The Magister (Earthkeep)

by Sally Miller Gearhart

  "I said, Zudie!" Yotoma's voice was brusque. Zude turned to see her friend waiting, two cups in hand, by the transmog.

  "Coffee, please, Flossie. Strong and black." She threw off her cloak and sank to a sofa, smiling as she stared at the ceiling.

  Yotoma placed the hot drinks on a low table, settled herself across from Zude, tested the temperature of her tea. "You sure you don't want to tell me about this? Before we talk to Lin-ci?"

  "About?"

  "About whatever it is you have made a decision about." She took a full swallow of tea, her countenance barely masking her concern.

  Zude sighed and stretched. Her eyes brightened, and she shot a quick grin at Yotoma. "I wanted to weigh it all out with you on Thursday when you visited Regina, but it didn't seem appropriate then."

  "And then I took off for Denver."

  "And it's a good thing it happened that way." Zude picked up her cup. Her face was relaxed. "I thought at first you could help me decide, Floss. But now I know it's better that I tell you and Lin-ci together."

  "So whatever it is, you've decided."

  "I've decided."

  She looks about twenty years old, Yotoma thought. Maybe twenty-one. Her eyes squinted. "I'll lay you eight-to-three I can tell you the exact moment you decided."

  "You're on! When?" Zude sat up, set down her cup.

  "You decided standing on that boat, with that violin, about twenty seconds into your first repeat, right after the music got away from you. You decided when your whole body started playing, when you lit up like a dervish gone to glory and began performing like a maestro."

  Zude shot up from the sofa, her arms wide. "Yes!" She spun a full circle. "Flossie, was there ever such a moment! I can't tell you even now what happened! It was like I turned it all over to another part of me. I let go and let something else move my fingers! And Bosca, Bosca said she saw him, a violinist . . . in the clouds. . ." She stopped herself and frowned at the far wall. "Actually, Floss, that wasn't exactly the moment. I didn't decide until the ending, when everything lifted up into another world, and sorrow turned into. . . into joy! When all the emptiness was filled up with life again!" Zude looked at Yotoma.

  "You are touched, Adverb."

  Zude pushed her fingers through her hair. "I know. Sounds dippy as a dinghy on a choppy sea. . ."

  Yotoma cut her off. "No." She wasn't smiling. "I mean you're touched. By the Wings Of The Dove."

  Zude stared at her. Then she sank down onto the arm of the sofa. "I am, Flossie. I guess I am." She shook her head gently. "But we've been calling it wrong. It wasn't a decision. It was more like . . . a knowing. I just knew what I have to do." She held Yotoma's eyes.

  The chromatics of the intercom interrupted them. Zude opened its flow to the voice of Captain Edge. "Word from Magister Lin-ci Win, Magister. She can confer in five minutes. We're ready and waiting in the Peace Room."

  "Good. We're on our way." Zude closed the circuit. She took in a deep breath. "Well. This is it, Flossie."

  "Zudie, you make me nervous, talking like that. Like it's the end of the world."

  "Al contrario, mi amiga. It's maybe the beginning."

  Yotoma grunted. "Don't get cryptic with me." She finished off her tea as she stood.

  Zude swept her Vigilante cloak around her body, chuckling as she adjusted its clasp. Yotoma's voice made her turn.

  "Zudie," said the formidable figure in front of her, "tell the truth and shame the devil." Zude looked back evenly as Yotoma's eyes hunted down and demolished every possible camouflage. "Are you figuring on quitting?"

  "Quitting?"

  "Spit it out. No gilding the pill."

  Zude's eyes were laughing again. "Flossie, I am no more going to quit than you are." She took the green and black Magister cloak from Yotoma's hand, shook it and held it up so she could step under it. She settled the cloak around Yotoma's lean shoulders. Then she hugged the taller woman from behind, resting her cheek for a long moment against her friend's back. She de-paqued the wall of the office, and the two women set off together.

  * * * * * * *

  "If you have called this conference to discuss the closing of the bailiwicks, Magisters, I congratulate you on the shrewdness of your timing." Beneath her red cowl and over her red and silver cloak, Lin-ci Win's face was drawn and her eyes were sunk in gray circles.

  Circles of fatigue, wondered Yotoma, or of grief? She studied her Co-Magister. Circles of torment? Yotoma set her elbow on her chair and her fist to her cheek. She watched.

