Yue

22nd August

09:51 GMT

"Let me see that…"

Guy squints slightly. Power rings will translate pretty much anything, but if the format is very different from your own language it might take a moment for your eyes, ring and brain to work out what they're seeing. The Clickers' written language is quite pretty to look at, so I decided to use that for rank insignia. Unfortunately, because they sort of write with their mouths it tends to result in a column of characters resembling Japanese characters that got pushed together into a single character and written out by someone more familiar with Arabic.

"Lantern assigned to Sector Two Eight One Four… Host of the Ophidian… Hey, where is she, anyway?"

"Still in my personal lantern, but we'll be moving her into the Orange Central Power Battery before too long."

"Oh really?"

"That was the arrangement I came to with her. She wants to experience multiple non-overlapping desire sets, and the best place for her to do that is the Central Power Battery. The Controllers think that'll also boost the rest of the Corps a bit, which is probably why the Guardians keep Ion in your Central Power Battery."

"And your little Demon-things?"

"I find they mostly unsettle people. And I don't want to encourage other Orange Lanterns to use assimilation outside of.. dire necessity."

"Alright. Raised to the Honour Guard…" Guy smirks. "And exactly how many of you are there?"

"The Honour Guard consists of me. The Corps has two other Lanterns and five trainees, not counting Prince Ragnar or the Controllers or… Whoever else has picked up an orange ring while I've been busy."

"Oh. 'cause for a moment there I thought it was a big deal. And, ah-." His eyes widen very slightly. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

Lantern Tui appears to have tuned him out, but Lantern Dulok gamely reads on. "Raised to the rank of Illustres." He looks at Guy. "I suppose that means that he has seniority."

Guy turns to face the planet once more. "No, no, it doesn't count if they're in a different Corps."

Lantern Tui's clearly had enough with our posturing. She dives towards the planet's surface. "Can we please get on with the mission? Sirs?"

Dulok looks like he wants to follow her at once, but hesitates while Guy decides what to do.

Guy and I look at each other. "We should probably-." / "We should probably-."

We twist in the air and swoop after Lantern Tui, heading towards the planet's fifth largest city. Prince Ragnar apparently picked his most recent fight with a scion of its ruling clan, and we're heading for their coliseum now. Though if the flickers of red and yellow I'm seeing are anything to go by…

Magnify.

Prince Ragnar floats before the ducal box as the clan chief very grudgingly hands him… Some sort of medallion. In the arena itself a group of medical orderlies check the corpse of his late opponent for a moment, then begin the process of respectfully removing his body. Sword wounds. Not ring-inflicted. Maybe that's how he's kept his ring going: the environmental shield alone would boost his survivability and wouldn't consume all that much power. If he only wears it in combat…

"Too late for that poor bastard."

"Yeah." So let's take a closer look at Ragnar himself. Ah. "He wanted to be a Green Lantern."

"If that was what he was aimin' for he kinda missed."

"You only recruit when there's a fatality or a promotion. You probably miss any number of perfectly good candidates because there isn't an opening at an appropriate time in an appropriate place. I mean, look at the man."

"Yeah, looks like a real piece a' work." Ragnar turns and raises the medallion so that the crowd can see it. A small group cheer rapturously while the rest seem far more subdued.

"Look at his will. His absolute conviction. And his yellow."

"Barely got any."

"I think there's some there. But you're right; it's so controlled, so... Beaten down. I can barely tell what it is."

"Another Great Clan has fallen." Guy and I look at Dulok for an explanation. "I wasn't certain at first, but now it seems clear that Prince Ragnar is demanding oaths of vassalage from all of the Great Clans."

"And why's that a big deal?"

"All clans acknowledge the supremacy of the Royal Clan, but maintain a high degree of independence. King Nol has been encouraging collegiality and shared decision making. It seems that his son prefers autocracy."

"I've got to say, this is starting to sound like one of those 'Prime Directive' situations."

Guy nods. "Okay. I mean, I think Tui's single but I haven't actually asked."

"What?"

"'Prime Directive'. That's Star Trek, right? Like with Kirk and the hot alien babes?"

"Actually, the Prime Directive was more of a Next Generation thing. And Kirk's libido gets overstated quite a bit."

"Neeeeeerd."

"Pretty much. But this is how Betrassusians decide things. Usually, unifications require massive wars. They're doing it with a few dozen deaths, and none of the people he challenged were forced to accept."

"If it helps, most Betrassusians would rather things weren't decided this way. It was something we were moving away from."

"Then why doesn't the law get changed? Why doesn't the King rein him in? The fact that Sector Lanterns exist shouldn't be an excuse not to gird your own loins and sort the situation out yourself." I sigh. "I better go and talk to him before Lantern Tui decides to do it for me."

I flare my environmental shield slightly, then accelerate towards the arena. Prince Ragnar has flown over to his supporters, receiving backslaps and commendations in good humour with his trophy in hand. Wants to be a Lantern, but grew up while Sinestro was active. As a result he'd be of the 'order over all' school. Which explains why he'd want to follow Sinestro's example and improve 'efficiency' by removing superfluous layers of debate in the planet's government. Curiously, I'm seeing no desire to actually rule himself. And more curiously for me, no obvious sign of spiritual instability. I wasn't expecting anything useful out of this trip other than maybe a mild improvement in relations with the Green Lantern Corps. But I wasn't lying when I said that Prince Ragnar might be exactly what we need.

The background noise drops away as I descend past Lantern Tui and through the open roof of the coliseum. More and more of the locals look upwards, no doubt seeing the green lights behind me as well as my own orange glow. Slight increase in the background fear, but Prince Ragnar's supporters don't seem particularly bothered. One points my way, their idol following it and finally making eye contact with me.

His environmental shield flares as he rises into the air and flies towards me.

"Finally!"