The Touchstone Trilogy

by Andrea K Höst

  "Their intention was for us to force them back," Inisar said, with the faintest nod. "There are two who wish to have a stronger voice in our decisions. A subsistence existence is not what they desire, nor would it preserve our culture and values as they claim to want. The young among them who are angriest at the new conditions of their lives would have been infuriated if they were brought back against their will, increasing support for those who drove them to this move. We will post one to observe them secretly, although it is not a good use of our resources, and protect them if absolutely necessary. Any return which is not entirely of their own choosing would create a true fracture."

  I could see that Maze and Raiten had already known this, and Kaoren as usual looked wholly unsurprised. But even Ys and Rye didn't so much as blink, so I asked them about it later after I'd finished the first chapter of the (long and dramatic) story Rye chose to have read next.

  "Some at the school were talking about it today," Rye said, after a glance at Ys. "They said the same thing."

  I didn't ask any more, but it's silly how pleased I was that he answered me.

  Otherwise, a fairly uneventful day. Rather than go to Kalasa, they had me expand my senses and attempt my visualisation in a test building they've created for me here (a bit inland from the Setari building and well away from any other building). Sixth (the squad who lost one of their members during the Pillar retrieval) and Ninth (all happy and relaxed now Anya's just a bad memory), filed through and then I brought my senses back and tried to visualise malachite marbles. I did that fine, but only the two that we already knew about – easily distinguishable from the KOTIS monitoring equipment.

  Since that didn't work they're going to fall back on aerial surveys looking for more installations like Arenrhon, since the book Inisar gave me talked about 'a number of' underground dwellings. The Setari squads and the Nurans are going to scout using Path Sight. Inisar says that his Telepathy doesn't allow him to hear the Ddura from real-space, so I'll probably get to go on these missions to see if I can reproduce my tracking of Arenrhon.

  I'm looking forward to the missions – my two fave squads and lots of touring and exploration.

  Tuesday, September 9

  Wounds

  Training with Mara today involved handball in the morning (on a newly-created patch of whitestone specifically marked out for handball games). Mara says she sees no reason why I shouldn't be able to dodge balls if I can hit them, and even though one of her arms is still strapped and healing, she practically had me dodging the balls playing with her – hard, fast games which left me panting.

  After another rooftop lunch, and a quick tour of the nearby trees to look at the flush of opening blossoms (mostly white tipped with pink, like the first flowers, but a variety of others, including purple and a vivid orange), all of First worked out in the gym. A really hard session for me – lots of repetitions and different machines to use, but enjoyable in a way because I haven't completely lost what little condition I've gained and so didn't die from it immediately.

  Mara and I both had a session in medical after that – me for the first cosmetic work on my stomach (which means I spent the rest of the day queasy and dozy) and Mara to gauge the recovery of the muscles in her arm and side. The tooth mark scars are seriously spectacular, and I could hear the medics giving her a lecture about stressing the recently-healed wounds too much.

  Sen, trailed by Ys and Rye, showed up while I was getting new bandages applied, anxious to tell me that all sorts of boxes were sitting on the floor in our quarters. I told them they were for them, just some clothes and supplies, and did my best to act like it was nothing special. Of course, that didn't stop Sen from being giggly with delight, nor Ys and Rye from being extremely withdrawn and doubtful. It was mostly clothes, and a selection of shoes, and some hair things and bubble bath.

  I was so out of it from the medicking session that I just lay on the couch drowsily smiling as they unwrapped it all and worked out what was meant for whom. Fortunately Mara had come with me, since I fell asleep until Kaoren woke me.

  We ate in our rooms, and then played the spelling game, and since Rye beat his previous score (Ys technically won the game, but came even with her previous score, and Sen was wildly silly), Kaoren told him he could choose a treat and Rye asked if we could go visit the island again, so that's what we're going to do the day after tomorrow and if it's a warm day we'll give the kids their first swimming lesson since while Nuri might have had rivers and streams, swimming apparently wasn't common. Talking about swimming prompted one of my rare recommendations to KOTIS Command, namely that eight thousand children and a lake was going to be trouble in Summer. The bluesuit I spoke to told me they'd look into it.

