Spinning Wheels

    It is now a couple days after the evening in which some bugs were detected in the Elly system. Fortunately, chief engineer Tae was there to make emergency repairs. The full process was involved and probably involves icky stuff like kissing and really lewd stuff like holding hands.

    In any case, the sun is up, the sky is clear, and the day seems calm, with a pleasant breeze from the west. Elly, now probably restored to ordinary operational capacity, can be found outside the Dome of Stars, sitting on a bench. She's looking over the gardens and watching children run around under the trees there. She has a book in her lap, but is paying it no mind at all.
    There is, one could reasonably conclude, not a lot of official business going on right now. Calendar cleared and all that. Or perhaps the official business is to watch children play.

    "Baroness Wake?"

    The voice draws Elly's attention a moment later. It comes from a young, Spriggan woman dressed in a beautiful maid's outfit. She is bearing a tray with a pitcher on it and several glasses.

    "Lady Tae asked me to bring this out for you. Shall I set it here by the bench?"

    Elly looks at it thoughtfully and nods.

    "I would like that, yes. Thank you, Ana."

    The use of a name and a thank you is no longer as jarring as it used to be. Servants have adapated to their new mistress' strange mannerisms, like acknowledging they exist and showing gratitude. A small, foldable table is set out and the tray set. One of the cups is filled with barley tea and set out for Elly.

    "If there is anything else, please let me know. I will be waiting nearby."

Goldenblade is a frequent guest at Eas, the famed Eas Builder technically has a permanent room here, as do many in Olympus, but it's quite modest, and she travels enough that it doesn't see much use. It saw use last night, and this morning after breakfast and everything, she gets directions which will eventually lead her to find Wake. "Good morning," she calls out in greeting, approaching the Baroness.

    Upon seeing Goldenblade approach, Elly rises from where she sits. The customary curtsey follows. It is as smooth as ever, and Elly gestures to the bench as she replies.

    "Good morning! Would you care to join me, Goldenblade? I had heard you were in Eas. To what do we owe the pleasure? Are you working on a new project?"

Goldenblade shakes her head about a new project, and says, "Still the same old project. The electrical generators I want to hook to the giant waterwheels I got working all that time ago. I'm sorry it's taken so much longer to put together. I just can't seem to work out how to get it all to work. It ought to work, it's basic physics, but this is a magical world, and I think it doesn't like non-magical things.

    "I see. The old marvel still requires so much effort," muses Elly.

    She settles herself on the bench and pours a second cup of the tea, offering it to Goldenblade. "It's a hot day already," she notes calmly. The drink is deliciously cool, though.

    "You know, I have given much thought to these matters lately. Is there a way to find another sort of energy that we might make, instead of electricity? Is there some way to convert the energy of the falls into magical energy, instead? I haven't a clear notion, but it might be what is foiling your efforts."

Goldenblade was raised playing outdoors and still works mainly outdoors, she grew up without air conditioning in the summer. Heat just doesn't bother her so much, she just deals with it fine, though she sweats in the heat of the day. She shrugs at the mention of magical energy. "What kind of energy is that? A hundred years ago, they would have said electricity is magical energy. Store it in some chemicals in a battery, flip a switch and make lights come on. Put energy in a wire here, take it out from a wire a mile away, or ten or a hundred, That sounds pretty fantastic, from these Landers' perspective, I'm sure."

    Elly listens to Goldenblade, laughing a little and nodding. "That is all true, of course. Any technology that is sufficiently advanced might seem like magic."

    Her attention shifts, though, to a memory. One that has stuck with her for some time now.

    "In the Palace Lands, I saw lighting done with crystals. It is that kind of thing that I am curious about. Perhaps there is something we might learn if we look at it from a new angle. We have worked with Pela in the New World Alliance to understand her magical batteries, and Scale with their land mines, which release magic as well. We built our own weapons from this. I suggest that if we work more with Pela, we might find a new direction. Something that better fits this world. We have worked a great with the Scale Emblem. I believe it is time for Eas to attend to its relationship with the New World Alliance. This land could be threatened with a wave, after all. We would do well to remember that."

Goldenblade can only shrug about crystals and magic, and she says, "The difference between technology and magic is that technology is available to anyone, and magic is limited to a select few who have exclusive writ to those powers. I won't kowtow to some sideshow charlatan, and I won't do things that are restricted to a select few who meet some esoteric criteria." She definitely has a chip on her shoulder about magic. "You kids and your magic," she sighs. "If you don't want the electric, let me know and I'll stop working on it," she says sadly. Seems she's still enthused for the project despite it going so slowly.

