The bat hums quietly as she walks amongst the shattered stone of the Old City, a hand trailing along a vine-wreathed tomb, her wings held out behind her in angelic arcs that echo statuary set atop monoliths as sentinels of the dead. But there is life, in the flow of hair as it is caught by the wind, in bright brown eyes, in her determined countenance. And despite where she is, a faint smile is traced along her muzzle. "I'm a little airship… " she sings to herself, a lyric that repeats with enough frequency that the end of her journey just may take her to the Asylum.

A shadow crosses Brishen's path, distorted from the low angle of the evening sun. A moment later it returns, and grows smaller and more defined as a winged figure glides in with the sun behind it.

Below, the discordant little song continues as the bat turns slightly, squinting as she looks up at the winged figure shadowed by the setting sun. She smiles.

Envoy lands a few paces away, and smiles back. "Hello, Ambassador Kara. Nice evening for a stroll?"

Brishen stretches; a long, lazy, comfortable stretch, then shrugs and furls her wings. "After a fashion." She smiles again. "I've been reading some of the inscriptions on the stones – Those I can understand, anyway."

The Aeolun blinks, "Really? What did you find out? I've a bit of information for you myself."

Brishen turns to regard a weathered obelisk. "Well, I've found out that I can't read most of what's written on the stones here. What have you found out?"

Envoy can't help but giggle at the admission, but quickly becomes 'serious' again. "Well, remember that visitor you told me about, the one that wore a mask?"

Brishen starts humming again, then stops. "I remember her."

"I met her the other night," Envoy says. "In the Cemetary. She made lots of threatening boasts, and let a few other things slip about herself. For all that she claims the Cemetary as her kingdom, she's not especially aware of what goes on in it. She didn't see me, and she was afraid of being spotted by your patrolman."

Grinning again, Envoy adds, "She also tripped over a bit of masonry in her haste to avoid being seen by your guard."

Brishen crosses her arms. "Well, it certainly doesn't seem like she's a very good monster. What did she tell you about herself?"

Envoy says, "Not much really. Her name is Amaranth, and she claims to be very powerful. She admitted that she needs the blood of the living to sustain her power, which fits in with what I've seen of making spirits corporeal. I also imagine she must be vulnerable in such a corporeal state, otherwise she wouldn't have run. If she were less physical, she could have just flown away or dematerialized or something. She promised that everyone in the embassy was doomed too."

"I don't think she's able to get the blood she needs on her own, but she probably knows the magic required to keep herself around," Envoy says. "I only saw some harmless loonies in the Cemetary that night, but she may have some sort of living servants."

Brishen grins a cheery grin. "The blood of the living? Well, then I suppose she has the seemings of a suitable monster after all. I wouldn't want to think that I was overreacting or something." She tilts her head slightly. "What sort of harmless loonies?"

Envoy shrugs, "A Skreek from the Asylum, a Vampire Eeee that's trying to take over the world, and myself of course. If she does have followers and has to perform rituals and stuff in the Cemetary, I could see why she'd see the Embassy as a threat."

Brishen blinks. "Oh, I think I've met the vampire bat already. I've thwarted his plans to take over the world."

Envoy says, "He seems more determined to humiliate Fenter though, as if that were even possible."

Brishen giggles quietly, then cants her wings to the side, slightly as she sits down on a tombstone from which the inscription was worn away by sun and rain a long time ago. "I don't know if that is. He seems shameless."

Envoy sits down nearby as well. "It's taken me awhile to learn about shame. Do you think this Amaranth is still a threat worth investigating further? There might be something about her in a history text."

Brishen ohs, "I imagine she's something I'll need to keep in mind. I really don't like the idea of a ghost wandering around my figurative backyard, draining the blood out of innocent passers-by. I like even less the idea that she has minions."

Envoy hmms, and says, "There is one other thing about spirits; with the proper rituals they can possess a living person. I've seen this done with both voluntary and involuntary possessions."

Brishen tilts her head, regarding the exile with some skepticism. "Here, or somewhere else?"

"Both," Envoy answers, but her eyes look away when she does. "The one where I actually saw the ritual, and the host was voluntary, was down in the Nagai Empire. The other right here on Rephidim."

Envoy says, "It may be species specific though. Or maybe just easier for the spirit to inhabit someone from their own species."

Brishen pulls her legs up, sitting crosslegged. She looks at Envoy for a while before she asks, "Hm. Who was possessed, here? I'm curious about the circumstances. I may have to keep them in mind."

The Exile frowns slightly. "I really can't tell you. There is a lot of… unresolved emotions I have tied in with it, and I can't separate the event from those yet. I don't know how to make them go away."

