There was plenty of reason for Portia to be ecstatic about the morning's meeting.
She had been able to book a conference room in the main Constellation building, the one that had been constructed on solid ground and thus did not hang precariously from the sky thousands of feet up.
Arriving early, she placed down her briefcase at the head of the table. Wide windows showed a perfectly acceptable view of downtown's highrises, some landed and some floating. The cluster of buildings blocked the vista to the sea and the horizon, which could be seen from Portia's top floor office in the floating Eosphorus tower — but from here one could make out the details of the ornate city architecture, and she could never see why everyone wanted to go higher and higher when there was plenty to love close to the ground.
Thumping her fingers on her briefcase, she waited, and it occurred to her that the seat she had taken at the head of the table wouldn't be the head anymore if Liao Cytheria arrived next and sat at the other end of the table, because if that happened, then the other end of the table would become the head, and Exequi Cytheria would take firm control over the meeting.
Portia found herself wondering, could she remove the chair from the other end of the table? How petty would she look? The wall next to her was pure glass, completely transparent, and any of the Constellation employees walking by would see her being petty, trying to fit the tenth chair in on one side, so instead she stayed at her end of the table organizing and reorganizing her stack of files and presentation notes.
Indeed, Exequi Cythera came in next, and not alone either. Flanked by Exequi Tony Solari, as well as an assistant, she was followed by Exequi Ignatius Varian too.
Too bad Varian hadn't arrived thirty seconds faster, Portia could have directed the flappable older gentleman to take the end seat, solidifying Portia's lead role.
As it was, Tony Solari pulled out the seat before the elderly woman, and Liao Cytheria perched upon it. Shorter than Portia, she was a small woman with round cheeks that gave her face an amiable cast even when she was being severe. It seemed as if she were always smiling. Sitting like a queen, she tilted her head to the two other exequis, and only then did they sit.
Their deference increased Portia's nervousness. How she commanded that kind of respect, Portia would never, ever know. And her assistant stood in the corner, the window to his back. "A drink please, Rodolfo," said Cytheria's voice, strong yet polite in tone, and Rodolfo cast the spell for her, which seemed particularly lazy on her part. It was magic, after all. A squat glass materialized out of air on the table, and water welled up from the bottom, like a spring emerging from underground, until the glass was full and Cytheria drank.
As she was not a licensed magician, Portia didn't practice magic. It seemed Cytheria could have poured her own damn water. And yet, the thought occurred to her, perhaps it was Cytheria showing a kind of deference to Portia, who relied on her assistant for hydration and any and every other magical need. That thought made her jaw clench.
Maybe it was the key to the respect Cytheria commanded; she showed respect to others. Grinding her teeth, Portia tried not to let her displeasure show on her face. Her dentist was going to reprimand the damage she did to her molars today.
Seats around the table filled, just minutes after prima. Everyone a little late, the opposite of Sol, whose rate of travel was being measured moment by moment by the emergency team upstairs. On the window side, Gaia Solin's supporters lined up. Next to Tony Solari sat Exequi Solace, a man rumored to be on the brink of retiring. It wasn't entirely clear what he planned to do for the rest of eternity; the man was no older than Cytheria. If he could be persuaded to give up his job this very day, his daughter would take his position on the board, and little Claudia Solace would make an easy vote to earn. Across the table sat the three exequis Portia had invited: Sunyin Aura and two of her retinue. It was a carefully composed group for a fairly routine committee meeting overseeing the expansion of magical licensing.
No one had objected to the guest list, since Portia alone proposed restricting the quota, and she had not brought any backup.
It was by inviting the extremists in Sunyin Aura's camp that Portia planned to wedge Cytheria toward less magical expansion, and anyways, if Justin Marius became company president tomorrow, he could scrap this committee's proposal. Today's goal remained to curb an accelerated rate of magical expansion . . . just in case. And at the same time, to soothe the target voters' fears about her candidates direction. Soften up Liao Cytheria, Tony Solari, and Ignatius Varian, so that when time came to vote, they would make the right decision.
Stacking her documents purposefully, Portia was about to clear her throat to begin, when Liao Cytheria spoke.
Her files were already stacked. "Let's begin, shall we?"
Domineering. She didn't pause long enough for Portia to interrupt and take the reins back.
"I think we can all agree, whichever side of the divide we're on, that President Solin has her flaws, and that the middle path of compromise has not been doing anyone any good."
That was not at all the angle Portia was expecting the woman's argument to take. A quick glance to the faces around the table showed Cytheria held the interest and evoked surprise from everyone around it.
