Author's Note: I've fixed the name-mistake from previous chapters. Apparently, there were three points in Chapter 3 where I called Joshua by the wrong name. Then, when I went back to working on this after my time on Cameron's Legacy, I had forgotten the name, and stumbled across the only three times I got it wrong.
As to confusion about my AN in last chapter about changing the terms slightly with the crossover material, that wasn't referring to my mistakenly calling Joshua Jason, that was referring to the fact that it could (very vaguely) be legally argued that if something from that world's creative work is posted on before it's published, it becomes public domain, and can no longer be published commercially. The slight term/name shifting is to prevent that from happening.
Chapter 5.
((()))
When Siesta saw what had been done to Joshua, she was horrified. When she saw Cattleya, her body half within the Dragon's chest, and covered with his blood, she fled screaming from the stables. She had heard that Cattleya was fascinated with animals of all sorts from the castle servants, but had no idea that they had meant this kind of fascination.
She fled through the castle, tear-filled eyes and panic degrading her already-limited understanding of its layout to the point where within three turns, she was utterly lost. Still, she ran, her thoughts in panicked disarray as she made random snap decisions every time she came to a junction in the castle hallways, or ran into an entrance or exit to the various layers and outbuildings of the castle. Her panicked flight eventually ended in a secluded corner of a wash room, where she more or less curled into a ball, crying and shivering in fear, bloody images of Joshua's sliced-open chest-cavity replaying in her mind.
It took more than an hour for Gretchen to find her, and when she approached Siesta, the girl flinched away, instinctively trying to shrink herself into a smaller, less noticeable ball.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," Gretchen said, "But not as sorry as Cattleya is that she had to do that."
Siesta said nothing, remaining wrapped in a tight ball, face buried in her knees. Gretchen sighed, and dragged a wheeled cart into the laundry room.
"You can't hide in here forever," Gretchen said patiently.
Siesta made no response. Shrugging, Gretchen wrapped her stout arms around Siesta, and hauled her onto the laundry cart. She then trundled the laundry cart off towards Cattleya's menagerie.
((()))
The menagerie was startling enough that it broke Siesta out of her terror-induced stupor; the soft birdsong in particular grabbing her attention. She uncurled enough to raise her head and look at the insulated wooden structure Gretchen had just wheeled her into.
It was a large, cluttered space, with a low wooden ceiling, filled with small house-like structures, cubbyholes, and perches, with straw littered about the floor and in many of the cubbyholes and houses. Dozens of animals occupied the various spaces, as well as loitering about the floor or on the occasional stool, table, or chair. She had become the center of attention to many of the animals when she was wheeled in, and she shied slightly away from a large canine that she was not certain was a wolf or a dog.
There were chipmunks, squirrels, swallows, finches, doves, what she thought was a mole, a beaver, a variety of dogs, a fox, a few mice, and many, many cats. How the manager of this menagerie had managed to keep the predator and prey animals from killing or fleeing from each other, she had no idea.
Then a dappled gray kitten crawled up into her lap and blinked at her, and part of Siesta's heart melted. She reached out with shaking hands, and picked the kitten up, holding it against her chest, and burying her face against its small form as the tears began anew. The kitten made the rumbling, rowling sound that some kittens did before they developed the ability to purr properly, and rubbed itself against her face.
"Her name is Ashara."
Siesta jumped as she heard Cattleya's soft voice, raising her head swiftly to see the pink-haired woman being carried into the room carefully by Gretchen.
"The kitten," Cattleya clarified, "Is named Ashara."
Siesta shied away from Cattleya as Gretchen carried her closer.
"This," Cattleya continued, carefully laying a cat on the laundry cart Siesta still sat on, "Is Izara, her mother."
The cat was a largish tabby, with sleek, well-groomed solid gray fur, and expressive eyes. It also was missing a fair chunk of both of its front legs, hinged wooden limbs emulating the missing flesh and blood.
"She was found by one of the castle children in the forest," Cattleya said softly, "Her legs were crushed, and gangrene had set in. I suspect a running deer stepped on her legs, or something similar, but I am not sure. I had to amputate her legs in order to save her life."
Siesta shivered at the word 'amputate.' Amputation was all too often the answer to heavily injured limbs for commoners.
"There was blood then, as well," Cattleya said, "Nowhere near as much blood as with your Knight, but my hands were still soaked. There is no one within the castle who has more sure hands than I, so I took the surgery with the Dragon upon myself, to ensure it would be done properly"
Siesta gazed at Cattleya, hope warring with fear in her eyes.
"Mister N'bara was injured?" She asked tentatively.
"No," Cattleya said, bitterness rising in her face and voice, "That was entirely my mother's command. If he had not been so resistant to magic, we could simply have used diagnostic spells, but as it is, we had to physically inspect his insides to learn what my mother wished to know."
"…What?" Siesta said, her voice full of confusion and fear.
Cattleya sighed, and calmed herself before speaking again.
"My mother," Cattleya said, "Has determined that the Dragon is simply a rebellious familiar. A very powerful rebellious familiar, as he nearly bested her in a duel. Mother decided that it was necessary to learn as much about him as possible. Eventually, that resulted in what you saw earlier today."
Siesta shivered and looked down, distracting herself for a few moments with the kitten she still held to her chest.
"I will understand if you no longer trust me," Cattleya said eventually, "But even if you will still blame me, please remember that the Dragon's treatment is ultimately at the responsibility and order of my mother."
((()))
The day that the message from the capital warning of the Princess' impending visit arrived, Karin began to make preparations. The primary portion of her preparations consisted of conscripting the earth mages amongst her family's retainers to construct, and enchant, a small stone bunker in the outer courtyard, sized to house the Dragon. She then enchanted it against wind magics herself, and had another set of retainers enchant against fire. Finally, more as a matter of paranoia than anything else, and a niggling suspicion that the water-organ her daughter had discovered in the Dragon's breathing passages signified something, she had it warded with water magic as well.
All of these enchantments were simple and direct in purpose: to keep any magic passing from one side of the bunker's walls to the other. She did not want the Dragon reclaiming its sword through whatever conjurative magic it had used before. Once the enchantments were complete, she personally levitated the Dragon from the stables to the new outbuilding, and finally allowed the family healers to lift the sleep spell from the Dragon. The last precaution she took, was having the entrance of the bunker shrunk by her earth mages, so that it would be too small for a Dragon to pass through.
