Snow Day

"This is so uncomfortable," muttered one of the girls sitting at the newcomers' table.

"Excruciating," Maxen agreed, mildly. "We have the private room for another kasse, but I think we can officially call it for the second Pandora meet-up of Sky Wing. If anyone wants to head out into the main part of the club, feel free. Check the guild forum tomorrow for, well, new arrangements."

There was an immediate exodus, most of those departing changing their virt-masks from their game avatars to a variety of other looks. The occupants of the second table glanced over, but then turned back to their leader, busy making a great show of being reasonable at Maxen’s sister, Oriel.

"I’m going to sit here just to spite them," said one of the two remaining guild members, called Asterra in-game. Crossing her arms, she thrust out her currently blue chin. "If they’re splitting off from the guild, then they should be the ones leaving the meetup."

"Why do all here?" the other, Space Ninja, asked, in the halting, fractured speech he affected. "Want spoil everyone night?"

"More like they want to rub Tzatch’s nose in taking a loss," Maxen said. "Because she did so well on the KOTIS intake."

"What’s that got to do with anything?" Asterra asked.

Maxen sighed. "Tzatch and I met most of the other guild officers in a KOTIS prep class. Forming a guild in the latest hot virt game seemed like a good idea at the time—common interests and all that—and it worked really well for a while. But there were a couple who joined late who would have liked to be guild leader. And then the intake exam results came out. Tzatch wasn’t supposed to be at the top."

"Supposed to be?" Asterra didn’t hide her confusion. "There’s no supposed to be in exam results."

"It’s a Tare-Kolar thing," Maxen explained, thinking that only Tarens wouldn’t have seen that immediately. "The prep class is mostly Taren, and having a Kolaren be first…"

He didn’t say it, but knew Asterra saw where he was leading when she dropped her gaze. Tarens never liked to admit that they thought they were superior to people from Kolar. It was just appropriate, correct and expected when Tarens outclassed Kolarens in all the systems that they themselves had set up.

"We all Muinan now," Space Ninja said, sounding like he believed that mattered.

The scene at the second table finally broke up, and a half-dozen people, all still looking like their blue-skinned game avatars, crossed to where Maxen sat.

"You understand, don’t you Corezzy?" said Jaxa, who had been the particular ringleader. "It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Sky Wing. We just want something a little less casual, more focused on high level content."

"I understand perfectly," Maxen replied, with the precise leavening of sarcasm to show what it was he understood.

With the virtual overlay of blue-skinned avatar, it wasn’t possible to see Jaxa flush, but the overlay could match the way her mouth flattened, and how she then smiled with carefully emphasised warmth. "That’s great! And even if we don’t run across each other as much in-game, we’re sure to do so during training. Don’t hesitate to ask if you need any advice. My family has been serving for generations, you know."

How could he not know? She never failed to point it out. And this time he was sure it wasn’t his imagination underlining family when Jaxa spoke.

"Say they’re leaving, never actually go," Space Ninja muttered, not quite low enough.

"You—" began Jaxa’s best friend, Kadol, in a sharp tone, but then he paused, smoothing edges before going on. "Let me give you some advice. You might think trying to talk like an Earth person makes you look cool, but really it’s the opposite."

Space Ninja only grinned, and said in the same halting way: "Take a lot of work, talk like this. Never slipping up, extra cool."

"You mean pathetic—"

"All right," Oriel said, coming up to cut Kadol off. "No need to start a new round. Best of luck to everyone in the future. Enjoy the rest of the night."

"Let’s go," murmured one of the less fractious former guild officers, clearly embarrassed, and they finally left.

"Don’t let door hit you on way out," Space Ninja called after them, but became more serious once the crowd were gone. "Sky Wing going to disband, hope not?"

Oriel smiled at him. "No, no reason for that. We won’t be able to participate in the next inter-guild competition, but it won’t take long to build strength again."

They’d lose a few more members, though—players not involved in guild politics, who didn’t want to wait to take on the advanced cooperative events they’d just grown strong enough to try.

"I’m going to the rest room," Oriel added. "Won’t be long."

"Will they be able make trouble for you?" Space Ninja asked, once Oriel had followed the crowd.

"I doubt it, in the long run," Maxen said. "I guess some of our future training sessions have the potential for awkward classmates, but KOTIS is big enough that one intake class won’t have much influence, no matter who has family in the hierarchy. All they could do is spoil this meet-up." He paused, hoping that was true, then sighed. "And they’ve finished off any hope of getting together enough people for a guild group for Snow Day. I was looking forward to that."

"Have you always wanted to join KOTIS?" Asterra asked.

"No, not while its purpose was primarily Ena defence," Maxen said. And when, on Kolar, joining KOTIS marked you as someone too tied to Tare. "But now that KOTIS has transitioned further into planetary exploration, it’s hard to resist. And, on Muina, it’s the only way I’m going to be able to fly anything with the current restrictions on citizen vehicles."

"You want to be pilot?" Space Ninja asked.

Maxen nodded.

"Cool. Do you have to actually learn fly properly, or is more just telling computer where go? I’m trying get boat license, and interface does everything except stop me fall overboard. Super dull."

"There’s more to it than setting the destination and sitting back," Maxen said, smiling.

"Did you have interface before come Muina?" Space Ninja asked.

"Yes, we were early adopters on Kolar," Maxen said. "Though it’s been less than a year, and I don’t think I’ll ever truly adjust." He looked down at his hands, seeing them as scarred and blue, his actual skin hidden by an interface overlay. The nanotech installation in his brain was not just a simple transmission device allowing him to play virtual games. It could alter what he saw, what he heard, could change the way he experienced the real world. A thing as horrifying as it was wonderful.

"Did your whole family come across?" Asterra asked.

Maxen did not begin to want to get into what constituted Family on Kolar, and all the carefully laid path that had led Oriel and him to a shared apartment on Muina. Technically, the answer was yes.

"Just me and my sister," he said.

"That sounds daunting. I’m the other extreme—I have ten thousand relatives here trying to organise every inch of my life. There’s three in the main area of the club right now, just waiting to pounce if I don’t respond to their constant Going okay? texts." Asterra sighed. "I really shouldn’t have told them the guild split up. They want me to leave, but I refuse to let Jaxa and those other bullies completely ruin the night."

"I wouldn’t worry about it," Maxen told her. "It’s not like we were going to stay in this room the whole night anyway."

"I’ll wait for Tzatch to come back, at least. What about you, Space Ninja? Anyone lurking out in the club ready to rescue you?"

Space Ninja laughed. "My cousin and his girlfriend. I have lots family here, too, but luckily they not trying to tell me what do. Always say should go at own pace. But—" He toyed with his empty cup. "Too many exceptional people in my family. Bit hard being ordinary one, times."

"I know that feeling," Maxen said, thinking of his own results on the intake exam.

Oriel returned then, and smiled at Asterra’s passionate avowal that Sky Wing was a great guild, and no-one who had any sense would think of leaving it.

"We’ll work out something fun to do next week, and maybe go on a recruitment drive," Oriel said, and watched the girl go out.

