THREE HUNDRED FIVE

An Eager Arm and Angry Noodles

From a flyer that hovered high above the only honey locust tree in Rapport III, Alden watched dawn change the sky.

Sunrises sometimes made him think of Neha. Her goal of seeing as many on Earth as she would have during an average human life seemed to be something that was going to stick in his memory for a long time.

I should keep a record of all the ones I watch and where. Just for myself. A knight must get to see morning come on a lot of different planets.

It was still January. Not too late to call it a New Years resolution. Creating the list with his interface only took a minute.

Beside him, Stuart was musing aloud about what he was reading on his eyerings. He should have been back at LeafSong by now, asleep, but Alden liked having him around too much to point it out again.

He was accessing information about enchantments, looking for some Alden could cast on a piece of honey locust. The thorns they’d collected lay in a spiky heap on the seat across from them. Their plan to take just a couple had changed because they’d come up with too many uses for such exceptional, symbolic, sharp things.

Alden wanted to keep one just as it was, enchant another, and have a third made into something wearable. The driftwood brooch that indicated he was a traveler in search of rest wouldn’t be the best message for most of his future on the Triplanets. Stuart wanted one thorn for safekeeping on his person and one to be left in a drawer in the supply library along with several of the seed pods.

He’d also said it would be nice if one could be kept with his trove of patient creatures in the siblinghold’s stream. Then he’d said that a stream really wasn’t the best place for a thorn. Then he’d said that he knew of ways to waterproof it that weren’t disrespectful.

He’d been talking to himself about it like it was a difficult decision, but Alden was almost certain the patient creatures would be getting company from Earth.

He picked up one of the thorns himself and spun it slowly to admire it from different angles. It was a big one, with six sharp points that couldn’t hurt his hands while he had on the protective rings. The sky behind it was a deep gold.

“This will work,” Stuart said. He’d found something he approved of enough to start writing instructions for it on Alden’s tablet. “Enchanting’s time consuming, though.”

“You keep warning me. I should try it at least some, shouldn’t I? It might give me insight when it comes to pulling enchantments with my skill.”

“Every aspect of yourself is worthy of your attention. If you want to enchant, you should. Maybe you’ll like it. It can be a meditative process for some wizards, and having pieces you’ve enchanted personally is satisfying.”

He showed Alden one of his hand-warming rings.

“I’m giving you a starter spell for Burrow of the Raintail, as well. If you try it and don’t like it, that’s fine. There are other masterpiece spells that will suit you.”

“I’d give you helpful homework, too, if I had any idea how to,” Alden said.

“After first binding, you’ll help me learn English.”

“It’s on my schedule for whenever you’re ready.”

Stuart paused for a beat. “Even when I can’t cast, I should still be able to observe the effects your skill has on enchantments well enough. I could learn from that observation. It will benefit my own wizardry.”

Alden put the thorn back with the others. “That’s something you want to do?”

“If you don’t mind. It would be like the training you’re doing with the ingredients I gave you, but more advanced. Trying to sense what aspects of different enchantments are damaged or altered by being moved to new objects would be interesting. And useful.”

Alden wished Stuart came with a countdown floating over his head. One that showed x-number of days until first binding. A dial that indicated his confidence levels wouldn’t be bad to have either.

But this didn’t work like that for either of them.

I found my own answers when I found them. If there was some way to do it faster or better, I don’t know what it was.

“I’ll look forward to breaking all kinds of enchantments when the time comes, then. Maybe I’ll even learn how to move a few without damaging them. You pick out the things you want me to use as test subjects.”

“We should be able to learn much from fewer than a hundred objects if I choose them carefully,” said Stuart. “Actually, may I closely observe you as you remove the enchantment from one of your temper spheres?”

“Right now?” Alden was already picking up his bag. He had a sphere with him.

“If I understand how much it strains your authority, I’ll be able to select more appropriate practice objects.”

“If we’re going to be going through a hundred of those practice objects in only a few days, I’m really glad you’re in charge of them. I felt like I was spending a lot on my education just buying some temper spheres and mover discs.”

