Shirley Meier's Blog, page 43

554 - The Doctoral Chair

The doctoral candidate's chair was deliberately
quite uncomfortable. The chair was too short for me and put my knees up high.
No doubt if I were broader in form, a more slender chair with firm armrests
would have been left in its stead. This would not be an occasion to find
anything resembling comfort. Ailadas said that this was intentional. No one
would have an easy time of it while facing

553 - Behind Closed Doors

The door closed on my mother and baby Tesha, the
servants who had brought our tiny amount of luggage, everyone.  It was as if quiet followed along afterwards
in the cool blue rooms that were home now. 
I looked at Gan and Fara and Ky and… it was confusing.  I wanted to hug them all… but I didn't want
to be improper.



Kyriala fixed my hesitation.  She stepped forward and as gently as if

552 - Fussy Baby

I hum under my breath to my new daughter, who
stretches herself and fusses.  Her toes
are well healed up, from when the Haian separated them, they cannot be hurting
her.  She is full fed, she is clean, she
is dry.  Why will she not sleep?



The activity of my son coming home diverted her for
a time but she is too young to more than gaze at pretty lights and now she is
wiggling once more. 

A Slight Delay in Friday Post

I will be posting tomorrow... instead of today!

551 - Silk Sleeve, Kid Glove

We were very late coming in because we were forced
to fly out of the way of a number of snow-storm fists and lost a lot of
air.  Our flyers had to work hard to find rukamoy to get us height, in the
hills below the Yeola-e mountains.



The flight of us were very high over the city and
it looked like a glowing eye against the dark earth, the brightest high-light
the spot that was the Marble

550 - The Spirit of the Sword

I managed to doze in the air on the way home, with
no dreams that I could recall, and my flyer woke me well before we had to transfer,
so I was wide awake for it.  Kallijas was
smiling so big, I said  to my new flyer
as I squirmed into proper position. "I can see his teeth from here.  This has been one of the best things for Him!"  He'd been almost manically happy, from
Chevenga's ceremony. 

549 - ...He Breaks My Neck...

…I wake in the sweating dark of the inn, with
Gannara's soft breathing next to me.  Of
course I had that nightmare.  It is what
I was afraid of, that I couldn't make Chevenga believe me, in time.  It's just dawn.  The Kiss of the Lake is today.



Gannara rolls over, yawns and smiles sweetly at
me.  My heart clenches, as he's gotten
older he looks more like Chevenga's brother than a copy of him

548 - Homecoming Parade

"Thank you, Namidipipi," Kyriala looped the reins around the post in her fancy little Enchian carriage, and nodded gratefully at her groom.  He was almost too tall now to be a boy, almost too tall for it to be proper for him to accompany her while she drove.
Minis had owned up to the carriage and the groom and the father and all of it.  He'd actually told her all the places he'd found the

547 - Will He Believe Me?

The sun is warm on my face this spring day in Yeola-e, even though it's early in the day.  Yeolis don't do things at noon, like we do.  I'm aware of Gannara beside me.
We're hidden in the talus and boulders encroaching on one side of a wide, wide open space on the mountain.  I'm having a pleasant fantasy for once, since we got away from the Mahid.  Not mine anymore.  I've been so short on sleep

546 - That Lung-burning, Brain-rotting, Soul-Enslaving Stuff?

"Jitzmitthra... is the strangest time of year in Arko," I said.  "Of course I'd be born in the middle of it.  They're arguing in Assembly whether I exist or not, having been born on a day that technically doesn't exist."

Sukala got this extremely quizzical look on her face, came over, poked me in the arm.  "Chalk.  You exist.  Case closed."

I had to laugh. "That's the argument my grandfather