TWO HUNDRED FOUR: Herdcreatures II

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Alden stood by the bokabv’s haunch, glancing between Stuart and the girl who’d just appeared. He waited for an introduction that was taking a long time to come. She was still petting the animal’s snout, but whatever she’d been casting with her other hand seemed to have been completed. The spell had no results that were obvious to him, unless magic was the reason that Stuart’s posture and face had both gone so stiff.

He called her Noh-en. I remember that name.

Alden wouldn’t have known her by her face alone, but he had seen her before. Noh-en had been there during the vision of the death ceremony that he’d been shown before he’d decided to keep his authority sense. She was one of the two children Rel-art’h had sent away at the start of it.

Because she’d been crying.

She wasn’t now. Her smile was small but unflinching in the face of the ever-lengthening silence. A short, thick braid in a dusty shade of purple was draped over one of her shoulders. She had round cheeks compared to most Artonans Alden had met, and on one of them, six dots were tattooed in a curve below her dark eye. He looked for eye rings, since that would be confirmation that she wasn’t a knight. He didn’t see them. But that might be because they were the same color as her iris, or she could have a preference for something other than implants.

Her outfit offered no clues either. It wasn’t decorated with embroidery or studded with metal. A high-necked shirt was partially covered by a thick, wooly cape, and over her pants, she wore a long, skirt-like piece that split in the front from the belted waist all the way down to her ankles.

The clothes were all in shades of gray and brown. Alden had time to analyze them and wonder about their significance because what had to be a full minute after her arrival and request for an introduction, nobody was talking.

Stuart is broken. Should I introduce myself to help him out? I should introduce myself.

“Hello,” he said. “I’m—”

“Alden, this is Noh-en!” Stuart blurted. “She is…she’s a former classmate of mine.”

Noh-en’s smile dropped.

“And a neighbor,” said Stuart.

Her eyebrows rose to what had to be their maximum height.

“With whom I once shared <<happy youthfulness>>.” Stuart seemed to be taking in the eyebrows. “And she is a very worthy and respectable person who has chosen to follow the path of a votary. Her service will make the lives of all who know her closer to perfection. I believe.”

Alden had never witnessed an introduction more loaded with unfathomable backstory in his life.

Noh-en sighed through her nose. “You could have just told him my name and my role here, Stu-art’h. If you’re still angry with me.”

“I’m not angry.” Stuart looked away from her toward Alden so quickly that it was obvious he was something even if angry wasn’t the right word.

“You just suggested running into the forest to hide from all of us.”

“Noh-en, this is Alden,” Stuart said in a voice that was calm enough, despite a blush that was growing more and more obvious. “He is an Avowed sworn to his planet’s Contract, and he has been commended for bravery in the absence of obligation by Hn’tyon Alis-art’h.”

Noh-en nodded. “I have heard of your actions and will remember them.”

“He’s also my guest at the siblinghold, recognized and welcomed by my family,” Stuart said. “We’re weaving a friendship.”

She looked taken aback at that, but it only lasted a second before she hid it.

“Welcome to the first Rapport, Alden,” she said. “And to our school. Would you like a cup a wevvi?”

“He prefers real wevvi,” Stuart said before Alden could get a word out. “And we’re going to have some when we go back to my house. Very soon.”

He’s being so weird right now. Alden tried to smile through his confusion. He won’t even refuse a beverage of welcome for himself when he hates it, but now he’s rejecting them for me? What am I supposed to do?

“If your guest has demanding tastes, then of course we would be honored to meet them with our full hospitality, Stu-art’h.” Her pleasant tone was now too pleasant. “I’ll send one of the others to an orchard to climb to the most fruitful branch of the season and pluck the wevvi just for the two of you. Our traditional duties as new votaries aren’t that important, after all.”

Stuart flinched. He opened his mouth.

“I’m not thirsty!” Alden exclaimed. “I’m so full of grain tea, and so grateful to be at this beautiful school, that more welcome couldn’t possibly sweeten the morning.”

Good, good. Interrupt whatever this is with poetry, he thought. Artonans like that.

“I am so very full of tea that my stomach sloshes like…the ocean of my world did a few days ago after the spilling of a Sinker Sender.”

He tried to back that mortifying simile up with a confident tone. If Kibby were here, she’d probably be worrying about the language capacities of his human brain. But it did make the other two look at him instead of escalating the multidimensional tension they seemed to have with each other.

