Your ki, your life energy. I and others of my family line can feel what we call the Veins of the Dragon, which holds the souls of all living things. My own sense of it does not extend as far as you said that device can, but I have always been precise.
[There's a bit of pride in that statement--Fu had certainly had a farther range that she, but she had always had a knack for pinpointing those out of her sight.]
[uhH. He understands...some small percent of all that. Some very very small percent. And it's written clear on his face, in the slow way he repeats it, as if to be sure he'd getting it right.]
You're saying you can sense where people are? [And she wears the mask because...?] What d'you need something like that for?
[She nods, giving him a look like it should be obvious. All she's doing is knowing where any living being is in her immediate surroundings, gosh, what's so weird about that?] And animals, but humans give off a stronger signature. All of the emperor's heirs and their personal guards are trained in the use of this.
[He repeats that, too. Because there isn't enough of humanity left where he came from for more than one country, let alone an empire. But heirs and guards...he can make a guess.]
Yes, though an emperor rules many lands, whereas a king only rules one. The emperor of Xing holds all the clans in unison, so that the wars previously waged between them would never again return.
[How would he know what a king was, but not an emperor? She thought such concepts would be commonplace.]
[Commonplace for you, maybe. (And probably for most others, tbh, but some worlds are more disparate than others.) He gives her a curious look as they pace the halls.]
They fought wars against each other?
[It's not...impossible to imagine. Not in the least, actually. And he's heard that sort of thing before. It's still sort of strange. Frustrating, even.]
[She frowns a moment, shaking her head.] It was many, many years ago that the first Emperor united the clans under one rule, but legends say that his armies fought like demons, such that no clan could stand against him. It was with this force that he brought all together, and upheld his laws until the last resistance faded.
[It's a very simplified version of very complicated events, but Lan Fan isn't much of a history buff. It's close enough for someone that probably won't ever see her world in the first place.]
[For what it's worth, he'd take an "I don't know" if he ever asks something she isn't sure about. He's just a curious sort, and people here live lives so different from the one he'd known.
He knows better than to assume humanity will ever get along peacefully forever. Not even an enemy like the titans had been enough to unite them entirely. He's not all that sure how he feels about it. Talks about taking down resistance. (Was it, then, against their will, that he brought people together? Would things be better that way?)
It's not something he has the context to judge. He's silent for a few paces.]
Yes, but I more directly serve the Prince of the Yao clan, who is the twelfth heir of the Emperor. If all goes well back home, he will soon rise to the throne himself.
[Her voice catches at the end of that statement; as sure as she sounds, so many things are unknown that in reality what will become of her clan is a mystery. She doesn't even know if Ling is still in Amestris or Xing, or if the CDC have kept him somewhere in the process of hiring on Ling. And if he was still at home, he has lost the Stone along with Greed--and look what it had taken to even gain hold of that! The more she thought about it, the more she regretted her decision to come here--at least in Amestris she would have been able to do something about the whole mess.]
[They operate on a monarchy, where he's from. The king's heirs take the throne when the time comes. That's how it is. The only way for that to get threatened would be an attack on humanity itself, and by the time the titans reach Sina, the succession's the least of their problems. (...or a revolution.)]
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[There's a bit of pride in that statement--Fu had certainly had a farther range that she, but she had always had a knack for pinpointing those out of her sight.]
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[uhH. He understands...some small percent of all that. Some very very small percent. And it's written clear on his face, in the slow way he repeats it, as if to be sure he'd getting it right.]
You're saying you can sense where people are? [And she wears the mask because...?] What d'you need something like that for?
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[He repeats that, too. Because there isn't enough of humanity left where he came from for more than one country, let alone an empire. But heirs and guards...he can make a guess.]
Like a king?
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[How would he know what a king was, but not an emperor? She thought such concepts would be commonplace.]
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They fought wars against each other?
[It's not...impossible to imagine. Not in the least, actually. And he's heard that sort of thing before. It's still sort of strange. Frustrating, even.]
How'd he get them to stop?
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[It's a very simplified version of very complicated events, but Lan Fan isn't much of a history buff. It's close enough for someone that probably won't ever see her world in the first place.]
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He knows better than to assume humanity will ever get along peacefully forever. Not even an enemy like the titans had been enough to unite them entirely. He's not all that sure how he feels about it. Talks about taking down resistance. (Was it, then, against their will, that he brought people together? Would things be better that way?)
It's not something he has the context to judge. He's silent for a few paces.]
So you serve the emperor?
[A little like the Military Police, then.]
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[Her voice catches at the end of that statement; as sure as she sounds, so many things are unknown that in reality what will become of her clan is a mystery. She doesn't even know if Ling is still in Amestris or Xing, or if the CDC have kept him somewhere in the process of hiring on Ling. And if he was still at home, he has lost the Stone along with Greed--and look what it had taken to even gain hold of that! The more she thought about it, the more she regretted her decision to come here--at least in Amestris she would have been able to do something about the whole mess.]
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[They operate on a monarchy, where he's from. The king's heirs take the throne when the time comes. That's how it is. The only way for that to get threatened would be an attack on humanity itself, and by the time the titans reach Sina, the succession's the least of their problems. (...or a revolution.)]