zzambrosius_02 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zzambrosius_02) wrote2012-06-14 08:05 am
zzambrosius_02) wrote2012-06-14 08:05 am
*Probably the Last*
SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM "VIASMAE: AN INTRIGUE
Late in the book, Selos is contemplating the near future and taking steps to complete certain ambitions.
Chapter Twenty-seven: Selos and Nikkisi go for a walk.
The next morning Selos awoke early. He had less to do that day than on most days, and this was as he intended. He did not shorten his usual calisthenics at all, rather he extended some of the stretching exercises to longer and deeper ends. When he was well-warmed up, he dressed in his black wool trews and a plain linen tunic. He put his old sheath onto his belt, slid the spathito into it, found his comb and combed his hair out. After a moment’s thought he pulled it up into a topknot. Boots, short black cloak, heavy wool hood in red: now he was ready.
He walked slowly along the arcade from his room to the kitchens. Nikkisi came banging out of her room, nearly running into him. He stopped abruptly, let her run by. She got to the doors of the kitchen before she noticed him standing there, bemused.
“Oops.” She was blushing. “Good thing you were paying attention.”
“Yes.” He smiled to take the sting out and said: “You in a hurry?”
“Umm, no. Not really. I just...”
“Yeah, you are eight.” He continued his stroll, opened one kitchen door, gestured her in.
Marleni was sitting on a stool by the fire, little Marcos in her lap. Sort of in her lap, she was now very great with child. She smiled widely at Selos: “You are dressed like an Archaros of the Red Warrior Skolo this morning, Selos. Are you trying the role on?”
“I hadn’t meant it that way, but yes, I think I am.”
Nikkisi attacked the table of breakfast food, shoveling various things onto a platter and then grabbing a carafe and filling it with water from the boiler.
Selos sat across from her, eating more slowly. He pulled a small chapbook from his pouch, turned to a page and looked at it contemplatively. Marleni twitched, then patted her belly: “Soon, little one. Very soon, indeed.”
“Whatcha doing today, Selos?” Nikkisi had stopped eating, having cleared the platter of all edibles, even licking the grease and crumbs off of it.
Selos smiled: “I have most of the day unscheduled. I intend to go to Kid’s Town and spend the morning walking the trails and paths.”
“Oh,” said Nikkisi. “Want company?”
“You can come along if you like. I don’t think you’ll want to walk as much as I will, not today anyway.”
“Okay. But I can walk as far as you can, brother.”
“You’ll want trousers and boots. Maybe your yellow riding cloak. Gonna be cold and misty today. Hmm?”
She nodded, bounced to her feet and dashed off. Selos finished eating. He looked over at Marleni by the fire, saw that she was smiling a little sadly, stroking little Marcos’ head. He fidgeted and fussed a bit, then squirmed loose and toddled over to Selos.
“Feeling melancholy?” Selos asked. He picked the little boy up, set him on his lap. He smiled and Marleni chuckled.
“No, not really. It’s just, seeing you there, on the cusp of manhood, with my little son beside me, it made me think. I can see him where you are now, you know? He is growing so fast, learning new things every day. Someday he will be sitting there, dressed as a man, deciding to make his adulthood official. Picking a Skolo or contemplating a Guild.”
“Someday,” said Selos, tickling the little boy’s toes. He giggled and waved his feet in the air.
Nikkisi came back in, dressed to walk on a dim and misty day. Her trousers were a dark red, her tunic of heavy yellow wool. A hooded cloak of the same fabric hung from her shoulders and she was wearing heavy leather gloves. Her boots and belt were of matching dark brown leather.
‘She is turning into quite a fashion setter,’ Selos thought. He kissed little Marcos and set him on his feet, then rose and rolled his shoulders. “See you later, Marleni.”
He pulled his gloves fom his belt, stopped at the Gate of the Villa to grab a doro, a short heavy infantry spear, from the closet. Using this as a walking staff, he led his sister out the gate and into the street.
