to operate the device. Apparently, it required our visitor to... unlock it. Those claims and the subsequent [somethings] did make me [dubious]."
1569Overhead, the drumming of the rain had abated. Sunlight – proper daylight -  was striking the high windows. The anemic light filtering through dusty glass grew brighter, the dull tones brightening. What'd been dull suggestions of color bloomed as stained glass was illuminated from behind, shining brighter and brighter as the late morning sun climbed. Reds and golds and greens spilled across the room. The Mediators ignored it.
1570"When the device was unlocked it did turn out to be a library. It contains texts and images, many of them, including moving pictures. While that in itself was remarkable enough, the actual subject of the contents did go a long way to verifying his tale of being a castaway. However, it also reinforces the other charges."
1571One of the Tribunal tipped his head and asked, "Our visitor here did in fact open this device?"
1572"A, Sir."
1573"Huhn," the female said. "We're going to want to see this object."
1574"Understandable. That might take some time however."
1575"Why?"
1576"Apparently it has to... eat?"
1577Shyia spoke up: "In some regards it's like a water clock. It has to be refilled periodically."
1578"With what?"
1579"Sunlight, apparently," he replied and looked at me. "I never received a suitable explanation as to exactly what it was."
1580"You never asked?"
1581"He did ask," I impulsively spoke up and inwardly flinched at how out of place my awkward accent sounded in that echoing room. Eyes turned to me. "He did ask. He just couldn't understand my answer. And I lacked the... vocabulary to perhaps make it easier to understand."
1582 "Ah. And you could tell us now?"
1583"I could... I don't know that it would make any sense. There are... Saying it is like a water clock is... simplistic, but accurate in some ways. To go into more detail means I would have to teach you about many other things just to describe them. There are words you just don't have. So, it is easier to say it does have to be refilled with sunlight." 
1584That didn't exactly elicit a favorable response. I saw some shifting, slight changes of expression and posture that I couldn't interpret precisely, but Richtkah's ears pricked up a little. I felt that couldn't be a good thing.
1585"Is there anyone you've discussed this with?" the Tribunal asked. "Any Rris who might be able to understand it?"
1586 "There's ah Ties," I said. "He has quite a lot to learn. But he is... very good at things like that."
1587"Huh, ah Ties. He is one of the witnesses, I see. You have a reason to recommend him?"
1588I shrugged. "He's an engineer. He's better with that sort of thing than I am. I... where I come from I was an artists of sorts. I used machines; I didn't make them."
1589"All right," the female tribunal member blinked at me and then leaned over to mutter something to the Rris sitting at her left hand. He scratched down some notes while she looked back at me. "Claimants, this evidence is important to your cases?"
1590They both replied, "A."
1591"Ah Ehrasai, how long until we can see it?"
1592"I believe five hours is the correct length of time," Shyia said.
1593She looked at me. "Would this be right?"
1594I gave a small shrug: a habitual twitch of my shoulders. "If there is plenty of bright sunlight, then yes."
1595Rris eyes watched me dubiously. Then the tribunal chairwoman slowly closed her hand in an affirmative and looked around at the others to her left and right. When she spoke she raised her voice for the assembly behind us, "Very well. Five hours. This tribunal will reconvene in five hours. We will expect this evidence to be ready then." Then she gestured to the guards waiting in the wings:
1596"Now, please remove that one to holding. Treat him as a secure witness. Very secure."
1597A susurrus of Rris voices arose from the gallery. Not loud, but encompassing; like the sound of the sea. Around the colonnaded peripheries of the basilica Mediators began to approach me. Rather than be hauled out of there I struggled to my feet myself, wincing as blood flowed back to limbs and bruises. My escort didn't actually touch me, but they closed around and made sure I headed off in the right direction. I could feel all those eyes watching as I limped out of the pool of sunlight that'd formed in the center of that chamber, a dusty sunbeam spotlighting the cushion where I'd been sitting.
1598
1599------<o>------
1600
1601Secure witness. I sat slumped on the edge of my low cot, my face in my hands. A witness to what? And why did it still feel as if I were a prisoner? This whole thing had something to do with Shyia and the Clan Lord. They were taking opposing sides, that meant that Shyia was disputing something the Lord had done. Something he's said. And I'd been told that the Mediator's charter, their authority, depended upon their being concise and accurate. So if one of them were wrong, that could topple an entire career. But where did I fit into that?
1602A hand patted my hair. Startled, I looked up at Escheri's inquisitive features, "Hai, did you hear a word I've been saying?"
1603"What? Oh, sorry. I was... thinking."
1604"Ah, that blocks your ears, does it?" she smiled quickly and gestured to the table. There was a covered tray there. "I brought you some food. You should probably eat. I'm not sure when you next chance will be. That was good, this morning though. You were calm and sensible, for the most part. Those remarks you made though...perhaps a bit more respect wouldn't go amiss. Otherwise, that was a good start.
1605From where I was sitting slumped on the edge of the low cot I looked at the tray and then at her. "What's next?"
1606She huffed and patted my head again, just like she was patting a dog, then crouched in front of me. "Don't worry. Just cooperate. It will work out."
1607"Work out. I've heard that before," I said. "This disagreement between Shyia and his Lordship, that's why I'm here? I'm supposed to be a witness? To what?"
1608Her ears flicked back a bit. "It's just a few questions."
1609"Uh, huh," I nodded and met her amber gaze. "It's not just something on the laptop they're after. You're keeping me around and not telling me everything, so I'm assuming that there's a possibility this could go very badly for me. How badly?"
1610Her expression changed, turning to that stone mask that seemed to be a Mediator specialty. 
1611"That badly?" I leaned back and looked at her staring at me. There was a look in those amber eyes. A wariness as if she'd realized that she was alone in a room with a dangerous animal, but the mask remained. She wasn't going to tell me anything more about that. If knew that if I pressed, I'd just be stonewalled.
1612Sigh.
1613"So, how did you become a Mediator?" I asked, trying a different tack.
1614That got a flicker. A brief flash of uncertainty. "How?"
1615"Yes, how? You know: when did you decide you'd become a Mediator? Why'd you decide to do it rather than becoming perhaps an interior decorator?"
1616 She stared, then that facade shattered into chitters. "Decide? Mikah, nobody decides to become a Mediator. We've always been Mediators."
1617"Always?"
1618"You really don't know, do you," she said, sounding and looking incredulous. "Since I was a child. Mikah, it's not uncommon for mothers to leave their cubs with the Guild."
1619"They leave them?"
1620"You are surprised? If times are difficult; if she can't feed them or take care of them, then she might choose to leave them with the Guild. It's certainly better than the alternatives. The Guild will look after them and teach them what they need. When they're old enough some of them will decide they don't desire that sort of life; other will be found to be unsuitable. They leave before [something] day and take up apprenticeships elsewhere, some others who are deemed to have aptitude are chosen to apprentice with the Guild."
1621"How old were you?"
1622She waved a shrug. "I don't remember exactly."
1623"You've spent... all your life in the Guild? Do you know your mother? Your family?!"
1624"No." She tipped her head as she regarded me. "Is that important?"
1625I blinked at her, at a loss for words, and then lowered my head, shaking it and raking fingers across my face and through my hair. "I guess it's another human thing."
1626"Ah," I heard her cough, as if she'd remembered something . "You build close emotional ties with individuals, don't you. I heard mention of that in Shyia's briefings. It's the same with your families?"
1627"A," I nodded. "Rris do seem to be more... independent than my kind. It takes some getting used to."
1628"Huhn, you're managing?"
1629"Look at me," I half-grinned mirthlessly. "Fitting right in, a?"
1630"But you've found a woman willing to engage you as a sexual partner. You've formed an emotional attachment to her, haven't you."
1631That got me in my gut. "Where... Shyia told you that as well, did he?"
1632"A, at the..."
1633"...briefing," I finished with her and glared sidelong at her. "Anything else in my personal life he might have missed?"
1634Her ears went back. "It's not like that, you hairless fool. If we're to do our duty, we have to know all we can."
1635"Then I hope it was very useful."
1636"You are protective, aren't you."
1637When I glanced down I saw my fists were clenched. I took a breath, trying to relax. "And that's the way you've always done your duty? Hunting people down, spreading stories about them, trying to kill them?"
1638She actually bristled. "Mikah, the Guild has functioned this way for a long time. It has functioned smoothly and efficiently. It's kept the charter and maintained the balance for centuries until....until..."
1639And then her jaws shut with a sharp clop and her ears flicked back before her features set back to stone again.
1640"Until I arrived and upset the cart, a?" I flashed her a quick grin and leaned back. She hadn't said that much, but it was enough.
1641"How's this for a guess?" I continued. "I'm here. I exist. That's your problem, isn't it? I upset that balance you keep on about. I caused ripples in the pond. You're saying I fractured the Guild, even though that only happened because some Mediators had their own idea of how things should be run and decided to use me as a tool to facilitate their own split from the rest of the Guild. You're trying to cover that to hide the fact that there can be... arguing within the Guild. You're trying to decide how to do that?"
1642She stared and after a few moments there was a flicker of emotion on her face. It... wasn't what I'd expected.
1643"Mikah," she said and then reached over to lay her hand on the back of mine. "Mikah, don't. Please, just... don't."
1644I just started to respond, had scarcely opened my lips when her hand twitched, claws pricked the skin on the back of my hand hard enough to make me gasp.
1645"No, listen," she hissed. "You are the issue. That is true, but you're also unique and what you think you know are only splinters of the whole." Her eyes were black pits circumnavigated by a thread of lambent amber and when she spoke it was with a growl that made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. "Mikah, that's why you're still alive. There's a fine balance going on here, and if you poke at it, you're going to tip it. Just... give Shyia your trust, a?"
1646I felt muscles in my jaw twitch. "I think he lost that a long time ago."
1647"Then what about myself? Would you trust me?"
1648"Escheri... can you give me a reason why I should trust any Mediator?"
1649Her muzzle dropped a couple of degrees, as did the temperature of her gaze. I swallowed. "Mediators have abducted me and told me... opposite stories. You've said yourself you won't tell me everything. You tell me that and now ask that I should trust you? Would you?!"
