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Fan Li turned half the swallows back into a crow and returned control of it to me, and we split the two remaining locations between us. But by the time we arrived, the soldiers and fairy warriors were already securing the premises, impounding the goods and taking the remaining contraband slaves into protective custody. We ended up simply observing, then returning the two effigies to my body in the end. With the situation not only at the warehouses but also in the surrounding neighborhoods under control, we had no role anymore.
It frustrated me.
I couldn’t identify exactly what was frustrating me, but I knew it was partly because I wasn’t in enough control. Too many things were happening at once. Not only was this situation in the capital happening right under my nose, but also the mission to recover Mother’s and Uncle Owen’s bodies was ongoing and my duchy’s troops were involved in combat on three fronts. I had forces involved in the campaign to control the Sabellian Pass, the offensive spanning the northern borders of Suldor and Lower Pendor and the push to roll up the remaining pockets of rebellion in East Pendor, Teriedor and the three border domains in the extreme East.
Technically, the campaigns themselves were Rod’s responsibility, but most of the troops fighting under him were my precious subjects, as their sovereign duchess. And it was my resources that fed, clothed and armed them in the field, regardless of who commanded them. Yet here I was, relaxing on a balcony in my castle, high above the fray.
Responsibility was nothing new for the old Tiana whose memories I inherited, nor was it new for me. Certainly, managing a fried chicken joint did not bear much resemblance to commanding a squad in combat, but we both had led teams with a goal and a purpose.
But in both situations, I had been part of the effort, and I have been part of it in every situation since. My own hands and my own skills have had a direct effect upon the issue.
Today, again, I jumped into the fray once more, seeking to put my powers to the best use. Frankly, I succeeded. I participated and made a difference. Which begged the question, what was I frustrated about?
– Maybe ’cause the troops settled half the fights you were buying before you could join in?
Sirth’s mental voice wasn’t sarcastic or derisive. She sounded sympathetic.
– ‘Course I sympathize, Princess! I been in your shoes, after all! If you got a decent crew, they’ll steal half your brawls from you, before you can join in! Be proud of ’em when they do, no matter how much you wanna bitch about it.
Being haunted by people older and wiser than you can be a bit like having a wise grandma giving advice all the time. It’s valuable as hell, but you sometimes don’t want to hear it.
– Who you callin’ a grandma?
– Some time ago, this one deduced that you were born some seventeen hundred of this world’s years ago, Captain. A half-thousand generations of descendants and half again more must be in your posterity by now.
I suppressed the temptation to add that her son’s wife had been pregnant when she passed, so she was technically a grandma even in life. I felt her hear the thought and seal her mental lips rather than retort.
Instead, she made a request.
– Hey, next time there’s a scrap, lemme see if I can use one o’ them effigy contraptions. I’m better suited to this world’s combat, I bet.
– If the need for an unreasonably violent woman presents itself, this one shall consider it.
– You wanna go?!!!
After breaking into out-loud laughter, I controlled myself as I remembered that I was ‘napping’ on the balcony.
“My Lady?” Mireia asked in confusion. She was still sitting across the table from me.
I opened my eyes and turned my head toward her with a smile. “Just thinking about something unimportant. The matters at the warehouses are wrapped up, so I’m just patrolling the sky again.”
“Patrolling? Warehouses?” she puzzled, and I remembered she had not been involved in any of it.
Shaking my head, I told her, “It’s also unimportant. I’m using magic to watch the skies while the fairies are busy helping with some unrest in the Lower Town. We have everything under control.”
Closing my eyes, I returned to where I started. Which meant, trying to sort out why I felt so useless.
– The manager of a fast-food restaurant doesn’t just sit back and watch the employees work, if he wants to run a successful business. He joins in as a member of the team. But he also doesn’t try to do everything himself. He ensures that everyone contributes at their level of ability.
For a moment, I had the weird feeling that my doppelgänger was speaking to me. But, unlike my other incarnations, Robert was a continuous existence with myself. I wasn’t even certain it was possible to summon him as a separate mind.
Then I realized it had been Fan Li again. Except, Fan Li had borrowed Robert’s memories to make her point.
– In order to avoid tiring Your Highness too much, this small one must go to sleep soon. It seemed best, for the sake of expediency, to show an example out of Your Highness’s own experiences. Your Highness was correct to consider Robert as one of your prior experiences, as it is far closer to your situation now.
I had to forcibly stop myself from making my retort out loud. But I stated it as a thought, anyway.
– How is running a fried chicken joint anything like my situation now?
– In that world, you were just another human being. Your labor was on par with your better employees. You had more experience and training than them, but any one of them could easily step into your shoes eventually. And there was no possibility that you could somehow keep the business open entirely by yourself. No matter how much better you could do everything, your employees remained vital. Here, in contrast, you have always been a supernatural creature bearing up your allies with your amazing strength, and often able to just take care of matters yourself. Their labor has been in no way on par with yours.