Selos stopped at the opening into the barberry hedge, looking up at the hill and rubbing his chin. He turned and spoke to Nikkisi, saying: “I am going to do the whole Spiral today. And I’m going to summit the hill. Are you ready for that?
Nikkisi laughed: “Are you sure you are ready for that? There’s no way across the crevasse except on the log bridge.”
“I am as ready as I’ll ever get. Let’s start hiking.” The clouds parted a bit and some weak sunlight illumined the hedge. He led the way through.
The lower paths were wide enough for two, and they walked along side by side. “I need to find a new clubhouse.” Nikkisi announced this suddenly, and Selos nodded.
“I suppose you do. Getting too old for Angelisiti’s blockhouse, eh?”
“Yeah, and I’m dressing better now, I’m out of place.”
“I noticed the change.”
“Thanks. I was wondering about the place you hang out... Stolikos’ House, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Selos nodded.
“Do you think I’d fit in there? Could you take me sometime?”
“Yes and yes.”
“Oh, good.”
They turned uphill, starting on the path called the Grand Spiral. It wound about the whole of the hill, crossing perforce every other path, road or trail upon it. The trail was steep in places, and Selos went slowly, savoring the views. He stopped to contemplate a spot where two skinny pine trees had bent towards one another. Moss drooped from the branches and there was a strong odor of pine needles in the air. The sun broke through again, a pale shaft lit the floor of the dell. “There,” he said, pointing through the archway formed by the curved trunks, “is where I was hiding when I popped six of my opponents with my stonebow. My best day ever at live Strat-tac. Skatharos is still pissed about that. He walked right into the trap. Nobody touched me that day.”
He walked on, enjoying even the mist and chill. They gained altitude only slowly, but passed every clubhouse and gathering spot within easy hailing distance.
He used his doro to steady himself across a stream, swollen with recent rain. He helped Nikkisi cross, reaching out with the butt of the spear so she could grab on and pull herself across.
They stopped to rest in one of the few dry spots anywhere on the hill. “This time of year, everything’s wet. This overhang is a nice place for a break.”
Nikkisi agreed. Selos shivered a little, noting that there were darker clouds on the western horizon. He pointed them out to Nikkisi, who nodded. Without words they rose, and began to climb again.
Six times around the hill in all, and another third of a gyre, before they reached the base of the final slope. Here a great crevasse broke across the path, twenty ells wide at the least, and the only way across was a log, six ells in diameter and stretching a long way on each side of the crack. It lay tilted at an angle, the upper end broken against the rocky hill like a little stick.
He looked down to the base of the tree, where a halo of roots made like fingers clutching at the sky. “This must have been an amazing tree, back in the day,” he said. “It must have stood as high as the summit, and spread as wide as that tree near the Lykabetos.”
Nikkisi agreed, then clambered onto the log and ran up easily, her hands held out for balance. Selos climbed more slowly. The top side of the log was slightly flattened by thousands of children’s feet. He stumped carefully up the wet log. He held the doro level, waist high. His eyes were on his feet, looking neither up nor down, nor to either side, until he reached the end and climbed down onto the trail.
“Whew!” He was relieved. The wind whistled around the peak, the sky looked darker. “The storm is coming in,” he said. “We’d best get moving.”
“How you gonna get back down?” asked Nikkisi.
“Same way I got up, I guess. There is no other way, is there?”
“Not that I know of.”
They climbed as fast as they could, approaching the summit. Twenty ells or so below it, they stopped: “See, there is a scarp there, near the top, that blocks the way. The path is very narrow around the outside, and steep as can be if you try to climb inside it.” Selos grinned at her: “Skatharos went the steep way, Tikos the narrow way round. Which way for you, sister?”
“Up by the steep way, down by the narrow path. You?”
He agreed: “Want to go first?”
“No, you first.” They began to climb toward the scarp.