“Those are fine to start with. You practice on several of those each day?”

“Several a day?” Alden knew he shouldn’t be shocked by the assumption, but the surprise hit him before his thoughts caught up.

“You can’t do that many? I didn’t think moving the enchantments on the spheres was that hard for you.”

“It’s not. I could do several a day. But I’ve mostly been practicing on the spheres that have survived a few harsh experiences in gym. Having their enchantments stolen is their reward for a life well-lived.”

“How many have you practiced on?” Stuart asked the question like a teacher who knew his pupil’s answer was going to be the wrong one.

“I’ll do more from now on. They’re expensive, but I do have money.”

“They can’t be more expensive than all those meals I watched you eat when you were in intake.”

“Natalie’s meal preparation service? The temper spheres are more expensive. Or they were. She managed to get a lot of jobs over the holiday break, so I think she’ll start charging more.”

“She’s not being paid her work’s worth!” Stuart said, outraged. “The food you’ve shared with me should have cost more than a temper sphere!”

“I personally agree. She does charge a lot for a meal service, but since she’s so good at it and it’s magic—”

“That sort of dining experience is supposed to cost a lot. I can’t believe you’ve been eating her food for less than the price of a disposable pest control ingredient!”

It sounds terrible when he says it like that, but the disposable pest control ingredients are six hundred dollars each. What kind of pests do they have to deal with in Jatonta anyway?

“She was charging other people the same amount. I was just her most frequent customer. If you want to help me help her, she’s given me a list of Artonan food she wants me to bring her sometime. Could we order it or go to a manybaskets together? Maybe after Eeaner-ket’s party.”

That way he could tell her to count on it, and she’d have a whole weekend to play with fresh ingredients.

“We will do that. And I’ll get you plenty of temper spheres.”

“I can buy them.”

“Ten a day perhaps?”

“You can buy them.”

Alden pulled out the glass orb. He removed and replaced the enchantments on it a few times, describing the network of light his skill let him see and feel while Stuart sensed the process in his own way.

Then they moved on to different variations of the experiment.

It didn’t feel intrusive at all to have Stuart “closely observing” with his authority. They’d been practicing existential closeness ever since he’d arrived, the degree changing only slightly depending on whatever else they were doing.

It’s so cozy and unlonely. Stable and easy.

“I’m glad nothing has managed to kill me yet. There are so many cool experiences I never even guessed might exist.”

Stuart was startled by Alden blurting that out of the blue. He looked up from examining the temper sphere. Its enchantments were badly damaged from all the interference, especially from a brief transfer to the ball of crumpled paper that was currently perched on top of their thorn pile.

“I can have a new temper sphere delivered to us right now if this practice is that exciting for you,” he said. “Do you want one?”

Alden laughed. “No. I can play with spheres later. While in Rapport III, I should probably do things that are only easy to do here.”

He could take in the view from every direction through the clear, curved walls of their vehicle. Another flyer was coming in at an angle to land not far from his honey locust. Gardeners or people in need of supplies, he imagined, getting their day started.

“What do knights and votaries our age do other than school and fighting chaos?”

“Those two activities take much time. Especially if you include training.” Stuart frowned a little. “I’m not sure what I’ll do in the future if I’m not studying, away, or socializing with people I care for. As a knight, I will enjoy being able to go to more skill display meetings.”

“Is that other knights showing off their skills?”

“Yes. The seasonal displays are meant to be entertainment for everyone in the Rapports, but I like the small ones more. Knights meet to observe each other’s progress and discuss the nature of their skills together. Declared can go to some of them if they’re considering the skills for themselves. I attended a few in the last couple of years, but Father took me to a lot of meetings when I was younger. They’re not for children, but he likes going to them, and he preferred not to leave me.”

“Are the small ones like book clubs?” asked Alden.

“How would they be like book clubs?”

“Groups meeting to discuss one topic. Snacks. Mostly calm. Maybe some mild arguments over the nuances of magic and smart people referring to things they’ve read about theory.”

“They are like that.”