The looks were confused. Noh-en’s shifted to understanding first. She gave a small bow, hands clasped in front of her.

“You rightly remind me that there is no place in our meeting for my childishness. You are a guest of Stu-art’h and honored by our Quaternary. I have heard of the recent difficulty on Anesidora. My welcome was not as focused on your comfort as it should have been.”

“That’s all right.” Alden wondered if he’d actually conveyed some of that or if she was just really quick at glossing over awkward moments.

Stuart was studying him again. “Were you trying to <<rebuke>> her? And me?”

He sounded worried about it.

“No. But I didn’t want some busy person to go pick a wevvi for me, and it’s hard to make up good comparisons quickly when my Artonan isn’t perfect.”

Noh-en stepped toward him. “You spoke so well! I’m sorry. I won’t really send anyone to do that. It was exaggeration. Exaggeration is… ”

She carefully described what exaggeration was and how it might be used by a person who was frustrated that her nice greeting had been met with rudeness that was surely accidental from Stuart.

There were so many Artonan concepts, and things about this very conversation, that Alden would have liked for someone to talk him through; he was amused and exasperated to have her go into teaching mode for this. And maybe Stuart was attempting to keep the peace by not stepping in to say, “Humans exaggerate, too. He just compared his stomach contents to an ocean. He didn’t mean it literally, you know.”

“Thank you,” Alden said when she’d finished. “I understand.”

“I’m so glad I could explain!” She gestured to herself and then to the people who were spreading out across the grounds. They had split into groups of two or three. Most of them were still carrying their lights. “It’s traditional for students who have chosen to become votaries to walk the campus before sunrise and prepare the school in whatever way is needed. On days of rest like today, many of us who have already begun our education elsewhere return to show our always-readiness to serve the Rapport. And to receive instruction from any mentors who have come here for us.”

So they’re all votaries. Taking care of campus chores that required magic and attending extra classes on their weekends did fit in with his understanding of their place…now that he knew they weren’t assassins. Though Noh-en had approached them invisibly.

“Are you guarding campus?” he asked. “Is that why you were hiding from us?”

“Yes. Why did you arrive so sneakily?” Stuart asked.

“Maybe I did it so that you wouldn’t hide from me in the forest.” One of her eyes flicked toward Alden. “That isn’t important now. You are both welcome, but if you aren’t able to greet the others with warmth and pretend proper enthusiasm for your current position as Emban-art’h’s votary, Stu, tell me so. I’ll explain your rush to depart in a way that won’t press on their <<sensitivities>>. Alden’s presence will make it easy for all of us. Perhaps you had plans with him that can’t be interrupted. A guest traveling from far away—very far away—may need your time?”

Stuart stiffened again. “I didn’t know that words about my service to Emban were flowing downstream from my own house.”

“I had heard, but most hadn’t,” said Noh-en. “They were excited to see your name on the votary duty list. You’re on it for the next few mornings. It says you’ll maintain this bokabv’s environment, and Quinyeth will feed her.”

I’m so much trouble, Alden thought. He just wanted to introduce me to an animal, and now he’s roped into all of this?

He tried to shoot an apologetic look Stuart’s way, but Stuart’s eyes were on the bokabv. He was subjecting the creature to an expression of betrayal that she couldn’t possibly have deserved.

The bokabv was too busy admiring her interesting stick to notice.

Around them, the morning was quiet. Even the uppermost limbs of the trees, dark against the sky, weren’t being rustled by a breeze. Alden thought the damp, earthy smell in the air hadn’t been present before Stuart had cast his last spell on the soil. He shifted and looked down at his boots while he waited for something else to be said.

This is complicated. He knew that much.

Stuart was more hesitant to talk about the adolescents who lived in Rapport I than he was to discuss the LeafSong classmates he’d known for less than a year. Which spoke volumes about how sore the subject was, didn’t it? But he’d indicated that they were divided into those who excluded him because they or their families were worried about attachments that might end badly while they were dealing with their own first affixations, and those who he was avoiding because they wouldn’t stop trying to change his mind.

Noh-en and some of these others must have been in that second group, right?

They were happy Stuart was on the votary duty list. They were happy he was here…because on the surface it looked like he’d taken a step back from the thing they thought would kill him.

