“Inaris, I think we’re about to arrive. That’s the city beneath us,” Yarani said. Her words were a little undermined by how she kept drawing circles on my shoulder with her finger.

I groaned. “Already? I kind of don’t want to get up now.”

Yarani finally stopped and smirked at me. “Maybe you could explain to your Mother that you’d rather stay with me?”

I finally levered myself upright and shook my head. “At least we’ll get a proper bedroom next time.”

As I started getting dressed, I looked around the cabin. It was pretty big considering the size of the airship, but still just an airship cabin. The bed was just barely big enough for two people, and it felt a bit claustrophobic. Not that I would say that out loud, since I knew it was a petty complaint.

“Well, I’m glad we seem to have worked out whatever it was,” Yarani said as she stood up as well.

I paused for a moment to appreciate the view and shrugged. “Yeah. Sorry if I’ve been neglecting you.”

In truth, I had been avoiding her for the last few days, since we came back from the coast. I knew that was silly. It didn’t matter if I might, possibly, have feelings for someone else. This wasn’t even that kind of relationship, and expectations were different anyway. Yarani probably didn’t expect to stay my only lover, and it’s not like I wanted to commit. I shook my head. Yeah, I was being stupid, but that’s emotions for you. I’m glad we spent time together now, even if it was on the airship.

The sensation of the floor falling away beneath me brought me from my thoughts. We were descending. I quickly checked my clothing and combed my hair, before I opened the hatch and stepped out, Yarani behind me. The guards waiting outside the next corridor were the picture of professionalism. Not sure if I’ll ever get used to that.

Tenira and Lei joined us in the main hold, deep in conversation about some topic. Since I hadn’t heard the beginning, I couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like they were discussing the merits of different ways to store electrical energy. Nerds, I’m surrounded by nerds … not that I am any better.

We didn’t have to wait long for the lurch of touching down, and then the hatch opened. I stepped outside, taking a moment to scan the area. We were once again on a roof of the palace, though a different one this time. Did they rotate through or something? That might make sense for security reasons. This one was a bit sloped, the surface uneven, but we could handle it. I stepped outside, looking around. A few people waited for us, most of them guards, two people I recognized as Kariva’s subordinates, and of course Mother.

Cloth rustled behind me as people sank to their knees. I only gave her a bow, since this wasn’t really a formal event.

“Rise, everyone,” Mother said stepped forward to greet me. “Guards, please report for debriefing. You as well,” she said looking to Lei, Tenira and Yarani.

They glanced at me, and I smiled at them, trying to convey that we would see each other later. They walked off, along with the agents and some of the guards.

“Aston,” Mother said, stopping my guard captain in his tracks. She frowned at us. “Inaris, why is your guard linked to a spirit? And Rijoko’s closest attendant, at that?”

I sighed. “That’s what I was implying in my letter. They didn’t want me to give too many details.”

Qi swirled around Aston, until the wispy form of Mior emerged from him, as if stepping out of Aston’s aura. The spirit smiled at Mother. ‘Empress Acura, it’s nice to meet you again. This is something Inaris and I worked out. And Aston, of course. He agreed to this.’

Aston ducked his head, obviously uncomfortable with the conversation, but didn’t contradict us. After a moment, he spoke. “This one apologizes if he overstepped, Your Majesty. I am simply trying to do my best to protect my lady. Honored spirit Mior has been nothing but courteous, and I believe they share my goal.”

Mother rolled her eyes. “Alright. I suppose there’s little I can do about spirits’ affairs involving Inaris. But please give us a moment.”

Mior’s form dissipated again, and Aston bowed before following the others. I couldn’t help but relax a little at Mother’s reaction. I hadn’t anticipated much trouble, but it seemed that she didn’t really mind at all. Maybe she’d even expected something like this, or just appreciated that Rijoko seemed to want me protected? I certainly wouldn’t complain.

“Let’s walk, Inaris,” Mother said.

I nodded and followed her as she turned and crossed the roof. We emerged into the corridors inside one of the palace’s towers, but she kept walking without saying anything for now. I studied her a bit more closely, and was surprised to realize that she didn’t look as impeccable as usual. Her expression was set with small lines, and there were a few other subtle signs of stress. I couldn’t help but feel a bit unnerved. Was something going on, or just the stress of normal politics? Well, with things heating up between us and the Zarian Dominion, and all the changes we were undertaking, there was certainly enough to keep her busy.

“Tell me what happened, please,” she finally said. “In detail.”

I nodded and gathered my thoughts for a moment before I started to recount what happened. I tried to keep it concise and to the point, but I didn’t leave out anything I judged as important. There would be no point in it. I gave a little more detail on what we’d seen in Inera’s castle, and what happened with Mior. Mother started frowning from the point I mentioned the spirits kidnapping Al, though she didn’t react otherwise. The frown stayed on her face until I finished, but at the end, she merely looked thoughtful.