    "Hmm.."

    Elly falls silent, her eyes turned to the children, who race about the garden. She smiles as she watches them play. The silence trails on for a time.

    "They call the game chase," she says abruptly.

    A pause again and she looks back to Goldenblade for a moment, and then back to the children.

    "The Lander children."

    A breath in, a breath out.

    "When the children first arrived, Tae and I taught them tag. But in time, they came up with new rules. For instance, in chase you can pretend to fly by vibrating your wings. And if you fly, only someone else who is flying can tag you and you can only tag others who are flying. Of course, as children arrived who were not Spriggans, the rules adapted, so now when they fly, they have to hop and hum and, if they have wings, vibrate them, as well."

Goldenblade played tag as a child. Tag was a game where you ran around like mad and burned off crazy amounts of energy. When wake describes the flying rules, her first question is, "Why? Spriggans have wings, but they fly as well as I can." Which is 'completely unable'. "Who knows why kids do things, kids do things just to confuse adults, I'm pretty certain." She shrugs.

"Anyhow," she complains, "That rule is biased against non-flying races. I won't be surprised if the human childresn are outcast and have issues by the time they reach adulthood because everyone else is special and they have nothing. That sounds a bit like a raw deal to me. I had no idea when I joined the game that it was so biased in favor of a few races and it was so institutionalized that everyone just bought into it."

    Elly tilts her head and looks over to Goldenblade. She then turns back.

    "Actually, the rules were balanced. Nobody can fly. And since humans and gnomes and others do not have wings, they all have to hop and hum, instead. They made it a whole new part of the game. The vibrating of the wings is still something the spriggans do as they pretend to fly, but they hop just like all the others. It's really quite cute."

    Letting out a sigh, she glides her eyes shut. "And so it is that we must adapt, too. Besides, technology was never available to everyone. It was always the province of those with a fair amount of wealth. Electrification still wasn't done everywhere in the world when we left it. I doubt it is done now. And that doesn't even get into the computing gap, or manufacturing, or medicine. It's never been truly available to all the people, everywhere."

    The Baroness does not yet open her eyes. "But you already know all of this. So, what is truly bothering you?"

Goldenblade is just a grumpy old man having a day. On hearing that the humans and gnomes were also granted 'flight', she says, "At least that's fair." She can shrug off kids playing games as just kids being kids. As far as technology not being available to everyone, she shrugs. "It's /available/ but people don't want to do what it takes to acquire it. You may notice that the places that don't have it /are/ rich in natural resources. Colonizers came in and stripped the resources they could get easily and startred raising up the people, but in a not-particularly-fair-or-balanced way. Then in the 1960's and later, the locals demanded self-rule, and slowly they got it. Now they have no colonizers and still live in filth while a few elite rulers have all that wealth and capital. And if I say why I think that is, I'm ostracized."

    "Well, in this world, there is a lot of information and technology that must be spread. And magic, as you pointed out, is just another form of technology," replies Elly.

    She finally opens her eyes as she hears a particularly loud shout from the children, followed by laughter and a then a tumble of half the group into a pile.

    She laughs softly at the fun. She does keep most of her attention on the conversation though. "So let's focus on that line of thought. If we view this world's technology like our own, we have to concede that it is possible that what we view as 'magical artes' here are critical. Just like chemical engineering and newer, more powerful materials enabled so many new branches of advancement in the world before. We needed a whole college worth of discoveries just to get a microprocessor and that spawned at least tens of thousands of new ideas on its own. I am not saying you have to throw in the towel on what you are doing here by any means. But I would encourage you to reach out to our friends, Pela in particular, and chat with her about what she hass worked on with the mana batteries. Even if that is not the answer, it could spark a new direction of thought."

Goldenblade frowns about working with magical people. "They've got nothing I can use, and I've got nothing they want," she grumps. "/They're/ the ones who are all about flasing lights and tinkly music and whatnot and trying to do weird things. All I can do is make normal things, so I make things. If you don't want 'em, say so. I've got other stuff I can work on." She doesn't really, but she's feeling particularly unwanted now.

    Elly looks over to Goldenblade, her eyes more serious. For just a time, she lets her etiquette mask slip. That utter perfection is removed. She looks tired and sad.

