Page 35 of Stranger's Choice
All the gray spots in the futures she had seen the day before were the critical moments that meant the difference between life continuing as it was and true change. For the empire to change, the prince must be pulled from the shadows. Auraelie recognized this. Even if Peroen did not actively plot against his father, rebels would look to him either as another stumbling block after the Emperor or a hope for the future. The gray spots in the courtiers’ futures had the Emperor nervous. A gray spot in his heir’s future would push him into paranoia.
Sebin could not interact with the imperial prince. Auraelie had to tell him to stay away, otherwise she might have to report to the Emperor that his heir’s future was not clear.
That Auraelie felt strongly enough to impact her own power, to make a possibility a certainty, was shocking enough when she truly thought about it. But that wasn’t what had her ducking into the closest room to the portrait gallery and sinking to the floor.
She knew she would tell Sebin to stay away from the prince, but her words did not guarantee his actions. Yet her power had not seen a path that branched into gray, a possibility of Sebin seeking out the younger prince despite her warning. She always saw every possibility, that was the strength of her power, the reason its cost was so high. Yet from the moment she decided to ask Sebin not to approach Peroen, no possibilities existed where his gray immunity intersected the imperial prince’s future. There was not a single future in which Sebin did not respect her request.
When Evanie droppedSebin off in one of the public squares in Kalitalo, dusk was just falling. He decided to eat in one of the taverns in the city and try once more to track down Tjalik. He headed to the district he had identified on his last attempt as the most likely area for the interpreter to spend his time and chose a tavern he hadn’t yet visited.
The owner of the tavern knew Tjalik.
“The Broken Barrel.” He said with a grimace when Sebin asked. “That’s where Tjalik will be.”
“I take it that establishment isn’t up to your standards?”
“If you have standards, you don’t go to the Broken Barrel. I don’t know why Tjalik is suddenly spending all his time there.”
That didn’t sound good. If the man enjoyed seedier taverns, that was one thing, but if he was acting out of character? Sebin had already gotten the impression Tjalik hadn’t returned to his normal work after ending his service in the palace. After he disappeared from working as Sebin’s interpreter, really.
Sebin ate his supper at the Dusty Gohtadar, then followed the tavern keeper’s directions to the Broken Barrel.
He spotted Tjalik immediately, but the man he saw was not the one he had gotten to know on the journey from Moial to Pynth.
Sebin slipped into the seat across from him. “Is this what you have been doing for the past weeks?”
Tjalik looked up from his tankard. His eyes were red rimmed, stubble covered his formerly clean-shaven face, and all the energy and passion he had struggled to contain was missing. “What do you want?”
Sebin frowned. He should have tracked Tjalik down sooner. He switched to Continental. “I want to help you with your revolution.”
“What revolution? You saw what happened. That was only one man. How can we face hundreds of them?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Dienna. He killed her without even blinking.”
Sebin had never heard the name Dienna. But he put the pieces together easily enough. Only one woman had been killed in a way that would have driven Tjalik to drinking. “The attacker? You are talking about the woman who grabbed Auraelie? She was one of yours?”
“She was. Now she’s dead.”
“Why did she grab Auraelie? You never mentioned a plan like that.” Sebin tried not to sound quite as angry as he was, but he couldn’t eliminate all his outrage.
“It wasn’t planned. You can’t really plan against an oracle, can you? Dienna saw the chance to rob the Emperor of his power and went for it.” Tjalik slammed his tankard against the table. “She died for her belief in the rebellion.”
Sebin glanced around the tavern, but no one was paying them any attention. He leaned forward. “The oracle is more of a victim than anyone else. You want to make life better, to start something different from the selfish excesses of the Emperor? Then you have to be better than the Emperor. Auraelie is not your enemy. Harming her does not solve the problem. You need to end the treaty between the Emperor and the oracles once and for all.”
“And how do we do that while the oracle is telling the Emperor all her visions of the future? You saw what happened to Dienna.” Tjalik took another swig of his ale. “The Emperor’s bodyguard knew there was a threat before anything happened, and he is only half oracle. With that kind of insight, combined with the Imperial Guard, we don’t have a chance. We need an advantage of some sort.”
Sebin grabbed the tankard and pulled it out of Tjalik’s hands. “You need to start thinking. You’re right, you won’t succeed if you try to storm the palace. That shouldn’t be your plan, though. You aren’t going to overthrow the Emperor, Tjalik. You are going to steal his power and put it in the hands of the people. You are going to set up a system that will not turn into another emperor in another generation being just as bad. And you are going to do it all without spilling a drop of blood.”
Sebin stood up, the chair scraping against the wood floor. “I’ll meet you at the Dusty Gohtadar in two days. We will discuss how you can revise your plans for revolution. Be sober.”
Sebin would give Tjalik the chance to pull himself together, to be a part of the rebellion he had worked to bring about for so long. If he couldn’t face the risks or adapt, though, Sebin would move on without him. It didn’t matter that Tjalik had brought Sebin in; he would stage this revolution with or without the other man’s help.
When Sebin returned, Auraelie was equal parts relieved and hesitant. With the foreign prince back in the city, the Emperor would not call on her to scan his courtiers without reason. His paranoia from the last few days, his need to check the futures of so many, his worry over the gray spots in her visions would have made her roll her eyes if she had not seen herself in one of those visions. The Emperor’s fears were not wholly unfounded.
Which led Auraelie to the reason for her own nerves. Prince Peroen. The need to tell Sebin not to approach the other prince.
In Auraelie’s mind, the Emperor’s fears were mostly a self-fulfilling prophecy. His blatant distrust had the courtiers angry. Sending her to scan person after person only increased their ire, perhaps giving them the resolve needed to turn against the Emperor. The uncertainty was an odd sensation for Auraelie. She hadn’t seen obvious rebellion in her visions. She had seen signs of the overturning of the status quo. However, gray enveloped the turning points that determined if life continued on as it had for more than a hundred years or if change came to Pynth.