I glanced around. We were still walking through the palace, at a leisurely pace, but I could feel qi around us, probably shielding our conversation. Even the guards following us were left out.

“Can you show me that storage device?” Mother asked.

I took out the crystal and handed it to her, watching as she poked at it. Then she shook her head and made it vanish into a pocket of her robe. I didn’t think she’d get much more from it, the qi matrix was pretty degraded, but it was probably worth it to try.

“Do you want more bodyguards? We also have a few agents trained to deal with spirits.”

I considered for a moment before I shook my head. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary. With Mior around, they won’t try something like this again. But they might try to strike at other people they consider vulnerable.” I paused as something occurred to me. “Where’s Xiaodan, actually? I thought she’d be waiting to meet us. Is she having a breakthrough?”

Mother smiled wryly. “I believe she’s pouting. She should get over it soon enough.”

I chuckled. I wouldn’t bet against her coming to find me later this evening, trying to drag me off for playing somewhere.

Mother turned a corner, and I finally realized where we were going. The royal crafting workshops. I hadn’t been here often, since my team had their own facilities. Mother opened the door to one of them and swept inside. It was a rather large space, with a dozen workbenches and cleared areas, as well as connections to other parts of the structure.

I paused at one of the tables. “You have a radio here?”

Mother nodded. “They’re trying to optimize it. We’re already producing them in larger quantities and shipping them to other locations.” She flipped out its antenna and turned the dial, but we only got static crackling.

“That sounds like it shouldn’t be much longer until they’re adopted widely,” I said, grinning. “That would be huge.”

Not just for propaganda purposes, although I had no illusions that it wasn’t going to be used that way. But this would carry information to many people, easily accessible and without needing to dip into their qi reserves. News, entertainment, perhaps even learning.

“There are still a few challenges before we’re at that point,” Mother pointed out. “Those people actually have to get radio receivers.”

“Maybe we should get some crystal radios, those don’t need a power source if I remember correctly,” I said, turning around to focus on her. “We might even be able to get them mass-produced. That would help our plans there along, too.”

“There’s still the issue of convincing people to buy them. They don’t even use qi, will probably be expensive at first, and people might not see the need.”

I had an idea and couldn’t help but grin. “There’s an easy solution to that. You just need some specialized night programs.”

Mother raised an eyebrow. “You don’t mean …?”

“Hey, sex sells. There’s always a demand for things like that. Especially if it’s something new and unprecedented. People will line up to buy a radio.”

Mother groaned. “I can’t refute your arguments, but the conservatives will be screaming bloody murder at me.”

I stepped away from the table, shrugging. “So just have private companies do it. Maybe set up licenses or something, or just plan out how to distribute frequencies and timeslots.”

Mother sighed and turned away. “Well, I was actually going here for another small thing. Let me show you.”

Curiously, I followed her to the back of the room, where she took a box from a shelf and laid it on a nearby empty table. She took aside the cloth covering it to reveal a dark wooden box with some inlays in a lighter metal.

“Since you lost your spear, I thought this would make for a nice reward,” Mother said. She raised the lid and took out a gleaming dark weapon.

I stepped forward, taking in every detail. It was a pretty long spear. The head was black, made from metal going by the texture, and shaped so there were hooks on the bottom side. The shaft was mostly crafted from a silver-gray material, but there were black veins tracing through it, and tiny black runes engraved all along the shaft. It practically hummed in my qi senses. Carefully, I lifted it out. The spear was heavy, perhaps too heavy to be used by a normal human, but light enough for my enhanced strength.

“The head is from a special steel alloy with qi infused regularly, smelted in one of the Earth Continent’s volcanoes,” Mother commented. “The shaft is mostly crafted from sea dragon bone, with some inlays of obsidian from volcanoes in the highest mountain range of the Fire Continent. The spear was assembled and inscribed in a place soaked with spiritual qi, in the wilderness of the Earth continent.” She smiled wryly. “The whole thing is probably expensive enough to buy a noble estate in most parts of the Empire. So be careful.”

I gave it a few twirls, trying out how it felt in my hands. My previous spear had also been a reward from Mother, according to Aston, something I picked out after reaching the middle of the third stage. But I could tell this was a league above that.

I rested the butt on the ground and turned to Mother, smiling broadly. “Thank you.”

She nodded. “It’s a weapon fine enough that most like it are given a name.”

I cleared my throat. “I’m not good at naming things.” I looked back at the spear. It looked badass. “Now I want to call it something stupid like ‘Eviscerator’. Or maybe ‘Caliburn’, even if it’s a spear.” I shrugged and turned to Mother. “Why are you giving me this?”