“Yes.”

Stuart tilted his head but didn’t comment on the amount of enthusiasm in Alden’s yes.

“Many knights also enjoy participating in competitions against each other,” he said. “Events take place in every Rapport, but especially this one. Observing hunt or duel might be something you could do even today. If someone puts it on the local tellingbush, then they don’t mind people showing up. Or maybe…”

He mentioned several more possibilities, but after a few minutes, they just told the flyer to take them to Esh-erdi’s house so that they could show him Alden’s tattoo choice and see what he was doing.

“This is it,” said Alden as they got a clear view of a line of small brown houses that faced the river. Each was connected to its neighbor by either a shared room or covered walkway. The roofs extended forward over the fronts like the bills of baseball caps, sheltering balconies.

Despite being two stories tall, the houses weren’t much larger than the streamview cottage at the siblinghold.

“For some reason, I assumed he’d live in a big place,” said Alden. “But he said his is that one on the end. His sister lives in the one beside it.”

As he said it, the balcony door opened on the second house, and two little girls came outside. They immediately started arguing with each other over who got to hold a silver, oval-shaped object that seemed to have been waiting on the balcony for them. It was impossible to hear them from the flyer, but their body language made it clear that the object was desirable and that your sister getting it instead of you was very unfair.

Alden watched them curiously as the flyer dropped to put him and Stuart out on the dock in front of the houses.

“Those are Esh-erdi’s nieces,” he said, gathering his belongings. “I don’t know what they’re doing.”

“They each want to be the one who gets to bring in their first meal,” said Stuart, adjusting his LeafSong uniform before stepping out onto the dock.

“Bring it in?” Alden asked, following him.

A splash drew his attention. He looked toward the middle of the river and saw something like a clear garbage bag full of angry yellow worms rising above the surface.

“Is that thing dangerous?”

“Are you being funny?”

“It’s coming toward us.”

“No, it’s going to…ah, it is coming toward us.”

The worm bag suddenly accelerated, and Alden flattened himself to the dock. Merely ducking didn’t seem sufficient. The thing or things in the bag were writhing like they planned to burst out of it and burrow into the first soft flesh they encountered. He saw bulbous parts like eyes in too many places as the creepy bundle zoomed through the air where his head had been. It headed toward the houses, stopped, then came back to circle him, shedding drops of river water.

Childish shouts of excitement let him know who was responsible.

Stuart, clearly unconcerned about the risk of getting hit with whatever the situation in the bag was, looked down at Alden, a smile spreading across his face.

<<Oopsie-oopsie,>> he said. “How will you intimidate anything if one harmless crosswater animal makes you fall to your stomach? Shall I fan it with my fan to protect you?”

That’s a crosswater? They called those crosswater things in the pot at the siblinghold noodles.

“I was just demonstrating my reflexes.” Alden sprang to his feet and leaned back to smoothly dodge the river-dweller as it flew around in what must be a fish trap controlled by the silver oval. “I didn’t even chirp.”

“Can you chirp?”

“Wow! Look who thinks he’s good at being funny-mean all of a sudden. I give you pieces of my birth tree, and this is what I get in return?”

Alden shook his head and started toward the houses. A rivulet of water, dropped by the trap, trickled down the side of his face.

Fortunately, Brim had decided to take a closer look at the crime against pasta. The trap and its passenger headed up to the balcony, where she stood holding the remote while Droon waved at Alden with both hands. He waved back.

It’s an interesting morning. And there’s a breeze…kind of a strong breeze. On the back of my neck.

He looked around. An elegant casting fan was flapping at him with what had to be an improper amount of gusto.

“I’m fanning your feelings of competence,” said the Primary’s son. “Do not be afraid of crosswater noodles.”

******

A few steps before they reached Esh-erdi’s arched front door, Alden stopped Stuart with a hand. “Wait. I forgot. Aren’t we…?”

“What?” Stuart asked.

Alden felt the weight of the privacy ring on his hand. “Noticeable.”

He withdrew from the closeness. Just a little to make his point clear.

