If “Activity” May Be Disentangled From “Effectiveness,” It Invariably Shall Become So

  The days to come changed nothing about Dirant's professional responsibilities, but his personal schedule altered considerably. “Medant is found and enjoying the remainder of his vacation. The tourists and townsfolk are all at liberty to the extent they previously were, and many from both populations have made use of it to depart. 'All those matters which occupied and enriched me are settled, contentment is declared emperor by acclamation, and I am desolate.' I thought that to be an unreasonable passage when the school forced me to read it, and nothing has happened to change my mind. Leisure is not only endurable but desirable. Even so, the rapid change from one condition to the other is unsettling.”

  “I know myself that it is, but soon you will become so accustomed to the sedate life that returning to the empty frenzy of Fennizen will seem a sentence of exile to you,” Siltwo prophesied. Dirant had repaired to Ividottlof again, his sole remaining refuge from the Preservation Ritual and the revocation thereof, and dropped by Silapobant's home with a gift of a model of a double ziggurat in the Ava style wrought in wood by famed engineer Taomenk Genarostaf. In addition to his paid work, Taomenk had been staying up into the morning working out proposals to construct such an edifice, and the many models he fabricated were filling up his cabin until Dirant offered to hand them out as curious vases, pen holders, and coin banks.

  Later that day he gave one to Takki, who might have been expected to suffer the torments of inactivity far more than people who had not been lured there by signs of adventure. “I do miss the rescue missions,” she told him on their quest to gaze at an exceptionally ugly tree she had found while searching for brigands and Medants. “If you can do something rewarding within your competence that doesn't take much time and is unquestionably moral and you refuse, you might already be dead, and ghosts don't exist.”

  “The same was believed of fairies.”

  “That's different.” Takki adopted the tone of an accountant explaining to a client the difference between credit and debit. “We knew fairies used to exist. We came across a secluded enclave of them, that's all. It's a wonderful surprise, but nothing like proving ghosts are real.”

  “Mrs. Atkosol does not belong to that enclave.”

  “There are exceptions to everything, Ressi. Also.” Takki paused to ensure no one on the hill could overhear them barring squirrels and chatty, self-absorbed birds. “If every fairy were in Mrs. Atkosol's position, in possession of a class I mean, what would be the practical distinction? If someone who has Adaban grandparents and Obenec great-grandparents pays her fees, she's a Jalpi Peffu in every non-academic sense. Mrs. Atkosol's situation isn't the same, but maybe we aren't crazy if we say it isn't completely incomparable. Or to lie back down, a house isn't haunted if the ghost doesn't cause trouble.”

  Dirant refrained from mentioning that the Adaban grandparents were in fact Mabonns, first because correcting someone with regard to her own family tree reeked of presumption regardless of accuracy, and second because he was unsure Takki realized she had just used herself as an example. She may have simply seized on the first hypothetical which came to mind, particularly given her use of the plural. “Conceiving of Mrs. Atkosol playing the part of a fairy queen according to the typical depiction is a considerable challenge it is true, while Jiojjil fits in the equivalent role more like the circular block fits in the circular hole in your youngest brother's playset. Even so, Mrs. Atkosol may have unusual abilities applicable outside fairyland for all that she has not to my knowledge employed any, and it is possible other fairies are less restrained in their use. The finest debaters of Pavvu Omme Os may be fairies. Ah, that tree is remarkably ugly, and if it is not the one you mentioned before, we must introduce the two. They will surely establish a friendship of equals.”

  “That's the one, but now you've made me sad it won't ever find a boon companion. I wonder if Iflarent did any silviculture. Look at the extreme curve of the trunk. Are we sure that isn't an artificial phenomenon?”

  “In this state, even sick cows are afflicted by ancient inventions rather than the usual causes, or so I presume from the story. We will discover the sun seen from here is in reality a giant Ertithan lamp which obscures the genuine thing.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “We can investigate that, too. That calls for a lot of hiking, but the exercise will help you be less jittery.” Seeing Dirant's surprise, Takki put a hand to her scarf. “Oh! Was I not supposed to mention that? Are Adabans sensitive about being jittery, or is it just you?”

  “Ah, no, rather I was unaware I was jittery. Reconciling myself to my reduced schedule is perhaps more of an effort than I believed. Furthermore . . . but no. You will believe you are being humored should I continue.”

