Soul Bound

1        Soul Bound
1.3      Making a Splash
1.3.3    An Unrequited Love
1.3.3.34 The benevolent saint

Bulgaria paused the meeting for a few minutes, to let Wellington surround himself with seven different virtual computer monitors of varying shapes and sizes, which caused his face to be dramatically uplit with flashes of cerulean, canary and carmine. To complete the Hammer House of Horror effect, Bungo quietly added a spiralling pair of pillar-like seven foot tall glass condensation coils behind Wellington, one filled with an acid-green sludge that made occasional slurping sounds, and the other with a bubbling iridescent fluid that smelled of formaldehyde.

Alderney used the pause for something different. She sent Kafana a direct message: {Kafana, do you have a moment? I'd like to chat privately about Harlequin before Bulgaria calls on me to deliver my report.}

Bulgaria showed no signs of being about to restart the briefing, and was adding a hunchbacked assistant wearing a blood stained lab coat and absurdly large black rubber gloves to tend the chemistry experiments. Wellington stayed focused on coding a 'confidential credentials checker' daimon, despite the occasional muttering and hiccupping cackle from behind him.

Kafana replied, also in direct message: {Go ahead. What did he say about being watched by an audience of millions?}

Now Tomsk was getting into the spirit too. He dimmed the room then added a massive tesla coil whose sparks left purple after images. Wellington didn't even notice.

Alderney: {He's demanding I update him weekly on the number of views reached by my recording of his ballet with Columbina, down at the Triple. I think he's going to be unbearably smug, next time he meets other dancers in Torello. I don't know how the game will respond to such proof of his mastery - it might even give him some skill increases.}

Kafana: {So he's cool with the prospect of you broadcasting him transforming into his Raggedy Man persona?}

Alderney: {That's complex. He's fine with us telling other wombles and Trustworthy Tiara project staff if they need to know, though the term he used was "people of honour sworn to House Sincero". But instead of giving a firm "yes" or "no" on wider broadcasts which might get back to Scaramouche, Etaoin and others, he said that he would "stand attendance up the purity of thine conscience" and begged you take into account that if word of his secret identity gets out in Torello, he would certainly lose his shop and most likely his life; and that while he would be honoured to lay his life at your feet, it would be a crime of the highest barbarism to allow his personal art pieces to end up in the hands of nobles unworthy of them.}

Kafana felt her face go warm and fanned herself: {Oh my. Well, we can't have that. Tell him the touch of his regard has sealed my lips.}

O.M.G. did she just say that? Her face burned. At least the others hadn't heard her! She felt gratitude that Alderney had told her in private, followed a moment later by suspicion. Despite being her bestie, it wasn't like Alderney to pass up an opportunity to take embarrassing revenge on Kafana for dumping Alderney in it as she logged out. Had Harlequin anticipated that, and said something that had changed Alderney's mind? Before Kafana could dig further, Wellington made his screens disappear with a final decisive gesture, then looked around.

Wellington: "Thank you Bungo. I've amended the 'swearing in' ceremony to include explaining and generating a daimon who will verify and evaluate credentials and report on how well the candidate fulfils the requirements of the role being applied for, while keeping identifying details of those credentials confidential. Err, what's all that?" He pointed at the view behind him and the intimidating mahogany desk that had appeared in front of him, whose tooled green leather top made quite clear which side of the desk held the person with the superior status.

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Bulgaria ad-libbed: "Oh, just a little office for your daimon. Gives it character, don't you think? But now, moving on. Alderney, why don't you go next?"

Four hats appeared before Alderney: a brightly-polished silver winged Corinthian helmet; a clockwork strewn top hat with a jewelled monocle attached to it by a brass extending concertina; a brown chequered leather miner's cap; and a bamboo sandogasa, commonly worn by wandering adventurers on Soul Bound's original Divine Mountain wuxia servers. She started juggling them.

Alderney: "Bungo has two hats: Burrowers and Adventurers" The miner's cap and the sandogasa landed in front of a startled Bungo, who picked up each one in turn, examining it.

Alderney: "and I have two hats: Media and Value" She hefted the helmet in her left hand and the top hat in her right hand, as though comparing their weights.

Alderney: "but they depend upon each other quite a bit, so if you're okay with it, I'll start with Media, but trade off with others and resume as needed?"