"Do you want join my family’s Snow Day?" Space Ninja asked. "We have big field ourselves, just out of city. Fifty or so of us. Teams of three, so work out really well."

"I’d feel we were intruding," Maxen said, awkwardly.

"It’s friends and family, and already got permission to invite people if want. More importantly, be saving me from maybe having be on team with my Mum’s boyfriend or something, which am totally not ready for. No chance of us winning anything, but will be lots fun. Think about, okay?"

With a quick, shy smile, he waved a hand and left.

"Nice kid," Oriel said, then sighed and bent forward to rest her forehead on the table.

"Coping?"

"Surviving."

She was taking it harder than he’d thought, then.

"Want to get out of here? Home, sweet food, watch a vid?"

"Yes."

The club was underground, part of the sprawling shopping and transport complex that lurked beneath Pandora’s gentle hills, so it was very easy to slip away, and take the subway to the nearest exit to their distant apartment cluster. At the interchange, Oriel led him out of the underground network rather than take the travelator to their building, and they walked in silence along gently-lit paths beside roadways of frost-bitten grass. It wasn’t that late, but Maxen felt as tired as Oriel looked.

A tiny mote drifted into Maxen’s field of view, a delicate dancing thing, and he lifted a hand to try to catch it. Oriel, noticing, glanced up, then stopped to try to catch another.

"Ice that falls from the sky," she murmured. "Despite all the pictures, I still couldn’t really believe it."

Well-timed ice. Maxen smiled at his sister as she reached for the specks of white sifting down. She was tall for a Kolaren woman, handsome rather than pretty, and usually maintained a serious expression that some people found off-putting. Lit with wonder, she was arresting.

"We’re going to need thicker clothes," Maxen said, burying his hands back in his pockets.

He regretted saying it when the weight of responsibility pulled Oriel back to practicalities.

"Let’s do some more short-term work before training starts. Even with the training supplement on top of base level, we could use the extra credit, and I’d like a few pieces of quality gear. Not that the base level stuff isn’t functional, but have you noticed that you can usually spot it?"

"Incentivising participation," Maxen said. "While it’s the best thing for us that Muina adopted Tare’s social systems, at least in guaranteeing everyone a place to stay and the basic essentials, it does make me feel more manipulated than I like."

But it was a long way from being only one slip from disaster. Even if it was still just the two of them, still rootless and kinless, they were really and truly now legal citizens of the home world, with a level of security that could not be taken away, where the future wasn’t a line someone else drew for you. Where ice danced in the skies.

"Let’s not go in straight away," he said, and they walked a while longer.

Oriel supposed that by the end of winter she would be thoroughly tired of snow, but two weeks in it was still magic, particularly on a clear day after a fresh, thick overnight fall. An hour after dawn, everything in Old Town glittered.

Snow Day had become an official holiday in the third year of Muinan resettlement. Playing in snow was, of course, something that could be done any time over the next few months, and Oriel had already spent some time hurling ice at Maxen, but Snow Day turned winter games into a shared event. That was all because of Kaszandra, of course, the Earth person who had made the settlement possible, and whose every action was watched, endlessly discussed, and widely imitated. Because Kaszandra held a yearly fight in the snow, everyone in Pandora wanted to do so.

Making an official day for snow fights meant competition for the best parks and other open areas, especially once people from other settlements started travelling specially to join in. The enormous Moon Piazza had been reserved for classes of smaller children, with appropriate escorts. Entering without permission would alert various minders, and also cause increasingly irritating noises in the intruders' heads, so Oriel and Maxen only looked down at the preparations for the event from the wall of Amphitheatre Hill.

"Not too late to back out," she said.

"Why do you keep thinking I want to back out?" Maxen asked, in his grumpiest tones.

"Elbowing into a Taren family get-together? It’s the kind of thing you’d usually run from." She paused. "Have I seemed that badly in need of cheering up?"

"You think I was looking forward to a day of watching other people having fun?" Maxen asked. "And we’re all Muinan now, remember?"

"Sure, sure."

Maxen laughed, then admitted: "I only decided to go after Kadol made sure to let us find out they’d organised a get-together for their new guild, no doubt supplemented by however many KOTIS personnel Jaxa really is related to. You just know that if we meet up in training, they’re going to ask what we did for Snow Day."

"Jaxa just isn’t going to forgive being second place," Oriel said. "Too soon to gauge whether she has any real influence in KOTIS, but keep a hold on your temper, even if they fail to hide their bias."

"Don’t I always? I’ll simply almost-mock them." Maxen tugged the edge of his knitted cap lower over his eyes. "I love watching them trying to decide if they’ve been insulted."

"As long as it’s almost. Let’s get on—we don’t want to keep our ride waiting."

They traced their way through barely-trodden drifts to Fireplace Dock, one of the few additions to the foreshore of the ruined, ancient town that formed Pandora’s heart. There was only one permanent mooring, for an emergency vehicle. The rest of the dock was used for a ferry service, and collections and pick-ups by the private boats owned by those living in the more heavily developed areas north and south of the Old Town.

Despite the early hour, there were quite a few water craft on the move, and Oriel and Maxen stood to one side, waiting to be called forward when Space Ninja’s boat arrived. The far part of the dock moved up and down with the water, and Oriel could not help but grip the nearest handhold warily, despite standing on a rigid section. Kolar did not have surface oceans or lakes, and all this exposed liquid felt dangerous, like a large creature just waiting for a misstep.

Oriel looked up from the hypnotic swell to see that a covered boat suitable for no more than half a dozen people had drawn into position at the end of their dock. Space Ninja, skinny figure swathed in coat and scarf, waved at them. Hiding her doubts, Oriel followed Maxen out onto the floating part of the dock, and made herself step over the tiny gap onto the boat.

"Grab seat," Space Ninja said. "It doesn’t let me release traction lock until everyone sit down."

He sat down in one of the two forward-facing front seats, and Oriel obediently took a spot on the outside bench seat in the rear, nodding politely to a second occupant of the boat, a petite, fine-boned girl wearing a white coat and matching cap embroidered with blue flowers. The girl nodded briefly in return, but did not appear particularly welcoming.

"This my sister-in-law, Siame," Space Ninja added. "She come make sure don’t go joy-ride."

The girl, very serious in expression, only looked at her brother by marriage, and then at Maxen, who had not so much sat down as dropped with a strings-cut attitude onto the bench opposite Oriel.

"Siame Ruuel," Maxen said, barely above a whisper.

Space Ninja pulled down his scarf to reveal an enormous grin. "Wondered if that be enough," he said.

"You…" Maxen rather looked like he wanted to strangle their host.

"I like if people call me Jay," Julian Devlin said. "But no-one ever does."

Kaszandra’s brother. And Kaszandra’s sister-in-law, who was a Setari captain—a KOTIS officer with highly-trained psychic talents. Their presence could only mean they were heading to Kaszandra Devlin’s family Snow Day.

Oriel laughed, a helpless sputter. "They told you to stop trying to talk like an Earth person," she said, with the greatest appreciation.

