Don't Let Go

July 27th 991SE – Siklantel, Halinen Confederacy

Neri did not have a last name. She did not have one when she sold herself on the streets of Siklantel, and she did not receive one when she was taken in by Lady Siklan. The eimeltet claimed it was what made her powerful; she was the only one in all of Siklantel to be unshackled from the system. Instead, it was her job as secretary to do the shackling through the power of paper. She helped the eimeltet turn people into paper, turn money into paper, turn power into paper. Even the iltsuen nobility could not escape her pen. One by one they were written into ink and crammed into metal cylinders until they were politically no different from the populous humans.

Neri was at the center of it all in her office on the second highest floor of Liatepmez. Yet somehow, she felt no different from the days before meeting Lady Siklan, perpetually exhausted both physically and mentally. She went to sleep long after the sun set to read through reports and woke up before it returned to summarize the information for the eimeltet before her morning bath.

With only the faint indigo light of morning twilight, Neri undressed in the eimeltet’s private bathroom within Liatepmez. The long mirror in the changing room revealed every part of her body. No amount of hot baths could remove the wrinkles that filled every inch of her skin, nor could bison feasts turn her grey hair back into the dark chestnut it used to be, nor could scented candles fix her bloodshot eyes. She supposed this was the price she paid for her coveted proximity to the eimeltet.

The eimeltet was already waiting in the sunken tub. She held out an arm for Neri to steady herself as she stepped into the water, just as slender and smooth as when she first reached out of her carriage to the young girl on the streets. There was enough space that both women could sit comfortably when their legs were not stretched out.

“Good morning Neri.” Her voice was like silk in a spring breeze.

“Good morning my lady.” Neri’s voice was controlled and precise, but crackled with age. She sunk into the warm water whose heat caused her back to prickle. “Are you ready for the day’s report?”

“In a moment.” The eimeltet inhaled deeply, greedily taking in the morning sun that had just peeked over the horizon. For a moment, Neri also allowed herself to let go of her job and take in the moment with Afrayn as her companion rather than her ruler. “Alright, begin.”

“King Charles II of Virdia passed away in the early morning of June 2nd. Princess Regent Eleanor will continue to rule while Parliament assembles to determine the fate of the crown in the absence of a male heir.”

Neri took a slick bar of soap and rubbed it in her hands until bubbles webbed between her fingers. On the eimeltet’s exposed back, Neri began a rhythmic massage, punctuated when her thumbs tenderly flicked over each vertebrae. The eimeltet tensed and released her shoulders in tempo.

“Eight weeks for the news to arrive, not bad. What was the bottleneck in the journey?”

Neri moved closer until her chest pressed against the eimeltet. Her hunched back forced her cheek to stick tightly to the eimeltet’s warm neck as she reach around to wash the eimeltet’s arms. Neri could feel each pulse of blood within the eimeltet’s neck through her cheek.

“After crossing the Atlantic, the informants chose to remain in the colonies for a week to gauge their reactions. A great deal of turmoil erupted in Yornglow when our republican friends declared themselves an autonomous colony, no doubt seizing their chance to escape from the crown’s control. A skirmish occurred between protesters and the governor’s forces.”

Neri cupped the eimeltet’s breasts from below, lifting them gently and allowing them to push against her hand as they tried to fall back down. Her fingers made their way inwards towards the sternum. They rose in tandem with each breath the eimeltet took.

“What of the colonies besides New Avalon?” The eimeltet’s voice became wispy, so Neri moved back, allowing the chill morning breeze to fill the space between them.

“In the northern colonies, resentment towards Parliament remains high due to the taxes imposed after the War of the Seven Empires. In the south, the Duke of Antoles has largely stabilized their economy through trade.”

The eimeltet pushed herself onto the edge of the tub and raised a leg. Neri took the feet in her lap, rubbed some more soap onto her hands, and began to work.

“Poor girl, that Princess Regent,” the eimeltet sighed, but her smile was obvious in her voice. "Continue."