Brishen leans back a bit, casting an absent glance up at the sky. "I can understand that. I've certainly done a lot of things lately that I wish I hadn't. I'll probably wish I hadn't for the rest of my life, especially since everyone seems determined to remind me."

Envoy blinks and looks back at the young bat. "Being a courier? Do people try to use your past to … hurt you?"

Brishen lowers her chin a little. "I liked being a courier. I wish more than anything that I could have been somewhere else than on the docks the day I left, but you can't go back and change things once you've done them." She stretches her wings out a little. She glances towards where the Embassy would be, were it not distant and obscured by rows of tombs. "I was thinking of more recent mistakes."

Envoy hmphs. "You didn't choose to live like an Ambassador has to, probably. Otherwise you wouldn't have made the mistakes, or else wouldn't really have cared about them."

Turning to fully face Brishen, Envoy asks, "Mind if I ask you a strange question?"

Brishen closes her eyes, then sighs quietly. "I guess you're right." Then, one eye opens to regard the Aeolun. "And what would that question be?"

"If you had the choice, would you choose to lead a messy life, mired in personal interactions and relationships, with all of the ups and downs and ability to really be hurt, or would you choose one where you stood apart from everyone else, didn't have to trust anyone or care about any consequences," Envoy asks, "where the only thing that mattered was what you wanted?"

Brishen closes her eyes, tightly. "Envoy, Reico is missing. I sent him with a message, home, and he never came back." She shudders faintly. "If he – he's – " The young ambassador is very quiet for a while, then takes a deep breath. "I love him. I wish I could have told him that before he was gone."

Quietly, Envoy asks, "Do your enemies know about your attachment? I know that they can use such things against you. It's why most of the people in power make the second choice."

Brishen nods slowly. "They probably do. I never tried to hide it."

Envoy fidgets a bit. "They used my friendship with Vielanika to force me to do things. All I can say is that … that if you don't learn how to forgive yourself, and deal with the pain, then you'll be pushed into the second path just to survive. I'm facing that choice now, and you probably are right now as well."

Brishen shakes her head. "I don't think I can forgive myself. Not yet. But I won't let them force me onto that path." She opens her eyes and even in the dim light cast from the tombs, the dark trails of tears are visible. "I spoke with the Captain-Astromancer today. I'd hoped that he'd believe the speech he made, during the Coronation. I doubt he does."

"About justice?" Envoy asks.

Brishen shakes her head. "All they want is money for land they never cared about, for land they ignored until I made the mistake of clearing it. And since Babel has little gold to spare, they're taking the servants from the Embassy. Three days."

Envoy purses her lips, and asks, "How many servants do you need?"

Brishen bites her lower lip. "It's not that. It's not replacing them."

The alien just sits quietly, not pressing.

Brishen holds her hands close to her lap, but the sign is clear if painfully slow. "You were in the City. You should know."

Envoy thinks on this. It could be several things, actually. She signs the most obvious one first, "They aren't doing anything to change the status of Savanites in Rephidim, even though the knowledge is out there now." And apparently it wasn't so dangerous a knowledge as they thought. No riots, no chaos.

Brishen furrows her brow slightly as she watches the Aeolun's hands, then wrinkles her muzzle a little. "Slow down. I'm not good at this yet." She thinks for a moment, then continues. "I – I don't trust the Temple. And I'm worried about what will happen to the slaves they take from here."

Envoy blinks. "The Captain Astromancer's assistant is a member of the Savanite Royal Family. I doubt he would knowingly let anything happen to the servants. But if you fear for them anyway, it would probably be best to get them off of Rephidim and back to the Savan before the three days are up."

Brishen blinks a few times, staring at the Aeolun, then at her hands, then back at the Aeolun's face again. "She's what?"

Envoy grins, "As a diplomat, you need to learn how to memorize faces. The red-maned Savanite was in the line of Princesses at Third-Vision's coronation."

Brishen continues, quickly and with more than a few mistakes that she has to go back and correct. "I saw her at the Astromancer's Coronation. I imagine you saw her there as well, since you were watching the Astromancer until people fell on you."

After a moment, Envoy continues, "There is another lesson there, too. I helped to make the City of Hands habitable again, and even acted to keep Third-Vision's mother alive until she could be brought to the City. But because I supported a different princess, I was snubbed in the invitations. I heard that you were largely responsible for ending the Babelite war, and here you've been put out of the way where you can't cause any trouble. Third Vision gained recognition as a genuine power when her forces aided Rephidim against the Plague Bringers, but now she is probably realizing that she has no real influence beyond her realm. Even the Astromancer, despite or because of his grand ideals, will end up having less power than he thought."

