Patiently awaiting his turn, Kaden observed from the prince's right hand as he resolved a dispute between two feuding merchants from within the Upper Ring.

The one, a portly and well-fed fellow, had not received the new tables for his upscale dining establishment of the quality he believed he requested and demanded. The other, a muscled carpenter with many years on his brow, had given lower quality goods, he admitted, but only because the owner of the eatery had paid him only three quarters of what was originally agreed upon as compensation.

His conclusion was a judicious decision they were both wrong and neither would seek any compensation from the other.

Neither was happy. But at the same time, both were. For neither one of them got more than a thorough tongue lashing from the prince for bringing such a petty squabble before him.

As the deliberation ended, both men, bowed to their sovereign, begrudgingly shook each other's hand to seal the deal, and left the prince's audience hall.

"Are you getting the hang of this yet?" the man whole ruled Ison asked of his Karo Shar. "You've watched me for two years handling this sort of trivial matter."

"You are often very generous, and find ways to come down in the middle." Kaden replied. "Even when the Decrees would allow you to be more harsh to one of the parties who were obviously in the wrong."

"Enlighten me."

"Well, while Orwin, Son on Mors, did nothing wrong by providing only goods that the lesser fee allowed of him to make the same profit, you called it even between them. When in reality, you could have punished Irul, Son of Psa, very severely for not giving the carpenter the full contractual obligation up front as he was obligated to."

"Even so, Iru knows I am not happy with his actions."

"And what about Orwin?"

The prince stayed silent for only a second before answering. "He will get a nice hefty military contract for his acceptance of this outcome. It will be his reward for indulging me."

"I've noticed you often do that. Come down the middle when you're in court, but reward the truly aggrieved party later on. It's actually quite an ingenious way of dealing with things."

"Do you find it shocking that your prince is so diplomatic and intelligent?"

"No. I know how smart you are. And cunning."

"I learned this trick from watching my father," Prince Relastin admitted. "I'm not certain my brothers paid as close attention as I did."

"Their loss."

"Indeed. Now, Karo Shar, I notice you've acquired a new piece of armor?" The prince pointed at the item in question. "What happened to the breastplate I gifted you? Are you going to insult me by coming before me and not wearing it any longer?"

Kaden knew the prince had noticed the change the second he'd walked in, although he'd avoided saying anything during the two hour-long session of hearing grievances. Kaden could tell by the way the prince looked at him.

"It's not meant to be an insult, my prince." Kaden played cool, even as he was sweating. "I needed to finally have a more efficient system for delivering the essence straight into my heart. The other arrangement was not optimal."

"You've told me about this 'pipework' you have hidden behind there." The prince pointed with a finger that was inquisitive, not angry. "And your little secret way of taking essence. And while I have been intrigued by your methods, I've never really been that interested in them until now."

"Why now?"

"Your effectiveness in battle," the prince said. "The soldiers don't believe you take any essence. Because they don't see you inhaling it. That you are just a natural and great fighter. Like your prince. But we both know differently. You're not a natural. And you do take essence. With as effective as you are, I've pondered what if we could make others like you."

"Others? Like me? How?"

"Injecting essence directly into one's heart, appears quite effective. Imagine what we could do. How many we could add to the ranks, if we just cut open some people's chests and started sticking tubes in them. How many new warriors we could create to fight for Ison."

Kaden cringed. He remembered the day he'd been skewered by the Night Terror's claw. And he remembered the deathly serious pain that took him to the doorstep of death. "I was lucky," he replied. "I don't know if it would be easy to duplicate what happened to me."

"Come now, are you doubting Touran's expertise as a surgeon? He's very skilled, I assure you. And he's guaranteed me he could perform the operation. Maybe not without some failures, but perform it none-the-less."

"No. I know about his aptitude first hand. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him, and you dragging me out of the Abyss. But I am completely certain you'll kill far more than you'll gain."

The prince smirked. "You cannot make a feast without first slaughtering the animals."

The way the prince was nonchalant about such things irked Kaden. But he knew he had to temper his response. "It's also more than just cutting people open. I see things differently from my training as an alchemist. I process data through my mind differently. You're not just going to pull some urchin off the street, slice his chest open, and turn him into your next Karo Shar."

"You're so worried about being replaced? Let me worry about who is Karo Shar, Karo Shar. Just answer my questions. Now, how does this thing actually work?"

Kaden was obedient and answered. "Well, in earlier iterations, I either had to reach up under my breastplate, like this." He demonstrated. "Or hit the armor really hard to break the seal. The first was cumbersome. The second was not reliable. Now I just push here." Kaden gestured to where the tips of three vials were just barely seen in the pocket within the metal."

"And this is more reliable?"

"Yes. Perfect? No. I'm still refining the system. But much better."

"You told me before that you actually use a much smaller dose of essence with this means of delivery to achieve the same, if not greater, result. That's where my real interest comes from. If we could stretch our essence supply by making delivery more efficient, it would be a great boon to Ison. And an advantage over our enemies, be they from below or across the sands. What is the increase in this efficiency."

"Right now, I'm using about a fifth of a standard dose." What Kaden said was not technically true. Because he was using more concentrated essence distilled at a higher temperature for his own vials, he was actually closer to one twenty-fifth of a standard dose. But he justified the lie by using the mathematical equivalent of what it would have been from a standard still to arrive at his answer.

"Show me this rig?" The prince beckoned for Kaden to remove his breastplate.

"Yes, my prince." Kaden obliged, unstrapping and handing it over after peeling it off and removing the tube from the moleskin wedge in his chest.

The prince accepted the armor as though it were more than just a curiosity. He took particular interest in the integral pipework that was part of the armor, tracing it with his fingers. "How was this made?" he asked his Karo Shar.

"Your armorers made it. I asked. They looked a little perplexed by my request, but then found a way to make it a reality."

Prince Relastin studied the piping even more intently upon hearing the reply. "I should challenge them more often then. If they did something so grand as this upon a request from my Karo Shar, I can only imagine what they could accomplish if their prince commanded something unusual from them."

"Whatever you ask," Kaden said, "still has to be possible. You can't ask the impossible."

"I am the Prince of Ison," his majesty reminded his Karo Shar, while handing the breastplate back. "I can ask anything I want. When I ask it, it becomes reasonable."

"Ok, let me rephrase that. You can't ask the impossible unless you want to be disappointed with results."

"The difference between impossible and possible is often only a matter of applying the proper motivation. Look at you. I remember a scrawny boy, the son of an alchemist and a traitor who wasn't much of a fighter being left alone in the Abyss to fight a Koronai by himself. And, after I left that boy, he came forth with its head and threw it on the ground before me, demanding that I recognize him. Many would have said that such was impossible."

Kaden, now practiced at donning armor, had his breastplate back on by the time the prince finished his sermon. "I am only glad that luck was with me."

"I think its more than luck with you, Karo Shar. Yes, luck is strong with you. But I think you had a warrior within you screaming to get out. You just needed a bit of a push. Others may well have the same. Now," the prince waved his hand vigorously and dismissively. "Go fuck your wife or something. Begone from my presence."

Kaden bowed and took his leave at the crude dismissal. Once he was out of the prince's audience hall, he allowed himself a moment to realize the whole encounter had gone smoother than he imagined it would have. But he knew the prince was calculating. The last thing the man who sat upon Ison's throne wanted was for the knowledge Kaden had to disappear should anything untoward happen to his Karo Shar.