Bulgaria: "Sounds good to me. Just take your hat off temporarily if you ask someone else to take over for a bit, so we know who has the floor."

Alderney put the top hat on the table, and the shining helmet upon her head.

Alderney: "Speaking for Media: I'd prefer not to speak for Media..."

She paused only half a second, giving the others no time to react.

Alderney: "...I'd prefer to hand the whole role over to a real pro; someone who has done massive campaigns before and could take it on as a full time job. To be honest, I'm just an amateur. I've been winging it, so far; I've had great support from Mary-Lynn and expert systems, and we went viral a couple of times, which we capitalised upon all we could. But. Luck and pluck won't be enough once the Hexoikos turn a dozen character assassins upon us."

Bulgaria nodded gravely and made a note, so she continued.

Alderney: "That said, for the next week my ambition is to hire some saints. Five of them, in fact: Benevolent Saint, Righteous Saint, Civilised Saint, Wise Saint and Trustworthy Saint."

Wellington gave her a curious look: "Named after Confucius' Five Constant Virtues? Ren-yi-li-zhi-xin?" He breathed the list almost as a single word, the sudden drop away from English fooling Minion's automatic translation into treating his Chinese words as a proper name.

Alderney: "Yeah, they're going to be the heads of Media's sub-departments. I can't hand over a complete mess. I'll explain what they do one at a time, as I cover the relevant parts of my report. So, first up, my Benevolent Saint - 仁德 聖人!"

Alderney: "People don't take time out to think calmly about long term issues when they feel desperate. Our plans offer a way for them to become not just freer, but also happier, safer, healthier, wealthier and wiser. We need to let them know that, to give them hope - not just with words and promises, but by showing them successes. Not just big abstract successes that affect many people by a small amount, but also small ones they can relate to such as an individual person or family having their life changed for the better - the sort of success we can make a memorable story out of and which produces warm feelings. Finding and framing such stories is the task of the Benevolent Saint."

God, she's so organised! They all are. Kafana resolved not to be the odd one out, and scoured her mind. Oh, yes, just the thing! Kafana called upon the member of her family of expert systems who helped with her own public persona, and a moment later Bilah appeared visibly, standing in her sari next to Kafana's chair.

Bilah: "I have a tale for the honourable Saint, if they are interested?"

Alderney nearly squeed: "Yes, yes please, oh yes Media Wants Your Tales."

Bilah: "Bhais and bajis, this is a tale from Kafana's village about the aged widow who welcomed her and taught her the local herbs, Udovica Dika. For many a year now she has been bed-ridden; wasting away not from physical ailment but from lack of purpose now all her children have left the village seeking work in the towns and cities."

The figure waved a hand with perfectly applied nail polish and two images appeared. The first showed a smiling Udovica Dika standing in green woodlands, using her walking cane to point at a small plant nestled among the roots of a moss covered tree. The second was far more poignant, showing her gazing longingly out of a window, a book of folk medicine abandoned next to her on the faded muslin throw covering her musty bed.

Bilah: "But now, thanks to the great engineers of The Burrow, the village has been blessed with the presence of new Mythoi." She brought up a clip of dancing villages surrounding their well, and the glistening Vilé pouring forth.

Bilah: "And with their aid, Udovica Dika can once again roam free, harvest nature's bounty and bring her warmth to all."

The final image was a split-screen view. On the left, the widow was lying flat on her bed with a tiara on her head. The room felt warmer and cosier, somehow - perhaps due to the beam of sunlight coming through the window at just the right angle to light up her face and thread-fine hair. On the right, a pair of Vilé spherical quad copters floated through the woods in near silence. One had an image of Dika's face projected onto its surface, which was smiling at a twelve year old girl with a serious expression. The other was harvesting roots and berries, dropping them into a basket the girl was holding.

Wellington broke the mood, sounding serious: "We can't use that. It would draw attention to Kafana's arlife identity."

Alderney: "We can't use that yet. Give my Benevolent Saint a hundred similar stories, and its significance will fade like a drop into an ocean. Thank you, Bilah. Now, moving on."

Bilah gave a complex head tilt and, rather than disappearing, moved several steps away from the table to stand next to Terah, who'd been whispering to Kafana while Bilah told her tale.