Dutiful Passage
Colemeno Orbit
“May I bring you refreshment, Priscilla?” Shan asked.
“Please,” she said, and watched him cross to the buffet.
He brought two glasses of cold tea to the chair where she reclined, handed one to her and kept the other as he perched on the edge of the couch. With a wry smile, he lifted the glass in a toast.
“To a fortunate outcome.”
Priscilla raised her eyebrows.
“Is that wise,” she asked, “at this stage in the proceedings?”
“First, we must ask ourselves which proceedings,” Shan said sagely.
Priscilla frowned at the carpet for a long few seconds. Shan brought his glass to rest against his knee and waited, head tipped to one side. Something flickered against his Healer senses—a sensation he had felt before, when Priscilla was using her Long Sight. His breath caught, then. It was never wise to make light of Korval’s luck, and in the vicinity of Colemeno even less so.
“No,” Priscilla said finally, looking up and catching his gaze firmly. “I think it’s best not to be too particular.”
“I agree,” Shan said, “and I repent my attempt at humor.”
She smiled and raised her glass. Shan met it with his.
“To the very best of all possible outcomes,” she said, and Shan had the sense that the words had…weight.
“Are you,” he said carefully, “attempting to influence the Luck?”
Priscilla met his eyes. “Merely praying,” she said.
Shan took a careful breath. Priscilla was devout, once a priestess, and vessel, of a goddess, recently deceased. In her own parlance, she was a Witch, or, as they had it on Colemeno, a very strong multi-Talent.
“Who could object to prayer?” he asked lightly, and drank some of his tea before putting the glass down.
“How was your day?” Priscilla asked, by way, perhaps, of changing the subject.
“Not particularly arduous. The master trader has decided that he can ignore the Delm’s Word no longer, and will therefore be asking the captain to lay a course for Tinsori Light Station. There is remarkably little in the way of established trade routes between here and there—which we knew, of course. Much of the work was therefore researching routes that were in use before Rostov’s Dust arrived, obscuring everything in its path.”
“That actually sounds pleasant,” Priscilla said.
“There is something restful about poking around in records so old that they’re dusty themselves,” Shan admitted.
“Does the master trader intend to test a new route?”
Shan shook his head. “That had been the first notion—tradeships are, as you may have noticed, expensive to keep, and we’ve lost both potential opportunity and profit while we surveyed Colemeno. The work we’ve done here will eventually return both, but the operative word is eventually.”
“So, we’ll be going directly to Tinsori Light?”
“That seems prudent. The master trader has been directed by his delm to open a trade office there. Also, there’s Denobli’s idea that he and I and Administrator Carresens meet on-station to consult—which has worth. And I confess that I would like to observe Traveler’s Aid in practice.”
“That does sound like a direct route,” Priscilla said with a smile. “When do we leave?”
“As soon as all personnel have arrived and roles are sorted going forward,” Shan said. “No more than twelve ship days; possibly sooner.”
“That will please Danae,” Priscilla said. “She believes the crew is tired of leisure.”
“As who would not be?” Shan asked with an extravagant wave of his hand.
“Padi and Tekelia will be arriving—soon, then,” Priscilla murmured.
“Indeed.”
Priscilla took a breath, and had recourse to her glass.
“No, that won’t do,” Shan said. “What did you not say, just then?”
She shook her head, mouth wry.
“Can’t they just be friends?”
“If they were only friends, the thodelm would not have concerned himself,” Shan said. As his lifemate, Priscilla shared the burden of clan administration that fell to Thodelm yos’Galan, though she rarely involved herself in those duties. Her position was that Shan had long ago achieved a working understanding with the thodelm. She stood ready as backup, and as sounding board, but left policy to him.
That she involved herself now, in this matter, was—notable. Shan sipped his tea and reviewed the thodelm’s necessities once more.
“One’s friends are not the proper concern of the thodelm,” he said. “Unless, of course, one’s friends lead one into error.”
“We haven’t seen that Tekelia has led Padi into error,” Priscilla pointed out. “In fact, Tekelia did what we couldn’t. Padi now accepts her Gift, and she’s eager to learn more.”
“Tekelia was able to show her unlimited power.”
“Tekelia,” Priscilla said, her voice so stern that Shan looked at her in surprise, “was able to show her joy in a Gift she had previously understood only as a burden.”
She paused, then asked, still stern.
“Will you separate them?”
Shan considered her with interest. “I look forward to learning how you think I would enforce that.”
“Honor would enforce it,” Priscilla said, piously. “Honor and obedience to the thodelm.”
“Ah. While I am the first to acknowledge that Padi is a woman of honor,” Shan said, “I must also note, as her fond parent, that she is not a dolt.”
