ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-TWO: I See You

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******

 

Alden’s invitation to the first Rapport came just after ten thirty in the morning, as expected. He took one final look around Matadero’s teleportation area and touched the driftwood brooch he wore on the front of his vest as if it might have gotten crooked in the twenty seconds that had elapsed since the last time he’d checked it. Then, he grabbed the handle of his suitcase, picked up the basket he’d prepared yesterday, and accepted.

No backing out now, he thought.

A moment later, he was in the art’h summonarium, standing face to face with his host.

“Hello!” said Stuart.

Alden had wondered if he would get Formal Stuart or Casual Stuart to start with today, and the question was answered immediately by the Primary’s son exclaiming, “Earth fruit! Is this all Earth fruit?” and then springing over to look at the basket before Alden could even answer him.

“Is this for…your second meal?” Stuart asked, bent low to examine it.

He was totally going to ask if it was for him.

“It’s for you,” said Alden. “And anyone you want to share with. I’m sorry there’s not as much symbolism behind it as there was with the Bowl of Welcome, but a food exchange is always fun, isn’t it? And I have been feeding every wizard I’ve met over the past few days. I couldn’t leave you out.”

“This is wonderful! I missed my own second meal. Thank you for sharing the abundance of your world. What’s that one?”

“I’m glad you haven’t already tried all of it before. That’s a pear. I picked it yesterday, so it will be good for a while. Don’t worry. I didn’t hide any jars of oil in there.”

Stuart laughed and reached for the basket. He was four large bites into the pear, and showering it with poetic praise between each one, when he suddenly stopped chewing and looked up from the fruit. He swallowed and gave Alden a wide-eyed stare.

“This is how you dress when you have time for <<self-adornment>>?”

“It’s all new for me,” said Alden, letting go of the suitcase handle and turning once in place to show what the outfit looked like from behind. “But yes, if nothing is wrong with it. Do I look right for the meeting with Healer Yenu-pezth? And for everything else?”

Stuart scanned him from head to toe, his gaze lingering on the commendation, the brooch, the points of the pezyva, and the boots. “I like your clothes very much. They whisper of your <<grace>> and care, and they possess a subtle but sure beauty that suits you.”

Alden blinked. Wow. Now I know how the pear feels.

Stuart was wearing his LeafSong student garb, so trying to return the compliment wasn’t really an option.

“And you’re clothed in your commendation.”

“That’s good, isn’t it? We talked about how I should—”

“I was planning to place a hand on the embroidery in acknowledgment, but now I have juice on me.” Stuart looked like he was exasperated with himself.

“We can pretend you did it.”

“No! It’s something I wanted to do. I’ll clean my hands with a spell. Let me find somewhere to put my…” He started looking around the summonarium.

At the floor, the basket, Alden.

“Do you want me to hold it?” Alden asked.

“There’s saliva—”

Alden targeted him.

“Ah! That will work.”

Stuart handed him the half-eaten fruit, then flicked his fingers a few times. The spell looked similar to the hand sanitizing one Alden knew, but Stuart didn’t chant anything. When he’d finished, he reached out and lightly placed the three middle fingers of his right hand on Alden’s shoulder.

He held them there. Alden watched his face, strangely reminded of the moment when Alis-art’h had looked into his eyes before sending him away from her ship.

“I see you,” Stuart said quietly.

Then he pulled his hand back and held it palm up, waiting for his pear.

 

******

 

The terms of whatever agreement…or argument…had kept the residents of the siblinghold from paying a lot of attention to Baby Stu’s guest the last time he’d visited had either been modified or they’d begun to break down. Alden had arrived early so that he could finally be introduced to Stuart’s other parents before the two of them traveled to Yenu-pezth’s House of Healing, but before they’d taken more than a few steps out of the summonarium, other family members were showing an interest.

A woman called out to them from up above in one of the tree baskets. A man passing by them on the path stopped to ask them both how their studies were going. And Weset was doing a poor job of acting like she just happened to be napping on the ground precisely in front of the main entrance to the house. The small child startled herself awake dramatically, pretended she was very surprised to see them both, then looked at Alden and said, “Punzee-thorn is the name of highest accuracy for you. It is maybe even perfection. You want it instead of Alden, don’t you?”

Then she looked at him with huge gray eyes under concerned brows.

“Oh, um…” That is a potent look of expectation from someone who’s about the human equivalent of a five-year-old. This isn’t the kind of thing I loving lie about, right?

“Weset,” Stuart said, “asking someone to change their name isn’t an appropriate request. Why would you—?”

“Honorable Avowed Human Ryeh-b’t, Stu-art’h who lives in our house, isn’t always thoughtful. This is to our great disappointedness.” Weset sounded like she’d rehearsed this whole speech. She came to stand so close to Alden that if he took a step forward, he’d knock her over. “He named Alden when she was in her egg, and we her caregivers have said her name so many times. She is a child who will be sad and confused to hear someone else called Alden. Imagining her cries of confusion makes me sad.”

Alden was going to respond to the guilt-tripping attempt with a simple, “I’ll think about what you’ve said,” hoping that time would make the idea evaporate from Weset’s head before he spoke to her again. But before he could, Stuart squatted down to be eye-level with the girl.

