Eileen Wilks: Humon Error

“What?” Arjenie said, frowning as she stopped and looked around.

“Clay?” Robin said.

“We need a family meeting.”

“Wait a minute,” Seri began.

“It’s not always best to drag everything into the open,” Sammy said.

“And at Yule—”

“Hurt feelings.”

“Sit,” Robin said. “And be quiet until it’s your turn.”

Carmen’s brother’s name was Ben, which disconcerted Benedict when he heard it again. How had he forgotten a variant on his own name? Pure distraction, he supposed. That other Ben was very politely asked to relieve Gary of kid duty so Gary could participate. Partners counted the same as spouses in the Delacroix clan—as family.

Benedict wondered if he was considered Arjenie’s partner. He offered to go chop wood, but Arjenie told him he was family and an adult so he would certainly take part. No one argued, though Sammy looked uneasy and Seri tossed her head. But then the meeting was probably about him. Made sense for him to be there.

There was enough room for all of them at the big cherry table, though they were a bit crowded. Benedict had just enough time to check in with Adam and Josh before Gary joined them.

Robin sat at one end of the table, Clay at the other. A fat pinecone sat on the table in front of Robin. Gary seated himself on Benedict’s right, Clay gave Robin a nod, and the two of them held out their hands. Arjenie took Benedict’s hand on one side; after a second of observation he understood what was required and held out his other hand to Gary. Once everyone was clasping hands, Robin spoke. “We seek wisdom and clarity, and ask for the patience needed to reach these goals, and for the memory of who we are as individuals and as a family to guide us. Blessed be.”

Most of the others echoed “blessed be,” though there were a couple “amens” mixed in. Arjenie and Gary both squeezed Benedict’s hands before releasing them.

“All right,” Robin said, and set a pinecone on the table. “Clay, you asked for this meeting. I have something to bring up, too, but it may be connected to your issue. I’d like you to go first.” She passed the pinecone down the table.

When it reached Clay, he held it in one hand as he began. “Seri and Sammy have a concern about Arjenie’s relationship with Benedict. I don’t care for the way they’ve expressed this concern, but it needs airing.”

“I—” Seri started, then visibly controlled herself. “Excuse me.”

Clay smiled and handed her the pinecone.

“Thank you.” She sat up very straight. “I didn’t want to do this in a family meeting because I thought it would hurt Arjenie. But here we are, so”—she turned to Robin—“I’d like to open this up.”

Robin thought, then said, “Ten minutes open discussion.”

Seri moved the pinecone to the center of the table. “Here’s the deal. Arjenie didn’t come home for my and Sammy’s birthday.”

“I explained that!” Arjenie protested. “And I hated to miss it, but I called. I sent presents.”

“Yes, and I love the sweater, but this isn’t about presents. You didn’t come, and I . . . well, I’m sorry, but I didn’t believe your explanation.”

Sammy snorted. “Too busy at work. Yeah, that’s believable.”

Pink flags flew on Arjenie’s cheeks. “Since my work involves helping the people who stopped other people from destroying the country, maybe it should be believable.”

“Our birthdays were after those horrible Humans First rallies.”

“And you thought that meant the problem was solved?”

“It’s not like that’s the only thing,” Seri said.

Sammy picked up that thought and ran with it. “You moved across the country. Pfft. Just like that. You haven’t been home since you took that mysterious trip to San Diego—”

“Which you have never explained—”

“Except that Dya was involved somehow, but she left before we got to see her. You stayed at the lupi clanhome and you won’t tell anyone why—”

“Even though you didn’t know any lupi before you went there—”

“But you stayed at their clanhome and met Benedict, and while you were there a mountain sort of collapsed—”

“When its node imploded, and I know you were involved, but you won’t talk about it, and you say Benedict can’t move here, but—”

“You won’t explain why. You told Mom that you two are plighted—”

“But he’s lupi, and everyone knows they aren’t monogamous—”

“And you plighted after you’d known him a few days! No time at all for that kind of—”

“Life-changing decision, and no one in the family had even talked to him, so—”

“We think Benedict’s controlling you somehow.” Sammy finished with a scowl, which he aimed at Benedict.

There was silence for a moment. Carmen broke it hesitantly. “Arjenie deals with top secret information, with sensitive information . . . I don’t think we can lump in her silence about the collapse of that mountain with her silence on other subjects.”

“And yet,” Stephen said, his narrow face thoughtful, “they’re connected. Not directly, but there’s a connection.”

“Stephen,” Arjenie said reproachfully. “You, too?”

He spread his hands. “I’m not jumping on the twins’ bandwagon. Just saying that you’re keeping a lot of secrets, and those secrets are connected somehow.”

Stephen Delacroix had a weak but well-trained patterning Gift, according to Arjenie. He must have picked up on the pattern that connected Arjenie to all those event and their common denominator: him. “If I understand correctly,” Benedict said, “open discussion means I can speak.”

Robin nodded. “Yes, of course.”

“Arjenie is a member of my clan now. She knows clan secrets that do connect obliquely to—”

“What?”

“She’s in your clan?”

“Are you saying you turned her into a lupus?”

“Don’t be an idiot. You can’t get turned into—”

“Does that mean you’re married? And you didn’t tell us? I can’t believe you didn’t—”

“Lupi don’t get married! Everyone knows that.”

“So what’s he doing here if he isn’t Arjenie’s plighted partner?”

“Enough.” That was Clay, not yelling but putting enough volume and certainty in his voice to cut through the exclamations and comments coming from everyone. “I think,” he said dryly as he claimed the pinecone, “we’d best go to directed discussion. Robin?”

She nodded, and Clay continued. “First I’ll clarify that, yes, Arjenie plighted herself to Benedict, and he to her, so his place at our table is a given. Robin and I were aware she’d been welcomed into Nokolai clan. Arjenie had planned to announce that to everyone else herself, but I understand why Benedict felt he needed to tell you now. I believe the clans are pretty secretive, so she’s constrained from discussing some of that with us.”

“I don’t like it,” Sammy muttered—maybe too low for the humans to hear, but Benedict did.

“So the issue we are discussing,” Clay said, “is not whether Arjenie has secrets. She does. The question is whether or not she has been, ah, unduly influenced by Benedict.”

“There’s a line,” Hershey said gruffly, “between personal and family. You bring someone into the family, fine, that’s family business. What’s between you and him, though, that’s not family business. Think we’re crossing the line.”

Clay nodded. “I’m thinking that myself.”

Seri’s face set stubbornly. “Which is exactly what I thought you’d say, which is why I didn’t ask for a family meeting in the first place. But you’re wrong. If she’s been given some sort of lupi emotional jujitsu, we need to do something about it.”