1????????Soul Bound
1.2??????Taking Control
1.2.6????An Assumed Role
1.2.6.27?The tartan mantle
Should she send out a message to everyone, telling them her thoughts? No. She’d make notes, get them down in writing lest she forget anything, but this was something that should be done in person. If Bulgaria was going to hand over leadership then this was his moment, and every piece of respect should be given. She composed a short letter, and sent it directly to him.
5:00 am, Saturday June 10th, 2045
2 bells of the forenoon watch
Zerday full, 14th day of the month of KrevinBelember, A2F1600
She’d meditated and had breakfast with a dishevelled Heather who’d slept the night up at the Roost and who’d been badly in need of coffee and a bathroom when she’d appeared. She herself had slept in-game, thus managing to get a full night’s rest in just a few hours and to catch up with her vessel’s dreams. She’d gained the impression there was a lot to find out about, but she’d do that later. Instead she’d logged back out of the game and jumped to The Burrow, where Bulgaria had recreated a great hall in London that UCL sometimes borrowed for the investiture of university chancellors.
The hall was an imposing edifice of stone arches, stained glass windows and heraldic banners. Goodness, she’d asked for formal, and formal he had gone for. Bulgaria had always had a great sense of occasion. The others arrived, and stood in a circle at his direction. He cleared his throat.
Bulgaria: “Thank you for coming. This hall uses a new feature of The Burrow that I’ve been working on. It isn’t full mind sharing. It is mediated by an expert system and is closer to the code already implemented by the forums. If someone has opted in, then by looking directly at them you can get a sense of their emotions - whether they are feeling positive about what they’re hearing, or whether they have reservations. It doesn’t reflect feelings about people, or negative emotions, just about ideas and statements. I’m hoping it will help conflicted groups negotiate with each other, and it is designed to avoid negative spirals. If you wish to opt in, nod your head while feeling a desire to opt in.”
They each nodded, and gained a faint glowing white aura behind their heads. She looked at Bulgaria and gained an impression of calm and happiness. He started to talk.
He kept his introduction brief, explaining the purpose of the meeting and the request he’d made, without going into detail about his reasons. Then he handed over to Kafana, so she could explain her vision.
As an introduction, she related the story of Cosic and the ‘pure’ tiara, keeping his name out of it, then she brought up the 3D model of the dependency tree that she’d created by hand. She’d considered turning her expert systems loose upon it, to make it pretty and add in links to extra information, but had finally decided to keep it simple, stick with her original version, and just talk everyone through her reasoning and what she thought needed doing. She didn’t try to appeal to their emotions or use rhetoric, just carried on until she’d said what she needed to, then stopped.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Kafana: “So, um, what do you think? Questions?”
Alderney: “You came up with all of that last night?”
Kafana: “Yes.”
Tomsk: “All by yourself?”
Kafana: “Wellington helped with the gratitude economy stuff, and you all gave me bits of the puzzle.”
Wellington: “There’s a lot of stuff in there that’s never been tried. It hangs together, and I can see we need to make the value proposition for using trustworthy tiaras as attractive as possible, but we need to plan for contingencies, still find a way to make this work, if some pieces of the puzzle, such as getting copias installed, don’t shape up fast enough.”
Kafana: “All the objectives you guys gave me are compelling, and I want to see all of them happen. But trustworthy tiaras - I think they’re on the critical path for every one of those objectives. We have to try this, give it our all, even if success isn’t certain. Without mental autonomy we have nothing, we are nothing. If we each strive separately for our own goals, we’ll achieve none of them - they each require a wider range of skill sets than any of us have, individually. But together, together we are more than the sum of our parts. We not only support each other, we encourage each other and bring new ways of looking at things.”
Bulgaria: “You sound confident. You are really certain this is the path to take?”
Kafana: “Yes! We need more people, we need a plan on how to track and organise responsibilities, something scalable and supportive rather than dictatorial, yet still security conscious and not prone to sabotage or infiltration. But that can wait; we’ve an appointment to keep in Soul Bound. What I need to know now is: are you guys with me? Do you want me as your leader?”
She stood, tension racked high, waiting to find out what they thought. The moment stretched out, three second, four seconds, as they just stood there watching her, neutral expressions on their faces.
Bungo: “Well, duh! Of course we do. Bulgaria, step forwards!”
Like they’d rehearsed it beforehand, Bulgaria (who’d been hiding something behind his back) stepped forwards and placed a green tartan scarf around her neck. Alderney, who’d apparently been barely able to restrain herself, let out a loud whoop and gave Tomsk a high five. Even Wellington cracked a grin. They had rehearsed this! The lousy rats, all those doubting questions - it had been a setup to test her.
