“No.”
Good.
They agreed. She hated agreement when it concerned bad things.
“What is being done with VSEA deployment?”
“Nothing publicly.”
“Privately?”
A pause. The human representative took water.
“Readiness adjustments.”
“How many?”
“Your Grace-”
“I didn't ask where.”
Another pause. The baxxid looked toward the human, then back to Kimia.
“Enough to indicate concern. Not enough to indicate preparation for major intervention.”
Kimia nodded. That was an answer.
Not a complete one.
Complete answers did not exist in diplomacy.
She looked down at the tablecloth.
For a moment the white fabric seemed too white.
An operating sheet.
The room shifted in meaning.
Not physically. Never physically.
She saw suddenly what the dining room might look like if stripped of furniture.
Stone floor. Drainage channels that did not exist. Hooks that did not exist. Blood that did not exist.
Her stomach tightened.
The abattoir.
There.
She blinked once.
The table remained.
Coffee service. Fruit. Shellfish. Baxxid diplomat. Ivenmoth representative. Tarkhe. Indrel.
No blood.
Kimia pressed one claw from her thumb into the side of her finger beneath the table.
The pain and pressure grounded her.
Real.
The Ivenmoth representative was speaking.
“... the resource concessions remain one of the complicating factors.”
Kimia recovered the sentence from its end.
“Bycite?”
“And kilcane.”
She nodded as though she had heard every word. The mask held.
“Of course.”
The baxxid watched her. One eye. Then another.
Kimia wondered what it had noticed.
Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything.
She resisted the urge to speak merely to occupy space.
Instead she asked: “Does Olissingen still believe zhe northern deposits can be protected without expanding military control around them?”
“Officially.”
“Zhat wasn't my question.”
The human smiled without humor.
“No.”
There. Solid ground again. Policy. Extraction.
Fear converted into nouns. Kimia could work with nouns.
“Zhe Heart will be blamed regardless,” she said.
“Yes.”
“If we intervene, imperialism. If we withdraw, abandonment.”
“Yes.”
“If we protect infrastructure, resource zheft. If we allow it to be destroyed, negligence.”
The baxxid diplomat said: “Power creates obligations which are interpreted differently by those subject to them.”
Kimia looked at the diplomat.
“Zhat sounds like somezhing Kalgkur would say.”
“Then your sage is wise.”
“He's unbearable.”
The human representative laughed.
Kimia smiled. A real smile this time.
Brief.
Dangerous only because it felt good.
The discussion continued.
Tilmuhlan factional politics. Shipping insurance. Reports of sabotage. Whether increased VSEA patrols would stabilize the Olissingen interior or merely make further escalation inevitable.
Kimia contributed where she knew enough and admitted ignorance where she did not. This was another of her talents.
Many rulers believed authority required omniscience.
Kimia had learned that saying I don't know in the correct tone could make other people reveal extraordinary amounts.
“What do you zhink Eauritsstad wants?” she asked.
The Ivenmoth representative began answering.
Kimia interrupted politely.
“No. Not what zhey say. What do zhey want?”
The human considered. The baxxid remained still.
At last the man said:
“To prove Olissingen cannot survive indefinitely beneath Val Salian protection.”
Kimia nodded.
“And Olissingen?”
“To prove it can.”
“So everyone is proving zhings.”
“Yes.”
“To people who already disagree.”
“Yes.”