1650For a few seconds she stared, then snorted, "Huhn, he was right: you don't think like us. Well, then, would you do it for her? For your teacher?"
1651Now I froze; my heart lurched.
1652"Rot you, think with your head, not your emotions: if something happens to you, she'll be [something]... ah, not required. She'll be simply discarded. Without sponsorship in a strange city, no way to return home... you know what that's like, a? "
1653"No," I shook my head. "No, leave her out of this."
1654"That's not a choice. You've already drawn her in. Understand, you're the reason she's in Shattered Water, a? She's there as a tutor for you," Escheri ticked points off with claw tips: "A tutor, a guide, a companion and a sexual partner, a? But if something were to happen to you then you can be sure she'd be out on the street."
1655She sighed and cocked her head, then scratched at a cheek tuft with that single clawtip, "Mikah, rot it, this isn't a threat. We have no intention of harming her. That would be pretty foolish of us, a? She'd only be in trouble if you went and caused problems, and if you were doing that to the Guild you'd also most likely be dead, so threatening her would be pointless. If you could just do what I'm asking, then there'd be no need for any of that."
1656I was clenching and unclenching my fist as I studied her, trying to read something there. God dammit, was she being sincere? Was it a veiled threat against Chihirae? It didn't feel like one, but I didn't have a great deal of confidence in my abilities to judge that.
1657"Mikah?" she ventured.
1658"You... can I have your word that she will not be harmed or drawn into this?"
1659Her eyes closed for a second and she sighed again, "I can give you a written [something] if you would like. She will not be harmed or involved."
1660I hesitated, trying to think. "I really don't have much choice."
1661"You can cause problems and harm yourself and her, or you can cooperate and we can resolve this. Mikah, he's done what he can to keep you alive." Her eyes stayed on mine, but those weren't indicators of dishonesty, not in Rris. "He had orders that he couldn't go against, not directly, but he did what he could. And he got you put in here. Better than downstairs, a?" 
1662Despite myself, I shuddered, then gritted my teeth and nodded. 
1663"That head bob, that's a yes?"
1664"Yes," I sighed. "What're you going to want me to do?"
1665"Just cooperate," she said. "Tell the truth. If you're told to do something, do it. Don't ask questions."
1666"Just be quiet and behave," I said.
1667Thankfully, she didn't catch the sarcasm. "Exactly."
1668I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. There were things I didn't want to tell them; things I couldn't tell them. Implicate those few Rris who'd been willing to trust and help me was something I just couldn't do. No matter what I told her.
1669"You will?" she asked.
1670I nodded.
1671"Good," she said, those amber-rimmed eyes concentrating on my face. Then those inhuman fingers came up to pat the side of my face, "Good. Now, you should eat something. They'll want to see you again in a few hours."
1672
1673------<o>------
1674
1675There were fewer spectators in that hall the next time round. Not many though: those tiers of seats were still filled with ranks of Rris in dark Mediator leathers. Afternoon sunlight filtered in through those high and dusty windows, the stained glass casting prismatic smears of color across upper walls and columns around the basilica. I limped my way across the expanse of polished wood, a Mediator guard at either elbow as we headed toward the single cushion placed out in the center of the basilica. I flexed my fingers, aware of how clammy my palms were. In fact, I was scared. I was sweating. felt a tickle of sweat running down my ribcage under my shirt and my heart was hammering loud enough that they could surely hear it. In fact, several times I'd caught one or another of the guards glancing at me and I could see their nostrils twitch: if they didn't hear my nervousness, they could surely smell it.
1676Those two Mediators stayed at my side as I limped across the floor and awkwardly folded sat myself down on the cushion. Around the periphery of the basilica, Rris eyes were watching me from the low desks; Shyia and his associates on the left, ah Richtkah on the right. Low whispers from elsewhere in the room hissed across the edge of hearing like a wind riffling through some dark forest.
1677The Mediator guards retreated back to the edges of the room, their feet padding silently on the gleaming lacquered surface. I saw them return to Escheri, standing back against a wall and watching me carefully. One of them whispered something to her and she responded with the barest inclination of her head, never taking her eyes off me. Turning away, I shivered and rubbed my arm, wondering why it was suddenly so cold in there as I faced the tribunal.
1678My laptop was sitting on the tribunal bench, the slim charcoal case sitting  on the black lacquered desktop in front of the chairwoman. The screen was open, facing her. Whatever was on it at the time was animated, casting a pale flickering glow up to brush the underside of her features, which seemed decidedly nervous. She hesitantly clicked something on the keyboard and flinched as the flickering light stopped, then she set her hands on her knees and cocked her head as she regarded me and then addressed the Mediators at the desks to either side:
1679"We've had the opportunity to review this evidence that both parties claim is so decisive to their cases. I feel that we can proceed with this judgment." Her ears twitched back momentarily and she continued, "In the Guild records there are only four recorded instances of Tribunal being called under these circumstances. It is not something to be undertaken lightly. You know that; you all know the consequences and why these proceedings are not to be discussed outside the Guild."
1680She looked directly at me. "There are differences in this case, however. This is the first time it has been so necessary to have an outsider present at [something] Guild proceedings, and the first time that outsider has also been vital evidence. Allowances have also been made on account of the fact that the outsider is a neutral party with no known affiliation and that his discretion has been assured. This is correct?"
1681That was addressed at me and it wasn't a question. I shakily gestured and answered, "Yes, Ma'am."
1682She blinked, slowly and deliberately and said, "Then we proceed.  Ah Richtkah, you've made the decision to prosecute your case. You claim an imminent threat to peace and the common good and you are determined to stand to that decision. That is so?"
1683"It is so," the Guild lord responded.
1684"Ah Ehrasai, you challenge that decision on the grounds that the chosen solution itself will breach the common good and the Guild charter itself. You called tribunal to challenge this decision. You are fully aware that this decision means that you will never be permitted to attain a position above district administrator and you are willing to continue with this challenge?"
1685"I am," Shyia responded.
1686"Your acceptance is noted in the record," she said. "You will each have the opportunity to state your case before the tribunal, but let this be known:
1687"This tribunal is set and [something] to uphold the good of the many and the Guild. These members have been chosen and so swear that that they hold no favor or preference for either party. We meet to bear witness to the grievances of both parties, to hear their claims and to make a decision that will benefit the people we are sworn to protect and the guild itself. We will make this decision without preference of [something], and that decision will be held as word and law."
1688She looked down and slid a paper aside, then turned to the Guild Lord, "Ah Richtkah, you may begin. Please state your case before the assembly."
1689"Ma'am," he acknowledged with a duck of his head and then looked at me. I listened to every word, my heart hammering and my mouth dry as he continued. "The situation began as one of the most unusual I've encountered and seemed to grow more complex from there.
1690"The Guild hall in Meetings had received reports of a strange creature that'd been found in the Land-of-Water town of Westwater and then transported to Lying Scales. Initial reports were of something that wasn't Rris, but it wasn't an animal either. Detail was lacking, citing a desire for more information. They were labeled a curiosity at best.
1691"Over the next three seasons those reports continued and they started to give more information. They detailed a creature that was intelligent, that hailed from unknown origins, and was in possession of incredible information. In fact, the reports claimed it carried an entire library from an alien civilization; that it had knowledge and skills and information beyond anything in any Rris land.
1692"Some questions arose regarding the sanity of those making those reports. However, reports kept coming, and we received new information from sources in Shattered Water, then in Bluebetter and Cover-my-Tail. On the basis of those we had no choice but to take the reports more seriously. More details about the outsider arrived, making it clear that this creature was in no way a Rris, nor was it any known animal. It was a complete unknown, as were its intentions and motives. However, more details about its activities also arrived and the picture they painted was at first difficult to believe, and then increasingly disturbing.
1693"It had been stated that the creature had access to knowledge and technology that Rris didn't have. We didn't fully comprehend what this entailed, but we were hearing that it was providing this information to Land-of-Water, aiding them in the development of new steam engines. At first glance this didn't seem like a serious issue, but shortly thereafter the ripples started up.
1694"Other countries were responding in much the same way we were. At first they were disbelieving, then interested but not overly alarmed. Then various agents started submitting their own reports which pricked up ears across the world. A slew of new innovation coming from Land-of-water: printing techniques, glassmaking, metallurgy, and news that they had developed a steam engine using unheard of principles. Shortly thereafter a vessel was tested that was similarly unique; proving faster and far more economical than anything else on the water. As we investigated this further we learned that the process for developing that ship meant that vessel itself was merely the peak of a mountain of new knowledge and sciences: mining and refining techniques, metallurgy and manufacturing, transportation, construction and design techniques. A few months had wrought more changes than any time in Guild memory.
1695"This certainly hadn't gone unnoticed. Other countries were starting to respond to what they perceived as a hoarding of a valued resource, petitioning Shattered Water with requests for access to the outsider. The Land-of-Water government handled these by deferring as best it could and then reluctantly granting audiences. There was an incident at a function; an attempted poisoning by first accounts, after which Shattered Water rescinded invitations and secluded the outsider."
1696I listened, somewhat incredulously. Being referred to as 'outsider' was something I wasn't enthusiastic about, but more importantly, what was being talked about here was stuff I'd never been told; had never heard about from my hosts. How much of it was true? Mediators were supposed to be interested in the raw truth, but how empirical were they in reality?
1697The Mediator lord was continuing. "The result was that tensions between countries grew taut. Shattered Water continued to refuse access or to share information despite growing pressure. We heard mutterings of this, but the reports were too scanty and slow at arriving for us to make use of the information.
1698"Finally, there was an open attempt on the outsider. A party of well armed mercenaries assaulted a convoy, causing casualties. We are not sure that their objective was to kill or abduct the outsider, it's more likely that the attempt was a message in itself, showing Land-of-Water that they could cooperate with other lands or have nothing. The assailants were well equipped and briefed, but attempts to track their sponsor led to multiple dead ends. Involvement by a neighboring government is almost certain, but none have been implicated.
1699"After that incident, Land-of-Water did grant the representatives of other countries greater access to the outsider. Foreign representatives were allowed audiences with him. Various items of knowledge and technology were distributed for their appraisal: machines for harvesting in one hour what would normal take a farmer a week to collect; new types of medical information; manufacturing machinery and metallurgical techniques.