Then, she had a servant fetch a chair for her, and waited for the Dragon to wake. It did not take long, which did not surprise Karin as the Dragon had been unconscious for more than two weeks now. Karin believed that a great deal could be learned about a soldier by observing the manner in which they awoke; swift to move and act, cautious and observing before moving, or anywhere between the two.
When the Dragon awoke, its eyes snapped abruptly to full openness, but it made no other move. Its eyes immediately went to her, and it studied her warily for a long moment, before closing its eyes. A pulse of something washed off of the Dragon, something that made Karin's instincts scream. Her eyes narrowed as she tightened her grip on her wand.
"What did you do?" She demanded.
The Dragon responded by lashing out at her with one of its claws, but was blocked by a near-instantaneous shield on Karin's part. She retaliated with a powerful bludgeoning spell, which the Dragon could not avoid in the enclosed space, and slammed him back into the wall.
"That was foolish," She said harshly, and opened her mouth to continue, but cut herself off as the Dragon's entire body began to glow.
Its entire form fluoresced, and even squinting, Karin could see nothing more of it than a glowing outline. An outline which abruptly shrank, and condensed into the form of a man, after which the glow steadily receded until a naked man stood before Karin, staring at her. Karin was uncertain, but thought she may have seen geometric shapes along the surface of his skin glowing slightly longer than the rest of him.
"Are you really so eager to see death?" He asked, his voice quiet, and full of what Karin thought of as the 'Soldier's Sorrow,' the weariness of a soldier who has seen too many deaths.
"I defeated you last time," Karin said, "And now your armor and weapon have been stripped from you. What makes you think you could best me this time?"
Joshua's hand flexed, moving as though to grasp something that was not there. Unlike the last time Karin had seen him make the gesture, his sword did not appear within his hand.
"The magic of this world is impressive," He said, staring at his empty hand in consideration, "Barring me from soul-bound items is impossible by the magic of my world," He paused for a moment, raising his gaze to stare at her again, "I do not know who will die in here," He said, "But one way or the other, you will see death."
And he attacked her again, charging at her buck naked and bare-handed. Karin sent another concussive spell at him, one of lesser force proportionate to his reduced form, but Joshua nimbly evaded it, and continued his approach. Karin simply reinforced her shield, and allowed him to crash into it. Joshua had apparently remembered the existence of her shield from their fight the last time he had been conscious, and when she made no obvious move to defend herself, he timed his blow to strike her shield instead.
Karin was more than a little shocked when his fist burst into flame, and actually managed to smash through her shield. Shock did not in any way debilitate her combat ability, however, and she deftly leaned out of the way of his blow. While Joshua's fist and arm had penetrated her shield, the rest of him had not, so she expanded the shield, pushing him away. Joshua responded by jamming the fingers of his other hand into the hole in the shield, and beginning to pry it apart.
Runes across his skin had begun to glow, pulsing with fiery reds, brilliant blues, and an earthy brown. Karin cast a spell that pressed a simple broad wall of air out from her. Caught partway through her shield, Joshua was unable to evade the spell, and was knocked back across the room to smash into the wall of the bunker. Karin maintained the spell, pressing him against the wall to immobilize him.
"Why do you do this?" She demanded, "Without your equipment, in this enclosed space, you are no match for me."
"We are at war," Joshua said, matter-of-factly, flashes of power from his hands colliding with the wall of air Karin was pressing against him, "And you are probably the most powerful warrior in Tristania. This makes you a priority target."
Karin felt disbelief rise within her at the words.
"You still attempt to persuade me with lies?" Karin said scornfully, and used a small fist of wind as a physical rebuke to his mouth.
"Reality remains what it is," Joshua said, ignoring the fact that his lips should have been bleeding, "Whatever you may think it to be or not be. Simply denying the sun's existence will not keep it from rising the next morning."
Karin rolled her eyes, and sent her first of wind to smash into his face again, but Joshua just laughed softly as she did so, something that surprised Karin. Though they were rare, she had met men who laughed in the face of pain and death, but it was always an aggressive, assertive sound, a thing of defiance. When Joshua laughed at her rebukes, it was a thing of sad bemusement, somehow both defiant and resigned at the same time. This, she had not experienced before.
She attempted to silence him with a few more blows, but the only effect she could discern was that his attempts to break free of her spell slackened while he absorbed the blows. Probably disrupting his conversation, even if they do him no injury, Karin decided.
It was time for her to step things up, Karin decided, and instead carefully slashed a cutting spell across the man's chest. It had no noticeable effect, save for further to distracting the nude Knight. Tamping down her frustration, Karin began moving her blade of wind in for progressively deeper and deeper cuts, varying the part of body she attacked.
For her efforts, she managed to stop him from attempting to break free altogether, as he closed his eyes and appeared to enter some sort of meditative state, but had no other apparent effect. After a while, she desisted, and simply watched him. His magic absorptive-properties, apparently still active when he was not a Dragon, had begun to drag at her spells, and something seemed slightly off about him, as though his presence had become more ephemeral.
Moving closer, she inspected him more carefully, examining his body in detail from top to bottom. He had shaggy, shoulder-length hair, which when she had first seen him, was bound over his forehead, and tucked behind his ears. With the simple strap that had bound his hair now gone, she used a small gust of wind to blow his hair aside, and could clearly see his forehead for the first time, revealing a dark runic tattoo. Like the runes that had glowed on his skin when he attacked her, she was unfamiliar with it.
His face, to her surprise, showed no sign of the arrow wound that had been inflicted upon it the last time she had seen him in human form, but she supposed that was not exactly a surprise when it came to shape-shifting magic. To her even greater surprise, his head, neck, chest, arms, and legs, showed no sign of significant scarring, something extremely rare in a soldier with as much combat experience as she knew he must have. There were a few faded white lines, but nothing to indicate deep wounding.
The only other soldier Karin knew of that had so few scars, was herself. Considering the drive and capabilities that the Knight had shown, Karin was not too proud to admit he very likely would have been a match for her, when she was his age. Perhaps more powerful, considering the size and speed of his Dragon form.
She found only one other obvious oddity about his person, a pattern of faintly glowing runes on his left hand. These runes, unlike the others she had seen, did seem familiar to her.
In fact, they seemed to be in the script that Familiar runes appeared.
Gandalfr, they read, after she took a moment to translate them mentally. Something seemed slightly off about them, and why did that particular type of Familiar ring a warning bell in her mind?
