Flux

have cared whether she called him a slave, but he was getting tired of being treated as if he weren’t there, or as if he were too stupid to comprehend what was happening. “What is it you want from us?” he asked.
    She waved her hand. “From you I want nothing. But from Ennek….” Her teeth were very sharp, and Miner wondered if they were naturally like that or if she’d deliberately made them that way. She looked up at the ceiling and then back down at Ennek. “I also came to this land from a distant place. I had seen from afar that this was a beautiful country, with gentle climate and fertile soils. A place where one might live in comfort. But it also lay between two kingdoms, and those kingdoms worried at it like a pair of dogs might worry a bone. They would tug it this way and that, and always the people who lived here would suffer and the potential of this land would be wasted.”
    Ennek nodded. “I understand. It is difficult to be a borderland.”
    “It is. So I arrived and I claimed it for myself. And you see, I did not want so very much. Some might have exploited their power, but I have no desire for great wealth. It merely weighs one down. I wanted peace. I wanted simply to be left alone to conduct my studies—I study the stars, and there is so much to learn. Naturally, I had to exert some of my powers when I first arrived so as to repel the neighboring kingdoms and persuade the residents here to follow my lead.” She gave Ennek another sharp smile. “I had to call some fierce winds. I destroyed several villages and laid waste to their crops, but in the end everyone saw the wisdom of listening to me. Now they obey my directives and all is well.”
    “What directives?” Ennek nearly growled.
    “They are quite simple. The neighboring kingdoms do not trespass on my lands. The commerce between them must take place via the sea, in which I have no interest. They find it inconvenient, perhaps, but it pleases me. And I permit none of the trappings of modernity here. I have seen those things—gaslights, engines, plumbing—and they bring noise and disruption. I limit the size of the population as well. There were not many people when I arrived here, the wars had seen to that, and I choose to keep it that way.”
    For once she looked at Miner, and distaste curled her mouth. “We do not keep slaves. My people work their own land and if they are disobedient I find ways to punish them. You passed a village on your way here, a very small, poor one, yes?”
    “Yes.”
    “Some years ago, a man who lived there…displeased me. He sought to circumvent my simple rules. I brought a wind that toppled their trees and swept away their topsoil, so now they toil in the hot sun and they must labor twice as diligently than they did before. But I have had no more problems with them.”
    Miner could feel the tension in Ennek’s body, but Ennek kept his voice even as he responded. “All right. You fancy yourself a benevolent dictator. What has that to do with us?”
    “It’s to do with you . The king who ruled to the north has died and his son does not remember the damage I did to his father when I arrived. Even now the son sits and plots ways to take this land as his own. I should like to remind him that I am not to be trifled with.”
    “So go blow him down.”
    Her face tightened with anger. “It is not so simple, foolish one. I cannot raise a wind from this distance, not any more than you could cause the sea to do your will from here. But as I have made clear, I have no wish to leave my home. So you shall do an errand for me.”
    Ennek ran his fingers through his curls, a habit he had when he was nervous or upset. “What errand?”
    “You will go to the kingdom’s capital city. Donghe. When you are there you will deliver a message to the palace in which I shall inform them of my displeasure. And then you will raise a great wave and you will destroy the port and everything in it.”
    Ennek leapt to his feet and backed away. “No! I’ll deliver your message, but I won’t destroy anything.”
    “You will. Because a decisive demonstration of power will be required to underscore the importance of my message, else the king will simply ignore it. Rulers of kingdoms are prideful men, Ennek.”
    Ennek glared murderously at her, no doubt thinking of his own father, and the extent of that man’s pride.
    She didn’t notice or didn’t care. “You will destroy their port and for a time they will be crippled