🚀 go-pugleaf

     Tami su'Rialto opened his door and slowly walked into his rooms.
It was quiet here -- while Mancoti would no doubt be ready and
listening, no ko'velt was in sight.
     So it was when the su'Rialto came to his Library.  The finest on
Rialto.  Jabreth, his father, had believed deeply that his House's
strength came from the mind.  The Dominance of ignorance.  The
knowledge of facts.
     Knowledge was heady and dangerous.  Enlightenment cut more than
it cured.
     Before Tami were the Unpublished Works of Rialto Sun-Tei.  The
volumes of the Apocrypha.  They had fascinated Tami as a boy.  They
were a source of wonder to Mancoti.  Even Rilia -- so often a
scourge upon Tami's life -- seemed to be more the woman he'd loved,
the ko'velt he'd cherished, curled in one of the wooden chairs and
reading the words of Rialto... the words called false.
     Leiphali had been reading these words, when he disappeared.
When he told his ko'velt Elizabeth (*ko'velt!*) that he needed to
find his foundation.
     The anger threatened to take the su'Rialto again, but he
dominated it.
     What was left?  What of the ashes of his life could he cling to?
Leiphali was so deeply hurt... trying to protect a girl who had
been cruelly used.  So hurt he feared to tell the truth to his
Chi'velt.  So hurt he had to flee all of Rialto.
     Tami had failed Leiphali.  Had driven Leiphali to fail
Elizabeth, who now bore his child.  Why couldn't Leiphali have had
faith in him?  In his love?  Why couldn't he believe Tami would
understand?  Why couldn't he have told...
     Enlightenment cut more than it cured.  And so people feared it.
The bond of Chi'velt to Ko'velt was meant to eliminate that fear.
To give the Ko'velt the refuge of trust.
     What could take that refuge from Leiphali....
     And staring at the books on the shelf, Tami was struck with
sudden, terrible enlightenment.  Struck with the certainty of the
truth.  Struck with the architect of his despair...
     "You look like a man who wants answers."
     Her voice was quiet, and loving, and Tami almost flinched to
hear it.  He turned, slowly, and faced the woman who would enter
where even his Ko'velts would not.
     "Tami su'Dumont suti'Rialto," she said, smiling -- almost
trembling with the joy of reunion.
     Tami su'Rialto looked at the woman whose face he had dreamed of
for weeks.  The first woman he had truly loved since the poisoning
of his bond with Rilia.  The woman that but for ten minutes time he
would have thrown himself on, bowed to, submitted....
     Enlightenment cut more than it cured.
     "That's not my name," he said quietly, the love weighing with
the pain in his own voice.  "Hello, Diana."





           Space, the final avenue of exploitation....

                      Authorial Productions
                       in association with
                     Mademoiselle Muse, Inc.
                               and
                   Perot for President in 2115
                            presents:
                             RIALTO
         (I'd have thought the office would be dustier)

                        Episode Fourteen
                          "The Cutting"
                               by
                        Eric Alfred Burns
              (A gentleman will walk but never run)



     Sen had told Leiphali he had a spy in the House of Merhacha.
Leiphali had been forced accept the man at his word.  He knew too
much of the comings and goings, the events of the House.
     Leiphali had simply not been prepared for either that spy's
arrival or that spy's identity.  Especially given the knowledge
that the new arrival had walked the path Leiphali was now on, and
had fallen off it.
     Sen had greeted her as an old friend.  She had greeted him with
a level of deference Leiphali had not seen her give to her Chi'velt
in some years.  He buried his resentment of this act, dominating it
with his astonishment.  When Sen asked if she would help Leiphali
prepare a dinner in the cave, she agreed, trembling slightly with
unaccustomed soberity.
     "I didn't expect to see you here," Leiphali said quietly,
gathering the roots and handing them to the newcomer.  She dropped
them in the bowl and began to grind them with the stone pestle.
     "What," she said, "you expected someone else?  I'd think you
would be surprised by *anyone* showing up in these caves, on this
plain."
     "That's not what I meant," he said.  "I...." he paused, unsure
how to proceed.
     "I know what you meant," Rilia said.  "You never expected Rilia
su'Ambimelan suti'Pleasure sutati'Tami to have a spiritual side.  I
know, Leiphali.  I haven't had one... for so long.  I...." she
quieted, and continued to grind slowly.
     "I'm listening," he said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

