“Depends on how you mean.” I sip my coffee, trying to buy myself time. I didn’t really think she’d leap in quite that much. I should have.
She huffs out a laugh. “Who has the strongest powers? Or, I guess, whatisthe strongest power? I don’t even know how to ask it, I guess.”
Shit.
“The current Princess is the strongest that I know of.” I hedge.
“Does she do mind work?” she asks.
“After a fashion. She… well, she can sort of use the emotions around her to manifest powers.”
There’s silence. I wait. Was I too direct?
“She can fuckingwhat?! That’s amazing! How does it work?”
I fuckingknewshe was gonna go there.
“I’m not sure.” How much to say? How much is appropriate? How much istoomuch?
I go with instinct.
“She could never explain it, not clearly. Other than to tell me — us — that the power depends on the feelings.”
“Wasn’t that dangerous? Having someone who could wield what you’re feeling?”
“The Princess was always careful in her practice,” I say, carefully. How to explain? “All power has some element of danger, doesn’t it?” I gesture widely with my hands. “Even just imagined, socially constructed power in the human world has proven to be dangerous, to kill millions. In the same way that strength — of any kind — can be put to a more sinister use.” I shrug, trying to downplay how my heart is pounding. This is where I need to tread carefully.
“But I don’t understand. How can you turn emotions into power? Can she… I don’t know, play with how people feel?”
“No.” I pause, trying to seem like I’m considering. It’s really fucking hard to know how much I should admit to knowing; how well should I appear to know my Princess?Fuck. If she only knew. “No, as far as I know, she doesn’t have the ability of emotional manipulation.” That’s an interesting thought, actually. “What shecando is use the emotions around her — both in herself and in the… environment, I suppose — to manifest in different ways.”
“What do they manifest as?” I can hear the eagerness in her voice.
Careful now.
“To my understanding,” I bite back a grin. “It depends on the emotion, doesn’t it?”
Ash seems to ponder this. “Okay. What about, say… joy?”
“Joy manifests as a radiant light or a healing warmth. It can help mend wounds, lift spirits, sprout rainbows. I believe she’s used it for entertaining children on occasion.” She did in fact, and often, especially during a healing. Dancing rainbows are fantastic for distracting a child during painful healing.
“That makes sense.” She nods. “Sadness?”
“Sorrow or sadness is largely water-based, right? So water.”
“Just water?” She seems very unimpressed.
“Just water?” I repeat. “Really? You can’t think of anything scary about water?”
She seems to think it over, while I finish my coffee and rise to go get more. “Ice, I suppose.” She calls after me.
I grin. She’s getting it. “Aye, ice. Ice that can be shaped into weapons — spears, swords. But water itself can be terrifying. A giant wave appearing out of nowhere, drowning an army?”
“That takes a lot of power, right?”
“Well, I did say she was the strongest, didn’t I?”
When I come back with my refill, Ash has gotten a notebook and is jotting notes.
