Yue

 11th January

09:35 GMT -5

"No."

He stares at me levelly for a moment. I put my right hand over my heart.

"I have not been in secret discussions with the government-."

"Have you perhaps been in some other sort of discussion?"

I smile. "Yes! See, I was overloading Sephtian with research projects, so I thought: I need this researched, who do I know who can do it who isn't linked into Sephtian's brain drain supply chain?"

Kaldur nods. "The government of Venturia."

"They have as little to do with Poseidonis as possible, but use basically the same thaumaturgical notation. Everything I'd already learned could be shared without having to explain it."

He exhales slowly, bowing his head slightly and closing his eyes for a moment. "What is the nature of the research you are having them perform?"

"I'm trying to study the relationship between the material universe and the Dream. I'm leaving exactly how they do it up to their researchers, because..." I shrug. "I would just be guessing. Is… There a problem?"

"How much progress have they made?"

"They haven't even finished setting up their forges yet." I shake my head. "I don't honestly see them achieving much within the lifetimes of the current generation of archmages. It's probably going to turn out to be one of those near-pointless resource sinks like the Large Hadron Collider, but… I've got the resources to spare, and I can afford to be optimistic." I frown in puzzlement. "Is there a problem?"

"Venturia is preventing Queen Ptra from returning to her home city to take her throne."

"I'm.. pretty sure that she already rules Aurania..?"

"No. Venturia."

"Um." I frown. "It was a while ago Diana told me about it, but… Didn't Ptra grow up in Aurania?"

"She split her time between Aurania and Poseidonis."

"Has she..? Ever been to Venturia?"

Kaldur doesn't immediately respond. Okay, what's happening? Queen Clea allied with the Nazis during World War Two. She agreed to raid Allied shipping in exchange for them recognising her claims to nearby islands. Diana fought her and.. sort of lost until Queen Cora -King Orin's grandmother- took command of the situation. Venturia broke their alliance, and the Allies agreed to abandon Atlantean territory once the war ended. Then… Something about Venturia and Aurania making a marriage alliance… Diana seemed a bit unclear on the details, but I know that something went wrong and Venturia has been isolationist ever since.

"Kaldur, whatever political problems are occurring in Atlantis… I'm not involving myself."

"Other than by sharing the greatest arcane tool produced by the arcanotechnological revolution with a city which is now refusing to recognise King Orin's authority."

"Yes, other than that. The design isn't a secret, Kaldur. Sephtian's been showing everyone." Wait. "Is this about the message I delivered for Lord Cyprian? I only did that because it was quicker than the normal Atlantean postal service."

"In part, yes. Lord Cyprian has crowned himself King of Venturia, and has announced his intention to secede from Atlantis."

"Okay?"

"I am hoping that you will agree to cease dealing with them until the dispute has been resolved."

"Kaldur…" I shake my head. "I'm not going to involve myself in Atlantean internal politics. Unless he commits an actual atrocity or.. Queen Hippolyta tells me otherwise, I'm not going to change my current stance."

"Under Queen Clea, Venturia was turned into a police state. Lord Cyprian was her Prime Minister for decades, and will continue with the same policies."

"And Garth was nearly murdered in the cradle for being born with the wrong colour eyes. And the Nanauvians eat each other to settle civil disputes. Let's not pretend that Atlantis is a bastion of liberal democracy."

"King Orin has made it the purpose of his reign to make it one."

"Kaldur, the Orange Lantern Corps may not operate on the same non-interference policy as the Green Lantern Corps, but we do have a policy-."

"A policy which you have the authority to overrule."

"Yes, but on what grounds, Kaldur? Has King Cyprian committed an atrocity? Do you want me to go back over sixty years, or… The entire history of Atlantis since the sinking? Because as an outsider I'd need to do that to decide who was in the right, and to what degree. Do you want me to get into the habit of overruling national leaders, not because they're evil but because they don't do what my allies want?"

"Then will you at least share with us what you learn from your research?"

"Of course. The whole reason why I'm doing this is to improve the world's understanding of magic. Though as I said, I don't think it's going to amount to much anytime soon."

His face hardens slightly. "The ability to manipulate the connection between the material world and the Dream could give the Venturians the ability to prevent the use of magic throughout Atlantis."

"Or release a plague of nightmares in their own research centre or really tick off one of the Endless." I shake my head. "Kaldur, I'm an empath. I met King Cyprian. You know what I saw?"

"I do not."

"A man who genuinely believes that it's his job to improve the lives of his people as much as he can. I didn't know that he was planning on declaring independence, but I don't think he's the sort of man who you have to worry about signing off on a doomsday weapon."

"Unless he has a way to confuse your senses."

"Hmm. Possible, but I was wearing a spell eater, and I was getting the usual degree of complexity from him. Most defences just block me. Look, other than having his independence recognised, has he made any demands..?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"And they've only had… Extremely limited contact with the rest of Atlantis for sixty years?"

"Yes."

"So all he wants is what he's already got. Between that and what I saw, I don't think it's unreasonable to conclude that he isn't a threat to the rest of Atlantis."

"And if he became one?"

"The same thing I'd do if King Orin became a threat to Venturia. Or when anywhere became a threat to anywhere else without a darn good reason. Kaldur, I don't think that thinking about this in purely adversarial terms is particularly sensible."

"I will convey that to my king. Will you be willing to deliver to Lord Cyprian any messages he wished to relay privately?"

So much for not getting involved. "Of course."

"Then we should not keep Zatanna waiting any longer."