The Emperor's Agent -- In Vino Veritas

[jo_graham]

A reader asks me how much Elza remembers of her past selves, of the events of Black Ships, Hand of Isis and Stealing Fire. Generally speaking, not much consciously. However, it's all there, and when something brings it to the fore it's at her fingertips. In this case, from wine comes truth. When Elza gets drunk with Corbineau and tells him her

Comments

[jo_graham]

Lydias still has some feelings! :)

But on the other hand, so does Hephaistion. And Lydias never stopped to wonder if perhaps this wouldn't have been more if he hadn't said so quickly that it was nothing. After all, Hephaistion couldn't push. Lydias was under his command, and it would have been dishonorable.

He has always wondered what happened to Lydias in the chaos after his death. He has always wondered if terrible things happened.

[jo_graham]

Oh yes! Because Lydias didn't die young in some horrible way. He lived forty years, and he carried Ptolemy's banner on many fields until he was old. He lived in Alexandria, and he had a peerless lover and a wife he cared for, and children and grandchildren and a white city by the sea. Lydias won. And that has shaped Elza ever since.

[jo_graham]

You're right. She never will be. And Elza has a lot of really bad things ahead of her. But nothing will ever stop her, and ultimately that's why her story isn't Hand of Isis. This is everything she's learned since then, every trick in the book from Georg and all the rest. And the thing she learned from Lydias -- winning is possible. Even when it looks like you've lost completely, you can still win.

Which is a good thing, because the world she wins is our world. The ideals of the revolution -- human rights, public education, the rule of law -- are the basis of our world.