Adjusting her wind-wall spell to allow herself access, she carefully reached inward to touch his hand, but as hers neared, she realized that the runes glowed not due to the magic in them, but due to intense heat.
Karin's eyes widened, as in a singular moment of clarity, she realized three things.
First, that her daughter's Familiar was, in fact, so defiant because the Familiar runes had yet to properly bind him, his immunity to heat resisting their ability to bind to his flesh.
Second, the Gandalfr was the legendary Left Hand of God, one of Brimir's familiars, which meant her daughter was a Void Mage.
Third, the Dragon-Knight had sensed her proximity, and his hand was snapping around to snatch hers.
Karin was fast, very fast, but she was also a woman in her forties, and the he was in the prime of his youth.
Joshua's hand closed around her wrist, and his body began to glow once more.
Karin immediately recognized what he was doing, made a snap decision, and acted.
The hand and wrist Joshua held were cleanly severed from Karin's arm by her own cutting spell, and one of the clones she had concealed outside of the bunker levitated her, and began pulling her out at a brutal pace.
Karin was swept out of the Bunker just as Joshua's transformation completed, and the Dragon roared, lunging after her, attempting to snake his head through the doorway and take a bite out of her.
He was met by four concussive spells from Karin's clones, which knocked him senseless.
Silence reigned in the courtyard for a long moment, broken only by two of the night watchmen calling down from the wall to see if she required aid.
"Send for a healer!" She shouted back up at them as she climbed to her feet, hampered by having a missing hand, and applied a small barrier of wind to the wound on her arm, to block the bleeding.
"Well," Karin said, eying the unconscious Dragon in front of her, and the smear of pulped flesh and blood trailing from one of its foreclaws, "This changes things."
It was time, she decided, to have another conversation with her youngest daughter.
((()))
Louise dreamed. It had begun when after her mother had knocked her familiar unconscious, and kept him unconscious, and in her few waking, lucid moments, it was not hard for her to determine just what it was she dreamed of.
She dreamed of Joshua's life, in a far and distant world, one so utterly alien to her own, it was almost unrecognizeable. She dreamed of his childhood, living aboard an airship that was so massive it never truly landed, instead sending smaller vessels down to the surface to conduct trade with farmers, and cities.
Oh, the cities. Massive edifices of synthetic stone and glass, they were formed of sky-scrapers that seemed to Louise as tall as mountains, though Joshua's memories told her otherwise. Some were more than half a mile in height, and almost a quarter mile to a side at the base, and all were full of people. Millions of people. More people than in all of Tristania combined, in a single one of the cities she saw in her dreams, and all of them commoners, most effectively wealthier than most of the nobles in any nation of Halkegenia. The wealthier denizens of the first city she saw in her dreams could have literally bought or sold all of Tristania or Albion.
While she was conscious on the journey to her family's estates, she tried to relate what she saw in her Familiar's world of metal, glass, airships and machines. It was hard, because most of the dreams she experienced were memories of things that interested a child, which in Joshua's case were mostly the implements of war, and games simulating them, and the wars of his world were fought in entirely different ways to hers.
As the dream-memories moved forward through his life, however, they began to focus on things that helped her understand and connect his world to hers through similarities much more thoroughly. Shortly after Joshua turned ten, his education began to focus on the fundaments of how a society worked in his world. Louise saw memories of touring a 'farm,' a title for an establishment that seemed far too small to her. It was absolutely massive, measured in thousands of acres, and operated almost entirely by computer-controlled machinery, which tilled the soil, planted the crops, tended the crops, harvested the crops, and then deposited the massive quantities of grain into the custody of other machines for handling.
The only human involvement was in maintenance of the machines, and rotating inspections of the crops to make sure the machines were functioning, and the crops were growing, correctly. Apparently, amongst his people, and most of the nations his people traded with, the only crops tended or handled by hand, rather than machine, were done by people who did so as a hobby. Because of all the automation, food had become so cheap and plentiful that the only time eating had any appreciable cost, was when one paid a person to prepare a meal by hand. Even 'hand-cooked' meals involved automated ovens, cooking enclosures that operated by means she did not understand, and machines for preserving or preparing food by chilling it, rather than cooking it!
And the kinds of food available! Delicacies that were so rare and expensive that even nobles could only occasionally afford them, such as dates, pineapple, or even chocolate, were so readily available that commoner parents had to warn their children against spoiling their health by eating too much of it! Other foods that simply took greater care in preparation were also commonplace, glazed pastries, seasoned meats, fruit juices, and even ice cream.
And food was only the beginning. Steel stronger than anything Louise could recall seeing before, was considered a commonplace, basic, and cheap material, only of any substantial worth if it was enchanted. Alloys of more exotic metals and materials she had never heard of before were used for all demanding applications, things like Titanium, Tungsten, Cobalt, Carbide, and many, many others.
Most telling of all, for all the things she had seen up to that point, magic was only used incidentally, if at all. Crops did not require the aid of nobles to grow swiftly or efficiently. Houses were constructed by machines directed by men with schematics and blueprints, rather than nobles shaping the earth itself. The enormous airships were assembled in equally massive shipyards over the course of months, out of pre-shaped parts, joined by a process called welding. While the larger vessels were constructed of enchanted metals, this was a matter of investing in high-durability material, rather than necessity, as it was either machine-engines or massive balloons of gas that caused the vessels to remain airborne.
By the time they reached her family's estates, Louise spent most of the time she was awake in a daze, trying to understand how on earth a world like her Familiar's could have come about, when Halkegenia had remained the same for so long. Fortunately for Louise, she began finding herself in dreams of Joshua learning about the history of his world; this was also when Louise began to suspect that the path her dreams followed through his memory responded to her needs and desires.
The night after Louise had determined she needed to know more of the history of Joshua's world, she found her dreams taking the path of a classroom that was blessedly similar to those she had known, if one ignored the computer interfaces built into the desks. The history lesson she was 'sitting in on' through Joshua's memory, and the many following it, described the development of society from what was described as 'feudal/medieval,' through 'industrial revolution' and 'information age,' to what was referred to as 'space age.'
'Feudal/medieval,' she learned, had been when Joshua's world had been much like her own, with nobles ruling over commoners, and royalty ruling over nobles in turn. According to both the teacher, and the text, the determining factor in the evolution of society, had been the gradual innovations of creative thinkers, developing metalworking and architecture gradually into crude machinery and automation. Eventually, this had led to the development of 'science,' a term encompassing many disciplines of study of the natural world, based on the fundament that a rational Creator would create a world that functioned in a rational way.