  Lin-ci's holo-image leaned without animation on the arm of her mobile Greatchair. Zude and Yotoma sat elevated in restricted sub-channel ambience, holo-projected to their colleague in Hong Kong. Below them, the sounds of the Shrievalty's Peace Room hummed with technological activity.

  "How so, Magister?" Zude, too, was disturbed by Lin-ci's devitalized countenance.

  The Amah Magister allowed herself a rueful smile. "In this moment, I am ready to fling wide every bailiwick gate and never incarcerate another soul, just to be relieved of the responsibility." She held up a warning hand. "I won't be held to that!" She leaned back in her chair, almost relaxed. "It's a moment of weakness only. I shall recuperate."

  "Lin-ci," said Yotoma, risking much on the informality, "you look like soaproots after a hard day's washing."

  The Amah stared a moment, then reluctantly nodded.

  "If you wish, please tell us," Zude urged. "It can serve as a such-and-such."

  Lin-ci sighed. "Here is one item, the most recent. Vice-Magister Khtum Veng Sanh has asked to be relieved of her duties and to be transferred to some remote post commandership." She raised one eyebrow before she continued. "That I share this with you is a measure of my distress."

  Then she spoke rapidly. "Amahs had just quelled a routine and minor outburst of hostility inside Sambor Bailiwick, on the Mekong in Cambodia. At the same time, hundreds of habitantes were beginning to gather for what Sambor's Post Commander took to be further violence. She immediately began standard response procedures. That is, she ordered a blanketing of the entire bailiwick with slumber vaporose — with Amahs masked against it, of course. From Hanoi, Vice-Magister Veng countermanded that order and informed the Commander that the habitante gathering was not related to the hostility but was instead a part of a peaceful assembly for the purpose of prayer for the children, and why-had-the-Post-Commander-not-remembered-that?

  "Unfortunately, by this time some vaporose fumes had already been released. The habitantes responded with outrage, chaos ensued, and a pipe bomb was thrown. Two Amahs were badly wounded, one of them probably fatally. The Commander then overrode Veng's countermand, filled the bailiwick with the complete allotment of vaporose, and thus restored order."

  "It was to have been a peaceful gathering?" Yotoma asked.

  "Who knows? Facts, motives and responsibilities are hopelessly entangled. It did not end peacefully." Lin-ci's powerful arms braced on those of the mobile Greatchair and lifted the inanimate lower half of her body into a variation of her sitting position. She looked at her colleagues. "Veng challenged me. Without any request to speak freely, she exploded into a tirade in which, among other things, she catalogued the symptoms of my fascist behavior and informed me that citizens in all three satrapies believe me to be completely out of touch with their needs and their reality. She justified her action at Sambor by blaming me for the incident. The violence of habitantes throughout the tri-satrapy, she informed me, is the residue of my own anger. She had the grace to add that other angry or disgruntled people, herself included, might also be contributing to the emotional stockpile that fuels such violence. I countenanced Veng's behavior only because she had clearly taken leave of her senses."

  The Amah Magister lowered her eyes. "I assigned her to immediate rest and recuperation. I accepted her resignation and granted her transfer." She spoke despondently. "I have lost an able Vice-Magister. And a friend."

  The visage of such pain astonished Zude. In her experience, Lin-ci Win h
ad rarely confided internal crises, and never had she exhibited personal feelings of this kind.

  "A loss beyond measure," Yotoma said simply.

  Lin-ci looked up. Quietly, she observed, "Nighthawk, Hong Kong's municipal tapestry artist, says that to live well one needs to embrace only two rules: Be nice, and make pretty things." She smiled ruefully. "Perhaps Nighthawk is right."

  Zude also spoke quietly. "If everyone believed so, that would be a world worth living in." More pointedly but still gently, she added, "We wouldn't need bailiwicks."

  "And we could all retire," added Yotoma. "We wouldn't even need the. . ." The Femmedarme Magister's words slowed, then ceased. Yotoma dared a look at Zude. Her friend's dark eyes were full of laughter and love. "Adverb!" Yotoma whispered.

  Lin-ci Win's voice sundered the moment. "Colleagues! What secret do you share now?"

  Yotoma unclasped her cloak. "Get set, Lin-ci," she said, still looking at Zude. "I think we're about to address the subject of this hastily called conference." She began removing her cloak, keeping her eyes on Zude.