"That super funny," Julian said, dividing his attention between the boat’s automated movement away from the dock and their reactions. "Takes lot of work not sound like Earth person. Not there yet. Kaoren says Cass totally still sound like Earth person, and she been here years."

Ever since Kaszandra’s existence had been revealed, people had been pretending to be her—and, later, members of her family—in online games and on forums. It was as common, perhaps even more common, than people pretending to be Setari. Living on Muina, and particularly in Pandora, did bring the chances of it being true at least into the realms of the possible, but Oriel had never for one moment thought that Space Ninja was truly a Devlin. There was even another guild member who she’d thought did a more convincing imitation of an Earth person accent.

"I now see why you think we have no chance of winning," Maxen said, at last recovering enough to speak. Face stiffly under control, but entirely crimson, he looked across at Siame Ruuel. "Sorry. It was rude of me to stare like that."

"No matter," the girl said, voice indifferent.

"Most First Squad and Second Squad coming today," Julian said. "Only people I likely be able hit are their kids—not good look. And Cass. Best plan, just throw things at Cass."

"I need more adjustment time," Maxen said, control crumbling as the boat began to pick up speed. "I—"

He covered his face with his hands, something Oriel almost never saw him do. Maxen had grown expert at hiding hurt, frustration, anger, but he didn’t know how to manage unexpected happiness. The last time had been when their application for Muinan residency had, against all odds, been approved. Before and since, everything had been hard work and endurance, small gains and many hurdles. Great good fortune disarmed him.

Julian Devlin hid his own face back behind his scarf, perhaps out of embarrassment, but said in a steady voice: "Taking you on scenic route around island first. Give you idea of layout."

Oriel glanced at Siame Ruuel, who remained expressionless, but had turned her gaze tactfully to the wake of the boat. That consideration was reassuring, and changed Oriel’s impression of the girl from unwelcoming to a more neutral lack of reaction. A Setari captain had no reason to be hostile to the friends of Kaszandra’s brother.

Friends. Julian Devlin was younger than Maxen, let alone Oriel, and she’d thought of him exactly as she’d called him: a nice kid. An enthusiastic junior in the virt-game guild, and not someone they’d established a real connection with. She’d known at the outset that the invitation had been a gesture of sympathy.

Wondering if remembering this truth would spoil Maxen’s delight, Oriel sighed privately, but didn’t dwell on the point. She had long learned to accept the kindness of others, even those that came with a dose of humiliation, because survival had depended on setting aside pride. And today’s invitation was surely an untarnished gift, the memories of which they could take out and enjoy during future difficulties. The discards. The trash. Going to Arcadia.

By the time they’d circled the whole of the most exclusive island in the Triplanetary, with Julian Devlin playing tour guide, Maxen had recovered his balance enough to return his stomach to its proper place, to download the Earth language translator, and even to start imagining future encounters with Jaxa and her cronies. It would be too rude to actually share details of a family gathering, of course. But a visit to Arcadia was the kind of delightful secret you could hug to yourself, making it possible to just smile when people were trying to poke your sore places.

Maxen made sure to shore up all his self-control as they drew into the dock. Since no-one but Space Ninja—Julian—knew them, there was sure to be a few awkward moments to overcome, but Maxen was determined to be the perfect guest, appreciating the occasion while not intruding or demanding time from all the incredibly famous people he would rub shoulders with. No more gaping. Definitely no pointing and exclaiming. Calm good manners. Calm good manners.

Siame departed first, with a nod of farewell. Fully prepared to give an imitation of a field marrat tucked away in some corner, all eyes and no sound, Maxen followed, but immediately encountered three young girls, two of whom paused and gazed at Oriel and Maxen as if in partial recognition, while the third happened to be the most famous person in the Triplanetary outside Kaszandra herself. Liranadestar, reborn Touchstone, a girl brought out of the past and given form with Kaszandra’s powers. The vids called her the Lantaren princess, and the Ionoth girl, and endlessly discussed her beauty and her strange state of existence.

Julian Devlin said something in Earth language that the translator, confusingly, said meant Hello men, added as an aside to Maxen: "This Lira, Allidi, Haelin," and went on. "Everyone else already gone up?"

Liranadestar shook her head. "I’m going to help Allidi to decorate her biscuits. These are your friends?"

"Yeah. You remember Tzatch and Corezzy, right? They help with Star Claw in Red Exchange."

To Maxen’s surprise, all three girls nodded, and even seemed to be looking at them with a hint of approval.

"Dzo said your tactics were solid," the youngest of the three girls said.

"Tell Mum be up after show the tower and stuff," Julian said, and the girls nodded again and continued along the path past the dock.

"Liranadestar was one of that group who found the event trigger?" Maxen asked.

"Yeah, Lira really love Red Exchange. She been playing it with my Mum and Tsur Selkie and his daughters."

Oriel stumbled, and grabbed the nearest tree to steady herself. Maxen put a hand under her elbow, but thought he might have gone just as white.

"Tsur…" Maxen stared at Julian, who was grinning openly as he watched them. "You’re enjoying yourself a lot, huh?"

Julian nodded, unabashed. "Been so looking forward tell you that. Super funny."

"I can’t remember what I said to them," Oriel said. "I think I was condescending. Was I condescending?"

"You told them their defence too low," Julian said. "Promise to revive them after."

In the excitement of a rare game event, Maxen had paid barely any attention to the newbie group who’d found the event trigger, beyond giving one of them some suggestions for survival. That must have been one of the girls with Liranadestar. Two Setari trainees, who happened to be daughters of the architect of the Setari program, KOTIS' primary Sight Sight advisor. One of the most influential men in the Triplanetary, let alone KOTIS.

"Was he offended?" Oriel asked urgently.

"Nah. He pretty laid back, turns out. Well, that wrong description. But not…not petty guy. Don’t worry—he babysitting today, won’t have to throw snowball at him. Come on. I show you tower, then we go up to my house."

Quietly digesting the discovery that Kaszandra’s mother was socialising with KOTIS' Selkie, they followed Julian to the right, only noticing a small building when he pointed to it.

"That guard house. Bigger than it look—mostly underground."

Maxen knew that the building would represent a complicated part of the island’s life. The two Touchstones were heavily guarded, both for their protection, but also because they were so potentially powerful that the government would not permit them to go outside official control.

"Did you have guards at the club, or was it really just you and your cousin and his girlfriend?" Maxen asked.

"Two Setari, four regular KOTIS security." Julian said. "Annoying, though fun seeing what virt-mask they use. That Cass house up there." He paused on a bridge, gesturing past a pool of water and a miniature waterfall to a snow-decked balcony.

Maxen, remembering his role of perfectly unassuming guest, was careful to only glance, not stare, and then followed Julian without lingering.

"Don’t walk on exposed bits of path," Julian added. "They get icy and slippery. Cass—no-one here—properly used to living in snow. Keep having to make adjustment things don’t work, like path up to Mum and Aunt Sue’s houses. I whizzed down it other day, which awesome, but whacked my shin at end, which wasn’t so much."