Liao Cytheria nodded from eye contact to eye contact. "It's not doing our employees any good, nor our customers, nor the empire. It's not good for our bottom line."
To Portia's left, Solin's supporters wore frowns, suggesting they did not agree — but Cytheria wasn't speaking for their benefit. She said it for Portia, and for Sunyin Aura's faction.
Her voice playful, toying, cloying, she said, "One side wants to restrict the number of licensed magicians in the empire, and restrict access to magic; I advocate for selling more damn routers to the people of Soliara." Her hand came down in a light smack on the files on the desk. Pausing to change the gears in her tone to hint at regret, she went on, "President Solin doesn't see it like that, however; she tries to mitigate, to please both sides, and here we are, all of us very unhappy. I've had enough of playing tug of war over quotas and numbers. I've had enough of compromise. My purpose this morning is not to meet you in the middle, Exequi Nero," she said, her eyes glaring right at Portia, "but to convince you once and for all, unequivocally, that the Solari Empire will benefit from more magic, not less, that we can oversee magic development in a safe way, and that more research into the science of magic will lead to greater safety, not compromised safety.
"Today we're going to hammer out a plan to increase star dial router quotas, to sell more of our product across a market that's teeming with demand. The reports I have prepared prove that increasing the number of experts — of licensed, certified magicians — will increase the safety of magic development. Educating more magicians has led to fewer accidents, not more, fewer dangerous inventions, not more, and fewer advancements that threaten the wellbeing of anyone on this planet."
That Portia could not take — she had made it this far without interrupting, but it was all dangerous! Link teleportation, floating buildings, firearms . . . "Immortality," she spewed, breaking the taboo on speaking about eternal life, "has threatened the lives of half our population. You're ignoring the most dangerous advancement this company ever introduced, and still has yet to repeal or amend." The room was quiet; the fierce tone of debate that Portia adapted should have elevated the conversation to a shouting match back and forth, but Cytheria, dumbstruck, did not yell at her.
Talking about immortality had that effect on people. Rather than allowing a population of immortals to grow exponentially, each mother had her eternal life revoked when she brought a child into the world, and would return to the cycle of life and death. If she had lived beyond the natural human life cycle, she would age quickly, and pass on.
The seconds dragged on, and Portia tried to think of something to add to take advantage of this time she could be talking uninterrupted, but her outburst embarrassed her, and the flush of nervousness burning her cheeks made her head swim. Thought became murky, though statistics on link portal accidents and data on magical crime tangled and snarled within her mind along with the number of dead should a building plummet from the sky, for example the building she was forced to work in from sunrise to set every day.
Reclaiming her poise, Cytheria collected her words before Portia did. "Let's focus on the two provisions I've outlined today, if that's all right, Exequi Nero. Expanding router production, sales and distribution, and safety measures that will make the expansion palatable to you." As if Rodolfo had read her mind, he stood and pulled out Cytheria's chair for her as she rose. He could have used magic to do that, but he refrained. Was it more polite to conduct the service manually?
"If I may begin," said Cytheria, and behind her, the blank wall lit up with a visual presentation, which Portia assumed Rodolfo broadcasted for her magically, though the old bird could have been making it happen herself. Portia had no way to know who was conducting the light show.
Words printed behind her onto a soft blue background, reading "25% router quota expansion present year. 40% router sales extension within 5 years."
Portia scowled. Cytheria's high ball number was much higher than Portia had anticipated.
It would be difficult to walk a 25% expansion back to a reduction of any kind.
Cytheria chose today to push for a revolutionary change. That wouldn't matter if Portia's faction won the electoral board meeting. If they lost, however, Solin's middle path was going to look like a utopia compared to this radical push.
As Cytheria began to drone through her slide show, Portia despaired. Most crucially, she had made the wrong call bringing Sunyin Aura in on the preliminary committee. Rather than scaring Solin's supporters into voting for a more cautious proposal, Aura's faction would simply bolster this radical one. Portia was counting on Sunyin Aura to give one of her terrifying speeches about how every citizen of Soliara should be educated in magic on Constellation subsidy, to propose rapid advancement and throwing hundreds of researchers on dangerous inventions like weapons of mass destruction or time travel, developments that could end the world, reality, as they knew it. Then Portia would fear monger her way down to a reduction at least in the rate of expansion, down to three or four percent expansion, if not for a flat out net reduction in new router licensing.
This was going all wrong.
Which team are you on, pro rapid expansion or team magic is dangerous?? Please leave a star for me if you're having fun reading along. Thanks for joining me.