In Arcadia (Touchstone Book 5)

by Andrea K Höst

  Laughter drew her attention back to the ice. There she saw Zee and Mara holding hands for balance, while Nils spiralled gracefully around them, as adeptly as a lifelong skater. He sped to the far end of the pool and turned into a jump, twisting five-six-seven times before landing feather-soft and coming to a halt in the very centre of the pool. Here he bowed to the jeers and applause, then finally set himself down on the surface of the ice, and promptly fell over.

  "He has superb control," Kaoren remarked. "That level of fine, complex movement is far harder with Levitation than Telekinesis."

  "What happened with the boy who was trying to juggle rocks the other day?" Sue asked, as Alyssa skated over and showed Nils how to stand up without the assistance of any psychic talents.

  Shar, who had been watching the skating intently, glanced first at his father, Lohn, who didn't seem to have heard the question, then answered himself: "He has promised not to use his talents unsupervised, and might keep his word if he can resist being goaded."

  Lohn heard that, and responded with a puzzled frown. "Why did Sema feel he had to prove he could enhance his connection to the Ena? It wasn't common on Nuri, was it?"

  "No, but Nurans—possibly because we travelled unprotected through deep-space—have shown a greater capacity for increasing our talent strength that way," Shar replied. "There's…" He hesitated.

  "There is a belief that 'true high Nurans' are naturally adept at focusing their connection to the Ena," Kaoren finished for him.

  Shar nodded, and rubbed the back of his neck. "On average Nurans are stronger than either Tarens or Kolarens, and we have usually trained our talents, though not as intensely as the Setari. When we can also achieve the enhanced power that comes from focusing the link to the Ena…it is something to hold on to, that strength."

  Pandora Shore was a complicated school. It had been built to accommodate the strongest psychic children who had survived the destruction of Nuri, and then had added the relatives of the senior Taren Setari who had taken land grants in the islands to the west of Pandora. The next wave to be included were the children of wealthy citizens and officials immigrating from Tare and Kolar, most of whom had only minor, untrained talents, but who required a school with extra security. And now Kalrani, whose natural strengths had been honed to their highest pitch, outmatching the original students.

  A wide mix of cultures and social backgrounds, in other words, and the Nurans one of the largest groups in the school, and yet—with less than ten thousand survivors on all of Muina—also the most negligible politically, and furthest behind in the Taren-based education system. Understandable that there would be a push among the Nurans to prove their worth in other ways.

  "Stupid," Ys said, not turning around.

  Shar glanced at her back, then smiled wryly and said to Lohn: "I don't think the idea of 'true high Nurans' will come to anything—there's too many inconsistencies over who actually manages to focus their connection to the Ena. Those who were members of the Great Houses are being pushed to prove themselves, but I think—hope—they'll all get tired of it soon. He paused again, then said: "Perhaps this will distract everyone. Do you think they made any of the knife-boots in my size?"

  Not making several dozen pairs of skates had definitely been an oversight, judging from the fascinated attention of Maddy's class. Since she still tired quite quickly, it was not long before Maddy called down Haelin and another girl, and took a break while they tried on the two pairs that had been made for her.

  Laura checked Gidds' schedule and saw that while he was still working, he was using the colour code that indicated 'interruptions permitted', so she sent him a text.

  Laura: I'm not sure I have the rights to record this, but can you see what I'm looking at?

  The complex rules for what could or could not be recorded or transmitted over the interface meant that Haelin would very likely appear as an outline, but Laura still included a link to her 'visual input' in hopes Gidds would be able to watch Haelin take her first steps onto the ice.

  Gidds: You're in an image-restricted area, but I can by-pass.

  Laura kept her attention on Haelin as the girl glided along beside the outer wall, one hand on the translucent surface for balance. She was an athletic child—no surprise if she'd been learning Setari combat techniques—who looked like she'd grow up quite tall. After only a little time clutching the wall, she allowed her forward momentum to take her toward the middle of the pool, arms held out from her sides.

