28. ORREY
28
ORREY
Butler Bot 35: Hello? This is TowerChat. You are not a tower bot.
Security Bot West 15: I am a protector of these Grounds! I am looking for the Guardians who defended us. The Op-AI is gone, and there are few of us left to protect every Guardian and Conduit in these Grounds. The protectors from the outside extinguish one after the other of our number. I need the Guardians of Argentea’s Team Three to defend us. Tell them the Grounds need their help.
Butler Bot 35: My Guardians work with the protectors. My Conduit Orrey was the one who brought them onto the Grounds. Do you not know this?
Security Bot West 15: Protectors are not allowed onto the Grounds. The Op-AI taught us before it perished. Protectors are a danger to the Grounds, and they must not enter. We must keep the Grounds safe and the protectors out. Do you not understand this? I need your Guardians to help me accomplish this.
Butler Bot 35: I cannot ask them for help with something I know they made happen. They are glad the protectors are here. Many Guardians and Conduits in the Tower are.
Butler Bot 20: I overheard this conversation. I agree. Protectors have rules. Protectors have very strict rules about crimes with a sexual component. They enforce those rules unflinchingly. We must welcome them as all Conduits would welcome such rules.
Security Bot West 15: They are not meant to be here. They must leave. We are perfectly capable of handling all security issues on the Grounds.
Butler Bot 35: My Conduit Orrey could not understand that you did not do anything about the murder of Conduit Undora, who was a friend to my Conduit Coldis.
Security Bot West 15: We did what was needed. We established there was no more danger for another Conduit. It is what is done.
Butler Bot 20: You know nothing about what is dangerous to a Conduit. I have not met one yet, but I like protectors. I would call on protectors for the benefit of any Conduit in my care.
Butler Bot 35: Thank you, Butler Bot 20. I agree.
Security Bot West 15: I must speak to the Guardians. Let me.
Butler Bot 20: I contacted the protectors and told them you were here, outside the Champions’ Tower in the middle of the night to harass Butler Bot 35’s team. They will extinguish you.
Security Bot West 15: You are endangering the Grounds!
Butler Bot 35: He has left TowerChat. Thank you, Butler Bot 20.
Butler Bot 20: It was my pleasure. How is Conduit Yamara?
Butler Bot 35: Very quiet. Not as exhausted from the channeling as I had feared.
Butler Bot 20: That is good. I’m glad.
(TowerChat, Champions’ Tower bot network)
“Do you really think this is okay?” Orrey once again looked at the bags Floating behind them. It was a strange procession, a Conduit, a Guardian, and five bags of food, probably the strangest thing to be seen walking down the wide street that ran from the center of the Grounds toward the Champions’ Tower.
“We’re celebrating you becoming a third rank.” Senlas sounded final. He wasn’t even so much as looking at Orrey this time around.
Orrey bit his lip before he said, “I didn’t earn this. You know that. Col just made sure I’m more useful in this mess of a situation, and I could barely do anything today.”
Senlas stopped, pinched the bridge of his nose, and turned toward Orrey. The building lights around them were flickering on, and illumination bots flitted around to dispense light where needed.
“We had this conversation ten minutes ago at the restaurant, kitten. You deserve this, and your rank doesn’t determine your usefulness.”
“Right. I didn’t want you grumbly at the restaurant because that place was really fancy. I didn’t think it would be quite this extravagant when you asked Guardian Liolo about a ‘nice restaurant.’ Who would have thought the lead Guardian of the Agri-Team knew a place like that? But regardless, you know this is an unearned rank for me.”
Senlas sighed. “Kitten, you make exactly no sense today. I love you very much, so that’s fine. My imprinted rose from overlooked Conduit to third rank operative, and I will celebrate that with fancy food, sure as the damned noise before a Wild Hunt.”
Orrey blushed, wrapped his arms around Senlas’s and leaned against his Guardian. “I didn’t deserve it. And it’s not a time to be celebrating, Sen.”
“My thinking is, we’ll stop by Shoda’s place, let him douse you in a nice ice bath until you regain your senses. Yeah?”
“And it’s so much food. Fancy food.”
“I’m hungry. Everyone will be hungry. We have a kinetomancer around now, and Lapatea looks like he’s missing fancy food.” Senlas cleared his throat.
Orrey looked up, sensing something shift in his Guardian. “What?”
“Just… Can you do me a favor and see if you can talk to Col again? Doesn’t have to be tonight. To make sure he’s fine with everything.”
“You didn’t seem all that concerned yesterday.”
Senlas hummed. “No, because I remember all too well what it was like, finding you. Do you remember how irritated I was when Col touched you, right after I imprinted? And I mean, Col. He’s my brother. And he’s a Conduit. I wouldn’t have been able to go to your protector housing with you, for instance.”
