Andrea Höst: Gratuitous Epilogue [Touchstone: Extras]

Lohn got amazingly stressed about adopting. He wasn’t the only one keyed up, but Lohn especially just hated that there would be all these kids that they didn’t choose. And that those kids would know it, and feel rejected. During their dual housewarming Mara, Jeh and Ketzaren asked me whether I felt like I was Sen, Ys, Rye and Lira’s mother. Which is yes and no, really. I don’t think any of them – even Sen – think of me as their mother. Sen might one day. To Ys, Rye and Lira, I think we might be too close to their ages for them to consider us Mum and Dad, even after we formally adopt them. But Guardians, elder siblings, whatever. We’re family now, and I love them all.

Mara, Ketzaren and Jeh had a very interesting discussion – more with each other than with me – about the children they liked most among those they’d been working with at the talent school. And once again I was just so utterly glad I didn’t have to do any picking. They were talking about whether it was better to adopt children who you simply liked the most, or if it was kinder to take those who needed you more. One of the medics working with the Setari and the talent school had already adopted, and she’d chosen a very traumatised and isolated girl around Sen’s age who had lost everyone she knew, and who wasn’t coping at all well with the boarding school living arrangements. She wasn’t a very appealing kid, inclined to snivel, but it really helped her to belong to someone. And yet, as Jeh pointed out, holding stoic resilience against children who were coping better didn’t seem fair.

Moving to their new houses had been the decision point they’d set, and three days after the housewarming party five children came home for the first time.

Which kids were chosen mattered a lot to me – Mara and Lohn are so important to me that I stress about things coming between us. I made sure not to offer opinions on any of the residents of the talent school, though Lira hasn’t been shy about sharing her thoughts on them with me, so I’ve more of an idea of the major personalities. I would have found it awkward if any of those chosen were ones who didn’t seem able to see Ys and Rye as anything but servants. I didn’t even talk about this to Kaoren, but he could tell as usual when I’m stressing, effortlessly worked out why, and pointed out that Lohn and Mara care about Ys and Rye too, and were likely to have taken them into account.

Lohn didn’t succeed in talking Mara into taking four, so they stuck with their original plan of two. Both of them boys. Feinaren’s eleven, and a real imp – spends all his time swarming up trees. Sharalentelasker (Shar) is thirteen and it’s a bit hard to tell what he’s like since he likes to watch more than talk, at least when I’m about. A strong Sight talent, with everything except Combat and Gate Sight, and inclined to behave with the typical slight distance that a Place Sight talent cultivates. Sen – who is my early-warning system for suspect people – doesn’t object to him, so I know he can’t be too bad, but I had to ask Mara what had drawn her to him. Fein I can understand – he and Lohn are a lot alike – but Shar seems very self-contained and able to handle himself and not someone I would have expected them to feel parental about.

"We wanted to get him away from Nuran politics," Mara told me, looking wry. "He’s one of two who could arguably be Nuri’s heir if they were going by their rules of succession." She laughed at my expression. "Not that that’s any reason for me to want to play parent. He’s far from incapable, and has been involved in quashing a few disputes within the school. If he was Kalrani he’d be on the captain track. Which is a good thing, but we also noticed that he was terribly tired every morning. That’s the impact of the politics – he has a lively night life thanks to being drawn into the Nuran power struggles. They bring disputes to him to settle, just as they do with Inisar."

"And you got all protective." I understood it then. "A bit like me and Ys – Ys is so much better at looking after Sen than I am, and I keep having to find ways to ensure she no longer automatically puts Sen above herself. Because I want Ys to have time to be Ys."

Mara nodded. "It’s a very odd feeling. We had been planning on taking two younger children, because someone as old as Shar will never truly regard us as parents. And he doesn’t need us. But I wanted him to have a quiet night."

Ketzaren, Jeh and Grif ended up doing something similar. One of the children they chose, Zaranar, is sixteen. She has a five year-old brother, Dealanar, who is very traumatized and withdrawn – they lost their parents and several other siblings, including Deal’s twin – and Ketzaren says they wanted to both give Deal the care he needed, and also make sure Zar had a chance to look to her own future as well as Deal’s. Zar’s really interesting – she’s not some angelic, self-sacrificing type, but full of curiosity and with an excellent sardonic sense of humour which matches Ketzaren’s. I’d like to get to know her better, but Deal pretty much stays attached to her leg, and doesn’t like her talking to anyone else – getting him to separate into age groups at the school has been pretty difficult, and over the months he’s actually been getting more clingy, not less. Ketzaren says it will be a slow process teaching Deal to feel safe with anyone else, but she seems determined to succeed.

Their third adoptee is Ennanal, a ten year-old girl. Enna likes to dance about – she reminds me of Sen when Sen’s happy – and she also shares Sen’s tendency for terrible nightmares, though these are because she lost her family, and because she found the journey through deep-space particularly terrifying, not because of any Sights.

After they’d had a few days to settle in, we invited them and the rest of First and Second over for a barbeque, having had a discussion with our four beforehand to make sure they weren’t too uncomfortable with the idea of these children coming onto their territory . They knew them all already, of course, since they go to the same school, though Zar and Shar are in the elder grade and they don’t have much to do with them. Fortunately Fein is someone Rye already seemed to think was okay, and he was quite keen to show off his garden and parts of the island to him. Lira and Ys made it clear that so long as no-one was allowed to go into their rooms, they didn’t care who we chose to have over, but they ended up politely taking Enna around and keeping her entertained. They’re not going to leap into friendship with her, but they didn’t freeze her out, and I made sure they knew I was pleased with them for being nice.

Sen was having one of her bad days, and ended up in my lap most of the time – which at least made her match Deal and gave me a chance to chat with Zar. Shar started out more like a visiting dignitary than a child – all formal and polite and detached – but then we went down to the docks so they could try out the canoes and he enjoyed that, and was positively approving of the idea of canoes for Siriath after everyone’s passed basic swimming. It was fun noticing how pleased Mara was by that. We’re going to get a larger boat/flyer so we can carpool the kids to school. Canoes and flying and the simple six-person sleds are all dandy in sunny Summer weather, but won’t be much fun in the middle of Winter.

Except for Zar, who has a medium strength level, all the kids are extremely strong talents, which of course is why they were in the talent school in the first place. They’re not on par with the Setari (Nuran or Taren/Kolaren) because they haven’t been pushed in the same way, and don’t have the expanded interface or ability to focus their connection to the Ena. There’s been endless discussions recently about teaching new Setari the methods the Nurans use to become aware of the Ena link versus cheating using me. More and more of the Taren and Kolaren Setari are becoming able to enhance themselves, but many of them still can’t.