179: Objections
SARA (NETHYS)
Most of the day had passed by the time Crown wound down his story. Nethys knew it was an abbreviated version, but it was a lot to cover so she could get full context. Even Sena, who had obviously known some of this beforehand, sat attentively and listened. The other woman didn’t show her emotions as much, but it wouldn’t be strange if some of this were new to her as well.
“You’re right, it’s unethical and manipulative,” Nethys said bluntly. Crown winced, so she added quickly, “I don’t think you’re intentionally being that way, and that’s in some ways worse, but you were right to come talk to us about it for our perspective. I don’t think you’ve thought through what you’re trying to do.”
“I agree with Sara,” Sena said, much to the surprise of Nethys. The bronze-skinned woman hadn’t moved much, but now her tail curled around a chair leg as she crossed her arms and tapped a finger on one bicep. “I understand what you are trying to do, and I acknowledge the need to do something, but I think you can do better than this.”
Crown leaned back and tucked his arms behind his head. “Hmm.” Unlike Nethys, he appeared unsurprised that Sena had raised an objection. Perhaps the woman wasn’t quite as devoted to him as Nethys had thought.
Nethys released a slow, long-held breath. “Look, I am still trying not to think on the scale you are, and I see what you’re doing. You’re setting up a Valhalla-style myth so that people want to fight for you, but that’s just manipulating them with religion. At the very least you have to explain the real choice when it happens.”
She sat up straight and leaned forward, her own tail thumping loudly against the back of the chair. It was one of the few stigmata she’d allowed herself to take, and she had yet to fully adjust to its recent addition to her body. It took a concentrated effort of will to curl it to the side, and she swore she saw Sena flash a hint of an amused but sympathetic smile.
“When you told me about your deal, I didn’t totally believe you, and wasted years of my life thinking I had to do some grand quest,” Nethys continued. “That’s because of what I was conditioned to believe. Even if you do lay out that you’re recruiting these souls for a multiversal war, they’ve still been raised to believe fighting is their true calling. You’re setting them up for that. If you aren’t even telling them the details, you aren’t really giving them an informed choice. Isn’t that what you’re all about?”
Again, Crown answered with a quiet and thoughtful hum, rubbing the bridge of his nose now. He glanced at Sena with a raised eyebrow. “Is that similar to your own objections?”
Sena sighed heavily, “Some of it.” She glanced at Nethys before raising a finger. “There are several problems here, and you’re right to feel uncomfortable. It’s true that we sometimes have to do what’s necessary… I don’t object to raising an army with this new world or worlds. In fact, if we needed them enough, I wouldn’t even object to tricking them. Yet that isn’t who you are, and you know this.”
The vaskan woman waggled the finger. “For one thing, what Sara here said is correct. You have to be up front with them if you want to have good soldiers anyway. Give them a reasonable out from fighting if they don’t want a part of this war. And it can’t be seen as a punishment… either on the grounds of belief or in actual fact.”
She lifted a second finger. “Also are there risks of going into this kind of fight that they should know about? It was common in Chall to send soldiers to their deaths for causes they didn’t understand, but you’re trying to bring up heroes, not conscripted militia. This isn’t like the dungeon situation… you’re putting them in a new world, with unknown dangers. What if they refuse? What if they change their mind? What if they’re killed on this other world?”
Nethys cleared her throat. “Please don’t call me Sara. I know I have more memories of her than of my current life… but I’m Nethys now. I’m trying to embrace that. It’s not like I can go home… I think.”
That uncertain end had Crown shrugging. “Not as you are now, but I think I’ve learned enough that once you die here, I can probably put you back on Earth. You won’t remember anything, probably, but I could do it. I’ve learned a lot in the short time since I recruited you.”
Sena let out a quiet snort, but she shook her head. “That’s nice for her to know, but what about the issues she found with your plan? It’s workable as it stands, but if you’re wanting to make it fair you need to think about those things.”
“I’ll figure it out,” Crown grumbled. He rolled his head back to stare at the ceiling. “I’m still in the habit of keeping things about the whole upper management of a universe more secret from mortals, and I do think that’s a good idea. Considering the circumstances though, I suppose letting their souls in on what is happening is understandable. We should still get enough people willing to make this work. I hope. It might delay the start a little while, that’s all... but the incursions have been pretty infrequent.”
Nethys only listened with half a mind, her thoughts trying to do the math. “One thing I don’t understand… how is this world generating so much more energy? Isn’t it smaller than the others? What’s so special about this one?”
Crown’s frown returned as he tilted his head down again to eye her. “That’s a good question, but the answer is complicated. You’re right, though… this world is generating disproportionately more energy than it should, especially considering that a lot of the people here are less adventurous than I’d like. I think it’s a lot of reasons, like how the various things compound. Also, smaller universes are more efficient.”
The argument made Nethys scrunch her nose up. “Right… and larger universes have higher maintenance. But if this Pleiades guy was so smart, why did he make his core universes so inefficient? That’s what I can’t figure out. Why not make them something that could generate more energy?”