“Are you really sad? It’s my fault if you are, so I will spend my next unbusy hours with you. I will explain my past errors. I can teach you the nature of a ryeh-b’t’s emotional abilities and tell you of human naming customs. We can develop solutions for protecting the animal Alden’s happiness and respecting human Alden fully.”

He sounded sincere, but Weset’s face was glazing over. “I think I’m not that sad, Uncle.”

“Are you sure?” Stuart asked. “I don’t mind.”

“I left something in School Cottage,” said Weset. “I should go there and find it. What is that food? I’ve never had that food.”

Stuart gave her a grape and a raspberry, and she ran off to show them to people before she ate them.

“So you’re her uncle?” Alden asked, pulling up the cheat sheet to add to it.

“Yes, one of my sisters…”

They headed inside and arrived at their destination almost immediately.

Being received as a guest in the house could have been a very ceremonial event. Stuart had glossed over it previously, but now Alden was getting the full picture as they stepped into a small space just off the entryway that he had previously thought of as only a mudroom. It did serve as a place for footwear and outerwear removal, and he left his boots on a shelf and his suitcase in a nook. But before they passed through into the next room, Stuart pointed out a table where gifts to the house could be placed and where, if Alden was a normal wizard friend being introduced to his parents for the first time, he would have found a tray of dirty wevvi cups waiting for him. Cleaning them would have shown his willingness to share his magic with the house.

There were no dirty cups there for him.

“But I’m good at cleaning dishes! With my skill!” He felt like he’d been cheated out of what might have been his best chance to succeed at making the Primary’s spouses like him.

Stuart gave him a look. “There were so many reasons not to put the cups there for you.”

“All you have to do is pass them to me, and I just focus on preserving only the cup.”

“You don’t need to clean the wevvi cups. You’re wearing a commendation from Aunt Alis. And you already served food to some people on your first trip here, which was similarly helpful. And you using your skill to clean dishes is a little different from a wizard using a spell.”

Stuart tried to downplay the fact that the next room was where the special guest and the receiving members of the household acknowledged their shared relationship as children of the Mother planet. You could actually make a day of it by tracing your ancestry together or you could take the easy route and place a drop of your Artonan blood on the enchanted hearthstone that would ignite the fireplace.

After that you’d supposedly be feeling right at home, and you’d pass into the formal wevvi room, where everyone sat or knelt in a circle and talked while the person who’d invited you served a lot of wevvi from the cart Alden was already familiar with.

That was the part he was getting to do.

All six of Jeneth-art’h’s spouses, one of Alis’s, and one of Tesen’s widows were there. It was a full siblinghold welcome committee, with a Stu-specific lean. They were trying hard to be nice. Alden was trying hard to be nice. The first ten minutes were easy enough since they just shared obvious politenesses. After that, it got strange.

They talked warmly about school. He enthused about the earring.

They talked concernedly about school. He assured them he was not being deprived of knowledge gaining opportunities.

They talked cerebrally about school. He tried to develop an educational philosophy on the spot.

They talked about how school differed at different ages of human development. And he finally realized that this had nothing to do with the normal Artonan schooling obsession, and everything to do with the fact that none of Stuart’s relatives could think of anything else that was safe to say to him here in the getting-to-know-you room.

It was a stark reminder that just a few days ago, a fight had started because Stuart wanted Alden to be treated like a knight’s guest and his potential lifelong friend. And it had ended with both sides agreeing to a new state of affairs. They were getting Stuart to delay his first binding and try out votaryhood with Emban-art’h. Stuart was getting unlimited access to a human that had a name they were all more used to using for the cute red animal that flapped around their house.

And those were only the terms Alden knew about. Who knew what else had been said?

This takes walking on eggshells to the next level, though. There has to be something we can say to each other that isn’t about chalkboards.

He tried to think of what that something could be while he sipped the delicious wevvi that Stuart—lucky guy—was so busy making and pouring that he was getting left out of this conversational whirlpool. The main topic was Alden; they were supposed to be trying to get to know him.

I’m not that hard to get to know. There must be something.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized how stuck they were. He knew from talking to Olorn-art’h previously that he’d been thoroughly researched. Alden was pretty damn easy for a human to research. The spouses were all wizards. They already knew so much, and if they wanted this to go well so that Stu was happy…they had to have analyzed what they could actually say to Alden and decided that his life was a minefield for them.

Even asking about his family was potentially nuclear.

What if they said, “How’s your aunt?” And he replied, “Fine, but I wish I had grown up with my parents. Who were killed by an Avowed with particularly terrible powers. Why do you guys allow the System to give dangerous abilities to mass murderers?”

What if they said, “Do you like your job as a Ryeh-b’t?” And he said no.

At least a couple of these people had been at the LeafSong party, tagging along with the Primary and the Quaternary. He wasn’t sure which because there had been so many faces that night.

And bringing up the fact that he was stopping by on his way for treatment to recover from trauma wasn’t exactly light material either.

They’d already spoken words of admiration for his actions on Thegund. They’d already said, truthfully or not, that they were so glad Stu had found a friendship with him after their debacle of a first encounter.

