Chapter 19: Smiles and Words

In Janloon, Wen prepares for a public appearance, mindful of her speech impediment and the scrutiny on her as stone-eye Pillarman. At breakfast, she and Hilo negotiate Ru’s request to visit a friend in the Commons; Hilo allows it with precautions, emphasizing Ru’s need for confidence. Wen and Hilo review clan schedules, including a meeting with General Ronu and Shae’s recent absences, which Wen hints might be early pregnancy. Their intimacy underscores renewed trust amid lingering caution.

Wen travels, with bodyguards Dudo and Tako, to Wie Lon Temple School—Mountain territory—for a Kekon Parks & Nature Foundation luncheon. Navigating stairs with a cane, she projects composure at the head table, where she meets prominent Mountain figures Koben Yiro and his wife, Koben Bett. Verbal barbs pass beneath polite smiles as Bett probes at Wen’s jadeless status; Wen counters with poised needling that credits Bett’s influence while subtly diminishing Ayt Ato’s precocity.

Wen converses with Abukei artist Ren Jirhuya, who created the event’s visuals and invites her to speak for a jade nonreactivity charity. Called to the podium, Wen delivers a personal, carefully paced speech that humanizes the Kauls and frames conservation as a shared national trust beyond jade and clan status.

Koben Yiro follows with a forceful address blaming foreigners—especially Espenia—for environmental harm, invoking colonial extraction, ROE base expansion, and offshore jade dredging. The audience responds fervently, and Wen recognizes that despite her successful delivery, the Mountain has seized the event’s narrative and burnished its populist, nationalist image.

As applause swells for Koben, Bett boasts of shaping her husband’s tone, underlining the Kobens’ calculated public strategy. Wen, having won points for presence and vulnerability, leaves aware that No Peak’s softer outreach must contend with the Mountain’s potent, anti-foreign messaging.