The Other Half
12th July 2012
11:12 GMT -2
"…derstand that you want to stand by your man, Clea, but politically it's a
really bad idea."
Queen Clea's rejuvenation has progressed since I first awakened her. She's gone from well-preserved sixty something to athletic fifty something, though if you were seeing her every day you probably wouldn't notice the transition. This being Atlantis I'm sure that
someone knows that she's changed magically but as far as I know no Atlantean magicians have had a chance to study the Awakening process.
"I've been assuming that Orin
knows." She regards me with sceptical curiosity. "Do you honestly believe that he
doesn't?"
Does Orin know? It wouldn't be hard to have a genomorph get close enough to check, but I've found it's a good idea not to do anything you might have to deny in court later. I'm pretty sure that he had no agents in Venturia before Clea attempted a rapprochement, but now..? He
probably has agents in the city; the expansion of trade with the surface has required that a great deal more people receive permission to live in the city. But he almost certainly doesn't have agents in place to know about Mr. Hyde's visits, at least by palace intrigue means. If he knows, it's more likely that he has the city under external observation. Or he's been tracking the Manta Sub.
Though I suppose that after today it won't really
matter.
"I'd… Guess that he
doesn't. I think he'd be a lot more curious if he were able to link the three of us together, rather than just me with each of you."
"I don't much care whether he's pardoned or not."
"It's not the pardon I'm worried about risking, it's your easy economic integration with the rest of Atlantis. If you
do end up marrying him… People here
do remember his previous attacks."
"I suppose that's the disadvantage of reengaging with the rest of Atlantis. But
honestly, treating a mercenary soldier as if they'd committed a
crime by fighting in a war." She shakes her head. "I thought the surface world treated wars as morally neutral?"
"Wars are generally considered to be a bad thing, but as long as the soldiers involved act within certain bounds they aren't punished for the decisions of their political superiors. Other than by… Getting shot, obviously."
"There you are, then."
I frown, puzzled.
"Are you saying that if he'd acted against Venturia, you'd have been happy to let him go
then?"
"If I'd already killed his employer, yes. If I
hadn't,
then I'd kill him as a message to both my people and to his employer. But if I took any of his troopers alive I wouldn't kill more than a few of them. Is that not how they do things on Apokolips?"
"Ah… It being understood that I hate the way Apokolips does things?" She nods. "We don't really have that sort of social dynamic. Darkseid is an autocrat-."
"
I'm an autocrat."
"Yes, but there's 'autocracy' and '
autocracy'. You have supreme political power, but if you turned enough of your courtiers against you they could still kill you and replace you. You might not need their support
legally but you need their support
practically. Darkseid could quite cheerfully kill the entire Apokoliptian Elite himself with no help from anyone, and Apokolips would mostly carry on as it did before until he could replace them,
if he even bothered."
"How can he
rule like that?"
"A lack of interest in developing the talents of-. Oh, you mean in the practical sense." I shrug. "Beat someone often enough and ninety nine point nine nine… Percent of the time, they stop getting up. That, and actual mind control."
"He can puppet so many?"
"No, but the anti-life aura heavily discourages certain types of thought and action. A few -like my brother Scott- can resist, but for most… Myself included, it's… Acting against him is… Nearly unthinkable."
"But you did."
"Even Darkseid can't watch everyone all the time. Not yet, anyway. And I neither remember how I did it nor can say for certain that he didn't just
let me. He let Scott escape, after all." I shake my head, snorting with amusement. "I find it funny when humans complain about the tyranny of one or other of their own governments. They really have
no idea…"
"Ping!"
"Ah, they're starting." I bow. "Excuse me, your majesty."
She makes a shooing motion with her right hand.
"You are excused."
BOOM!
A portal opens in the Venturian embassy and I step through, emerging at the back of the Poseidonian throne room. David Hyde and two of his senior officers are kneeling in a pocket of air while a-. Oh, Queen Mera's doing it. I suppose that makes sense. She's taken small samples of their blood with a… Pen-like needle, which she's now using to write runes on the bottom of the vellum copy of their pardons. She doesn't need to write the whole thing in their blood -that would be impractical- but the anchor point for the spell needs something a little more emphatic than squid ink. Mr. Hyde and the others are in their usual scuba gear, though obviously they weren't allowed to bring weapons here.
She nods, and one of her aides takes the still-damp document and one of the pens to Mr. Hyde. He rises slightly, takes the pen and signs his name in his own blood before passing both back. A change of pen and his chief engineer does the same. Another change of pen and his senior marine signs his name. The document is then returned to Queen Mera, who checks it over with glowing hands. She breathes sharply, then nods and presents it to King Orin.
Orin does not look even
slightly happy about this, though I'm glad Manta and Co. are keeping any sense of triumph they feel off their faces.
"You understand that once I sign this, if you commit any act of violent aggression in Atlantean territory, your blood will be immediately transmuted into seawater."
Mr. Hyde has resumed his kneeling position. He nods.
"Yes, your majesty. We understand."
Orin takes a new pen from an aide and jabs it into his arm. He gives it a moment, then pulls it out and puts it to the pardon.
"By the power vested in me as King of Atlantis, I, King Orin, hereby issue this pardon."
He signs his name, and there's a brief flicker of magic as it takes hold.
"Now get out of my sight."
The three of them rise, Mr. Hyde slightly ahead of the other two. They bow, then turn and head in my direction. Mera gets closer to Orin and mutters something, which seems to calm him down a little. Yeah, I need to do something nice for Atlantis to make up for this. At least if I want to do anything with the place in future, which I
probably do.
I
exert myself, generating an air pocket around myself for their benefit.
"So. You're free men."
Mr. Hyde nods. "In Atlantis, anyway. How much does Horne want for a US pardon?"
"I… Think in that case you'll probably be waiting for his successor. Or… Some fairly huge act of public penance that you're
not getting paid for. I mean, you're not exactly… I don't know, Thaddeus Sivana, but
there's a limit to who a US President can get away with pardoning."
"Maybe you should have called me in to help with the Sheeda."
"You aren't equipped for that sort of fight yet. You're an important asset, and I won't give you jobs if the risks aren't worth the returns." I shake my head and smile. "How are you planning to celebrate?"
"I think I'm going to tell my
ex-junior gunnery officer and his floozy exactly what I think of them."
…
Ahh
hhhhh!