Once this practice was established, society exploded in advancement, as systematic study led to a better understanding of the natural world, allowing for more efficient farming, food preparation, food storage, food preservation, construction, tool-making, medicine, and war-waging. As the greater efficiency of first simple, and then increasingly complicated machines made gaining the basic necessities of life less demanding upon the work force, more time and effort was made available for people's own pastimes and pursuits.
Inevitably a portion of these pursuits were inventive, and bore fruit, further advancing the rate of technological development. Change in the fundamental way life was lived caused conflict within societies, and more than one war was ignited by the change to the status quo. Louise did not entirely understand how or why such things happened, but could understand the consequences, as tales of commoner classes gaining more and more power, then rising up against the nobility were recounted. In some nations they failed, in some they succeeded, but technology and the balance of power throughout the world continued to change.
The shift to the industrial age was a somewhat arbitrary time period historically, but it was oriented around the social shift towards city-based living, as factories began to consume more and more of the workforce. Steam power developing into a mature field was also key to the industrial age, allowing substantial use of energy not provided by muscle, which had absolute limits. To Louise's considerable surprise, while the Feudal/Medieval age had lasted more than two thousand years, the industrial age lasted less than two hundred.
With the advent of firearms, and the progressive improvement of both personal and wheeled guns, war became progressively more and more brutal, entire nations being created and destroyed within weeks. One nation, the 'Zefier's Republic,' specifically held up as an example had literally only lasted weeks before it had been torn apart by civil war, then absorbed by its neighbours.
What particularly shocked Louise, was what happened next in the lesson. The teacher, an attractive woman Louise guessed to be in her mid or late twenties, redirected the class to a discussion of why various nations had come to rise or fall, and in that, for the first time, Joshua's memories contained clear words, rather than remembered meanings.
"Now class," The woman said, "The Zefier's Republic was a particularly dramatic example, so I will use it to make an important point. Why did the Republic fall apart?"
"Because it lacked a single strong leader," One of the boys in the class said decisively.
"That played a part," The woman said, "But was not the underlying cause. Anybody else."
"The people of Zefier province had been fighting for independence from Argla ever since it absorbed Zefier along with the rest of Trey," A girl said more hesitantly, "Maybe because after bucking for independence for fifty years, they didn't know what to do with it once they had it?"
"That's a bit closer," The teacher said, nodding encouragingly, "But still not it."
"You're looking for something more fundamental, aren't you?" Joshua said, which was jarring to Louise, because in the dream, she could feel herself speaking with his voice.
"Yes, Joshua, I am," The teacher said, smiling at him.
Through the dream, Louise could feel the strain as Joshua attempted to figure out what answer his teacher was looking for, though his internal thoughts themselves were not a part of the memory-dream.
"It's because of what the people of Zefier did to themselves," Joshua finally said, "Trey was conquered by Argla because their society became weak in their affluence and wealth, and lost the strength to fight. The people of Zefier, at least the portion of the population with the gumption to do something, spent so long working themselves into fanaticism to break free of their conquerors, that long the way, they discarded almost everything else that defined them. They sacrificed their chance at prosperity under new rule to resist, their own lives to hurt the enemy, the lives of their children by indoctrinating them to hate, and by the time their children's children broke free, nobody knew anything anymore except how to fight, because they hadn't bothered to decide what they were fighting for."
"That's the core of it," The teacher said, nodding and smiling again, "Every great nation that has failed, has always failed not because of enemies out, but because of decay within. A society with a strong warrior tradition can be powerful locally, but will lack the ability to project, or survive a protracted war. A society with a strong merchant tradition can be wealthy, and field an army with quality equipment and training, but will rarely do so in time to effectively protect themselves, because their greed will keep them from having such an army always at the ready."
She paused, and carefully met the eyes of all six members of her class before continuing.
"No matter what other strengths or weaknesses a nation has," She said seriously, "If it has no unifying moral ethos, it will fail. If there is no demand for honesty, the leaders will become deceitful and corrupt. If there is no fidelity, marriages will crumble, and children will grow up emotionally scarred and belligerent. If there is no humility, petty men will destroy the nation from within, and its reputation without. If there is abrogation of responsibility, its institutions of law will crumble. If greed runs rampant, the economy will fail. This is why every nation has eventually fallen, and the only people groups that endure for truly long periods are nomads, and even amongst nomads such as ourselves, individual groups will fail. Any people that allows too much moral decay for too long, will reap the consequences."
The more distinct part of the memory ended with Joshua meeting the teacher's very, very serious eyes. Louise woke from her dream after that, her movement drawing Siesta's attention, who immediately set about getting as much food and drink into her as possible.
Before being taken back to her family's estates, Louise had come to rely on Siesta, both physically, and emotionally. Since her private conversation with Cattleya the day after she arrived, she had not spent a single conscious moment, where Siesta had not been tending to her needs. Of course, she was awake perhaps two hours in a day, and not all at once, as her body's exceedingly rapid growth and mass gain exhausted her physically, but her sleep patterns were not regular, and the fact that Siesta was always there, just endeared her to the girl even more.
Any one of Louise's limbs was now larger than the entirety of her body had been before, and the main mass of her body was embarrassingly huge. Also, she appeared to no longer have breasts, though as best she could tell through her fur, she still had nipples. She supposed that what she was turning into was a mammal, after all. Her neck was continuing to grow longer, and even though she continued to follow Joshua's instructions regarding circulating her magic everywhere except for her head, she could feel how her head was changing too, her skull beginning to elongate, and her teeth growing and changing shape into something more appropriate to a super-predator.
On the whole, she felt absolutely grotesque. Siesta, however, never once looked at her in revulsion or fear, and even took the time to brush her hair for her every day. Somehow, that act helped her feel like she was still human, despite the state of her body. Cattleya had taken to leaving her letters, as her visits never seemed to be at quite the right time to catch her awake, and reading simple messages of companionship in her sister's flowing handwriting helped.
Still, the dreams were preferable to being trapped within her own body while she was awake, so she made no effort to resist the near-omnipresent fatigue that continually dragged her to slumber. As she fell into dreams again, her impromptu course in the history of Joshua's world continued.
