Anyone who knew me probably wasn’t surprised that unlike Kajare, I didn’t hurry back to join the negotiations. Instead, I went to the lab. The last few hours and days had demanded a lot from me, especially when it came to dealing with people. Trying to be polite and nice to strangers wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time.

It seemed Mother understood that, since she didn’t call on me to join any meetings or do any political stuff after we got back. From what I heard, things were going well and the agreement was mostly finished, anyway. I could join in the last round of negotiations. Maybe I should, since this impacted my future. But as I dove into the paperwork left in my office, I found I couldn’t regret missing out on that.

Besides, it’s all about a healthy balance, right? Nothing wrong in doing something I like after a period of work I find strenuous.

Not that this was particularly relaxing, since I had to deal with some administrative matters first. Paperwork accumulating might be a universal law, just like entropy. But it also gave me the chance to really go through what happened and what the researchers managed lately.

Which was a lot. With telegraphs and radio finally finding more widespread use, it also seemed to have affected communication between the various research groups the imperial family, mostly Mother and me, sponsored or set up. Especially the universities and my own research groups, the one here and the one in the south. They’d made a lot of progress I hadn’t even thought about, especially in the small details.

After I put the last sheet of paper down, I leaned back in my chair, looking out the window thoughtfully. The sun was shining outside, painting a line of light down my desk. Some sound filtered in, and if I concentrated on it, I could not only hear the people hard at work around me in the building, but also those walking by outside or even noise from the rest of the palace.

Perhaps it was time to finally get back to my computer project. It had been going well until I spent less and less time on it in favor of others, finally shelving it for more immediate needs. But it had been in the back of my mind since then, and I was itching to start putting some ideas into practice now, working them out beyond idle distractions.

For the next few hours, I forgot my frustration with political arrangements and etiquette, diplomatic dances and responsibility in favor of paper and pencil, formation plates and electrical switches. I got up two times to confer with other researchers, waving away congratulations or questions about the other stuff. I even started building a model, then the next, as the day turned to night and the night brightened again.

I was still immersed in my project when Tenira found me. Her familiar presence caused me to look up, blinking as I realized that there were now a few more people around my workbench than before.

“Inaris,” Tenira said, sounding faintly exasperated. “When was the last time you slept?”

I shrugged and let the contents of the table disappear into my storage ring for now. I might be focused on them, but I would still prefer to talk to her privately. “Let’s go to my office. It’s nice to see you again, by the way. I missed you.”

She harrumphed, but I could see the tension in her face relax a little. I wasn’t quite sure why she seemed to be grumpy at me, but there were several possibilities.

Once I pulled over a chair for her in my office and sat down, I answered her question. “I took a nap in the airship from the mountains to Western Port, with Mior watching closely.” I shrugged. “You know I shouldn’t go to sleep and dream. Mior still hasn’t cleared me, so to speak.”

Tenira sighed. “Alright. But you should at least drink something and take care of your appearance. You don’t look very presentable, Inaris.”

I pulled a face. “I did all of that while I was with the envoys, don’t worry. Anyway, how have you been, Tenira? Is Lei here as well?”

“Good. Yes, he’s talking with some of the others, it seems.”

Now that she mentioned it, once I looked for it I found my friend’s aura two rooms over in another workshop. Aston was outside in the corridor, and other guards spread throughout the building and its perimeter.

I turned away and quickly cleared one of the tables, then put down my models on it again. The one on the left had lost some of the paper I’d put in as a quick imitation of punch cards. I straightened that out, making sure that the wires and fiddly bits were all properly connected. I wasn’t really a tech person, I preferred the theoretical to practical work, but everything worked okay so far.

After Tenira had been silent for a few seconds, I glanced back up at her, finding that she still looked at me with a bit of a frown. I hid a sigh and turned to face her fully. “You’re upset with me, aren’t you? I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “I just wish you’d been a little more, well, open. I would’ve liked to accompany you on that trip to the mountains, and I know Lei would have, as well. But you were gone before we even had the chance to join you.”

I nodded and had to work not to lower my gaze, feeling a stab of guilt. “Yeah. I’m sorry, Tenira.”

“And then there’s this betrothal.” Her expression tightened just a bit. “This is the kind of thing I would have liked to hear from you, not Aiki Ilia, Inaris.”

I grimaced. I hadn’t told her about that right away. I just wanted a bit of time to decide how to handle things. I looked up at her. “I understand.”

