10th October 2012
02:17 GMT
The next painting in the gallery depicts one of Bleez's ancestors dressed in what I suspect is Thanagarian survey gear. There's a landing craft in the background and what I suspect is the future site of the castle in the background. The land is roughly the right shape, though I don't know how much they built it up before starting construction.
"What did he mean, 'when you intended to break it off'?"
"Havanian succession is hereditary. I imagine that he was assuming that humans and thanagarians can't reproduce together.
"
"Or that dalliances with aliens might be considered a sign of aristocratic eccentricity, but marrying one would be more serious."
"There's no danger of
that. Though -ironically- the Thanagarian government would probably be fine with that, because it would tie me to the area. The opposition would come from local parties.
"
"How
would a human man get Bleez pregnant?"
Jade's keeping her attention firmly on the painting. Ra's seems like the sort who'd include a course on art appreciation, but my own abilities to analyse paintings haven't improved since getting a good look at an original Adolf Hitler. Obviously they're laying claim to descent from the first people to explore Havania, implying that their rulership was destiny from that moment. But beyond that? There are objects and pieces of equipment which seem slightly out of place and probably have all sorts of significance, but…
"When a man and a woman-.
"
"Really?"
"It's practically required. And that's more or less how it happens: arcane inertia. The magic systems of Earth that all presently existing humans carry within them know as a result of millions of generations that male and female humanoids having sex produces babies. Mere biology stands no chance against that sort of magic.
"
She turns her head slightly, just far enough to look at me.
"Is that really how it works?"
"It's hard to test without…
" I shrug.
"Getting a lot of people interested in conceiving with alien partners together and… Getting them to give it a try in a mystically regulated environment.
"
"So the first time the tamaraneans visit."
I nod.
"So the first time the tamaraneans visit. I mean, I'll warn them that it can happen, but they're not… Good at restraint.
" I shrug, smiling.
"If you can't be good, be safe. And if you can't do that, would you mind wearing this arm band so that we can monitor the process?
"
"How do you
know that? Because if you're working up to telling me that Princess really
is your daughter, this is a really roundabout way of doing it."
"While it's not impossible that the Queen got hold of a sample of my DNA and used that… Somehow, the Queen isn't humanoid, and isn't physiologically… Even if I'd gotten right up to the base-
"
I make a grasping motion with both arms.
"-of her third leg, it wouldn't-.
"
There are footsteps a short distance behind us, and we turn to see that
Ambassador Klus has joined us.
"Illustres. Darkstar."
I nod politely.
"Ambassador. I'm sorry, I'd have greeted you sooner but I didn't see your name on the guest list..?
"
"I'm here on government business. Once we were notified that you were in the Thanagarian Empire and appeared to be staying in one place, I was tapped to speak with you."
"I'm on holiday.
"
He doesn't look entirely convinced. "Really?"
Jade doesn't look convinced either. "He's trying." … "
We're trying."
"And why did the Thanagarian government dispatch you?
"
"Given your interactions with us to date, we felt it best that we ensure there aren't any more 'Hawkwoman' incidents."
"Hawkwoman incidents?
"
His one remaining eye stares at me for several moments.
"You aren't aware, are you."
"Ah. I called her a coward, she challenged me to a duel, she lost, we're trying to avoid each other? Aside from the visit here, anyway.
"
"You're not. Obviously human duelling traditions are different, but I'm a little surprised that no one has said anything to you."
"About what?
"
He walks a little closer and drapes his arms over the gallery railings.
"About the extent of your insult to her."
"Well, yes, martial culture, obviously she wouldn't take being called a coward
well. I don't take my friends being enslaved well.
"
"No, not that. Your conduct in the duel, and afterwards."
I frown.
"Was I supposed to kill her or something?
"
"Or something." He straightens up. "You apparently don't understand why she was duelling you. It wasn't because she wanted to force you to take your accusation back; it was to disprove it, both to you and to her. You're an Illustres; she didn't think she could beat you in a
fight. She wanted to prove that she was prepared to face an unbeatable foe without flinching. And what did you do?"
He gestures towards me with arms and wings.
"Rather than presenting an unbeatable foe, you used the minimum amount of force possible in an attempt to spare her injury. You treated her like an adolescent sparring with a tutor. You put her on the ground without injuring her, repeatedly, and only started injuring her when the referee told you it was required, all the time asking him to call off the fight. Implying that you found her attempts to prove herself irrelevant. And then you tried to surrender as if she was an irrational child acting out, not a warrior on the verge of reclaiming her pride."
"None of what you're saying makes me think I was wrong.
"
He looks away. "Of course it doesn't." He shakes his head before returning his attention to me. "And then the ultimate insult. Among thanagarians, in a fight like that the two parties would meet afterwards. She would acknowledge that you were right about her previous behaviour, and you would acknowledge that she had overcome that weakness."
"The moral cowardice I accused her of isn't the same as craven cowardice. Fighting an obvious enemy didn't prove-.
"
"Do you remember what you said to Katar Hol when he suggested visiting her?"
…
"Yes. I don't forget things. I said that I intended to avoid her because I didn't want her to decide to try and carry on fighting.
"
"And thus implying that you thought she fought you not over a point of principle, but because she was a berserker whose only thought was to mindlessly throw herself against you. There wasn't anything worse you could have said. So rather than
resolving your conflict, you managed to continue it. And
that's why the Thanagarian government sent me. My superiors are worried about what you might tear down
next."