"Is the snow on the slopes hard to walk on?" Oriel asked, cautiously picking her way around a spot beneath the leafless trees that had missed out on the heavy blanket of white.

"Easier than paths. But lot of leg muscle. This is tower." Julian pointed ahead to a pillar-shaped building nestled into a curve of the central hill. "They put it in because lots guests often. Has bathrooms on bottom, kitchen-lounge in middle, and top has couple quiet places to sit or lay down. So if need to go bathroom, or want get out of cold, sit down, have drink, just come here. It’s for visitors, so don’t need ask first." He paused, then said: "Go back way came now. We mostly fighting on southern slope, but heading this way long way around. Too much work in snow."

"I’m feeling very odd about this tour because I know most of what you’re saying already," Maxen confessed. "There are documentaries about Arcadia, and aerial maps, and tracking sites, and—" He gestured feebly, trying to encompass the enormity of concentrated attention focused on the island. "I suppose it must feel like being an exhibit on show."

"They not allowed come close enough to watch," Julian said, unimpressed.

He slid suddenly forward, on the very patch of ice he’d warned them about, but flailed his arms to keep upright, and laughed delightedly.

"I expect get sick of snow soon, but so fun. So awesome, live snowy place, plus on island. And games like Red Exchange. Makes up for nosy people, guards."

Impossible not to respond to the kid’s beaming smile. Maxen laughed in return, and followed along to a slope leading up to two houses sitting at the eastern crest of the island’s hill. A trail of tramped footprints beside a partially exposed path showed that quite a number of people had recently made their way up.

"Yesterday techs came grew posts to hold here," Julian said, pointing to where the tracks led between the two houses. "Might put them up each winter, take down after melt."

They came to a junction. To the left was the rear of one house, and a partially frozen pool, while the tracks led right to the very crest of the hill. Maxen could hear sounds of chatter just beyond, and steeled himself.

Maxen: I feel like there might be fanfare when we get to the top.

Oriel: Why would there be? Oh, you mean for us seeing them, not them seeing us.

Maxen: If I call out Ta-dah! will you hit me?

Oriel: If you manage to say anything at all, I will be so numb with shock that you’ll be in no danger.

The south-east slope of the island was empty of buildings and trees, was simply one grand sweep of snow leading down to the slate-blue lake. Just before the bank, snow had been mounded to form protective walls, preventing anyone from accidentally sliding onto the rocks or into the water. The eastern boundary was marked by a long, raised watercourse, currently frozen, and to the south-west a line of bushes. At a flat area near the lake, a group of children were busy building snow sculptures—mostly a series of spheres placed on top of each other. Everyone else was gathered around several benches and tables set several metres from the crest.

Maxen didn’t say anything, just looked, a feeling of unreality sweeping over him. That was Raiten Shaf, captain of Kolar’s top Setari squad. That—was that the actress who played Nori on The Hidden War? And there, bracketed by two tall men, Kaszandra herself.

She was around the same height as Maxen, with an oval face, and brown hair partially covered by a knit cap. If Maxen had not seen countless pictures of her, she wouldn’t have stood out in any way. His imagination might add intangible gravitas, some expression of the powers she could wield, or simply the fact that she was the reason the years of disaster had come to an end, and the home world had been unlocked, but in truth he hadn’t even spotted her until she turned around.

The two men standing with her had a more distinct aura. With a close family resemblance, and similar height and frame, they looked like variations on a theme. To the left Kaoren Ruuel, Setari Captain, hair cropped short, stance upright, expression serious, wearing clothing in dark blue tones that failed to hide that he was honed to a peak of fitness. To the right could only be his older brother, Arden Ruuel, who was some kind of artist. He wore his hair long, gathered into a tail, and his clothes were a striking black and white, while his stance was more relaxed, and his expression gentle and faintly smiling.

All three of them were looking up at Maxen and Oriel, with a focused attention that was a little uncomfortable. Arden Ruuel said something that made Kaszandra look at him, but then she shrugged, and clasped Kaoren Ruuel’s hand, pulling him over to the largest clump of people on the slope. Here a row of shiny green planks were poking out of the snow. A short woman with blue hair had her hand on one, and was talking in an informative manner.

"Aunt Sue’s going to teach everyone how to snowboard after lunch," Julian said. "I wanted some giant inner tubes, but Cass said that trying to slide onto the lake would cause everyone else a headache, so she only made sleds, and made them put up those walls."

"Slide…into the lake?" Oriel sounded appalled.

"Onto. Though I going to wear wetsuit—it’s not like would have been that big deal." Julian shrugged. "Most of people on island, big part of their job is keep Cass and Lira safe, that washes over onto rest of us. They not strictly stop me doing things, but Cass said nicer not give them extra stress, unless thing really really want. Going guild meet-up first thing I really ask far. Oh, and see moonfall, but we went different city. Hey, Mum, you remember Tzatch and Corezzy?"

Laura Devlin offered up a warm smile and a nod, and made Maxen feel considerably less awkward by talking easily about the virt-game event. Maxen could only be glad that he’d not said anything stupid to these people in-game, and that Julian did not feel it necessary to introduce them personally to everyone on the slope. Nor did most of the crowd do more than glance, nod or smile in their direction.

Maxen: Is it my imagination?

Oriel: He hasn’t looked away.

Maxen: But is it you or me, or both of us, he’s staring at?

Oriel: Split up a little, so we can see.

Obediently, Maxen picked his way through the crowd so he could get a closer look at the green planks, which had words written in Earth language on them, and two clasps on one side, which seemed to be for keeping the plank attached to boots. Once at a sufficient distance, he looked stealthily back toward Arden Ruuel, still standing a little down slope, staring fixedly at Maxen’s sister.

Maxen: Looks like he wants you for lunch.

Oriel: This is too awkward.

Thankfully, the time to begin the snow fight was upon them. Kaoren Ruuel briefly set out the day’s schedule, possibly purely for Oriel and Maxen’s benefit, although he didn’t look in their direction.

"Elimination requires a clear hit from two different people. You’ve a choice between fortification or ambush. Wait until the signal before beginning. Any pre-emptive strikes will face an ice water down the back of the neck penalty after lunch."

This was said entirely seriously, but the people around Maxen laughed, so it was probably intended to be a joke. Then they all streamed down the hill’s south-west slope to the flatter western region of the island, where bare-branched trees rose over clumps of snow hiding bushes. Although there were numerous open spaces dotted through the area, it proved to be very easy to lose track of even brightly-clothed competitors, for the terrain was full of dips and mounds.

"We got no chance winning," Julian said, as Team Sky Wing forged as best they could through very soft and deep snow. "Even without all Sights, too many stupidly fit people who dodge things for living. Only way score any point by setting up fort, make them come to us, no chance sneak up. Then bombard."

"Sound plan," Oriel said. "Though the day will be long if everyone does that."

"Nah. Lots of Setari happy hunt everyone down. Kaoren probably do it all by himself. Siame and Arden competing with him get most kills." He looked back at them, goggling his eyes comically. "SO glad you came. They were going make me be on Team In Laws. Siame order me about and Arden act super pleasant while laugh at me."

