They end up in Leah’s usual study. The sun is bright that morning, and the windows light up the room, showing it to advantage despite the comparatively few books it holds. Vivitha effuses about certain volumes, noting them as being particularly rare or famous, and finally settles down with one marking the various lineages of Enterlan families.

“I want to see if my cousins have been up to anything interesting over here, other than learning magic and fighting for a pretender-lord,” she explains, and Leah suddenly understands a bit better the exchange in Seffon’s library.

Leah leaves the doors to the balcony open to allow a nice spring breeze; warm, for once, and sweet with flowers and growing things.

She is about to open a book on Cheden’s military colleges – in Ched, but she’s hoping to pick out some names, maybe – when she hears scuffling on the walls outside. “Excuse me a moment,” she says, to no-one in particular, and goes to the doors. Vivitha starts, pulled from her reading, and watches her go.

Leaning her head out, Leah sees Areiu shuffling down along a vine trellis. The girl hasn’t noticed her yet, and Leah waits until she is far enough down to catch before talking.

“Has your father given you permission to climb the walls? That’s funny, I don’t remember him saying so.”

“He did!” Areiu calls back, shuffling down quicker and jumping the last few feet, landing on all fours. “He said I could! Don’t tell him!”

Leah sits on the footstool and gestures for Areiu to follow her in. The child does so, then stops suddenly with wide eyes, noticing Vivitha in a corner.

“This is the arrow one,” Leah says, and Vivitha gives a confused nod and a wave. Areiu stares. “Have you heard of her?”

“She’s got the sick horse,” Areiu finally says.

Vivitha sits up a bit straighter. “Sick?”

“Tired,” Leah says. “The horse is just very tired, from a very long run. He’s not sick.”

“Oh, good. He’s a really pretty horse.”

Vivitha puts the book aside awkwardly. “You’ve seen him?”

“I saw ‘im when they took ‘im to the stables. The stable-hands said the – that his rider was – that she was from Valrin, and she was here to take you back.”

Leah smiles and tousles the kid’s hair. “I’m not leaving until the morning, and even then it’s just for a little bit. I’ve got to send a letter, that’s all.”

“Is arrow leaving too?” Areiu asks, directing the question to Leah.

“Yes, and possibly for good.”

“Is the horse leaving too?” This is asked with a deal more concern.

“I doubt Rip will be healthy enough to ride again so soon,” Leah begins, but Vivitha cuts her off.

“I’m not leaving without Rip.”

“Well then you’re just going to have to come back for him, is all.”

Leah and Vivitha have a stare-off, until Areiu interjects. “Can I ride him while you’re gone?”

“He needs rest, Areiu,” Leah says, then turns to Vivitha. “But maybe when we come back…?”

Vivitha crosses and uncrosses her legs, then shrugs. “He’s calm enough for a first-time rider to handle, if I’m there to watch over you two.”

“I’m not a first-time rider, I have Marble and I’ve ridden him six times already, every full moon and every new moon, for the clrical school.”

“The what?” Leah asks.

“Who’s Marble?” Vivitha asks.

Areiu is much more taken by Vivitha’s question, and starts monologuing about her little black horse with a very long mane and tail, and how the commander of the millishuh has been teaching her to ride, and how they travel together sometimes to the fortnightly school run by the clerics – or at last that’s how Leah interprets that part of the explanation.

“What do you learn at school, Areiu?” Leah asks.

“Maths and spelling, but the older kids learn history and geography and languages. I have a head start, because dad taught me Volsti and mum taught me Bairish.”

“Are your parents here?” Vivitha asks. Leah watches her face, and recognises some of the same revelations she had had, back when she’d first arrived.

“My mum’s at the hospital, and my dad’s at the school. We live here.”

“Oh,” Vivitha says, eyes darting to Areiu’s ears. “Ohh!”

“You should head back to wherever you’re supposed to be, now,” Leah says, then catches Areiu’s arm as the child turns to the window. “Ah, no. Take the stairs.”

“But it’s so nice out today!”

“I know, but still.”

Areiu pouts as she leaves by the door. Leah and Vivitha sit in silence a moment.

“There are families here?” Vivitha asks, sounding a little haunted.

