Andrea Höst: In Arcadia [Touchstone: Extras]

"Tokki," Lira repeated, but this time with a hint of warmth to the word. She touched the wreath lightly and then sat down, obviously pleased.

Cass and Ys had watched the exchange, but settled back to their breakfasts—and, in Ys' case, likely reading a dozen info-streams via the interface—without comment. There was undoubtedly a level of rivalry between Sen and Lira. Both of them possessed rare talents, had been much-cossetted in earlier years, and were consequently inclined to display temperament when denied coveted treats. The large difference between the two girls was Ys and Rye, who had always been there for Sen. Those three were all from a moon called Nuri, and had been bound together even before their world’s destruction.

Lira, by contrast, had suffered a long isolation, and among the Devlin Ruuel family that had settled onto Arcadia, Lira was the one who struggled to believe she belonged, and was wanted for her Self and not just the powers of a Touchstone that made her, like Cass, so valuable. Undeniable beauty and a figure already maturing at thirteen added complication upon complication, and that did not even touch upon the media who watched her perhaps even more obsessively than it did Cass.

Laura had many thoughts on encouraging Lira, but was keeping them to herself. Her own role as parent meant trusting in her daughter and son-in-law, supporting without pushing. Being Unna meant she got to follow their lead while focusing on fun treats, so she simply offered to teach them all how to make a wreath once they were back from school that day.

Hearing this as he and Kaoren returned, Rye said: "We can go to Middle Meadow. There are lots of flowers there I haven’t catalogued yet."

Rye was a born naturalist, and Arcadia his personal project. Whenever he spoke of it he shed his natural diffidence and glowed with enthusiasm. Laura had brought a great many seeds and plantlets for him from Earth, and had thoroughly enjoyed stocking her new flower beds with his assistance.

The family began to discuss their day’s rather complicated timetable, so Laura sat back and just enjoyed them, and marvelled at her daughter, who had survived a great deal, and was now proving to be not half bad as a working Mum-of-five. Of course her employer, the interplanetary defence force called KOTIS, made certain to accommodate Cass as much as possible, meaning she could take Tyrian with her for many of her current assignments. And Kaoren, who was easing back into his work for KOTIS as a Setari captain, could bring order to any level of chaos.

As the breakfast dishes were tidied away, a text box popped up in the screen inside Laura’s head. Standard English alphabet, which was another accommodation KOTIS had been careful to provide for Cass' convenience.

Cass: Jules is still in bed, I suppose?

Laura: I expect so. He’s found a new game he really likes.

Cass: Aren’t you worried about him, Mum? He practically gets up at midday each day.

Laura: Well, so does your Aunt Sue. They’re both night owls.

Cass: But Aunt Sue at least goes outside when she’s up.

Laura: Don’t worry, Cass. I make sure Julian’s cave is aired at least once a week. But if you’d like to revisit the occasions when I couldn’t get you up before midday on a Saturday when you were sixteen…

Cass: Blah. Okay, okay, whatever. I’m just…he isn’t unhappy, is he?

Laura: He is blissful. But also learning a new language, and dealing with all the Earth things that aren’t here. He puts in solid time in virtual school, and comes out of his cave when I ask him to. I think we can leave him to that, just for the moment.

Cass sighed heavily, but turned her attention to getting her collection of children down to the dock for their trip to school.

Mildly entertained, Laura enjoyed any hugs offered, and then strolled back to her house, choosing not to mention to Cass that she was fairly sure Julian’s withdrawal was related to visits to Arcadia by numerous pretty girls, combined with the presence of Sight Sight talents. The idea that Kaoren—not to mention Sen—could see his reactions to some of the island’s visitors had clearly occurred to Julian almost immediately after their arrival.

Sight talent etiquette meant Kaoren was highly unlikely to ever show any sign of noticing anything Julian didn’t say out loud, but Sen was still learning proper circumspection, and reticence didn’t change the fact that they would know. Laura certainly wouldn’t want to suffer teen pangs before an audience who could catch glimpses of what went on beneath surface composure. This was a dilemma Julian would have to resolve himself, and Laura would leave him alone to do it.

Setting aside the question of her own time, Laura spent the remainder of the morning wandering about her new garden, checking the growth of seedlings and thinking about what to do with the empty space out back. Her usual landscaping style was an enormous amount of mulch and a cottage garden denseness, but she’d never had an area so large: a long meadow rising a little way, and then sloping south and east from the little hill where her house had been planted.

This was an entirely pleasant aspect, and so she was tempted to just leave it be. But she also kept picturing it as a sheer mass of flowers, or all manner of complex garden rooms. Weeding wouldn’t be the usual deterrent, since she’d been gifted with a specialised robot drone that would take care of any plant she didn’t permit , and so she could consider establishing a really extensive garden.

Her main challenge in planning anything was that she didn’t know how to garden in a climate involving a couple of months of snow. She’d brought along a few ebooks covering the basics, but there would be considerable guesswork and experimentation involved in her garden, especially where Muinan plants were concerned.

So many factors. Unknown pests and diseases. A year that was forty-one days longer than Earth’s. Weeds that might turn out to be Muinan plants she would like to include.

Weeds that might eat you, given some of the things that had shown up on Muina.

A lifelong study of Earth-to-Muina gardening would no doubt be valuable, but gardens were something Laura simply liked, not something she wanted to devote every hour of every day to, so she hesitated to embark on anything really difficult. Perhaps for now she would keep the grassy meadow, and concentrate on the small beds around the northern patio, even though many of them would likely only work for shade-loving plants. Still, the strawberry runners she’d planted were doing very well in the sunniest spot, and she was looking forward to a small harvesting and sampling session before autumn kicked in.

A text message flashed onto her inner screen .

Sue: Clean up and come have second breakfast.

Laura: Sounds like a plan.

Susan—named for a Narnian Queen—was the younger of Laura’s two sisters. A photographer, Sue had always been the most adventurous of the family, and had happily upped sticks to follow Laura to a whole different planet. Laura, although she was enjoying Muina enormously, felt a little more whole to have Sue with her.

Out of habit, Laura greeted her sister with Auslan, even though Muinan medical science had effortlessly reversed the slow loss of hearing that had started in Sue’s pre-teens.

Sue signed back absently, then said: "Hey, did your boobs perk up after our last visit to the medics?"

"I…you know, maybe a little?"

"I suppose it’s hard to tell with those mosquito bites. I swear mine are sitting an inch higher. I was talking to Didi Senez about standard health care here and, unless they have a particular issue they just go once a year for damage repair . That seems to have been what we got over the last two visits—it sweeps out obvious cancers and works on worn cartilage and muscular issues. That’s why your knees don’t hurt any more. And, apparently, it helps with boob sag."