A Mentor's Counsel

Seth wondered at the size of the Council hall. A great circular chamber surrounded him, encased him like a protective shell. The many elegant rolling forms of folded metal on the walls and ceiling, lit by unseen lamps, gave the chamber an ethereal glow, a solemn holy property. But standing on a balcony overlooking the podium set in the center, Seth felt exposed, as if perched on the lip of a vast canyon.

The canyon was filled with Exemplar – the greater part of a thousand of the most powerful figures in Tarsis – and their various students, assistants, and wards. Seth made his way through the milling press of black coats and clockwork accessories to the front of the balcony where Gavin Larkspur waited.

“Seth, my boy, good to see you!” said Larkspur as he stood to shake Seth’s hand.

“And you, sir.” Seth grinned, took the hand firmly, and they both sat. The view of the hall was perfect. The entire contents of the hall, save the seating section directly behind them, were encapsulated in one panoramic view. The normally stoic Seth actually felt dizzy.

Larkspur said, “I read the performance review on your trip to the Industrial Sector. Interesting business. “

Seth snapped back to the attention of his instructor. “Yes sir, but not successful. I let the terrorists escape and caused a significant amount of damage to a refinery.”

“And yet the review board didn’t punish you.”

“No sir, just a performance recommendation and an order for continual reports on the Ethershot project. They were very easy on me.”

“Indeed they were.” Larkspur sat back and watched as the Council meeting began to unfold.

Seth thought it best to do likewise and settled in to listen to the speech beginning on the center podium below. He had been to a handful of Council meetings before and they bored him. The flood of empty talk, posturing and logical fallacies that infested each debate irritated every fiber, every humour in his body.

This speech was at least mildly engaging. Exemplar Therin, a graying, matronly woman with ornate brass spectacles, shared her concern over the disproportionate lack of female instructors in key positions at the academy. She seemed quite put out.

Larkspur said suddenly, “Why?”

Seth, shaken out of the drowsy lecture, turned to him. “What?”

“Why do you suppose they were easy on you?” Larkspur said quietly. He sat low in his chair with his arms crossed, looking just as bored as Seth felt. But the seriousness of his eyes hinted at machinations at work.

“The Ethershot project has them interested. It could be a great boon to the Empire. Exemplars Aries and Balthar were adamant that I keep them updated. It wouldn’t be the first time someone looked the other way from a transgression to promote a higher agenda.”

Larkspur lifted a finger. “Ah, but what agenda? Don’t be so quick to dismiss the aspirations of others as none of your concern. Look out there.” He gestured to the assembly. “What do you see?”

Seth looked. He saw Exemplar. Some lesser ranking Technologists like himself. Some discrete messengers filing in and out, conveying the mid-meeting business of their masters.

As Seth looked, Larkspur answered. “You see a hundred side conversations exactly like the one we’re having now. Across the way, an aide to the Minister of Justice is convincing a member of the Border Defense Force to promote the son of an influential merchant.” Seth’s eyes followed Larkspur’s words. “Near the podium there’s a member of the Imperial Guardians chatting up a rival in the Swords of Tarsis – he’s trying to gauge the man’s next military acquisition. And just above that and to the left who do you see?”

Seth saw the grey-headed, rounded shape of Exemplar Balthar speaking to another Blackcoat – a fierce looking man with a shaved head and wearing a heavy metal mantle.

“Balthar is speaking to Quartermaster Elan of the Clockwork Union. He smells a handy power source in your new weapon that he thinks he can use to barter for influence. We’ll correct him of that notion of course.” Larkspur looked at Seth with a wry smile. “And just above us far to the right, you’ll see old Aries.”

Seth looked. The hawkish aspect of Exemplar Aries gazed down into the chamber from the railing. A captain in the Imperial Air Navy stood next to him.

“Aries would like to build a new fleet of Exemplar supported airships and he’s looking for weapons to hang from them. If you can get the weight of your design down a few notches that might be a decent idea, actually,” Larkspur said thoughtfully.

Seth tried not to boggle. Instead he turned to Gavin and asked delicately, “pardon me, sir, but how do you know all this?”

Larkspur smiled. “I listen. Not just here, but everywhere I go. And I remember. No one cares about speeches and public posturing, my boy. All the important decisions are made far away from this room. What we Exemplar do here is play our cards in the background and maneuver towards our goals.”

Seth really did boggle this time. He had already witnessed a dozen major policy decisions made, seemingly in earnest, in this hall. “So the decisions and the talks on the Council floor, they have no real purpose?” He gestured to the woman below. “She’s seems awfully passionate about this fairness in post assignments thing.”

Larkspur made an indignant sound. “Magda Therin and her Sisterhood. Always on about some rubbish to do with the academy or women in major Council posts. If she spent a tenth of the time in a lab working on formula as she does whining about the travails of her sex, she’d be respected as an Exemplar in her own right. The whole movement is a drain on the Council’s resources and time.”

“She makes some good points, though,” said Seth. He realized he’d been contradicting his instructor a lot recently. He wondered if Gavin had a limit on that kind of familiarity. From the look on his face, he just might.

“Does she now?” said Larkspur after a long moment. It was not a rhetorical question.

Seth responded, “These are minor issues she brings up, but they are worth dealing with – maybe by opening up some minor posts on the academy board. Better to address them now rather than let her concerns fester into a political wound. It strikes me that politics is about giving people the appearance of what they want to keep them quiet. Otherwise it’s just a drain on our priorities.”

“So, one lesson and you fancy yourself a politico now, Mr. Delocke?” said Larkspur. Seth felt one of the Exemplar’s many traps begin to close. “Excellent, then I have a job for you.”