“Ah. Right.” Lafier’s expression turned uncomfortable, embarrassed. “Forgive me my foolish question.”
“It’s all right. I myself forgot all about it while we were on Clasbule.”
“We were fairly occupied.”
“To say the least. You know, sometimes you really put things super mildly,” said Jinto, in admiration.
The lights of the capital approached, closer and closer, and the nearest structure came into focus. A set of spheres were stacked together, and they made a giant tube wriggle like a tentacle. It lent the appearance of a strange life form that had reached an evolutionary dead end.
“It’s the Locrh Baiturr (Baitur Warship Construction Site). The patrol ship Goslauth was born there,” said Lafier.
“Interesting.”
“See that?” Lafier pointed at the spheroid beyond the site. “That’s a sodmronh (baby nursery). There are a few of them around Homespace. Inside, it’s near weightless due to microgravity, the lining is soft, and foam stars are floating in the air. A while after birth, babies are given circlets and dropped there. That’s how they learn the law of action and reaction, and how to use their circlets. If an Abh doesn’t experience this during the developmental period, their brain’s rilbidoc navigational area will never form...”
As Jinto nodded and interjected to indicate to Lafier that he was listening as she began to describe the sites to see in the capital , he inwardly wondered whether she felt any sorrow over their imminent parting, and if she would express reluctance to leave him.
When they arrived at the imperial palace , chamberlains who were stern of feature pulled Jinto away from her. Due to his experience in the Febdash Barony , he grew apprehensive, but his fears proved groundless. He was led to a grand and extensive lavatory , in whose warming waters he stretched out. After a thorough cleanse, he exited the lavatory to find a change of clothes already prepared for him.
Just as the army medic had predicted, his shoulder had completely healed. The hole had closed up with new skin, and the bones were devoid of pain.
He donned a jumpsuit with the hems of its sleeves at the shoulders, as well as a long robe , as usual. A circlet identical to the one that had been stolen from him at the barony and a compuwatch to replace the one he’d borrowed from Seelnay also lay for the taking. After putting on the full attire of an Abh noble , Jinto gave the sign just as he’d been instructed.
“Please come with me,” said a chamberlain who’d arrived at his summons, standing at attention to guide his way.
A movable podium awaited him in the hallway. “You may get on.”
“Okay.” Jinto stepped up onto it, and the chamberlain got on after him to input orders into its console . “Uhh, where are we going?” asked Jinto timidly as the podium took off.
“To the waiting room of the audience chamber .”
“The audience chamber !? But I thought it’s only used for important events...”
“That is correct.”
“So, uhh, what’s on today?”
The chamberlain looked back, dark blue eyebrows raised. “Are you honestly unaware?”
“Know what, forget I said anything.” He was happy so long as his astuteness level was deemed higher than a cyanobacterium’s.
“Quit your fidgeting, Jinto,” Lafier frowned. She’d arrived at the waiting room before him, and was sipping out of a glass.
“Sometimes you demand stuff that’s easier said than done,” said Jinto, whose nerves were not so readily dispelled. “I’ve got no idea what the proper protocol is. Are there, like, special manners to this, or...?”
“It’s not such a big deal. Just be at your most polite, as common sense dictates.”
“C’mon, I can’t have you forgetting that I’m not exactly an expert on Abh ‘common sense.’”
“Then do as I do. We shall walk up to the throne , make a deep bow, and wait until we’re greeted. It could hardly be simpler.”
“Does sound pretty simple,” Jinto admitted.
“Because it is.”
A chamberlain entered the room. “Thank you for waiting, Fïac , Lonh . All preparations have been made.”
“Yes.” Jinto made to walk over to the chamberlain.
“Not there. Over here.” Lafier pointed to the giant doors.
“Look at me, messing up before it’s even begun,” Jinto muttered.
“Walk alongside me, and match my pace.”
“Ah, right. Got it.”
“You ought to hold your head up high. You’re a hero, after all.”
“Well that’s the first I’ve heard of that.”
“You’re such an idiot .”
The big doors opened. The soft light of morning bathed the audience chamber . Basking directly in the rays of Abliar, it played across the room resplendent. A number of beams spanned the ceiling, but without a roof to support. Instead one could view the bright blue sky — for a chnobézsiac (scattering surface) splayed above them. From the beams hung crest banners , the flags of the grandees that made up the Empire . Jinto noticed the brand-new crest banner of the Countdom of Hyde all the way in front.
Rows of Sach Idarr (NCC Guards of Honor), one to the left and one to the right, were standing straight with a dignified air. They trod across the black marble floor, approaching the throne as they did so.
Sach Arobhotr (Army Music NCCs) played the Rüé-Oll (Imperial Anthem). The lyrics of the anthem weren’t being sung, but Jinto knew them. They heralded eternal prosperity for the Empire , and expressed its determination to live to be at the bedside of a dying cosmos. In its arrogance and temerity, it was a very Abh anthem indeed.
Since Jinto hated the idea of bungling this like he had when he first met Lafier, he’d tried his best while still in the communications ship to memorize the faces of the distinguished people he might encounter. Thanks to those efforts, he could distinguish the faces of the three people standing before them.
The one who stood up from the Jade Throne (its back to the crest banners of the eight royal families , which surrounded the still-larger imperial flag ), was of course none other than Her Majesty the Empress Lamagh. The man with blue-grey hair, standing on the right and a step below the throne , was Lafier’s father, Larth Crybr Fïac Debeutr (His Higness Debeusec , King of Crybh). Below him smiled a handsome indigo-haired boy. He could only be Lafier’s younger brother, Bœrh Üemdaiser Fïac Duhir (His Highness Duhir, Viscount of Üemdaise).
Jinto felt disoriented. Though they were the Empress and the King of Crybh , he couldn’t see them as anything but Lafier’s siblings, so young they looked. At the same time, his brain categorized the Crybh King as being older than the Empress. On an intellectual level, he understood the Abh didn’t physically age past a certain point, but seeing it in person threw him for a loop. How did the Abh themselves deal with this headache?
Lafier knelt upon the white carpet below the tiers leading to the throne . Jinto hastened to follow her example.
“Stand, Ïarlucec Dreur ,” intoned a nearby voice.
When he looked up in surprise, he found Lamagh had descended from the throne to stand right in front of him. “On your feet,” she prompted.
“Yes.” Jinto got back up.
“You will accept the thanks of the Abliars, Ïarlucec . This girl,” she said, pointing to Lafier, “is nobody quite yet, but she holds much potential. And you are the one who safeguarded that potential, and brought it home safely. If it hadn’t been for you, we would have never gotten another chance to see this hatchling alive.”
Jinto turned red. “But I... I didn’t do anything. I was the one who got rescued, time after time...”
“Not so, Ïarlucec ,” said Lamagh, taking his hand. “Seeing as you may very well not have realized it, We do not think you are deliberately lying. Yet had you not rightfully told her to retreat when you did, she would have pressed on without ever ceasing, and fallen as a result. Though it may be in the nature of this clan of ours to misread when to withdraw, that disposition is particularly pronounced in this young one. Furthermore, you are an Abh that knows the ways of terrestrial worlds . Without that special and rare quality, it’s not clear what fate she would have met.”
She stared back at him at close quarters, her comely countenance so like Lafier’s, her red-brown eyes radiating gratitude. While the Empress ’s hands felt pleasantly cool, there was also, somehow, a warmth to them. Jinto was disconcerted, abashed.