horrible cold

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa buries herself in her friends, and the warmth of the world that Harley isn't on anymore. She doesn't understand him. She never will. But there's Corona, sun-scorching and intense; there's Amdon, her oldest and closest; there's Anneia, sweet and smiling; there's Sandre, cuddly and fun; there's Tima, pretty-kindling and empathetic; there's Pacco, bright and deferent; there's Jony, hot as a kiln; Lionara hot as molten glass. And Aelise herself, who makes so many compromises but who does love Chelsa after all.

Harley wasn't like that one cold, cold girl, who - she wasn't even technically a sociopath. Sociopaths kindle like everyone else. She was just - cold. Like an airless environment in which no fire can burn.

But Aelise had her killed, and Chelsa made sure no one would miss her, and if anything like that ever happened again, Chelsa has every confidence that Aelise would make it right. Harley's one thing. He can just be - out of sight, out of mind. Aelise would never expect Chelsa to compromise on the existence of such a terrible cold.

Comments

[salus_populi]

"What do you know about what the world was like before I was Empress?"

[alicornucopia]

"There were a lot of wars."

[salus_populi]

"That's true," says Aelise. "Do you know why?"

[alicornucopia]

"No."

[salus_populi]

"There were a lot of complicated reasons," she says. "But what it boils down to is that there were a lot of people with a lot of power and none of them liked each other very much. So they fought. And because they had a lot of power, and they weren't being very careful with it, a lot of people died when they did that."

[alicornucopia]

"Why weren't they being careful?"

[salus_populi]

"Good question," she says. "Some of them didn't care who they killed as long as they got what they wanted. Some of them did care, but they wanted to get ahead more than they wanted not to hurt anybody. Some of them thought that if they were too careful, they might get killed by the people who weren't. And some of them were just too scared to think it through."

[alicornucopia]

"Those are reasons," acknowledges Mehitabel thoughtfully.

[salus_populi]

"They are," Aelise agrees. "But they weren't very good ones. Have you heard of Toronto?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes. It's not there anymore."

[salus_populi]

"That's right," says Aelise. "Some of those not-very-careful people dropped a nuclear bomb on it. It's all cleaned up now, but for a while afterward, nothing and nobody could live there at all. When trees started growing there again, I made it an imperial park."

[alicornucopia]

"There were a lot of people in it, right?"

[salus_populi]

"About five million."

[alicornucopia]

"That's a lot of people," says Mehitabel solemnly.

[salus_populi]

"It is," Aelise agrees. "But it's not the worst thing that could have happened. The way things were going, I was afraid there would be a war so big, all the people would get killed."

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel nods.

[salus_populi]

"And then I found Chelsa. Do you know what her Gift does, exactly?"

[alicornucopia]

"You said her gift was to... be likeable," says Mehitabel slowly. "So - not exactly."

[salus_populi]

"She makes people like people," says Aelise. "Herself. Each other. So one day everyone was at war with everyone else, and the next day they were pretty much friends. And nobody dropped any more nuclear bombs, and the world didn't end."

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel stares at Aelise, holding very still.

[salus_populi]

"The reason your parents are worried about you," she says, "is because Chelsa can't make you like anyone."

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel relaxes visibly, although not all the way.

[salus_populi]

"They think you might be sick," she says. "But I'm not sure that's true. I think you might be Gifted."

[alicornucopia]

"And my Gift is to be safe from that," Mehitabel surmises.

[salus_populi]

"Is 'safe' the word you'd use?"