  Gidds switched to voice communication, asking questions about learning to skate. It was truly fantastical to share a companionable chat with a man while allowing him see through her eyes. That was the world Laura now lived in. She would never stop appreciating the wonders every new day brought her.

  "I have a feeling Alyssa's plans to join KOTIS are about to be thoroughly derailed," Laura sub-vocalised.

  "There will certainly be others wishing for lessons," Gidds replied. "Although it's difficult to predict how long the enthusiasm will last. On that point, Allidi and Haelin are interested in sampling Red Exchange. If they enjoy it, would you be comfortable with them joining our next session?"

  "We could form our own band," Laura said, amused by the idea.

  "We could."

  The response came heavy with unspoken meaning. Laura felt the weight of it, but the moment to respond passed when Haelin, who had picked up a little speed, tried to stop herself and tripped, falling forward. The neatness of her landing hinted at her combat training, and she was back up on her skates almost immediately.

  "Don't use the toe pick to try to stop yourself," Alyssa instructed, gliding over to demonstrate correct technique. Haelin listened intently, and tried again, smiling when she succeeded.

  "She's a quick study.”

  "Yes."

  Outright pride in his mental voice, and as they continued to watch he told her of Haelin's love of sport, and her disappointment that she was unlikely to be able to raise her Telekinesis to the point where she could participate in Tare's most popular sport, Tairo. It was clear to Laura that he did not often speak to people about his daughters: that need to not show favouritism had gagged him.

  "All right, Mum?"

  Cass had noticed her abstraction. That blow to the chest sensation struck Laura all anew, to have her daughter here, being worried about her.

  "Just thinking about how lucky I am," she said, squeezing Cass' hand. "And how I've been most considerate not mentioning the number of times you went down to the skating rink with Alyssa."

  "Hey, if Nick can wriggle out of showing his beginner-level moves, I can too," Cass objected. "I never got past figure eights anyway."

  This produced a lively debate that did not budge Cass in the slightest, and Laura listened with half her attention, while settling a gaming date with Gidds. He and his daughters would be in the southern hemisphere city of Meziath—a remarkable place of ruins beneath trees the size of giant redwoods—but that would be no bar to a virtual meet-up.

  "Do the girls get to spend much time with their mother?" Laura asked, tentatively. She still wasn't sure if the woman had moved to Muina.

  "Allidi and Haelin have had no contact with their mother for over twenty Taren years," Gidds replied, without noticeable hesitation, but with an inordinate amount of precision to the words. "When we ended our marriage, Elezin broke legal ties with our daughters as well."

  "You can…divorce your children on Tare?" Laura asked, failing to keep the shock from her mental voice.

  "The laws came about following the rise of machine-assisted gestation," Gidds replied. "It is uncommon but not unknown for them to be employed during the dissolution of a marriage. And Elezin is not the only person who chose complete separation when KOTIS took their children."

  He paused, and Laura was suddenly quite sure that he was searching for words, that his calm had briefly failed him.

  "I am the reason the Setari program exists," Gidds went on, finally. "I disliked intensely the decision t
o continue the program through conscription, but I couldn't argue against the logic. As the Setari grew in strength, my Sight suggested they would produce the results KOTIS sought. That lives would be saved. Elezin—her Sight told her that the program was a death sentence."

  "Sight Sight can be that contradictory?"

  "Sight Sight gives knowledge and certainty not omniscience. I can be certain your hair is brown, but this morning you brushed it and it was green. Neither colour is wrong in the correct context."

  "You mean you were looking at it from different angles? But—" Laura stopped, not knowing when Gidds had met his ex-wife.

