The Radiant War

Chapter 24b

     “May I ask your name?” she asked. “I should have asked before, but the shock of finding that the King was one of you was too great.”

     “My name is Leona, Your Highness,” the maid replied.

     Ah, so I'm still a Highness, thought Ardria hopefully. That was interesting. “That's a pretty name, I don’t think I've ever heard it before. Is it a common name where you come from?”

     “Not a common name,” replied the maid, still scrubbing her back. “But there are others with the same name. I come from Jaccquil, in the north.”

     “Ah. I was trying to place your accent. So, you're going to be a Radiant one day.”

     “Yes, Highness.”

     “Do Radiants have names? Will you still be Leona when you're a Radiant?”

     “No, Highness. They identify themselves telepathically. When one speaks to you, you just know which one it is by the feel of their thoughts, like recognising the voice of someone you know.”

     “But we still use names, even though we can recognise each other’s voices. We use names for the benefit of those we've never met before, who don't know what our voices sound like. Suppose a Radiant you've never met before speaks to you, and you then have to tell another Radiant which one it was who spoke to you?”

     “Telepathy can communicate the feel of someone's thoughts. It is not limited to words.”

     “I see. There’s so much we don't know about them! They've always been there, floating around in the sky, but we know almost nothing about them. Their social structures, how they govern themselves. Do they even have a government? A ruling class?”

     “All Radiants are equal, Highness. If a number of them have to work together, they may choose one among themselves to co-ordinate, to direct their operations, but it may not always be the same one. They choose the one among themselves that is most suited to direct that particular operation.”

     “Your King thinks he'll still be a King when he's a Radiant. He thinks he'll still be able to order you around, that you'll still be his servants.”

     There was a full length mirror on the wall in front of her. It was beginning to mist up, but she could still see an amused smile appear on the maid’s face. “The King's wrong?” she asked.

     “The Radiants tell me that all are equal in their society, Highness. There is a Radiant speaking to me even now. He is confirming it.”

     “If the Radiants speak to the King as well, then how did he come to this misapprehension?”

     “I do not know, Highness.”

     “Perhaps the Radiants lied to him. They needed him for their plan to work, so they told him what he wanted to hear.”

     “Perhaps, Your Highness.”

     “If they lied to him, perhaps they're lying to you as well. About this, about other things.”

     The towel stopped moving against her back for a moment, then resumed, scrubbing harder than before. “It is not easy to lie with telepathy, Highness. When we talk to them, they can see our innermost thoughts. We can hide nothing from them.”

     “But they're higher beings. Perhaps they can hide things from you. Perhaps they can hide what they're really thinking from you.”

     “They said you would try to divide us, Highness.” The maid had her other hand, the one not holding the flannel, on her shoulder, and Ardria was suddenly intensely aware that, like all adoptees, she had wizard powers. She could throw her back to her animal form in almost an instant. The woman would have to parent bond her first, of course, but that was something a wizard could do in a single moment. Ardria would find herself suddenly loving the woman, be willing to do anything for her. She anxiously searched her feelings. If she felt herself suddenly feeling warm and tender towards the maid, would she be able to leap out of the bath, break the physical contact, before it was too late? What was there around her that she could use as a weapon? Sponges, towels... Her eyes fixed on the bottle of bath oil. It might make a pretty good club if she could grip the slippery crystal firmly enough...