"Another skirmish occurred between the kehnilt and some colonists in the far north. The new muskets seem to be effective, but the kehnilt's supplies are running low and the locals still refuse to pay their dues."

Neri rubbed in gentle circling motions up the bottom of the thigh, to the buttocks, around to the crotch, and up to the navel. With the eimeltet’s body cleaned, Neri began to wash away the suds by caressing the eimeltet’s skin with small handfuls of water like she was polishing a statue until it revealed its bronze luster.

“However, there’s been a breakthrough proposal on two of the bounties: caustic lye and paper. The early experiments approved by the eimerteti and the Utaliha board have shown promise.”

“Who were the authors?”

“Lady von Alba and Sir Faber.”

“The man from my forest?”

“Yes.”

Neri whetted her fingers with her own spit and soon her hard, jutting bones pressed against the eimeltet’s soft, fleshy folds. Her first and second knuckles pushed down into the eimeltet while her finger pads prodded upwards.

“Hilda’s brilliance is expected, but it seems the Great Spirit has brought me someone interesting again,” the eimeltet threw her head back and chuckled. “Summon both of them to my office this afternoon.”

Neri’s impression was that he was a lunatic, but it was not her place to render judgment, only to execute the eimeltet’s will. So she affirmed by settling into a rhythmic pulse that caused the eimeltet’s breathing to become deep and heavy. Neri could stop her hand and watch the eimeltet fall from the precipice of pleasure, but in her decades of service, she never did, always allowing the eimeltet to finish.

As Neri applied the eimeltet’s makeup, their eyes met briefly for the first time that day, the eimeltet’s long lashes and Neri’s sunken sockets hovering only a few centimeters from each other. A familiar look crossed the eimeltet’s face. It was a look that was inviting yet condescending, arrogant yet gentle, pitying her, for without the eimeltet she was nothing, not even paper.

A knock came at the door of the eimeltet’s office. “Captain Mirled brings the scholars.”

“Come in,” Neri replied.

The two scholars entered with the captain behind them. Brunhilde fidgeted with the silver top of her cane, occasionally glancing down at the thick stack of papers Weiss carried under his arms, most likely experiment results for the eimeltet. They looked tired, which Neri took sympathetic pleasure in seeing.

“I believe this is the first time we have met, both conscious.” The eimeltet spoke first. She gestured to the chairs across from her desk. “Please, have a seat.”

“It is an honor.” The white-haired scholar briefly met Neri’s eyes as he approached. There was a flash of awkward recognition across his face before he quickly returned his attention to the eimeltet. “May I ask why we’re here?”

The eimeltet smiled and waved her hands for Neri to serve the guests some drinks. “Coffee?”

“Yes,” his eyes lit up. “Please.”

The midday warmth, the mixture of the scent of sun-warmed wood and coffee, and the still air in the office threatened to pull Neri into a lull, but she poured all five cups of coffee with careful precision.

After giving their guests a moment to savor the drink, the eimeltet continued. “How are you enjoying Utaliha?”

“It’s pleasant, but I am still getting used to the lack of certain amenities.” Weiss shrugged. Then he raised his cup. “This is excellent though.”

“Wonderful, and I presume you have met my eimerteti, Telenu.”

“The drunk?” The bluntness of a man who had only been in Siklantel for two weeks startled Neri, and Brunhilde as well judging by how her eyes flickered between the eimeltet and Weiss in panic.

“Oh has he returned to his habits?” the eimeltet laughed. “I have been much too busy to give him much attention lately. Alas, you can see what he can do when he is sober. Utaliha is his labor. It is a place where people like you can thrive, insulated from politics.”

“You’re jok-”

“My lady,” Brunhilde spoke up before Weiss could continue. “Why have you summoned us today?”

The eimeltet took a long swig from her cup. “I want to grant your two bounties early to clear your debt immediately, on the condition that you remain at Utaliha as full-time scholars.”