1700"Of course there was intense diplomatic shuffling as delegates tried to ascertain what information other nations had received. There was trading between some of the delegates; between some of the others there was suspicions and accusations were made. Relations between more than a few lands became strained as bribes and espionage attempts were made. The most alarming incident, however, was the appearance of weapons."
1701I felt the blood drain from my face and frantically looked around, on the verge of protesting, of saying how that information had been stolen from me without my knowledge. Rris I knew were all staring back at me. Shyia's head moved, slightly, fractionally, in a scarcely discernable shake. It was a gesture that not many people besides myself would recognize. I froze and then choked the words back down. I'd promised. It might've been a stupid thing to do, but I'd done it. Now I was going to see if it was a dumb a move as it'd seemed. 
1702"With the gift of [hindsight] we can suppose it was inevitable, but at the time events were unfolding so fast that we couldn't maintain a grasp on them. By the time we'd received reports of an incident, they were already obsolete. This has been a problem before, but never like this. Never have we had so many influential developments appearing so quickly, one after another. By the time we started investigating the ramifications of one, more were already being [something] and the news of the appearance of new weapons came from an unexpected quarter.
1703"The Guild hall in Red Leaves sent an urgent missive reporting that local government facilities had been attacked by extremists using new sorts of weapons: firearms that were repeating and highly accurate. There were casualties. The Bluebetter government kept these facts hidden from other lands for a while; calling on confidential Mediator aid from the Guild while they carried out their own investigations. 
1704"We honored their request and kept our investigations discreet. Mediator agents tracked the source to a smuggling operation that we'd been unaware of. Not on that level at any rate. They'd become aware of the Outsider after the affair at Westwater. They'd used high-level sources in Shattered Water, at great expense, in order to acquire weapons that'd been developed from knowledge the Outsider had brought.
1705"This organization was infiltrated and undone, but other lands were learning what had happened. The ramifications of that are still unfolding, but there have been accusations and allegations leveled, threatened boycotts, sanctions and embargoes against and by Land of Water and others. Guild halls are reporting concern over the changes in mood and uneasiness everywhere, especially with the developments that continue in Shattered Water.
1706"More weapons are being produced, that is common knowledge. All lands know that Land of Water military forces are being equipped with new, highly accurate longarms and other kinds of equipment. We've been informed of talk in Shattered Water of forming a standing army, as opposed to the current guard. There are also changes in tactics and doctrine being undertaken, with new training and organizational  reshuffles throughout the military. These are certainly matters of concern, but I believe that their disruption is insignificant compared with the potential [something] this outsider can bring."
1707I looked around the rotunda, from one impassive feline countenance to the next, trying to find some flicker of emotion or feeling that I could use to judge their reaction to this. But they were all like nightmarish masks, regarding me calmly while at the same time they accused me. What he was telling them was heading uncomfortably in the direction of what Jaesith had told me, of what I'd started to piece together by myself. It was looking more and more like I might've been right on the money.
1708And the worst of it was, those accusations, the way he was telling it, were true. It wasn't fabricated; it wasn't taken out of context; it had happened like that, only I hadn't had a great deal of say about it. Not had I .
1709"Most disturbing," he was saying, "is the fact that people will not only accept these changes, they will actively want them; these new innovations that promise wealth, convenience, faster and easier ways. It's already begun with the engines and tools and implements introduced in Shattered Water. There are governments and companies and Guilds and individuals scrabbling over one another to acquire these advantages. The ramifications are not something they wish to dwell on.
1710"These changes will [something] themselves every corner of industry and civilian life; A flood of new ideas which will seep in and edge out current skills and lives. Lifestyles and livelihoods that've existed for as long as can be remember will be rendered redundant as crafts are replaced by factories, workers by machines.
1711"Already in Shattered Water there are small cooperatives and individuals – craftsmen, laborers, workers - finding that their skills are becoming surplus to requirements. We heard that there are workshops being established that produce nothing but fine mugs and plates, all identical, in huge numbers and selling them at preposterously cheap prices. Craftsmen who spend hours producing one are incapable of matching the prices and their products are simply not selling. They're struggling to feed themselves. There are the machines for milling and weaving; machines that can reap entire harvests, doing work that would usually take dozens of laborers weeks in a matter of days. What then happens to those workers? To the holdings and small towns that rely upon that seasonal work for their very existence?
1712"The steam vessel that was destroyed in the lake exemplifies our concerns. It's fast, propelled by machinery with a crew of fewer than a dozen. It's not reliant upon the weather; it doesn't require favorable winds to move. It also doesn't  require the crew and their skills, nor the sailmakers, nor the rope mills, provisioners or all the attendant industries that support them. Existing sail lines will have to adopt this new technology and only the largest will be able to do this: all the smaller cooperatives and single-hold vessels will be driven to ruin.
1713"Proposed rail links with new engines will do the same to land transport. Carters and various transport guilds may be initiating these experiments, but we expect further problems when they discover that the new routes will make their old one, and the people who ply them, obsolete."
1714He paused then, looking down at the notes on his desk before continuing. He never raised his voice, just kept going in that same clear, matter-of-fact way.
1715"We foresee this dissatisfaction building upon itself. To date there has been only vocal dissatisfaction, but this will build to active sabotage attempts and violence and from there to civil unrest. There will be swings in the balances and relationships between nations. Trade patterns will be disrupted as new farming ideas produce surpluses appear in districts where previously food was imported. New weapons will put excessive power into the hands of individuals and small groups. Old disputes might be rekindled as those involved feel they have a new way to resolve them."
1716Now he ducked his head again, just momentarily.
1717"Outright war is not unlikely," he said quietly. "And the continued existence of the Guild itself will certainly come into question, especially if the events of the past few days are made publicly known."
1718Scattered rays of  light streamed down from the windows high above, tinted and filtered from passing through the panes and slivers of stained glass. Specks of dust drifted randomly in those rays, flitting in invisible draughts and air currents. Below, the semicircle of Rris sat like motionless furry Buddhas in random patches of light, regarding the Mediator Lord without visible emotion. I imagine I was looking just as emotionless, but for other reasons: I was feeling utterly numb as I listened to the mediator lord listing his case before the Tribunal.
1719"This outsider did what hasn't been done in living memory: it fractured the Guild. A woman whom I held in high esteem found [temptation] enough in his presence to break oaths. She believed that what she was doing was the right course; she believed strongly it was a course that had to be taken if the Guild was to survive. It was not the right course. It was something of which I could never approve, and she knew that. She knew that and would never have attempted such a maneuver if she hadn't seen an option that had never been available before. The repercussions of those actions are still [something] through the Guild; a disruption that could shatter the charter and the Guild's very reason for existence.
1720"If a Mediator with a lifetime of steadfast service could be led onto such a course by the mere appearance of such a creature, then one has to ask oneself how will those of less sturdy character fare? How will those of a more ruthless and greedy disposition fare? She was capable; she was respected and competent, and yet her actions cleaved the very heart of this Guild."
1721He paused for a few breaths, looking at me again before resuming.
1722"Finally, there is an aspect to his presence that has not been explored or, I believe, even seriously considered. That is the effect of people knowing that everything they strive to learn has already been done, that the answers are already there for them. This could lead them to a decline in the efforts of our own scholars. They may see it as easier to acquire the work done by another creature instead of seeking for the answers themselves. It could reduce us to expecting hand downs from another race, and then when they can no longer provide for us, we will find ourselves unable to stand on our own."
1723He turned to the tribunal. "Weighers," he said and looked around the space, from Shyia and his associates to the spectators, "Honored folk, I tell you all that this outsider is not something we can suffer in our house. It is a disruption, a force that can do nothing but cause harm. It may seem benign; it may seem hapless and even [something] at times, but it is dangerous. It is a threat to everything we are. I urge that it be destroyed. If not executed then rendered to a state where it cannot cause harm."
1724"What?!" I blurted, loud enough in my shock to raise echoes from the ends of the hall.
1725"Mikah!"
1726"You..." I turned from one desk to another. I was shaking, trembling hard enough that I had to clench my hands into fists, "You are serious about this?!"
1727"Mikah!" Shyia was baring teeth slightly and over to the side the guards were stepping forward. Escheri hurried ahead, her tail lashing. "Mikah, you gave your word."
1728"But..."
1729"Mikah!" she snarled with teeth openly bared and ears flattened and I recoiled, just as shocked.
1730"You assured us it would behave," one of the five Tribunal members said to Shyia.
1731"Apologies, sir" Escheri interjected hastily while the guards loomed behind her. "He's quite ignorant of some things."
1732"Huhn, after what Ah Richtkah just told us, that is remarkable," one of the others said, loudly enough for me to hear. There were twitched from a couple of the others but the chairwoman threw him a cold look and he waved a shrug. She glared back at me. "Will he be quiet?"
1733Escheri glanced at me and I hung my head. "He will," she said.
1734"Ah Richtkah," do you wish to continue?"
1735"I was nearly done, and I think that my point about its disruptive abilities was borne out," he observed. "I do have to reiterate that it will do that. It's been made abundantly clear that it doesn't think normally or perhaps even sanely; it won't do what's considered normal or proper and will – perhaps inadvertently – spill the kettle. It's simply a matter of time. I stand by my urgent recommendation. That is all."
1736"Thank you, sir," the spokeswoman said as he seated himself on his cushion again. And then she looked around the tables and at me. "We'll take this opportunity to recess for two hours and then continue with the prosecution's case. Constable, you might want to control your charge a little better or he will be spending the rest of the proceedings in the holding cells."
1737"Yes, Ma'am," Escheri replied, and then as the other Mediators filed out, she glared at me.
1738
1739------<o>------
1740
1741In the small, stone antechamber I sat myself down where they told me: on a worn and stuffing-leaking cushion in a corner. On the other side of the room, lit by a slant of light from a narrow window, Escheri busied herself at a sideboard whose shelves were well stocked with bottles: red and greens and blue glass bottles ranked alongside clay and metal containers of varying shapes and sizes. Metal and glass clinked and rattled. The guards stood at the door, watching me.