Stuart blinked. He turned his back to the line of houses. “I forgot too. It should be fine. But if someone…”

[Authority greets you?] Alden suggested by text message.

Stuart nodded. “It should be fine even then if they’re being normal. But although Hn’tyon Lind-otta will surely be polite, she’s like me. Sensitive.”

Stuart withdrew a little too. His lips pressed together. His brows lowered.

Some dissatisfaction. Some unhappiness.

“I’m—”

“Not sorry I hope,” said Alden. “You were right when you said we’re not ready. And we’ve agreed that neither of us are idiots. If we need space from other people to say whatever we like, we’ll just call another flyer. It works for now.”

“For now.” Stuart said it like it was a promise.

Alden saw the door opening over his shoulder. Esh-erdi was standing there in a long robe.

“An art’h in our Rapport?” he said loudly. “Hide the bundlefruit and tell anyone who’s loved by the vines to run!”

“What does that mean?” Stuart asked. “Alden, why are you laughing?”

******

******

The erdis had been hustling and bustling before Alden and Stuart arrived. Their presence didn’t make things any calmer, since the twins were excited about them, but Alden didn’t think their arrival had caused problems either.      This was just a busy place in the mornings.

Homes can work in lots of different ways, can’t they? he thought, cleaning Esh-erdi’s wevvi cups so that Stuart could fill them up again.

The wevvi prep area was on one side of the room that connected Esh-erdi’s house to the next. Alden stood beside a round window, dipping the cups into a basin that he wanted to look at the enchantments on one day when he knew enough to understand what was happening. The basin was clamshell-shaped, possibly made of an actual shell, and it held a pool of water that cleaned things.

A dirty wevvi cup went in. A clean, wet wevvi cup came out. The water never got murky or spilled over the rim of the shell no matter how many dishes went in at once.

Does it have to be trained on these specific dishes so that it doesn’t dissolve them along with the mess? What keeps it from peeling off my skin to make my bones cleaner?

Stuart was at his back, preparing what would be the last boiler full of ceremonial wevvi unless some of the votaries talked themselves into ordering another fruit in honor of Esh-erdi and Lind-otta being here.

Alden could hear Lind-otta chatting with someone in Esh-erdi’s house right now. A different set of voices came from his sister’s place. Her house connected to the one where Brim and Droon’s father lived, and his was only a few steps away from a friend’s. The rule in the community was that an open door meant all were welcome, and the doors to most people’s main rooms were open at this time of day.

The girls, who were surprised that anyone in the universe might not be familiar with this arrangement, had demonstrated for Alden and Stuart how they could run “but not too fast” through four open houses, go outside around a closed fifth whose resident wasn’t up yet, and then continue on through several more.

So the cottage-sized houses became more like one large house, and adults flowed through just like Brim and Droon, minus the running.

“Cups,” said Alden, as he set the last clean cup on the drying shelf.

“I entrust you with all of them,” said Stuart.

Alden looped his fingers through handles and dried the cups with his skill instead of using the shelf’s features. He’d wanted to clean them that way, too, but the basin was hard to compete with.

He caught Stuart yawning as he turned to set the cups on the counter by the boiler. He was beginning to feel tired himself. It was night according to his internal clock and late night according to Stuart’s.

After being given the tour by the twins, they’d both gone to say hello to Lind-otta. She’d been drinking wevvi, and Alden had mentioned that Stuart made the best he’d ever had. That had rapidly turned into all the Artonans present debating wevvi technique, and the next thing Alden knew they’d ended up on drink duty.

It had worked out. Stuart’s wevvi really was good, and he was proud to share it with people. A sophisticated example of a “silken thin cup” according to one man who’d pulled a chair closer to the wevvi prep area specifically to talk to Stuart while he brewed it.

[Alden: I dare you to dip bread in it when that wevvi connoisseur comes back.]

“You just made me drop an extra teb grain in the spice blend!”

[Alden: Add bread. That’ll fix it.]

