"A toast!" Guildmaster Khovin announced, raising his glass high. The other guildmembers followed the suit, and so did father, and Sirrus, last. "To our own Yeesha, daughter of Atrus, child of the D'ni, a bright, wonderful girl whose writing might very well equal that of her father's, if such a thing is possible." Scattered guild members' laughter followed.
"She will be," Father interrupted. "It is the hope of every parent that their children will be better, smarter, happier than they are. I would like to imagine I'm not any different."
Master Khovin smiled and waved his other hand in Father's direction. "And of course to Atrus, without whom none of this would be possible. It is a day of celebration, and who are we not to join in? We have all seen Yeesha's first Age." He gestured in Sirrus' direction. "And it shows so much potential for one so young, so talented. We are grateful to have such a person here in Releeshahn today, and Yeesha…" Khovin smiled at Sirrus. "Welcome home."
Father put an arm around Sirrus' shoulders and Khovin raised the glass again. The entire hall full of guildsmen did as well, those nearest clinking glasses with Sirrus and father. Sirrus brought the glass up to his lips and took a small sip.
He was fourteen and had never tasted wine before.
No. He was forty-eight…and would be fifty-two…and had tasted wine a thousand times before. And this wine was sweeter, wasn't it? Than the wine on Mechanical? Or as sweet as Aspermere?
He had never seen father as proud as this moment. This was his world, his beautiful Releeshahn, the home of the D'ni. And the man up there, Master Khovin…he was the first full-blooded D'ni Sirrus had ever seen. He was tall and thin, aging, with long bony hands wrapped around the glass. His eyes were pale and his skin…weren't they supposed to have pale skin, too, from a thousand years underground?
No, because Releeshahn lived in the sun, and its people did, too.
Sirrus enjoyed the sun. He enjoyed Releeshahn's sun more than Tomahna's because it was brighter and warmer and in the morning, he saw the steam rise off the ground. He'd never get tired of it. He could live here until he died and never tire of it.
Sirrus wished father took him here before. He talked about Releeshahn often and announced whenever he was leaving, and promised to take Yeesha someday…and when Sirrus finished writing, it was finally that time, and yesterday they linked in. Sirrus slept in a room adjacent to father's, in a big bed with layers of thin, soft sheets and a fluffed-up green pillow just as soft as the sheets. There were patterns of leaves on the pillow, and different plant patterns on each sheet. The walls were painted a warm orange color with pale, swirling patterns painted on. The Guild of Writers symbol was etched onto the wood of the door…and the sun through the window, which looked out onto the lush Releeshahn greenery…
Father's writing was beautiful, then, if it could create something like this. Sirrus touched everything in the room so he could remember it and write it into his own Ages someday.
It would never be as beautiful as Releeshahn. There was only one Age like this, and Sirrus could never find it again, never write anything like it.
Not yet. At least not yet. He could do anything father could and could do it a thousand times better, just given the time. He was still young, yet, fourteen was hardly old enough to write Ages like these.
No, he was fifty-three (fifty-two), but hadn't learned to write until recently, and it would take time to develop greater skills even with his natural abilities.
There was a feast tonight and Sirrus drank little of the wine, finding it distasteful to Yeesha's underdeveloped pallet and personally he preferred what was on Mechanical. If that Age still existed (it had to have!), he would go back there someday and retrieve all he left on those Ages.
Father did not know that Sirrus saw his Myst linking book. He kept it locked away in his room, but father and mother were not there all the time, and in Sirrus' explorations he found the Myst book. It was old, dirty, forgotten, and when he opened it, the panel on the front still showed home. It looked the same from the panel. He wanted to go there and see what home looked like now after so long, and wanted to see if Maria had done anything to it, and most of all, he wanted to go back to Channelwood and sleep in his old room among the creaking trees and chattering of primates.
There would be time for that, later.
When the feast was over, most of the guild members headed back to their rooms to sleep. The moon was high and the leaves cast in a strange, silvery light, and Sirrus did not want to go to sleep yet, not when he could see the silver wash over his arm.
"Beautiful, yes?" said a voice behind him. Sirrus startled, finding his moment interrupted by Master Khovin. The guildmaster's thin lips twitched upwards in a smile when Sirrus jerked away from the railing.