“Did the five not know?” Vivitha shakes her head in answer. “What did you think the residential area was for? They’ve got fewer than twenty students, and enough rooms for a whole estate to live in.”

Vivitha stares after Areiu for a long moment, then goes back to her book. Leah notices that she does not turn a page for the rest of the time they are in the library.

*

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Leah leads Vivitha through the gardens on their way to lunch. Vivitha, having grown up in this corner of the Gulf, recognises a few of the pheasant species, and comments on them with a knowing eye.

“Did your family raise pheasants?”

“No, but we raised hunting dogs, so I guess we knew about pheasants vicariously, both from training dogs to hunt them and training dogs to protect them against foxes.”

In the mess hall Vivitha gets a lot of cold stares, which she ignores. They are served their lunch bowls – broth with half a hard-boiled egg, mushrooms, and some bean sprouts – and carry them out to the courtyard, to drink them beside the fountain.

Vivitha watches the walls with a knowing eye, and when Leah finally asks, she explains that the guard shifts are done quite cleverly, as regards food breaks.

“It’s rotten work, especially when your regular eating time is interrupted by a long shift. Getting a half-hour to eat and rest your eyes – and not have to be at attention all the time – it’s a relief. He’s got a good system set up here. Portable meals also help with that. What’s the orange stuff in the wraps?”

“Sweet potato. It’s the tuber of a vine, grows quickly and abundantly. Staple food source in tropical climates.”

“Oh, well, thank you professor,” Vivitha says haughtily.

“Fake professor,” Leah corrects, and Vivitha laughs.

“Indeed you are.”

They finish their meals and bring the bowls back to the mess. On their way out, Leah sees Teo, and drags Vivitha over for an introduction.

Teo greets them both with a smile. “You wẽ there when th Jonkheer visited, weren’t you? Wha did he say?”

Leah recaps, and once done stops to think. “You’re a pretty shrewd person, from what I know, aren’t you?” Teo accepts the compliment with pride. “What sort of magic do you specialise in?”

“Abjuration an enchantment; protecting people an manipulating people.”

“Seffon said he needed to recommend a legion leader, from among his people…someone who speaks Devadiss, or at least Olues. You said you were from near the border, right?”

Teo seems less enthused. “Yes?”

“I don’t know what Seffon’s planning, given what we discussed after the Jean-cuillère left, but you should consider presenting yourself as a candidate. It would be like being a spy!”

“Tha doesn’t sound – wait, spy? Wha do you mean? An wha did you discuss after th Jonkheer left?”

Leah hesitates. “Just stuff about the war. Vivitha and I will be going to Valerin, tomorrow morning probably, and stuff…might change.”

Teo thinks on that. “That sounds like bad news, but interesteng bad news. Can you give me a hin?”

“Not really; I don’t know for sure what he’s planning.”

“Bu he’s planneng sometheng?” Teo asks, and Leah grins. Teo grins back and nods. “Say no more. I willnau tell wha I donau know. But I rather like yõ idea of going ba to Devad.”

“Oh?”

“I donau know for certain where I am most needed, if war is coming our way. I donau want to get caught in the crossfire, especially if yõ battery is involved.”

Leah narrows her eyes. “How did you know about the battery?”

“What’s a battery?” Vivitha asks.

“Oh? Oh…” Teo shrugs. “I suppose one of the other studens tol me. Lem? Maybe hem.”

Leah takes a careful look at Teo’s face. Teo seems a little nervous at first, but then brushes it off with an easy confidence.

“Anyway, e isnau a theng to trifle wi. I may return home, befõ th chaos hes.”

Leah smirks. “Your accent just got much stronger.”

“Did it?”

They stare-off. Leah clicks her tongue and shakes her head. “The very first thing she ever told me about her job was that it had to do with words and voices; she showed me all her accent impersonations before she even gave me her name.”

Teo looks at her wide-eyed and innocent. “Who?” Leah tilts her head, and Teo raises her hands. “Fine, you win. Just don’t turn on the battery when I’m around, or I’ll have endless explaining to do.”

“You can take solace in the fact that I won’t.”

“Oh fuck off, Leah,” Teo says with a wide grin. “Go away and let me eat.”

Leah pats Teo’s shoulder and walks off, Vivitha trailing behind, baffled. “What was all that?”

“She’s just a friend, who’s also a friend.”