And they probably cared about him a lot, actually. Alden could even imagine that being overprotective of him was something they were used to, just like his family. There must have been a day when a younger Stuart first showed up at school with them, and he would have been someone who still needed gentle treatment.

Before his choosing season and the period of private consideration, he might have gravitated toward other children who thought they wanted to be votaries. Like him.

And then he announced he wanted something they thought wasn’t even possible for him.

Was it like he was rejecting them, too? Alden wondered, lifting his head and noticing two figures who were heading slowly across the lawn toward them. Only one had a light spell. They stopped, and he or she bent over to collect something from the ground. Were they scared and angry? Did they push too hard and make him explode?

So many possibilities. He just didn’t know. But Noh-en seemed to be simultaneously happy to talk to Stuart and wary about what he might say to people who were, it seemed, not as good at rolling with the punches as she was.

“I’m on the duty list,” Stuart said eventually. He sounded just a little distant. “Rel is so thorough.”

At some point, Noh-en had started fussing with her wooly cape like adjusting the hang of it was very important. She stopped and let her hands fall. “A bokabv for a special learning day is new. I think the younger students will be excited to see it.”

Stuart swallowed. “Quinyeth chose already?”

Noh-en nodded. “She announced as soon as it wasn’t much too hasty for her to do it. There was never any doubt about her, was there?”

“I thought…once or twice…who else?” He was turning his head, taking in the school grounds with a note in his voice that was a little sad.

Yeah. It’s complicated.

He wanted to run away from them, but he was curious about what choices they had made. He probably wanted to support them, but he wanted their support, too.

Their whole lives revolved around one profound choice. They’d rejected his. And by rejecting it, they’d stripped him of the illusion that he was their equal.

“Everyone told me how proud they were of the adult I was becoming. They treated me like nothing about me was delicate anymore. And it never occurred to me that they were being liars.” Stuart had said that about his family’s reaction. It must have applied here, too.

But he could cut himself off from people he’d enjoyed happy youthfulness with easier than he could his parents, siblings, and cousins.

“Stu,” Noh-en said, “many people have chosen since you were here last time. I can’t tell you all of them and all of their reasons now. Quinyeth is almost impossible to wound, but Gilor is coming with her.”

“What’s he doing here?”

She answered very quietly. “He’s been here often lately for someone as busy as he is. He lets me lead the school votaries even though he has <<seniority>>. I think as the age of <<closure>> approaches for him, he becomes less certain of his path.”

What’s the age of closure? Who is Gilor? Why are there so many Artonan words for seniority? Alden kept the questions to himself because the two of them were both giving each other looks filled with meaning, and he didn’t want to get in the way.

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“Gilor’s not like you,” Noh-en said.

“I know him well.”

“He’s been proud of being a votary for years. This is just something that happens sometimes, and his cousin recently—”

“Why do you treat me as if I can’t understand the most ordinary of troubles, Noh? You never did that before I made a choice you didn’t agree with.”

They were both nearly whispering, but the lack of volume didn’t rob the words of their frustration.

Noh-en bit her lower lip and blinked at him. “I didn’t intend to.”

“I know Gilor-helk doesn’t truly want to be a knight. I know some people become regretful as the opportunity fades. I heard that his cousin lost her <<hoped-for one>>, and he probably thinks she would be comforted if he could be more to her than a votary. I understand the same things the rest of you understand about choosing, and I have contemplated them for years.”

“Stu, I didn’t—”

“I’ll greet him and Quinyeth, since they’re already waving toward us as they come. Then Alden and I will leave. Because…I also know I don’t pretend with perfection. And I don’t want to upset anyone here. You may say whatever you think is best about why I came early and left quickly.”

He said the last part so decisively that Noh-en only nodded. Neither of them said another word until the two figures Alden had seen slowly making their way here finally reached them.

They were both wearing the exact same outfit as Noh-en. One of them was only two or three inches shorter than Alden, with dark skin and hair that was gathered at the nape of their neck in a ponytail. The other was a smidge shorter than Stuart, with a medium skin tone and white hair that sprouted from the top of the clip that held it at the back. The hair sprout bounced around even more than the owner did as they directed a woven basket with a short pinkish wand. The overloaded basket was skimming a foot or so above the ground, occasionally spilling something that looked like trail mix with a bunch of pale yellow slugs added to it.

And they probably were alien slugs, now that Alden saw the ones the taller Artonan was tossing toward the ground in front of the bokabv. They crawled around slowly.