"That was horrible," Helena wailed. "I'm going to be the worst queen in the world."

She and Winnie were sitting together in her Leguan officer's quarters.

"It wasn't that bad," Winnie said.

"It was. They all think I'm an idiot."

"No, they don't. You've been in office for less than a day. Nobody expects you to know exactly what to do. It's their job to help you learn. What's important is that they all support you."

"No, they don't. They just think they do. Their heads are all messed up and they don't even realize it. Whatever Alex did to them has rolled over onto me. Did you know the Chinese premier called me today? He said he just wanted to make sure I was all right, but I think he wanted to do phone sex with me or something. He wouldn't stop flirting."

"So maybe people are a little attached to you," Winnie admitted. "You could use the advantage."

"Yeah, because I have no idea what I'm doing. None. Everything I said in there was stupid. I was actually going to say we should stop hoarding food assembly until that guy pointed out that it's the only thing keeping us from all out war. The biggest thing I've ever led was a basketball team."

"Oh, uh... about that," Winnie said. "Ms. Montes wants to know when we're coming back to class."

"I can't," Helena wailed. "I don't have time for school anymore."

"We'll have to make time. The queen should at least have a high school education, but she says the school will work around your schedule."

Helena thrust her head onto her pillow.

"Ms. Montes will set up tutoring for you," Winnie continued. "And it sounds like the ministry takes care of most day to day stuff about running the empire. Although maybe not at first. Everything is hectic right now, but it should all calm down soon."

Helena still had her face buried. "Would you like to be queen? You still have the body swapping glyph, right?"

"I'm not bossy enough, but that reminds me." She brought out a folder from her bag. Inside were transcribed glyphs. "What are we going to do with these?"

"What are they?"

"Alex's backup glyphs."

Helena picked up the one on top. "This is the Sympathy glyph, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Is this the only one left?"

"Yes."

Helena started to tear it.

"Wait!" Winnie said. "Are you sure?"

"I'm not going to use it. That's something my mother would have done. I'm trying to prove to the world that they can trust me. I can't do that and use this."

"But that's the last glyph. If it's gone, the power is gone for good, and that power might be the only reason the ministry is giving you a chance. It might be the only reason we're not at war right now."

Helena gazed at the glyph for a long while. "No." She tore it in two. "I won't use it, and I can't think of a reason why I would that's not wrong. The world is better off without it." Helena continued tearing it into tiny pieces. Afterward, she stared at the remains. "Did I just make a big mistake?"

"No," Winnie stared with her. "You're right. It shouldn't exist. You'll give people shields, and that will protect them."

Helena looked down at the second sheet in the folder. "And this is body swapping, right?"

"It is. It's the only glyph in existence now."

"Should I tear it up too?"

"That's up to you."

"But I want to know what you think."

Winnie shrugged. "I don't know. What you're holding in your hand is the secret to immortality. Sakhr lived for thousands of years because of that."

"But we'd have to steal lives to do it. I'd be just like my mom."

"Maybe you could be open about using it instead. What if you only took lives of people on death row or something?"

"Ew. And live in the body of some slimy, tattooed convict?"

"Maybe one day we could make mindless clones of ourselves, and we take those bodies."

Helena regarded her.

"I don't know," Winnie said. "It just seems like there's a lot of potential we could be throwing away. I could just see us eighty years from now, swallowing a dozen pills every morning and leaning on our walkers, wishing we still had this around."

"But maybe that's why we should destroy it," Helena said. "Just like with Sympathy, sooner or later we're going to be tempted. And what if it got out? Could you imagine that? Identity theft would hit a whole new level. Like, an even worse level than it's already reached with all this mind-reading going on. Some old bad guy could break into someone's house, tie someone up, read their mind for everything they'd ever have to know, then switch bodies and take over the other person's life. Or worse. A person could take over a baby. Who would ever know?"

"Everything can be abused," Winnie said, "but it still might be the most amazing power that's ever existed. Maybe there are people out there who would want to swap bodies with each other. And I can think of a few ways swapping bodies with someone might be fun, even if just for a while."

"But I'm still not sure it's worth the risk."

"What about Alex?" Winnie asked. "If you get rid of that, he'll be in a tortoise forever."

"So? He deserves it."

"He doesn't even remember what he did."

"So?"

"I'm just saying. It's not like we're punishing him. There's no lesson for him to learn if he can't remember, and what if someday we want to release him? Or imprison someone else? Every generation, more flairs are going to show up with powers we can't even imagine. Maybe keeping the glyph around is a bad idea, but maybe one day we'll need it."

Helena looked despairingly at the glyph she held between her fingers, poised to tear it. "Oh, I don't know. Every choice I make seems like it could change the world forever. I don't want this kind of pressure. Why can't being an queen be all about fashion like I wanted it to be?"

Winnie put the glyph back in the folder and tucked it away. "Maybe you've been queen enough for now. Big decisions can wait until tomorrow." She her shield stone off from around her neck and set it beside the bed.

"What are you doing?" Helena asked.

Winnie met her gaze. Her mind returned to a place in the universe where their solar system was just speck far behind. Before her were untold galaxies of all different shapes and size, all unimaginably far away, and whatever lay beyond.

"Where do you want to go?" Winnie thought.

Helena removed her own shield stone and looked back. "Far away," she thought.