She shrugged. “Because I trust you. To handle it, and yourself, well. I want you to be able to defend yourself, and it works out.”

I nodded and looked back at the weapon, chewing on my lip. “Then I think I’ll call it ‘Fides’. Maybe ‘Fides Imperatricis’.” I frowned thoughtfully. “It’s a little pretentious, but a weapon like that deserves a pretentious name.”

Mother nodded and tidied up the box, while I put the newly-christened Fides into my storage ring. I’d need to familiarize myself with it on the training ground. She probably didn’t speak Latin, since she didn’t react to the gesture. That’s just as well. She might think I’d put everything behind me. I straightened up. I think the name is appropriate, in more than one sense, now and in the future. A good reminder for me.

“There is something else we should talk about, but it can wait until tomorrow,” Mother said. “Come to the meeting at noon, and we’ll go over some other stuff. For now, though, I’d like to see just how vulnerable your mind is.”

I blinked in surprise. “Okay?”

“Come on. It’s about time you get some training, anyway.” Mother took my arm, and I closed my eyes against a sudden bout of nausea as my surroundings unraveled.

When I opened them again, we stood in darkness, in what looked like a back corner of the palace’s gardens. A few trees’ limbs were reaching at me like they wanted to grab and keep me. But I couldn’t spare much attention to my surroundings, because my mind was under attack.

Mother’s telepathic offensive felt different than the Pioneer’s, but still more than enough of a challenge. I’d connected to her consciousness before, talking telepathically, but now it was much sharper. Her mind felt like a blade forcing its way through my mental defenses. I closed my eyes and focused on trying to stop it. My body shivered as I failed. I tried to slow her, throwing new mental walls at her, trying to focus on unrelated things and drown her in nonsense.

When she still advanced steadily, and I felt my mental defenses buckling, I tried the same tactic I had against the Pioneer, rushing forward in a mental attack of my own. But I ran into a wall, cold hard thoughts that sent my mental grasp crashing to a halt.

‘You’re sloppy,’ Mother said, her words driving into my head like drills. ‘Is that all?’

I grit my teeth, shoving a surge of frustration out to reinforce my defenses, while I focused on my visualization. I created a labyrinth in my mind, constructed of winding, interwoven thoughts about nothing in particular, trying to slow and redirect her advance. It actually showed some results. I felt Mother’s mind gliding against the illusionary walls, pushing against the whole construct.

Then she suddenly rushed forward, crashing through my defenses, sending a stabbing pain into my head that scrambled my thoughts for a moment. I could feel Mother in the layers of my mind, like a heavy, glittering presence. My connection to Rijoko intensified just a bit, a trickle of qi stirring, before it subsided and lay dormant again. At least Mother didn’t search through my mind, but withdrew quickly.

‘Your defense is a mess,’ she said. ‘You clearly retain some of your prior training, but without much coherence or guidance. You have a strong will and determination, which is good to see, but you’re hampering yourself.’

I blinked as her mind withdrew from mine, and I felt a tremble going through the environment. When I opened my eyes again, we were on the rooftop terrace above her rooms, where we’d spoken several times. I wasn’t sure if she’d moved us here or if the previous scene had been an illusion. That, more than her words, sent a shiver down my spine.

“Okay,” I said, swallowing my pride with the ease of practice. “What do we do about it?”

“I’ll leave most of your training to Mior. However, there’s no reason why I can’t give you some pointers to start.”

I nodded, watching her attentively.

Mother clasped her hands and straightened up, taking on a lecturer pose. “The most important thing for now is consistency. You need an overarching strategy. Like with many things, practice will make it easier to work on that while paying attention to your surroundings, trying to get tells from your opponent, and preparing your own attacks.”

That sounds like I’m going to get my mind pummeled a lot. I suppressed a grimace and kept listening.

“A strong visualization is key,” she continued. “To be fair, it is neither necessary nor sufficient. You could do without it, and a strong visualization without other things will not help you much. For beginners, it is often recommended to keep to something strongly associated with defense, which will resonate with your intent to keep intruders out. For example, a wall, or your labyrinth, or a fortification line with bunkers for that matter. Another important principle is being able to split your efforts and intent while not wavering on any one part of the defense …”

She lectured me for another ten minutes, before she tested my mind again. I thought that this time, I was doing a slightly better job. At least, it took a few seconds longer before she was in. The headache starting to build didn’t let me feel much joy in that, and I sighed and forced myself to pay attention as she started critiquing my efforts. This felt like it would be an exhausting lesson.

Tejoka

Fyi, 'fides imperatricis' could be translated as 'Trust of the Empress'. (Among other things. You could also interpret it to mean that 'an empress' faith' is paced in a strong weapon, for example.)