Gratuitous Epilogue : Touchstone Extras (3 page)

I haven't just been
playing house and planning parties, but my day job has been
relatively stress-free. KOTIS Command has kept me to light
training, irregular visualisations, and enhancing the Setari
assisting the Mesiath construction. The only thing which I'm
currently annoyed about is my hair, which is growing out
super-slow. At the moment I have all these feathery wanna-be curls
and look like a fuzzy duckling.

I'm up in my eyrie
right now, with the wind blowing the super-sheer gauzy curtains
about. Jeh and Grif are guarding me by sitting down on the patio
chatting. Kaoren is at Kalasa, and the kids at school, so there's
no-one else in range of my senses. The kittens are chasing the
curtains, which I should probably teach them not to, but I think
it's too cute to stop. The next important task on our schedule is
voting on names for them.

Guess I'll go make Jeh
and Grif some lunch.

February

Stood Over

The kittens are getting
leggier and more mobile, and I'll probably have to find some kind
of bells to put on a collar, because they've definitely got strong
hunting genes. They're called Mip and Tick-tock. Mip was Sen's
suggestion. I suggested Tick and Tock for names for both of them,
but Sen liked it better as a single name. For the moment family
votes are mostly still boiling down to Sen's preferences, but I'm
glad to see that Ys and Rye are being positively influenced by
Lira. Lira likes Sen, but she doesn't put her whims above things
she really wants, and just occasionally Ys and Rye at least
consider doing the same.

Lohn and Mara's house
will soon be at the fit-out stage, and Jeh, Grif and Ketzaren's
won't be too far behind them. The rest of the Setari aren't moving
so quickly, though most of them have taken their land grants to
ensure the islands stay Setari. But for the moment barracks are
just easier, and houses are something that the senior squads want
more for family than for privacy. Lohn's fretting about the
question of adoption, and Mara says it's because he likes so many
of the children he's been tutoring at the talent school. They've
included a lot of extra rooms in their house design, but that's
mainly because they have tons of relatives back on Tare, and want
them to visit or stay. And they're going to try to have a baby
fairly soon after their wedding.

I had a fair bit of
stress a week ago. I've been on-and-off discussing being a
touchstone with Lira (who still won't admit to being able to do
anything any more), and told her about how I'd once made Nils dream
about things which had happened to him in the past, and hadn't been
able to break out of the dream. She told me that people with
Illusion talents are the ones best able to guide projections, and
they were deeply involved in the construction of the 'machines' for
the grand projects like the Ddura. Unfortunately, I was stupid
enough to mention this, and of course the technicians were
fascinated by the link and wanted to set up some experiments to see
whether Nils could make me project stuff. It's one of the few
things I've really, absolutely refused to do. Not with Nils, not
with anyone – but especially not with Nils. I was pretty calm about
it when they suggested it initially, but when they sent Maze back
to have a deep and meaningful about it, I got all stressed and
barely stopped myself from asking him if he'd appreciate being
forced to relive Helese's death, and could only say: "I really mean
it. I can't hurt people that way." And of course had nightmares,
and I guess Kaoren and Maze between them told the technicians to
back the hell off firmly enough that they decided to leave it be
(for now – being able to create things like the Ddura is something
they're very interested in).

Fortunately Nils wasn't
around for any of this. He and Zee are in charge of the Setari out
at Oriath, assisting with the slow excavation of the massive pile
of rubble and keeping the site clear of Ionoth, so I haven't had a
chance to see much of them.

It's my birthday
tomorrow. I'll be nineteen, which feels really old and really young
to me at the same time. I'm feeling very lucky that Kaoren changed
his mind after only six months.

March

Stepping Forward

KOTIS Command still
haven't managed to map a path through to Tare or Kolar, though
according to Tsur Selkie's whiteboard Tare and Kolar have managed
to reach each other. The route isn't really very different – it's
just that it's now like working your way through an invisible maze
which wiggles about, and if you touch the walls you might get
swished through a rift into real-space. The trip will be very
Indiana Jones in future – all a matter of timing, of pausing and
dashing forward to roll under the swinging blades, and then
stopping again at the next roiling obstacle, but not waiting too
long in case a huge rock comes rumbling up behind you.

It does wiggle in a
predictable pattern, rather like a very complex tide, but I can see
why the old Lantarens thought the Pillars worthwhile. I'm more than
astonished that they ever managed to put them in place. It's not
like they had scanners and computers which would remember the
patterns of the changing landscape.

The exploration group
is nearly there, though, and expect to meet up with the Tare group
in the next couple of weeks. It'll be weird when we start getting
new settlers again. After months of being cut off, people really
are beginning to consider themselves 'Muinan'. Even Pandoran and
Mesian, now that both settlements are up and running. It's so
extraordinarily strange watching the continual expansion – new
buildings going up, old ones painstakingly restored, animals and
plants discovered and half-remembered names given to them, or new
ones made up.

Rye's named several
species. Kaoren and I are continually impressed by him, by his
methodical cataloguing of the flora and fauna of the island. Shon
helped him with understanding the initial requirements, and he's
been producing reports on Arcadia ever since. He asks Kaoren to
review them for word selection before he submits them, but while
there are plenty of errors, his reading and writing skills have
improved immensely and it's hard to believe they've been written by
an eleven year-old who couldn't read at all six months ago. It does
help that after basic lessons the interface allows you to do
whole-word selection rather than spelling individual
words.

