Changing the World: All-New Tales of Valdemar

“All right, then. Why are you here? I get that you like the grass, but I’m not buying the vacation bit.”

If a horse could smile, the Companion conveyed the sense.

:It’s not an accident that many heroes, even in your world, have ridden on white steeds. Your George Washington, of course, a paragon among men, who willingly handed over the reins of power lest he be thought a king. Do you have any idea how rare that is? How astonishingly, vanishingly rare that is? How often does anyone today in your world willingly, voluntarily relinquish power . . . much less when there was no precedent for it?:

“You’re saying he had a Companion?”

:He had a conscience to help him be who he already was. A voice to steady him in the darkest watches of the night, when he was afraid or most in doubt. A friend when he was most alone.:

“There were others?”

:A few. A man in Spain who set the conditions for the world to change, to break through and become when it was, ready to be born in modernity. Much tragedy and millions of lives would be lost in the birthing.:

“Spain . . . ummm, Spain. White horse. El Cid?”

:Very good.

“Thanks. Liberal arts education. Any others?”

:Girl in France. Thought she was talking to God. Rode a white horse.:

“The Maid of Orleans. Joan of Arc.”

:Yes. Her inspiration created the idea of the nation of France, set the stage for the rise of the modern state . . . and began the end of the idea that land and king were one.:

“Others?”

:General in your Civil War. Led the southern armies in the east, and whose graciousness in defeat set the tone for knitting the country back together once it was done. And his nemesis, because the rebel had to lose. Both were needed in their essential roles. That war made the country that followed possible, brutally hard for those at the time.”

“Lee and Grant . . . But neither of their horses were white. Traveler was a chestnut.”

:Was he? Are you sure? Interesting choice of names, isn’t it?:

“No. I’m not sure, now that I think on it. I’ll have to look it up.”

:Wikipedia has a good entry. Try that. And like our Chosen, we can go in mufti, when needful.:

“Good to know. Any others?”

:Hrmm . . . Okay. General in Greece, opened up the east and west. Great tragedy in his wake but made possible the rise of the west and the linking of the world, the Silk Road.:

“Alexander. But he wasn’t Greek, he was Macedonian.”

:Whatever.:

“So, just how many Companions in this world?”

:A few. For critical people at a nexus in time, where one person’s single choice will decide the fate of millions, for those few, we are a quiet voice, a nudge here, a suggestion there. We are Companions to our Chosen. We suggest, we recommend, we aid.:

“But, compared with here, Valdemar is lousy with them.”

The Companion drew himself closer to the fence. The voice in Dave’s mind lost its humorous edge and became all business.