It was beginning to quiet down. Fewer people passed through. Brim and Droon had been sent off to lessons, and a lot of wizards seemed to have gone to their work. The crosswater animal had long since been dispatched and turned into noodles. One waited on the edge of the drying shelf, coiled in a bowl so that Stuart could have it later.

Alden hadn’t seen Esh-erdi since the knight had installed them here with the boiler and basin, and he’d begun to wonder if maybe Esh-erdi was the only one around who didn’t like Stuart’s take on the drink.

But he appeared as if he knew exactly when the last three cups were left, coming in from his sister’s house and closing the door behind him.

“Usually the host serves,” he said, taking one. “But you’re not really guests. Alden wants to make himself at home among the Rapports. And Stu-art’h must be here to frighten weaker wizards and take the fruits of our land across the ocean to his snow-blooded people.”

“It’s been a very long time since any art’h did anything of the sort,” Stuart said. “I’m not sure your history is even correct. I haven’t read anything about that specific incident in ours. I’ll check when I get home.”

Esh-erdi sipped his drink. “I look forward to hearing what you discover! Your wevvi is very good.”

“Thank you.”

“Alden, have a cup if you like. Show me our new tattoo.”

Alden sent him the design he’d chosen for the Matadero contract. Three waves that partially obscured a square. It was about the cube, but it reminded him of being saved from the wave by the two knights. He thought he’d want to keep the mark even after the contract was no longer active.

“Upper right arm,” he added after Esh-erdi asked where he was planning to put it. “Right here. The Contract can show you.”

“I like it,” said Esh-erdi. “How do you want to do it?”

Alden had been thinking about this all night. “I want to ask a lot of specific questions about how you understand my obligations, even though the terms are so simple. And I don’t think I need to be drugged or have a professional involved unless you want one. Can Stu help?”

“If he naps first,” said Esh-erdi.

Stuart swallowed a bite of the crosswater noodle. “I probably should sleep a little if you want me to help. I’ll need to concentrate. Is the standard tracing spell fine to steady my hand?”

“It’s fine,” said Esh-erdi.

“It’s fine with me,” said Alden. “Not that I know the difference between a standard tracing spell and any other kind of tracing spell.”

He’d almost expected Stuart to protest that he wasn’t qualified, but he didn’t even seem surprised to be asked.

Hey, there, he thought toward the gremlin. We’re going to do a thing in a few hours. I’m going to agree to some promises wholeheartedly, and you’re going to pay attention to how agreeable I am. Don’t make this weird.

******

The main room of Esh-erdi’s house was low-ceilinged. Legless tan sofas, rounded and soft-looking, faced each other. End tables made of stone hovered beside them. An intricate lattice separated the room from the house’s entryway, where Alden and Stuart had left their shoes. The walls were painted with murals of historical river scenes in muted colors.

Other than those decorative details, it was all simple and immaculately clean.

Alden knew Esh-erdi and Lind-otta were buying a ton of souvenirs on Earth. And Esh-erdi seemed like the one likely to be responsible for the bulk of the purchases. But if he did own as many curios as Alden thought he must, they weren’t down here.

Maybe upstairs is cluttered, or he keeps a lot in Lind-otta’s house.

“Two,” said Esh-erdi, motioning toward his sofas. “One for each of you. They’re good for sleeping. I’ve done it many times. I’ll be around if you need me.”

He left through the front door.

“Are you too hot to rest here?” Stuart asked, sitting on the middle of one of the sofas.

“I might have a little trouble, but it’s not too bad.”

Stuart took out the case that said “humans” and passed Alden an inhaler like the one he’d used on the Here-to-There. “You’ll need something better than this eventually.”

Alden took it and inhaled before sitting on his own sofa. It sank beneath his weight.

“Did you hear Droon describing me to people as someone who still has his navel? What kind of first impression is that?”

Stuart chortled.

They both laid down.

“He said that crack in the wall by the front door was the first thing he ever did with his skill,” Stuart said after a minute.

“I heard.” It was just a large crack, noteworthy only because nothing else in the house was broken.

“Do you think it felt like enough to him? On that day?”