    "I do not know why you are reacting this way, but I hope you will reconsider. Your approach has been enormously successful. Almost everything that surrounds you, even this bench we sit on, is your design. If you insist on working all on your own on this, certainly do so. I will try my best to support whatever direction is best. My hope is that we work together, work harder, work smarter, and make something more beautiful than has ever come before. Not only in this world, but in the one before."

    And with that, the momentary vision of her as she is is gone. The mask returned. Perfection, calm, an a serenity that can never be broken from the outside. A lie, certainly, but it is a useful illusion.

Goldenblade's expression is rueful. "I never said I won't work with whoever you want me to work with," she complains. "I'm not sure how we could collaborate, but if I can, I will. If anything, it's these kids that want nothing to do with some old baggage cluttering up their sparkly, magical game with hard work and effort."

She smirks about her approach being enourmously successful, and she says, "Up to a point, I suppose. But the point where I'm at now seems doomed to failure, and I can't be happy about that."

    Elly listens to all of it, but then at the end she laughs suddenly. It's so startling and clear that the children freeze to look over at her. Thinking whatever they were doing had to be the cause, they do what little children always do in such a situation. Try to one up themselves.

    While it doesn't produce the same laugh, it gets Elly to wave at them and smile warmly. She calls out, "Having fun?"

    After listening to the chorus of answers, she can politely return to focus on the conversation. Which takes a little time for her to express just the way she wants.

    "Isn't that always something that happens, though? It did to me. My initial approach to this world had reached its limit. Command and control is for the dream before. Here, it took me to the edge of achievement and any further steps would have led to a horrible fall. So I switched tactics. I made more friends. I swallowed a lot of pride. To some, I apparently made myself less. But ultimately, I found a new way to reach an objective. To make the world better and to make for myself a place in it that aligned with my dreams."

Goldenblade blinks as Wake laughs suddenly, disrtacting the kids, who distract her in turn. Goldenblade is not distracted, and the kids are probably fine with her not paying them any mind. They have no use for Granny Blade. When the distraction is over, she says, "I'm glad you're happy with your change. I liked you fine as you were, but you have to be happy with you. I -am- happy with me, even if the rest of the world isn't, and I guess I can fade into the woodwork if I'm not wanted for anything. Build your sky houses with magical air bricks and musical grass and trees. But I can't help with that," she says regretfully.

    "Well.. as long as you see that as the choice it is, I guess I will let it slide. Hm. Musical grass and sky houses. I bet you could make a sky house. You just need the right materials. Though I would rather live in a castle that is anchored comfortably to the terra firma. I am not interested in Laputa here."

    Elly pauses to take a drink. She had forgotten the tea! Refreshment is a good thing. So much talking! Still, for all the difficulty of the conversation, she seems largely untroubled.

    "I was unhappy, though. Trying to control things. Thinking I knew what was best. Getting angry if others resisted my efforts. Those things are simply impossible to maintain. I wanted to focus on what I really needed. I wanted to know what to want in order to be happy. A kind of eternal quest. And then it came to me. More and more quickly and naturally. Not a power over the will of others, but an inspiration. Priestess, mother, to love others as much as my heart allows."

Goldenblade nods about making a choice. "It is what it is, I'm afraid," she says. "The world has moved on without me, but I am not one to jump off a bridge if my friends do it. My father would sometimes accuse me of that." She shrugs. "I'm glad, though, that you are in a place you want to be. I've never had power over others, so I don't know what that's like. But I've never inspired them, either. I guess it's too late for that, now."

    "Those are choices, Goldenblade. To stand by and watch, or to act. Make sure that you are making the choice you want to, rather than cutting things off for self-destructive purposes. Age is no bar to playing this game, right?"

    Elly does her best, is the theme of her life. Life is just incredibly powerful and often puts her in her place. Ultimately, that is a comfortable one, here.

    She spares a glance at the children. They are still safe. Still playing. They have slowed down, though, and are now playing by climbing the littlest trees and reaching the lower branches. Nothing that Elly is afraid of.

Goldenblade yawns, stretches, says, "I'm a bit too old to jump off bridges, I think. You kids can amuse yourselves and I won't get in the way. But for now, I need to stab a few goblins before I call it a day." And, having made her excuses, she will retire. She watches the kids for a moment, shrugs, and departs.