She felt her shoulders relax.
Kafana: “I accept.”
Bulgaria: “Thank you.”
Kafana: “Don’t thank me too soon. I hereby appoint you my tenente.”
She laughed, feeling a bit high.
Kafana: “You guys are crazy to tackle something this big. Designing tiaras, staying ahead in Soul Bound, expanding The Burrow, fomenting economic revolution, leading a worldwide movement and out-manoeuvring the Hexoikos - it feels like I'm asking you to do six impossible things, and our day has only just started.”
Alderney: “Six? That's nothing. We sneer at six. Under your leadership we'd still manage if there were a hundred and six.”
Wellington: “There probably are a hundred and six - there's always more steps required than you initially think of, when you get down into the details.”
Tomsk: “Well then, that just means the task ahead is one that is worthy of us.”
Alderney: “To save the future”
Bulgaria: “For everyone, rich and poor alike”
Wellington: “Their freedom”
Alderney: “Their creativity”
Kafana: “Their humanity”
Bungo: “Their chance to grow”
Alderney: “Yes, to save all those precious things. It's a worthy task indeed.”
Tomsk: “We should get started.”
Kafana: “There are one hundred and six impossible things to do before breakfast.”
Bungo: “...we have a full tank of ideas...”
Wellington: “...half a pack of activists...”
Bulgaria: “...society is dark...”
Alderney: “...and we're wearing goggles.”
Tomsk : “Hit it.”
*flip*
They switched to Soul Bound, leaving not an echo behind in the great stone hall; just a glimmer of light.
Mantles:
A mantle (from mantel, from mantellum, the term for a ) is a type of loose usually worn over indoor to serve the same purpose as an . Technically, the term describes a long, loose -like cloak worn from the 12th to the 16th century by both sexes, although by the 19th century, it was used to describe any loose-fitting, shaped outer garment similar to a cape.
A variation on the mantle is the mantelet (also spelled mantelot and mantlet), typically describing a short version of the mantle. The term appears as early as 1386, in "" by . In the 18th century, a mantelet was a woman's short cloak, and in the early 19th century, it was an ornamental that crossed over the chest and tied behind, usually made of or . By the end of the 19th century, a mantelet was a woman's shoulder cape with elongated ends in front, sometimes held in position by a belt at the waist.
A royal mantle is a garment normally worn by , or as a symbol of authority.
For example, here is Louis XV wearing a waist-length ermine mantle about his shoulders:
The idea of a cloak or mantle as a physical embodiment of authority (like the authority granted to the person chosen to hold a formal leadership role in a group) that can be literally passed onto an individual person may date back to the story of the Jewish prophet Elijah, but "passing the mantle on" has come to refer to any transfer of authority, whether to a chosen successor or a whole generation.
The phrase "taking the mantle up" implies not just receiving the offered authority, but also filling the associated role and accepting all the responsibilities that come with it.
Great Uncle Bulgaria may not be a King, but none of the wombles question that he is their leader and even Madame Cholet treats him with respect.
He wears his tartan mantle with dignity.
When he finally succumbs to old age, his successor will find that living up to the example Bulgaria set will be a heavy burden indeed.
Memes:
The Quote from the film, the Blues Brothers.
The "Great Hall" room (built 1440) of London's Guildhall complex, which is used for many purposes when the Lord Mayor isn't banqueting there.
Thus endeth Volume 2, "Taking Control".
Not only is today, August 11th, a big day in the publication of Soul Bound. It is also the anniversary of the day I wed my dearest Louise - loving wife, caring mother, supportive partner, brilliant friend, painstaking alpha reader of this novel. and a far better person than I deserve. We'll be celebrating it at the 2024 Worldwide Science Fiction Convention (which this year is being held in Scotland, in the city of Glasgow). With luck I'll also have with me some physical paperback copies of volumes 1 and 2, to sell to fans and waves enticingly under the noses of publishers. Wish me luck!
If you'd like to help, please take this chance to write a review (here on Royal Road, or anywhere else book-related), spend a few seconds giving Soul Bound a nice star rating (to counter the trolls who gives 1* to all novels except their own), consider putting it on your list of "favourites" (rather than just "ones you follow"), or even just leave an encouraging comment on this page. It would be really appreciated!
To give you a chance to do that, there will be a seven day pause before the first chapter ("Psychological profiling") of the first episode ("An Obligated Noble") of Volume 3 ("Making a Splash").