"Sorry. It's just really pretty."
"It is, I know. It is hard to believe it is our home sometimes. I've looked out here far too often and keep thinking it will be taken from us one day, that it will fall as D'ni did…but it won't, because we have built our world here on solidarity, friendship, and trust. We have learned from our mistakes and will make a better world because of that."
"Dad told me the stories," Sirrus replied. "And he said he had a tapestry about it once but it burned down."
Master Khovin chuckled. "It did. He had several, and they were crafted by Mirdal…she couldn't come tonight, but she is a wonderful weaver. It was a shame that the tapestries burned, but she offered to make more. She offered to make you one, too, but I told her not until you said what you wanted."
Sirrus turned back to the railing and ran his hands over it. He had held Yeesha's memory necklace in father's old study and saw the memories of the full tapestries, and they were extremely detailed and precise.
"I would like that," Sirrus replied. "I don't know what I'd get on it though. I don't want to say something and then decide something else and then she'll have made all that for nothing."
"Understandable. Atrus said you were a wise child, very aware, and you are."
"Thank you." He thought that he might like music in it, and then thought that he might like to hear some…real music, not the cheerful and sometimes off-key voices of the people here. "Perhaps something with music in it."
"What made you think of that?" Khovin asked.
"The singing earlier. It was very pretty, but I used to hear different sorts of music at home and in the other places I went." For the first time in years, and just for a brief moment, Sirrus wished to go to Spire…just for a second, of course…just enough time to tune the instrument and hear something played on it, and then he would go home, of course, because no one would want to stay in Spire for longer than a day, a week at most. But the instrument he built was glorious and when played right would shake the caverns with beautiful music, and while father could write…this would put the singing of Releeshahn to shame. He hadn't touched it in years, and certainly not with these hands. The cool air brushed the loose strands of his hair away from his face, and he wanted to.
But his hands were so small, they wouldn't be able to handle the controls. They were soft and ink-stained and the rocks would hurt them. He could no longer play that instrument, and the cool, high tone of a crystal discharge would jolt his small nervous system and he wasn't sure it could take the pain.
It was worth it, though, giving up that music for writing.
"It must have been lovely music to make you think that hard," Master Khovin interrupted. Sirrus twisted the end of his braid around his finger and looked out at the landscape for a minute before nodding.
"It was beautiful and always in tune." He replied.
"You do not find beauty in dissonance?"
"No."
"Ah. I would have guessed that by your Age."
"Why is that?" Sirrus demanded, stepping back from the railing and looking at Khovin. "What's wrong with my Age? Did I not do something right?" He pulled harder on the braid, and couldn't think of anything, because he made sure to smooth out all the imbalances and even father said the Age was perfectly stable, and that was unusual for a writer of such a young age, and showcased what promised to be his incredible talent. No beauty in dissonance? Should he have done that? He didn't even know what that meant, but obviously he had missed something and left something critical out of his Age, and though father was a great writer, he did not have the title of master as Khovin did.
"No, of course not!" Khovin shook his head. "Your writing was precise and well thought out, and we are all impressed by what you are able to do. You're just young, that is all. But there is so much promise, and I am honored to be able to see how your writing develops."
Sirrus bit his lip. Not good enough. Clearly, it was not good enough. Beginner or not, it didn't matter. He spent enough time working on it where he should have worked out everything.
"What does that mean?" Sirrus insisted.
"It doesn't mean anything, Yeesha. You are quite the worrier. All it means is that there is beauty everywhere, and while you do not understand it now, you are the sort who will."
"Oh." Sirrus picked at a loose nail absently. "I guess so."
"You will. It's in your blood, of course. Your mother is brilliant and creative, and your father one of the greatest men I've met. And your great-grandmother, I wish you could have met her. She would have loved you and wanted to see you write. I didn't meet her, but Atrus tells such stories…you remind me of her, you know."
Sirrus stopped picking and looked up, his eyebrows pinching together. "I do? Why is that? I am nothing like…" What did Yeesha call her? Nothing, Yeesha hardly talked about her. "Great-grandmother Anna."
"You are creative and free-spirited. I've read her writing and it reminds me very much of yours. Depending on how long you are here, I will take you to the library near here and you can look through one of her descriptive books. I think you'll find a lot to learn from that."