  "By my oath as a Kanshou," Zude said to Lin-ci, "I have not breathed a word to Magister Lutu about the substance of this meeting." She straightened to an upright position and said with unaccustomed formality, "Magister Win, Magister Lutu, the three of us are the titular heads of government on Little Blue. We are also the Commanders-In-Chief of the planet's peacekeeping forces. I submit to you that at this time in human history the only conscionable action open to us is not only to close down the bailiwicks but, as well, to initiate and carry out the complete and irrevocable abolition of the Amahrery, the Femmedarmery and the Vigilancia — the abolition of the global Kanshoubu."

  Amah Magister Lin-ci Win stared at Zude with no visible reaction. Flossie Yotoma Lutu frowned and began barely shaking her head.

  "I have not yet put together even a full prima facie case," Zude continued, still formally, "for I came to my present understanding only a few hours ago. Still, I am acutely aware that there is no time to lose. I would like to begin moving toward our consensus on the matter as soon and as rapidly as possible, with the hope that in the next few weeks we can present to Kanshou world-wide a plan for their discharge, their relocation and, if necessary, their re-education. The Heart Of All Kanshou must approve the measure, and I suggest that we set our case before the Heart no later than a month from today."

  Lin-ci Win moved not a muscle, but her eyes blazed. "You are mad!" she whispered. Suddenly, she ignited like tinder. "You would throw away all we have worked for, all we have gained of peace!" Her flushed face looked ready to explode.

  "Magister. . ." Yotoma soothed.

  "And you, Flossie! You stand with her!"

  "Negative, Lin-ci! I don't know where I stand. I haven't heard Adverb out yet. And neither have you!"

  "I've heard her propose the destruction of the Kanshoubu!" The Amah Magister seemed almost to dodder in her fury. "It will never work, Zella Adverb! You forget the women you are talking about. These are Kanshou! They would never allow their own destruction! Their total identity is committed to fighting violence. That is their reason for existence!"

  Yotoma's Hausa oath split the air. "Lin-ci," she boomed, "you forget who the Kanshou are! You talk like they'd wither and die if they couldn't be fighting violence!" She drew back deliberately to a more moderate demeanor. "The Kanshou wouldn't want for jobs, Lin-ci. Kanshou are tailor-made to deliver the discipline and the integrity that are needed in a world that has been turned upside down, whether they're in uniform or in mufti. They'd take the lead, they'd be the role models, and they'd empower with knowledge and know-how anybody who wanted to learn. You know that as well as I do!"

  Lin-ci Win listened to Yotoma with increasingly narrowed eyes. "You misunderstand me entirely. I do not say that Kanshou would be incapable of living as civilians. I do say that they would not allow the abolition of the Kanshoubu." She looked at Zude and then back to Yotoma. "Astute women, both of you," she mused, shaking her head, "and yet you misjudge so appallingly the true meaning of a Kanshou's commitment."

  Zude was visibly taken aback.

  "What do you mean, Magister?"

  Lin-ci Win had settled again into her Greatchair. She studied her counterparts but did not answer.

  "I don't know what you're getting at, Lin-ci," said Yotoma. She drew a green kerchief from a belt pocket and wiped her face. "And Zude, don't count me into this lunatic scheme." She scratched her short-cropped head and gave a kerchief swipe to her upper lip. "Lin-ci may be right. The Congress of Active Kanshou won't knuckle under to a notion like this. What line to heaven have you suddenly got that says our peacekeeping forces will go belly up and agree to wipe out their own Kanshoubu?"

  Zude sighed, but her eyes were bright again. "I'd be disappointed if you two didn't fight me on this." She sat up straighter. "But I assure you, my sole purpose in life from now on is to persuade you and 600,000 other Kanshou that the Kanshoubu must cease to be. I intend to stand with both of you before the Heart Of All Kanshou as we all three argue for its blessing on this enterprise. If you don't join me, I'll be sad, but I will carry out the task alone."

  She paused. "It is what must be done. I have not the shadow of a doubt that it will be done."