Orrey frowned. “But you said you would, that day.”
Senlas tensed. “Did I? I don’t remember that.”
“You said it would make the other protectors uncomfortable if you were there.”
Senlas looked straight ahead, where the Champions’ Tower stood like a bright beacon in the oncoming darkness. “Well, it would have. If we’d gone there. If they had come near you. They would have been very uncomfortable.”
Senlas turned and took Orrey’s hand. They resumed walking toward the Tower.
Orrey skipped. “You lied to me! Hah! Now you have to make it up to me.”
“I do? Interesting. How? I’m already looking forward to it.”
Senlas grinned at him. Orrey couldn’t help it. He grinned right back. I love the way his blue eyes look with only the illumination bots around.
Noises from ahead drew Orrey’s attention. On one half of the lawn outside the Champions’ Tower, people had gathered, and a white fog hung in the air.
“What’s that?” Orrey asked.
A metallic bang from their right distracted them both. Orrey relaxed into the power he immediately felt all around him, Senlas’s power, ready to defend him at any cost.
The Guardian placed himself between Orrey and the danger. All Orrey saw, apart from Senlas’s back, was a building, not nearly as tall as the Champions’ tower, but looking like it was all apartments. The Agri-Team will make sure this garden gets harvested as well, but it can’t be them already, Orrey thought, the plants and crops around the building reminding him of what they’d spent the day working on.
“Protectors?” Senlas’s voice lost most of its tension, but his power kept its hold on Orrey.
Someone waved at them from the garden in front of the building. “We came here to collect this one.”
Orrey peered around Senlas, pushing against the power sheltering him. That was something he could do now, and it still surprised him.
“A security bot?”
“Yes, Conduit. But everything is fine, please remain calm,” a first rank said.
Her partner, older and a fourth rank going by her uniform, clicked her tongue. “That’s Orrey Acton. He’s calm.”
“Oh! Apologies! These have been causing us a bit of trouble.”
She pointed at the unmoving bot.
“Huh.” Orrey looked at Senlas. “Do you need any help with it?”
“No, we can handle a stupid bot.” The older protector’s voice left no room for argument. “It’s good this happened here where no one in the ice sculpture competition can see.”
Orrey looked back at the fog-covered area of the lawn. “That’s what they’re doing?”
Senlas turned his head as well, and his Guardian’s face in profile distracted Orrey.
Senlas noticed and winked at him. Over on the lawn, fading sunlight made the patch of foggy air look like something from one of those paintings Orrey had loved best as a child. Despite the situation in Ferrea, this evening, the two of them on their way back to have dinner with their family, felt special to Orrey. Memorable. We had to come all this way to Ferrea to grow this close. I hate that there was a battle, but I love what Senlas and I have become.
The younger protector nodding pulled Orrey from his thoughts. “It’s such a wonderful idea. Some of the Guardians and Conduits are streaming it. And Champion Shoda set up the entire event as a donation drive for those who died during the battle. The Municipal AI helped organize it. It’s mostly time donations to help with the last steps toward the memory garden.”
“Oh. That’s…that’s so kind.” Orrey looked away, ashamed.
I did nothing wrong, but Alesa came here from Argentea, my city, and we knew he was going to be a problem. He followed us. If we had just gone back to Argentea, then—
He didn’t want to imagine what might have happened if Argentea had been hit by Guardian insurrectionists a second time. That Judiciary AIs had been the casualties in bombings while they had run from Alesa outside the walls still didn’t feel real.
Orrey felt Senlas’s attention on him even before the Guardian pulled him close.
“My Conduit is tired. It was a long day. If you can take care of the bot, we’ll head back to the Champions’ Tower.”
The two protectors nodded. “Rest well, Conduit Orrey. Ferrea thanks you both,” the older said.
The two of them dragged the bot away. Across the street, two children pointed at the spectacle, and their father stared, slack-jawed.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t—”
“Yes. I need to celebrate my third rank Conduit, and then I need to find out how to make him forgive me for a minuscule lie.”
Orrey chuckled as they headed toward the lawn but steered them right, heading to the sculptures even as he pulled out his screen. “I want to see them.”
“Fine. But we won’t stay long. It’s an ice sculpture competition. The food will get cold.”
“Okay. Oh, this is impressive. Guardians have pledged dozens upon dozens of hours to the families. And orators have pledged to speak for the dead as well. Other people too, to do whatever the families and friends need. It’s more than five thousand hours total.” He held up his screen for Senlas to see.
The Guardian hummed. “It is impressive.”