For a moment, we sat in silence. It was probably the most awkward silence I’d ever experienced in a conversation with Tenira. She hadn’t addressed the alliance and betrothal itself yet. I felt like it hung in the air between us like a hidden weight. Though I knew that was just me.

“Well,” she finally said. “With that out of the way, I should go check on the others and get started on setting up the things I brought back.”

“Wait, please,” I said, stopping her as she was rising from the chair. “I’d like to talk to you about these things.”

She regarded me in silence for a moment, before she sat back down. “Of course, my lady.”

I opened my mouth to apologize again, this time for not conferring with her before I made a decision, but then I paused. I just shook my head. “I would have liked to talk to you about these things before they were decided, Tenira. But you weren’t here. I wouldn’t let Mother wait for something that was actually pretty clear.”

“Well, I’m glad this is such an easy decision for you,” she said, tilting her head slightly. “I wouldn’t have thought so, to be honest. I’ve been a little worried about how you would deal with some cultural aspects.”

I snorted. “That’s probably smart of you.” Then I sighed again. “I don’t want to do something like this, Tenira. But like I told Mother, it’s important for the Empire and pretty much the least I can do.”

“I understand.” She gave me a smile, finally. So what if it wasn’t particularly bright. “But I’m glad you’re taking these things so seriously. I know you’ll deal with it. And I’m here for you.”

I returned her smile, trying to hide my mixed feelings at her words. A hidden part of me didn’t want her to be so accepting and even encouraging. Although I wasn’t even sure how much of that was because she felt she should.

“Anyway, what do you think about it?” I asked.

“A closer alliance with the Kingdom of Terbekteri is a good decision,” she answered promptly. “Our capacities for exports are rising steadily and they have always been a reliable trade partner. Their military is strong, and we can use all the help we can get to discourage the Zarian. Using a marriage to cement this alliance is normal and seems promising. It is a fitting match for you.”

I stood up, suddenly feeling a bit restless, and started pacing. “And that’s all there is to it?”

She stood up as well. “That’s what you should focus on.”

I stopped. How did this go from her being upset about this to talking it up to me, anyway? This was so impersonal, too.

“Enough of this,” I decided finally. “It’s is going to happen anyway. Thanks for humoring me. But now, let’s get back to work.”

Tenira raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. “As you wish. Were you working on that computer idea of yours? It looks like you made some progress.”

I stepped to the table and straightened things out once more. I couldn’t help but smile while I did it, a little proud of my progress. So I pushed thoughts of marriages out of my mind and focused on telling her about my project. “This one, on the left, it pretty much where we were at when I stopped this. It’s a simple machine, pretty much a simplistic computer already. You could use it to do some elementary math, although it would only work with whole numbers. And not too large numbers, I suppose.”

Tenira took a step closer, looking at it intently. “I remember. A marvelous little machine on its own.”

I smiled and turned to the model beside it. This one wasn’t quite finished, but most of the work was done. “This will be something else. The general principle is the same. We have this plate with formations to form the actual data storage. I was experimenting with that or electrical switches. Not much of a difference, we only need an ‘on’ and ‘off’ setting that’s easily changed and doesn’t degrade. Then here is the actual machine. This part is going to be used for input, and here a sort of screen for output. I’ve been trying to make it so you can put programs on punch cards and have them be executed, like early computers from my world.”

The whole thing was rather similar to the Z3, I figured, or other machines like that. Or it would be once it was really finished.

Tenira leaned forward, looking fascinated. “Truly impressive. I suppose these buttons let you operate it manually? And here it shows the result of the calculations. It does look similar to your first effort, I have to admit. Where’s the difference?”

“Well, beside a few technical improvements, mainly the actual computing,” I explained. “This machine can handle floating-point numbers. Probably not very well, all things considered. We haven’t finished it yet, but the principle should work. This makes it a lot more useful, doesn’t it?”

“I’d say so,” she agreed. “I know many of the others will be clamoring to have one of these to help in the calculations they do on their projects. How easy are they to replicate?”

I took a step back and frowned. “Well, they’ll have to be custom-built. I doubt we’ll manage to automate construction of computers for some time, yet. Especially as I’ve been using formation-based storage, since we just can’t get real transistors yet. But it shouldn’t be too difficult if we’re working from precise plans and have cultivators shape the parts to fit.”

