The location was grand, as though it had been tailored perfectly to eir tastes: a cube sixty meters on a side, lit brightly by lights so that within shone a smaller cube made entirely of shelves. Shelves containing book after book after book. Spiral staircases wound up each corner, disgorging patrons onto the various levels so that they could meander along balconies and dive into corridors of books. Books, magazines, pamphlets. Scrolls, parchments, leaflets, snippets, chicken-scratch in diaries, words upon words upon words.
And there, on the bottom floor where it was properly beneath all of the books, a cafe and bar, serving everything from tea and coffee to beer, whiskey, and doubtless some fancy as hell cocktails.
"Mx Ioan Balan?" The young woman was waiting for em just inside the door to the cube.
Ey held out a hand. "Yes. You must be Sabeena?"
She beamed and bowed to em. "Yes, yes! It is nice to meet you. You'll have to forgive me for not shaking your hand, I don't like being touched. Follow me, though, I've staked out a booth where we can talk."
They wound their way through a small crowd, an array of low couches and tables, and between the coffee and alcohol bars to a high-walled booth in the corner of the seating area.
"Would you like anything to drink before we begin?"
Ioan shrugged, "A tea, perhaps. Too late in the day for coffee, too early for alcohol."
Sabeena nodded. Within a minute, a server brought them two steaming cups of a milky tea. Chai, it turned out, and quite good, at that.
Once they'd gotten the obligatory how-are-yous and good-teas and nice-libraries out of the way, Ioan retrieved eir notebook and a pen.
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Your name came highly recommended to me by several people. I'm glad to get the chance to talk with an actual historian."
Her laugh was clear and bright. "No, thank *you*, Mx Balan. I've been looking forward to the chance to meet you for quite some time now."
Ey paused partway through unscrewing the cap of eir pen. "You have?"
"Oh, yes! I've been following your work since the Ode clade business. You somehow manage to distill quite a bit down into a document that is clear and easy to read." She paused, then added, "Documents, I should say. I was lucky enough to get a chance to read the history as well as the investigative journalism piece."
"Really? I had no idea that it had made it out of the clade," ey said, posting the cap on the back of the pen. "I'm pleased to hear that you think so highly of me."
She nodded, grinning widely. "That's why I arranged for us to meet, today. I have lots to talk about, of course, but I wanted to meet you, as well."
Ioan hid an uncomfortable laugh behind a sip of tea. "I'm flattered. You arranged this?"
"Yes! I made friends with a few of yours and encouraged them to suggest that we meet."
"That is quite a strange thing to do." Ey decided to roll with it, scratching out shorthand on eir paper. "Why'd you think to do that?"
"Oh, because I'm horrible at actually asking for what I really want, and it's easier for me to ensure that things happen my way instead."
"That's very...well, honest. Thank you for letting me know. At least. What was the reason you wanted to meet me for, then? Beyond just, as you put it, wanting to meet me?"
Sabeena sat up straighter in the booth, setting her nearly untouched tea to the side. "Before I answer that, I need to know how much you know, so that I know where to start. Is that okay?"
Ey nodded. The whole encounter was so outside eir experience that ey could think of nothing better to do.
"Stop me when I get to something that you haven't heard or realized yet. Two hundred years ago, the System seceded from the rest of the institutions on Earth. This happened in conjunction with one of the launches for the under-construction L<sub>5</sub> station. Secession was organized by the Council of Eight, one of whom was Michelle Hadje, the progenitor of the Ode clade --- this is why I was so interested in your work, I'll note. The Ode clade is made up of, nominally, one hundred individual instances, though they occasionally spin off long-running instances and pretend they haven't. The first ten of these instances were created shortly before Secession in order to help handle the workload as Michelle grew tired of her position. With me, so far?"
"Yes, that sounds correct," ey said. Ey figured it was not worth correcting her on the reality of Michelle, of what ey'd seen and heard from May and Dear.
"Okay." Sabeena continued her speech smoothly, sitting almost completely still, as though reciting something from memory. "The Odists were integral to both Secession and Launch, and may have orchestrated both, each in their own way. I see you frowning, which I'll take to mean that I'm getting close to the limits of where our knowledge agrees."
"I suppose, yes. Some of the discussions I've had --- my clade has had, I mean --- with Odists have brought much of this to light over the past few days."
"Excellent. Please stop me when I reach the place when our knowledge diverges. The Ode clade, through managing Secession and Launch, has influenced the politics of the System, such as they are, as well as those on Earth, which--"
"Okay. This is new to me, and you're also speaking a little too fast for me to keep up. If you are able to, can you slow down?"
She laughed breathlessly, finally letting her shoulders sag and her chin droop. "Alright, I'll try. Thank you for reminding me, I get a little excitable, sometimes."
*I could tell,* ey thought.
"So which bit about influencing politics had you not heard before?"
"The bit about influencing politics phys-side." Ey shook eir head, "Which I'm a little confused about. I suppose I can see how that might work, given the communication between sys- and phys-side during both of those occurences, but--"