It wasn’t a question she’d been very concerned about, but it had been lingering. Apparently, Crown had thought of it before as well… his sigh was one of tired confusion, not sudden befuddlement. At least, that’s what his expression paired with the noise said.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It doesn’t make much sense to me, either. Maybe they didn’t operate like they should. Pleiades was a genius, that much is true… he didn’t actually seed life in any of the seven core universes. He just arranged things so that intelligent life arising on its own would be inevitable, and it worked. Your home universe has billions of different intelligent species, all of them natural instead of constructed.”
“Natural?” Sena asked, curious. She crossed her arms and stared. “As opposed to the vaskan who are… unnatural? I don’t understand.”
Nethys reminded herself who she was talking to. Sena was very intelligent and open-minded, but she had no real experience with this. “He means that they weren’t designed. They arose from small changes over many generations.”
Turning to Crown, Nethys scowled and shook her head. “But what you said doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t that mean they spent less? Wouldn’t that make them more efficient? And you just casually said there were billions of other worlds with life even in my home universe… wouldn’t that make more energy?”
“Yes… but also no,” Crown said with a weary sigh. “You’re on the right track, but not exactly right. Natural evolution saves a lot, but you still have to pay for the expansion and operation of the universe… and there was a lot put into that. The core seven universes are unfathomably huge, that’s why there are billions of different intelligent lifeforms in most of them. The scale makes that possible… and makes their actions nearly irrelevant.”
He gestured at the table. “If this is the entire universe, Earth is just a speck too small to be seen. Someone could start a worldwide war, then another person bring worldwide peace… and this is a big deal to the world, but the rest of the table just doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter at all. So it generates some energy just because it affects so many lives, but it’s a pittance compared to the power needed to just keep the lights on.”
Nethys tilted her head and tapped the table. “But with a smaller universe it’s possible to affect every living being and alter the course of the universe in a single lifetime, so they give more energy. So why don’t they make the universe as small as possible?”
“There are a lot of factors,” Crown said, waving a hand. “But you aren’t entirely wrong. Most universes are pretty small, compared to the core seven. Mine’s larger than Ember’s, and the new one I made—the one I’m recruiting from—is much larger still. Thousands of worlds, even. The irrelevance problem will be partially addressed by the fact that they will relatively quickly begin to interact with one another, but I doubt that it will ever be as profitable as Regalia.”
The god-vaskan traced a circle on the table. “That said, the more people affected by something, the more energy it gives, but that’s altered by the overall significance, so… complicated. And I don’t want to even give you the details of what generates energy because you’re still mortal, Nethys. You’re alive, and I’m worrying about poisoning the source if I tell you too much.”
Sena, who had been listening, narrowed her eyes. “But that just brings things back to the original question. Why did the one who set all this up use such imperfect worlds to create this place, if he was truly so intelligent? Did he know something you don’t?”
“I would think that’s obvious,” Crown said drily. “I’ve been very honest in the fact that compared to him and Orpheus, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’d love to know the trick and why he did it, but stepping outside of my own world makes things complicated. I don’t have the time or spare energy to analyze this.”
Akasha, who had been distractedly staring off into the distance for most of the conversation, wiggled her ears and tilted her head to look at the three chatting around the table. “That’s really not what we’re supposed to be figuring out, is it? Didn’t we fix the problem they’re here for, father?”
Nethys twitched. That sounded like she was being booted out. She muttered, “I guess if he fixes the problems…”
“Great!” Akasha clapped her hands together and leapt up. “Okay, you two can have a little vacation in the vacation house, and Nethys and I can get back to our girlfriends! Problem solved!”
The cheerful declaration made Nethys sputter, her cheeks growing hot. Of course Akasha would jump to conclusions about that! Just going to the city where Genev was would lead the playful girl to that. She lifted her hands in protest as Akasha reached over toward her.
“She’s my business partner, not my girl—”
“—friend!” Nethys finished, a hair too late. She blinked as she looked around, the deserted street well into the evening. The rain still poured down, drumming over the awning that protected the front of Genev’s business. The front plate still had “G N Trade and Exchange” upon it, the same name that her friend had changed it to once her business was saved.
By now, Nethys was bone dry, though that would change the moment she stepped out from the awning. She wasn’t even sure Genev was around or taking visitors… or if the frisky woman had found a new paramour that had actually stuck around. That’s why she was only here to check in on her old friend, who had helped her so much back before Nethys had figured out what she wanted to do.
Akasha had apparently dropped off her pack just beside the door, and Nethys lifted it up to swing it back onto her shoulders. She surveyed the door curiously. The plate was the same old brass nameplate, but the door was new. Doors should last more than a couple years, so that was a little strange. Had something happened? Was it just a sign of wealth?
Nethys twitched her ears. She had a new Totem, and she was taller now, more muscular. She had more stigmata, and her eyes possessed vertical slits for the pupils. Would Genev even recognize her? That had been on her mind the entire trip, but now the worry came back in force. She hesitated at the door, considering the late hour. Maybe she should find an inn?
The door opened.
Staring into the blinking eyes of her old friend, Nethys bit her lip and smiled awkwardly. “Oh uh… hi. I wasn’t sure I should bother you. Should I uh… find a place to stay and we can meet up tomorrow? Maybe catch up? I didn’t realize it was this late.”
She let out a sharp yelp as her cloak was grabbed and yanked forward.
The door slammed shut, leaving the street empty for the evening.
And the business closed for the next three days.