  "When Allidi was six—the age mandated for conscription—the senior squads had only been venturing into the Ena for a Taren year, but were already proving very successful at preventing incursions into Taren real-space. Elezin saw in this the start of an endless cycle of attrition, of Setari sent into the Ena to fight the same Ionoth until error and ill luck finally killed them." He paused. "And that was exactly the situation we faced. The Setari, when we found Cassandra, were a dam cracking before a rising flood."

  "But very handy to have around once Muina had been unlocked," Laura pointed out. Then, very carefully, she added: "This didn't become obvious to your wife until Allidi was due to become a Kalrani?"

  "Our marriage's crisis point was my refusal to find a way for Allidi to be passed over," Gidds replied. He was fully in command of himself again, his tone only factual. "Elezin and I saw each other more clearly then. I was someone who would not find a special exemption for my own children. Elezin was someone who had expected no other possibility."

  "That must have been incredibly difficult for all four of you," Laura said at last.

  "It added to Allidi's burden. Haelin does not fully remember her mother, but Allidi had rejection layered on top of separation when she started as a Kalrani. Elezin...her choice was at least in part because she knew she would not be able to hide from Allidi and Haelin's Sight her absolute certainty that the Setari Program would kill them, but she of course could not explain that to our daughters."

  "Do you—now that the crisis is over, and the Program has changed so much, do you think their mother will want to see them?"

  "It's possible. But she has not thus far."

  And it had been years. Laura surprised herself by feeling intensely sorry for this unknown woman, who had chosen a clean break from her own children.

  "Thank you for telling me, Gidds," Laura said, keeping her mental voice quiet and clear. "I would have hated to have said something entirely insensitive when I met them."

  "They are stronger than I am on the subject," Gidds said.

  In an outright change of subject, he moved to talking about taking the girls to different parts of Muina, and the progress of settlement. Laura asked questions, and watched Haelin, and thought about the parents of children conscripted into the Setari Program.

  Some of the Kalrani had died. Even before becoming Setari there had been accidents, tragic and impossible to predict, and what argument about the greater good could ever change what it felt like to trace a line from your choices to a dead child? And then to set your own children on potentially the same path?

  Of course, Gidds had faced first-hand the urgent need to deal with the tears into the Ena. Partially eaten. That was more than a physical fact. The Ena had eaten Gidds' life, swallowed him up. He had still been a child himself when KOTIS first sent him there to try to find solutions, and clearly held himself responsible for all that followed. What had the past couple of years been for him, with the urgency gone and the rest of his life to discover?

  No point denying that he was working on fitting Laura into that future. Meeting with his daughters would be the biggest step they'd taken so far, although a virtual family outing seemed slightly less challenging than a proper meeting—not least because the girls' Sights would not be quite so large a factor.

  Chances were high that Allidi and Haelin would prefer their own mother back in their life, rather than someone new and unknown. Trying to build a relationship with them would be far more challenging than playing grandma with Cass' brood.

  Laura wasn't running in the other direction, but she found herself most definitely nervous. A sign, she supposed, that she'd moved past wibbling and now really hoped that she could make things work with Gidds.

  They still only knew each other at a surface level. But she would not let herself run away: she wanted this, wanted to know him fully, for them to truly trust each other. She wanted to believe in belonging with a Serious Soldier.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Laura's workroom opened off the southern side of her bedroom, and had the best ground floor view of Braid Meadow. The outside wall, in keeping with the rest of the house, was a single curving window, fitted with an equally curving bench. A sink and a mass of shelving, cupboards, and places to hang tools filled the other walls, but because of the room's generous size it did not feel cramped or crowded.

  When she'd first arrived on Muina, with only a tiny wallet of her favourite crafting implements tucked in a pocket of her backpack, Laura had felt overwhelmed by all the empty possibility of the workroom. She'd added a divan to the nook at the eastern end, and a plushy woollen rug to the floor, but the place hadn't really felt like hers until she'd had several projects under her belt, and accrued pots of paint, spools of wire, and all manner of cloth, leather and thread. Fortunately Pandora had a thriving artist's community, and she'd had no trouble sourcing materials she was skilled with using—and samples of unfamiliar goops, clays and foams to try out.