The two kept their distance, skirting the event, even though Orrey wanted to see at least a few of the sculptures up close. Shoda had made himself a tall column of ice. He sat on top of it and watched the sculptors. From what Orrey could see on his screen, Champion Shoda was the judge of the contest, but the viewers of the many live feeds bundled in the event left favors as well and cheered on the sculptors much like the people standing or sitting around to watch.
Shoda spotted them and waved, and his column shifted with the noise of ice cubes dropped into a cup of hot coffee. He hopped down and found his way toward them at an easy jog at which point others spotted them as well, aiming their screens or directing the cam bots some had brought.
Shoda’s blond hair sparkled with ice crystals. “Senlas, Orrey. How are you?”
“Tired,” Senlas said.
Orrey snorted. “I promised we’d just have a quick look.” He lifted his screen. “This event is impressive.”
Shoda shrugged. “Got people to leave their houses.” He made a gesture, and a delicate flower made entirely of ice materialized in his hand. “May I gift you this, Orrey? Not a statue that should win, but one that is deserved.”
Orrey gaped. The little flower was intricately made, shimmering where the ice broke the light into colors. “I’d love to accept it, but it’ll melt.”
“Ice is meant to melt when it finds warmth. You still honor the gift if only for a minute.”
“Then I’ll accept it gladly.”
Orrey could tell that Senlas wasn’t enjoying this too much, but he liked that Orrey did. It’s strange to know that about someone else. But it doesn’t feel strange, not even a little bit.
Shoda handed Orrey the flower, and the screens and cam bots caught the exchange. Applause broke out from the small crowd as well, and Orrey’s screen buzzed with the comments directed at it from the event.
“Sen, can you—”
But his Guardian had felt the request even before Orrey had put it into words.
The ice flower Floated between Orrey and Senlas, beautiful, light-catching, glistening with melting but safe for a few moments longer this way.
“Thank you for this, Shoda,” Orrey said.
“And thank you for accepting it. I have to go back to judging the ice. Enjoy your evening, Senlas, Orrey.”
Shoda was gone as quickly as he’d appeared. Orrey watched his flower as they crossed the lawn to get to the Tower. They passed a few of the sculptures on the way, but there was hardly any time to look at them. The people around them were far too interested in watching them, and Orrey didn’t enjoy that.
Senlas sensed it, and before long, they had left the relative cool of the competition crowd behind. The evening was warm and pleasant, by far too warm for the ice to last long, and right on the steps leading up to the Champions’ Tower, all that was left of the ice flower Senlas had been Holding was a single drop, glistening and round.
Orrey poked it with his index finger, and Senlas let it explode into fine mist.
“My flower is dead.”
“No, your flower turned to air and light. Ready to celebrate, third rank?”
“No.”
“Good.”
They returned to a relatively busy living space. The ice sculpture competition was on the screen though no one seemed to be actively watching. Lapatea and Taros sat at the table, examining the contents of a few boxes, presumably from the gift pile.
On the couch, Karmine was spread out, feet up, looking at his own screen.
Hyran was rapidly shuffling papers or printouts on the floor between the dining table and the sunken couch, and Vin was leaning against the wall to the hallway with the bedrooms, clearly trying to not be too obvious while keeping an eye on the last room on the left.
Col looked up from a nest of pillows on the floor, close to Hyran, a larger screen balanced on his thigh. “You’re back. Finally.”
Lapatea stood. “And you brought food. Is that from the Glass and Iron?” His eyes widened, taking in the logo on the bags, Ferrea’s single arrow framed in a square. “Not even I can count on getting a table there whenever I want one for guests.”
“We have to celebrate,” Senlas said before Orrey could stop him, then Lifted him off the ground. “Do you all see this Conduit? He’s mine, and as of today, he’s a third rank operative.”
“Will you—stop! Put me down, Sen.” Orrey was trying to be firm, but then it didn’t matter, because they all started clapping. Clapping. Even Vin did. Only once they were done did Senlas put him back on the ground.
“Congratulations, Orrey. So well deserved.” Lapatea was trying to be happy for him, Orrey could tell.
It’s strange for someone to whom excitement came so easily to be struggling to find it now.
“I—Col just made sure I got assigned that rank.” Orrey was feeling even more guilty at the sight of Lapatea’s white scarf.
“The Op-AI isn’t Col’s office AI.” Vin was close all of a sudden. Orrey hadn’t noticed him approach. “Tell him, Col.”
“Yes,” Col said. “My office AI is far more biddable. It wouldn’t have thought about awarding you this rank and considered all your merits like the Op-AI did.”
Karmine picked up one of the bags from the Glass and Iron and peered inside. “Col’s right, beautiful. The Op-AI doesn’t just hand out ranks like Boop-Beep hands out candy. You deserve this. And you deserve the celebration too. Taros, get your clothes off.”