Priscilla laughed. “All right then, what can you—what can the thodelm—do? She’s of age; the heart-tie is strong, even if it’s not a lifemating—”
“The single point on which all of us agree,” Shan murmured, and Priscilla laughed again.
“It’s a start.”
“So it is. If I were clever, I would find some way to build from it. Well. Leaving the thodelm entirely aside, and standing as a mere parent, I will tell you that I fear Padi might be in a scrape. Yes, she’s of age, but she’s young—more naive than she might otherwise be, all thanks to the Department of the Interior. Instead of going about the world, roistering with one’s friends, falling into and out of adventures, learning who were true companions, and who were simply out for their own advantage, she was hidden away with her clanmates, living isolated, and in fear of her life, not to mention what she might have been required to do in order to preserve it.”
He took a hard breath. Priscilla extended a hand and he gratefully laced his fingers with hers.
“In short, Padi had not found a like-minded companion until now—on Colemeno, with its vexed ambient—and Tekelia vesterGranz.”
“If,” Priscilla said softly into the silence that followed this, “Thodelm yos’Galan wishes to assign Balance correctly, he might find that Tekelia is owed.”
“Yes!” Shan said, leaning forward. “That is precisely why Thodelm yos’Galan must be involved, dreadful bore that he is. Tekelia has acted in a manner that benefits—that materially benefits—yos’Galan. There is very little doubt that Tekelia is owed, and the thodelm has no desire to stint the payment. Unfortunately, it appears that the matter is more complicated than that.”
“Because of the heart-link,” Priscilla murmured.
“It is a profound attachment: a bond so strong you needed to examine it closely to determine that it was not a lifemate link. And that is where Thodelm yos’Galan comes into the matter.”
Priscilla’s eyebrows rose.
“I see. Thodelm yos’Galan needs to know if the link makes Tekelia kin.”
“He needs to know precisely that, and, once he is satisfied, he will need to tell the delm what call Tekelia vesterGranz has upon Clan Korval. What protections are we obligated to extend? In what circumstances and to what degree can Tekelia be understood to be speaking for Padi, and through her, for yos’Galan and Korval? Shall we dock a ship here, for Tekelia’s use?”
Priscilla took a breath, and he felt a sweet draft of calmness flow through him.
“You’ll figure something out,” she said.
“Your faith in me, Priscilla, is humbling.”
She laughed.
“And Padi?” she asked.
Shan moved his shoulders. “Clearly, Padi is—attached. I don’t wish to hurt her. Especially, I don’t want her angry with me.”
“I can see that must be a frightening prospect.”
“Absolutely terrifying, even in the normal way of things. As matters stand now, with our departure so soon…”
“I see,” Priscilla said gently. “Best not to part on a quarrel.”
“Yes.”
He finished his tea and smiled at her.
“Let us have another topic. What did Keriana have to say to you today?”
Priscilla sighed. “She hasn’t changed her mind. I’m to stay on the Passage, where I’m likely to be under less stress than I would experience on Colemeno, until our child is born.”
Shan said nothing. Priscilla leaned over to touch his hand.
“It troubles you. I’m in no danger—even Keriana admits that! It’s only that this is my first child, and our medic, who is intimately familiar with me, wants me under her care, rather than the care of a medic chance-met, as it were, on Colemeno. It seems best to humor her in this, unless the master trader—”
“The master trader knows far better than to contend with a medic on the topic of her patient’s health.” Shan said. “The master trader is also required to descend to Colemeno, which means—” He turned to look at her. “Our child may be born while I’m gone.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll be sure to introduce you to her when you return,” Priscilla said tranquilly.
Shan took a careful breath.
“Your lifemate would not leave you without support, love.”
Priscilla laughed, and put her hand on his knee.
“My lifemate has provided first-rate support! Unless you doubt Lina and Keriana?”
“Of course not, but—”
“But you would rather be present, so we can welcome our child together. I understand. Depending on her timing, it may be that you can be present.”
Shan raised an eyebrow. “Teleportation?”
“I don’t think even Padi can manage the distance from the surface to orbit. No, I only meant that we are lifemates. Of course, you’ll be present.”
He blinked.
“Priscilla.”
“Yes?”
“I’m a fool.”
“I’d say distracted,” Priscilla said, as one giving due consideration.
“Hardly the frame of mind one might look for in a master trader hovering on the edge of success.”
“Or failure,” Priscilla said. “After all, Colemeno might decide that it doesn’t wish to be a trade hub after all.”
Shan laughed.
“Everything that is supportive!” He took her hand. “Will you sleep with me tonight, Priscilla?”
“That sounds pleasant,” she answered.