  Since my drowsiness wasn't going away, Kaoren took over story reading duty for the night, and I sat with Sen and fell asleep and now of course it's the middle of the night and I've just woken up.

  Wednesday, September 10

  The Plains of Telezon

  Really enjoyed today, even though we didn't find what we were looking for.

  It started out well, too, with Rye asking questions over breakfast – some of which I suspect Ys was feeding him over the interface. They both get up really early and read the news feeds – which sure isn't something I ever did at ten – and there'd been a big story about Mesiath, which led into a nice little discussion about the handful of settlements on Muina.

  Sen, after insisting I do her hair, briefly appeared in one of her pretty new sun dresses, but re-emerged later accompanied by Ys and Rye, all three in the standard-issue clothes that all the Nurans have. I should have thought of that – the teachers would let me know if there was any open hostility, but I'm sure Ys and Rye are doing their best to keep a low profile about the unexpected privileges of their new life. The Kolaren clothes work as a kind of school uniform, I guess.

  I'd bought Kolaren hats for all of us, and sunburn cream, and presented Kaoren with his during the kids' bath time. He'd tried it on agreeably, but said that the Setari uniform was being reviewed for out-of-Ena work. And this morning, when all the squads met up before the mission, Maze gave us a new suit configuration, one designed for warm-weather travel rather than fighting in the Ena. The black nanogoop obligingly reformed into light cream and grey cloth, tight-fitting only around our feet, chest and forearms (to support suit weapons), with wide hoods we could pull up to keep off the sun. The cloth is a layered loose 'weave' designed to breathe, and the overall effect is similar to the formal robes Tarens wear to weddings.

  I knew the nanosuits could simulate different textures, but I wish they'd told me earlier that the nanoliquid can change colour – not to mention I wish I'd thought of a hood when I was in the desert turning into a lobster. The Kolarens have started using the nanoliquid uniform when they're based at Pandora, and seeing all three worlds' Setari in cream and grey made me wonder if they would think of themselves as Muinan Setari, or whether they would have preferred a way to set each other apart.

  I had a ton of trouble paying attention to the mission briefing because it had occurred to me to picture the Setari all in a different coloured uniforms, and perhaps flying giant mechanical lions. The possibilities of anime costume transformations opened up to me, and it was only through an Act of Sheer and Implacable Willpower that I didn't drop shrieking to the ground in the middle of the briefing because the mental image of Maze pirouetting gracefully and ending up in a Sailor Moon outfit was just...

  So, anyway, it's lucky the mission was non-complicated – we were simply to go to one of the platform towns and cast about in a large spiral trying to path find marbles, Cruzatch, other platforms, etc. There's a limit to the distance which Telekinesis and Levitation talents can haul about their entire squads, so if there's no result within their range out of any of the towns they're going to have to do the same exercise using shuttles and just cast further and further.

  Muina is, I think, a little bigger than Earth, with the land and water more mixed together, and ther
e's just no way even a dozen squads would be able to effectively scan more than the tiniest part of it. But the platform towns give us a starting point, and it will handily combine with useful survey work, and – mainly – there's no better suggestions.

  Since the areas around the platforms are relatively safe areas most squads are going single with a Nuran or two to keep them company. First and Fourth are going paired each time, plus Inisar, because they're taking me with them. Maze is back on duty (though Zee was monitoring him for strain) and only Mara was left behind.

  Our first assignment was at a place the old maps call Telezon. A rare town not planted on a lake, it was surrounded by golden grassy plains crossed by a winding, twisting river in the centre of the largest land-mass.