                          >>>***_***<<<

     Carmen realized she was in a certain amount of trouble when the
guards smashed through the door to her bedroom and pointed guns at
her.
     "Miss Elosia," the lead one said.  "You are officially served
notice of your termination from Megacorp.  You are further charged
with one count of premeditated murder and one count of attempted
murder, as well as use of unapproved use of Megacorp resources,
property and patents.  Finally, you are trespassing on Megacorp
property."
     "What is this," Carmen demanded, sitting up in bed and pulling
the covers higher.   "I am a Board Member -- I demand--"
     "You're not in a position to make demands, Miss Elarosa," the
lead Security officer said.  "In partial compensation for violation
of Patents, Megacorp has taken possession of all stock held.  Your
Board Membership is pro tempore revoked pending full Board vote.
Your position in Megacorp is terminated."
     "Who am I alleged to have killed?  Answer me that!"
     "There is no allegation, ma'am.  We have a record of your
murdering Halworth Kreig.  We further have a record of your attempt
to destroy his findings in his audit of Tamlin Edo.  I'm afraid
Megacorp's central Datanet's not as easy to erase as you thought.
We've cleanly retrieved all materials that Kreig was working on.
We know you poisoned the Chairman of the Board.  We know you've
been manipulating and perverting Megacorp to your own ambition."
     "I -- you... no, wait.  You're wrong.  I never--"
     "Ma'am, I'm just doing my job.  Get dressed.  You've got a long
trip ahead of you."

                          >>>***_***<<<

     Michael rubbed his eyes.  "We're really, honestly getting
somewhere, aren't we?  We've got this thing by the short ones,
don't we?  Edo and Elarosa are good but they weren't good enough--"
     "Don't be foolish, lad," Aber murmured, looking over the
materials.  "It's taken me decades to get to the point I have with
Karleen.  We've given your Mister Tombolo a weapon, and a means of
access, and we've taken Elarosa's personal assassin away from her,
but that's all short term, innit?"
     "Short term?  What do you mean?  We're talking about control of
Megacorp here.  We're talking about--"
     "We're talking about two different things.  You're a lot like
Rory, you know that?  I mean that as a backhanded, bitter
compliment of sorts.  You've got your eye on the so-called big
picture.  You've got loyalty an' you temper it with an
understanding of the shark-tank you live in.  And from that
standpoint, oh yes... you're oh so close to bein' done.  The big
picture's all but fallin' your way at last.
     "Me, I'm a simple Irish fellow who by happenstance and horror
finds himself workin' for a bloody Scotsman.  I don't really care
about proxies and politics and portfolios and other nasty business
euphemisms that begin with the letter P.  I care about Karleen, who
had her life taken from her.  I care about Elizabeth, who's taken
more shit than your whole board combined.  I guess the only P's I
really care about are the pawns.  And they've got a long bloody
road to recovery.  Karleen an' Jamie are still walking it.
Elizabeth's just starting."
     There was a knock.  "Excuse me," Melinda said.  "Aber, you've
received a coded message from Clan McLeod in Edinburgh.  I've got
it on a datapad for you--"
     "Thanks, lass.  You're a good woman.  Too good for C.E.O.'s, you
ask me, but no one ever does."  He tapped a few keys, and set to
decrypting the message.
     "How's Eduard doing," Michael asked.
     "Right now?  He's positively delighted, in a reserved and formal
way," Melinda said with a smile.  "Elizabeth and Jason Stuart's
little power play set back his personal agenda, which he's
officially angry about.  That Elizabeth Stuart has a spine thrills
him.  I think he'd put her in management if it weren't clear we
were losing her."
     "Are you really going to let her go?  I mean, putting aside
Carmen's gentle ministrations for a moment, her development,
enhancement and programming have cost Megacorp a good penny."
     "Of course we are," Melinda said.  "So long as we get the
unfertilized ova.  Michael, one paranorm -- Exocet Mark Two -- is a
curiosity.  A deadly one, yes, but still.  Her primary benefit is
genetic -- and we'll have the capacity to continue that work.
Without the wetware."
     "If you honestly think it'll be left behind," Michael snorted.
     "It will.  We've been burned over it twice.  Never again.  It's
not good business."
     Michael laughed and nodded.  "Point," he said.  "Nothing says
`human rights' like a shot in the Profit/Loss--"
     "Oh, you miserable bloody Scotsman," Aber murmured, staring at
the datapad with horror.  "You sweet, miserable bloody
Scotsman...."
     Michael and Melinda blinked, almost in unison.  "Aber," Michael
said.  "What--"
     "I have to see Karleen right now.  Right... bloody... now...."
     "I... of course," Melinda said.  "Come on, I'll bring you to
her."

