>>@SGT | TO: @ALL.

[byhand]

I usually reserve these communications for private networks, but it seems necessity has hastened our meeting. For the safety of myself and my family, I would be of no uncertain gratefulness if you would refer to me as Sargent, and little else. Though I am sure, with time, some of you will come up with more colorful nicknames.

Pleasantries aside; welcome, new faces and old, and I must ask this with all seriousness and kindness: What have you done?

Things are moving at the wrong speed. The prognosticators were not expecting to compensate for such a load. Several droids have begun misfiring, our protochron readouts are gaining sentience, a prophet is missing, and the birds are growing increasingly agitated. This is not the series of events your ancestors knew, much less my progeny.

To put it simply: things are not moving apace. I cannot say for sure if this is your influence, or the influence of an outside power, or perhaps both. And yet:

Mary Wollstonecraft, who was not supposed to enter Paris until next month, is already here.

The King's Trial has not even been proposed by the revolutionary government.

Mirabeau sleeps still in a place of honor.

I will put more work into discovering the source of this snarl in history. But you must be warned: every action you have here changes the lives of untold million not yet born. Tread carefully, for as the poets say: you walk upon dreams.

Comments

[byhand]

I'm no lord, your majesty. My rank will do for titles, if you pine for such formality.

What do you wish to know? I was once a teacher. I can still inform, though my true thoughts on this matter, you understand, will be rather biased.

[dorzalta]

I fall upon formality as I have no other name to use.

You've failed to answer my question, Sargent. I've no recollection of this contract your ilk made mention of. You've taken me from my knights, advisors, and dragons. Our people are to face two threats without their king and queen. You'll forgive me if I'm irate over this fact, particularly in the face of being expected to play a chambermaid for a queen who means well, but is not fit to rule. Likewise, we've no inkling of what became of those in Jerusalem; will we leave Paris in shambles by the time COST determines we're to leave for another locale?

I wish to know what purpose we're to serve in this. Who and what are you, truly, and how are we expected to thwart a force that would erase one of theirs from existence?

[byhand]

Your reputation does you no service, your majesty; you exceed it entire.

Your memory was erased by the Regency. A convenient excuse, I know, but the truth as well. They assault us through several means, one of which is secrecy. They take the crucial memories of our allies and make them forget their alliances, their promises.

COST is just one dewdrop on the web of fate. Every bit of moisture collects in time, and the web is pulled down further and further. You may think your kingdom with its threats and fears is separate on this web, but it is not. We are all connected. This, I can only assume, is why you joined, and it is a noble cause with noble reasoning. I mourn the loss of your memory, for you have lost something to take pride in.

Our enemy seeks to trick the spider into thinking some bits of webbing were never spun, and unmake the bounds of history, leaving the Regency to weave a web of whatever it chooses. COST seeks simply to add more spiders. The fate of all cannot be decided by the one.

[dorzalta]

I'm to believe in promises which remove me from my people and that which is my birthright? To abandon the blood of my blood in their greatest time of need to save those from worlds I'd never fathomed?

[ This, she cannot believe. To abandon all that she's worked for? ]

I've learned long ago never to trust a man who speaks so beautifully, proffering the perfect sentiments. You spin a pretty web, Sargent, but the world is not made entirely of spiders; there are lions, wolves, stags, and dragons. Does our interference not hold its own ramifications, as we step into worlds not our own? Do we not disturb that delicate webbing as we attempt to stop the giant from trampling its design? Webs are easily spun anew in the aftermath of destruction, tended to by the spiders upon which you speak.

You've taken me from those I hold dear, leaving them vulnerable to attack on both sides. Does it sit well with you knowing you've removed the last dragon from the world? That you separate children from their mother? That you've doomed my people?

I am no soldier meant to partake in physical brawls. This is why you've brought my husband and Jon, is it not? If you wish me to fight your battles against the Regency, give me my dragons.

Deny me, and you will learn firsthand what my reputation speaks of.

[byhand]

Your reputation holds true that I would much fear your court, ma'am.

I cannot give you dragons when fate has decided already to gift you with something far greater. Far be it from me to accuse royalty of greed, but perhaps one of such richness of spirit does not know the riches she has been given by the fates. It would not be the first time.

I have not taken them from you, though of course there is no reason for you to believe me. This, at least, I am not so foolish as to pretend. My truth is my own, and I am truly sorry you find it unsatisfying. Had I a better truth to give you, I would offer it. Perhaps a lie would assuage your temper, but that I cannot provide.

Your majesty, we are time travelers. When you return, it will be within an hour of your departure, if that. Time will have passed for you, but not for them.

[dorzalta]

An ally would fear nothing from my court, should he remain true to his vows. We've made no vows I can recall.

[ He's as maddened as she believed Jon to be the first day they met. ]

Speak to me of this belief, tell me how such richness supersedes the want and need of a mother for her children. You've a task you wish completed, no? Should it be done efficiently, I require that upon which I am familiar.