“We’d have to ask him,” said Alden. “It was the start of what he is now. So in hindsight, it was enough.”

“That’s true.”

He waited so long for another word that eventually the waiting turned into sleep.

When he opened his eyes hours later, Stuart was already awake, practicing the tattoo on his own forearm with an ink brush. “Esh-erdi and Lind-otta came in a little while ago,” he said. “They’re in the next room. Are you ready?”

“My arm is eager.”

“That’s good to hear!” said Esh-erdi, poking his head through the door. “What were those specific questions you wanted to ask?”

Alden got into it right away, even asking things he suspected made him sound crazy, like, “If Earth loses all contact with the Triplanets, would you still feel like I should keep the location of Matadero’s flood traps a secret?” And, “If I’m a hundred percent sure that telling people where the bathrooms are would save my life, can I?”

Esh-erdi answered promptly, but Stuart was giving him strange looks.

“I’m just trying to make sure any cross-cultural misunderstandings are found before we get started,” said Alden. “There don’t seem to be any.”

He still had a little anxiety about the gremlin, even as Stuart touched the tip of the brush to his skin and began to recite the terms of the contract. The ink was heating up. Alden could feel a lot more going on magically than he had last time, and he wanted to focus on it, but it was hard to when he also felt the gremlin getting very alert.

Flawed, flawed, flawed! he expected it to screech in that wordless way it could.

“You’re tensing your arm,” Stuart said after the first recitation.

“Sorry.”

Ro-den made a big deal about how hard it was. He called me ‘your majesty’. Maybe I should have gone with the calming, mind-aligning drugs after all.

Stuart recited over Esh-erdi’s calf. Then over Alden’s arm again. Back and forth several times.

The gremlin only observed.

It didn’t complain at all throughout the process. Not even once.

“I think that’s enough repetitions, don’t you?” Stuart asked eventually. “It’s well set.”

Esh-erdi’s ridiculously strong authority was close enough that Alden was very aware of it. He had been through most of the process.

“It’s well set,” he agreed. “We’re done.”

We’re done?

Alden took the deepest breath he’d been able to take since they started and stood. He tried to get a look at his own arm. The new addition to Esh-erdi’s calf was the same, but smaller. It looked good. It was over.

Esh-erdi righted himself on the sofa and smiled at Alden. “That’s a nice tattoo.”

“Thank you,” said Alden. “Yours too.”

“Do you want it gone?”

Stuart made a quiet, offended sound.

Alden blinked at the knight. “What do you mean?”

“If you have any doubts or regrets now that it’s done, I’ll just get rid of it for you, and we’ll try again some other time.”

Esh-erdi crossed his freshly tattooed leg over the other.

At this point, last time, Ro-den told me I needed to learn to compromise on my end of things if I was going to be so fussy.

“I was naive. And he was uncool.” Alden said it in English. He realized he’d said it aloud when he saw Esh-erdi and Stuart reading the translations. “I mean Worli Ro-den, not you, Esh-erdi!”

“He is uncool,” said Esh-erdi, still smiling easily. “How did you get such an uncool person to cancel that contract the two of you had? I very much wanted to erode it myself. I’d been resisting. But now it’s just gone.”

Alden avoided looking at Stuart. “Ro-den decided to cancel it after he was asked,” he said steadily.

“We gave him a chance to behave with honor,” said Stuart.

Esh-erdi’s smile broadened. “We?”

Clearly, avoiding looking at Stuart had been wrong. He must have needed some eye contact or a signal to let him know not to say anything while Alden was covering for him.

Alden tried to give him that eye contact belatedly. “Don’t worry about it, Hn’tyon Esh-erdi. It all worked out, and nothing bad happened.”

“Ro-den is unharmed,” Stuart confirmed, “and all is now as it should be with Alden.”

“Unharmed?”

“He was never harmed,” Alden said firmly. “The word ‘harmed’ implies much more drama than there was. I got confused, and threw some cantaloupe at him. That’s all Stu means.”

Esh-erdi leaned forward, a wide eye on each of them, his expression mirthful. “Tell me more.”