Now there was nothing but the school whirlpool sucking them all down together.

It’s been easier with Esh-erdi, but I guess that’s because Esh-erdi is different. And he also doesn’t have to be concerned about the feelings of a third party. If he offended me or I offended him, there would be no miserable Stuart involved.

Wait…him. School.

“I took Hn’tyon Esh-erdi on a tour of my school! It was at night after classes were over. My housemate Haoyu and I…”

Thank goodness for Esh-erdi, thought Alden while he talked. Describing the tour, and how it had come about, injected some desperately needed humor into the conversation.

“So he’s enjoying someone else’s pet and scaring the Avowed out of their comfortable bathing rooms,” one of the Primary’s wives said. “We’ve wasted worry thinking that his trip to Earth was being filled with dull work.”

Her name was Calassa. So far, Alden’s cheat sheet on her said only that she was the one with the darker complexion and the blue eyerings who was wearing some of the same symbols on her coat that had been on Alden’s when he was costumed as an expert in transmogrification at the party.

“Esh is an <<incorrigible>> seeker of amusement,” said Veln. He was the one who made a point of glancing at the fruit basket with one eye every time Stuart was freed from wevvi duty for long enough to take his seat beside Alden. “And he amused himself right into the happiest and most surprising <<pairing>> anyone could have imagined. Stu, did you really bring snacks into the room just to tease us with them? We’re two cups beyond the point when you should have offered to share with your elders.”

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“He’s trying to fill us up with wevvi so we’ll take less,” one of the others replied.

“I am not!” Stuart was over at the cart, about to start another chanting session over the boiler. “The <<occasion>> is formal enough to serve the wevvi without—”

“This house has raised a cruel child, Alden,” said Olorn. “As you can see.”

Little bowls full of pristinely sliced fruit got them through the rest of the meeting without incident. Alden managed to shoehorn in one mention of Connie and another about his time with Alis-art’h and her companions on Thegund, hoping to show everyone that he was capable of talking around his own bombs without setting them off. The conversation stayed shallow, but the tone warmed up enough that it was no longer painful.

He tried to get a sense for everyone’s personality and how they really felt about him, but except for Olorn and Veln maybe being a touch friendlier and one of the Primary’s wives hardly saying anything at all, there wasn’t much to glean. They were probably used to presenting themselves however they wanted in front of audiences more discerning than him.

In the end, he was full of wevvi and welcomed, and he followed Stuart up to the second floor so that he could check in with Emban-art’h before they left.

“She’s doing well?” Alden asked.

“She’s fine. Although she has started thinking of things she wants me to do, and it always seems to be a few glet before I need to leave for a class.” He glanced down at himself. “I dressed for school, but I never actually made it to campus today because I didn’t want to arrive during instruction and cause an interruption.”

“Am I keeping you from classes?”

“No, they’re over for today. There’s a presentation of <<a traditional type of summoning>> I might attend tonight while you’re with Healer Yenu.” He cut his eyes toward Alden. “If that’s all right? I’d be able to teleport back to you very quickly if you needed me.”

“It’s fine,” Alden said, as the hallway bent to avoid the trunk of one of the trees the house was built around.

Emban-art’h’s room was near the end of the hall. An unusual spell was active in front of her door. At first Alden thought it was a floating wreath, and he wasn’t entirely wrong about that. But as they approached, he saw that the wreath was a single strand of vine, shaped into a circle, and the bulk of the decoration was created by small items corkscrewing slowly around it.

Most of them could have been symbolic in some way—flowers, leaves, a few things that looked like soap carvings. But the presence of a couple of decorated pouches and a shiny metal capsule the size of his thumb made him think some of the items were probably gifts rather than part of the spell.

“I made that,” said Stuart, pointing at the vine. “It took much longer than I thought it would.”

He didn’t knock. Instead the two of them just stood there beside the wreath, Stuart’s eyes so fixed on the door that he didn’t notice Alden shooting him questioning looks at all.

A string of whistling sounded. Alden barely had to time to notice that the noise earned itself a strange translation— <<Caughty-caught you, yummythingy!>>— because a blink later the whistler was standing right beside them. Short black hair with a braid on one side, an excited grin, pale pink eyes.

Alden had seen her quite a few times through his interface, including standing near her little brother. He was still thrown by the fact that she was the exact same height as Stuart.

“Hn’tyon Evul-art’h,” he said, “it’s good to finally meet—”

“Human Alden, you look so good today. I like it. You might want to take the pretty pezyva off when you play with Red Alden, but you could wear it to all kinds of fun places I go to.”

“Evul,” said Stuart, giving her a cautious look, “he’s not going to fun places with you. He’s going to Healer Yenu’s as soon as I finish <<standing ready>> for whatever Emban might need.”

“I know. Of course. Don’t worry about what I said. And you’re actually doing the votary thing too properly, don’t you think?” She turned an eye to Alden. “Only <<stern>> old people stand around counting their breaths after they’ve been told to go away.”

“I am keeping my part of the agreement,” Stuart said. “If I were really a votary to Emban, or any of you, I would stand ready for you to change your minds during times of <<uncertain mood>>.”