I hadn’t even thought of that, when Ghost showed up. That the Ddura would hunt her. I could tell Kaoren had, by the complete lack of surprise he showed when I woke him, and the faint hint of relief that I hadn’t had to watch my cat get slaughtered. I asked him why he hadn’t warned me, so I could have sent her back to Tare, but he pointed out that it was more a matter of warning Ghost, since they had little chance of preventing her from simply returning, even if they managed to get her to leave.
Kaoren and I wrangled over whether it was a good idea not to warn me about things I couldn’t do anything about (not an argument – we’ve managed not to properly argue with each other yet – we really don’t want to). Then I checked and found that Nils was awake, so opened a channel and explained what had happened, and asked if he could take Ghost back with him when Second returns to Tare. He said Of course. I think he was really worried about her – she’d been sleeping on his stomach, and woken him up in a total panic and then bolted off.
I made an attempt to reconcile Ghost and Kaoren, but she was very busy trying to hide in my armpit, and didn’t seem at all interested in forgiving him for levitating her. Before this morning, Ghost wouldn’t stay around at all when Kaoren is with me – she goes and rides around on Nils instead. She’s with him now, but she stuck with me obsessively while we were out and about today.
She also made morning smex a little impossible, so we went down and had an extra-early breakfast with Nils and went out into the chill to look at the patches of grass and plants poking through the snow. No flowers yet. Since the guests for the ridiculous party were due to start arriving from tomorrow, everyone else got up early too. Not all the prep work was finished today, either – they’ll be completing the last few buildings even as people start using the first ones.
Kaoren’s very good at making beds. He has a bright career in hotel service. It was really funny watching Sonn watch Kaoren make beds. Like she thought it would be beneath his dignity or something. Not that I didn’t get a big kick out of it myself, especially because he can’t help but figure out the most efficient way to distribute boxes of mattresses, pillows and linen from the entrance of the building so that we could make them with the least amount of tromping back and forth.
Next we went out to Moon Piazza to meet Maze and Ketzaren. Even though the day was turning out nice and warm, they had decided to clear the thicker drifts of snow off. The signing ceremony is going to be there, and they’ll be setting up the day after tomorrow.
Ketzaren enhanced and created this massive howling windstorm to push the loose snow together (using Telekinesis over such a vast space would be way too exhausting). Maze, Sonn, Kaoren and I sat with her on one of the curving tiers of the vertical garden walls and watched (well, I was theoretically assisting by enhancing). It’s really rare that Ketzaren uses her wind powers, because there’s only a few spaces where it’s useful and she produced a truly spectacular gale (which caught a few greensuits unawares) sending all the snow flurrying upward. We were out of the main force of the wind, but Ghost still hated it and hid inside my coat.
Maze went and melted the big piles Ketzaren had made, and did a tour about finding pockets which had been blown under benches while the rest of us wandered about looking at the fully revealed design. Lohn and Nils showed up (they’re really good friends and I can tell Lohn’s sorry that Second won’t be staying long), and they both teased me mercilessly about the sections of pavement which show my arrival at Pandora, and then the Setari around the platform and its unlocking. And also the massive battle, which surprised me. Then it moved to settlement and discovery images. I didn’t mind these images, because they’re pretty stylised and abstract, and could be any random girl really, but Lohn kept insisting that he really meant it that there was going to be a statue of me, and Maze finally confirmed that there was going to be some kind of group statue which would include me. He didn’t know the precise details – there’s supposed to be a grand unveiling on the day of the signing. It’s by one of Kolar’s most famous sculptors. I can live with it if it’s a group statue, I guess, but I’m still not very keen on the idea.
Looking like he found my reaction very funny, Maze suggested we break for lunch, but then another ship came in and he had to go help with the unloading first. Kaoren went to fetch lunch, while Sonn, Ketzaren, Lohn, Nils and I climbed back up onto the tiered garden and watched the greensuits, who had arrived to plant up the garden beds out on the piazza with alternating white and pink and blue flowers. Lohn said that they were the same plants which were coming up everywhere at Pandora, but from further south, where it was a little warmer.
Ghost got busy seducing Sonn, who couldn’t quite manage to not pet her, despite really wanting to be all proper about Ionoth. It occurred to her that the Ddura might hunt Ghost, and I explained what had happened that morning and how Nils was going to take her back to Tare. Kaoren came back with the food and we were unpacking it and having a really serious discussion about how strange it was to be protective of an Ionoth, when I felt some people take the elevator down from the top of the hill and follow the wall of the piazza.
Two girls, three guys, the black Setari uniform making them stand out against the whitestone paving. One of the guys was saying how big a waste of time it was to go running around blindly.
"I want to talk to her," said the girl who was tromping along out in front. Se-Ahn Surat, the actress who plays me in The Hidden War, trailed by the show’s lead actress, Lanset Kameer (Nori), and then the actors who play Faer, Lastier and Nori’s best friend (and the guy she should be in love with) Searns. All of us on the garden wall froze in a kind of amazed disbelief.
"So talk to her tomorrow, when you’re scheduled to meet her," said Eyle Sured (Faer). "You’ll delay the shoot running off."
"You and Lanset have all the first scenes," Se-Ahn replied. "And being at the same dinner with Caszandra and a hundred other people including the Rukmar of Performance Arts is not a conversation. The only way I’m ever going to get any idea what the wretched creature is like is to corner her somewhere."
"And how will you convince her to talk?" asked Teral Saith (Lastier). He, like Roak Larion (Searns), was lagging behind, distracted by the patterns in the paving. "She’s refused every interview request so far."
"I’ll think about that when I find her," Se-Ahn said, pausing to survey the long curve of buildings. "And given how painfully wrong your portrayal has been, I don’t see why you don’t want to do a little research yourself."
"A little late for me to strive for accuracy. I’d rather keep the character as consistent as I can after all the script-butchery." Teral (who fortunately looks less like Kaoren in real life) shrugged. "Besides, it’s perfectly possible for him to be an arrogant bastard and get the girl. She might suit him perfectly – I find it hard to believe Caszandra can be as improbably sweet and heroic as you’re playing her, at least."
"Either way you’re going to have to follow the script," Lanset Kameer pointed out, sounding annoyed and a little upset. "You think we’re not curious as well? Fifteen years we’ve been asking to meet the Setari, or at least tour the KOTIS facilities. Tomorrow we’ll finally be able to talk to some of them. Unless you get us banned from the site trailing aimlessly about. You don’t even know which direction to go."