Imager

44

Jeudi morning was damp, raw, and drizzling. I was back in Master Dichartyn’s study, more than a little curious about the imager techniques I would be learning. Instead of saying anything immediately, he looked at me and fingered his chin, a sign that a lecture, a question, or something else to make me think was about to be delivered.

“Rhennthyl . . . have you ever considered the governmental uniqueness of Solidar?”

“Compared to other governments?”

“Against what else did you have in mind in comparing Solidaran government?”

I winced. I hated asking stupid questions. “Solidar offers the greatest representation of crafters in its government.”

“With only three guild representatives?”

“Sir, you know far more than I do, but nowhere in anything I have read does it mention that other lands allow any craft participation.”

“Not as crafters. But in most lands, those who possess a certain amount of wealth do have a voice in government, and some of those are the more successful crafters.”

“There’s a difference. The wealthy individual represents his coins, while the crafters represent the interests of those to whom they must answer-other crafters. Also, there is an imager on the Council, and the councilors have to represent different parts of Solidar.”

“What does that mean, Rhenn?”

“The Council has to represent more than those in power in L’Excelsis.”

“Does that matter when the Council has power in and of itself?”

I forced myself to stop and think before replying. “A Council member has power because he is a member of the Council that governs Solidar. As a representative of a guild or as an imager, such a member may not have had power to influence government before being selected as such a representative and may not have such power after he ceases being a Council member. Those with wealth can almost always purchase influence in one fashion or another.”

“What does that mean for the average person in Solidar?”

“I would judge that the average person in Solidar has less to fear from government than in other lands, and more of them have a chance to voice their concerns without fear of retribution.”

“Most carefully worded, Rhenn, and generally accurate. Now . . . what government structure in the world has changed the least over the past four centuries?”

“Ours. You’re suggesting our power and stability rest on wider representation of power?”

“I’m trying to get you to make the connection. Why would this be so?”

“Because we have to spend fewer coins in things like putting down revolts and in having more patrollers in the cities?”

“Or in collecting tariffs and taxes,” added Master Dichartyn. “This creates a long-standing and real problem for the Council. Some both within Solidar and in other lands do not like the example that Solidar presents to the world. Those here feel that their own power is limited by such diversity. The outsiders understand that our power rests on the diversity of our political structure because it allows us to tax our people less and devote more of those taxes to maintaining and expanding our power. They have spent centuries trying to undo what the first Council began, both by external threats, such as attacks on our shipping and merchants, and by internal attacks, such as attempted assassinations of councilors and others in Solidar.

“If no organization in Solidar did what we do, Solidar would long since have returned to despotism or mercantile oligarchy centuries ago-or we would have been forced to spend tens of thousands more in golds every year on non-imager counterspies and secret patrollers and more, and that would have destroyed what Solidar is. If any group under the Council’s control-or anywhere in the government-did what we do, they would eventually control Solidar, with close to the same result. That is why the standards set for imagers are so high. That is another reason why you need to know the laws as well, if not better, than any city justice or civic patroller. Now . . . can you explain why we can do this without being corrupted by power-as an institution?”

That seemed direct enough. “Because the Collegium has a structure to minimize the dangers of corruption.”

Master Dichartyn nodded. “That is part of the answer. The second part is equally simple. We also can never hold power because the people would not stand for rule by imagers, and we weed out any imagers who do not understand that. Above all, you need to remember that. Sometimes . . . let us just say that once or twice in the past, certain masters failed to realize that basic truth, and disaster for both the Collegium and Solidar was narrowly averted.”

Conviction ran through every word Master Dichartyn had spoken. Even so, I wasn’t certain I would have been convinced had it not been for the events that had befallen me over the past months-from the total change in attitude by Rogaris and Sagaryn and even Staela to being shot by someone I didn’t know for reasons I also did not know.

“Now . . . you need to work on a particular imaging technique.” As he spoke, Master Dichartyn placed a bowl of water on the desk and then lifted a short glass tube from somewhere. He submerged the tube, covered the ends with his fingers, and then held up the water-filled tube. “You see the tube. I want you to image air, just a little of the air around you, into the middle of the tube. Not enough to fill the entire tube-that well might break it-but enough to create a bubble about one digit wide in the center.”

Image air into water? I’d had to image things into the middle of the air, unsupported, but the other way around? I wondered why, but I’d learned that I seldom got the explanations until after I mastered a technique.

It took me almost a glass to manage it consistently.

“That’s enough for now. We’ll work on doing it to a moving tube tomorrow.” At that point, Master Dichartyn set down the tube. “Now . . . besides studying the plans of the Council Chateau, you need to set up your portraiture studio. Grandisyn has cleared out a small workroom with northern light and moved all the equipment and supplies in there, but you need to arrange it so that it suits you. If you need other items, just tell him.”

I almost laughed. I’d worked for not quite ten years, trying to get to the point where I could become a master portraiturist and have my own studio, and now that I was an imager, I was being given a studio with all the equipment and pigments I would have had difficulty affording-almost as an aside and a cover.