Love is the foundation of society.
—The Aphorisms of Kherishdar
Let me first put your hearts at ease by saying that I do not blame you for the unfortunate events that saw the House of Flowers remade. Many of you look upon our caste system and believe us incapable of understanding that all species are made up of individuals... but we do, and so I know that the acts of some aunera—aliens such as you—do not reflect upon you all.
Nor do I think the situation with House Qenain was without its compensations... for it is because of the problems afflicting Qenain that I came to meet Shame.
There is a word in our tongue to describe when an inevitability comes into life, brought there by changes your spirit requires to grow. It is a beautiful word to scribe, and I often embellish it with silver leaf: such things are precious and deserve the extra art. My particular paisathi began in an alarmingly intimate room, prostrate before the god of Civilization Himself, Thirukedi, Emperor of Kherishdar. Since He had elevated me to osulkedi, the topmost rank of the Public Servant caste, I had been called more often into His presence, but that had not accustomed me to it. It is our belief that Thirukedi is the same man who founded Kherishdar thousands of years ago, reborn into new bodies with each lifetime to continue guiding the development of the empire. You have only to meet Him to see that it must be so, for such an aura could only be born of generations of patience and witness.
As His osulkedi, I was His to send wherever He felt my talents were needed most. I had ministered to many different Households since my elevation, traveling all three of our crown worlds to bring what small wisdom and talent I could to bear on their sorrows. But Thirukedi had given me these assignments in His vast and impersonal audience chamber, divulging only my destination and the names of the Ai-Naidar waiting to receive me. This... this unwonted invitation unsettled me. It was not for such as I to take tea with the Emperor, but the fragrance was unmistakable and the command implacable.
"Join me."
My wrists shook as they pushed me upright; somehow I found myself on the embroidered cushion across from the low table. This chamber had been designed for such audiences, for the table was on a dais with stepped ends: Thirukedi sat on the raised step, I on the low and the table on the middle. Thus propriety was observed, though I imagined such rooms more frequently saw discussions between Thirukedi and those above the Wall of Birth. As osulkedi I was the highest caste-rank below that Wall... but the Wall was insurmountable.
One of the irimked poured our tea from an exquisite pot into equally exquisite bowls, covering each with a lid before withdrawing. Head bowed, I waited for the Emperor to draw His closer and sip from it before I dared my own. The finish on the gray-green ceramic was pebbled and warm, a delight to the fingertips; the tea subtle, fragrant and astringent. He allowed me to enjoy it at a proper pace, and only after half the bowl remained did He speak.
"You wonder, no doubt, at your presence here."
I glanced across the table at His throat but did not speak for lack of explicit permission. I watched His long hands as He poured himself another bowl.
"You are released to speak," Thirukedi said, and continued, "Your services have pleased me. I was not wrong to lift you up."
"You are thanked, Thirukedi," I murmured in Abased. Even given leave to speak I could not conceive of addressing Him in anything but the most abased of grammars, any more than I would look uninvited at His face, though I had cause to know it was beautiful and stern. "It was only in service to your ideal."
"Mmm." His fingers came to rest on the lid of the bowl, restless as butterflies. "Tell me, Calligrapher... do you know the fable of the broken pot?"
"Which one, Thirukedi?"
He laughed, and my ears flicked back in a suffusion of modesty.
"I should have known you would be familiar with the many variations," He said. "Which of the versions is your favorite, then?"
"If it pleases you," I said, "the one where the potter repairs the pot and puts it back in service."
"As I would have thought," He said. "There is a reason that version is one that is best known." He was quiet; even His fingers grew still. In that silence, I waited, attentive. "I have sent you on many assignments, but as... how shall I say. Preventative care. Pots under strain, that without a moment's respite would have developed flaws. You have eased hearts and pressures both by reminding those in need of the virtues of Kherishdar. You have found those assignments gladsome, I would hope?"
"It is good to serve," I said, and meant it with all my heart.
"Look at me, Calligrapher."
I raised my face, hesitant. His eyes were gentle, and the same willow-green as the tea set's.
"I have a broken pot," He said. "And I need a potter to mend it."
"Command me," I murmured, unable to help a more intimate grammar. "I am yours."
He let the moment rest: He was, I realized, appreciating my outburst as an expression of devotion. I bowed my head and struggled with the honor of being so clearly seen.
Then He said, "You were once asked to serve as an instrument of Correction, were you not?"
"It was so," I said.
"How did you find it?" he asks.
I studied the lid of the bowl, shaped subtly like a flower with the stem for a handle. "It was difficult," I said. "The shape of the outcome was a thing known, but to undertake its creation was... a weighty task."
"A Noble, was it not? One of the eritked," Thirukedi asked.
I inclined my head in agreement. "Who had taken advantage of a Merchant. The resulting transaction had seemed pleasurable to her, but she did not understand that the Merchant could not deny her."
"An important matter of caste law," the Emperor said. "What did you do?"
I hesitated. The memory of that day remained brightly inked in mind. "My brush painted the rules on her body while she dictated them from the Book of Precedents."