                          >>>***_***<<<

     Rilia stared into the stone bowl for a long time, looking for
meaning in the root, perhaps.  "It... was all so different, all
those years ago, Leiphali.  Life was bright.  Tami was ascending,
his House growing to dominate Merhacha.  The future was spreading
before us.  And he indulged me... my deepest need... my need to
further myself.  My spirit.  My learning.  He let my spirit grow,
confident in my submission, in my bond to him.  And then... he let
me read the books."
     "The Apocrypha," Leiphali asked.  "The uncollected writings."
     "Of course," Rilia said, scraping the ground root into the
bubbling broth on the fire.  "They enthralled me.  I reached a
point where I could speak Rialto's epigrams in my sleep.  An
unbroken chain in a circle, spinning forever, holding itself... I
could see that chain, and realize there was something so
important... and... I thought... I could see what it was."
     "What?" Leiphali asked.
     "It was perfect.  In balance.  I... thought it was Ohm, in and
of itself.  And then Sen found me, and brought me here, and trained
me... and, in the crucible of the desert, I was stripped and left
in the twin suns, the searing heat firing me to my essence...."
     "And?"
     Rilia looked away.  "The pain was too much.  I cried against it.
I howled.  I threw myself to the ground and I submitted to death.
I begged death to come.  Sweet release... and when Sen came for me,
I begged him to take me from there.  I offered my body to him...
anything he wanted."
     "You submitted," Leiphali said, quietly.
     Rilia nodded, her eyes distant.  "In the end, my ko'pi dominated
my chi'pi.  I didn't have the strength to dominate my own death,
nor even the strength to submit to the inevitable.  I courted death
as my Chi'velt, then did the same to hide in Sen's protection.  I
failed... everything in me failed.  I was no Ohm'velt.  I despaired
that any ever could be."
     "I..." Leiphali turned away.  "I see.  Then this is to be my
fate too?  To confront death in the desert?"
     Rilia's laughter startled Leiphali.  "Oh, silly Leiphali," she
said.  "You truly do not understand, do you?  To be tu'Rialto, you
had to confront the desert.  You did this.  Without Sen's help.
And when Sen found you, all but dead... you were still trying to
get the yihhni to open.  When you could not... when you could not
dominate, you also did not submit.  You accepted that which was
inevitable.  And that catapulted you to the state of the Ohm."
     "You... mean--"
     "You have already passed the point of my failure," she said
quietly.  "Your path is uncertain, but you have shown yourself
capable of it.  You will pass where Sen can take you as well, and
then the path is your own."
     "Pass where Sen can take me?  How?"
     "Leiphali," Rilia said, stirring the broth on the fire, "if Sen
knew the whole of the path, he would be Ohm'velt, and we wouldn't
need you, would we?"


                    [[Continued in Part Two]]




--
Beta-Cit Eric Alfred Burns    | "To write good satire, be sure that you
<sabre@awenet.com>            |  choose a target that truly bothers you.
(sabre@eyrie.org>             |  If you're indifferent to something, you
Writer Type, Poet Boy         |  lack the motivation to make fun of it
Maine Expatriate              |  effectively."
Gadfly-for-Hire               |                  --Esther M. Friesner