On-Grid
The Wardian
Bentamin carried a glass of wine with him into the windowed alcove that, like Aunt Asta’s, one floor up, looked out over the city, and the street below.
The Wardian was tall, the apartments situated in the upper floors, so that the view swept over lesser structures, all the way out to the horizon line, where the ambient broke against the edge of the Grid in a constant chromatic barrage.
Beautiful, violent, and ever-changing. The ambient, that had divided them into Us and Other, as surely as the old world had done.
Bentamin sighed, and sipped his wine.
It came to him—had come to him during the meeting of the Claims Court, even as seelyFaire had accused him of persecuting the kezlBlythe—that he was no longer fit to be the Warden of Civilization.
He examined the thought as he might examine any piece of evidence—coldly, and with more attention to fact than feeling. The untamed ambient continued to storm the Grid’s edge, but Bentamin’s Sight was turned inward.
Finally, he stirred, lifted the glass and drank his wine off in one quick gulp.
seelyFaire was correct, coming and going. He was partisan. It was his duty as Warden to guard Civilization against such errors as the kezlBlythe represented. Worse, he shared with his mother the belief that the Haosa and the Civilized were one people divided by—a method. Both Civilized and Haosa used the ambient. What difference if the Civilized built tools, while the Haosa did not need them?
His mother had not hoped to see a Haosa sitting on the Council in her lifetime, but she had thought that Bentamin would see it. He had shared that optimistic goal, especially after Durella vinsEbin had clawed her way onto the Council and blocked every effort to restore the patronage system, gathering such allies as krogerSlyte, targElmina, and the late montilSin to her side.
And perhaps the Haosa might have seen a councilor installed. He had been hoping to persuade Tekelia to sue for an advisory seat, as the Speaker of the Haosa government. Such as it was.
Though the patronage wars were alive with seelyFaire and tryaBent, still Bentamin thought he might have managed to see a Haosa seated, if not voting, on the Council. krogerSlyte had been receptive, and ivenAlyatta. One didn’t quite know what to make of azieEm, but she had not outright rejected the idea. Though recently seated, Majel ziaGorn showed signs of being an ally worth having—
Then the Reavers arrived.
Civilization credited the Haosa with having vanquished the Reavers, the existence of Shan yos’Galan having not yet come to Colemeno’s attention. It should have been the perfect time to see a fully-invested Haosa councilor seated.
But the demise of the Reavers, while largely acknowledged to be a satisfactory outcome, had the unfortunate effect of reminding Civilization that the Haosa were—
Dangerous.
Even ivenAlyatta, the most liberal among the seated councilors, had suggested that it might be wise to “wait a bit.”
And, now that seelyFaire had cast out the idea that the Warden of Civilization was partisan—the wait became longer still.
No, he corrected himself. The wait became interminable.
seelyFaire had done damage—real damage, and he had no doubt she had intended to do so.
He was no longer an asset, to the Council or to Civilization, which he was sworn to protect.
He was a liability.
And he was not only a liability to goals long held dear. He was a liability to Aunt Asta.
The more liberal councilors might, indeed, allow the Oracle to retire. But not even the most liberal would allow her to leave the protection of the Wardian. She was not safe for the Civilization she had worked to protect for so many years. He thought he might have been able, before, to argue that she be allowed to go to the Haosa, though it would have been tricky. The Oracle had Seen secrets, after all, and it could not be supposed that she had forgotten them.
Bentamin sighed. In two days, Asta was to go to the Council for her reprimand. She would, he thought, do herself no good by speaking her mind, as she doubtless would do. gorminAstir was tolerant, especially of those who had done duty unstintingly, but her patience had a limit.
No, Bentamin thought, it would be best for Aunt Asta if she did not meet with the Council.
He could, at least, arrange that.