1742Liquid gurgled for a second, then stopped. Glass clinked as a stopper was put back into a bottle. Finally Escheri said, "That was not good."
1743I didn't answer. I was still shaking. 
1744"You had a reason for that outburst?"
1745I raised my head. She was standing, regarding me, holding a broad goblet before her in both hands. "That outburst," she repeated. "Why'd you do it? You said you'd behave."
1746I swallowed back a retort and sighed. "He was talking abut executing me for something I... I don't think I've done anything wrong. And what did he mean about that… that rendering me to a state where I can't do any harm?"
1747Escheri's tail lashed. "Blinding you. Muting you. Something along those lines."
1748I felt the blood drain from my face again. "You're not fucking serious," I choked.
1749"Quite serious," she said.
1750Once again I found myself struggling for words. A couple of years just didn't give me the breadth and depth of immersion in the language to absorb all the nuances. "Do I... do I get a chance to defend myself? To say my own words?"
1751She tipped her ears quizzically. "Whatever for?"
1752"Wha... To... defend myself. To say my side of the story, of course."
1753Escheri's muzzle wrinkled. "Of course your opinion would be biased. Why would anyone put stock in what you say?"
1754"But, haven't I got the right to..." I stopped, mentally backpedaling. "I don't have any rights?"
1755"The right to be defended by a Mediator other Mediators know they can trust," she said.
1756"But what if they have... other ideas. Other... what is the word... plans?"
1757"Then they wouldn't be Mediators?" she replied and then her ears laid back. "You don't have Mediators where you come from, a? Accused individuals, you let them defend themselves?"
1758I almost answered that before I realized I was staring down the barrel of a loaded question. It sounded innocuous enough, but there were hidden depths there. It didn't take a genius to realize that telling someone that their profession could be disposed of wasn't a good way of endearing themselves to that organization.
1759"It... depends," I sighed, thinking back to the highly specialized litigating machines that were lawyers, "on a lot of things. But where I was from people didn't usually defend themselves, but they could. And they certainly were allowed to speak if they chose."
1760She snorted and flashed teeth for a second. "Red tie me, pure chaos. Well, here, it is considered [decorous?] to keep your silence before the tribunal unless you are asked a direct question."
1761"Even when they threaten to tear your tongue out?"
1762"I'd have thought especially when they threaten to tear your tongue out," she replied.
1763I eyed her dubiously. "Was... that a joke?"
1764"Apparently not," Escheri said with another twitch of her ears, then huffed a hard exhalation and came over to thrust the goblet at me. "You should drink this."
1765She must've seen the trembling as I took it, holding it in both hands. The vessel was broader than any human cup, designed to allow a Rris to lap from it. What it contained wasn't water but rather wine. That's not all that surprising in a culture primitive enough that the local well water might not be the cleanest, but I wasn't expecting Mediators to make that consideration for me. Trying to be careful not to slop the stuff over myself I took a sip and realized they hadn't; the stuff was pretty close to vinegar. What was that? Mint in the wine?
1766"Drink it," she said. "You need something to calm you down."
1767Actually, I needed a stiff drink. And the alcohol content was about all that sorry excuse for wine had going for it. I took a sip from the goblet, made a face, took a stronger belt and felt that alcohol content burning the back of my throat. Escheri clicked back across the stone floor to the sideboard leant back against the cabinet. 
1768"That's satisfactory?" she asked.
1769"It's terrible," I said dully.
1770"A. It is. Strong enough to take the edge off though, huh?"
1771 I grimaced again and turned the cup in my fingers, watching the liquid swirl in dark waves.
1772"You have an hour," she said presently. "Use it. Calm down. Eat something."
1773"Eat something," I echoed. "I'm really not feeling very hungry right now."
1774"You're still upset."
1775I felt my jaw gape, then I coughed a disbelieving laugh that wasn't from humor: it was just a spasm of sheer disbelief. "You know, I think I might be. I find out that the people who're supposed to be the good guys want to kill me. . . or at best cut parts of me off. Yes, I might be upset! And you know what the worst thing is? I was right, about all this I was right and nobody would tell me!"
1776"No, we couldn't."
1777"Couldn't? Why? God damn it! I'm trying to understand your way of doing things. I really am, but things like this make no sense to me!"
1778She hung her head for just a second, the fur on the bridge of her muzzle wrinkling momentarily as she clenched her eyes shut and then looked at me again. "I can't tell you."
1779It was my turn to stare. "You can't tell me why you can't tell me."
1780An ear flicked back as she parsed that. "A."
1781I felt a ruined muscle in my torn cheek twitch. "So, I suppose asking why wouldn't be the best question, would it."
1782She cocked her head, stared again, then snorted. "No, probably not."
1783"Then this is just a fancy way of getting rid of me? Making it look like a trial? His lordship wants to be rid of me, so he just throws a mock trial to make it look... correct."
1784She actually looked shocked.
1785"Mikah, understand, this isn't usual, nothing about this situation is," she said, her lips twitching over sharp teeth. "But whatever is happening, it's not a personal vendetta. Red tie you, this is the Mediator Guild. You are not being persecuted - you are being judged. And if you are worthy, you will be found so. Your honesty and cooperation will have a bearing on that."
1786I hid behind the wine again, regarding her with some disbelief over the edge of the goblet. Talk about ego... did she really believe the guild was that infallible? "Really? This always works? You deal with criminals, all those cheats and liars and every decision you make is the right one?"
1787Escheri waved a 'no'. "Common criminals... that's magistrate, governments law business. The Guild, in its official capacity, deals with other matters. The serious matters. The instances that could cause disruptions for more than just individuals."
1788"And you're always right?" I asked again
1789"Our history is a long one," she replied, as if that answered everything.
1790"And we all know who writes the history books, don't we," I muttered.
1791"Huhn?" amber eyes blinked at me and I shook my head:
1792"Nothing. Thinking aloud."
1793"You find something odd about our ways?"
1794Another loaded question. "Escheri," I said, "in the past couple of years I've seen things that are odder than I'd ever imagined. Your Guild is only one."
1795"Your kind really doesn't have anything like it?"
1796"We have law enforcement," I said.
1797"From what you've told me, that's merely a profession. Like a butcher or baker," she replied, watching me. "That is...odd. Such a [cavalier] attitude to something that is so vital to a society. I don't think I would trust anyone like that."
1798"And you've been entirely honest with me," I retorted.
1799"Ah," she cocked her head again, "that is a point. If you feel that way, perhaps there is something you should know."
1800"What?"
1801"That wine," she nodded her chin.
1802"What about it?" I looked down at the dregs in the goblet and the penny dropped, along with my heart. "Oh, you didn't..."
1803"Sorry," she said calmly.
1804
1805------v------
1806
1807My guards assisted me back to the hall. They had to: everything felt remote. Numb. That included my legs. When I tried to walk myself I found the walls wouldn't stay where they were supposed to. I should have felt angry. Hell, I should have felt furious, but in truth I wasn't feeling very much at all. My feet still hurt, but it didn't seem to matter.
1808"Don't look like that," Escheri'd told me when what she'd said had sunk in. "It's just something to calm you down. You need it. Really, you need it."
1809I'd been annoyed, putting it mildly. I'd been scared and furious. I'd started shouting at her while she and guards just watched me in a frustratingly calm manner. At least, I remember I'd started shouting and then somehow I'd found a hand was shaking my shoulder and an out-of-focus voice was saying, "It's time, Mikah."
1810They'd helped me, holding my arms to steady me while the hallways reeled around me. Somehow, I once again found myself crossing an echoing stage while shadowy figures circled around. That hit close to a place deep inside, a place where old nightmares hid. When they let me fold down onto that cushion I closed my eyes and shuddered while the talking started. I heard it, but it was if I were under anesthetic: I heard it and felt like I could respond, but I simply didn't want to.
1811Something  seized my shoulder and shook me, rattling my teeth, "Hai, can you understand?" a hairy face was growling at me. Escheri was kneeling down in front of me. Her hands were on my shoulders and she was staring intently at me.
1812I blinked, looked past her at other faces staring. "A," I mumbled.
1813"How many fingers?'
1814Again I blinked, "Four."
1815Escheri patted my shoulder and carefully stood, backing away before turning to address the audience who'd witnessed all this. "Pardons, Ma'am," she said. "Medications can have unpredictable results on him but he is [something]."
1816"It was necessary? He is supposed to be non-violent."
1817"Yes ma'am, violence on his side wasn't a concern. But he is anxious enough that we may have more of those outbursts and perhaps influence the Tribunal's decision. This was just to calm him. He is rational."
1818"Very well," the spokesperson's growl echoed through the forum, the sibilants raising sounds like distant surf from the farthest walls. "All present at this time, note that we reconvene this Tribunal, witnessing this challenge of Lord Heschier ah Richtkah's judgement by constable ah Ehrasai of Lying Scales."
1819"This tribunal is convened and [promise/oath/something?] to uphold the good of the many and the Guild. These members have been chosen and so swear that that they hold no favor or preference for either party. We meet to bear witness to the grievances of all, to hear their claims and to make a decision that will benefit the people we are sworn to protect and the guild itself. We will make this decision without preference of [something], and that decision will be held as word and law. We are ready to proceed?"
1820Sounds of assent.
1821"Very good. Ah Ehrasai, we will now hear your deposition."
1822Ah Ehrasai. Shyia. That's who they were talking about. I should be listening to this, a part of me knew, but the rest of me was just... numb.
1823"Ma'am, I respect his Lordship's position, but this course must not continue. This visitor is an unprecedented opportunity. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It is impossible to believe that it could happen again.
1824"The reasons cited for the removal of this outsider sound valid, but they are mere supposition. Facts have been misinterpreted or misrepresented. Not through malice or [incompetence?], but as a result of that lack of information that his Lordship so lamented. I was either present at the unfolding of many of these early events or had the opportunity to speak firsthand with those who were, and the evidence I collected [something] many of those [something] theories.
1825"In late autumn the Guild hall in Lying Scales heard of an appeal for assistance from a small outlaying town of Westwater to the local government requesting assistance. They had been troubled by some sort of unknown animal. There were claims it had killed a farmer and had been further troubling the community. It was not deemed to be a Guild matter and was left to the local guard.