I could just get many people from the team to do that, as well. Combine it with teaching them how to build these.

“Well, you need to finish it first,” Tenira said, stepping away as well and turning to face me. “For now, maybe we should take a look at what the others have been doing? I’m curious.”

I nodded and quickly packed up the models. I’d drop them off with Lei or one of the others helping me with the project. “Yeah, we should probably make sure Lei doesn’t encourage the others to burn the place down.”

Tenira chuckled. “Like that time he almost fried the generator we were trying to install because he wanted to test if it could deal with electricity in the form of lightning?”

I grinned. “More like that time he concentrated a beam of light from a technique so much it almost burned through the fence around the training courtyard. That was impressive. Or was that you?”

Tenira grimaced. “Yeah, that was me. Although …” she stopped and looked at me more intently. “Did he tell you that? I’m pretty sure I swore both of you to secrecy after that. He promised he wouldn’t tell anyone. That little traitor …”

“Wait.” I leaned against the wall and shook my head. “He didn’t actually tell me that.”

“Then how do you know? That was months before your soul journey.”

“Really? Well, I guess of course it was.” I frowned and tried to search my memory. I knew it couldn’t have been something I myself witnessed, since I would recall that perfectly if it was. But I did have a vague feeling about it.

“Inaris, how do you know about that? And what do you know?”

“I guess it was a shock. I think I was just immersed in mastering a technique or something? Not sure.” I pushed off the wall and started pacing again. “It’s pretty vague, like a distant memory. Well, that’s interesting.”

“Inaris!” Tenira’s sharp tone pulled my from my thoughts. She stepped closer and literally blocked my pacing. “What’s been going on with you? Have you gotten flashes of your old memories before?”

I nodded, meeting her gaze seriously. “I’ve been getting feelings and impressions. Subtle things. Knowing a word I shouldn’t have, and only realizing that later. I wouldn’t even call them flashes, it’s more like the subconscious stuff I got from the old Inaris became a little clearer, maybe a little more. Mostly personal things. It hasn’t happened often.”

“And why?” Tenira regarded me with narrowed eyes.

I sighed, then started telling her about my meeting with the Pioneer, Isuro, at the old fortress. The way I’d ended things, how I’d tried to reach for my old memories.

“It didn’t work like I might have hoped, but I’ve gotten a few hints since then,” I concluded. “Like I said, just scattered, subtle stuff. I can’t remember these things if I try.”

Tenira looked at me with wide eyes. Finally, she shook her head. “Do you realize what that means?”

“Of course! I’ve made a great step forward in understanding the way qi interlaces with mental processes, and its property in being able to store information. And proved in principle that it’s possible to retrieve memories once thought lost.”

She nodded. “Exactly. This is remarkable work, even if you were stupid in doing it.”

I would’ve definitely gotten some attention with that on Earth. “I wonder if that might even bear on usual cognitive processes and our understanding of the neuroscience behind memory?” I mused thoughtfully, then focused on the present. “I’m not sure how to continue on this path, but I’ll figure something out.”

Tenira smiled widely. “Well, if you do, let me know! I wouldn’t mind a clearer recall of what happened before my soul journey. No one would. Although it’s probably smart of you to keep this quiet now.”

I smiled at the thought of what might happen if we could truly turn this curse into a blessing. That won’t be easy, though, if it’s even possible.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door. Without waiting for a response, the door opened. Aston walked in, his aura tightly controlled, and bowed.

“What’s up, Mior?” I asked.

“How did you know I was involved?” they asked, the voice again sounding like a mix of both, though Mior’s influence was subtle.

Aston wouldn’t just walk in, obviously. I waved that aside. “Doesn’t matter. What’s going on?”

“The negotiations are drawing to a close. They will be signing the treaty this evening. Prince Kajare will stand in for his Father. Your betrothal will also be officially announced.”

I sighed. “Wonderful news, right? Do I need to be there?”

Aston-Mior shrugged. Tenira chimed in, “You definitely should.”

“Okay then.”

My guard grinned again. This time, I could tell Mior’s telepathic voice was directed at her, though I could hear it as well. ‘You had better ensure the princess prepares for it in time, lest she be too absorbed in her work.’

I rolled my eyes and pushed past them, opening the door. “Wasn’t that your job, Aston?”

Without waiting for a reply, I left down the hallway. I intended to become absorbed in my work.