Brunhilde’s eyes widened in shock. “I would be forever grateful!”

Neri chuckled contently to herself. Like Neri herself and the eimerteti, the scholar seemed to understand her place beneath the eimeltet. When each of them was offered a chance to join the eimeltet’s modernity, they all grabbed on tightly as to not be left behind like the iltsuen nobles.

Weiss eyed the eimeltet skeptically. “For how long do we have to remain here?”

“The foreseeable future.”

“Is that why he’s here?” He stuck a thumb out at Mirled. “In case we refuse?”

“I cannot stop you,” the captain grumbled.

Neri pitied the man who did not seem to understand what the rest of the room knew implicitly. He could be a member of the crew that sailed to modernity rather than continue as a debt-ridden stowaway.

Brunhilde turned to him with concern. “Weiss, you must take the offer. The eimeltet will support your ideas once she sees them as she as supported mine in the past. There is no reason to-

“You expect me to replace one shackle with another?” His tone of voice was becoming familiar to Neri. She reached into her pocket for a wooden marble. “With no other options, we are no different from slaves! I will not let you monopolize me.”

The eimeltet shook her head slowly. “The scholars of Utaliha are not my slaves.”

Weiss slammed his fists on the desk. “Then what are we? Your pets to coddle while you sit up here in your high tower? Your whores to use as you please while we pretend like we enjoy it?”

Neri raised her hand, holding the marble between her fingers pointed at her target. “What force should be applied to a ball of 1 g to accelerate it to 45 m/s over a distance of 10 cm? Around 10 impetus.” It was an approximation she was familiar with. With the intent to put a second bruise on the man’s head clear in her mind, the ball left her fingers.

A loud crack resonated through the room, much louder than something going at 45 meters per second should be able to produce. Neri whipped her head towards Mirled expecting to see a smoking musket in his hand, but his eyes were also wide in shock and his hand was frozen halfway to his hip. Brunhilde, with her head tilted down, looked pale enough to faint.

Neri found her wooden marble lodged into the doorway behind its target. Large splinters bloomed from the impacted area, revealing the pale, unlacquered wood beneath. Her marble had missed, no, it had been deflected and accelerated to an incredible speed. Neri went as pale of Brunhilde. Had Weiss decided to deflect the marble in another direction, she could not have stopped it.

The eimeltet leaned back and sighed. “What is it you want, Sir Faber?”

“I have an offer of my own: the rest of your bounties.” He dropped his stack of papers on the table.

Neri immediately snatched the top few pages and flipped through them. “These are all your own ideas?”

"They are the lessons my people have learned over the course of three hundred years at the cost of millions of lives."

Neri stormed to Mirled and plucked his flintlock from his holster. The captain cowered before the hobbling old lady. "Who exactly are you!? Where are you from?" With a shaking hand she pointed the gun at Weiss's head.

"I am from another Earth." His voice calmed. It was as if his outburst had occurred hours ago rather than minutes. "After learning about your world for the past week, it seems they have many similarities, but is several hundred years behind mine in development."

"So you've come to conquer us?" Mirled drew his sword, but did not approach the desk.

"No," Weiss shook his head. "I did not come willingly. I was... exiled, you could say. But if my own world rejects my guidance, perhaps I can give it to this one. I offer laws to make the world peaceful, reforms to make the world just, ideas to free people's minds, and of course, weapons to annihilate any resistance.”

“I think you misunderstand us, Sir Faber." The eimeltet folded her arms and leaned forward. "Siklantel has no need for such weapons.”

“Your wood and sulfur shortage say otherwise. Are you exporting gunpowder to the colonies like the other goods on the bounty list? Or do you need them for your own means?"

Neri pressed the gun to Weiss's head. “What did that damned drunk tell you?”

“Your own laws did most of the talking. Though I must admit I still don't quite understand your situation.” Weiss stepped back from the desk. “I can give you an asymmetrical advantage, but I need freedom and I need resources to make it happen.”

