"What -- precisely -- have we done, then?"
"I don't know Imminence," the Queen replied. "It may have been a coincidence."
The Goddess rolled her eyes.
"Really?"
The Queen of Sweetness looked aside in doubt.
"No, you don't believe it either," the Goddess added, rubbing her belly subconsciously. "They found no Synergist?"
The Queen shook her head.
"Nor any reason to think there might have been any."
That was just as frightening.
"Zhair'lo I can understand," the Goddess said. "He is what we expect."
She looked down at her belly. For such a private audience she had chosen the smallest top in her wardrobe, leaving her overheated stomach bare.
"But what of Talla?" she asked. "What is she?"
-----------===================-------------
Talla's heart skipped a beat and she read the card again.
"Upgrade. Strength. Extraordinary."
Deep breath.
She suddenly wished that she had never visited the doctor. Sure, her chest hurt, but couldn't she live with it? Wouldn't that be preferable to going through another upgrade? Maybe she could get out of it; just say it wasn't that bad after all.
No.
There was no point in running from this particular ordeal.
She stilled her heart. Upgrades would be a part of her life for the next decade at least. She would have to get used to them.
Deep breath, again. Relax.
That calming influence wasn't just her own. Zhair'lo was out there somewhere, sweating in a field on a day not quite hot enough for the heat bell they'd both wanted. Zhair'lo, perhaps sensing her anxiety, was sending gentle waves of calmness in her direction.
Reason and logic returned.
Zhair'lo would not be coming in tonight. She would be so much more comfortable with him as the Conduit. If he became overloaded, he would know. He would recognize the difference between one or two upgrades and being charged with a life-threatening quadruple.
But he had done an upgrade last night. They wouldn't have him back tonight. She had learned enough to know that boys were never allowed to do upgrades two nights in a row.
As a Seal Breaker, like Zo'kar, he'd be pushed to the limit. The two of them would be doing Virgins every other night until the Temple was emptied of them.
Talla sighed.
How she'd wished for the heat bell today; for a chance to go looking for that blue ribbon.
Zhair'lo was out there, far away. She could feel him - him and every metre of the distance between them.
Her eyes narrowed.
They would have their chance.
And if they didn't, they would make their own chances.
-----------===================-------------
"Beshenna?" her Mistress asked.
"I have a desire to travel," Maksa said earnestly. "To see other cities."
The Sorceress of Lips looked at the document in front of her. Migration requests were not uncommon. Some liked to move about, some didn't. The women of Pussy were ardent that migration be encouraged for the sake of genetic stability. The women of Form supported it for a sense of inter-city cohesiveness and uniformity of culture. Within thought it was a barely tolerable nuisance of administration and Endowment really didn't care as long as they still got to build things somewhere.
"You are currently assigned to the Virgins' dormitories, are you not?" Lips asked.
"Yes, Mistress."
The Sorceress nodded thoughtfully.
"I have no reason to hold you here," she said. "But you will need the permission of my sister across the way. The Virgin dorms are the province of Pussy, after all, and that is your current assignment."
"Thank you, Mistress," she said and bowed herself out.
"Safe journey", she said and waved her Disciple away.
It had been a difficult decision.
Talla's mother, if the documents were correct, was in Turiksa. But there was no guarantee that she was even alive. In a way, that made Maksa want to travel there first, on the chance that the woman might even now be on her death bed. Mih'lan's possible demise wasn't the only downside of heading that way first, though. Even if she were alive, what would she remember of the mysterious events around Talla's birth? If something truly strange had gone on, Mih'lan might not even want to talk about it, and she would have a good deal of seniority with which to brush Maksa off.
On the other hand, her real desire was to see what had happened to Zhina, Talla's half-sister. Had Zhina strayed from the leanings of her genealogy? Was there something in that ancestry that Maksa didn't understand? She'd only been doing it for a few months now, after all. Surely she had much to learn.
So it was Zhina she wanted to meet.
And therefore it was to Beshenna that she wanted to travel.
-----------===================-------------
Talla was passing through Endowment Hall, preoccupied by her impending upgrade, when she was startled to see the Engineering women once again bent over a central table, consulting with men.
"A beverage?" one of the women asked those around her.
There was some agreement that this was a good idea and the whole group, men and women, retired to a nearby counter where a girl in white offered them water and iced fruit drinks. It was a little odd, seeing men and women together like that, so casual. At least they weren't eating together. That would have been ridiculous.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Talla trotted over to the table with the abandoned drawing. It wasn't a secret, was it? Endowment was her Division and the women of Endowment built things. Her curiosity was perfectly justified, wasn't it?
Besides ... no one was looking.
It was the same tower she'd caught a glimpse of before. There were a few light correction marks here and there. She looked at the drawings and felt a faint sense of disappointment.
She knew how to read these sorts of drawings. Like every teenage girl, she was well versed in the mathematics and geometry that weren't worth teaching to boys. Consequently, cross sectional drawings were nothing new to her.
So when she looked at this tower and noted its lack of windows for most of its length, she understood that its primary purpose was as some kind of observation tower. Thinking about the dimensions, she figured that it would be the tallest building in Gern -- taller even than the presently existing watchtowers out on the periphery. Were they building taller watchtowers? Possibly.
That wasn't Talla's concern.
What she saw in the drawings ... she couldn't put her finger on it.
She flinched.
Ugly. That was the word. Not 'ugly' in the sense of a poorly painted picture or some creeping vermin. It was a different kind of ugly. She should have a different word for it, but she -
"Talla!" came a harsh whisper.
