ROSAMINE WAY, The Stacks | Early MORNING
It was hot even though the pair had snuck away from Nauleth's house early. The sun was bright, having risen in the Roalis sky at least an hour or two ago, and even though he was grateful to be back in the familiar temperate climate of Anaxas, he still didn't feel used to the open air and unfiltered sunshine. It was too open. It was too bright. Both odd sensations considering all he'd longed for even while facing the near-death terrors of the Deep was a cloudless afternoon and a stretch of Stacks cobblestone free of rickshaws and taxis with his bicycle.
After months of what could only be truthfully called intellectual and political captivity, not to mention excruciating physical recovery, in the dark, cold mountain depths of Qrieth, Gior, the redheaded physicist just wanted to be outdoors, away from the curiosities of colleagues who had eagerly welcomed him home without having a clocking clue to the realities of how the eldest Siordanti, his Bruthgrave fiancé, and a pair of disgraced, traitorous Da Huanes barely escaped with their lives.
"Once you get the hang of it, yes, it'll be easy, but it's all a matter of using Newbrixton's three laws of motion to your advantage, honestly." Nauleth smirked at Leyanak Da Huane (or was it just Huane? or was it even something else now that they were hiding here in Anaxas?), reaching to help the passive up only to have her glare at his hand and stand on her own. Months ago, he wouldn't have dared what he was doing. Perhaps he was still a little unsure, "I didn't promise learning would be the simplest part, however."
"You are attempting to shift the context of conversation, EyalteathMister Siordanti." The girl huffed, narrowing her violet-red eyes at the older galdor before picking back up her sunhat, squinting against the glare of this totally new Anaxi summer experience she found herself in.
"No, I'm not at all, seedayarchild. Would you prefer to go back inside instead? One more try—you went far last time. You almost have it." He offered awkwardly, glancing down the street again as if afraid someone who passed by would see them and immediately know the youth with him was both a passive and an illegal immigrant. From a distance, it was impossible to tell Leyanak from another young student—she was tall and willowy, pale but not as delicate as she seemed. Up close, of course, she had no field, but one could forget that sometimes—after peering into the Deep and surviving, the dangers of a passive's potential diablerie seemed minimal at best. Besides, she was just as much a fugitive as he was, "I'm going to get you going—"
It had been strange to be home again, back in his house as far away from campus as he had once so desperately wanted to be as both a student and professor. In his absence, his garden had been tended and nothing had really changed, though his housemates had moved out, moved on. Mateo had lingered, managing the staff, keeping things together, surprised that as soon as the eldest Siordanti returned in a whirlwind of chaos with so little he seemed able to talk about that he dismissed the three passives, going so far as to find them different employment and making sure they were sent away with a handsome bonus of money they most certainly didn't deserve as servants. The professor had wanted privacy, and his methods of finding it were admittedly unconventional in Anaxas.
Nauleth picked up the small bicycle he'd managed to find for sale in the Stacks after quite a bit of searching, holding it steady while the once Child Priestess of Imaan and youngest daughter of the ruling Da Huanes of Gior climbed carefully back onto it with a giggle and a grin.
This was wrong.
Or it would have been, half a year ago.
Today? Gods, was this even legal?
Who the clock cared?
With a shove, the redhead who was hardly significantly taller than an eleven-year-old Gioran sent the girl off, watching her wobble and squeal, pedaling furiously until she found her rhythm and balance there on the side street in the morning sun.
"Oh! I am doing the thing! Look at me!" Shouted Leyenak gleefully, completely without any intention of stopping as she took off, long legs moving faster, leaning into the motion of it all. The albino youth laughed, totally taking off toward one of the main thoroughfares, sun shining on the pale hair that slipped free from her sunhat.
"Ah—yes. Great job. You should turn around and—begads! No. Wait. Yaldyet!Shit! Wait, EeyMiss Hu—just give me a—Alioe have mercy." The youngest Huane disappeared down the street, and it was all Naul could do to scramble to his bicycle leaning against the garden wall, ignore the need to roll up a trouser leg, and hop on to chase after the Gioran child while she giggled and called out her excitement, her voice ringing out off garden walls and the stonework of neat little houses here on one of the more isolated neighborhoods of the Stacks,
"Slow down!"
"How do I do that—?"