TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY-TWO: Avowed

272

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In between the choosing of a major door and the act of walking through it, there was a moment to be lived. Alden had some things to do.

On the day before Christmas, he left the TC with a stack of NesiCards that had been provided by the helpful woman who now worked at the desk, and he stepped out into the drop-off area where Lute waited for him.

Lute was lounging on top of a giant stuffed pig with an adhesive gift bow stuck to its snout. The pig was on top of the nonagon. Someone had parked their car below the nonagon. It was a very Anesidoran scene.

“I decided,” Lute announced, as Alden summoned the vehicle over and hopped on. “Ham. His name’s Ham.”

“I was on edge waiting for that decision.”

Lute had been debating between Ham and Bacon.

“You now have Ham, a pillow named Egg, and a harp named Aubergine. There’s a whole meal there.”

“I can’t believe you really bought it for me. What’s wrong with you?”

[It’s to commemorate the time we got an ambassador fired together,] Alden texted.

When Lute had finished laughing, Alden asked, “Anything else you need to take care of before we head to Haoyu’s?”

He’d invited them to sleep over at his house tonight. Lexi and his family would be joining them there for lunch tomorrow.

“Let’s go.” Lute leaned over to slap the box beside his pig. It held Haoyu’s party badger skateboard. “It’s going to be way better than a Velra Christmas.”

“It sounds good to me, too.”

“What’s with you wanting NesiCards anyway?” Lute asked. “Those are more for kids and other people who aren’t Avowed.”

“I’ve got a plan for these,” said Alden. “I might tell you about it one day…if you don’t throw Ham into the Pacific Ocean less than an hour after I bought him.”

“I’m sitting on him. If he goes, I will. Shouldn’t you be more worried about me?”

 

******

******

 

During this long, in-between moment, Alden was increasingly aware of a cascade of changes happening within himself as the decision he’d made altered his course. His priorities were shifting. Plans that had seemed solid only days ago became fuzzy possibilities.

“If you volunteer a couple more times over the break, you’ll basically have finished the practical requirement for your class with Instructor Marion, right?” Haoyu asked, dropping a blanket onto the air mattress they were setting up for Alden in his family’s guest room. Lute had won rock, paper, scissors for the real bed.

“Yep,” said Alden. “I need to do some write-ups on it, too.”

“That’s like getting all your homework done before term starts. I should try to get into that class the next time it’s offered.”

A short while later, lying on the mattress while he waited for sleep to come, Alden thought that he might be able to do that write-up for Marion’s class. But he also thought he might never see the man again.

Everything depends on what happens after I go through with it.

He could tell by the sound of slow, deep breathing that Lute was already asleep.

He watched midnight arrive. His interface still had the timer running for Stuart’s first binding date. Even if it had become useless, Alden didn’t feel like deleting it.

Looking at it no longer induced the same anxiety and guilt. Fear remained, but it was more about what Stuart would go through than about his own indecision and the consequences of it.

That’s not a bad change. He shut off his interface and slept for around three hours before he jolted awake, flooded with nervous energy.

These changes might not have been bad, but the past couple of days hadn’t been restful. Too much adrenaline here on the threshold.

He rolled off the air mattress with what was probably a wasted effort at stealth given Lute’s talent for sound sleeping and picked up his messenger bag from the corner. He left, traversing a hall lined with family pictures.

The Zhang-Demirs lived in a house with a petite front yard and a blocky white exterior that didn’t do justice to the warm and spacious rooms inside. In the dining room, a table that had once belonged to one of Haoyu’s grandmothers stood on an intricately patterned rug. Alden took a seat at it and pulled his tablet out of his bag. A package of blank cards with matching envelopes slid out onto the table along with it, and he looked at them for a minute before putting them away.

That’s not a good project for three o’clock on Christmas morning.

He read what information he could find about Goldbush online. He read about the annual cost of owning a cat on Anesidora. After a while, he went to the guest bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub to request Whan-tel’s Art from System storage and read about the summoning spell once more.

There was nothing new to discover in the instructions.

His auriad slid around the fingers of his right hand as he began the spell, keeping his eyes on his target, which lay on the counter across from him. He’d tried the spell a couple of times yesterday. The Forgetful Traveler’s Bag was the only thing that had moved toward him at all, like it wanted to come. So he was aiming at it again.

Will I get to keep doing this? he wondered as his fingers moved smoothly and his authority interacted with the auriad. Where? How? In secret? In the open? Not at all?

His plans weren’t the only things changing. His hopes were, too. Some had faded until he could barely find them; others were deepening so much that he was already dreading the scars they’d leave if they never came true.

On the other side of the door, he would reach out with everything he had. If nobody reached back…

The bag flew off the counter toward his waiting left hand. He caught it with a quiet gasp.

Magic.

I did it. I can make the universe listen. I can do this remarkable thing.

He clutched the bag to his chest and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

It’ll be okay. Stuart won’t hate me for all the secrets. He’s my friend.

 

******

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It was a great day for making memories.

That morning, Alden learned about Turkish breakfast food. He talked about Matadero rice pranks with Mr. Zhang-Demir. And he opened a large box labeled, “To: Lodge Residents. From: Lute” to discover he now owned one quarter of a white electric guitar.

“I’m not being cheap,” Lute said. “But I wanted to increase the chances that someone other than me would actually try playing it. I got you individual presents, too.”