  The grass had recently set seed in plumes of purple and white which scattered like dandelions puffs whenever the wind took a punch. And all of it was completely seething with small birds and massive dragonflies, as we discovered when we set down for the first time and ten million grass-gold birds took off in a storm of wings to give a Midas touch to the sky.

  We couldn't fly about constantly – we went out on a long curve from the village, then set down to walk along by the river so our 'wings' could recover – with some extra recovery time needed for the collective heart attack given by Huge Bird Mass. After that we flew some more and walked some more and found birds and bugs and three different kinds of probably-native predators – including a gold lynx-sized cat which sprang vertically out of the grass to snatch a bird out of the air – but no Evil Lairs.

  It was a full-day assignment – we brought lunch with us and left at that time zone's sunset, reaching Pandora early afternoon. All I had to do was listen in case I heard the Ddura in any other direction than the town, which I didn't, so the day was pretty much a tourist trip to me.

  Mara was on the patio playing handball with the kids when we all trooped in, sweaty and slightly sunburnt despite our best efforts. We were the second group back and as we headed to our rooms for showers Mara told the kids to help her and the support staff bring out dinner, and I was pleased and relieved when they reacted positively – not as servants, but as accepted members of an extended and very unusual family. Kaoren and I had a cold shower together, and then a hot one, and then we all watched a second sunset.

  None of the squads found any malachite marbles, but the day did wonders for my morale. I was, in my usual self-absorbed way, mildly suspicious that this series of 'light' assignments was the result of a few "Stray's mental health" reports recommending a break after the Cruzatch attack, but I overheard Maze say to Zee that he wanted to rotate more of the squads who've been working the rotations on Tare through, and gave myself a mental kick up the ass for overlooking a hundred or so other people who could use a day in the sun.

  Thursday, September 11

  Family Outing

  Today started out with a near-argument with Kaoren, who'd made an appointment for me to go to medical to have my bandages checked. I'm not supposed to get them wet for long periods after a cosmetic treatment, so yesterday's long shower and the idea of a swimming trip had been worrying him. I told him I didn't think it was necessary, and he paused, then said: "It isn't a request, Cassandra."

  He meant, of course, that it was one of those times when his job and our personal life were in conflict – he has to be bossy about my health, and I knew that but I still snapped "Fine," and stomped off with a complete lack of grace, and then hated myself and sent him a "Sorry, not your fault," text.

  He texted back, "Improbably sweet. J"

  Tarens have immensely complex emoticons and I'm less surprised that their smiley face is much the same as our smiley face than I am that Kaoren would use one. He made me laugh, anyway. Next time I consider having a hissy fit because I've been sent to medical for the thousandth time in the last ten months, I'm going to remind myself that for the Setari, medical has been a constant through their entire lives. Years and years of scans, bruises, strains, and broken bones. That's part of what being Setari is: a necessary part of honing yourself into a weapon. All that even before they start fighting monsters.

  Of course my good intentions wavered when Ista Temen tut-tutted the idea of going swimming, took off my blue goop bandages and said the new skin was in a fragile state. But I must have produced a particularly effective Sad Puppy Face, because she decided she could 'seal' the treatment so long as I stayed in medical a few hours for monitoring. After a full dose of fortifiers I slept until just before lunch, but then was fortunately cleared to go. My skin is vividly pink and tender, and terribly sensitive to temperature, but no bandage.

  Currently Kaoren's not allowed to take me even a short flight away without additional guards – I have to have a handful of Setari within 'immediate response' range – but First Squad made it all a very picnicky kind of guarding. We brought along big hampers of food, and then split up before we ate it – swimming lessons at the central pool and First Squad on the shore of the lake within range of a quick dash. We could occasionally hear the echo of conversation or a splash, but otherwise it did feel like just me and Kaoren and the kids alone on a family outing.