Maxen briefly considered asking if Arden Ruuel always stared rudely at people, but decided to drop the problem in case the answer threatened the fun of the day.

"You have any psychic talent?" Julian asked.

"Low level Combat and Path Sight," Maxen said.

"Combat Sight only." Oriel paused to survey behind them, smiling faintly. "Nothing compared to Setari, of course."

"I supposed to be telekinetic, but can’t move anything even with Cass enhance. So unfair. Up here spot I scouted before snow."

Maxen approved the location, which was slightly up the slope of the hill, set flush against the boundary of the combat zone, and shielded by a ring of snow-covered bushes.

"Height advantage, a natural barrier, and if we circle up to it rather than heading directly there, even a level of disguise to our location—for anyone who isn’t laden down by Sights, anyways," he said.

"No chance," Julian repeated, but smiled and said: "Give it best shot anyway."

Team Sky Wing met Oriel’s expectation of putting up a good show before being efficiently defeated by superior forces. She was pleased they’d scored hits before being eliminated. And she was even better pleased when, after tramping back up the hill to the collection of tables intended for lunch, a far less formal "losers' party" developed, gleefully hurling snowballs at each other. This delightfully enthusiastic small war involved fewer of the combat-trained Setari, and laughter instead of points. It grew ever more chaotic as more defeated arrived, and was excellent for making Oriel thoroughly anticipate lunch.

Julian and Kaszandra’s mother, Laura, brought Liranadestar to talk about Red Exchange, dancing a delicate line between avoiding story developments while explaining how the game mechanics evolve.

"With five people you’ll be able to handle all of the early game and most of the mid-game," Oriel said. "But there’s content you won’t be able to access at all with a small group. It’s not mandatory to progress the main storyline, but you won’t grow quite as strong if you skip it all."

"Those birds you were flying on, how are they won?" Liranadestar asked.

"The first Every Element Challenge," Maxen said. "Repairing damage that requires teszen of each element. It’s possible to do that in a small group, but only after you’ve collected several teszen each. You could even do it solo if you had an enormous number of teszen, but it would be an intense fight. At your level, you won’t have experienced the energy cost of calling out teszen."

"They supposedly feeding on our blood, after all," Julian put in, and grinned at Liranadestar. "That Nimenny of yours is little vampire."

Liranadestar stuck out her tongue. "Your teszen are boring and ugly," she said.

"My teszen rare and powerful," Julian retorted, then laughed. "But, yeah, slug-thing and mushroom-thing don’t exactly make look cool. I mad envious Tzatch’s snowbird teszen. That super rare, hard to get."

Oriel’s fears of an afternoon of playing awkward outsider dissipated in face of Liranadestar’s keen interest in everything about Red Exchange. The two kalrani, Allidi and Haelin, joined them for an interrogation of all the best ways to gain rare teszen and mounts, methods to evolve teszen, and the parts of the game you had to actively seek out.

The lunch crowd drifted off to attempt sliding on the green boards, which looked more enjoyable than Oriel had expected, but there weren’t nearly enough boards for everyone, so she encouraged Maxen to go, and stayed sitting at one of the tables watching, and thinking over the day.

The scene before her only made her regret even more the guild Snow Day she had been planning. She had hoped to strengthen bonds, to shore up her and Maxen’s place on this new world. But it was pointless lingering on could-have-beens. Basic training started in two days, and there would be a larger group of people to deal with. Some would undoubtedly be like Jaxa—friends only so long as you didn’t cost them anything—but the training intake was large and surely not every recruit small at heart.

She watched Maxen making a wobbling descent on a board, his whole body radiating delight. Perhaps it reminded him of flying, his one true passion. He stood at the bottom of the slope and laughed up at Julian, tumbling after him. Had she ever seen her younger brother so relaxed?

Behind her a lazy voice asked: "Why the military? Hierarchy, orders, saluting on command. Isn’t it the opposite of freedom?"

Oriel, who had thought herself alone, stiffened, but at the final question rather than her lack of awareness of a second person remaining at the table. She turned to consider a faintly smiling Arden Ruuel, and reminded herself that one of the names given to Arcadia was Sight Sight Island, for the concentration of that talent among the residents. This person who would know nothing whatsoever about her, had a talent that could lay secrets bare at a glance.

"The idea with saluting is you do it before you’re told to," she said, before the pause stretched too long.

"A standing command." The man’s tone was pleasant, his expression suggesting a mild warmth, but Oriel was not fool enough to believe that smile.

"Perhaps I like the idea of eventually giving orders myself," she said, which was true enough.

"There’ll always be someone standing on your head in KOTIS."

"Compared to the wealth of careers offering complete independence? Smallholders need to sell their product. Chefs please their diners. Companies have hierarchies more complex than the military." She paused. "Even artists suffer from patrons."

"Patrons only have as much power as they are allowed. They cannot dictate your waking, your sleeping, your daily routines."

"Oh?" Oriel worked a bored note into her voice. "Perhaps I enjoy structure."

He propped his chin on one hand and settling in to stare, without any hint of embarrassment.

"Enjoy it? Or need it? You think you can find something to belong to?"

Oriel restrained a few curt words and turned her back, focusing once again on the snowboards. She couldn’t afford to offend people here, so it was best to simply ignore him. But she didn’t want to listen to him either, so she looked about for an excuse to leave, and saw Kaszandra’s aunt, Tsa Dale, looking at her thoughtfully, holding several depleted food trays. Oriel immediately stood up to help clear away, and left the whole problem behind.

Kaszandra’s aunt led Oriel and two children from one of the Setari families to the nearest of the houses, and an entry room where they could shed outer layers before continuing inside.

"You two go back and bring anything that’s left," Tsa Dale said to the two children as she levered off a boot using a metal device set into the floor.

The children nodded and bounced off, while Tsa Dale and Oriel shed layers and started ferrying trays into the house.

"We should be able to fit the leftovers all on a few plates," Tsa Dale said. "And everything else into the cleaner. Some of this stuff is Laura’s, but we’ll sort it out later."

Oriel fetched the second delivery of trays while Tsa Dale reorganised and covered plates, and it was only a few joden before the food was tidily sorted, and spotless trays and bowls were emerging from the cleaner.

"Hey, Aunt Sue. Where are the leftovers? Lira is being very particular about some biscuits Allidi and Haelin made, and how I have to tell them how nice they were, but I didn’t even see them and will get all sorts of looks later."

Kaszandra herself, cheeks red from the cold. Oriel tried not to gape, sorting through the translator’s rendition of the Earth language while Tsa Dale inspected the food plates, then offered up one that contained a few broken pieces of brightly decorated biscuit.

"Thanks!" Kaszandra selected a couple of shards and bit one cautiously. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Whether your brother-in-law is a creeper, or is he a creeper."

Kaszandra laughed, and gave Oriel an apologetic smile, switching to speaking Taren. "He’s still staring, is he? Sorry about that. He’s being an artiste." She wrinkled her nose and added: "I shouldn’t put it that way, I guess. Kaoren says that Sight Sight triggering the way it does for Arden can be pretty overwhelming. But I still think that he can deal with his Sights without being so rude."