  “I promise I won't.”

  “An authority I trust for reasons related to my class abilities intimated some trouble may be imminent, and the very vagueness of the warning disturbs my equanimity.”

  “And I know how highly you value your equanimity, Ressi. We all do. I can prolong my stay a little if you think that would help stabilize it. We should examine Cowsick Point in case the artificial sun has its headquarters there.”

  Cowsick Point presented an aspect much changed from before. Instead of a barren stretch of ground which might have been picked over by inferno sheep if such an animal existed, it had become strips of single materials, a sight disbelieved by the normal traveler and unwelcome to one qualified to contribute to a gazetteer on the guest world. There was a single difference between the two scenes, which was the odd purple tint which covered the landscape like a sheath. As startling as the transformation was, traditionalists had the consolation that the commemorative marker remained.

  Takki approached the edge of the affected area, knelt, examined the line where the new met the old, and looked across toward the marker, thoughtfully.

  Dirant objected to the thoughts he knew her to be having. “Experimenting is irresponsible until we are sure this circumstance has been made widely known.”

  “I was thinking that too, but I didn't want to be. All right.” She stood and turned away from the spectacle in the manner of a Dvanjchtlivan noble who, constrained by modern laws and societal convention, has to permit another to ride away on a peerless destrier she covets merely because he happens to be the owner. “I'll inform everyone and then come back.”

  Takki's return was not so prompt as that, for the report occasioned much interest, anxiety, and countless demands for repetition. Others whose time was either their own or belonged to employers who liked their reporters to leave their chairs on occasion if only to reduce furniture replacement costs went themselves to confirm the claim. Of course they did confirm it, whereupon the matter grew in the public perception to something which required the most serious consideration.

  Atkosol Tellanstal had made a career of considering things, often in public, and accordingly he declared an assembly for that evening which, if not official, was all the more attractive for that. A sense of obligation suffused governmentally mandated proceedings and discouraged the complete liberty of speech which Atkosol professed to be desirable. An unprecedented potential emergency, after all, admitted no routine response. Moreover, the affair was held in the middle of camp, a rude town square to which attendees brought their own chairs or even sat on the ground. That simplicity further encouraged participants to exercise the freedom and equality they imagined their ancestors to have. That is to say, they suffered Mr. Atkosol to take the entire management into his hands out of their respect for him and obeyed him in every respect just as if he were a chief in possession of a hill fort and they his dependents.

  Taomenk Genarostaf exploited that liberty to expound his theory at the meeting's commencement. “About guests and such I don't know more today than when I met my dear mother, and the same for Ertith magical traps. I don't need to. It's clear to all that what I propose we name the Generational Dynamic was directed against that Omega Despoiler fellow, whatever that is. It kept him subdued as planned, but when he died, the loop broke. The Generational Dynamic continued to operate but casts off byproduct we should stop calling Ertith Energy, because their superior process never caused this waste. No, it did not. It's no great problem now that we're aware of the existence, but we might want to dispose of the Failed Generational Refuse while we go at it. The fairies probably can do that, if you can persuade them.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Taomenk. For the moment we will make inquiries aligned with that theory. We may investigate a different one later. Mrs. Atkosol, what are our options regarding the Ertith Energy?” Taomenk could wince all he wanted, but the choice was made.

  “What is it you mean, Atkadi?” Lommad exploited the liberty of speech in a different fashion from Mr. Taomenk. The man who supposed she would restrict herself to “Mr. Atkosol” or “honored representative who happens to be my husband” in an official setting had read of her in the broadsheets only, but as most belonged to that group, blinks and startled yipes were not uncommon.

  Not from Atkosol, of course. “For instance, is it possible to expend the energy faster, to solidify it for storage, or to dispose of it entirely somehow?”

  “Ah. I will check.” As the crowd waited in silent impatience, Lommad hummed while tapping her cheek and rolling her eyes upward without looking at anything in particular. “I'm using it up to create my city, but it is more than I can do to use it all, and stopping to experiment would, perhaps, be unwise.”

  “Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you can see that my wife is providing us a bulwark behind which we may huddle. It is an excellent one but as temporary as any in history. Who has a proposition to exploit this time most meritoriously?”