Some time after Dyrian left, Nuori had to face the first of his predicated meetings. A bit to her surprise, the first to come was Terrick, alone. Contrary to Dyrian’s speculations, Falia must have decided to stay back.

Nuori had never personally met Terrick but she knew most of the council by their reputations. Terrick’s defining feature in many people’s eyes was that he had no defining features. Most people within the Empire had a passion which they dedicated their life to. Nuori had her history, Falia had her art. Ky was dedicated to being a relentless angry asshole. Terrick had… being excessively reasonable? Being boring?

General opinion was that he managed to get elected to his position more by virtue of no one caring enough to run against him. The Empire had stagnated in policy many years ago, any changes coming through were generally extremely specific. Not many people wanted the extra work along with the shortened life expectancy of a council position.

He was mild mannered, polite, and generally unremarkable. He was however the fifth longest serving councillor. The same traits that made people look down on him seemed to have helped him not get killed.

Once elected, a council member served for life. When one’s lifespan could be practically infinite…

It was best to stay out of politics.

Terrick gave Nuori a polite smile. “May I sit?” Nuori nodded. “Thank you.” He turned to Spark. “My apologies but I feel the nature of this upcoming conversation is best left between me and your mother.”

Spark rolled his eyes. “Ah yes, this extremely secret conversation filled with political intrigue where you ask my mom to manipulate the Emperor using her position.” He looked at Nuori. “I don’t need to leave, do I?”

She tried to shrug. It was a moderate success? “Well, Terrick didn’t bring Falia so Dyrian has already been wrong about something. Might not go exactly as he suspected but it still affects you so there’s no way I’ll make you leave.” She turned to Terrick. “Why didn’t Falia come with you?”

Terrick’s exterior of professionalism had cracked somewhat while she was talking. “Dyrian came to see you?”

“That's what I said.”

Terrick thought for a moment but came up short. “Why? I can’t imagine he thought you’d be particularly amenable to his goals after the arena incident.”

She snorted. “No, not much of a chance of him trying for that. He apparently came as a ‘favour’. To tell me what I should expect to happen.”

“And he told you to expect Falia to come with me?”

“Yep, he's not too great a predictor I suppose, where is she?”

“Started a new project. Refused to leave.” Terrick seemed a bit disturbed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her like this.”

“Like how?” Nuori queried.

“Inspired.” He said the word as if that was one of the most horrible things in the world. He narrowed his eyes. “What did Dyrian tell you to expect?”

“Half of the council would come to see me. Only four now since Falia won’t be showing.”

Terrick leaned forward. Intent. “Which ones?”

“You, Tovadin, Ky and Alliandra.” As Nuori reached the last name Terrick blinked. Confused.

“Allie was intent on letting this play out. She was certain she needed to stay out of it. Why would she join in now?” He asked himself, not expecting Nuori to answer.

She answered, partly to help him. Mostly because she needed more pieces of the puzzle herself. “Dyrian said she made a miscalculation.”

“About what?” Terrick responded with growing worry.

“About me? I know it doesn’t make much sense but he seemed…” Nuori trailed off as she saw he wasn’t listening anymore. He sat in the chair lost in thought.

After a time he nodded to himself and gave her a small, sad smile. “Miscalculation...” Terrick stood from his chair and walked out the door.

Both Spark and Nuori looked at each other, confused.

Well that happened.

“Welp.” Spark remarked. “That was certainly strange”

Nuori shrugged. It was odd, but she had seen odder. As the door slammed open to reveal a man shaking in anger, Nuori knew this next confrontation would be on a completely different scale of the insane.

The first and only council member Nuori had met before this Emperor business stood in the doorway. She knew Spark’s perception of ‘strange’ was about to get skewed.

They were about to be yelled at by an angry asshole. Wait, Nuori corrected herself. The angry asshole.

No... incomplete still.

The people’s angry asshole had come to deliver his boisterous benediction of bullshit.

You have a mild annoyance? Councillor Ky is your guy! The slogan had once rocked the station a century ago.

People voted him in. She voted for him! Everyone thought it’d be funny sticking the shouty guy on the council. And it was funny! The first motion he brought forward was to ban people having pink coloured eyes. The punishment for said infraction?

Execution by volcano.

People laughed. It was a circus, rallies were held, people marched for the idea! For a time politics was actually fun!

Finally a vote was held.

The council obviously shut the idea down nine to one. While folks were sad that was to be the end of it. People moved on, the joke was done.

Ky though? Ky had made a citizen a promise and he would never back down. He had his own sort of integrity.

Seven years. Seven years of speeches, seven years of debates, seven years of sheer lunacy. If Ky talked to a person without the words pink and volcano in the sentence it was because they ran away as soon as he opened his mouth.

The woman who set him on the path tried to stop him, told Ky he could stop, that she hadn’t been serious. Ky called her a heretic to the true path. Said she had been corrupted by the pink eyed devils within our miste.

Most did their best to ignore him, the council though? Every meeting they had to deal with him screaming about the virtues of volcanic purification. Nuori didn’t think she’d be able to wake up everyday knowing that Ky would be ranting at her for an hour.

Neither did the council apparently.

The day pink coloured eyes were banned on pain of execution was a monumental day of celebration. The one person in the Empire that actually had pink coloured eyes was quite pissed but everyone else was joyous! Ky had finally shut up!

