While they were eating, Oorudi Coungow asked Jim, “Tell me of Madhar Nect. I understand she was the first you visited.”
“She was—she is—a friend. She understands much about space travel already. But I’m concerned about her. She indicated she was in danger. I don’t think the audnir are reacting well to exposure to an expanded galaxy. I think the business interests are flexing their muscles.”
“That is not good. They behave so often like rodents in the sewer, running this way and that, biting each other’s backs.”
Jim raised an eyebrow at the tone in the Regdenir’s voice but remembered that Sopha had been just as dismissive.
Coungow turned to Myourn. “Should we influence this struggle between the audnir? They will rearrange themselves into power blocks seeking affiliations with these new races.”
He nodded. “We have a part to play. They do not deserve our help, but we can at least mitigate the worst of their excesses. See to it.”
Coungow swept out of the room, leaving Jim and Tella wondering what was being set in motion by this brief, but ominous, conversation.
The other Regdenir went back to their chairs. Jim and Tella returned to their seats with long glasses of a milky drink, and the conversation resumed.
“It is time to talk of Sopha Luca,” announced Myourn.
Jim and Tella waited politely.
“Every generation produces its own variety of offspring; some are dull, some are sharp, some are sharper than their parents ever were.” The old face frowned while he thought. “And then there are those gifted in other ways: some are gifted in loyalty, in devotion, perhaps in passion for their faith. Sopha Luca is one such. His studies are his life. They are all to him. You know, I wonder that he has a family! Even now, he continues to contribute to every debate in Regde3. He has written some of the most excellent commentaries I have seen from his order.” He looked a long while at Jim’s face. “He will have told you about his studies, perhaps?”
“Yes, he showed me some of his contributions to the Regdekol. He told me about the audnir spacecraft and that you view what they did as sacrilegious.”
Jim noticed a slight intake of breath in both the Regdenir. He could feel Tella become fully alert at his side.
“What else did he tell you?” asked Myourn.
“That was about it. He said you had been discussing whether the removal of the spacecraft was appropriate. He said he would soon bring the matter to a resolution.”
“The spacecraft? The audnir spacecraft? He is going to remove it?”
“Yes, that’s what he said.”
The two Regdenir glanced at each other, and Myourn said, “Perhaps so.”
Tella was on the hunt. “You feel there is something else he is engaged in?”
Myourn looked at Tella, his head slightly bowed. There was an awkward silence.
Tella spread his hands wide. “We must find him and prevent harm from being done. We need all the information you feel comfortable giving us.”
Margrev Aplar shifted in his seat. “Perhaps if I did not record this part of our meeting.”
“Agreed,” said Myourn. Once the device was powered off, Myourn sat up straight. “Sopha Luca is his order’s foremost scholar of the Maggnir. He has no interest in the spacecraft.”
Jim’s jaw dropped, and Tella turned to stare at him. “He never mentioned even their existence. I learned of them from Nect.”
“Nonetheless, they are, and have been for some thirty years, his main obsession. Remember, you are audnir; he would not have told you everything.”
Aplar took up the old Turcanian’s words as Jim covered his face with his hands.
“This obsession of Sopha’s, we now see as his being drunk on Beauty. Once we had heard of you and your search for Sopha Luca, we began to review his activities. We understood why he had obtained the scanning device. It was a profound piece of deduction—to go from his discovery of alien signals and interplanetary commerce to the realization that detecting small objects from great distances must be just one of many accomplishments of space travelers. He saw the potential for its use in his studies of the Maggnir. He would not dare to travel to Beauty, but he could observe it and its inhabitants from here. It was to be the crowning achievement of his life. He would contribute a vast body of observations about the Maggnir. But then we saw a change in his ambition.”
Jim sighed. “He lied to me. He said the scanner was an afterthought. His main goal, he said, was to travel to Beauty to remove the relaunch module. I can’t believe he took me in so easily.” Jim inhaled deeply and swallowed. “I’m sorry. I talked with him, at that kitchen table, and corrected him on something he had misunderstood. He believed lasers were toys for children. I told him about their military uses. I put the idea in his mind.”
Myourn continued, his voice thick with emotion, “We think he might have once stopped at observation. Regdekol threads have long shown his and others’ belief that the Maggnir are not of Beauty. He wrote that they represent ‘scars’ on the face of Beauty, that Beauty had set a test for the faithful: to discover a way to heal these scars. He recently wrote that he had found a way. We believe he will use this audnir machine to eradicate the Maggnir.”
Tella sat forward in its seat, its eyes darting across the floor. “Sopha can pinpoint any source of heat, such as forges or cooking fires—or people. He can sweep an entire area or pick off individuals one by one. Yes, what you say is possible, technically. But he is not a murderer, surely? Do you really think that one of your own could do this?”
The Regdenir did not answer.
Jim said quietly, “I think he could. He may have already started.”
Tella frowned.
