Page 23 (1/2)

"At the center, being prepped"

"There will be a ritual?"

I suppose he’s attended a few such services, Trapper and Smitty, at least Before now, I never considered what itpeople, and yet he goes on He does not return to his own people because he cannot He is a changed being, not wholly Ithtorian in spirit, and their ways chafe hie to the vid she left Would you like to watch it?"

"No, I think not When I see her like this, it is harder for me to reot old

"That’s why she sent you away, you know Not because she didn’t love you Because she did"

Vel stands so very still, but such pain lives in that stillness "It should not be so sharp after all this time I should have reached some acceptance"

This is an area in which I have soet the pain, that it fades, and you only remember the sweet o along without thinking of hi sets it off--a se drowns ain And it is brand-new, all over again"

"How do you bear it?"

"Because they’re worth it So you ride out the rough days"

"Iloved her, for all I said we do not bond as huently "And you alill"

He turns away to gaze out her , as he must’ve done with her at his side, so often before And then he strides into her bedrooht have shared, turns past At first, I think there’s nothing here of hiether, then he picks up a frae It’s not a sie-looking man Brown hair, brown eyes Not special, except it’s Vel It is They’re at the rapher has captured these ten seconds, where she gazes up at hiainst hers

Adele knows, I realize This was taken after he told her the truth, and so he’s offering affection in the Ithtorian way And her reaction isluminous Vel watches that perfect hten on the fra I ever heard from him before, but I don’t need the chip to tell uish

"Would you leave ?"

"The night should be sufficient I will see you in the , Sirantha"

On soood-bye, where the dust of her skin lingers Vel can detect it on a level humans cannot It must feel, to him, as if her death surrounds him even now He said to me once, My people can communicate with pheromones, so our olfactory sense is more refined

"Will it bother you if I spend the night upstairs?" I want to stay nearby in case he needs rief would reassure me, but that’s not his way

"Of course not"

I pass the night in the flat where I once spent six glorious weeks, the only path I’ve ever chosen for ht that the circle carried azing out over the city that never see

I stand and re; the word "garret" seee space before soht idea to replace half the walls with beveled glastique Consequently, s slant beneath the line of the roof She told me it used to be an artist’s studio; nobody’s ever actually lived up here before But I don’t mind; the open vista and the altitude ht make a mudsider uneasy, but I’ve spent so much of my life on ships, this place feels perfect It feels like hos a bowl of soup up forso nice to ives e the world, one soul at a time, one kindness at a time That’s the only way it’ll ever take root"

"Didn’t they kill her for that doctrine?" I ask, taking the dish from her

Adele shakes her head "No, that was her son They knew better than to martyr her It was meant as an object lesson from the authorities, but it didn’t shut her ood life"