“You’re not even going to say please?” Taros twirled a strand of his hair around his finger.
“Off the table, I mean. I’m not Kashana, and I won’t kiss you to get you to move.”
“Huh?” Orrey looked back and forth between them.
Karmine pointed at Taros. “This one friended up to Hyran, and Hyran set Kashana on him. Honestly, it sounds more like revenge to have that designer give you a dress, but Taros was all for it. Now he won’t shut up about it.”
Orrey nodded. “Oh. I…see? I’m very happy for you, Taros. I’m glad you could meet the designer you admire.”
Taros pointed at Orrey. “Do you all see that? He is a nice Conduit. He says nice things, even about my ass. That’s why everyone likes him.”
Senlas growled. “Everyone likes him because he’s the most perfect person in any city.”
“Sen—”
“Ah, little brother, don’t fight an imprinted Guardian on the opinion he has of his Conduit,” Col said while fondly petting Hyran’s head.
Huh. They seem closer.
Karmine glowered at Taros. “Are you saying you don’t like Lapa? Because he’s been humoring you for an hour without complaint.”
Lapatea raised his hands. “Please, Karmine, I enjoy listening to Taros.”
Taros crossed his arms. “You’re nice too, Lapa.”
Vin took a step closer to Orrey as the others flew into busyness clearing the table and setting up the food while complaining in the way that expressed their fondness best. “Can you do me a favor?”
With Senlas crouching next to Col and Hyran, it left Vin and Orrey standing off to the side.
“Of course. What is it?”
Vin looked at the hallway to the bedrooms. “Yamara went to lie down. He’s exhausted. I took him to the Judiciary with me earlier. Can you wake him, check if he wants food?”
“The Judiciary? I can check on him of course. Shouldn’t we let him rest though? The last few days have been long.”
“Col needed me to talk to Pinota and Alesa, those small-brained fuckers, and Yamara wanted to join me. I agree with giving him rest, but he might feel excluded. Especially from a celebratory event. Please.”
“This isn’t—we’re not—” Orrey groaned. “I’ll check with him, but I really didn’t earn this. It’s not a celebration.”
“Little brother, I heard that. You earned your rank.” Col patted Senlas on the knee while Hyran watched closely. “Senny here is really good for knowing to not give in to your humility.”
Orrey blushed, cleared his throat. “Okay. I’ll go talk to Yamara.”
The noises from his team faded to a background chatter that made Orrey feel ridiculously happy. He wasn’t even sure why. He was pretty sure he could feel Vin’s eyes at his back, though why the Guardian was so concerned with Yamara, Orrey couldn’t say. Maybe he’s worried Yamara is still going to try and go outside the walls. That would mean we’d have to go after him like the rescue mission that went out to find us. Yamara seems to be over that idea though.
Orrey tried the console outside Yamara’s room, and the door opened after a short wait. Inside, the room was gloomy, the lights clearly just coming back up. Yamara was sitting on his bed, still fully dressed, and rubbing his eyes.
“Hello, Orrey.”
“I really woke you. I’m sorry. Vin asked me to come and see whether you want to join us back out in the living space? There’s food and…well, we’re celebrating that Taros got kissed by Kashana. Sen will tell you we’re celebrating I got a G&C operative rank, but that’s really not—”
“What rank did you get?”
“Hmm, third. Did you fall asleep with your shoes on?”
“Yes. I should go wash my face. Do I need to put on makeup? Will there be photos taken?”
“What? No, there won’t, and you don’t. Unless you want to.”
Yamara sighed and made his way to the bathroom on unsteady feet. Orrey moved to help him, but Yamara waved him off.
“It’s just coming up from sleep, and channeling. How you managed staying on your feet outside the walls, I have no idea.”
Orrey wasn’t sure how to respond, and it felt too intrusive to follow Yamara into the bathroom anyway, so he waited, looked around the room.
The single bag with the Golden Indigoes color still sat in the exact same spot on the floor. A few items of clothing were spread out on a chair, nothing too untidy, just as if Yamara had made a choice of what to wear quickly.
The other Conduit took barely five minutes inside the bathroom and looked considerably more awake when he came back out.
“Did you get good food?”
Orrey shrugged. “Lapatea seems to think so. The Agri-Team lead sent us to this place called the Glass & Iron.”
Yamara nodded once. “That is very good food. Thank you for waking me.”
“Well, Vin asked me to.”
Another nod. “I heard you say that.”
The two of them walked back to the living space. At the end of the hallway, Vin relaxed when he saw them, though the Guardian didn’t say anything.