Envoy signs, "Aside from the Princess, I didn't see any Savanite Ambassadors attending the Astromancer's coronation."

Brishen blinks a few times. "Slow down – slow. You're using – I." "Oh, wires."

Envoy switches to her low-pitched version of Eeee, "We could talk like this, instead."

Brishen holds her head in her hands for a moment, as locks of curly hair tumble down around her face. She responds in Eeee, though her accent is twined throughout with the sound of Babel. "No, no. Just give me a moment."

Brishen sticks the tip of her tongue out as she signs, "This is all a mess. Everyone is linked to everyone else in ways that keep surprising me. And I don't have time to – to know where I am in all of this." She looks up at the Aeolun. "Where I couldn't cause any trouble?" She starts laughing, a sound like bells against the tombstones.

Envoy grins and nods, signing, "No trouble for the people in power back home, who don't like popular figures showing up to challenge them."

Pausing for a few moments, Envoy continues, "If you can arrange for the transportation to the Savan, I might be able to sneak the servants out of the Embassy and hide them until they can leave."

Brishen looks at her hands, grinning. Then she stops grinning, and looks at the Aeolun. "You can do that? Where?"

Shaking her head, Envoy signs, "I can't tell you, and you can't know about any of it anyway. One of my mothers called this 'Plausible Deniability', and it is very important for politicians to have."

"She had served as both Heart and Hand to powerful queens," the exile signs, "so I trust her advice on such matters."

Brishen brushes a lock of hair from her eyes. "You never stop surprising me." She takes a deep breath, then rubs at her eyes. "Why are you offering to help me?"

Envoy smiles, "Because I aspire to be the sort of person you were when we first met. I would not like to see that person destroyed by circumstances not of her own making."

"I've been a victim of circumstance, too," Envoy signs, "and this is a way to fight back. I don't want to be a victim anymore."

Brishen's lower lip trembles. It is good, perhaps, that she is speaking with her hands. "Thank you."

There's a certain glow in Envoy's eyes now. It's not often anybody thanks her. "Would you like to hear some crazy alien wisdom that might help you deal with your new peers?"

Brishen smiles weakly as her hands begin to shake. "Wires. Envoy, everything is a mess. And it's going to get a lot worse." She closes her hands into fists and shakes her head, then continues in sign, "I could use whatever wisdom I can get."

Envoy thinks for a moment, calling up various lectures and memory downloads. "There are three aspects to leadership, or authority, that are needed for success. A person must be compassionate with the people she is responsible for or leads. She must be wise enough to make decisions based on logic, with knowledge of the costs and benefits. And she must be capable of carrying out her decisions no matter what is required. These three things are often at odds with each other, and most people can only master two at best, or only one if they are ambitious, and must fake the others. The missing aspect is their weak point."

Brishen watches Envoy's hands intently. She ignores a lock of hair as it trails down to tickle her muzzle.

"You must know your weak points," the Aeolun advises. "For you, those would be a lack of wisdom and ruthlessness. Your rivals (and everyone you deal with will be a rival) will try to manipulate you through these. Those that are successful are your enemies. If they succeed more than once despite your wariness, then they must be eliminated."

"Since no sane person can maintain all three aspects, you should try to delegate them. This has the advantage of making it harder to manipulate your position, since it would require affecting three different people with different strengths … and those people may not even be known by your rivals," Envoy goes on.

"Find somebody wise to advise your decisions. Find someone ruthless to enforce them for you," the alien suggests. "Your only burden then is to comfort the ones that inevetibly get stepped on, and to be friendly towards the others. The people that created me called these positions Will, Hand, and Heart."

Finally, Envoy suggests, "Take advantage of your location. Rephidim is an intellectual melting pot, with people from all over Sinai. You just need to be yourself to get their trust and gratitude, and they'll share what they know of their homelands with you. Your Embassy is right next to Darkside, where ruthlessness is in abundance, as well as potential links to the powers that be of Underside. I understand there are a lot of Eeee down there."

"The next time you meet with others in power, make sure you have enough behind you so that your confidence is genuine," Envoy finishes.

Brishen blinks a few times, watching. "I imagine this is how the High Prince became what he is. He has each of these. But he is who he is and I am who I am. And there's another part I need to play in the act to follow." After some thought, she continues, "There is a promise I need to keep. If I do not, terrible things will happen to people I care about. When everything falls, I want it to fall on me."

