horrible cold

[warmfeelings]

Chelsa buries herself in her friends, and the warmth of the world that Harley isn't on anymore. She doesn't understand him. She never will. But there's Corona, sun-scorching and intense; there's Amdon, her oldest and closest; there's Anneia, sweet and smiling; there's Sandre, cuddly and fun; there's Tima, pretty-kindling and empathetic; there's Pacco, bright and deferent; there's Jony, hot as a kiln; Lionara hot as molten glass. And Aelise herself, who makes so many compromises but who does love Chelsa after all.

Harley wasn't like that one cold, cold girl, who - she wasn't even technically a sociopath. Sociopaths kindle like everyone else. She was just - cold. Like an airless environment in which no fire can burn.

But Aelise had her killed, and Chelsa made sure no one would miss her, and if anything like that ever happened again, Chelsa has every confidence that Aelise would make it right. Harley's one thing. He can just be - out of sight, out of mind. Aelise would never expect Chelsa to compromise on the existence of such a terrible cold.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Yes. I'm not a secret from you," says Mehitabel.

[queensidecastle]

"Correct."

[alicornucopia]

"I am supposed to live secretly up here and figure out how to fix the world," Mehitabel says.

[queensidecastle]

"Yes, you are," says Kers. "Want a tour?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes please," says Mehitabel.

[queensidecastle]

"It's a deal. C'mon."

And with a perfunctory wave to Aelise, Kers leads Mehitabel out of the windowed room and into the rest of the orbital ring.

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel is duly fascinated by all the intricacies of her new home.

[queensidecastle]

There's a lot of it, even counting only the parts they visit, and none of the gravity-free sections that Kers points out but doesn't enter. There are more windows, some looking down, some looking up. There are long corridors. Lots and lots of long corridors. There is a magnetic train suspended in a vacuum tunnel, for getting from place to place on the ring quickly; in fact there are four such tunnels and a considerable number of individual train cars.

And there are living quarters, which is where they end up.

[alicornucopia]

"Where will I stay?" asks Mehitabel.

[queensidecastle]

"Anywhere you want," says Kers. "Well, anywhere that's not section 214, because there's another secret living in that one. But that's miles away. Right now, I'm in this room," she indicates a door, "and you can pick any other room on this hallway."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay." Mehitabel evaluates the rooms, one at a time, in case they have salient differences. "Are you supposed to tell me which section the other secret is in?"

[queensidecastle]

"How else are you going to know to stay out of it?"

[alicornucopia]

"By it being miles away," suggests Mehitabel.

[queensidecastle]

"'Miles away' isn't as much of a barrier as it sounds like, up here."

[alicornucopia]

"Because of the train," Mehitabel surmises.

[queensidecastle]

"Yep!"

[alicornucopia]

"Okay. Why is the other secret a secret?"

[queensidecastle]

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel sighs.

[queensidecastle]

"It's not nice to do that," says Kers.

[alicornucopia]

"I want to know things," says Mehitabel.

[queensidecastle]

"I said it's not nice to do that," says Kers. "I didn't say don't. But remember that every time you ask me to tell you something that we both know you're not supposed to know yet, I get a little bit more suspicious about all the other questions you might ask me and whether or not you're supposed to have the answers."

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel considers this thoughtfully. It seems an eminently reasonable sort of statement to her, so after a while, she nods.

[queensidecastle]

Kers smiles.

[alicornucopia]

Mehitabel continues inspecting rooms, and she chooses one, and puts her sole souvenir from home on the bookshelf.