  To fill the day before meeting Gidds and his daughters, she was working on models of Romana-Angharad and Ruvord, each facing their first teszen. The last few years she'd been experimenting with unjointed wire frame and air-dry pieces—foam-light statuettes much larger than the gothic palm-sized dolls that had been such a reliable source of income. The larger, more expensive pieces hadn't been such easy sales, but she loved the amount of detail she could lavish on them.

  For the Red Exchange characters she was trying out a slow-drying Taren polymer clay which gave her a heavier but still slightly-flexible result. She'd completed the basic forms earlier in the week, and now dived into the fine detail layer, appreciating that even on a grey, drizzly day she had plenty of natural light to work with.

  Lira: Can I come visit, Unna Laura?

  Laura: Of course.

  Laura glanced at her internal clock, a little surprised. Nearly lunchtime. Hadn't Cass arranged to take the kids into town?

  Double-checking that all the clay was properly sealed, Laura visited her bathroom, and then headed to the kitchen for a drink and to meet her granddaughter.

  "Would you like something to eat?" she asked, when Lira paused at the patio door to wipe her feet.

  "No thank you, Unna Laura."

  Lira hadn't bothered with an umbrella or coat for the trip up the hill, and stood damply in the doorway. Even from the kitchen bench, Laura could see her eyes were red-rimmed.

  "Go dry off a little," Laura recommended.

  Lira wordlessly obeyed, and Laura started putting together a light lunch that could be easily shared if the girl changed her mind.

  Laura: Cass, are you still going into the city for lunch and shopping?

  Cass: We're about to leave. Have you changed your mind?

  Laura: I'm still overwhelmed from the last cavalcade. Is there a reason Lira's not going?

  Cass: She headed up there, did she? We had a storm over her ditching her Kalrani guard. I wasn't planning on more than asking her to be a little more considerate, but things always seem to escalate with Lira, especially since the latest round of 'will she fade away'. I wouldn't have punished her except she tends to push or kick furniture when she's angry, even though we've told her it's a bad idea, and today we ended up with baby bottles everywhere. So no shopping trip.

  Laura: Can I shower her with treats and generally spoil her?

  Cass: If you want. We didn't tel
l her to stay in her room or anything, so there's no problem with her hanging out with you. If you're in the mood to entertain her, I'll let her security detail know they can stay snug in the guard house.

  Laura: I'll give her a project, then.

  Cass: Thanks, Mum. See if you can put her in a good mood for the aether trip tomorrow.

  Lira, when she returned, appeared to have spent more time washing her face than drying the rest of her.

  "What did you think of the ice skating?" Laura asked, choosing to ignore dramas altogether.

  Lira dropped heavily into a chair. "It's pretty, but it would be a lot of work. Can you knife dance, Unna Laura?"

  "No. Roller skates, yes, ice, no."

  "Rol-ler?" Lira sounded out the English word carefully.

  "Shoes with wheels on the bottom. You can't jump on them in the same way as you can ice skates, but they're fun to zoom about on. And there's a sport you can play on skates."

  Laura quickly ran through the mass of movies and TV shows she'd brought from Earth and had converted to the Muinan file system, but couldn't off the top of her head think of one that included a roller derby, so settled on Xanadu, and pulled out a few clips.

  Lira absently picked at the plate of food while she watched, then said: "Do you have to sing while skating?"

  "Only in musicals," Laura said, and wondered if Cass had introduced her kids of Disney, or if she was avoiding the princess theme given the class issues Nuri and old Muina seem to have shared.

  "Do you want to see my latest project?" she asked instead, and was pleased when Lira brightened immediately, and headed straight for the workroom.

  Laura triggered the door so that it opened as the girl arrived. "I'm working on a model of my character in a new game I've been playing," she explained, as Lira inspected the two partially-complete figures.