…

For a time.

A week later he began ranting that the ‘Pink-Volcano Accord’ was a tyrannical abomination which infringed upon the rights of the Empire’s citizens.

The council probably wondered what they did to deserve their wretched fate.

After a few more ‘Ky laws’ people figured out his rules. Every citizen got one request and after it passed he would take a week long break. Then he would begin his next crusade.

It was a simple system. The intrigue that developed from it was not.

If a person… let’s say a historian, were to send the wrath of Ky on one of their peers, they could face consequences. If the historian was focused on Russian history and had Ky ban translations of the Russian language, possibly in an attempt to hinder their much more ambitious late Earth history rival, the Russian history researcher had better hope the late Earth historian had no idea who he was. If she did know who he was… he might find a week later that the entire Russian language itself was banned.

Fuck you Opi! What will you do with your life now!

Nothing, she suddenly remembered. He killed himself a few years later.

Fuck.

Sometimes she forgot that part of the story. She had tried to tell herself it wasn’t her fault. He had started it! What did he expect!

But what would she do if her life's work was taken from her? Did she think he could just find another pursuit?

No, she just hadn’t thought about it at all.

Maybe she deserved to be listening to this ranting madman.

He was here because someone decades ago sent Ky on the path to peace. It became his first background thing, how was he supposed to push for something that already existed? He set it to the side and only brought his Kyness to bear whenever the militarists started making noise.

But when Ky did bring it out? He went hard.

Nuori’s knowledge of this is why she was lost in thought in the first place. He always prefered a target that was reacting.

Poor Spark, the kid was pushed back in his seat, Ky’s shouting face inches away. She’d have to make it up to him somehow.

With a ‘menacing’ wide eyed glare, Ky’s pointed at the both of them.

“YOU WILL REMEMBER WHAT I SAID OR FACE THE WRATH OF TRUNKY THE TUSK!”

Trunky the tusk? It was a good idea for me to check out of this one.

“I’ll try?” She responded with complete sincerity.

“YES!” He ‘smiled’ and left. She didn’t know how to describe the last face he gave but it showed teeth so it was a smile.

Nuori looked at the shaken Spark. “Have you ever wondered if he’s actually serious? Like... he can’t be, right? No one’s that insane.”

Spark looked at her, confused. “Mom… what’s a multi dimensional, fate pilfering, clock rudder, and why did he call you that?

“It’s creativity Spark.” Nuori grinned at him. “And it was probably an insult.”

“Okay. What’s a Wooly Mammoth?”

“TRUNKY THE TUSK!” A new voice shouted. “Is a wooly mammoth. Hopefully you never meet him.” The voice continued much more calmly as Tovadin entered the room. “My apologies for leaving you with Ky, but I figured after dealing with him you’d be quite amenable to the next liferaft of sanity.”

“Tovadin.” Nuori acknowledged.

“Sorry for the shouting.” Tovadin smiled. “It’s just that his name is literally spelt in all caps.” He sat down, confidently claiming the open chair. “It's technically illegal to not shout the name when you say it.”

A pause. “What?” Spark asked for both of them.

“It happened a couple years ago. Do people really not follow politics?” He winked at them.

“Why?” Spark asked the obvious question.

“Ky wanted a mammoth, the council wanted to shut him up.” Tovadin gave the obvious answer.

“Why do you keep him around?” Nuori queried. “He must be obstructive to any positive change.

“Besides the fact murder is somewhat morally questionable?” He raised an eyebrow. “It’s interesting to see what he does next. But Ky’s not why I’m here. I’m here to limit the damage.”

“Dyrian said you’d come, we’re not interested.” Spark immediately interjected with a scowl.

“Yeah, we’re probably good.” Nuori added much less convincingly.

Their early refusal did nothing to shake Tovadin’s easygoing attitude. “Dyrian is a man of absolutes, he likely thinks I’d ask you to misinterpret things for our advantage.” Toavidin frowned. “It’d be foolish. Let alone immoral, but Dyrian’s never held a high opinion of me.”

He shook his head. “No, I have a simple request, a reasonable one.”

Nuori sighed. “I’ll humour you.”

“Dyrian said he’d only ask for something that seemed reasonable and that we shouldn’t take it anyway.” Spark pointed out to Nuori.

“Might as well know what he’s trying to sell though.”

“Thank you.” Tovadin nodded to her. “You’re going to be teaching our Emperor an entire language, it may take some time I imagine.” Nuori snorted. “He’ll get bored, antsy, and at some point he’ll probably want to do anything else. I just ask that you show him the beauty of this station, of our people. If you ever talk about the ancient histories, focus on the dark times, the wars. ”

“What will that do?” Nuori asked.

Tovadin scoffed. “What won’t it do? What we learn and how we learn it can completely mold our perception of the world.” Tovadin looked at her seriously. “It may seem small, but it’ll get the ball rolling, little steps at a time. You don’t need to even bring anything up in the first place, he’ll ask you to show him things.”

“And what will you give me in return?” Nuori asked.

Spark looked stricken as he realized she was actually considering the offer.

Tovadin smiled. “Medicine and goodwill? After that show in the arena I think you’re already fairly amenable with my goals so it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle for you.” He got up. “Think about it, I know you’ll make the right decision.”

The problem was Nuori didn’t have enough information to know what that was.