They all tried playing it, including Kon and Irina. Alden had the thrill of being better at it than all the other beginners, although it turned out that Kon and Lexi both had good singing voices, and Alden sounded awful.

In the afternoon, they left the adults and Irina behind and went to an area of Boomtown with a staircase that Haoyu really wanted to jump on his new skateboard. They all stood at the top looking down. The steps were wide and steep. A Wright flag was snapping on a pole held by a robot sculpture at the bottom.

“What color should your urn be?” Lute asked.

“I’m a Dura Brute.”

“Thirty-five steps didn’t sound like that many,” said Alden.

“It’s not,” said Haoyu.

“It looks like many.”

“I’ve done bigger ones, but not without demolishing boards and making mistakes. I’m not really the best skater for a superhuman. I’m developing.”

“Doable.” Lexi turned away after he said it as if the stairs were no longer worthy of his consideration. “You’ll be fine.”

Alden was still staring down it. “I could jump it.”

All four of the others failed to respond.

“Shut up,” he said to them. “I could jump it. For sure. I have my trait…I just might break some things when I landed at the bottom.”

“Bunny goes hop,” said Lute.

Lexi let out a little chortle.

“Bunny goes hop, then, ‘Ahhhhhhh! My legs!” said Kon.

Alden laughed in spite of himself. “I only said I could jump over that many, guys. I was talking about the distance of my leaps. That’s it. Not really doing it.”

“Sure, Bunny.”

“Lexi will tackle you if you go for it.”

“No. I’d call ET for him, though.”

“Stop trying to steal my moment, Alden. You can break your bones after I land a few.”

“Three of you are being buttheads because I was so much better than you on the guitar.”

“What’s Lute’s excuse?” asked Haoyu.

“It’s his nature.”

The board held up to the abuse Haoyu put it through beautifully for the next hour. And Haoyu didn’t get a scratch.

“What’s it like to be getting closer to human wrecking ball status every day?” Lute asked on the bus ride back.

“Fun,” said Haoyu. “I’m going through a lot of clothes, though.”

Through the bus windows, Alden could see the roof of the building where Natalie lived. She, Hadiza, and Emilija had sent him pictures of them all holding their new sledgehammers.

“We should get Max to set up his float zone at the bottom of those stairs,” Lexi said to him. “Safer landing when you try to jump it.”

“That would be fun.”

“Everly wants me to go ice skating with her tonight.” Kon was moving a hand over his interface. “I’ll have to leave you guys soon.”

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“Want me to fly you to meet her on the nonagon?” Alden asked.

“You don’t have to, but I wouldn’t mind it.”

“I wouldn’t mind it either, so let’s do it.”

They took that flight together a short while later. Alden hadn’t been sure that they’d end up alone or that, if they did, Kon would want to bring up the subject that was on Alden’s own mind.

But they hadn’t been in the air for long when Kon said, “So…”

They were sitting side by side. Alden could see a hint of nerves behind his brown eyes.

“You heard anything about my business?”

Before Alden could open his mouth, Kon added, “It’s fine if you haven’t. I know it hasn’t been long, and it’s not like I expect you to have access to every piece of information on the Triplanets because you know a few Artonans.”

“My friend has a theory,” Alden said. “It’s a theory, so it could be wrong. But I bet it’s right. He’s pulling in info from some high quality sources, and even if his parents wouldn’t tell him outright, he has a sense of what was going on the day you visited and who they talked to before they teleported you in to help.”

Kon inhaled deeply.

“Should I tell you even though it’s not confirmed?”

“I don’t know. Is it bad news?”

Alden looked down, thinking. Rooftops and streets flowed past below them.

“If it’s bad or not probably depends on where you wanted your life to go from here. Some people would definitely think it’s amazing. Others would think it’s horrible.”

“Urgh.” Kon grinned and winced at the same time. “I obviously need you to tell me now. The wondering has been… ”

“Yeah. I get it. There’s a ship being built to serve as an oasis for large forces fighting out there where the chaos issue is…rough. You can actually look up some stuff about it online if you’re curious. Not much about where it can go and what it can do, but there are pictures. And descriptions of a few of the crazy things they’ve done to build it. Don’t let those freak you out. I’m sure it’ll be luxurious inside when it’s finished. It wouldn’t be an oasis if it was creepy and uncomfortable, would it?”

“I’m going to space,” Kon said, voice low and rushed. “All right. Okay.”

“It’s called the Sdyelis Branch,” said Alden. “And I’m not sure you’ll even see it, but Stuart thinks your skill and spell combo might have been designed for repairing it.”

“I’m going to be a spaceship fixer?” Kon stared up at the sky, then back at Alden. “How do I feel about that?”

“I…don’t know.”

“I don’t either. That’s why I’m asking.”

“Again, it’s just a possibility. If Stuart’s right about all his guesses, you’d be getting training for the job. And you’d have long assignments in space, but you’d be rotated out with others who have the same powers you do. It— ”

“Oh, man,” said Kon. He fell onto his back and closed his eyes. “That’s…it’s not bad.”

“It’s not.”

“But it’s huge and different.”

“Yeah.”

“Fly slower. I need a minute.”

Alden dropped their speed and input a random additional stop for their flight plan so that it would take even longer.

“You’ve got tons of time now,” he said. “You can tell Everly I was the holdup if you want.”