Star Harbor Nights

The name is Song.

Orchid Song.

In the month it took me to discharge the debt of my boastful wager to the Fisher, I learned something of the language and the customs of the ancestorless island on which I had found myself. It pained me to think that this should prove necessary... my initial plans had been to recover the sword of my ancestors and depart as soon as possible. The Roman language sufficed for getting simple directions from the locals, and the two most important personages I had yet encountered could converse in a civilized tongue.

"...parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
He once was a true love of mine."

It was budget review time at DELPHI, which meant that most of the scientists, each of them a leader in one or more fields of study, were basically running around like chickens with their heads cut off or falling over themselves trying to kiss up to the government axe men who would ultimately make the decisions that affected all the work DELPHI would do for the next year.

My name, to my shame and that of my ancestors, is Mei Lin hap sen Leng. I came to the Isle of the Mighty as others had come before me: in search of a dream.

The woman known as Webmistress sat ensconced in an immense seat cushioned in black velvet, on a raised platform ringed with heavily muscled and heavily armed men. Symbolically, it was her seat of power... though she spent more time running her criminal empire from her plush bed chambers than she did from this throne room.