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Carlos let the rumble of the waterfall in the distance wash through his awareness dimly. It was a nice bit of background white noise, steadily obscuring the much more varied and distracting noises of jungle life all around them. His mind augmentations let him focus without external aids these days, but it still felt nice and gave him a bit more comfort. The hot, muggy air would have been a much stronger factor, but his Temperature Regulation spell prevented it from affecting him. If he hadn't tweaked the spell a while ago on the principle that blocking information from himself was bad, he wouldn't even be aware of the heat.
Everything about his environment barely registered to him, however, as he focused mainly on the new spell he was putting together. Hmm, no, that spot won't do for the backpath monitor bridge. It needs to be deeper in the self-recasting schema's layers. As is, traces of it would leak an extra jump toward the start, letting Elston's tracer skip a teleport. But if I move it there, then it's out of scope for the recast trigger to link with it. Slightly tricky. Breaking out the link into its own thing should solve that, so here goes…
Amber's mental presence, metaphorically watching over his shoulder, flashed with realization and skepticism. [Isn't that the exact idea that you just said was silly? If it's silly, why are you making it?]
Carlos glanced at her but kept working. [I meant that it's silly as a long-term solution. As a temporary stopgap, it will handle a recurring interruption so we can focus better on finding a proper solution — if we haven't already, that is. Hopefully, we won't need it.]
Amber shrugged. [I suppose that makes sense.] She analyzed the spell's logic for a few more seconds. [You need an extra trigger condition for if they block the monitor's sensor or signal before they arrive.]
Carlos nodded. [Right, good call. Can't be too paranoid about what advanced tricks the Crown might have.]
While he continued refining the spell for automatically teleporting out whenever someone caught up to their last location, another of his minds held the manual version of the same tactic ready to trigger on an instant's notice. Three more minds were brainstorming ideas for other possible trailbreaking methods. His last extra mind watched Princess Lornera, waiting for her to respond to his questions about equal partnership and dragon polities.
Several seconds passed in silence. With her mental speed fully active, it was surely the equivalent of at least several minutes for a normal person, if not an hour or more. Haftel's dagger spun end-over-end as it rose and fell in the man's repeated fidgeting toss. The other adventurers stood in tense stillness, waiting with anxious hope. Ressara's face shifted through a series of expressions as she considered and dismissed various thoughts. The two royal guards stood like statues. Amber listened with one of her minds, standing back to observe but ready to speak if she chose to.
Finally, Lornera spoke through Purple's telepathic bond, and Carlos's boosted reflexes kicked in to try to match her speed. [Before I share any secrets or commit to any terms, the issue of your sanity with a split mind must be settled. And I'm sorry, but no amount of simple assurances or length of time with it will satisfy me. If you truly understand the problem, then you should already know why.]
[It's identity divergence, right? Split minds treating each other as separate people and fighting for control, and that it can develop over time?] Carlos barely even paused at all before Lornera sent a wordless flicker of affirmation. [I devoted a soul structure to the sole purpose of maintaining a single cohesive sense of self-identity, shared across all my minds. This mind is me. My other minds are also me. All of my minds have all of each other's memories, and even know what each other are thinking, and all of it is all me, and always will be, as that soul structure actively maintains that unity. The only difference between any one of my minds and any other is what each mind is actively focusing attention on.]
A long, stretched-out moment passed in their high-speed perception of time. A slight bit of tension in her shoulders released, and she gave a minute nod. [I see. That is… satisfactory. Very well.] She cocked her head briefly. [I suppose, by your terms of equality, I now owe you a similarly-valuable secret of the Crown, if we ally as I seek to.]
Carlos let out a dismissive puff of breath at that. [I would rather not spend time and effort tracking minutiae of exactly how much each of us owes the other. Negotiated principles and guidelines would be better, but even that is premature at this point. First, we must establish whether the alliance is even viable at all — whether our respective goals and values align well enough, how far we are willing to go in pursuit of them, and whether success seems possible. To start that process: What exactly are your goals, in the most accurate and precise terms you can manage?]
Lornera nodded. [I can respect that. For precision, hmm… My core goal is to ensure the Crown's long-term security against the type of potential threat that Supreme Enchanter Nyralis demonstrated.]
[Of course.]
[Secondarily, I must remove the danger to the Crown of my father's compromised judgement.]
Carlos wordlessly acknowledged the point.
[Unfortunately, I believe that both of these will necessarily require overthrowing King Elston and instating a new monarch; preferably Princess Brenelle, if her judgement proves sound, as she is the firstborn heir.]
Carlos waited a moment, but Lornera showed no sign of having more to continue with. [If that's all… Princess, I think you have not fully thought through the implications of what you are asking us to do.]
Lornera cocked her head. [How so?]
Carlos projected a mental image of counting points on his fingers. [First, your father is essentially a stronger version of you. Second, both of your siblings are likely to fight on his side, and they are each a close match for you. Third, there's practically no one else of relevant power left in Kalor Kingdom to potentially recruit to your side, courtesy of your father's slaughter of the rebels two days ago, and that same slaughter proved they wouldn't matter much anyway. Fourth, you've said that foreign aid is not viable, and I have no reason to doubt that.]
Lornera shrugged. [I have some hope that I may be able to convince at least Brenelle, if not Patrimmon, but yes. That is all correct. I know that it will be challenging, but both of you are already fully royal-tier and wield the potency of magery as well. You will need to absorb more mana to increase your Level, but two royals matching two other royals should be feasible.]
Carlos mentally sighed. [You really don't see it? You are asking us, in effect, to develop the power and capability to outmatch you more than twice over. If we do so and succeed in defeating your father and siblings, it would be… I hesitate to say "easy," but certainly within reach, to also defeat you and seize rulership for ourselves.]
