In the Shadow of the Rings by Frank Kennedy (grave mercy .txt) 📕

Raphael Cartigian held an exclusive contract with Hotai. We’ve been most impressed by Nantou’s service arrangements.”

Kara did not want to know the details. Did they invite the admiral here to impress everyone – or to gloat? If they dared to suggest his presence was her birthday present, Kara intended to walk straight into the ocean and never return. Nonetheless, she played sweet.

“Ah. I see. The Raphael Cartigian. That’s your flagship?”

“Indeed. Almost forty thousand Chancel ors. You may not be aware, but the RC – as we cal her – was the last Carrier to transport Korean colonists eight hundred years ago. We cleaned the peninsula of your kind and gave you an entire world in exchange. Yes?”

She smiled like a good little Hokki. “I’m sure I read about that somewhere in my history studies.”

His eyes glazed over. He didn’t want to be here anymore than she.

“Oh,” he said. “Appears my wine has al but extinguished. Where might I find …?”

Li-Ann grabbed him by the arm. “Come with me, Admiral. I know precisely what you need.”

Just like that, Kara’s close encounter with a master of the universe ended, and no one else appeared to notice she was al alone, her bare feet digging into the warm sand. She was wrong, however.

Chi-Qua emerged from the shadows. Kara’s best friend, sporting a yellow top and pink prosthetic lenses, arrived with a bag slung over her shoulder. She sported a devious smile.

“Oh, no,” Kara said. “I know that look. You have a plan.”

“I do. I think you’l like it.”

She shook the bag, and objects clanked inside.

“Nice. Where do you propose?”

Chi-Qua pointed inland, where the land rose sharply and a phalanx of bul abast trees acted as sentries, hiding the closest estate houses from view. When they reached the nearest tree, a hundred meters from the party site, darkness descended. The twisting geometry silhouetted against the starry sky.

“I’ve been up this one,” Chi-Qua said. “There’s a great cubby

halfway along the main trunk.”

“Two problems. First, I’ve haven’t climbed one of these in five years. Second, these things are chal enging enough in ful sun. I’d rather not risk injury and have to explain myself to my parents. Can’t we just hide out at the base?”

Chi-Qua laughed. “No, sil y. It’s your sixteenth. Time to be adventurous. If you fal and crack your skul , I’l say it was your idea.”

Kara shrugged. “Bril iant. What’s in the bag?”

“Nead.”

“No! You didn’t. How? A bottle goes for almost a thousand Dims.”

Chi-Qua reached for the lowest branch and swung upward.

“Cal me a magician,” she said. “I have this trick where I attack when everyone’s back is turned. Actual y, Honorable Father keeps close track of volume, so I’ve been skimming ten mil iliters twice a week for the past three months. Happy birthday, Kara.”

And with that confession, refusal was no longer an option.

As she climbed, Kara slipped and almost lost her hold twice, but she followed at her friend’s heels and reached the cubby ten minutes later. They laid back, side by side, and peered through a large opening in the tree. Kara had almost forgot this feeling of intimacy.

She couldn’t remember why she ever gave up climbing bul abasts.

Chi-Qua worked with dexterity to open the tiny bottle of Nead and pour equal shots into the glasses.

“To the years,” she said.

“To the years,” Kara replied.

The liquor, highly prized and extremely rare, went down warm and pungent at first. Then, the famed miracle of this creation reared itself from the bowels of her stomach, shooting forth a gas that infused her lungs and stampeded her taste buds. It carried the tang of wild berries and the punch of sweet vinegar drawn from fermented Nead pears. The taste was fleeting, but the lightness of being stayed behind much longer.

She knew the cautionary legends: One shot of Nead gave an hour’s pleasure; two shots turned grown men into giggling children; three shots were a love letter to suicide.

The next thirty minutes offered Kara everything she wanted for her birthday. Amid the distortion, hyper-realized imagination, and unexpected desire for the girl beside her, Kara let go of the excess baggage. Lang and Dae disappeared into another timeline, leaving Kara as the sole heir to Syung-Low, determined to become Hokkaido’s hero in waiting. Her Honorable Mother and Father told her not to pursue a life in BRED. Instead, they wil ed Nantou to her, with ful blessing to change its mission and unwind al its profits in order to feed the Hokki people for free. And then, of course, she was free to change social norms – starting with a mandate for daily hair color variants and lens prosthetics for everyone.

It al made sense. She saw it happen, step by step. Even imagined herself grooming her own children with greater flexibility. They thought less of family legacy and more of philanthropy and saving Hokkaido’s most delicate ecosystems.

Dreams. Nonsense. But a pleasant diversion, nonetheless. When Nead’s impact lessened, she settled in to watch the