“Neither one,” said Wad. “You’ll rule so benignly, so generously, that you’ll even like yourself, I promise.”

“I only ever tried to rule one person. Not even rule her, just contain her so she didn’t destroy herself and hurt a lot of other people in the process. I couldn’t do it. And also, likable as I am, she hated me for it.”

“These aren’t women,” said Wad.

Ced shook his head. “Wad. You keep explaining this as if I didn’t understand. I understand completely, I just don’t agree.”

“I know,” said Wad. “But I don’t know what else to do.”

“Find a new plan,” offered Ced.

“You’re all I’ve got, now that Anonoei is gone.”

“You’ve got her boys. Didn’t you say they’re already some freaky kind of conjoined-twin mage?”

“Ced, when I say you’re all I’ve got, I mean it. If I had anybody else, would I still be here after you’ve told me no so often?”

“You still have you,” answered Ced. “Do it yourself, and call on me if you need a big wind. Or a little tiny one with a lot of tightly-focused force.”

“What did you want power for?” asked Wad, genuinely curious.

“I didn’t want power over people, Wad. I wanted wind. I’ve had more than I want of people.”

“But the world consists of people,” said Wad. “We’re humans, we have responsibility to the society we—”

“You sound like a politician.”

“I was talking like a philosopher.”

“A really boring one. Don’t you get it? I’m a windmage. To me the world consists of a million different airs wandering over the surface, and people are just occasional obstructions that are fun to swirl around and take the hats off of, but I can always sweep them away and it’s hard work to remember that it’s not nice to do that. Not killing people randomly—that’s the level of morality that I’m still working on. I’m not ready to take on whole kingdoms.”

“It’s only a small duchy.”

“An incredibly wealthy trading city,” corrected Ced. “I hated governing one crazy woman.”

“But I don’t care what you hate doing,” said Wad. “I’m Loki. I’d rather be pulling practical jokes instead of doing whatever this is. Adult stuff. Business. Politics. I hate doing this even more than you imagine that you would hate it. It’s completely contrary to my nature. I’m the brat in the back of the schoolroom, not the teacher. But when the survival of the world is at stake, then you do whatever you can, not whatever you like.”

“And now we’ve come full circle, because I can’t do this. I keep telling you, and you keep answering me, but your answers don’t change anything. I still can’t do it.”

“Won’t.”