"You do not need to know our situation, you need to know your goddamn place!" Neri's finger hovered over the trigger. For a tense moment, the room stood in silence. Neri looked to the eimeltet, but her face remained blank.

"The kehnilt are struggling. Is that correct, Mirled?" Brunhilde broke the silence. “We can feel it in Utaliha, a certain tension between the iltsuens and those of us from Heton.”

"Mother." Mirled turned to the eimeltet, who nodded. “There is currently a border dispute with the Virdian colony of Karlia. To put simply, the local halinen people do not have a professional army like the kehnilt to defend themselves, but Siklantel cannot maintain the army alone. We are atrophying.”

"My lady, I am grateful for all you have done for me in my years at Utaliha." Brunhile bowed her head. "But since it has come to this, I ask that you give Weiss an opportunity to prove himself."

All eyes turned to the eimeltet, all their ears prickled with sweat, awaiting a judgment. After a minute of consideration, she sighed and let her face drop. “We have allies in the colony of New Avalon, but they seem preoccupied with their own issues to pressure Karlia. I created the bounties in hopes of alleviating our common resource demands through scientific means, though it would only be a short term solution. But how can I be sure you will deliver what you promise? Your story is fantastical to the point of absurdity."

Weiss shrugged. "I don't know. For you, it's a leap of faith. "

"For you to act like this in my office must have been a leap of faith as well."

"Then let us go together." He extended a hand.

Neri saw a new look bloom in the eimeltet’s eyes. The arrogance had been replaced with curiosity, condescension with alarm. She snapped her fingers. "Neri, paper." A new modernity was here, and it was her turn to grab on tightly and never let go.

The eimeltet seemed to take a liking to the modern word usage Weiss offered in the reorganization decree, though it took some convincing to get Neri on board. By the time the draft was completed, the sun had long since set. Weiss and Hilda walked slowly back to their quarters, even slower than was necessary for Hilda’s leg. It was the first time in days in which they were not staring at paper and ink, and they were determined to drag it out.

"Weiss," Brunhilde's voice was barely audible, but stern. "This is not what you promised me. You told me you would cure diseases, not start wars."

"Tyranny is a disease which sometimes requires force to cure, and what is the point of a cure if it does not reach the people in need?" He sighed. “I promise you, I wouldn’t provoke conflict unless absolutely necessary. I have seen wars that would make this conflict look like a street brawl. But to prevent something like that from happening, I must make use of every available opportunity to guarantee a good outcome for this world.”

“How can you possibly be so sure of your actions?” She planted her cane in front of Weiss with a thud. “I told you, we are all powerless to the whims of fate. If you push too hard, you will hurt yourself like I did.”

Weiss bent down and picked up a small pebble on the side of the road. “If you asked me two weeks ago, I would say I wouldn’t know for sure. Like you said, I was powerless and I got hurt. But here, it’s different.” The pebble began to move around his finger in a steady orbit. “Here, I can do truly unimaginable things, including building a peaceful, united world.”

He had only been able to finish the papers due to Hilda’s support, and her credibility no doubt played a large role in convincing the eimeltet. Losing her support and friendship would be terrifying in this foreign land, so he kept his eyes on the pebble, accelerating it and decelerating it while waiting for a response.

“Alright, I will support you.” The moment her words landed, Weiss looked up in excitement, only to be blocked by a single finger pointed at his head. “But understand you have not proven anything to me yet.”

“But back in the office you-”

“This is faith.” She turned her palm upwards in offering.

Weiss smiled and took it. “If that’s what it takes.”

They continued their walk, with Hilda trailing just behind Weiss’s view, but the rhythmic tapping of her cane was always close. “Speaking of what happened in the office, were you not worried Neri would actually pull the trigger?”

“I thought it was unloaded like the last time it was pointed at me.”

“How did you know?”

He shrugged. “Faith, maybe.”

Their laughter echoed off of the empty cobble streets and darkened office windows into the night sky.