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Fahzir was both surprised by his success, and confused. "But you stopped Bryllit spacing her prisoners." "No," said Horth. "You challenged Bryllit, as I understand. And that was why she did not throw those people out the airlock." "Erien challenged Bryllit," said Horth. "I did not want her to kill him." "Oh." Horth's lack of arguments in self-defense left Fahzir nonplused. It was one thing to be convinced one must expose evil, and another to find it shamelessly bare faced in front of you. "You are saying," Fahzir had to be sure, "that without Erien, you would have done as Bryllit tried to do? Instead of stopping her. " Horth answered without blinking, "Yes." "Even though your own son needed the medical attention of one of the implicated persons?" Allan took a while to, very carefully, translate that. "Ask House Lorel how the kinf'stan answer blackmail." Horth bragged, with heartless pride. "If you can speak with ghosts." "I wouldn't pursue that, Fahzir," Allan added in a quick aside when he'd translated the words. "Much is made," Fahzir changed tactics, "of your intervention once before, on Rire's behalf. Your father, Hangst, intended an invasion which you opposed." Horth shook his head. "You challenged your father, and won," said Fahzir. "That rests on more evidence than Ranar's biased reports." "I challenged," said Horth, grimly. Two seconds elapsed before he added. "Not for Rire." "If the issues were internal ones," Fahzir insisted, "why turn back at SkyBlue Station, on the edge of Reetion territory." "Rire was not my objective," Horth said guilelessly. "It was my brother Zrenyl's. Di Mon killed him in an honorable duel." He paused again. "I loved Zrenyl, but I did not share his goal enough to duel." "Duel ... who?" Fahzir was getting lost. "Di Mon," Horth said readily, "the Liege of Monitum." Allan erupted into explanations. "What he's trying to say, in both cases, is that they decide things according to whether the disputants are prepared to risk their lives. People back down if they aren't sufficiently motivated, or don't like the odds, or simply care too much about the people involved. That's why Erien - their Ava's Heir - could stop Bryllit by putting himself at risk of being killed by her." He shook his head. "It isn't simply about fighting with swords. It is a complex social method of self-regulation among an intense, aggressive people with extensive interpersonal ties who value dignity above survival and desperately need a means of keeping revenge killing in check, as well. Horth's brother died in a fair fight, hence Horth was free to act on his convictions not obliged to seek vengeance." Fahzir blinked at the spontaneous lecture. He looked as if he no longer knew which way was up. Finally he said, disturbed and fed up, "Look, it's not the swords I care about. Can't you anthropology types get that through your thick heads. That man," he nodded in Horth's direction, "is the reality skimming equivalent of a nuclear bomb!" |
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OKAL REL UNIVERSE |
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