Nikkisi looked upward. Selos stood upon the very highest spot on the hill, a few ells above her. His hood was thrown back and he looked around him at the scene, the slopes of Kid’s Town, the City Wall nearby, the countryside round about. His hair was blowing in the wind a little, and the wind also stirred the fringes of his black wool cloak. His left hand was on his hip, his right held the doro. The butt of the spear was wedged against the side of his boot, the shaft he held at an angle away from him. The point glistened in the watery sunlight, it’s little pennon waving languidly in the stiffening breeze.
Of a sudden, Nikkisi saw the scene as if it were a painting, and felt filled with the desire to create that painting, so that everyone could see the picture as she saw it then.
Selos turned slowly in place, gazing at the countryside, smiling a little. “Your turn,” he said, stepping slowly down to the next level and maneuvering himself around the scarp.
“Right,” she said, shaking her head a little. She climbed up past him, scrabbling her way to the summit, rising to her feet slowly so she wouldn’t lose her balance. She raised her hands over her head and hooted with joy, waving at the kids on the lower pathways. They hooted and hollered in response, their cries of congratulation drifting up to her where she stood.
Selos then, in his turn, looked up at his quasi-sister. She was only eight years old, but she already clearly showed a fashionista’s sense of drama and color play in her clothes. Her hair, thick and black and wavy, streamed away from her head as the wind continued to pick up. Her yellow hooded cloak stood out stark against the darkening sky. The mist was thickening, turning to rain.
He hesitated, not wanting to break the mood, feeling a strange mixture of emotions. At last he knew he should wait no longer, so he called out: “Nikkisi! C’mon, sister, we better get off the steep part of the path before the rain begins.”
She smacked her hands into her thighs, pouting, but then, looking at the worsening weather, she grudgingly agreed. She slipped a bit rounding the scarp and Selos caught her. He saw the fear on her face then, for just a second or so. “Careful,” he said: “it’s a long way down.”
She nodded. He preceeded her on the down slope, as he had trailed her on the way up, so that he could see to her safety. By the time they reached the bathing pool they were walking in a steady rain.
“Shall we stop at Stolikos’ house? I could introduce you around there.”
Nikkisi remained silent for a dozen paces or so. Finally she said: “I guess that would be smart. Unless it will be raining even harder later, and we’d get wetter.”
“We’ll be soaked by the time we get home, either way,” he said, amused. “You can’t get wetter than soaked, right?”
They arrived at the clubhouse. They went around the pillar that held up the corner of the buiding and under the overhanging section of the house. Selos removed his hood and cloak and hung them on a rack. “Your cloak goes here,” he said, “so the clubhouse doesn’t get messy.” The ladder was in place, and Selos grabbed it. “You first,” he said. He followed right behind her and so he heard the first voice to greet her: Skatharos.
“Who are you? Who’s she?”
Selos bumped Nikkisi’s bottom with his head: “Get on up, sister, you are allowed in.” He could see Skatharos taking Nikkisi’s hand and drawing her the rest of the way into the main room. He scrambled up the last few rungs and rolled off the ladder.
“This is Nikkisi, daughter of my mother’s Twine. Skatharos, Tikos, Ammisi, Alexi...” he introduced the lot of them. He noted that Nikkisi was staring at Skatharos and nudged her. He didn’t actually snicker at her, but it was a near thing. She swatted his shoulder and went over to sit with Skatharos. Soon they were conversing amiably, and Selos felt free to play a game of Truths and Lies with some of the kids.
When he tired of the game, he reclined on the cushion pile and sighed happily. Ammisi came over and sat beside him.
“So, umm. I heard that you summited the hill today.”
“Yup.”
“You never went all the way up before, did you?”
“I was sorta saving it. For the right time.”
“Ah,” said Ammisi wistfully: “You’re leaving us soon, then.”
“Nope. Staying right here in Athens,” he said, being deliberately obtuse.
“You know what I mean. Kid’s Town.”
He said nothing and she sighed again.
“I think I’m gonna push myself,” she said. “I want to get done with Elementary Skolo, get into the world and start doing things.”
“You are free to do that. I never heard that you were an enthusiastic student, though.”