Tsa Dale raised her eyebrows, and then said: "Come into the snug and explain this to us properly."

The translator had unhelpfully suggested that Tsa Dale was calling Arden Ruuel a kind of spreading plant, which surely couldn’t be correct. Puzzling out probable other meanings, Oriel obediently followed the two Earth women into a warm room overstocked with plush chairs and couches, arranged to enjoy a large window out into a tiny walled garden. Feeling that her day only continued to grow stranger, she obediently sat in one of chairs.

"Taren-Kolaren doesn’t have a word for muse, but that’s more or less what’s going on with Arden," Kaszandra said, and added to Oriel: "Muse is a person who inspires artistic creation. Arden’s seen something in you that he wants to make into art. He did the same thing to Lanset—the actress, you know—and that’s how she ended up here. He invited her to our Snow Day to make up for staring at her a lot, and then asking provoking questions so he could watch her reaction with his Sights."

"Hmph." Tsa Dale looked unimpressed. "The staring could be excused as his Sights going into overdrive, but the questions are obviously a choice."

Kaszandra chuckled. "Lanset slapped him once. I think that’s the proper response." But her smile faded, and she lifted one hand in a helpless gesture. "Sight Sight talents really do suffer from this need to know, and I think it’s true that Arden struggles when he sees someone who inspires him and he can’t find out the things he wants to know about them. But he chooses what I think is a very performative response. He likes playing a game of being rude, and then being charmingly apologetic."

"I say don’t answer any of his questions," Tsa Dale said.

"Even then he’d see the reaction to the question, which tells him way more than anything you might answer. Sight Sight and Place Sight are a deadly combination."

Oriel’s interest was not Arden Ruuel at all, but on this pair of famous strangers, clearly concerned that she might be overset by a little blatant provocation. That friendly warmth was so unfamiliar Oriel wasn’t altogether sure how to handle it. Smile and assure them everything was fine?

Perhaps her expression wasn’t as controlled as usual, because Kaszandra glanced at her, then said: "Play some music, Aunt Sue. I love your proper, out loud music room."

"You could easily fix one up for yourself," Tsa Dale said. "Just because Tarens have no appreciation of a good sub-woofer doesn’t mean you can’t import Kolaren equipment."

"It seemed excessive to set up a room that I’d only use when Kaoren, Siame or Sen—and Tyrian, now—weren’t around."

"They don’t listen to out-loud music at all?"

"They do, but music is one of the things we have to be careful about. The themes and meaning, things non-Sight talents mightn’t even notice, get really foregrounded. Kaoren has music he likes and listens to, but he avoids unfamiliar stimulus if he’s got missions scheduled. It’s hard for him to predict how he’ll react. And Sen—so many nightmares out of things I’d never have guessed would have a negative impact."

"Is that Sights, though? Kids that age, particularly imaginative ones, are all about the night terrors. Your mother had a night light until she was ten, according to Bet."

"Really?" Kaszandra sounded delighted.

"She doesn’t admit it." Tsa Dale smiled as unfamiliar instruments swelled around them. "I remember secretly watching Poltergeist when I was five, and avoiding closets for years. It would be awkward to have that kind of reaction to chance-heard music." She shifted her attention back to Oriel. "But whatever Sights reaction Arden is having, he doesn’t get a free pass to shift his discomfort to someone else. Do you want him squished?"

"I think that it’s nearly time for Maxen and I to head back," Oriel replied carefully. "Then I’ll be in basic training, and Arden Ruuel will be irrelevant to me."

"That’s underestimating Arden by way too much," Kaszandra said. "This is someone who stubborned his way out of the Setari program, despite having a very strong and rare talent set. Plus he’s scary smart, and did I mention the charming when he wants to be part. Lanset thought she’d left him and his rudeness at a party, and found him consulting with her director the next day. I can ask Kaoren to try and make him stop, but I’m not sure it’ll work."

"What would happen if you asked future Dad to stop him?" Tsa Dale asked.

Kaszandra frowned, then looked thoughtful. "I’m not sure. Tsur Selkie is good at getting things done, but he didn’t manage to get Arden to do what he wanted the first time around."

At the prospect of coming to the attention of a senior KOTIS officer for such a trivial issue, Oriel moved to put the matter back into proportion.

"I’m more than capable of slapping faces that need it," she assured them. "Understanding the situation removes what made it confronting." The man would follow her about and then make some kind of art piece, and then she would not need to care about the matter any longer, unless whatever work he produced was entirely intolerable. "What did he say? When he saw us?"

"Enduring exile," Kaszandra said. "Which I have to admit made me enormously curious, but if it’s something you can’t talk about, tell me now so I stop prying."

"It’s no secret," Oriel said, with a shrug. "At the very least, I doubt Maxen and I reached this island without a thorough investigation of our pasts."

"I don’t get to read those security briefings," Kaszandra said. "Even the Setari on duty today wouldn’t have a reason to be told someone’s personal history. You mean you really are exiled from somewhere?"

"Technically. I don’t know how much you know about early Kolaren settlement."

"A bit."

"Nothing," Tsa Dale put in. "Tell me."

Oriel settled back, knowing this was just a story now, not a secret, a plan full of holes and hope.

"On Kolar the Planetary Rift is located in the Sear, the zone just on the edge of human tolerance. There’s no surface water in the Sear, but in that region there are infrequent, very heavy rains that drain into cave systems. The largest cave became Koltanar, Kolar’s first town, and dozens of smaller caves—some connected underground, and some reachable only by the surface—became outlying villages.

"It took nearly a century before the settlers were able to move north of the Sere, into the great grass plains of the Gold, and Kolar was shaped by those caves. Survivable spaces surrounded by baked earth. Water that must be kept carefully clean, which could run dry in the unconnected caves, and would only be replenished unpredictably. And not enough room. Rules were strict, and each cave came to be managed centrally."

"Little kings?" Tsa Dale asked.

"More like Nuri’s Houses," Kaszandra said. "Except everyone in the whole settlement belonged to the same House."

Oriel nodded. "Maxen and I are from one of the unconnected caves, a place called Sirelle. We were Outer Family, which means we have no relationship by blood to the Inner Family, the settlement’s owners, but the Inner Family are able to make decisions that parents would ordinarily make. More than that—as long as you are a Sirelle, the Inner Family are in charge of your Arrangements. All the major decisions must be approved by them, and often are set in place by them. Marriages, careers, where in the settlement you live."

"Okay, somewhere I wouldn’t be able to cope with," Tsa Dale said, her face drawing into lines of mock horror.

"It’s all a good deal less restrictive than it used to be. Wages have been a legal requirement for many decades, so it is not a matter of outright slavery. And anyone is free to leave."

"To wander around without water and shelter?" Tsa Dale shook her head.

"Before Kolar North expanded into the Gold and the Grey, being expelled from a Family would mean almost certain death, but that was a long time ago. Now there is mandated transport, and the Dorinari, the Family of the Ormon of Nent, Kolar North’s ruler. The Dorinari welcomes all who wish to belong—and scoops up any kinless who can’t demonstrate an ability to keep themselves. Once part of the Dorinari, there is never any threat of being expelled."