It was in the class that covered the transition between the industrial and information ages, that Louise finally came to understand what a computer was. Apparently, someone had discovered a method to use electrical currents and states flowing through or in metal circuits to calculate mathematical formula for her. Shortly after her invention, a man had realized that these circuits held more potential than for simple mathematics, and begun to develop more and more complex circuits and operations for them to perform.
This, combined with the progression of the telegraph into the telephone (as well as the development of the radio), and the invention of 'moving pictures,' something Louise thought was ingenious, all came together to create the fulcrum of the information age.
When all of these things came together to form the 'Personal Computer,' and continued innovation made the devices cheap enough for them to become a standard household item. This combined with an experimental project that had linked computers via hard-line connections to share information (which was called 'data' when stored on a computer), and created the 'World Wide Web.'
This web of information exploded in size and capacity, and combined with computers allowing ever-increasing automation, shifted the amount of workforce involved in procuring the essentials of life from the majority of the workforce, to perhaps a tenth of it. Joshua's history class went into considerable detail about the process, detailing how advancements made only in certain parts of the world during the industrial age rapidly proliferated throughout the rest of it during the information age. Over the course of a mere two decades the 'Internet' as it had also become known, became available in every part of the world.
It was during this time that magic entered the world. That revelation was so startling that Louise broke from her dreams, startling awake.
If magic had not existed amongst Joshua's people before then, how had their been nobles?
((()))
"This simply will not do!" Kirche said fiercely, "I don't care if she is the Heavy Wind, I will not leave Darling in the hands of that woman!"
Tabitha said nothing, though she did look up from her book for a moment, which for her was practically screaming her interest in the matter. The only thing that could possibly have conveyed interest, would be if she had actually spoken. Kirche was currently pacing about the messy clearing they occupied, while Tabitha lay back against Slyphid's side. It was no coincidence that the clearing they occupied was the same which had hosted the end of Karin and Joshua's battle weeks before.
"I picked up word from the castle staff," Kirche continued, turning her back on Tabitha and her familiar as she continued pacing about the clearing, "That Princess Henrietta will be going to visit the Valliere estates. I don't know why, but I'm sure we can use that somehow, I'm just not sure how."
"Princess?" Tabitha said in surprise after a moment, looking up from her book again.
"Yes," Kirche said, turning to look at her tiny friend, "Princess Henrietta."
Tabitha stared at Kirche for a few moments before nodding slightly, and pointing to herself.
"Get us in," She said, then turned back to her book.
"When?" Kirche asked.
"Princess," Tabitha said without looking up from her book, and Kirche nodded.
"We'll have to leave tomorrow," Kirche said, "Unless we're flying all the way there on Slyphid."
Tabitha just nodded, and Kirche decided that would have to satisfy her for now.
((()))
The next time Louise awoke, her mother was in her room, seated beside her bed, reading. Louise was not surprised when Karin noticed her waking up almost immediately, and set her book aside.
"Good morning Louise," Karin said cordially, "It has been some time since I have seen you while you were conscious. How do you feel?"
"Tired," Louise said, her voice a low rumble at this point in her transformation, sounding, and feeling, somewhat raw around the edges.
"Understandable," Karin said, "The healers tell me you have gained nearly a ton of weight since they first inspected you."
Louise scowled. If she had not already felt too large, she certainly felt fat now.
"Don't worry," Karin said, "I believe I have discovered part of what is causing your unfortunate transformation."
Louise said nothing, wanting to tell her mother that she had already explained the cause of her transformation, but knew that if her mother had not believed that Joshua was telling the truth, she would not now.
"I spoke with your familiar earlier this evening," Karin said, raising her arms, and revealing that one of her hands was missing, "He was almost as uncooperative as last time."
Part of Louise was horrified at her mother's injury, part of her was fiercely proud that her Familiar still fought against her mother, and fought well. Most of her despaired of anyone ever being able to effectively defy her mother.
"I did, however, gain some insight into him," Karin continued, "There are familiar runes on the back of his left, hand, that failed to burn themselves into the skin properly, almost certainly due to his immunity to damage from heat. I suspect that it is the incomplete formation of the Familiar Bond that has allowed him to be so rebellious."
Louise again said nothing, as it was clear her mother was not finished speaking.
"Of more import, however," She continued, gaze boring into Louise in a manner she was excessively familiar with, "Is the nature of the Familiar Runes that mark his hand. Once the bonding is complete, he will be the Gandalfr, the Left Hand of God."
Louise still said nothing.
"I suppose that has not been covered in your studies," Karin said with a faint not of disappointment, and if it wouldn't have hurt terribly to do so, Louise would have cringed.
"The Gandalfr is a type of familiar that has been seen only once," Karin said, "It was one of Founder Brimir's familiar. Louise, you are a Void Mage."
Karin was clearly finished speaking, but Louise still said nothing, this time out of shock. A long silence passed between mother and daughter as Louise struggled to wrap her mind around her mother's revelation, taking some time to bring herself to face the most basic aspect of what it meant.
"The reason then," Louise said, strain evident in her deepened voice, "That all my spells have failed."
"Because you were never taught how to appropriately use your element," Karin said firmly, "It lines up perfectly with your success in casting the Familiar Summoning and Binding spells, as they are the only spells we know for certain that the Founder used, as well as his followers. Your inability to cast spells based upon other elements is no fault of your own."
To Louise's shame, she began to cry. They were silent tears, and wary of aggravating the constant ache that permeated her body, she did not move, but they were still tears. Tears of relief, as the unending string of failures at every form of magic she had attempted since the first time she held a wand, the failures that had defined her existence, that had given her the name of 'zero,' suddenly were no longer her fault.
Aware of her mother's presence, Louise desperately tried to control her tears, but could not find the strength within herself to do so.
"Louise," Karin said firmly, and ingrained instincts of obedience caused her to meet her mother's steady gaze, even through her tears, "You are my daughter, and I love you. I will protect you, whether the healers can cure this condition of yours or not."
And then Karin climbed into her daughter's bed, and embraced as much of Louise's enlarged body as she could, heedless of her own missing hand, heedless of her daughter's twisted shape and the guttural sobs beginning to rise in her throat. That night, for the first time since she was six years old, Louise cried herself to sleep in her mother's arms.
((()))
Joshua dreamed. He had heard some with magical bonds dreamed of each other's lives, and had carefully timed his sleep schedule to avoid such things. When he fell into the hands of the Heavy Wind, however, he lost control of that aspect of his life. He dreamed of Louise's childhood, the memories that wafted through his dreams a chaotic mixture of events that, as best he could tell, were sorted only by emotional significance.