“Things change. Too many of my friends have left Kid’s Town, gone to Guilds or Skolae. I’ll be eleven in a year, I could get through the rest of the basics by then, and pick a vocation, at least a beginning one.”
“You think it’ll take a year?”
She grinned: “Maybe a little longer.”
He tipped his head to the side, indicating the spot where Nikkisi sat, now engaged in a cutthroat game of Miller with Skatharos. He said: “Keep an eye on Nikkisi, will you? She’s growing up fast now, she could use a smart and savvy older girlfriend.”
“I’m only two years older...”
“That’s a lot, at our age. She can be a little moody, you know? Like me.”
“She was with you during the Incursion, wasn’t she.” It was not a question.
“She was five, barely.” Selos nodded: “Like I said, smart and savvy.”
Ammisi was blushing a little. Selos thought about how hard it had been for him to learn how to accept such compliments. It amused him a little to see Ammisi struggling in the same way. He said: “Don’t tell her that I set you the task...”
“Of course not. I won’t be obvious about it. I’ll just be here for her, that’s all.”
He grinned at her: he didn’t even have to say ‘Smart and savvy’ again, she blushed even redder.
“People compliment you all the time, don’t they?” Ammisi was amused and also irritated: “I see it happen constantly, here in Kid’s Town. I expect it happens even more in Skolo and among the grownups you hang out with. You always seem so calm and cool about it, like it’s just your due. How do you do that?”
“It’s not easy,” he grinned: “Eleni said an Inkeeper once told her to accept such things ‘with grace and gratitude, and not with dismay’. That helped, because it made sense to me.”
“”Okay, I’ll think about that.”
They chatted for a while longer, then Selos caught Nikkisi’s eye: “You ready to head home? I have some writing to do.”
“No,” she replied blithely, “you go on without me. I will be home before suppertime.”
“Be sure to take the high road to the Gate, and go with a group. There is still a Viasmos on the loose.” He raised an eyebrow at Skatharos, who nodded ever so slightly. Then Selos rose, stretched, and took his leave, pleased with the day’s accomplishments.
Late in the book, Selos is contemplating the near future and taking steps to complete certain ambitions.
Chapter Twenty-seven: Selos and Nikkisi go for a walk.
The next morning Selos awoke early. He had less to do that day than on most days, and this was as he intended. He did not shorten his usual calisthenics at all, rather he extended some of the stretching exercises to longer and deeper ends. When he was well-warmed up, he dressed in his black wool trews and a plain linen tunic. He put his old sheath onto his belt, slid the spathito into it, found his comb and combed his hair out. After a moment’s thought he pulled it up into a topknot. Boots, short black cloak, heavy wool hood in red: now he was ready.
He walked slowly along the arcade from his room to the kitchens. Nikkisi came banging out of her room, nearly running into him. He stopped abruptly, let her run by. She got to the doors of the kitchen before she noticed him standing there, bemused.
“Oops.” She was blushing. “Good thing you were paying attention.”
“Yes.” He smiled to take the sting out and said: “You in a hurry?”
“Umm, no. Not really. I just...”
“Yeah, you are eight.” He continued his stroll, opened one kitchen door, gestured her in.
Marleni was sitting on a stool by the fire, little Marcos in her lap. Sort of in her lap, she was now very great with child. She smiled widely at Selos: “You are dressed like an Archaros of the Red Warrior Skolo this morning, Selos. Are you trying the role on?”
“I hadn’t meant it that way, but yes, I think I am.”
Nikkisi attacked the table of breakfast food, shoveling various things onto a platter and then grabbing a carafe and filling it with water from the boiler.
Selos sat across from her, eating more slowly. He pulled a small chapbook from his pouch, turned to a page and looked at it contemplatively. Marleni twitched, then patted her belly: “Soon, little one. Very soon, indeed.”
“Whatcha doing today, Selos?” Nikkisi had stopped eating, having cleared the platter of all edibles, even licking the grease and crumbs off of it.
