Book 8: Riven By The Sun 598 - My Mother is Determined

Riven By The Sun


Resolved: The Mahid Question to be sent back to committee for further public consultation. 

For – 327

Against – 99

Abstain – 12

Absent – 8

**

I sat, in my new swimming costume, a long shirt, with my feet in the water.  Laisa floated face up in the pool, braids trailing, eyes closed.  Ky sat next to me, also with her feet in.  There were a hundred swimmers in the Lesser Baths and there was laughter and a lot of shrieking and giggling.  Even if it was indecorus to run, people were certainly chasing each other in the water and the noise was almost enough to drown out the light occasional music from the musician’s gallery.

Doof was likely up there, sitting on music stands and eyeing moving fingers and strikers.  Bella and Eltras were likely making a complete mess of my bed, since neither of them cared for all the splashing.

Of course the musicians were used to the noisy chamber, and the composer was coming up with pieces of music that held up against the echoes and the cachophony.  My first swimming party had been very well received and Ky and I were now throwing joint parties regularly.  The first part would be louder and rather more boisterous, with most of the younger crowd coming then.

After everyone was worn out, the party would dry off and tidy up and decorously sit for kaf and cakes and philosophy and politics.  That would be when the more staid guests would arrive and heavy politiking would ensue.

Assemblyman Goree and his wife and his flock of children were all here… He was the chairman of the Mahid committee and he was speaking with Assemblyman Timen who was organizing the Imperial wedding for Kallijas and Laisa.  I’d have to talk to him a bit later.

This lobe of the pool was a trifle quieter and Ky and I held hands, hidden between us, our wet shifts truly not hiding anything from anyone but giving people the excuse to ‘not see’.  “I’m so glad I have my grandmothers,” Laisa said, quietly.  “I’d be perfectly overwhelmed if not for them… and Kallijas’s grandmother.”

“Oh?  They’re being that much of a help?  Aren’t they too old to –“ I gasped.  Ky’d poked me in the ribs.

“Don’t say a single word more, Minis Aan, if you don’t want to offend either of us,” she said.  “Grandmother was a tremendous help—rest she in Selestialis -- and Granny is still amazing.”

“I have no idea.  I don’t think I would have liked my grandmothers.”

Laisa stood up and wrung water out of her braids.  “You don’t know.  Mahid never showed anything.  You like your grandfather, from what this one can see.”

“Laisa, first names and equal to equal please!  How many times have I asked you?  You’re about to marry Kall.  You’re both so happy you are glowing and it just hasn’t gone away in moons.”

She blushed and sat down on my other side.  “Minis.  I still, still pinch myself when I wake up.”

“It will only be a few more days.  You and Kallijas are going to be tremendously happy.  And when I ascend and you fly off to Yeola-e I’m going to send you more furs than you know what to do with so you don’t freeze to death.”

“Why thank you, I’m sure Skorsas has closet space set aside for us.  I may move into the fur closet in the winter.”

“Are you ready to go into the eight-day preparation?”

She smiled sweetly… “They’ll be lying in wait to ‘carry me off’ formally, right after this party and my mother is determined to scrub all evidence of weapons training off me.  Kall laughed and said he’d still love me even if I came to him all soft and polished.”

“Of course he would!”  I said.  “Or you’d kick his behind!”

Ky twinkled approvingly at me and Laisa laughed.  “Hardly.  I’m going to swim over to the hot pool and then begin getting myself together for the discussion.”  She tipped forward into the water to splash us and we laughed.