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Or even noticed

“In Greece,” Orion continues as if nothing’s different, “the best weaver in their history was a woods were jealous, and they turned her into a spider so she could only weave webs ” My eyes drift down Orion’s neck, to the spiderweb scar behind his left ear He noticeshi his hand

“And what?” Bartie asks “You want us to write a report on her, or whatever god matches our skills?”

“ No, ” Orion says eagerly “I want you to create If, for example, you chose Arachne, then I want you to weave her story into a tapestry ”

I can see thewashes over each of our faces—he wants us to rin spreads over Harley’s face Luthorup with ideas of what he’d like to do already Even Victria looks ecstatic

Godspeed isn’t Greece: No matter what Orion says, it doesn’t feel as if art is very much valued here Doc has had us re

search art, sure, but never really experiment with it He was much more focused on what our art could do for the ship, hoe could turn it into so useful

I catch Bartie’s eye Doc has never been able to give us assignments that use our talents He could have Luthor , or Harley can draw architectural plans instead of painting, but there wasn’t much he could do with Bartie’s skill with instru voice

“Your assignment,” Orion repeats, “is to research artand then make some ”

It is a delicious challenge

4

“This is brilly,” Harley says as we sit in a circle on the floor in the entryway of the Recorder Hall We each have our own personal floppies, each flashing with ies from ancient Greece Orion ventured further into the Recorder Hall with proh says She’s so excited she’s forgotten that she wants to be aloof in front of Harley “I can’t believe he’s encouraging us to do art! ”

Harley lights up at the joy in Kayleigh’s voice “What are you going to research?” he asks, leaning closer to Kayleigh while she lets him “I think you could be Poseidon ” He holds his floppy out to her

Kayleigh scans the inforod ” It seems ridiculous that the Greeks actually worshipped these people, thinking they had any kind of real power Silly Sol-Earth fairytales and religions

“Ew,” Kayleigh tosses the floppy back to Harley “This man is half-naked ”