The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(82)

“I have so many questions about this,” Marce said. “None of them good.”

“I don’t like it either,” admitted Cardenia. “And yet without it I wouldn’t know the truth about our past.”

“That’s not entirely true. The information was out there. Jiyi found it. You could have found it, eventually.”

Cardenia shook her head. “The information was out there once upon a time. Who knows if it’s still extant anywhere other than in Jiyi right now.”

“It’s creepy, Cardenia.”

“It is, and you know what’s weird about it is that, as far as I can tell, none of the other emperoxs besides Rachela knew that Jiyi was doing it at all. They just used it to talk to other emperoxs.”

“Like you did, until just today,” Marce pointed out. “Because that’s what you were told the Memory Room does. Also, it’s called the Memory Room, not the Hidden Information Room.”

“It makes me curious how things would be different if other emperoxs had known.”

“It would have been terrible,” Marce said. “It’s a form of absolute knowledge, on top of the absolute power you already have.”

“I don’t have absolute power,” Cardenia protested.

“Of course not,” Marce said. “That’s why no one’s worried at all that you are offering up mystical visions of the future of the Interdependency, or concerned that you are going to declare martial law when you address the parliament, which you can do at your whim, like any normal person without absolute power.”

“I don’t feel like I have absolute power,” Cardenia amended.

“Just promise me that you will never tell your children that Jiyi can do that,” Marce said. “You were almost married to a Nohamapetan. It terrifies me to think about what would happen if one of them ever knew what Jiyi could do.”

“I have more bad news for you.”

“Oh dear God.”

Cardenia pointed to the back of her neck. “I have a network in my body and brain,” she said. “Everything I think and feel and say and do is recorded. And when I die, all of that is going to be in the Memory Room too. So even if I never tell my kids, it doesn’t mean they won’t hear it from me. Just after I’m dead.”

“That’s got to be unsettling for you,” Marce said, after a minute’s consideration.

Cardenia shrugged and snuggled into Marce. “A little. But there are benefits. I didn’t get to spend much time with my father growing up. I loved him and he loved me, but we didn’t know each other at all. And now in the Memory Room I get to speak to him every day, if I want. It’s like I get him back. And that’s a blessing.”

“It is,” Marce agreed.

“If you like your parent, that is,” Cardenia said. “I don’t see Dad talking to his mother all that often. She was awful to him and the rest of the universe as I heard.”

“Did you ever speak to her?”

“I brought her up once to ask her a specific question about a policy she made. After talking to her for five minutes I decided that I probably didn’t ever have to speak to her again.”

The two of them were silent for a moment.

“So … you’re recording now?” Marce asked.

“I’m always recording,” Cardenia murmured.

“So, uh—”

“No, it didn’t record us having sex. I mean, it did,” Cardenia qualified, and then watched the mild panic on Marce’s face. “But it’s not recording it that way. It’s recording how I felt about it, and you, and this moment.”

“And what will your ghost tell anyone who asks?”

“That all of the above are pretty great, actually.”

“Just, you know. Don’t go into detail.”

“Maybe it’ll be your kid too,” Cardenia said, and then couldn’t believe a thing like that had actually come out of her mouth, but it was too late, fuck, so she would just have to roll with it now.

“You can’t marry me,” Marce said, lightly. “I’m waaaay below your station. I’m barely even a lord. I’m a lord on a technicality.”

Cardenia slapped his chest (lightly) in mock outrage. “Don’t tell us what we can do, Lord Marce! We are the emperox! And we have absolute power! We shall marry you if we want.”

“Yes ma’am,” Marce said. “Sorry, ma’am. Reporting for marriage duty, ma’am.”

“Not yet. We’re still trying you out.”

“Try me out all you like. But please stop using the royal ‘we.’ That’s a little too kinky for me.”

Cardenia laughed and climbed on top of Marce and started kissing him and was soon lost in everything that followed, except for that one practical part of her brain, which was saying, You know, you really do have absolute power and absolute knowledge now. Maybe it’s time to put them to use.

Fine, yes, I will think about it, Cardenia said. Just shut up for right now. I’m busy.

Cardenia’s brain shut up.

But then woke her up a few hours later, and started talking to her again. She listened and after a time, stroked Marce’s hair to wake him up. “I think I’m ready,” she said.