Selos smiled: “I have most of the day unscheduled. I intend to go to Kid’s Town and spend the morning walking the trails and paths.”
“Oh,” said Nikkisi. “Want company?”
“You can come along if you like. I don’t think you’ll want to walk as much as I will, not today anyway.”
“Okay. But I can walk as far as you can, brother.”
“You’ll want trousers and boots. Maybe your yellow riding cloak. Gonna be cold and misty today. Hmm?”
She nodded, bounced to her feet and dashed off. Selos finished eating. He looked over at Marleni by the fire, saw that she was smiling a little sadly, stroking little Marcos’ head. He fidgeted and fussed a bit, then squirmed loose and toddled over to Selos.
“Feeling melancholy?” Selos asked. He picked the little boy up, set him on his lap. He smiled and Marleni chuckled.
“No, not really. It’s just, seeing you there, on the cusp of manhood, with my little son beside me, it made me think. I can see him where you are now, you know? He is growing so fast, learning new things every day. Someday he will be sitting there, dressed as a man, deciding to make his adulthood official. Picking a Skolo or contemplating a Guild.”
“Someday,” said Selos, tickling the little boy’s toes. He giggled and waved his feet in the air.
Nikkisi came back in, dressed to walk on a dim and misty day. Her trousers were a dark red, her tunic of heavy yellow wool. A hooded cloak of the same fabric hung from her shoulders and she was wearing heavy leather gloves. Her boots and belt were of matching dark brown leather.
‘She is turning into quite a fashion setter,’ Selos thought. He kissed little Marcos and set him on his feet, then rose and rolled his shoulders. “See you later, Marleni.”
He pulled his gloves fom his belt, stopped at the Gate of the Villa to grab a doro, a short heavy infantry spear, from the closet. Using this as a walking staff, he led his sister out the gate and into the street.
Selos stopped at the opening into the barberry hedge, looking up at the hill and rubbing his chin. He turned and spoke to Nikkisi, saying: “I am going to do the whole Spiral today. And I’m going to summit the hill. Are you ready for that?
Nikkisi laughed: “Are you sure you are ready for that? There’s no way across the crevasse except on the log bridge.”
“I am as ready as I’ll ever get. Let’s start hiking.” The clouds parted a bit and some weak sunlight illumined the hedge. He led the way through.
The lower paths were wide enough for two, and they walked along side by side. “I need to find a new clubhouse.” Nikkisi announced this suddenly, and Selos nodded.
“I suppose you do. Getting too old for Angelisiti’s blockhouse, eh?”
“Yeah, and I’m dressing better now, I’m out of place.”
“I noticed the change.”
“Thanks. I was wondering about the place you hang out... Stolikos’ House, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Selos nodded.
“Do you think I’d fit in there? Could you take me sometime?”
“Yes and yes.”
“Oh, good.”
They turned uphill, starting on the path called the Grand Spiral. It wound about the whole of the hill, crossing perforce every other path, road or trail upon it. The trail was steep in places, and Selos went slowly, savoring the views. He stopped to contemplate a spot where two skinny pine trees had bent towards one another. Moss drooped from the branches and there was a strong odor of pine needles in the air. The sun broke through again, a pale shaft lit the floor of the dell. “There,” he said, pointing through the archway formed by the curved trunks, “is where I was hiding when I popped six of my opponents with my stonebow. My best day ever at live Strat-tac. Skatharos is still pissed about that. He walked right into the trap. Nobody touched me that day.”
He walked on, enjoying even the mist and chill. They gained altitude only slowly, but passed every clubhouse and gathering spot within easy hailing distance.
He used his doro to steady himself across a stream, swollen with recent rain. He helped Nikkisi cross, reaching out with the butt of the spear so she could grab on and pull herself across.
They stopped to rest in one of the few dry spots anywhere on the hill. “This time of year, everything’s wet. This overhang is a nice place for a break.”