Lornera calmly raised her right eyebrow at him. [You had a comparable opportunity two days ago and actively rejected it.]
Carlos blinked. [I mean… Yes, but– Argh.] He raised a hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose. [Okay, so you trust us. Fine. Good. You have a strong reason for that, and I suppose I should feel honored. But…] He shook his head and sighed again. [It would probably be better for me to drop this topic, but that just… feels wrong. You want security for the long term, right? Do you trust the next generation, which does not yet exist, of House Carlos? Do you trust the next generation after that one, and the next? Keep in mind that the exact capabilities you want us for could also be used to follow Nyralis's example, and I will not subject my heirs to compelled loyalty of any kind.]
[That is…] Lornera paused for a moment. [The issues you speak of are inherent to your demand of a co-equal royal house, for any house with the power to justify such a position would possess capabilities of similar magnitude. The idea is unsettling, and I do not know how such an arrangement should work, but I accept that it may be necessary. I will need to contemplate the matter at length.]
Carlos nodded. [Fair enough. Then, on the topic of how it should work…] He paused to think. He was not a fan of monarchy for government, to put it mildly, and the prospect of being a monarch himself made it no less distasteful. He was familiar with a saying that a benevolent monarchy was the best form of government, and he even agreed that it had a good point, but both benevolent intentions and competence in fulfilling them were crucial to that assessment, and neither trait could reliably be perpetuated across successive generations of monarchs. Perhaps something akin to House Kalor's loyalty soul structure could, in theory, ensure benevolent intentions, but he refused to resort to any form of mind control, and it would only solve part of the problem, anyway.
Replacing Elston's reign of uncaring ruthless selfishness with Lornera's sense of dutiful responsibility would certainly be an improvement, and whatever Brenelle's attitude might be would probably also be better than Elston. It would not fix the systemic issue, however, and nothing less would fully satisfy him. Lornera's magically-compelled loyalty would never allow her to agree to remove the Crown entirely, but… Perhaps an alternative way of thinking about it might be viable for her. It hinged on one core viewpoint.
Carlos worded his question carefully. [A related topic for your contemplations: What, exactly, is your definition of "the Crown?" I know, you told Elston that House Kalor is the Crown, but what characteristics of House Kalor make it be the Crown? Or if it's literally the definition, then what defines House Kalor?] As he spoke, he felt Amber emanating a mix of uncertainty, anxiety, and trust, and he projected reassurance back to her.
Lornera cocked her head quizzically. [I'm not sure what you mean.]
Carlos smoothly continued with a series of possibilities. [Is the Crown defined by the Kalor soul plan? Is it the monarch and their scions? Is it them and all of the people directly in their service? Is it dominance over all others? If someone else successfully seizes power as a new monarch, would they become the Crown that you are loyal to? Is it the system of monarchy? Is it the administration and governance of the nation, regardless of who does it? Are duties and responsibilities part of it? If a member of the Crown rejects and betrays their duties, do they cease to be part of the Crown? Is it–]
[Stop, stop, I get your point.] Lornera frowned and stared absently into the distance for a moment, then shook her head. [You are right that this will require contemplation. I… do not know if the answer I eventually find will be favorable to you. It might, but…] She shrugged and fell silent.
Carlos just nodded and let the discussion lapse. With her phrasing about whether it would be "favorable to them," she had probably assumed that he was circumspectly leading up to whether House Carlos could become part of the Crown. That wasn't at all what he actually wanted, but it was a step in the right general direction, and his true ideals were far too radical to her to introduce in just one step.
He let her consider the single step she might be ready for and turned this part of his attention to checking in on the rest of the group, in case anyone else had any new ideas.
___
About a quarter of an hour later, Carlos's automatic version of his original obfuscated multi-teleport was completed and cast, and he was mentally griping to himself about the incantation system's designers' lack of advanced knowledge of sophisticated language design principles. Ressara had suggested making a spell to find the traces and overwrite them with random data — though she had used rather different terms — and the system apparently had no simple provided way to do that.
It seemed that, after covering enough basic primitive effects to be technically capable of nearly anything, the system's designers had focused all their greater conceptual efforts on ways to use mana to do other things, and not on ways to affect mana itself. Modern high-level programming languages on Earth had extensive features for examining, analyzing, and even modifying a program's definitions and behavior, but spells had only the barest bones of anything remotely analogous to that.
It felt like it would be easier, or at least much, much simpler, to kill the person who was doing the tracing than to affect the traces themselves. Wait a minute. Carlos paused, then reached out to everyone. [Could a trap to hit the tracer work?]
Lornera responded immediately. [Not with my father accompanying them. He would break it with his superior power.]
Carlos sighed and let this one of his minds rest and vent some frustration. Then he remembered the other topic he hadn't followed up with Lornera yet. [So, dragon territory. Is it worth going, and where?]
[Visiting the Gold Flight might be worthwhile. Not the Silver Flight. As for where, I'll guide you. We should fly, not teleport, as they would assume a teleport means invasion.]
___
After a full half an hour since their arrival, they were still there in the same place, still with no sign of being found. Carlos was still puzzling out how to make the incantation system's available low-level raw mana manipulation effects find and overwrite a teleport's traces. He suspected that he might have to account for spell execution speed in some manner, which he'd never needed to do before, and that conclusion was the most significant result his efforts had produced so far.
A high-pitched beep sounded in Carlos's ear, and he quickly terminated the Timer spell that produced it. He spoke aloud, his physical voice feeling strange after the long period of tense quiet, "Okay, if they had a way to pick out the correct trace, they'd be here by now. Lornera, lead the way to Gold Flight territory."
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