Page 23 of Into Orbit
‘Arcadias? No, not at all. They’re made ofelya, like me.’ Elswyth bent down and touched a bloom; it fell into her hand. She smiled, straightening, then tucked it behind the human female’s ear.
‘Andelyais like … magic?’
‘If you like. It’s a force most beings can’t see, but they know it’s there, like gravity. But only some can interact with it. The Hamadryad on Tir. The Priestesses on Kjid. The Mages from Ilis. The Edge Order on the Allied Planets in Sector Four. And probably a bunch of other species we haven’t met yet.’
‘We believeelyais what bonds our family members together,’ I added. ‘Though Willow would tell you it is something far less magical and far more tangible.’
‘Like biology,’ the human said. She touched the blossom behind her ear. ‘So, if a Tirian’s last name isUnclaimed, that means they haven’t found akaria? They’re not part of a … family?’
Elswyth nodded.
‘Butkariaare all female, right? What if two males fall in love?’
My hearts stopped beating as one.
‘If a Tirian doesn’t desire females – and many don’t – theirkariatakes that into the balance of her family,’ Elswyth answered. ‘The Tirian in question might have an emotional bond with her, and a … more physical … bond with another member of the family, or perhaps a series of emotional bonds and no physical bonds at all. Every Tirian is taken care of within the family structure, depending on their needs and wants.’
‘What if someone doesn’twantto be part of a family? If they don’t want any bonds at all?’
‘It does happen,’ Elswyth said. ‘Usually, they will negotiate their own small territory with the other families in their Forest, and live there on their own terms.’
Maeve nodded, frowning. ‘And what if one member of a family falls in love with someone from outside it?’
This was safer ground, so I answered. ‘If they are Unclaimed, the family’skariawould consider taking them as a new member. She would assess the feelings of her existing bonded, and how the new member might fit in. She would examine each individual relationship, and how she herself felt, and make a decision based on whether the balance of her family would be maintained or strengthened.’
‘So thekariais running the show in terms of family expansion,’ Maeve said. ‘She gets the loves she wants, and she’s the glue holding it all together. It reallyislike Tessa’s books. Can a family have twokaria?’
Elswyth and I exchanged a glance. ‘No,’ she answered. ‘There is only ever one. Her bonded always know – even if, in the beginning, she herself does not.’
‘Okay,’ the human said slowly. ‘So your families are a mix of biological impulses and specific bonds, a chosen leader, and changing circumstances – and some think there’s a bit of divine magic thrown in there for good measure. Sounds like some families on Earth, when you put it like that.’
‘What is your family like?’ I blurted, before I could stop myself.
The human looked at me, startled. ‘Small,’ she said, after a long moment of silence. ‘I don’t … I’ve never had a romantic partner, not a long-term one, anyway, so I don’t have a family in the way you mean it. It’s just me and my mum. I’ve never met my father. He and mum had a fling on a dig when she was an Honours student – she’s an archaeologist. I know his name and what he publishes on and the university he works at, and he sent us his medical records and family history and stuff, but he never really made much of an effort. When mum asked whether I wanted more contact, I kinda already thought he was a dick for fucking a student – not to mention one so much younger than he was – and didn’t see the poi –shitballs,’ she said, tipping her head back to stare at the glassed dome of the Forest and out at the black of space. ‘My mum. She’s with her team in Vietnam at the moment, but she finishes up in a month and she’ll know something’s wrong when I don’t email.’
I glanced at Elswyth; her brow had crumpled in concern, though I hadn’t understood more than half of what Maeve had said. ‘I’m sure the engineers can work out a way for you to contact your mother,’ I said slowly. ‘But you can’t tell her anything, I’m afraid; it would break intergalactic law even more than it’s already been broken. Will that be a problem?’
The human shook her head. ‘No. She’s flying straight to America once the dig finishes for a post-doc fellowship. She’ll be gone for two years; we already said our goodbyes. If I can email her, I can pretend everything’s normal.’
‘That’s a long time to be without your mother,’ Elswyth said carefully. ‘Do you miss her?’
Maeve blinked. ‘I mean, yeah, sure. But this is not outside the norm for us. She’s always been passionate about her academic career, and it’s not like there’s a huge call for archaeological digs in the middle of the city, so I’m used to being on my own, even when she’s in the same country. It wasn’t as if she had me and left; she put everything on hold until I was eighteen to give me the best upbringing she could, and even then it wasmepushing her to go back to academia the moment I was legal. It wasn’t her fault some dickhead professor knocked her up at the age of twenty-two. I know that she loves me, and I’ve had a fuck tonne of therapy, so I’m pretty confident that all my issues are my own and nothing to do with mum.’ She bit her lip; I fixed on it, entranced, as she worried at the plump pink flesh. ‘But if the engineers could hack some kind of comms channel to her, I’d be grateful. I should email Anna, and my boss, too.’ She pursed her lips and gave a bright, forced smile. ‘Enough boring stuff. What happens when you’re the heartree, El?’
El?
Elswyth gave her a wide, bright smile, so uncharacteristically unguarded that shock rippled through my entire body. ‘It’s not very interesting,’ she said apologetically. She took a deep breath, then began to glow.
‘Um,’ the human said, and took a half-step back.
‘Elya,’ I said gruffly. ‘What you’re seeing iselya.’
‘Right,’ Maeve answered, then shrieked wordlessly when Elswyth disappeared. ‘Um.Thefuck?’
‘Watch the heartree.’
She obediently turned her face to the heartree, which rippled as Elswyth took her place within it. Its trunk and branches glowed silver before its leaves gave a rustling shiver; one bough reached out to trail blossoms over Maeve’s hair.
The human gave a shocked, delighted laugh. ‘Holyshit,’ she breathed. She laughed again, a little wildly. ‘I have a wife, and my wife is a tree.’
