socialcapital | [ JACKSON HEART ]

"Mnemon is one of the Great Houses of the Scarlet Empire. Its head and founder is, of course, Mnemon, the eldest living daughter of the currently-missing Scarlet Empress, and the frontrunner in the looming succession crisis there.

His name was Rikiya, our 'fallen companion'. But before that it was Mnemon Rikiya. He was expected to Exalt as a terrestrial by his family, and when he didn't despite being in the direct line, they shipped him off to a temple to become a monk. That's where he was when he Exalted as a Solar and when I rescued him."

He rummages through supplies until he finds some tea leaves. They're nice tea leaves. He fusses with setting it up while he talks.

"Well, a scion of the house of Mnemon, having failed to Exalt as a dragonblood, was already a source of shame. Him having instead become Anathema - and a Solar, the worst kind in their texts by far - was something they refused to tolerate. He had become something they needed dead and buried, a dark stain they wanted neatly excised from their family records, and he refused to accept this was the case.

From a certain perspective, you could say I just failed to keep him safe from them."

From a certain perspective.

[Specifically, yours.]

What were his own thoughts on his family?

"He believed that he could explain to them that he had not changed, that he had only become more powerful, and that they would see his value where they didn't before."

And what was the trap that caught him?

"... On the surface, it wasn't related to his family at all. It seemed like too obvious bait to me, but I didn't know how much... well, the answer was slaves. Normally Mnemon as a house doesn't do that sort of thing, so they didn't have their name on it. They just set up a shipment to go through a major colony of theirs, around where we'd last been spotted.

Everyone with morals knows that kind of thing is awful. Obviously I know it too. But it was so... unsubtle. It was so visible. Of course he wanted to charge right in and be the hero right away."

Is that the kind of thing your group normally does?

"On occasion. We're more subtle about it, though. On paper my various assumed identities legally 'own' hundreds of slaves who are, in actuality, living happy and free. But that takes patience, and it takes indirect methods, and there's a certain personality type who sees a nail, knowing they have a hammer, and simply can't resist."

Pardon me just for a minute.

[And without getting up, he turns around to face the wall of the tent, his back toward Firuz and Saida.]

[They're heroes.]

[I should have known. All those hints that Umbra was inclined that way... of course his life wasn't the source. Why would it have been? He was an aria! He was an aria who joined Cirrus!!

I should have clarified. I should have asked. This is no more than the price of my own negligence. This is the bed I've made, and I will continue to lay in it.]

[And he turns back, absolutely perfectly normal and fine.]

And such a situation is set up to call to those kinds of individuals in particular.

Saida turns back into a human so she can match Firuz's expression. Which is this expression.

"What happened just there."

Nothing that should be of any surprise to me at this point.

I simply needed a moment. Please don't mind it.

"If you say so... well, yeah. They knew his personality well enough to know he wouldn't be able to show restraint. And he was tired of my indirect methods. Most of the people I helped didn't even know I'd done it - he wanted some kind of recognition or appreciation from the people he helped."

And something had happened previous to all this that had already put you on a knife's edge.

It's never just one thing. It's always several somethings that pile up.

What were those several things?

"I dunno if I could even list them all. It's been a long ten years."

But this isn't the first time those feelings have come to a peak. Not when it's been this long.

"If I'm forced to self-examine, then... no, it's not."

I don't want to force you. But I'd like you to.

From an outside perspective, it's challenging to reconcile this situation with other points I know of without concluding that you're being influenced against your will.

He slides a teacup across the table.

"Would you like to get a different perspective, then? I don't know if it'll change your mind, but it doesn't feel against my will when it happens."

[He takes the cup once Firuz's hand withdraws, wrapping his own hands around it.]

Are you offering to share your experiences with me?

"Well, I think it should be possible in our current situation in a way it wouldn't be sharing the memories from an outside perspective."

It's a nice tea in there. Something floral.

[He takes a moment to breathe the aroma -- it's not often he's served something he can't recognize, and the ghost of the Acidian in him appreciates it.]

I consider such things a rare gift. If you are willing, I accept.

[And he takes a sip of the tea.]

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