"So you’re part of the Ormon’s family, in a way?"

Oriel shook her head. "No, we’re still kinless. The Dorinari is a means of survival, not a haven. Like any large bureaucracy, it can grind you up without even noticing, and while matters such as marriages aren’t subject to interference, it organises your time for its own convenience."

She smiled wryly, finding it so strange to be explaining this to someone like Kaszandra, who everyone knew was highly privileged, but who was also in practical terms owned by the Triplanetary. There were specific laws dictating what she and Liranadestar could and could not do, and an interplanetary committee decided the things she would work on. It was all done very carefully, but Touchstones were too rare to be free. There was no chance Kaszandra would ever be permitted to leave the Triplanetary to return to her home world.

"We always knew we’d be cast out," Oriel said, trying to decide if it was worse to be unwanted or too precious. "Our mother was unfavoured—she had offended one of the Inner Family in some minor way that grew weight over the years—and it was only a matter of time before Sirelle met its population cap and arranged a Leave-taking."

"Is that a nice word for Culling?" Tsa Dale asked.

"It’s more complicated than just exiling people. For valued Family, it’s even an opportunity to take a period of extended absence. Attending a prestigious school instead of remote education, or being sponsored to work in the Grey, where water is plentiful, but living expensive. But Leave-taking is also an opportunity to rid the Family of the useless and the lazy." She smiled. "Being neither useless nor lazy, our mother was always working for the day we would be cast out. Saving money, pushing us to learn as many skills as possible. She died when I was…" She calculated. "Eight, in Muinan years. That delayed our expulsion—it wasn’t until I was nearly thirteen Muinan that they held a Leave-taking. By that time Maxen and I had decided to aim for Kolar South."

Tsa Dale curled her legs up in her chair. "Is it that much better to live in Kolar South than Kolar North?"

"Without Family, Kolar North has very limited opportunities, no matter your abilities. Kolar South is harsher in many ways, but Maxen could at least work toward becoming a pilot. It’s too coveted a career to manage that in the North without support."

"Can a couple of kids just immigrate from Kolar North to Kolar South? Or, for that matter, live on their own in Kolar North?"

Tsa Dale didn’t sound disbelieving, but instead seemed to be encouraging Oriel to speak, as if she thought this a story Oriel needed to tell. But Oriel’s early life was no secret. She’d had to explain quite a bit of it during the immigration process, though perhaps not in such blunt terms. And with certain…gaps.

Did she truly want to tell these two strangers the bare truth? She’d already said more than she ordinarily would, but it felt ungrateful to shrug off Kaszandra herself off with non-answers. This person who had changed the course of history, and who was sitting watching her with warm interest, quite as if Oriel wasn’t an unknown who had intruded on a family party.

"As long as you can afford it, you can live anywhere," Oriel said, at last. "We didn’t have enough money to live independently indefinitely, but small amounts earned and carefully invested over many years gave us…oh, it would have been two or three years' worth of living in the Gold. If it had been necessary, we could have stayed where we were, working while completing increasingly advanced studies, and qualified for any number of careers. If Maxen hadn’t wanted so much to fly, perhaps we would have done that. Instead, we spent the years leading up to the Leave-taking working out the best approach, given we didn’t have the connections or enough bribe money for a straightforward application."

"Bribing is the straightforward way?" Kaszandra asked. "I’m beginning to understand why everyone says it would be complicated for me to visit Kolar."

"I don’t think you’d have any difficulties," Oriel said. "Perhaps, before the Ionoth numbers decreased, and everyone was scrabbling for any edge to combat them. Now…well, there’d be a lot of invitations to dinner, I expect."

"Dignitaries in every direction," Tsa Dale said. "So, you went to Kolar South in a non-straightforward way?"

"We went on a school trip," Oriel said. "Because there’s so many small communities, online school is very common. Nothing like so advanced as what’s available through the interface now, but very structured, with sporting events, and other occasional large gatherings. We’d been in the same classes since we were quite young, and being outcast made no difference to our schooling. At the earliest signs we were heading for a Leave-taking, Maxen and I signed up for a trip to the City of Glass."

"Glass buildings? Sculptures?"

"Stained glass, Aunt Sue. Not quite the same as Earth’s but the same concept. Folaren is one of the places on Kolar I want to go."

"It was incredible," Oriel said, warmly. "It would have caused us difficulties if the Leave-taking had occurred after the trip, but Folaren still would have been worth seeing. We settled there, after we were given residency."

"Did you happen to wander off from your tour?" Tsa Dale asked.

Oriel shook her head. "Both Kolar North and Kolar South have strict policies about overstayers. Doing so only ensures any application will be denied. No, we were waiting for the shuttle back to Kolar North when we made a bad decision to eat some leftover snacks, and ended up in hospital with food poisoning."

She smiled faintly at the query in their expressions. "We should have been more sensible, but we were on a tight budget, and had been primarily eating food we’d brought with us. We put the school supervisors in a terrible position because our class was already divided between two flights, and they couldn’t leave the rest of the students to stay with us." She still felt bad for that: their teachers had been unfailingly supportive people. "It wasn’t good timing for us to miss the flight, either, since we had a series of farm labour jobs lined up, and not showing up would hit both our income and our reputation. I don’t recall much of that week, but while Maxen was in better physical condition, he had a worse time, and was absolutely frantic to get us back to Kolar North. Between medical costs and lost income, we were in extreme danger of being in debt, which would force us into the Dorinari."

"This sounds like you’re lucky Sight Sight talents are rare," Kaszandra said.

"I’d be curious to know what a Sight Sight talent would have made of Maxen. He had a genuine terror of becoming Dorinari, and while it wasn’t a punitive amount, every day in hospital built debt. He wasn’t lying insisting that they had to send us back as soon as possible." She sighed, thinking how young he’d been. "The barrier we couldn’t overcome was on the Kolar North side. They pre-processed applications, performing character checks for criminal records and standards of behaviour, and then sorted applications into recommended and non-recommended. Nothing we could do in Kolar North could change where we’d be sorted, but by the time we finally left Kolar South we had the connections needed to get an application flagged for consideration, and a half dozen people who not only insisted we applied, but stepped us through the process, and promised they would push for early consideration."

"Nothing illegal, and probably not anything even a Sight and Place talent could pin down as lying, though they’d be a bit suspicious," Kaszandra said. "I get the feeling some of your classes were on psychology."

"Psychology—yes, the whole thing pivoted on the psychology of Kolar South. The South hasn’t abandoned the Family structure entirely, but it’s also developed a veneration for self-reliance. We were perfect candidates: bright, hard-working, with definite goals and a determination to make our own way. We received initial approval almost before we arrived back in the Gold, and it was only a few months before we became Southers. Everything’s gone much as we hoped since then, though we of course couldn’t have planned for the unlocking of Muina, and successfully passing a second citizenship application. There were a lot of different paths we could have followed here, but we decided KOTIS would give us the greatest scope." She paused, laughed, and added: "A little saluting is a small price to pay."