“Oh, like…intimate?”

“No, just twice the usual amount of friend.”

“Oh? Okay?” Vivitha shrugs it off.

They walk onward, ending again in the garden full of pheasants. They sit on a stone bench in silence for the first bit, watching the birds.

“How often do you get to visit your family?” Leah asks, to break the silence.

Vivitha takes a while to answer. “Last time was about a year ago. We’ve been either in Welleslass or Bair, since then, and only just recently got back to Valerin. I was planning on visiting them after the wedding.”

“Right.”

Silence.

“Do we – do the five have a home-base?”

“Not really. When we first started out, Meredith’s family were our sponsors, but after the first few months we became independent. After you joined, actually; five was sort of the perfect number, it seemed. We haven’t stopped travelling and working since then, but we take time off where we can to visit family, if we’re passing near. Kain does, mostly, but she’s the youngest, and her family is all in Welleslass anyway.”

“Did Leah ever go back to Algi to visit her family?”

Vivitha pauses, reaching down to stroke the tail feathers of an iridescent-blue-spotted pheasant which flutters away at the first touch. “She never did. We were in Algi when we took her on, and we stayed between there and Bair for some time, but…well, Algi’s a big place, maybe her family were from the north.”

“She came from a linen farm, right?”

“Yeah, she mentioned that a few times. She knew a lot about fabric. I often said she should retire and become a weaver.”

Silence.

“She never visited her family? I suppose she didn’t write to them either?”

“She was illiterate when she joined us; it was Meredith’s self-appointed task to teach her. She had relied on memory up to that point, memorising songs and texts, making up little rhymes to help remember things.” Vivitha pauses. “I helped teach her to write, too, when Meredith got frustrated. I guess that thing you mentioned – the farsighted thing – meant I could sympathise with her struggles.”

Silence.

“We assume it was bad.”

“Huh?”

“Whatever happened to Leah’s family. We assume it was very bad.”

Leah releases a slow breath. “Oh.”

Silence. Leah stretches her legs, then tucks them back under the bench, dislodging a hen as she does so. The bird grumbles, not unlike a chicken, and shuffles off to the shade under a shrub.

“I never knew if it was related to it…” Vivitha says it quickly, as though she wasn’t sure she wanted to and had to get it all out at once before she changed her mind. “But she used to sing. It was in Algic, I never knew what it meant, and she always said it was just a song from her childhood. But I noticed, every night almost, and especially anytime we’d asked her about Algi, she’d hum it. I think she missed Algi, a lot.”

“Or missed something in Algi.”

Vivitha nods.

Silence.

“Would you know the song, if you heard it again?”

“After hearing it nearly every night for the past three years, yeah, I think so. But where would we find someone from Algi to ask, and how would we ask it? ‘Hello, could you sing every song in existence from your homeland until we recognise one?’”

“Could you hum it?”

“I’m too shy of my voice.”

“If it was important, could you?”

“How should you know if it’s important or not? You didn’t travel with her for three years.”

“You did, and you thought it was important enough to mention.”

Vivitha is quiet, and Leah waits for an answer. “Leah was unhappy. I think the song was the only hint we had of that. No-one else saw it but me, because they all saw her as the tough one, uncomplicated. She might have been dumb, but she wasn’t simple.”

“Frankly, I’ve grown to think that ‘dumb’ thing was an act. Or she just wasn’t as good at expressing herself in her second language.”

“I’d believe it.”

Leah turns to her curiously.

“Meredith gets so worked up whenever someone suggests that she’s all show and no substance. It’s gotten her – and us – in trouble before. Leah always just…floated on by,” Vivitha mimics waves with an arm, “Unbothered. She could have been brilliant, but if she kept it hidden and didn’t build all her confidence on it, she could act dumb and not care, and people would think she was the perfect woman because of it. Gods, it probably helped her avoid accusations of deviancy.”

Silence.

“Are you bothered by it?” Leah asks.

Vivitha shakes her head. “I can’t approve of your choices – an indentured servant and the Lady whose honour you swore to protect – but your condition is common enough.”

“Condition?”

“You have a better word for it?”

Leah cannot come up with something. “I’m going to check in with Seffon. I’ll show you to the room, first?”

“Yeah, okay.”