  Abruptly Lin-ci Win turned her head and looked over her shoulder. Yotoma was certain in that moment that the Amah Magister was summoning those in her Hong Kong Peace Room who would physically and summarily remove her and her Greatchair from this conference. Instead, Lin-ci spoke to an Amah behind and under her, then drew from the nebulous air beneath her a max-monitor magnopad. She activated several control orbs, then held up for Zude and Yotoma's perusal a scrolling screenful of names.

  "Are you responsible for this, Magister Adverb?" she asked as the names rolled slowly upward.

  "Who are they?" Zude peered at the list. "Amahs?"

  "Amahs indeed. Two regiments of the Asia Satrapy's finest Kanshou." The names scrolled on. "From Sri Lanka and Lower India." She sat back in her Greatchair still holding out for her Co-Magisters the seemingly endless list of names.

  Zude draped her cloak over the back of her chair and sat forward to watch the movement on the screen. Yotoma studied Lin-ci Win's face.

  "They have retired," said the Amah Magister.

  "Re. . ." Zude began.

  "They have left their offices and their careers. They have laid down their capes. Over 800 women."

  "And some men," Yotoma added automatically.

  "Only in your tri-satrapies," Lin-ci snapped, "not in this one. I remind you that men have never been a part of the Amahrery." She watched the scrolling screen again. "This is a list of women."

  "I don't understand," Zude murmured.

  Lin-ci recited in an orator's voice, "'We will no longer fuel the violence,' their statement said. 'We will live now thinking of and believing in a world of lovingkindness.'" Lin-ci paused. "Answer my question, Magister Adverb."

  "Magister," Zude answered, "I have in no way participated in this action on the part of the Amahs of Sri Lanka and Lower India. That they have pre-empted my proposal, however, at least in regard to their own lives, testifies to the appropriateness of the Kanshoubu's abolition."

  "It testifies to no such thing!" If Lin-ci Win could have stood, her presence would have towered over her colleagues. "It testifies to the panic that assails every township on Little Blue, and to the false spirituality and unctuous piety that have beset even the most rational of women in the face of that panic — Vice-Magister Khtum Veng Sanh its prime example. And now, the Magister of Nueva Tierra its secondary one!" The Amah's eyes were ablaze.

  Yotoma's cool reason met Lin-ci's fire. "The accusation is unjust, Magister. Adverb speaks from exigency, from. . ."

  "Enough, Flossie!" Lin-ci proclaimed. The air shuddered under the weight of her rage. The red-cowled woman faltered a moment, then said earnestly to Yotoma, "Magister Lutu, you are my respected elder in both reason and political sagacity, but if you even consider endor
sing Adverb's madness, you are no better than the perpetrators of violence who will rise up in self-vindication and triumph at the suggestion of this idea! You are courting chaos! Anarchy and pandemonium! Both of you!"

  "Magister." Zude matched the energy with a steady composure. "What will come is as yet unimaginable, but I'm certain it will not be chaos. Or, if so, then not for long. Will you open the ear of your ears to me for a moment?"

  Zude proceeded as if Lin-ci's motionless countenance were an affirmation. "In a public context this afternoon, I was challenged by an unfamiliar aspect of myself to surrender the most carefully cultivated part of my personality: my control. I was dared to trust that my training, my preparation, my passion and my good intent would be sufficient for the difficult task at hand. I resisted, fearing failure and humiliation. In the same instant, I understood that it was my effort at control that was dooming me to failure."

  Zude glanced at Yotoma, then said urgently to Lin-ci, "Magister, it was a moment of supreme daring! I did relinquish control, and I found to my astonishment that I was participating in a small miracle!" She bent forward, toward her Co-Magister's uncompromising facial lines. "We're at just such a juncture now on Little Blue, Lin-ci Win. Our heart is whispering that we must give up our attempt to control violence because that attempt, that expectation, merely guarantee that violence will exist, and in fact thrive. But if we listen to the promptings of our best selves, then in another moment of daring we may forever transform our understanding of violence!"

  Zude hesitated. "No human act means the same thing today that it meant a year ago. Everything has been made extraordinary, and we must open ourselves to the vast changes." She studied her hands for a moment. "I know now that our beloved Kanshou, our peacekeepers, are part of what creates and sustains the violence that has been our most ancient and agonized birthright." She looked up at the other women. "Uncreate the Kanshoubu, and we at last begin to uncreate this most relentless legacy. When we renounce our fear of becoming victims and our pride at protecting victims, then what we have known as violence will disappear."