1826"In winter we heard further news of this creature, this time in the form of a direct appeal to the Guild. The creature had been apprehended, the missive claimed, however it also stated that the thing was not a Rris, nor did it seem to be a dumb animal and the mayor was requesting Guild assistance for a trial. This request was quite unusual and the information supplied was meager, but Westwater had to date been a quiet settlement, without a history of fraudulent claims. So I was dispatched to Westwater to assess and assist if required.
1827"What I found when I arrived was not what I'd expected. I was told that the creature had been apprehended, being grievously wounded in the process. I was introduced to the winter teacher hired by the community for the season. She was the one who'd injured it, then captured it and finally was the one who defending it and sheltering it at her own hearth. This I did find unusual. 
1828"The creature was like nothing I'd seen or heard of before. Despite the cautions, seeing it for the first time was somewhat of a shock. Even more so to find that it could actually speak. Granted, it's capability was very limited – like a cub learning to speak – but the fact it could carry on a conversation was startling. As was the fact it was unrestrained and loose inside the teacher's dwelling. It was seriously injured, and while she was the one who'd caused the injury, it didn't seem to harbor any ill-will toward her. It had chances enough to harm her, but it didn't.
1829"At the time I was unable to determine just what it was or where it came from. Its grasp on speech was still extremely rudimentary. It could tell us its name and a few simple words, but it was incapable of telling us much more. Stranger still were the devices it carried with it. Its clothing was utterly outlandish. There were materials that were lighter and with a finer weave than anything I'd ever seen; devices that produced light without oil or fire; things that made noise or lit up in peculiar ways. And there was that picture box. That started more questions.
1830"That was a problem. Its inability to speak meant it could not communicate very well. There was also the problem that it was not Rris: It didn't react as a person should. In many ways our training and skills are useless when it comes to dealing with him simply because none of the normal telltales were applicable. It has no tail; Its ears aren't mobile; it didn't move or react in the same way. That's not to say the giveaways aren't there. They're present, but they are very different. It becomes a matter of relearning those signals, and that takes time and continual exposure, which I didn't have.
1831"The charges against this stranger were serious: murder and theft. They'd initially been laid by a farmer who claimed her partner was ruthlessly killed by it. She'd been a [proponent] of the hunting of the thing when it'd been found to be lurking in the vicinity. Her description of the creature was accurate, but there were too many inconsistencies. Even superficial inspection produced too many more questions. And she seemed to be very perturbed of the fact that it could speak. It didn't come as a great surprise to find its account of events differed substantially from hers.
1832"A trial was held, as demanded by the townsfolk. The results of that weren't entirely decisive. While the creature's tale was consistent and fit the facts, the accuser played on the facts he wasn't a Rris and was of dubious civility and integrity. I could not read him like a Rris; Drugs that usually worked on Rris were quite ineffective, meaning his word could not be used. Verdict was inconclusive: he was found innocent of the murder charges. However, while the accuser's story had several glaring inconsistencies, there was also no direct evidence against her. It was decided that the outsider would be removed to Lying Scales and the matter further investigated there."
1833A distant part of me knew this was important, but things still seemed to drift in and out of focus and the urgency came and went with it. I managed to catch myself nodding off, before I fell on my face, starting awake again with a gasp. I saw Rris heads turn and that voice paused for a breath before resuming:
1834"Before that could be done there was an attempt on his life by a group of armed individuals. He sustained serious injuries protecting a group of cubs who would have been caught up in the attempt. During that time he killed two of the Rris who attacked them, but from what I saw his efforts were more through desperation and sheer size than any particular skill. During that fight he suffered grievous injuries: bites, claw and sword cuts. Serious infection was a real risk. The local physician used medication he said the creature had supplied and it proved astoundingly effective."
1835There was nothing there I didn't know. I listened through the drug-induced haze as he continued, regaling the crowd with events I'd lived through: how he'd taken me to the town of Lying Scales where the local Guild Master had taken one look at what his subordinate had dredged up and thrown the issue further up the line, sending me on to Shattered Water with Shyia along as chaperone. He told of our long, slow trip from Lying Scales, across the winter countryside. I clutched at the cushion and tried to keep breathing steadily as the room spun nauseatingly.
1836"What I found interesting," he was saying, "was that he could understand everything around him. Even when we entered the capital, he was never completely at a loss. I've seen country (somethings) who've never seen a town before who couldn't stop gawking at every small detail. Not him. He was never overwhelmed by the streets and buildings. It was the people he was gaping at, but not the buildings. He knew cities. He understood everything he saw, no matter how advanced we would believe it was, he'd seen it before. That made his tale about cities of his own kind more believable."
1837"Initially his appearance didn't have much of an impact, in either the Guild or the Palace. There was curiosity about my report, but little more. Not until what he carried with him become known. Then attitudes changed most abruptly. Very soon Hirht himself was demanding to see the visitor and after that a continual procession of scholars and specialists were studying him.
1838"The palace was most careful to keep him close. While the Guild dispatched reports to the hall in Endless Circle and waited for responses from distant individuals who had no idea what was really happening, the government of Shattered Water was busy reaping a bountiful harvest. They had the creature confer with their craftsmen and artificers and found that its knowledge, if not its skill, outstripped their own. Using that knowledge they changed and improved existing machine; they built new ones; gained new understandings and ideas in everything from medicine to agriculture and architecture. Of course neighboring countries witnessed these changes and they clamored for this knowledge. The problem was that this resource was limited and it had frailties of its own."
1839The voice stopped and there was a silence. A very pointed silence. It was enough to jolt me awake again, snapping my drooping head upright with a sharp intake of breath to find the Rris all staring at me. The Tribunal members eyed me for a bit longer before the chair told Shyia, "Please, continue."
1840"Ma'am," Shyia acknowledged. For a split second I think I saw his gaze flicker past me before returning. "Ma'am, one of the things that made this creature so very difficult to read and to predict was that he doesn’t act or think in that same way we do. There are things he does that would simply not be considered…normal by a Rris. I was aware of this. I'd had experience with it, but I hadn't been able to convey this concern to Shattered Water.
1841"Presently after delivering the outsider to Shattered Water - after the government had had some dealing with him and realized what they had -  I found that I was being increasingly distanced from his handling. It was not overt, but it was there, a gradual separating of us. And with that, there came a steadily increasing demand on his time and services from more and more guilds and governments. He was treated as…a commodity, and I could see it was having a detrimental effect on him. That was worrying. I made my concerns known; I related what he'd done in the past while under duress but received no concrete response. It didn't take much to see that the government was trying to [something] their grip on the outsider without openly rejecting Guild involvement.
1842"A matter of months later I received Guild orders that I was to return to Lying Scales - an order that had been initiated at the request of the Palace. I lodged a protest with the Guild; and again my protests were forwarded to Endless Circle. Shortly thereafter I departed Shattered Water and returned to Lying Scales. However, I did take the precaution of requesting some contacts I'd cultivated to keep me appraised of happenings back in the capitol. Which is why I was informed that a while after my departure, the outsider attempted to kill himself, as I'd warned them he might do.
1843"It was about that time that the Guild finally started to stir. Queries for elaboration on the happenings at Westwater arrived from both the halls at Shattered Water and Endless Circle. A few at first, then more and more. The Guild was starting to pay attention, but it was too slow.
1844"It transpired that I hadn't been alone with my concerns. A doctor had also submitted similar concerns to the Palace after an incident when she'd encountered the outsider. She'd spoken with him for only a short time, yet in that brief period she'd realized he didn't think normally and might do something unpredictable. Almost immediately following his attempt on his own life she was brought in by the Palace as an advisor."
1845Maithris, I realized. He was talking about Mai.
1846"The position changed. She insisted on tending to him herself and it was found that the outsider fixated upon her. She had speculated that he required companionship and the isolation was what he found difficult, so she herself offered it and in turn had a chance to study him. That speculation turned out to be accurate, and he became extremely attached to her, to the point they engaged in sexual relations."
1847Through the fog I knew I wanted to feel angry, but the spark just flared and died in the waves of lassitude. Where was he going with this?
1848"She stayed with him for some time. She provided company for him and the self-harm attempts ended. All the while she reported to Shattered Water, relating what she'd learned. In turn, he trusted her to such an extent that when she found it extremely easy to betrayed him.
1849"She was an agent, a [something] planted in Shattered Water. Neighboring kingdoms had had troubles with internal factions, including some who were receiving aid from external sources trying to exploit the new knowledge in Shattered Water for personal and political gain. Agents in Shattered Water were attempting to track the suppliers and it was nothing but chance that she'd first encountered the outsider, but she'd played that opportunity for everything it was worth and successfully ridden every possibility from there. There had been suspicions about her, but the entire scheme had been conducted to a timeframe that ensured there wasn't sufficient time to gather evidence. She was quite competent. Perhaps one of their best."
1850I tried to stare at him. My eyes wouldn't focus.
1851"The outsider was bait. It was taken. The leak in Shattered Water was sealed and the smuggler trail uncovered and traced and the doctor vanished back into the undergrowth. Tracing her would be interesting, but it isn't a priority.
1852"What was of more concern was the outsider's reaction. He'd be seriously injured, but also nobody was entirely sure of what would happen after her... departure. She'd arranged for notes to be delivered after she was gone and those contained information nobody was sure was accurate or even possible. She'd also arranged for the teacher the outsider had first met in Westwater to be transported to Shattered Water. When the teacher went missing, the subject went to what could be called insane efforts to try and recover her.
1853"That matter was somewhat overshadowed by something that caused a great deal more ripples. In an instance that drew the Guild's full attention, a well-armed vessel was destroyed by a smaller craft armed with only a single weapon created with the new technologies Land-of-Water had acquired. The incident had not been intended: it was a desperate attempt to save the outsider, but it did reveal to the world in a most emphatic manner just what an entity possessing this resource could achieve. This was a fact not lost on the Guild.
1854"The ripples from this entire incident reached at least as far as Lying Scales. A matter of days after I received reports from my sources, both myself and my master received a summons to the hall in Endless Circle. We were to report there as soon as was possible. We complied, taking courier transportation where possible and making good time over the water route. There was nothing out of the ordinary until we reached Saisa's End.