Brishen shrugs, faintly. "But either way, it will fall. I haven't told you everything about the trouble I'm in, Envoy. It's better you didn't know."

Envoy nods. "I can understand that. But you are different from the Prince, and the others, in one very important way. You started out humble, a commoner. You might become a voice for the Kavi, the Savanites, the Exiles. All those humble people that have no power or voice of their own, but that you can understand better than your peers. Even if things are going to fall, you can at least have a reason to go on afterwards."

Brishen grins. "I have a reason. For the first time in my life, I have a reason for what I'm doing – for – " She waves her hands as words fail her. "For it. For what got me here in the first place."

Envoy grins and stands up, striking a very imitative and recognizable pose: Back straight and chest puffed out. "Never forget what you've already done, either. Acts of real consequence to the people that counted. If you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask me."

Brishen tries to fight off a smile and fails miserably, though the smile is a bit pained. "I can't forget that. Envoy, if I let you hide the slaves wherever you may hide them, the Temple won't believe they just vanished. They'll want to talk to me. I don't know how long I could stand the conversation. And if I let the Temple take the slaves away – " She shudders faintly. "I don't know. I don't know what will happen, but it won't be good."

Envoy signs, "It's not your decision alone, though, Brishen. You need to talk to the slaves too, and find out what they want. They may have family here, or other ties. If any want to risk escape, I can probably help, but you won't know any of the details. I can check back with you in a day, after you've had a chance to talk to them all."

Brishen fixes her bright brown eyes on the Aeolun's gold. "I know. I was planning to talk to them when I got to the Embassy."

Envoy grins, and signs, "So why the long face, as if you'd already had to make a decision and regret it? It's their choice, and you'll just be helping them. I've been stomped on a bit for helping Savanites, but I'm still around. It's not as if the Temple will expect the Ambassador to know all the details about her servants, or even their names or how many there are."

"If some go missing," Envoy signs, "it should hardly be surprising, given the place they gave you for your Embassy, so close to Darkside."

"In other words, if they complain about missing slaves, find a way to blame them for it." Envoy grins wider, "They'll expect you to anyway."

Brishen shakes her head. "If it had happened earlier, it wouldn't gather as much attention. But the Temple expects the slaves delivered to them in three days. Disappearances will encourage questions I don't want to answer."

Envoy hmms. "If it comes to that, it might be possible to conjure up a scapegoat. That's also expected in politics."

"And if slaves vanish from a guarded Embassy," Envoy signs, "then the Temple would have to admit they gave you a compromised property, and pay reparations perhaps."

"The important thing is that you complain the loudest," the exile signs with a grin.

Brishen shakes her head. "I've already spoken to the Captain-Astromancer. I doubt he'd believe me. He's convinced I supported the Sabaoth until it became inconvenient. I doubt my word holds any weight with him at all."

"The Astromancer is not the one that actually does things," Envoy signs. "The bureaucrats and others do, and they have a vested interest in not reporting minor irregularities. I might be able to look into that end of things as well. If the invoice says the slaves arrived, then as far as the Temple is concerned they arrived."

Brishen shakes her head. "I don't know if it will work." Then she laughs, "I don't know if this qualifies as a minor irregularity, especially given the circumstances."

Envoy just shrugs. "Don't worry about it until after you've decided what to do. There once was a large-scale operation for smuggling slaves to freedom on Rephidim, so there are clearly ways it can be done quietly."

Brishen nods. "I know there are ways. It's just the timing of it all. She sighs, quietly, I need to get back to the Embassy. In a day I'll let you know what my decision is."

The Aeolun bows, and signs, "The only way to gain wisdom is to make lots of mistakes. I'll check in with you tomorrow then."

Brishen stands, stretching her wings out a bit, then after a moment's pause hugs the Aeolun tightly. She's smiling a little when she pulls back enough to sign. "You can only make so many mistakes, and I'm playing a dangerous game. Tomorrow, I'll let you know what I've decided."

Envoy nods and starts to turn away, then pauses and signs back, "Let me know if you need to disappear sometime as well!"

Brishen smirks, faintly. "I might have to. We'll see what tomorrow brings."

Out loud, Envoy says, "Good luck, Bree. Fly straight!" The Exile takes off then in a flurry of flapping.

Brishen smiles, shaking her head, then scrambles up atop an aged cenotaph, where she pauses, looking out over the Old City. "I will!" And then she is gone as well, floating out over the endless rows of tombs. Perhaps there is a way through this yet, a way that'll let me keep the seemings of respectability. But then, maybe there isn't. Either way, there'll be wires to watch for.