Andrea Höst - In Arcadia [Touchstone - Extras]

"Most of Eastwood’s roles are all about being the lone wolf, and this Tsur Selkie is…would you say authority ? A sense of being in total control, the one who gets to make the decisions, with acres of hidden depths. Perhaps a Napoleon?"

"You say that because he’s short. Short-ish."

"Caesar, then—of the Julian variety."

"And that’s the haircut."

"Machiavelli?"

Laura thought about it. "I don’t actually know what Machiavelli was supposed to be like. As for Machiavellian…well, he was involved in a program that conscripted children. And got some of them killed."

"He’d make a terrific cult leader. The voice. The focused attention. That sense of looking right into you."

"I suppose all Sight Sight talents are a bit like that. I didn’t get very far in my attempts at pushing trade with Earth."

"I wonder how much influence he has over the decision? Could you catch any impression of what he thought of the idea?"

"No. He’s opaque and I expect we’re open books to him." Laura sighed. "Is it possible to talk about Earth’s history without making any sane civilisation want to avoid us like the plague? We stagger from atrocity to indecency, between bouts of hypocrisy. But where would trying to shade the truth get us with a Sight talent?"

"Pointless to fret about it yet. Have you decided what you’re getting Ys for her birthday? Seems to me interplanetary trade negotiations aren’t half as difficult as finding a present for a girl who just wants you to leave her alone so she can read. Especially when she has all the books already, and I can’t find anyone to sell me a time-turner."

Laura laughed, and nodded, and turned her thoughts to more pleasant considerations. She had a month to decide how to be both honest and positive with Tsur Selkie.

Tyrian was the infant equivalent of a mood ring. Much of the time he would make an excellent stand in for a Midwich cuckoo: solemn and staring and grave. But if you picked him up when you were annoyed or angry he would react to that immediately, no matter how gentle your touch or voice, for he had inherited both Sight Sight and Place Sight from Kaoren. These were Sights that developed early, and so anyone holding Tyrian required a lot of personal discipline in order to avoid transforming quiet baby into squalling baby.

On the up side, he responded very well to positive emotions and one of Laura’s new favourite things was to try to make him laugh. Lying on her back out by the pool, she hoisted Tyrian up above her, blew out her cheeks, and goggled her eyes. He let out a delighted squeal and waved his arms. Dropping him down on her lap, she tickled him, and then hoisted him up again and puckered her mouth like a fish.

Tyrian giggled, all happy smiles, burped, and vomited milk over Laura’s face and neck.

"Urk!" Laura had only barely managed to turn her head in time to spare her mouth and eyes. She sat up hastily, then tweaked her grandson’s chin as he briefly wavered on the edge of shock, and fortunately he laughed merrily in response. "I’m glad you find it funny, kiddo." She wiped her face with the back of one hand, and smiled down at him. "You look like your Mum when you laugh, you know."

"He does," a voice agreed, and she turned, steadying Tyrian, to find that Tsur Selkie had once again arrived early for his appointment. "I will watch him if you wish to clean up," he added.

Laura hesitated, then thanked him and climbed to her feet. "I won’t be long," she said, handing Tyrian over and relaxing fractionally when the KOTIS officer demonstrated that he at least knew how to hold a baby.

Even so, she showered and changed quickly, reflecting that he’d understood what she’d said to Tyrian, even though she’d spoken in English. Cass' translation app worked both ways, but Laura hadn’t realised Tsur Selkie was using it. At least she’d grown better at speaking Muinan, though her pronunciation remained far from perfect.

Still a little damp, Laura returned to find him sitting sideways on the broad rim of the pool with Tyrian on his lap, propped against partially raised knees. Playing pat-a-cake. Tyrian had returned to solemnity, but was managing to bat at Tsur Selkie’s hands with reasonable accuracy, and appeared pleased each time he managed it.

"You have children, Tsur Selkie?" Laura asked.

"Two daughters," he said. "Allidi and Haelin. This is a game they enjoyed at this age."

"He almost looks like he’s moving before you do."

"He is reacting to my decision on which hand to move."

Fascinated, Laura sat down cross-legged beside him, watching as Tyrian continued to almost appear to anticipate which hand Tsur Selkie held up for him to pat. "So guessing games are good for Sight Sight talents?"

"At this age, very simple ones only, preferably those where the correct choice is known to you. Two to three choices, and never continued if his Sights don’t trigger and he fails. Until Muinan age three or four he will switch between a state of strong certainty about his immediate environment, and occasions when Sight Sight isn’t triggering, when the world will feel threatening, and unknowns or new developments will upset him." He raised his right hand, and Tyrian again batted at it.

"As he grows older, more capable of abstract concepts, Sight Sight will trigger less and less, unless he is trained to focus it. That will be a difficult time for him, especially in combination with Place Sight. At the moment, Sight Sight’s certainty mitigates the distress that Place Sight often brings."

He paused and dropped his hand when Tyrian yawned mightily. "Games that trigger Sights are also tiring, so this is best played before a scheduled nap."

"When do the other Sights usually manifest?"

A discussion that expanded to the wide array of known psychic talents nicely filled the time until Kaoren returned Sue from an expedition to the northern shore of the lake. While Tsur Selkie managed to maintain an air of formality even with a baby falling asleep in his lap—and still threatened to steal the air from the room through sheer intensity—he was also a superlative listener, and Laura found talking to him paradoxically relaxing.

"Do Sight Sight talents tend toward careers like psychiatry?" she asked, as he handed the snoozing Tyrian up to her.

"It’s been known," he said, standing. "But it is rarely successful. The talent might offer extra insight, but insight also tends to bring a self-belief that mixes poorly with the delicate negotiation of someone else’s psyche." His flicker of a smile surfaced. "We are, as a group, too arrogant."

Laura glanced down at Tyrian, imagining him growing up too insightful to be wise.

"What does it involve, exactly, being a Sight Sight advisor?" she asked, moving inside as she heard Kaoren and Sue’s voices.

"During this settlement phase, it has primarily meant construction projects."

"Construction?"

Kaoren, hearing this, grimaced. "That is something I avoid as much as I can: assignments to look over large buildings, power generators, ships, checking for hidden flaws. Physical faults like that do tend to trigger Sight Sight, but we cannot guarantee safety—and it is exceptionally dull work."

"I thought Sight Sight talents went around solving mysteries," Sue said, clearing a bottle from Tyrian’s carry cot so Laura could put him down.

"Occasionally. It’s rare that there is criminal investigative work that cannot be better addressed by science," Tsur Selkie said. "Assignments like this are more common—gathering information toward large decisions."

Reminded that Tsur Selkie had not visited just to teach her about psychic infants, Laura gathered the inevitable scatter of baby toys and clothing, and saw Kaoren on his way. Sue, in the meantime, set out snacks and drinks on the northern patio, where they could fully appreciate the first few motes of gold, red and orange. Autumn in the Pandora region looked likely to be spectacular.