Nikkisi agreed. Selos shivered a little, noting that there were darker clouds on the western horizon. He pointed them out to Nikkisi, who nodded. Without words they rose, and began to climb again.
Six times around the hill in all, and another third of a gyre, before they reached the base of the final slope. Here a great crevasse broke across the path, twenty ells wide at the least, and the only way across was a log, six ells in diameter and stretching a long way on each side of the crack. It lay tilted at an angle, the upper end broken against the rocky hill like a little stick.
He looked down to the base of the tree, where a halo of roots made like fingers clutching at the sky. “This must have been an amazing tree, back in the day,” he said. “It must have stood as high as the summit, and spread as wide as that tree near the Lykabetos.”
Nikkisi agreed, then clambered onto the log and ran up easily, her hands held out for balance. Selos climbed more slowly. The top side of the log was slightly flattened by thousands of children’s feet. He stumped carefully up the wet log. He held the doro level, waist high. His eyes were on his feet, looking neither up nor down, nor to either side, until he reached the end and climbed down onto the trail.
“Whew!” He was relieved. The wind whistled around the peak, the sky looked darker. “The storm is coming in,” he said. “We’d best get moving.”
“How you gonna get back down?” asked Nikkisi.
“Same way I got up, I guess. There is no other way, is there?”
“Not that I know of.”
They climbed as fast as they could, approaching the summit. Twenty ells or so below it, they stopped: “See, there is a scarp there, near the top, that blocks the way. The path is very narrow around the outside, and steep as can be if you try to climb inside it.” Selos grinned at her: “Skatharos went the steep way, Tikos the narrow way round. Which way for you, sister?”
“Up by the steep way, down by the narrow path. You?”
He agreed: “Want to go first?”
“No, you first.” They began to climb toward the scarp.
Nikkisi looked upward. Selos stood upon the very highest spot on the hill, a few ells above her. His hood was thrown back and he looked around him at the scene, the slopes of Kid’s Town, the City Wall nearby, the countryside round about. His hair was blowing in the wind a little, and the wind also stirred the fringes of his black wool cloak. His left hand was on his hip, his right held the doro. The butt of the spear was wedged against the side of his boot, the shaft he held at an angle away from him. The point glistened in the watery sunlight, it’s little pennon waving languidly in the stiffening breeze.
Of a sudden, Nikkisi saw the scene as if it were a painting, and felt filled with the desire to create that painting, so that everyone could see the picture as she saw it then.
Selos turned slowly in place, gazing at the countryside, smiling a little. “Your turn,” he said, stepping slowly down to the next level and maneuvering himself around the scarp.
“Right,” she said, shaking her head a little. She climbed up past him, scrabbling her way to the summit, rising to her feet slowly so she wouldn’t lose her balance. She raised her hands over her head and hooted with joy, waving at the kids on the lower pathways. They hooted and hollered in response, their cries of congratulation drifting up to her where she stood.
Selos then, in his turn, looked up at his quasi-sister. She was only eight years old, but she already clearly showed a fashionista’s sense of drama and color play in her clothes. Her hair, thick and black and wavy, streamed away from her head as the wind continued to pick up. Her yellow hooded cloak stood out stark against the darkening sky. The mist was thickening, turning to rain.
He hesitated, not wanting to break the mood, feeling a strange mixture of emotions. At last he knew he should wait no longer, so he called out: “Nikkisi! C’mon, sister, we better get off the steep part of the path before the rain begins.”
She smacked her hands into her thighs, pouting, but then, looking at the worsening weather, she grudgingly agreed. She slipped a bit rounding the scarp and Selos caught her. He saw the fear on her face then, for just a second or so. “Careful,” he said: “it’s a long way down.”
She nodded. He preceeded her on the down slope, as he had trailed her on the way up, so that he could see to her safety. By the time they reached the bathing pool they were walking in a steady rain.
“Shall we stop at Stolikos’ house? I could introduce you around there.”
Nikkisi remained silent for a dozen paces or so. Finally she said: “I guess that would be smart. Unless it will be raining even harder later, and we’d get wetter.”
