Maze and Par chose this moment to fly past in the distance toting a couple of big cargo containers. All five actors fell silent to watch them drop down out of sight well to the south-east.
"You’d never get there and back in time," Roak Larion said. "Not walking."
Lohn, by this point, was close to swallowing his own hand trying to restrain himself. Sonn had gone all tight-lipped and was looking daggers at Teral. Nils and Ketzaren were leaning against each other shaking with silent laughter. Kaoren had almost shut his eyes, which he does when he’s angry, or when he’s very pleased with something.
Since it takes a hell of a lot more than comments from actors to get him angry, and because I was feeling a bit sorry for Lanset Kameer, I called down: "They won’t stay very long at the warehouse. They’d be gone before you got there."
The frozen disbelief this produced was enough to send Lohn rolling. Kaoren brushed his fingers against mine, then lifted all five of them up to the metre-thick wall. That was a bit of a challenge for him – he can use Levitation and Telekinesis at the same time, and enhanced can lift up to four hundred kilos with each, but five separate objects at the same time is difficult for his strength level.
"Not improbably sweet," Kaoren said. "I won’t try to gauge the level of bastardry. Sit down."
Instant obedience. Kaoren’s such a captain, even when he’s indulging his sense of humour. But these were very famous actors, and recovered quickly enough, and there were introductions and questions, some of which we answered. Maze came back, and was rather resigned about it all, but very nice as he always is. Lohn and Nils were extra-charming and held off on the teasing, and even Sonn unbent a little. Ketzaren took them away after lunch, and Kaoren, Sonn and I went back to making beds and, as Kaoren pointed out, would now hopefully not have to worry about avoiding being cornered anywhere. Except for the several thousand other people who might try the same thing.
Avoiding Fifth Squad is another issue. It’s not that they’re being rude or hostile or sneering or anything – not with Maze around and Tsur Selkie prone to turning up unexpectedly – but I don’t feel like sitting around the common room chatting when any of them are there. Not that that’s really a problem, since Kaoren and I enjoy a lot of private time.
The actors were okay people, but I’m really not looking forward to the next couple of days.
Tuesday, August 19
All Eyes
Finally over with.
It’s been three days of breakfast with group one, tour with group two, lunch with group three, meeting with group four, dinner with group five. Too many names and faces and endless questions to politely squirm out of answering fully. Two mini-concerts and some talks given by the scholarly types on the discoveries which had been made. The concerts and talks were a bit of a relief, because no-one was asking me questions during them. And yesterday afternoon the signing ceremony, and the unveiling of the statue, and endless speeches and announcements about Muina’s future, and then an afternoon banquet (they couldn’t have it at night because there’s no prepared rooms big enough for that many people, and the temperature is still dropping too drastically at sunset for an outdoor meal). Then, I’m told, there were bunches of alcohol-fuelled after-parties and a hell of a lot of networking and deal-making and discussion because after all how often do so many important people get together?
Kaoren was with me almost all the time, with Maze, Zee or Zan providing secondary back-up. I’d been wondering if someone would show up with a dress and tell me to wear it, but fortunately we didn’t have to fuss about clothing and could just wear our uniforms, even for the party. Black goes with everything, after all. I would have liked to have seen Kaoren in those strange Taren formal outfits though.
I hardly remember most of what was said to me, and have been reviewing a few of my answers in my log. Scads of VIPs who wanted to know how much of The Hidden War was true (my stock answer was that the events were for the most part correct if a little out of order, but the people were very different), and who wanted more details about this or that or the other part of my adventures. Bunches of VIPs who had questions about Earth. More than a few VIPs who wanted to know very personal things. Three or four VIPs (or, mostly, their adult children) who made almost openly suggestive comments even with Kaoren there and looking at them in his most unimpressed way.
Only a few parts stand out for me. The Rukmar of Performing Arts was this very funny little man, all mischief and delight, and totally wanted to know everything about Earth musical instruments. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention, but of course the episodes of Planet Earth which I’ve been subtitling have been transmitted back to Tare and Kolar – I’m practically a cottage film industry. The Rukmar didn’t care so much about all the animals, as the music played in the background, and wanted to know the names of all the instruments and styles of music used. He adores the violins – the Tarens and Kolarens do have an instrument which involves strings and a bow, but it’s this tall, kind of wibbly-sounding instrument which sounds totally different.
Since that was at dinner, and I could go to bed after, I made a projection of an orchestra for him, showing people using the usual sorts of instruments, and then did a projection of the instrumental version of Eleanor Rigby for him. He was just skipping with delight, and was a lot of fun to talk to.
Ghost caused a bit of a fuss, since so many people arriving meant the Ddura kept turning up and so she wouldn’t let me out of her sight. Lots of strong reactions from people, but mostly positive, even though she’s an Ionoth. She is terribly cute. One of the Rukmars had brought her kids along (a pair of twins around ten years old), and they positively stalked me because not only was Ghost a very appealing cat, she was one which kept turning invisible.
I sat between Isten Notra and Kaoren for all the formal speech-making and watching of the signing, and Isten Notra told me on a private channel how they’d decided on a paper signing for the Kolarens' benefit, even though many of the Tarens had had to then learn how to physically sign something. Isten Notra made the whole ceremony easier to get through.
There was one speech – one of the elected leaders of Kolar’s southern pole talking about how she’d grown up believing that the people who had fled Muina had a shameful past, that there was little to gain in constantly looking back. It was only when she’d seen the projection of the ritual at Kalasa that she’d felt that there was more to the story than overweening pride and death, that there was something to be embraced. She had tears in her eyes. So did Isten Notra, who patted my hand. A lot of the speeches were pretty mortifying for me, but at least they let me stay sitting down.
The statue, which arrived the day before yesterday, wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It was basically a huge white column with a slanted top (more moonbeam imagery) made out of some kind of quartzy rock growing out of a base of dusty-looking grey stone which kind of made you want to stroke it. There was a hazy outline of a figure inside the column, tall and androgynous and meant to be Muina. Sitting at the base of the column was me, in slightly darker dusty grey. Someone had obviously given the sculptor an extract of the mission report from my retrieval, because it was the exact image of me from Sonn’s log – sitting wide-eyed, ill and alone on a rock, my school bag held against my legs, my uniform looking worn and tattered. Standing to my right, though, were Kaoren and Sonn, again in darker stone: incredibly cold and professional and upright. And to my left were Shaf and Nalaz from Kolar’s first squad – Nalaz was gazing all far-eyed into the distance, but Shaf was looking down at me with the faintest hint of a smile. Bit of a Kolaren bias there. Still, not being the only one represented makes the statue relatively tolerable for me. Especially because Kaoren looks particularly gorgeous.