Louise had been happy as a young child, gaining both the benefits and the drawbacks of being the youngest sibling, favored with attention, but at the lowest end of the pecking order. Up until the age of six, there was little to impinge upon her happiness, save concern over her elder sister's sickness. The commoners that staffed the castle and worked the Valliere estates treated her with respect and affection, quite happy with the prosperity they enjoyed under the Valliere's unusually fair rule, and willing to express their gratitude to the youngest Valliere as she ran about the castle in the manner of all small children.
Considering the sharp rivalry for social standing he had encountered at the Tristain Academy, Joshua was more than a little surprised at the sheer number of memories he encountered that involved the Princess of Tristain herself. Apparently, Louise had been selected to be a playmate of the Princess when they were both barely more than infants, as the Valliere family had an unbroken tradition of loyalty to the crown stretching back for centuries. Joshua suspected that any other student at the academy would have made use of their status as a personal friend of the Heir to the Throne as a way of building social status with the student body. Most of their time together had been spent at the palace in the Capital, but some quantity had also been spent on the Valliere estates, and transit between the two had been arranged via flights with the Royal Griffon Knights, the Royal family's personal military unit.
Everything began to change once Louise reached her sixth year, and magical training began. It very quickly became apparent that every single spell Louise attempted to cast, would result in either nothing, or as became increasingly common over time until there was no other result, an explosion. It frankly bewildered Joshua that no one saw the potential military applications of her spells, especially her mother, as she was a fearsome warrior herself. He understood that there was immense social stigma with being magically inept in a peerage where magical ability defined nobility, but as time passed and some of her explosions became truly impressive, it should have been obvious that she was not short on power.
The ignorance of Halkegenian nobility aside, social stigma set in, and it wrecked havoc on Louise's life. Her once-liberal free time was rapidly consumed with an endless progression of tutors, all of whom inevitably declared Louise hopelessly incompetent and were promptly fired by either the Duke or Duchess, whichever was closer at hand. Louise's memories did not contain such things, but Joshua could easily imagine the disgruntled tutors vindictively spreading word of the girl's lack of magical ability throughout Tristania, and later, as the Valliere family went further to search for tutors, Halkegenia as a whole.
Her time spent with the Princess was gradually curtailed, until it stopped altogether when she was ten years old. What few casual relationships she had with the children of other noble families died even more quickly, and as the constant academic demand wore her out and soured her temperament, her relations with the various commoners about the family castle and estates became more distant and cool. Through it all, her father was a near-nonexistent figure, as he spent his time either managing the family estates, or, more often, away on business. Her mother, on the other hand, was a figure of ever-increasing demand. The only consistent figure of compassion and support in her life was her elder sister, Cattleya, someone about whom Louise constantly worried herself, on account of the girl's sickness.
Joshua's mind existed as a jumble of conscious and subconscious as he experienced the memory-dreams, his trains of thought and overall mentality nowhere near as coherent as while he was conscious. Even in such a jumbled state, however, he burned with anger at what he saw of Louise's parents. Considering what he had seen of the 'nobility' of Halkegenia at the Tristain Academy, the Valliere's were shockingly just and good rulers, treating their vassals as valued subordinates, rather than slaves or property, but they were clearly incompetent in their handling of their children.
The children of his people lived or died during their adolescence based upon two things, their emotional control, and the strength of their desire to live. Joshua was not so angry to miss that the Valliere's were not deliberately malignant towards their children, but the sharp lack of warmth and affection, and extreme demand exhibited by Karin, were incredibly destructive. Louise hurled herself into her studies with a vengeance throughout the rest of her life, up to and including the scattered memories of her life at the academy that Joshua experienced, that frankly shocked him. He doubted many of the tutors or teachers that had taught her had as comprehensive an understanding of the magic system used in Halkegenia that she did, regardless of age.
The principle reason for her fanatical study of magic, was that due to her mother's never-ceasing demands for improvement on her part, her sense of worth had become tied to her magical ability. Quite simply, Louis subconsciously began to orient her self-worth around four things; her mother's regard for her, her sister's regard for her, her ability to perform magic, and her ability to behave honorably as a noble ought, by the standards her mother and father taught through example.
Joshua knew that any conditional standard of self-worth was prone to disastrous consequences for whoever held it, but in Louise's case, her inability to control her magic, despite trying literally ever recorded method of doing so in Tristania, and many from other kingdoms, doomed her. It meant that two of the four standards she measured her worth by measured at, as her classmates had so cruelly named her, zero.
Joshua's anger burned adrenaline into his sleeping body, and the longer he dreamed, the more difficult it became for the Valliere family's healers to keep him unconscious. Joshua wished to act, and he would not be denied.
((()))
When Princess Henrietta arrived at the Valliere estates, there was, of course, much pomp and circumstance, as befitting the premier noble family of Tristania greeting the heir to Tristania's throne. Henrietta was every bit as gracious as her reputation held her to be, and the Duchess was the precisely welcoming host, in her husband's continued absence on business. And once the formalities were completed, the Princess wished to see Louise immediately.
Karin Valliere had a distinct, essentially omnipresent body language. She always carried herself in a way that suggested that she was at war with the world, had never suffered a defeat, and did not intend to suffer one any time soon, so it was best to be out of her way. Most people would be too caught up in this dominant aspect of her personality and body language to read the undercurrents.
Princess Henrietta was not 'most people.' Throughout the greeting formalities, she had observed that Karin Valliere deferred, to her, something that surprised her, as the Heavy Wind's reputation did not record her deferring to anyone, though she followed orders. Once the formalities were done with, and she had asked to see Louise, Karin had shown a discomfort at taking her to see the youngest Valliere, but absolutely no intention of attempting to resist.
All of these attitudes were momentary undercurrents, that Henrietta knew she would have missed if she had not been paying more attention to Karin's demeanor, than her actual words. Each undercurrent lasted only a moment, before disappearing beneath the overwhelming dominance of Karin's decisive personality. That was much more in keeping with the woman's reputation.
Henrietta had heard that her old friend Louise had a magical body-warping illness. When she came to Louise's quarters, and saw the…
…Henrietta did not have words for what Louise's body had become.
