The rain presently covering Laronting had long departed Cinnfoara, but Nash couldn’t mention the other city, or the one who was there, not now. After another dreary couple of weeks sailing through the vast expanse of space, she craved just a few hours’ rest before her pending meetings with her uncle’s staff, and then there was the party planning too, of course. All these things she considered, until a less than welcome sight greeted her just beyond the door of what should have been her refuge. Blood, sweat, dirt, and grass filled her vision when she returned to the apartment she shared with Kory.

  The flat in question was nestled on the third floor of a six-sided pyramidal building called the Hex. There was a courtyard in middle, verdant and decadent if not a little unkempt. The sight of it through the terrace window would have dominated Nash’s view upon entry, were it not for her friend and the circus she’d invited over. Kory had always been the most okay roommate. Messy, but quiet enough, and besides, they were best friends, what more was there to consider? It appeared since Nash had been gone the mess had increased and the noise along with it.

  She entered to see Kory sitting on her pristine designer couch, in a sweat-soaked T-shirt and leggings, lip bleeding, with her ankle wrapped and elevated on the coffee table, laughing in spite of it all. Next to her sat some stranger, a fit, Iolite male in a similar state of dishevelment, with a twinkle in his eye and a hairstyle best described as a curly mullet. Next to them in an even more designer chair sat good old Greg. He must have recently come from a different place than the first two, as he was less filthy and a little better dressed. Though it appeared he tracked the whole outdoors in on the soles of his spiked shoes. Nearby in the kitchen area Zol, wearing fewer clothes than anybody, was attempting to make a smoothie and doing a bad job of it.

  “You’re back!” Kory exclaimed. If her eyes could light up, they would have. She sprang off the tufted velvet couch and gingerly hopped over to her friend, careful to avoid placing any weight on the bad ankle. Nash soon found herself wrapped in a sweaty embrace and briefly ignored her dislike for hugging. There was something comforting about that warm bodily resonance, the gentle hum of current just below the surface. She wondered if Zol felt the same.

  “Yeah, I just –” Nash started, pulling away from the hug to see that Kory had already moved on to the next order of business.

  “This is Billy!” Kory beamed, gesturing to the new addition in the room. The native stranger waved and gave a wink to his reluctant host, but was not afforded the opportunity to speak as Greg felt the need to make his own presence known. He didn’t know Nash well enough to acknowledge her penchant for personal space, but then again, no one did, so he hugged her anyway.

  “You’re not going to believe what I have to show you!” He practically sang, with all the levity of a man in the throes of infatuation. “I know you just landed and probably got out of hydro a few hours ago, but how soon do you think we can get you fitted for golf shoes?”

  “Greg, shut up,” Kory intervened, waving him away. “She doesn’t want to play golf right this second, at least not before washing the ship-water out of her hair.”

  “Well, I did have a few things I needed to take care of this afternoon,” Nash said, referencing at most two obligations that now felt like twenty. “Wait, you play golf now?”

  “Only when she’s not getting a new concussion,” teased Billy. “Not like my man, Z, there. Nothing gets past him!” He pointed towards Zol, who rejoined the group drinking the aforementioned smoothie directly out of the blender with one of Nash’s special iced tea straws. The sweat, the smells, the increasing sunlight, the frantic conversation, and the fact that every drawer in the kitchen was open, it was so much at once that Nash couldn’t help but smile. She was so happy to be back.

  #

  Late in the day, the sun reached its zenith, and this time of year it wasn’t long before it sank again. On the way down, it filled the western half of the sky with a warm mango color, soon to be replaced by the peachy hue of Geponnta in the east. When the larger planet crested the horizon, it became the sky itself, as much a work of art as it was a guardian angel. This evening’s glow was filtered through gauzy lilac clouds, but none that threatened rain. For this, Kory was grateful. As the warm autumn afternoon cascaded into a splendid, breezy evening, she stepped onto the balcony overlooking the decadent courtyard, unwrapped the towel from around her head, and shook out her damp hair in the fresh air.

  The good weather bode well for this evening’s diversion. When Nash returned from meeting with her uncle, she and Kory intended to go shopping, and the only place worth doing that was outside. All the nicest fashion establishments were located downtown in the elegant open-air galleries known charmingly as Amber Valley. Years of advertising bombardment had convinced a whole generation of Cinnfoara’s young people that a visit to Amber Valley wasn’t merely a place to shop, it was an experience. Nash and Kory were no exception to this influence, and Nash in particular always said “if you weren’t going out what was the point in having pretty clothes at all?” Kory sarcastically repeated the same words to herself as she headed inside to finish getting ready.

  She packed a pair of heels in her bag to select the right length of dress, regretting that her sprained ankle wouldn’t allow her to wear them for the whole night. Hopefully it healed up in time for the party. As she slipped into a pair of comfortable, supportive, and disappointing shoes, she half sang-half mumbled to herself: “Sometimes it’s hard… to be a woman.” It was a weird old tune, and she didn’t recall where it was from. In fact, that line had been the only one she knew.