  The day was very sunny, but humid and heavy – perfect for wanting to get in the water. We walked about the hill, examining the way the spring welled up, and spotting pippins among the tree roots and some small blue wren-type birds building nests, and then went down to the pool to swim and escape pestering insects. I'd gone for a lycra shorts and t-shirt look for my swimming outfit. I'd just feel way too weird parading about in a bikini, even if I could find one and didn't have a very strange-looking stomach. Similar clothes for the kids, at least in part to avoid the question of exposing the scars on their backs. Like most of the other Setari, Kaoren was wearing the nanoliquid swimming outfit for a just visiting from the Olympics vibe.

  Swimming has been a big part of my life, and watching Ys and Rye grasping the basics of dog paddling made me feel like I was on Earth, and I had to work to not look too goopily teary as they swam back and forth between me and Kaoren until they were comfortable enough to keep themselves up without panicking. Sen was the most nervous of the three, surprising me since she loves baths so much and is so generally brave. She wouldn't go out of arm's reach, and a nose full of water sent her clinging to me, but she was happy enough so long as one of us held her.

  We moved back into the shallower water to give them a rest, and I told them about how Australia is the largest island on my planet and that most of the people live around the edges of it, and almost everyone learns how to swim there because there's so much coast and it gets very hot. And then I told them about the people who go swimming across the English Channel, all covered in Vaseline, and about scuba diving and krakens and mermaids. Just like when I was explaining volcanos, the difference between what's real and not-real about Earth exists in a strange land of could-be because I'm the only person who's been there. I was highly tempted to try and convince them mermaids were real – would it really be so different from telling little kids Santa Claus is coming? Or tourists to watch out for Drop Bears?

  I think Sen would know, though.

  That thought made me open a channel to Kaoren to ask how to lie to a Sight Sight talent – or, more to the point, how the people behind the conspiracy on Nuri ever managed to hide what they were doing from their Setari.

  "Embed the lie behind a lie," Kaoren said. "While it's not unusual for Sight to reveal that a person is lying, it is rare that Sight can convey the truth behind the lie. The Nurans saw deception aimed at political gain, and very likely were rarely given a chance to closely question the conspirators. Half-truths can also work – the power stones are shield generators. That is true enough to hide whatever else they can be used for."

  Ys and Rye were the most relaxed with us they've been so far – not totally without their guard up, but Rye is more and more willing to ask questions and Ys at least spends less of her energy glowering. During their second session, paddling about became less of
an ordeal and more of an adventure and they had a little dog-paddle race over to the scary deepest part of the pool by the hill, and then back to us. And their eyes went huge when Kaoren said that next training session that fell on a hot day, he'd see if Fourth Squad could swim from the Setari building to the nearest water landmark, Tupal Rock, which is much closer than 'our' barely visible island.

  The pool is cool and shady, all dappled light and the occasional drifting leaf or flower petal, so when the kids started to get tired we went out to the sunnier lakeshore to join First Squad. They'd also been swimming – and were talking about bringing breathers and goggles another time so that they could look to see what the lake was like under water – and our arrival was the signal for lunch, which was tasty and sumptuous, and we all lay about basking on big black rocks to digest and chat and watch the truly spectacular number of birds wheeling over the distant northern bank of the lake. A couple of thin spirals of smoke were visible, further west than our island, and Maze confirmed that the breakaway group had stopped walking on the second day and set up camp near the ducks nesting on the north shore. When storm clouds started to roll in we all felt thoroughly sorry for the Nurans, but of course there wasn't much we could do but collect up all our scraps and head back to Pandora.

  It was a serious storm, breaking in late afternoon – it's been a while since we've had any really rainy weather – and we watched the lightning and the sheets of rain with wincing sympathy from the safety of our snug apartment. We've had no specific news on how the Nurans are doing, though one of the Nuran Setari is always off watching them.

  Another platform town exploration tomorrow. We'll resume training every second day once the initial survey has been done on all of them, but all-day flying is too energy-intensive to not schedule in lots of rest days.