1855"That was a small town, but it was impossible not to notice the disproportionate Mediator presence. Stable were full, as were many lodgings. There were ships in the port that would not have normally called at such a destination. There were Guild members from all over the region gathered there.
1856"Almost as soon as we entered town we were approached, our presence demanded before another Guild Master, Jaesith aesh Raeshon. She explained Lord Ah Richtkah's plans. She explained her own ideas, how the outsider was too important to all Rris to eliminate and I was vital a source of information about it. We talked for some time. I listened. Her ideas... they were not without merit in some regards. Enough that there were those willing to follow. I told her what she wanted to hear. She requested I bring the creature to her and told us to go.
1857"From Saisa's End we crossed Lake Endless to Endless Circle. At the Guild Hall there Lord Ah Richtkah interviewed me, requesting everything I knew about the outsider. I gave it. The information was deliberated upon for a single day before he put forward the suggestion that the creature was to destabilizing to be allowed to live freely. I protested this, with the backing of my Master. We maintained that it was too valuable to simply kill; that there would be problems, but there are always problems. That is why the Guild exists. To destroy something because it simply inconveniences you is to break the ice you stand on.
1858"It was maintained that the Guild charter wasn't to repair problems, it was to avoid them. The creature went beyond an inconvenience: It was entire unpredictable, perhaps insane, perhaps an agent of some kind. Its mere presence had already cause disruption and bickering and nearly outright war between the nations; even the Guild was roiling. They were aware of aesh Raeshon's activities, but could take no outright action. The wisest action – the only sensible action - would be to remove the source of the problem."
1859I'd heard that. Why was he saying it again? Something was important. And something else inside me was screaming. The anxiety percolated through the fog hanging over everything else and I struggled to focus. Just lifting my head made me giddy, but I could see the faces regarding me, watching Shyia. And Shyia was staring at me without a flicker of emotion. 
1860"He was correct. At the time that was the clearest path. But now the situation has changed. Stabilized. What happened to aesh Raeshon's demise was a [something] disaster, but her faction has dissolved. My Lord, you have control of the situation and the outsider, but you have refused to change your decree. You claim that the outsider might be an agent, or a spy. This possibility is remote at the best. You claim it is unpredictable. It is, in some ways, but in others it is like anyone else. It has leverage points. It has attachments to individuals. He nearly killed himself to save the teacher from the town, so there are sensitive areas there..."
1861Chihirae. Now he was talking about her. About things I done and emotions he'd never had any experience with and how they could be...
1862"A control," he was saying. Words to that effect. Words like 'leverage' and 'trained'.
1863The rage returned in a red surge that drove me to my feet and
1864I was laid out flat on something that swayed and creaked with movement. There was the clinking of metallic accoutrements. I opened my eyes to see a dim island of lamplit whitewashed ceiling scroll by overhead. The back of a Rris loomed over me. Down there was another, watching and making a quick sound but otherwise not changing its grip on the stretcher handles. Another Rris face appeared from the gloom and said something that echoed through my muzzy senses. I blinked in confusion and tried to move but wasn't sure anything happened.
1865Something patted my face and I feebly batted at the hand but my own limb flopped uselessly. The face leaned closer and as if through a kilometer of cotton wool I heard someone say something about dosages and mistakes.
1866I closed my eyes again. That was a mistake: the movement of the stretcher made me feel ill. When it stopped, hands grabbed me and hauled me upright and once again everything spun and turned and when it stabilized I found I was looking at another ceiling, that of a small cell lit by a splash of light that had a feel of sunset about it. The cat face with those tall, twitching ears and intense eyes returned to hang over me, staring down with a quizzical expression as if there were something it wasn't sure about. There was a low voice and something stroked though my beard and my hair, over and over again.
1867
1868------v------
1869
1870"Wake! Get up."
1871The voice hadn't woken me, it was the shaking that'd done that. I shifted away and opened my eyes and got an impression of hasty movement. "Get up," the voice repeated. 
1872I wasn't sure what was happening or where I was. For a second I was sprawled on the stage in front of the Tribunal and Shyia was saying… things. And then reality washed over memory. It was a cell, in a Mediator Guild hall. It was night, dark. A sliver of moonlight slipped in through the window and there was the glimmer of a lamp out in the corridor beyond the doorway, but it wasn't enough to see details. So the figures in the cell were just shapes, outlined in chiaroscuro where the light glowed through fur. Where it struck the metal of weapons or the oiled leather of Mediator armor it gleamed like something alive.
1873It wasn't the Tribunal hall, but what had been said there was real enough. With a bit of a struggle I propped myself up on my elbows. My shirt was gone, but I was still wearing my jeans. They'd also taken my boots and my feet were wrapped in bandages.
1874"Come on," the figure closest to me jerked its head. The others were eyeing me like I was something that might just put up an interesting fight.
1875"Where?" I asked and for a few seconds didn't think I was going to get an answer, but eventually the Mediator relented.
1876"The Tribunal sent for you," was all I was told.
1877There were more than enough to drag me along if I didn't cooperate, so I'd end up in the same place only even more scratched up. Not a great deal of choice. Besides, I had some questions of my own. I moved again, grimaced and clambered the rest of the way to my feet in a series of semi-coordinated lurches, bracing against the wall on the way up. Once standing I had to lean against it for another couple of seconds, catching my equilibrium. The dizziness wasn't nearly as bad as it'd been earlier. Mediators watched and actually gave me a moment, then that closest one said, "Come along," again and stood aside for me.
1878They weren't hauling me away in chains at least. That seemed a change for the better. The armed silhouettes watched intently and silently as I limped out the door and stopped in the corridor. One of the Mediators waiting there was holding a glass-enclosed lantern by a looped handle, the low orange flame sputtering and throwing jittering shadows on the walls and floor. A hand waved in a come-along gesture and the shadows whirled as the Rris turned and led the way.
1879The guards took me from the cells, out into that atrium and cool night air. When I looked up I could see a handkerchief of velvet sky, a spill of stars washing across the patch of night visible just above the rooftops and chimneypots, just for a minute before we headed indoors again. It was the same building I'd been taken to days ago; where I'd first been taken before Ah Richtkah and the insanity had gone right off the scale. This time the guards escorted me back up the sweeping main staircase, but at the top they turned me another way.
1880Few lights were burning indoors, and those few lamps that were lit illuminated corridors floored with age-and-use-polished red wood with a bloody, fitful glow. There were no paintings, no carvings or rugs or other embellishments, just ancient timber that'd probably seen many more decades than I had. As we passed by a row of tall windows the night behind them turned the panes into mirrors, the glass flaring and reflecting the Rris as they stalked by.  Otherwise, our little group was the only sign of movement in the place.
1881Until we turned into a last corridor. Away down its length a fan of light spread out across the floor, across the ceiling and the opposite wall as a door was opened. A pair of Rris stepped out, lit in chiaroscuro by the glow from the room and in that moment. One of them was holding the door open for the other. As that Rris passed through and jus as the door swung closed and the wedge of light pinched out I saw the one closing the door was Escheri. The other…
1882"Chaeitch!"
1883My yell raised echoes down the corridor and I took a single step forward. That was all before a furry hand latched around my arm and the promise of claws brought me up short. Down the hall the figures' heads twitched around, their eyes flaring like molten lead in the gloom. Chaeitch raised a hand in a half-wave a hand of acknowledgement before Escheri touched his arm and leaned in to murmur something. His body sagged slightly, then she turned him and led him off in the other direction. At the far corner she glanced back, then they were gone.
1884My escorts were glowering at me. The lead's muzzle twitched in the direction they'd gone and I was told, "Move."
1885Just along the way they stopped me at the door that the other pair had just exited. It didn't look any different from any of the others we'd passed by, but a fan of light was shining through the crack underneath it. From inside I could hear faint music. Not Rris instruments, but my kind of music. Human music. One of my escort scratched at the plate and then pressed the latch and swung the door open. The music was clearer: the Indiana Jones theme.
1886My escort stood aside and twitched his or her muzzle in the direction of the door, indicating I should enter. I hesitated, then stepped inside
1887It was a well-lit room. Actually, it was well-lit to Rris eyes, but still certainly an improvement over the gloom of the hallways. Milky-white glass flues covering oil lamps hanging from wheel-shaped chandeliers glowed steadily, lighting the room with a warm orange glow. Candles were less efficient, the rows of dribbling sticks in their candelabras dancing and swaying as the door was opened. Rugs woven in geometric curlicues of tans and creams and yellows and greens were spread over a polished wooden floor, well worn with scratches from foot claws. Walls were white plaster and pale wood, shelves on one side held a collection of various trinkets: from where I was standing I could see things that looked like coral, sticks, stones and crystals, small devices of copper and brass... dozens of little curious. Opposite those shelves stood a bookcase, that holding a spattering of books and scrolls. Across the far side of the room a desk stood in front of drapes colored and patterned like the rugs.
1888I counted five mediators waiting there, all seated cross-legged, upright and alert on floor cushions spread out around a small, round table made of a wood as pale as the rest of the trim in the room. That table held a tray stocked with a trio of decanters filled with amber fluid, a few glasses, and my laptop. On-screen Indiana Jones was behind the wheel of a truck, running a car full of Nazis off the road. The guard who'd led me in stared at the images flickering across the screen, and then kept staring as if mesmerized.
1889"Thank you, constable," one of the tribunal said and the guard flinched, then ducked and retreated. The door was closed behind me and I stood, feeling my muscles tensing and twitching as the Mediators regarded me. All of them had at least a few grey whiskers; some of them more than others. None of them wore a uniform, their clothing ranged from a simple short polished-leather kilt to more elegant breeches and open tunic. One wore a pair of spectacles; sort of like Rris versions of John Lennon specs with a wire frame, wide nosepiece and small lenses that flared opaque when the light caught them. All of them were watching me with expressions that also varied from studied impassiveness to something that I read as wariness.