  Something about the timeless refrain haunted her from a place outside of time on this evening in particular. It brought to mind a puzzling dream she’d had the night before, in which the dirty old man she’d met at the temple on her home planet accosted her with some sort of abhorrent vision. “Cling to the one who was sent to you. There is no other. You cannot know the peace of death until you usher in the next phase. The prophecy is true!” His terrible voice rang out in her head even now, serving as a grim reminder that below the many layers of enviable distraction and matters of seeming importance, turned wheels so old no one remembered who’d set them in motion. Such a dreadful thing to dwell on. Kory hoped the dream wouldn’t return, unlike her roommate who seemed to be taking her sweet time in doing so.

  Nash was supposed to have been home by now. Perhaps the meeting had taken longer than she planned. It didn’t matter as much to Kory because she was late getting ready herself, but it mattered a little bit. As much fun as she’d had these past few weeks training and learning to golf, she still felt an ache she couldn’t verbalize when her best friend was away. And besides, shopping with her sister just wasn’t the same. Kory and Mia may have been the only two girls of their kind on this planet, and in all of civilized space for that matter, but they were sisters first and foremost, and sisters didn’t always get along. Lately Greg had been tagging along too, hanging off Mia’s shoulder, running his mouth, and demanding to pay for everything. It was nice to be bankrolled from time to time, but Kory felt that having to see him off the course as well as on it was entirely too much Greg for her taste.

  At last, she heard the sound of the front door opening. “Sorry I’m late!” Nash called. From her room Kory could hear the rapid changing of shoes and rearranging of stuff that accompanied a quick turn-around such as this. “Are you ready to go? We should leave now!”

  “I thought we weren’t doing reservations tonight?” Kory responded, throwing a few more things into her bag. The lipstick could wait ‘til the ride, she decided.

  “We’re not, but I want to visit a lot of stores,” Nash answered. Her heels clacked over the hard floor to the kitchen, where she poured a glass of water and drank it as fast as possible. She resisted the urge to handle little inconveniences in her life like the fetching of water telekinetically, opting to get it herself like a regular person, even when in a hurry. Kory wouldn’t have minded, or told anyone, for that matter. But Nash didn’t want to get in the habit of simply summoning things through the air. No one was supposed to be doing that. Though she had the sneaking suspicion that the guy, Billy, she’d met earlier was at least as powerful as herself. She’d barely said two words to him, so it was more of an uninformed hunch than anything.

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  “I’m ready!” Kory announced, emerging from her room with half-dry hair and an oversized tote bag on her shoulder. She wore a red mini dress with spandex shorts underneath, and the biggest smile Nash had seen all day. Her friend looked her up and down, approving of her choice of attire for trying on dresses and hitting the bars afterward.

  “You have other shoes in there?” Nash inquired, wishing she’d also had the foresight to pack her heels and wear flats on the way out. “Too late to change now,” she thought. It wasn’t too late, but that’s what she told herself.

  “Yep, the slivery, almost-white ones you picked out for me!” Kory beamed, wishing for a pair in purple instead, but not wanting to disappoint her friend.

  “Great!” said Nash. Inwardly, she breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the deafening background noise in her life, it all felt okay, right here, right now. They could drown out those harder sounds with music and laughter, if only for tonight.

  #

  Cinnfoara’s pneumatic gliding passenger trains barely made a sound as they passed through the city on their lofty rails. The nauseating screech and scrape of metal wheels over metal track was but a distant echo of centuries past, because like the ones that carried people to and from cities, those that shuttled them around within were just as blessedly quiet. Gone was the roar of primitive engines whose approach could be heard miles away. This made it easy to miss one’s train if one found herself distracted, and it had certainly happened before, but that wasn’t the case tonight. Nothing would keep Nash and Kory from their destination. They ran, wove, and nearly flew through the stylish streets surrounding the Hex, arriving at the nearest station, ascending to the platform and landing in a seat together just as the doors whispered shut and the glittering cars departed.

  The thing Nash loved most about these rides was the time they gave her to think before the next thing happened. You couldn’t find that same mental clarity trying to traverse a landscape on your own, whether vehicularly, spatially, or otherwise. On this ride, thinking wasn’t so much on the agenda as was explaining. She had a lot of ground to cover with Kory to set the expectations for the next phase of their ‘work.’ It went far beyond shopping and party planning. She took one last glance out the window of the car as the city began to move past them, then began the endeavor that would eat away at the best parts of the evening.

  “Did you know there are people, so many people, not just all over space, but all over this planet too, who are living completely different lives than us? And who grew up differently than we did, with different things and circumstances?” This was a favorite technique of Nash’s, to purposefully baffle her conversation partner by opening with a barely related line of questioning.

  “I would hope so,” Kory responded. She played into her friend’s hand every time, though whether it was out of ignorance, courtesy, or fondness was a roll of the dice. “Not everyone should be us.”

  “I want you to know how much this means, and how much opportunity it will bring, not just to you and me, but to everyone alive today,” Nash continued.

  “You’re not talking about dress shopping anymore.” Kory said, reluctantly stepping to the level of awareness the topic required.