"I somehow feel far less worried about Arden being rude to you," Tsa Dale said.

"I don’t see how being the subject of an artwork is going to cause either of us great difficulties. And knowing why Tsa Ruuel is asking provoking question will give me enough context to either ignore him or just give him answers."

But she couldn’t entirely be at ease. Arden Ruuel had said: "Enduring exile". What did he mean by that? Not leaving behind, or overcoming, but enduring. Oriel and Maxen had found Sirelle so unwelcoming that they’d looked forward to the Leave-taking, and once the hurdle of the residency application had been overcome, had certainly not thought they were enduring anything. Except perhaps some flawed classmates, who were really a minor thing, tired as they had made Oriel feel.

"Are you required not to have family names from now on, or something?" Kaszandra asked.

"We haven’t wanted to join a Family," Oriel told her.

"But you are one, you and your brother?" The Earth woman looked puzzled. "Is there a size requirement for family? Or do you have to be, like, awarded a family name or something? You can’t just pick one?"

"Pick one?" It was a strange idea. They were kinless. If they joined a Family, they would take that name. "Creating a name would be a lie." Oriel frowned, then deliberately smoothed expression from her face, surprised at a sudden jolt of distress. They’d spent so much effort to be free, not trapped by the dictates of a Family.

"Shall I tell you a secret?" Kaszandra asked.

"I like secrets," Tsa Dale said, brightly.

Oriel realised she hadn’t kept enough from her face, but could only nod, appreciating the determined change of topic.

"You spent the better part of yesterday afternoon helping me get a flying mount in Red Exchange."

"…Fearme?" One of the lower level guild members, but not a new one.

"Yeah. I joined to prank Jules, but he hasn’t spotted me yet. The accent modulator in the game is perfect for me."

"Isn’t calling yourself Fear Me a bit of a giveaway?" Tsa Dale asked. "And why wasn’t I invited to the pranking? I like pranking almost as much as secrets."

"Fearme is a real Taren name, Aunt Sue. And you still talk with too many gaps for Jules not to notice. Though for some reason your accent is better than mine, which I don’t think should be allowed."

"Languages definitely aren’t one of your strong points. Though your acting has improved, since I didn’t catch your reaction, even when Julian was ranting about his guild schism."

"Kaoren’s been teaching me how to lie to Sight Sight talents. Mainly to demonstrate that you can’t really, but you can avoid getting into problem areas by leading the conversation off down a side-track. It’s more use for dealing with VIPs than anything else. And Jules."

"Do you practice on Serious Soldier?"

Kaszandra laughed. "I think it’s better to not have anything to lie to Tsur Selkie about. But that reminds me, I better go pick up Tyrian. Despite Tsur Selkie somehow being the Baby Whisperer, it’s probably not polite to dump Tyrian on him for entire days." She stood, but paused to smile at Oriel. "Sorry for all the nosiness. And the security checks. Security checks aren’t one of the things it’s easy to explain when you get invites to guild meet-ups. You’re probably going to be stuck with some ongoing attention from our security detail as well, with both Jules and me in Sky Wing, but Tsur Selkie promised me that being flagged isn’t going to have a negative impact on your training."

"It might even be helpful," Oriel said, slowly. "Attention usually puts everyone on their best behaviour." It would neutralise any possible advantage Jaxa actually had.

"Cool," Kaszandra said. "See you in-game."

With a brief wave, she was gone.

"I should get back too," Oriel said to Tsa Dale. Maxen hadn’t sent her any messages, but he was sure to be wondering where she’d gone off to.

"Want me to set up a diversion so that Arden doesn’t turn up for a little more artistic inspiration?"

"He’s not really an issue. But thank you, Tsa Dale." The woman had been entirely kind, without even the impetus of prior acquaintance. "You—you’re not secretly also in Sky Wing, are you?"

"I joined Laura’s guild. Though I’m now tempted to see if I can team up with Julian to double-prank Cass." She paused in thought, then shook her head. "Perhaps if I’d worked it out on my own. Anyway, call me Sue. Want to go try out a snowboard?"

Oriel allowed herself be chivvied outside and taken for a personal lesson, along with introductions to luminaries she’d never imagined she’d meet. She could not quite understand why these people treated her so warmly, but it was impossible not to enjoy it. Not a goal she had worked for, or a hard-won reward, but a gift. She could only accept.

On his first official day as a KOTIS recruit, it was inevitable for Maxen to find himself obliged to stand stiffly upright next to Kadol. But Maxen was floating on a vast sea of smugness, and so he wasn’t bothered at all, though he was glad that Interface communication was prohibited, and so Kadol’s commentary was limited to the occasional whispered aside. It was only when they were finally dismissed—though with an expectation that they report to their next assignment promptly—that those around him were freed to gossip, and by that time everyone had been distracted by an unexpected guest at the assembly.

"Why Arden Ruuel?" asked the woman who had been standing on Kadol’s far side.

"Some kind of art commission, I expect," said another. "There’s no way Arden Ruuel would work for KOTIS in any other capacity."

"KOTIS has opened up to be so much more than Ionoth incursions, though," the first woman said. "Perhaps he’s changed his views."

"Possibly as a Sight Sight advisor?" Kadol suggested. He waved a hand to another group coming up, saying: "Jaxa, do you think KOTIS would use non-enlisted for Sight Sight reviews?"

"It doesn’t seem likely," Jaxa said, with that air of always knowing how everything worked behind the scenes. "Against protocol in at least three different ways."

Maxen wondered how they’d react if they knew the man was there to stare at his sister, but this wasn’t a topic he wanted to get into. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long for Arden Ruuel to flush out whatever bit of inspiration was clogging up his system, and leave them alone. Maxen was still a little annoyed that anyone would want to make art out of the idea of them being kinless, even though it had prompted some interesting discussion about just picking a name for themselves, one that belonged only to them. On some levels, Maxen liked the idea, but he didn’t feel it would make any real difference to who they were. Free, unlimited, owners of their own choices.

Spotting his sister among the sea of green and brown uniforms, he attempted to slip away from the bugs behind him, but only succeeded in leading them to her.

"Hello you two. Handling orientation okay?" Jaxa said.

"We’re fine," Maxen said, breezily. None of their needles could possibly have any impact, and he loved that they would not understand or believe his unshakeably sunny mood.

"It’s good to finally get into training," Oriel said, neutrally. But she, too, clearly could not repress a faint smile.

Jaxa stared at them with obvious dissatisfaction and Kadol, of course, could not resist saying: "How did your Snow Day go? We ended up having a fantastic, full-scale snow battle. It really makes a difference to go up against organised teams who have solid expertise behind them."

"I guess so," Oriel said, and smiled a little more.

"But of course a more non-competitive thing is fine, too," Jaxa said. "How did the Sky Wing get-together go? Any intense encounters?"

Maxen glanced at Oriel, and then firmly fixed in place his best off-hand tone.

"Oh, we just went to a family Snow Day," he said. "Quite casual, really."

END