1890"Sit," one of them said, not making it sound like anything else was an option. That was the female on the Tribunal? The chairperson? She reached over to the notebook and carefully touched the space bar, pausing the video and then indicated a cushion. The whole lot of them watched as I achingly lowered myself to sit cross-legged, then adjusted my wounded leg to stick out in front of me. Even seated I was still a full head taller than any of them, but if that disconcerted them they didn't show it. Closest to me, the chairwoman's tail was sweeping back and forth with a languid fluidity.
1891"You're in pain?" she asked.
1892"A little," I confessed.
1893"You recognize us?" that person asked again.
1894"I think so, ah… Ma'am? You are the Tribunal?"
1895"Correct. This time," she said and that had to be a pointed reference to my previous gaff. Was that intended to be humorous?
1896"And are you coherent this time?" another asked.
1897"As long as nobody tries to drug me again I will be."
1898Those words came out by themselves. One of those moments you wish you could take back a split second after it happens. Still, the only reaction that elicited from the Mediators was that a couple of them tipped their heads.
1899"Will it be necessary?" one of them asked.
1900"I hope not," the chairperson said, tipping her head slightly. "That was rather inconvenient timing, wasn't it, Mikah?"
1901I looked from one face to another. Not sure what exactly she was talking about. "Was it?" 
1902"You did miss the conclusion to the constable's testimony," one of them said.
1903"Oh," I said uncertainly, but I remembered what he'd been talking about and I felt my heart clench. My palms felt clammy. I clenched them, relaxed them, hoped the mediators didn't notice.
1904"Huhn, do you have any idea why he gave that to you?"
1905"She… Escheri said that it was just something to calm me down." And I recalled some of the words Shyia had used and had to clench my hands again.
1906"It seemed to do more than that."
1907"Some of your medicines don't have the same effect on me as they do on you," I said, then had to wonder: Why the hell was I defending what they'd done to me? "All she said was that it was to help me stay calm."
1908The room of felines just watched me with those impassive visages. "Huhn," the chairwoman coughed. "Nothing more than that?"
1909I blinked and looked around at the tribunal. "That's... all they said. There was some other reason?"
1910"Do you know what the rest of the constable's testimony entailed?" she asked calmly, with no particular inflection. As if she was enquiring about the weather.
1911"Not the exact details, no," I said and then swallowed and asked, "Did he... did he speak more about the teacher?"
1912"Ah," she inclined her head and I knew then that'd I told them something, whether I meant to or not. But they didn't give me anything in return.
1913"He did, didn't he," I said, tension almost making me squeak.
1914"How much of what he said was true?" one of them asked.
1915"Ma'am, please," I swallowed and looked around at the faces. "Please, don't involve her. She's done nothing but help others; she doesn't deserve to be dragged into anything like this."
1916"She has been quite involved with you," another said thoughtfully. "She knows you as well as any. A lot of people might be wondering just what she knows. Perhaps something overheard."
1917"Perhaps something told in confidence," another offered.
1918"Just pebbles of knowledge that might not seem important to you."
1919Involuntarily my mind flashed back to those little lessons I'd been giving her; those English words I'd taught her; demonstrating how to use the encyclopedia and search functions on the notebook as I showed her glimpses of my world. There was a whole beach of pebbles there and it was all I could do not to let anything show in my expression.
1920The chairwoman inclined her head, just a little. Her eyes were amber and black, glittering in the lamplight, and her expression was as completely opaque as I'd hoped mine had been. Her tail was sweeping slowly from side to side with a metronomic regularity. "Those are things we would like to know more about," she said. "Those, and other issues that have been raised. You know what they are?"
1921"That I'm a spy?" I ventured. 
1922A couple of ears twitched. The chairwoman, however, didn't flinch. "That was one of the considerations," she said. "That issue, however, does seem rather unlikely. The concept of you as a spy is, quite frankly preposterous. Some may say that is what makes it so likely that you are an agent, but really that is just tying logic in knots. There are far more… subtle ways to go about intelligence gathering. And has been pointed out, spies don't usually try and kill themselves due to emotional instabilities. It rather negates their purpose.
1923"No, we don't believe you are a spy. Exactly what you are though, that remains to be seen."
1924"I've never claimed to be anything other than what I've said I am."
1925"We understand that. We don't think you know what else you are." She scratched at her jaw delicately with a single clawtip and then gestured toward the laptop. "How much of what that shows is true?"
1926I glanced. "What you are seeing there is an entertainment. Like a play. Not true; it never pretended to be true."
1927Ears flicked back and she blinked at the frozen screen. Indiana Jones was clambering over the back of an old truck. "All of that, an entertainment?"
1928"It is a big business."
1929"And things like that… that vehicle. That and the flying machines, they're also fictions?"
1930"No. They exist. Existed. They're quite old. They're simply... props in the story being told. A historical fiction."
1931"Huhn, and all the other plays and images on this box, how many of them are also fictions?"
1932"There is a mixture. That machine was a tool for my work so there is research material, but there is also entertainment: books, plays, music. There is quite a great deal stored on there."
1933Another hiss of air and she tipped her head the other way. "Books and plays and music. Being able to capture a song to listen to over and over again. You see, that is part of the issue."
1934"You're with the RIAA?" I muttered under my breath.
1935"Was that remark relevant?" she all but snarled, her ears back, teeth bared and even her tail interrupted its smooth side to side sweeping.
1936"No, Ma'am," I swallowed. Like all Rris she was so much smaller than me, but when they looked like that it just flipped a primal switch somewhere deep inside that was connected to some part of the hindbrain that remembered being hunted by things like that.
1937"Do you realize how serious all this is? How much trouble you have caused and are in? You are trying to make things worse?"
1938"Ma'am," I ducked my head once, then met her eyes again. I saw her bristle, her jaw muscles twitch at the presumption. "Ma'am, I'm still wondering if I'm to be maimed or executed. There is a punishment worse than that?"
1939Her nostrils flared and for a few silent seconds her tail was motionless. "That is an interesting question," she said quietly, in matter-of-fact tones. "If you keep along those trails you may just find out."
1940"And that isn't helping," I said, then added, "Ma'am."
1941Another second, and then her tail lashed again and she snorted. "I can see what the constable meant when he referred to your attitude. You can be your own worst enemy, you know that? Yet you have people – good people -  standing for you. Strange that."
1942"Perhaps they're also good judges of character?"
1943One of the other tribunal members made an amused noise. The chairwoman's ears twitched back a notch. "Usually, they are. So is his lordship. However, neither your personality nor intentions are issues at this moment. We don't care what you think or what you fear, we only care about what you are. Do you know what that is?"
1944"A threat to your Guild?"
1945None of them flinched, and that in itself was a sign. I'd touched something there.
1946"Can you explain that?" she asked.
1947I swallowed and thought back to things I'd been told and things I hadn't. "Your Guild charter, your authority and existence, it all relies on your reliability. The idea that the Guild might... fracture would not be a popular one."
1948"The Guild has no fractures," another of them stated, making it a fact. "That isn't an issue."
1949Anymore,  I thought to myself, but out loud I just said, "Of course not," quietly.
1950No, that wasn't a problem for them, not any more. Not since... Something prodded at the back of my mind, but I didn't have an opportunity to figure out just what it was. The spokeswoman's eyes narrowed a little, looking at me as if she was working out just how much I did know. "No, not the Guild," she said. "The greater peace. The effect your presence will have upon the balance between the countries, that's what his lordship referred to.
1951"Since your arrival there have been...changes. We saw them, but didn't notice just what was happening. Everyone was so focused on you, that not a great deal was paid to what was happening around you. Now we look at Shattered Water and we see things that didn't exist only a couple of years ago. There are engines that power entire manufactories. There are new metals, new vessels on the lakes, new ideas circulating among scholars. Metal trails for steam carriages are being laid between cities; reaping machines are drawing huge harvests, doing the work of dozens in mere days and rendering the autumn laborers superfluous.
1952"And what's to come? What you show us on that machine... that's what offered, and what would it do to our world? Being able to carry a song with you, what does that do to minstrels? The playhouses... how would they cope with people having their works available at any time. The transportation guilds, the coaches, the shipping, the hostelers, they would all would rage over private vehicles like those. And of course we're not the only ones seeing this."
1953One of the others - the one with the glasses - said, "The kingdoms of the world aren't blind. It's difficult for them to miss this. And what they see makes them... envious."
1954"And nervous," another Mediator added. "They see a neighbor with whom they have had past altercations arming themselves with new weapons. What are their options? Do they trust in goodwill? Do they arm themselves? Do they strike before the neighbor fully avails themselves of the new tools?"
1955The chairwoman spread both hands out before her. "In the past we've been able to gaze down a road and see where it might be taking us. These new ideas open so many trails that it's becoming impossible to see where they may go. Perhaps it is better for us to lean with favorable winds."
1956I swallowed, "Ma'am, that means you want to go with popular opinion?" I ventured.
1957"A," she said.
1958"And that would be to... get rid of me?"
1959"To do something about you," she amended. "And disposing of you is a popular option. Trite as it may sound, we've found many times that the popular option is not always the best. Although, there are times when it can seem an expedient technique."
1960I bit my lip. Was she getting political? "You're saying... his lordship may be playing to popular opinion?"
1961"I said no such thing," she replied.
1962"No," I said. "Of course you didn't."
1963She held up a stubby finger, the claw a black crescent at the tip. "Now, disposing of you would solve a whole handful of problems. Some Guilds would clamor for a time, but after the fact there really wouldn't be a great deal they could do, would there? There also wouldn't be anything left that might make or tempt entities to do things they wouldn't normally do. It would seem to be the logical and prudent course of action.  However, we haven't ever encountered a situation where removing the immediate source of trouble may potentially cause more and quite unforeseen difficulties in the long run. There are simply no precedents for such a situation."
1964"Are you..." I ventured and looked from one face to another to see if there any signs that I was reading the situation correctly, "are you asking my advice?!"
1965"Not advice, no," she said. "Your opinion. Can you tell us if, in your opinion,  his lordship is correct in his assessment?"