“We’ll be soaked by the time we get home, either way,” he said, amused. “You can’t get wetter than soaked, right?”
They arrived at the clubhouse. They went around the pillar that held up the corner of the buiding and under the overhanging section of the house. Selos removed his hood and cloak and hung them on a rack. “Your cloak goes here,” he said, “so the clubhouse doesn’t get messy.” The ladder was in place, and Selos grabbed it. “You first,” he said. He followed right behind her and so he heard the first voice to greet her: Skatharos.
“Who are you? Who’s she?”
Selos bumped Nikkisi’s bottom with his head: “Get on up, sister, you are allowed in.” He could see Skatharos taking Nikkisi’s hand and drawing her the rest of the way into the main room. He scrambled up the last few rungs and rolled off the ladder.
“This is Nikkisi, daughter of my mother’s Twine. Skatharos, Tikos, Ammisi, Alexi...” he introduced the lot of them. He noted that Nikkisi was staring at Skatharos and nudged her. He didn’t actually snicker at her, but it was a near thing. She swatted his shoulder and went over to sit with Skatharos. Soon they were conversing amiably, and Selos felt free to play a game of Truths and Lies with some of the kids.
When he tired of the game, he reclined on the cushion pile and sighed happily. Ammisi came over and sat beside him.
“So, umm. I heard that you summited the hill today.”
“Yup.”
“You never went all the way up before, did you?”
“I was sorta saving it. For the right time.”
“Ah,” said Ammisi wistfully: “You’re leaving us soon, then.”
“Nope. Staying right here in Athens,” he said, being deliberately obtuse.
“You know what I mean. Kid’s Town.”
He said nothing and she sighed again.
“I think I’m gonna push myself,” she said. “I want to get done with Elementary Skolo, get into the world and start doing things.”
“You are free to do that. I never heard that you were an enthusiastic student, though.”
“Things change. Too many of my friends have left Kid’s Town, gone to Guilds or Skolae. I’ll be eleven in a year, I could get through the rest of the basics by then, and pick a vocation, at least a beginning one.”
“You think it’ll take a year?”
She grinned: “Maybe a little longer.”
He tipped his head to the side, indicating the spot where Nikkisi sat, now engaged in a cutthroat game of Miller with Skatharos. He said: “Keep an eye on Nikkisi, will you? She’s growing up fast now, she could use a smart and savvy older girlfriend.”
“I’m only two years older...”
“That’s a lot, at our age. She can be a little moody, you know? Like me.”
“She was with you during the Incursion, wasn’t she.” It was not a question.
“She was five, barely.” Selos nodded: “Like I said, smart and savvy.”
Ammisi was blushing a little. Selos thought about how hard it had been for him to learn how to accept such compliments. It amused him a little to see Ammisi struggling in the same way. He said: “Don’t tell her that I set you the task...”
“Of course not. I won’t be obvious about it. I’ll just be here for her, that’s all.”
He grinned at her: he didn’t even have to say ‘Smart and savvy’ again, she blushed even redder.
“People compliment you all the time, don’t they?” Ammisi was amused and also irritated: “I see it happen constantly, here in Kid’s Town. I expect it happens even more in Skolo and among the grownups you hang out with. You always seem so calm and cool about it, like it’s just your due. How do you do that?”
“It’s not easy,” he grinned: “Eleni said an Inkeeper once told her to accept such things ‘with grace and gratitude, and not with dismay’. That helped, because it made sense to me.”
“”Okay, I’ll think about that.”
They chatted for a while longer, then Selos caught Nikkisi’s eye: “You ready to head home? I have some writing to do.”
“No,” she replied blithely, “you go on without me. I will be home before suppertime.”
“Be sure to take the high road to the Gate, and go with a group. There is still a Viasmos on the loose.” He raised an eyebrow at Skatharos, who nodded ever so slightly. Then Selos rose, stretched, and took his leave, pleased with the day’s accomplishments.
no subject
Yes.