Thank you, Ambassador, for that is all the promise I can give. “Is there anything else we must discuss? As you said, I must leave soon, and I still have so much to settle with Ca’aed and its caretakers.”
Z’eth dipped her muzzle. “Care for your city, Ambassador. May it stay strong for your return.”
They wished each other luck and parted, Z’eth to find her advisers, and T’sha to find her kite.
What T’sha could not find again was her calm. As her kite flew her home, T’sha turned Z’eth’s words over and over again, searching for comfort, or at least a kinder interpretation in them.
A feud with the New People. It was not something she had even considered. If the New People had any kind of claim on the candidate world, surely, the People themselves would simply leave. Life served life. Life spread life. Sane and balanced life did not spend itself in useless contest. It found its own niche and filled it to the fullest. The People were sane and balanced and would not feud with the New People.
But what if the New People feud with us?
All of T’sha’s bones contracted abruptly at the thought. No. She shook herself. It could not happen. There are things which must be true for all sane life. If they have no claim, they cannot contest our claim. There would be no reason for them to. Z’eth is a great ambassador, but perhaps she has been fighting too long for the life of her city.
Not that she is growing insane, T’sha added to herself hastily. But perhaps her focus has narrowed.
That was a good enough thought that T’sha could pretend to be content with it. But even so, Z’eth’s words about a sudden illness touching Ca’aed left a nagging fear. Almost instinctively, T’sha ordered her headset to call Ca’aed.
“Good luck, Ambassador,” came the city’s voice. “How went your meeting with Ambassador Z’eth?”
T’sha deflated. “I will tell you, Ca’aed. I don’t know which upset me more, Z’eth or her city.”
Ca’aed murmured sympathetically. “Visiting the sick can be distressing.”
A silence stretched out between them while T’sha worked up the courage to ask the question that would not leave her alone. “Ca’aed?”
“Yes, T’sha?”
T’sha deflated even further, as if the weight of her thoughts pressed down on her. “You said…you said you were afraid that you would suffer, as Gaith suffered—”
“I am afraid, T’sha. I cannot help it.”
“But I may find that the New People have a legitimate claim on the candidate world. What then?”
Ca’aed was silent for a long moment. When it did speak, the words came slowly, as if the city had to drag them out one at a time. “If they live in the world, if they spread life and help life, and still their life and ours cannot live together sanely, I believe we must then find another world.”
Love welled up out of T’sha’s soul. She did not question her city’s words. If the words were not completely true, she did not want to know. She wanted only to believe. While she had Ca’aed with her, she could do anything and needed no other ally.
As Ca’aed’s sphere came into view, their talk turned to the provisions made for T’sha’s absence. Together they reviewed the promises of authority and caretaking and agreed to their wording. Ca’aed reported it was getting on well with Ta’teth, the newly selected deputy ambassador, but that Ta’teth’s sudden elevation still made him nervous.
T’sha couldn’t blame him. She knew what it was to sit cloistered in a waiting room while all the Kan Ca’aed considered your skills, your family, the promises you had made and accepted, and told the pollers who went from compound to compound whether they believed you were worthy of their trust. And this was before the question was even officially put to Ca’aed itself.
“He will calm down soon, I believe,” said Ca’aed. “Wait. Ah. Your parents speak to me and ask me to remind you that you agreed to stop by your home and talk about marriage promises.”
“Do they?” T’sha clacked her teeth hard, once.
“You should have your own household.”
Indignation swelled T’sha back up to her normal size. “Are those your words or theirs?”
“Both.”
I am surrounded. “You are my city, not my marriage broker.”
“You are my citizen as well as my ambassador. I speak for your welfare. Does your own body not speak to you of children?”
“Frequently.” This is a lovely conversation to be having right now. It is not a distraction I need.
“Well then?”