1966I swallowed. I could tell them I was indispensable, I knew that. I could tell them they needed me and to kill me would be foolishness of the highest order. I knew that. But as I gazed around at all those impassive alien faces watching me with amber eyes, I knew that would be a lie. And I had a feeling that such a lie would be a fatal mistake
1967"His lordship," I began and choked off. My hands spasmed, clenching and unclenching involuntarily. Taking a deep breath, I tried to compose myself.
1968"You said you haven't had a... precedent for this," I said, trying again.
1969"That's correct."
1970"My kind have. Of a sort," I sighed and closed my eyes for a second, trying to get my train of thought in motion. When I opened my eyes again they were  still there, still watching and waiting for me. 
1971"My kind is spread all over the planet. We have been, for centuries. From before history was recorded. For all that time these various peoples were scattered. Civilizations on different continents grew and died without ever knowing of each others' existence. They developed at their own paces, but of course some developed faster. They learned things that other peoples never did. They made discoveries and built and explored.
1972"And of course, inevitably, these cultures met... collided with one another. There came days when big ships of wood and metal, armed with big guns appeared off the coasts of lands whose occupants possessed only  swords and stone walls. People who knew without a doubt that they were the greatest power in the world were visited by others whose empires spanned continents; to whom they were insignificant. In many instances there was fighting; in other cases trade was opened, but always when different ways of life came into contact with one another there could only be change.
1973"There were peoples who were devastated by that. Sometimes their world... beliefs were proven to be mistaken or outright lies by the outsiders. Sometimes the newcomers forced their way of life onto others who'd lived quite contentedly for a long time and would try to exploit them or even enslave them. Sometimes locals would try to grab what they thought they wanted from the newcomers, trying to use new knowledge to  consolidate their own little power bases in their little corners of the world. Other times the locals would... go overboard? They would try to devour too much; to adopt too much of the newcomers way of life, drowning and forgetting their own world beliefs and ways of life.
1974"Those sorts of encounters would tend to result in nothing but grief. Especially for the locals. For the newcomers... it wasn't such a problem. If there were difficulties, they could just leave. The locals had to live with the results, but so often just the knowledge that there was more to the world than they'd believed meant they couldn't go back. The information was free and it was impossible to lock it away again.
1975"There were people, however, who struck a balance. They accepted the new knowledge. They used it as a resource, as one might use a seam of iron ore. They used it, but they kept their own... identity. They didn't allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the new concepts. In some regards their society had to change, it was inevitable, but for the most part they kept their ways and... wove them in with the new ways to become even stronger. Some of those people are amongst the most powerful and successful nations in my world."
1976"Huhn," one of the Mediators mused. "It's that simple?"
1977I blinked before I realized he was probably being sarcastic. "Ah... no. I think... ah, for an example, one of these nations had a very rigid and warlike internal structure. They were strong enough that they kept the initial contact at arms length. They took what they thought they needed and changed their nation. They become powerful, but they kept their old... ah... the way they thought didn't change. They used this new knowledge as their ancestors might have, as a weapon to try and claim more and more, but they didn't accept new… ways of thinking along with the solid artefacts. A great war was the result, greater and worse than you have ever seen. They were beaten back, their armies and navies destroyed, cities utterly flattened. They rebuilt and they changed their... focus. They are now one of the five greatest economies on my world, among hundreds of nations. What they couldn't take by force, they bought.
1978"It's not simple. I never said it could be. I'm pretty sure I'm not capable of thinking out all the complexities."
1979There was another silence and they were all staring at me in a most disconcerting manner. Distaste or evaluation, I wasn't sure. Another spoke up to ask, "You think that we are likely to be unable to handle the sort of knowledge you have?"
1980"I don't know," I replied honestly. "Your kind thinks differently to mine. In some ways... you may be more resilient. I'm not sure that what applies to my kind applies to yours."
1981"Thinks differently? In what ways?"
1982I hesitated. "Ummm, it is difficult to explain. I think... when something happens you ask yourselves 'why did that happen?'. My kind tends to ask 'who did that?'."
1983Muzzles furrowed. "That doesn't make a lot of sense."
1984"I'm not sure I can explain it," I ventured, dreading the idea of delving into things like religion. Humans descended from prey creatures: we fear the boogeyman in the dark. Rris descended from predators: they were the things lurking beyond the light of the fire. It does something to the mindset. "It confuses me, but I know you are different up here," I tapped my forehead. "I can't see exactly what will happen."
1985"But you don't deny that there could be incidents. That there could be upsets and accidents."
1986I carefully tipped my hand. "No. I don't deny that. I'm certain there would be. Just as I know there would be upsets and accidents even if I weren't here. There are always floods, fires and famine, disease and illness. I don't want to cause any of that, but what I know might help prevent it. "
1987"Huhn," one of them grunted and looked askance at the one with the glasses. He tipped his head: "A virulent illness is sweeping through a town, causing many deaths. The [something] smell is heavy in several streets and even though the buildings are cleared and opened to blow the [miasma] away, the deaths continue. Your solution?"
1988I bit my lip. In these societies I guessed water-borne diseases would be the largest threat, but how could I give a definite answer? Did they have cholera? Didn't that come from India? What was their equivalent? "It is difficult to say without seeing, but illnesses are not usually borne by bad smell. Poisoning perhaps, but not illness. The smell is a... result, not a cause. Look for something else first. There are sewers or drains?"
1989"Sewers. There are new sewers underground."
1990"They run near water ways or wells? Look for a leak. Is there a fountain or a public water place nearby or on the water route? Did the ill get water from one of those? I would investigate that first. You would be amazed at what lives in a drop of water. Otherwise vermin such as rats: them or their parasites can carry disease."
1991He ducked his muzzle and there were some sidelong looks. The spokeswoman's muzzle twitched, then she told me, "All those who died had visited a series of fountains fed by a single waterway. That fountain was sealed. The illness stopped until a new well was sunk. They started again. Wells in that area are now forbidden."
1992"Oh," I said. If they'd known... "How many..."
1993"Seventy four," she said flatly. "Including a visiting lord. Accusations were made. It could have been prevented? Cured?"
1994I nodded before remembering myself and cupping my hand. "Yes. You'll probably find a sewer was leaking or seeping into the water table."
1995"Huhn," she coughed, amber eyes locked on me like a flame.
1996Another spoke up: "A storm blows a convoy of ships onto shoals and destroys them. Lives and property are lost. Could they have been saved?"
1997Of course I hesitated, wondering both what these questions were about and how to answer it. "Ah, weather is difficult, but there's a good chance the storm could have been...predicted in the first place," I replied. "There are some simple tools that can do that. Not perfectly, but they can be pretty accurate."
1998"Could the cargo be recovered? It is non-perishable."
1999"It is... possible," I waved a shrug. "It depends how deep, but... there are devices that can make it possible."
2000I couldn't tell what they were thinking, but that studied motionless in their ears and body language made it obvious they were thinking something. A couple of them flashed glances between themselves, then one of them waved an affirmative in an exchange that meant nothing to me.
2001The chairwoman let this little byplay go on while she sat back. Her fingers were laced, one claw tapping on the knuckles of her other hand. That was unusual: a Mediator with a tic. Was that agitation? Or she was so unconcerned as to not care. But she sat quietly while one after the other they went around the room with their questions. More questions about situations and problems and issues that were possibly hypothetical, but probably not: queries covering the gamut from hardware and physical products to things that were less tangible.
2002I answered where I could as best I could. To a certain extent they were predictable. These Mediators were intelligent individuals and by their standards they were well educated, but they were fixated on what they could comprehend and I could see they were trying to foresee the future by just expanding on what they were familiar with. Much like humans they weren't comfortable at including things beyond their experience and on some level simply didn't want to think about what they didn't know. In the same way that eighteenth and nineteenth century human visionaries foretold a future filled with amazing steam-propelled conveyances, riveted velocipedes and personal dirigibles, they tended to miss the fact that the future contains things that are just completely unexpected.
2003However, they weren't so foolish as to look at only toys and gimmicks.
2004"And how does your knowledge work when applied to fields that aren't so... concrete?" one of them – the one with glasses - asked. "If we were to ask you about [something], or [something], perhaps political theory, then what would you tell us? Would you tell us our ways are wrong? The monarchs should be removed and the lands managed in some other fashion?"
2005"I think I would say I don't enough of your language to tell you," I said. "Those are... delicate areas. I don't know if my vocabulary is... bendable? enough. Ideas like that can be inflammable. I don't know how Rris deal with that sort of thing, but my kind have had wars over smaller things, and I am certainly not proficient enough with your language to try and relate those ideas."
2006"You suggest there are better ways of government than the [something] kingdom?"
2007"There was a word there I don't understand," I said. "But there are other ways. Not necessarily better, but other ways. I really can't say how they would apply to your kind. Systems that work for us might be simply impossible here."
2008"Why is that?"
2009"I said before, your kind doesn't think like mine. I'm not saying we are better – in some regards I believe the opposite, but just... different. You see the world through different eyes, hear through different ears. All that influences the way you think. The way I think. We can talk with one another, but sometimes it's obvious we don't mean the same thing." I sighed and waved a hand. "It's a complicated issue."
2010"And a matter to be explored some other time, if possible," the chairwoman interjected and then leaned forward a bit.
2011"Do you think," she asked me directly, meeting my eyes with an amber stare that meant challenge and authority, "that what you are is worth it? Can what you offer us be better than the problems it may cause?"
2012I shrugged, human style. Let them make what they wanted of that. "I can tell you things. I can help with some problems such as illness and such. Perhaps make suggestions and give you ideas. How you use them, well, that will always be up to you. As you just said, they may cause problems. And then again, they may not. For what it's worth, I wouldn't get rid of me. But then again," I felt my face twitch in a quick uncontrollable grin that was three parts nerves and one part humor, "I'm biased."
2013She huffed a quick exhalation and said, "Really? Then in that regard perhaps we do share the same thoughts."
2014I think transient smiles flicked across a couple of visages, but she just leveled that feline stare at me. "For now, though, I think we're done with you. Constable!"
2015The guard opened the door and stood waiting.
2016"We'll be sending for you again," she told me. "Don't do anything... unpredictable. Now, please return him to holding. Make sure he's comfortable, but keep a watch on him. That will be all." 
2017
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2019https://pastebin.com/yJZa5RvP