((()))
Louise's dreams finished their sojourn through Joshua's education in the history of his world. The teacher spent the rest of the passage through the more recent points of history giving example after example of how various nations had fallen due to moral collapse, and how to recognize the warning signs. Nations where people cared more for how much they were paid, than whether they found satisfaction in their work. Nations where the glorification of the individual became so over-wrought that few cared for any beyond themselves. Nations where people attempted to legislate morality via the government, rather than behave morally themselves. Nations where people simply became so wrapped up in their day-to-day pleasures, that they did not notice tyranny rising over them until it was too late.
The teacher made particular point that the entry of magic into society did not change things any more than the advent of the information age itself did. Nations still rose and fell, wars were fought, won, and lost, there were simply new tools with which these things were accomplished. She also briefly covered how the parts of the world where magic had been hidden away from the rest of the world for centuries, either modernized very quickly, or were summarily conquered by nations possessing modern technology, be they modernized neighbours, or nations from the technological parts of the world.
This part of the history was particularly hard for Louise to accept, as it was essentially the story of how commoners had utterly crushed the magic-users of Joshua's world every time they fought. Such one-sided conflicts continued, until, eventually, the mages of Joshua's world were integrated into the various societies of the world as common citizens. Some organizations preached the supremacy of mages over non-mages, some preached the supremacy of 'natural' humans, over 'unnatural' magic users, but no nation taken over by either ever lasted.
When she woke from this dream, she found to her considerable surprise, Princess Henrietta in her bedchamber, staring at her, eyes filled with shock and concern.
"L-Louise?" Henrietta stammered, "Is that you?"
Louise's eyes widened in shock and fear.
"Y-your Highness!" Louise croaked, groaning in pain as she instinctively tried to stand, so that she could bow, and every muscle in her large body objecting to the pain.
"Miss Louise!" Siesta burst out, alerting Louise to her presence, "You mustn't try to move!"
Louise's body trembled with nervous tension as her mind grasped desperately for an appropriate reaction to the situation she found herself in.
Henrietta's mouth opened, closed, opened again, as her eyes roved up and down the form laid out on the bed before her.
Louise lay on her side, as the bone, ligament, and muscle structures associated with her hips and shoulders no longer allows for her to lay flat on her back. Her central body was something in the order of eight feet long, while a developing tail added another seven feet to her total length. Her limbs were now clearly draconic in form, and the blanket draped over her chest and abdomen was not large enough to cover them. It took Henrietta a few moments to sort out that her upper limbs should now more properly be called forelegs, rather than arms, though they did not appear to be losing their thumbs. Both her sets of limbs were of similar length now, roughly three and a half feet long. Louise's neck and head added another six feet to her total length, her head the only part of her body that was still clearly human in origin, and looking nearly grotesque attached to the clearly-inhuman neck for it.
Louise's face, though somewhat stretched out and covered with fur, was still somewhat recognizeable as that of the youngest Valliere child, and to Henrietta's relief, there was no mistaking the long pink locks of hair that hung from her head, perfectly matched by the shade of her fur.
"It is you Louise," Henrietta said, releasing a relieved breath, shock washing from her face and eyes to be replaced by pure concern, "What in Brimir's name has happened to you?"
Louise attempted to speak, but an upswelling of emotion and confusion within her robed her of her voice, and all the words she tried to form were choked off before they could properly form. Henrietta swiftly crossed the room, and gently lay a hand on the over-wrought girl's check, staring into her eyes, compassion and question plain in her eyes.
"Duchess Valliere," Henrietta said, not breaking eye contact with Louise, "Would you please give us some privacy?"
"Of course, your highness," Karin said promptly, voice brisk and courteous, "If you require anything, please do not hesitate to send Siesta for me at once."
Henrietta nodded, still not looking away from Louise's eyes, Henrietta simply nodded in response.
"Unless you wish for me to stay," Siesta said respectfully, "I will wait in the sitting room."
"Thank you, Siesta," Henrietta said, "You may tell my guards at the entrance that I will be here for some time."
"Of course, your Highness," Siesta said, and quietly followed Duchess Valliere out of Louise's bedchambers.
Once she was certain they were alone, Henrietta retrieved her wand from within the folds of her dress, and deftly cast a privacy ward. That accomplished, she gently lifted Louise's head, still not breaking gaze with Louise's pain and confusion-filled eyes, and slipped herself onto the girl's bed, and rested the pinkette's head on her lap.
"Now tell me, my oldest friend," Henrietta said, smiling softly, and stroking the pinkette's head and neck, "What troubles you so?"
Tears began to form in the young woman's eyes, and she stuttered several times before she could bring herself to speak.
"I-it is the dreams, your highness," Louise choked out, her deep, rumbling voice causing Henrietta to vibrate slightly.
"We are alone, Louise," Henrietta corrected, gently but firmly, still meeting Louise's eyes, "I am not the princess now, just Henrietta, and you are simply Louise, my dearest friend."
"Y-yes your high-," Louise cut herself off, "Ah, Henrietta."
"Much better," Henrietta said, smiling again, "Now, tell me about these dreams."
Louise paused for a moment, looking away and taking a deep breath to compose herself. It was a rather long moment, and Henrietta realized with some startlement that Louise was inflating a vastly increased lung capacity through a mouth and nose the size of a normal human's. Once Louise had let out her exceptionally long breath, she focused on Henrietta again, and began to speak.
"I have dreams," She said, her deep voice more steady now, "Dreams of my Familiar's memories. Dreams of the world he came from before he summoned me, and they are… disturbing."
"I have heard of this familiar of yours," Henrietta said thoughtfully, "A man, some sort of soldier-Knight?"
"More than that," Louise said, "He is a powerful mage, and when he fought with my mother, he took her arm before she defeated him."
"A mage?" Henrietta said, "Strange enough to summon a human, but a mage on top of that?"
Louise nodded mutely.
"We are getting off topic though," Henrietta said, "What is so terrible about his world that it disturbs you?"
"It is not terrible," Louise rumbled, beginning to speak more quickly as she became excited, "It is wonderful. The people of his world have accomplished wonders beyond anything seen since Brimir himself, perhaps even greater! Their society existed for thousands of years, without the benefit of magic at all, and instead they developed their metalworking, and machinery, until their machines could do things we can scarcely dream of. The have farms, farms that cover hundreds of miles, that are run by a mere score of men, directed hundreds of machines in the planting, harvesting, and collecting of food. They have machines that fly without the use of levitation stones, their medical technology has given them an understanding of the human body beyond anything we have even conceived of!"
She broke off for a moment, her excitement dying abruptly.