She didn’t have to say any more, because I already understood the rest. In this new role, as sovereign of a country somewhere between Texas and France in size, I had risen past the point where I could do everything myself. I was only one being. No matter how superior my capabilities as an individual actor, I couldn’t handle every issue that faced my duchy. I couldn’t even handle every issue happening here in my capital, no matter how great an effort I made. I was only the head of a team with a strength far greater than my own.
In other words, My experience as Robert was more relevant than my experience as Tiana.
“Your Highness,” came Falerè’s voice, breaking into my thoughts.
I opened my eyes again, then sat up and collected myself. The fairy captain was, at that moment, landing on the balcony. In the air above us, her squadron floated.
“Is everything settled now, Captain?” I wondered as she dismissed her beautiful wings.
“Matters are to the point that our assistance is no longer that useful. Your constabulary and your soldiers have things under control.”
“That’s good,” I replied, while keeping my lips from quirking. Falerè seemed much more comfortable with leaving matters to the mortals than I had been. Of course, that was probably a much more fairy-like stance than mine.
“If you have no objection, we shall resume command of the air now, Your Highness.”
“You have all worked hard, and one of you sustained an injury, Captain. I have no objection if you leave the air patrol to me for another hour or so, so you can take a rest.”
Falerè frowned. “Your Highness’s assistance is of course quite valuable, but we cannot impose upon it. We maintain a rotation between ourselves, to ensure sufficient rest, so we do not need to rely upon you.”
At that moment, I realized I was on the brink of trampling her pride. She had the job of guarding me, given by the Fairy King himself, and I was trying to push her aside.
I flashed a smile. “Of course, Captain.”
She grew a slightly puzzled look, then leaned closer. “Your Highness, if I may step closer. There’s a matter I perhaps should not speak out loud…”
I realized she wanted to get into whispering range. I smiled and told her, “You may speak freely. I fully trust both of these women.”
I saw Mireia’s eyebrows rise just slightly, but Genette showed no reaction at all.
Falerè nodded. “Very well. Your Highness, are you truly the same individual that assisted us at the warehouse?”
I blinked. “Your fairy sight should have been able to see it.”
Fairy sight can read mana signatures. Living blood, the portion of blood that becomes condensed blood once the physical part is discarded, is made up of mana and pneuma, and the mana in that blood acquires the signature of the blood magician who controls it. And, if her fairy sight was advanced enough to see a person’s aura, the pneuma in that blood acquires the signature of the magician’s aura.
Using either method, she should have been able to see that it was me.
“I did, but… something is different about how you’re speaking now.”
Fan Li had done her best to imitate me when speaking to Falerè, as well as to the half-fairy she cured. Perhaps she hadn’t quite got it right.
I shrugged. “It’s hard to act like a princess in the middle of a fight, Captain. I am the only blood magician operating here in Narses that I know of, and I can assure you that it was me, operating those effigies.”
Falerè nodded again, although she still looked a bit uncertain. “I understand. Anyhow, you may trust that we shall guard your sky well, Your Highness. Please recall your reconnaissance spell and leave the job to us.”
“Of course, Captain. As soon as you’re out there, I shall do so.”
She gave me a Roman-style chest-pounding salute, then took off and rejoined her subordinates as I sipped my tea and watched. Once they were at altitude, I sighed and raised my free hand above my head, palm up. The two remaining crows on patrol dissolved and flashed across the sky, returning to me as barely visible streaks that disappeared into my palm.
For a moment I considered keeping Sirth’s spirits out there.
– Aye, no. You shouldn’t. It’s her honor to serve you, Princess. Don’t trod on it.
“Please let me warm that up, My Lady,” Genette said, waiting at my shoulder with the teapot. I set my cup back on the saucer and watched her pour. Meanwhile, I sent my alter egos to sleep and relaxed my vessel back to the minimum size at which Immortal Mother wanted me to keep it.
“Will you have lunch soon, My Lady?” Genette wondered as she returned the teapot to the caddy. “It is close to noon.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea, Genette, but I would like to invite His Royal Highness to join us. Please find out when he can be available and schedule it to suit him, would you?”
“Certainly, My Lady.”
Genette departed, and a second maid appeared at the door in order to fill in for her. At first blush, it might seem that it would make more sense for Genette to send the back-up maid, but my lady’s maid needed to make this inquiry herself, in accordance with etiquette. Rod outranks me, so only she or my butler would suffice as a substitute for a written invitation.
Mireia wondered, “You said ‘join us’, so …”
“Of course, you’re included,” I told her.