  “No.” Nash took her friend’s hand and felt the warm, gentle energy within. It was deadly, but she felt she could survive it, and wouldn’t it be worth it for all it represented? The power of that place was too great to ignore.

  “We’re not ready yet.” Kory turned to meet Nash’s eyes; the hollowness of her gaze was a little harder to ignore these days. “Our own planet was one thing, and yes, it went better than we expected. But the things you talked about us doing before you left, about going to other worlds to what… put the screws to people? Being some kind of unofficial scouting? Enforcement? I still don’t get it, but I know we’re not ready yet. We’ve barely been training six weeks now since you’ve been gone. And where did you go, by the way?”

  Nash addressed the first questions in hope that Kory would forget the last. She was still supposed to be keeping Sohrab’s return a secret for some reason. “Who says you’re not ready?”

  “Fighting, I mean real fighting, is scarier than it looks. And even if me and Zol can get strong faster than most, don’t let him fool you either, it’ll be bad out there…” she lowered her voice to a whisper. “…and don’t forget all the trouble we’ll get into –” she cut herself off as the train glided to a gentle stop in the Amber Valley Station. The two slid wordlessly out of their seat and left the car with the shared understanding the debate would resume at the next discreet location.

  #

  Above the open promenades and galleries which comprised the elegant shopping center, the sky was only a tick darker than it had been during the day. A gentle breeze caressed the flowered vines adorning every streetlamp and balcony. As she viewed the golden haze of the lights through the dancing foliage, Kory recalled the words of the young Toravai girl who first spoke to her and Zol about the airy cave by the sea. “Is this where the world breathes? Here at this mall?” She thought.

  Before long she found herself in the dressing room of a pricey boutique with her friend. Both carried armfuls of evening gowns, each with potential, but only one destined for purchase. Kory had opted for her usual selection of reds ranging from scarlet through burgundy. Nash on the other hand, was torn between silvery lavenders, and dark, velvety bronzes. It was hard to like more than one color.

  “Do you ever wish we could just fly around, like we did back on your planet?” Nash said as she turned her back to Kory and lifted her long violet hair from her neck. Kory zipped up her friend’s dress and continued to adjust the straps of her own. Each of them spun to face the tall mirror occupying the back wall of the dressing room and evaluated their choices.

  “Of course, I do, but I also don’t like where you’re going with this.” Kory’s face scrunched in disapproval as she looked herself up and down. “What do you think? Too many ruffles?”

  “You wanted something with movement? Dimension maybe?” Nash replied. She disliked her own flat, gray gown for its lack of excitement, but she agreed Kory’s had entirely too much. It made her look like a bird. The two agreed in unison and resolved to try another, adding their rejected selections to a growing pile on the solitary chair. “Why don’t you like where I’m going with this?” Nash pressed.

  “The whole thing sounds suspect,” Kory said. The pain in her ankle was noticeable at this point. Even relegating the heels to the fittings was proving to be too much. It put the effect of their training and its purpose at the forefront of her mind. “If this one works, I’m calling it. It’s hot in here anyway,” she said, slipping into a dreamy, strapless creation made of several transparent layers of crimson silk.

  “I think that’s the one.” Said Nash, eyes wide and not overtly jealous, but certainly inwardly, always inwardly. She held up her own dress to her chest but didn’t bother to ask her friend to help zip it, she knew it wouldn’t work and didn’t feel like twisting the knife any further. “Why don’t we go buy that one for you and then try another store? I’m not feeling inspired here.”

  #

  After a few more exhausting and thankless shops, the two melted into the couches of a dusky cocktail lounge, surrounded by their hard-won, elegantly packaged spoils. Every bit of energy from the beginning of the evening had been cut down by the laborious enterprise that was shopping, tense discussion notwithstanding. They kept silent for a while, speaking only to the waiter in a reassuring elevated register to sell the lie that nothing was wrong.

  By this point, Nash resigned herself to not mention the matter again that night when Kory surprised her with a concession. “I guess I’ll do it.” She sighed; her gaze affixed in the opposite direction as her friend.

  “I understand why you may be apprehensive,” Nash cautioned. This wasn’t the truth. She didn’t understand anything less than the thrill of ambition, much less apprehension, over the prospect of going out into the unknown to find the potential and power hiding just around every corner.

  “Your people seem to hold the whole of space in their hands,” Kory whispered low as she turned to face Nash. A dense gravity filled the air between them; a gravity so thick it could distill time itself to sludge. “…And besides, what else do I have going for me?” She sat up to take a long sip from the watery drink she’d been ignoring. At once, the heaviness of the moment lightened as if it had never been there. Nash was surprised. All her life she’d never imagined Kory had even one foreboding bone in her body. And she certainly didn’t imagine she’d get a ‘yes’ tonight based on how the rest of the evening had preceded.

  “I promise it’ll be so much better than we think it will be.” Nash leaned in and her eyes brightened. “We can finally explore everything we can do, everything we can really do, all that we’re entitled to!”

  “Let’s get through the party first, Miss Entitled.” Kory quipped, draining the rest of her glass. “And let’s get another too.”

  Nash couldn’t help but smile. “The next one’s on me!”

  “I thought they were all on you.”