"They have weapons," She said softly, her voice lowering to become so deep it was as much felt as heard, "That can destroy an entire city in an instant."
Her excitement returned as abruptly as it had left.
"And their cities!" She exclaimed, "Wonders of metal, glass, and synthetic stone, with towers so tall that they seem to touch the sky, with millions of people from many different nations living within! Their commoners live as well as nobles do in any kingdom of Halkegenia, and their wealthy merchants have finer dwellings than the Royal Palace!"
Henrietta's eyes widened.
"All of this," Louise continued, her excitement beginning to fade, "And the foundation of it all was built before magic came to these people, a mere three hundred and some years ago. They advanced from the feudal system we live in, to a world I would not have been able to comprehend without dreaming for weeks through Joshua's memories, in only five hundred years."
Louise's excitement had faded to depression by this point, but still she continued.
"Prin-," She cut herself off, staring intensely up at the Heir of Tristainia, "Henrietta, I have sworn my loyalty to your family, as lawful reigning monarchs of the land appointed by the Founder himself, as passed down since the Founder's time six thousand years ago. In that time, our society has made precious few advancements, and if anything, we have become weaker. In a twelfth that time, the people of Joshua's world advanced from a way of life much like ours, save without magic, to something so far beyond what we are capable of, that we would be seen as subjects of pity for how primitive we are. Their society is stronger than ours, wealthier than ours, better than ours, in almost every way that I can imagine, and we had over five thousand years of lead time on them."
Louise paused to take a breath again, and Henrietta could feel her begin to tremble in her lap, and see the fear and confusion deep within her friend's eyes.
"I discovered just a few days past," Louise said, her deep voice beginning to waver, "T-that the reason all m-my spells have failed before now, is b-because I-I'm a Void mage."
Henrietta gasped herself at the revelation, eyes going wide as she desperately searched for any sign of deception or uncertainty within Louise's eyes, but found none.
"Henrietta," Louise said, barely-controlled desperation coloring her voice, which had gone as quiet as was possible for her expanded form, "If the Void was not a sacred, unique thing to the founder, if being a Void Mage did not give him a divine right to determine how society should be, if the nations of Joshua's world are so much better than ours because they developed apart from magic, how can we justify magic, and the Founder's blessing, as justification for ruling over commoners?"
Henrietta had no ready response for that.
"I'm not sure," She admitted slowly, "I will need to think on this. I can certainly see why it would be upsetting to you."
Louise nodded very faintly, the motion drawing Henrietta's attention back to the her friend's physical condition.
"We can speak of that again later, after some time for thought," Henrietta said gently, "For now, why don't you tell me of how your body came to be like this?"
Louise nodded, and began recounting the tale of Joshua's summoning, and the events that followed.
((()))
Karin was glad that the Princess had dismissed her, as she desired more time to think about what she had discovered earlier that day. Her hand had only been replaced two days ago, and she was leery of risking another maiming so close to the Princess visit, but she was not content to simply leave the matter of her daughter's familiar at the wayside. Moving swiftly through the castle grounds, she returned to the bunker that housed the unconscious Dragon, and inspected its forelegs critically.
The cut she had made on the Dragon's leg had scabbed over, the blood matting its fur, but it showed no sign of healing with supernatural speed. Whatever abilities her daughter's familiar had for resisting and healing damage, both appeared to be dependent upon its active concentration. Truly, it was a formidable Familiar, and once its bond was properly completed, and it fully entered her daughter's service, Louise would most probably be the safest woman in all of Halkegenia.
This pleased Karin.
((()))
End Chapter 5
((()))
AN: I'm glad I'm getting such a strong response to Karin's character, as I'm making considerable effort to try to portray her as realistic. She's actually not some kind of terrible villain; she's a good ruler, a protective mother, a dutiful wife, and loyal subject of the crown. The problem is, she's also wrong about some things, and absolutely refuses to reconsider these things; namely that the Brimiric religion is wrong (explicitly a tool of the Romalian kingdom created by them to give them more power over the rest of Halkegenia), and she's not an affectionate, warm, or supportive mother.
People with authority in real life, especially parents, will become more and more obviously destructive as they consistently refuse to admit their mistakes, and instead drive themselves further down destructive paths. During one of my less-happy times where I was in and out of being homeless, I stayed with a family. Within the first couple days of my stay with them, I had a conversation with the mother of the family about the role anger played in arguments. Namely, that anger is largely self-gratifying, it makes you feel stronger, feel more powerful, feel better; it literally makes you physically feel good, as your body releases 'feel good' hormones into your bloodstream as part of the anger. I basically was saying that anger, as it commonly (but not necessarily always) manifests in arguments, is there for self-gratification on the part(s) of the angry one(s). She disagreed, but really had no coherent position on to why she disagreed.
A few days later, I found out why she disagreed. Her eldest son, who was recently eighteen and graduated high school, had committed a minor infraction, putting off a task. She called him on it, and he promptly admitted wrongdoing, apologized, and set himself to the task right then and there. She, however, was not satisfied, and began berating and haranguing him, angrily yelling and shouting at him about his failure to have already complied with her wishes. He calmly, coolly, and politely, apologized again, admitted his error, and continued to his set task. This pattern between the two continued for at least half an hour.
She, quite simply, made a habit of gratifying herself through expression of anger at her offspring, who were under her authority, and had no recourse as their father would not over-rule or contest her, and was therefore unwilling to admit that she was treating her children in such a way for purely selfish reasons. Especially considering her eighteen-year-old son handled the conflict between them in a far more mature manner than she did. On the other hand, she and her husband were generous enough to take me in for a couple of months gratis, while I had been homeless. My older sister also has had an excellent relationship with her for many years.
She certainly was not a complete monster, but as time continued to progress, the issues that she refused to deal with were warping her more and more as she refused to face them, and continued to justify her actions. Almost everybody does this to some degree or another, but it usually only really becomes a problem, when you put them in a position in authority, especially an absolute authority structure like parent/child, or to a lesser degree teacher/student, where those under the authority have no effective recourse. Then things get abusive, and those under the authority tend to get emotionally scarred in ways that lead to them developing similar problems.
It's a vicious cycle I've seen many times, and the only solution I know is kindness, compassion, affection, Love. Love that protects, Love that supports, Love that is patient, kind, and gentle.
This is a huge part of why I am a Christian, as when you pay attention to what Christ Himself said, He had fierce words of rebuke for hypocritical authorities, and constant admonition to treat everyone with Love, even your enemies.