Much like you speak of my reputation, you should also know how unwise it is to lie to me, Sargent. Lies would only shatter any tentative trust you may garner this day.

[ The vitals on her tracker spike in the long silence between messages. ]

How?

[byhand]

They say the same in the halls of the regency. The loyal have nothing to hide. It is, of course, within the corridors of power that one defines 'loyal'. I have advised kings and queens such as yourself; I know the dance and all the steps. Let us not speak so contentiously. It reminds me of my youth.

I have not lied in a very long time. And to the best of my knowledge, I've not lied to you. Mistakes are prone to happen, of course; give an old man allowances for his multitude of imperfections, one of which we see now: I did not know you considered the dragons your children. What you have been given is a paltry substitute, in that case, and I am truly sorry.

Time travel. We set the time, and we travel to it. We took you away from one time, and that time is logged irrevocably. You will be returned back to it. You have my word, for what little the word of my people has always meant.

[dorzalta]

I wonder what kind of queen you think me to be when you say that. Mistakes I can forgive; intentional betrayal I cannot. [ Except she eventually had... with Jorah. ] And I should hope that you do not compare me and mine to the Regency. Power can be cruel, and it shifts the views of many once obtained, but it can be used for good as well. A ruler should know when best to sway towards vengeance or mercy. I would not murder any of mine in cold blood, were they to be captured by my enemies.

Forgive me if I've misread, but you've stepped within the halls of the Regency? What's to stop you from storming those halls to end these battles between both sides and the casualties along with it?

[ Another pause. It would be foolish to trust someone ignorantly... but it would be equally as foolish to not allow for the opportunity of it. She'll take him for his word, until it's proven otherwise that she cannot trust in said words. What other choice does she have in this? ]

Thank you for answering my questions. Time travel sounded like magic, but the way you describe it does not seem to be the case. Will I return to my time with the memory of these worlds?

[byhand]

I think power is a tool which makes all wielders implements of a will they did not always hold.

Long ago, when the Regency was in its infancy, I visitied its capital under diplomatic auspices. Such times have long passed.

If you wish to. Some do not.

[dorzalta]

It's a fair point to be made, and one I agree with. Sometimes, however, the wielders are merely diamonds awaiting their unearthing. More often, its wielders are far less impressive and must be dealt with accordingly.

Was it always an organization upon which yours disagreed with?

I can imagine some would not. What would you do, if gifted the choice?

[byhand]

I cannot decide if that answer is delightfully optimistic or painfully naieve, or perhaps I am simply too old to appreciate the beauties of either. Power, I fear, is power; designed to make only the benefactors of the powerful more safe and secure.

The kingdom, the empire, which you refer to as The Regency, is something of a monolith in and of itself. It is an empire, hosting multiple political factions, ethnicities, townships, colonies, companies, libraries... I cannot disagree with them all, even now. In truth, the majority of the empire is something I worry for. But I cannot help these scattered people, fed lies until they burst with patriotic fervor, until they offer up their freedom and justice with open arms. If there is one organization to winnow down my doubts toward, I oppose the junta that caused much of the pain and damage we see today. Those are my enemies, and I regret it dearly, for many are soldiers brainwashed from an early age, never given a chance to know better, choose different, try harder.

I cannot leave something that is my life without dying, and I am very fond of life. All men must die, your people say, but not all of us are men.

[dorzalta]

Or perhaps jadedness tinges your sight. It can be cruel at times, but we do what we must to protect our people. Have faith, Sargent, not all those who yield power are as you imagine. In fact, I can name a mutual ally who would leave you pleasantly surprised.

How, then, do we defeat an enemy that's bled its taint into the hearts and minds of so many? It's one thing to offer choice, to have the defeated join our side. They do so willingly, then. It's entirely another to fight an opponent who believes with every piece of their being that they defend what is theirs.

Could you not travel time to stop this brainwashing from ever occurring?

[ She's become quite skilled at sending her thoughts faster, thanks to all the mind ravens shared with Jon. Still, there is a hesitation as she reads and rereads his words. ]

Valar dohaeris. And so you serve instead. I wonder if not a man, what does that make you?

[byhand]

A heartening thing to hear. I am perhaps grown too old and tired to see the light through the keyhole, so to speak.

We wear them down. Of the types of war you have encountered, have you ever heard of the style known as guerrilla?

We can travel through time, but our travels only aid us as much as what we do with them. The enemy expects such movements, posts guards, spies, and safeties. They protect their assets, just as we protect ours.

Clearly if I am not a man, your highness, I must be a monster.

[dorzalta]

I'm unfamiliar with that term, Sargent. Wearing them down sounds somewhat passive. I hope that's not to be the case?

Such as what we've seen in Paris thus far? Does COST monitor our worlds, as well to protect us and our people?

[ This threatens to veer off into ideas that threaten to make her head spin. ]

My question was not meant to offend. Your phrasing and distinction made me curious. Still, there are far too many men who are monsters. I've yet to see cruelty about you that would suggest you are as well.