Shon tells me that,
though they might review the islands properly at some future date,
the work Rye's doing is genuinely valuable. There's these tiny,
hand-sized brown and black possum-like things which haven't yet
been located anywhere but Arcadia and Siriath (First Squad Island),
and Rye named them Restels (for Sentarestel) and he's borrowed
several scanners and is creating his own mini-documentary about
them. Rye fills every moment of each day with the thousands of
things he wants to do – taking care of his garden, cataloguing the
island's animals (and finding an interesting 'sonic collar'
solution which makes it hard for Mip and Tick-Tock to successfully
hunt), school studies, and combat training. He's also very
interested in the team sports which the schools have started
organising, and has improved as a swimmer in leaps and bounds, and
is just embracing his new life so wholeheartedly. Time spent with
Kaoren is still his greatest joy, but last week I got this sudden
violent hug in return for a whiteberry muffin, which I'm happy to
take as proof that Rye is glad of me as well.

Ys' twelfth birthday is
coming up and I've been struggling to decide on the perfect present
for her. Ys already has the two things she wants most: Sen and Rye
safe and happy, and access to more information than even she can
gulp down. Lira fills any need for social contact beyond Sen and
Rye, and the only thing Ys would probably admit to wanting is to
not have to go to school because it interrupts her reading. I have
an idea about something she'd probably enjoy, and I'm going to ask
Isten Notra about it, but I have to work myself up to that because
it's a big favour. I'm also going to get Ys a microscope, which I
think she'll find interesting – I've had that ordered for
weeks.

Ys and Lira grump at
each other occasionally – Lira doesn't think studying every free
moment you have is at all amusing – but fortunately their
friendship is proving pretty solid, and Ys always makes time for
family events. They're both still fairly reserved with me and
Kaoren, but are growing more confident and less defensive. It
helps, I think, that Kaoren and I are very careful to treat their
rooms as
theirs
and never go into them without asking
permission. That and the certainty of routine and consistency of
rules seems to go a long way. Everyone has chores now, and an
allowance if they do their chores, and I'm completely fascinated by
the things they choose to buy. Lira seems to want to have her own
statue collection, which is kind of awesome.

There's also very good
news about Lira – she's a tiny bit taller than she was when we
recovered her, and the medics say she appears to be growing
normally. So, whatever else she might be, she's not frozen in time.
She's developed an interest in music now, puzzling her way through
the massive amounts available through the interface, and I'm
wondering whether to start her with learning an instrument, or
encourage her into art – she still likes playing with Ys' modelling
toy, but I'm not sure how passionate she is about any of it. She's
more inclined to be social than Ys, but still hasn't adjusted to
not being isolated and kept separate and so has a habit of reacting
with suspicion to anyone trying to talk to her, and is very
imperious with all but the close circle of people she trusts (she's
imperious with us too, but not as consistently).

Sen's not been having
too good a time. She's transitioning into one of the tough periods
for Sight Sight talents, where most of the certainty vanishes, and
there's rarely a night when she's not punished with cruel and
confusing dreams. And her Place Sight has begun to strengthen,
which means touching certain objects or being in certain places can
be very painful. We've been making up a bed for her in a little
side-room off our bedroom (which I intended as the "baby's room",
if and when we have any). It works very well for Sen, letting us
get through most nights without having her in bed with us, but
close enough to help her through the worst dreams. She finds having
us within earshot very comforting. The change is sad, though,
because she's no longer inclined to hug everyone and anyone, and
will even flinch away from people at times. Kaoren's wealth of
experience with controlling his Sights is exactly what she needs,
but there's nothing anyone can do to stop this from being an awful
patch for her.

My own month has been
fairly busy. Now that I'm properly recovered from my injuries, I
have a regular work schedule. Mostly visualising whole forms of
decrepit and ruined books recovered from Kalasa, and sometimes the
insides of rooms. They're being very careful about not overtaxing
me, and every second day is still an exercise day. I'll probably
'retire' for a couple of years after Kaoren and I get married, but
even though I'm theoretically rich enough never to work again, I'm
happy enough to contribute in these non-dramatic ways. Still rather
wary of them plugging me into Ddura-making machines, but they're
keeping quiet about those possibilities at the moment.

My fitness is probably
the highest it's ever been, and I'm even progressing a little in
combat training. I do a lot of canoeing – Kaoren's birthday present
to me was canoes for the whole family (we had to build a boat house
and a dock – and work out how to paddle). Even better, he arranged
limited permission for me to go off on my own. I have to tell
people where I'm going, and not go out of the immediate area of the
islands – and my guards of the moment get to stay on alert and
track me via the interface, ready to fly off and rescue me – but
it's still a taste of independence which I really appreciate.
Mostly I go with people anyway. Kaoren and I like getting up just
before dawn and going out just the two of us, and I think the group
trips are one of the things that all the kids really look forward
to, even Ys and Lira. Each weekend we paddle to a different island
to explore. I've even paddled the kids to school a few times,
though mostly we use one of the floating sleds to take them because
it's a fairly long trip.

I visited Siriath
frequently while Lohn and Mara's and Jeh, Ketzaren and Grif's
houses were being constructed. They'd designed an entire little
neighbourhood – seven broadly expansive multi-family houses – in
anticipation of contact with Tare being re-established, since they
knew that not only their parents but most of their siblings were
going to apply to settle. Housing is so cheap and easy with
whitestone, and they built quite close to each other so that they
can share the power, water and recycling installations which are
the costly part. Each house has land about the size of four
suburban blocks (I think that would make an acre of yard for each
house) and in the centre of them all, leading down to the lake's
edge and a dock is a big semi-cleared space which will be a grassy
parkland once it's recovered from being 'weeded' of trees. Lohn and
Mara plan to get married in their park, and Maze and Rye had a
great deal of fun consulting on the design. A few more Setari house
'clusters' have been seeded about Siriath, and also on the
furthest-out island, Nula, but none have been finished
yet.