A girl down in the front row stood up then (this seems to be the Nuran equivalent of raising your hand) and when Serray looked at her, asked could they learn to be a Setari if they wanted to be. Serray (who doesn’t have quite the same gravitas as Inisar, but is still a commanding type of person) told her that it was not the current intention, and that Setari must begin their training at a very young age to truly attain that status.
The whole question of what a Setari really is and how inadequate the Taren and Kolaren version might be is something everyone’s danced around. Best I can tell, the Nurans approach the role of Setari from a spiritual viewpoint, and also start out with the focusing the connection to the Ena step which the Tarens and Kolarens skipped, and are now (so far without success) trying to relearn. The Nuran Setari don’t seem to think adults have much chance at all of learning how to do it.
The first part of talent school orientation was to divide the Nurans into age groups for their physical classes, and take them on a little tour of the facilities, and then they all had appointments for individual assessment.
Dividing into age groups was where we hit our sticking-point. Everyone was supposed to rearrange seats so that the youngest were in the first row, next oldest in the second, the third would be Ys and Rye’s age group, and the next the oldest of the kids and the adults. Sen latched on to Ys and Rye’s arms and wouldn’t go down and looked very much on the verge of a temper tantrum until Nils leaned over and whispered something in her ear. To my shock, after an uncertain look, she let go and obediently trotted down the stair.
As Ys and Rye followed, I asked Nils what he’d said, and he told me: "That she can’t protect them forever."
Sen plumped herself down in the front row and immediately turned around to watch, a miniature mother hen all fluffed up as Ys and Rye reluctantly moved forward.
Almost immediately a girl in their age group saw them and said loudly: "Lianzrenar, aren’t those servants from your house?"
I could only see the back of the head of the boy who turned to look at Ys and Rye, but I recognised him when he hunched his shoulders. It was the boy who’d been following Sen on the Litara.
"There are no servants here," he said, barely audible. I searched about for the woman he’d been with, but didn’t find her.
"Are they supposed to be exceptional talents?" the first girl asked. "Or are they in the wrong place?"
"Ys, Rye, mine," Sen said, in a loud, annoyed voice.
The boy called Lianzrenar mumbled an explanation I couldn’t properly hear and the (very annoying) girl who had started the fuss turned to Serray and the Taren pinksuit who was trying to clear up the confusion and said in an obnoxiously helpful voice: "They’re in the wrong place. Just servants set to watch Fiionarestel’s daughter, not family at all."
Of course, by this time I was down the stair, and dropped a hand on Ys and Rye’s shoulders. They were so tense, and had adopted "the pose": hands deceptively loose at their sides, eyes fixed on nothing. Posture designed for absolute neutrality, neither cowering nor aggressive. It made me so angry.
I could see the pinksuit didn’t need any explanations – I’m sure Ys and Rye’s files have big flags on them because of their connection to me. I looked at the annoying girl, reminding myself that the kid had just lost her entire planet, probably most if not all of her family, and had no doubt been raised to believe that people really could be just servants.
"Ys and Rye are here because they’re my wards," I said. "There’s no mistake."
The girl was disconcerted by this, but not ready to give up the fight, saying: "But–"
"You’re the person whose statue is in the parade ground," interrupted another girl, the one who had asked about becoming a Setari. The Nurans' ID trace injections will show name and location, and told me the second girl’s name was Karasayen, while annoying girl was Zelekodar. Karasayen seems remorselessly incisive, which wasn’t exactly convenient for me. I’ve no idea exactly where she stands in the Nuran hierarchy of importance, but she was pretty totally certain of herself.
"One of them," I agreed, resignedly. I’m liking that statue less and less.
"They say that it was you who saved us all, but I don’t see how."
"I saved Inisar. Inisar saved everyone else." Which is the most credit I’m going to accept for that whole situation.
"I’d heard Sentarestel was with the Setari, that her talents required special care," Karasayen continued. "And you’re taking on her servants as well, to keep her feeling secure? That’s very kind of you."
I shook my head, to stop myself from roaring at her for putting it that way. "No. I was simply very impressed by these three." I glanced down at the tops of Ys and Rye’s heads, well aware that they hadn’t relaxed at all at my arrival. "Practically alone of all who’ve come here, they had the intelligence to recognise the interface for the tool it is, and the courage to have it installed. I admire that a great deal." I looked back at the pinksuit, a woman named Truss Estey. "Sorry for the interruption."
"Not a problem." Estey took charge, telling everyone to sit down, and I gave Ys and Rye’s shoulders a squeeze and went back to my seat. I probably would have stayed the entire afternoon, watching anxiously, but Nils steered me out of the room soon after, since I had another of my apparently inescapable medical appointments.
Nils didn’t tease me, as I’d half-expected, but suggested I give the school a week to see how it goes, then left me to my blood tests.
There were no reports of upsets, and Ys and Rye seemed as usual when they returned. I’ve found Sen is a useful barometer of how the people around me are feeling, and her recovered chirpiness was a good sign, for all that Ys and Rye apparently wanted to not even be in the same room as me when they got back. They weren’t able to resist the next chapter of Caves of Nonora though.
And I told myself that by the time I finished writing up what has happened today Kaoren would be back, and I was wrong, and I can’t stand this. I’m going to ask if I can try visualising him.
Sunday, August 31
Overclocking
Maze and Tsur Selkie agreed to me attempting a visualisation, and the combined First and Second Squad and Tsur Selkie went out into near-space with me.
Nils tells me I’m going to have to start paying him babysitting, between the cats and the kids, but he was just teasing. Ys and Rye had at least gone to sleep – they’re sidestepping the bedtime Kaoren set them by getting up really early and ploughing through a thousand lessons before breakfast.
Visualising Kaoren was easy, though it took more energy than I was expecting. I’m not sure if that represented the number of spaces of distance, the size of the space he was in, or another factor. It was some kind of river valley, with high rocky walls, and so large both Fourth and Seventh were travelling together – it looked like they were in for a long tramp. Still whole, though, and I sagged with relief even as fake-Kaoren turned to Maze, more urgently intense than I’d ever seen him on mission.