"Where is the library?" Sirrus demanded, peering out across the landscape, not able to make out anything through the trees.
"It is too far from here to walk. But I promise I will take you soon, if your father allows it. Is that a good arrangement?" Khovin tilted his head inquiringly.
"It is," Sirrus agreed. "I would like that."
"Good. I look forward to it as well." Khovin smiled and bowed slightly, and Sirrus did the same. "It is late, and I am very tired. It has been a long day and we've celebrated very much. I am going to bed, and perhaps you should as well."
"I will do that soon, guildmaster."
Khovin went inside and left the door to the balcony slightly open for Sirrus and then left him.
Sirrus waited for a few minutes, tapping impatiently against the railing. He was not going to wait until tomorrow, because he did not want to be in the library supervised. Knowing the people of Releeshahn, if they had any of gramma's Ages (did Yeesha call her that? Or was it Grandmother, or just Anna?), they would be kept away somewhere guarded or locked up, and if he was allowed to see them at all, it would be with Khovin breathing down his neck. Khovin was a good man and an honest guildmaster, but he idolized father and his family, and while he would let Sirrus read gramma's books, he would do all but turn the pages for him to keep them preserved.
They kept gramma's books here. Here! Father never mentioned that, though it could be because gramma was never important to Yeesha except in a distant sense. Yeesha had a picture of her, an old picture curling on the edges. Gramma was beautiful and young in that photo, and her hands weren't curled with arthritis or coughing and covering her mouth with a handkerchief.
("She was the nicest person ever. That's what my necklace told me, how much she cared about everyone."
"She would be proud of you, Yeesha."
That is what the necklace always said when Sirrus touched the photograph. He kept it anyway, because it was the only photograph father kept of gramma)
He could find the library. It shouldn't be too hard. He wanted to see them and touch them, flip through the pages and read her handwriting, her careful D'ni and her wonderful words. She had to be a thousand times better of a writer than father, and he could learn from her, even though she had died years before. It wouldn't matter, she would still live there, and he could remember her.
Khovin was wrong, he was nothing like her. He would never be and would never try, and it would be an insult to her to compare anyone to her. He would make sure that Khovin knew this and stopped speaking of her when he never met her.
Sirrus went inside the large hall and closed the door behind him. There were still people milling around despite the late hour, and a few waved, the others nodded, but most just walked by, absorbed in their own thoughts. Sirrus asked one of them where a map was, and he was pointed down the nearby hall.
The map of Releeshahn was still unfinished, but the main part of the city was complete. Sirrus found the library and memorized the path there as best he could, and then twisted his long braid in a knot before setting out.
It was extremely dark out and he didn't know how long this firemarble was going to last. The road was half paved, bits of jungle sticking through. Sirrus was small enough where it didn't matter and he was able to get through the underbrush with little problems. The road twisted through trees and Sirrus was also glad he was short and could hold the marble closer to the ground and not trip over anything. There was hardly anyone on the road now, either, and he found that slightly eerie here, with the jungle on either side and the call of birds and odd chirping of insects.
It couldn't be that far to the library. They built everything close together and were too young a world to expand. There was only this road, and even though he tripped over uneven parts and unpaved sections where the grass poked through, it was quite a clear road.
He did not get lost. He was certain Yeesha didn't, either.
*
Guildmaster Khovin could not sleep. This wasn't unusual, he had trouble sleeping for the past few months. He would close his eyes and all his thoughts would be waiting for him, and they demanded he write them down now, not later, because later it could be lost. The notebook next to his bed was covered in half-formed sentence and words shooting diagonally across the page from being written without a light. He knew if he turned the light on he would never get back to sleep.
Tonight, though, he had to turn the light on.
He got out of bed and threw on a robe, picking up the pen and twirling it through his fingers. He had no intention of writing anything, but it was a nervous habit, and he had busy fingers. The clock showed how early in the morning it was, and he knew all the other guildsmen would be sleeping. It was too early to eat, and the sun was not yet up so there was no sense in taking a walk.
Khovin walked down into the main hall and into the largest hall and leaned against the doorframe. There was only one window in this room and high up, so no matter what time of day it was, it always looked the same. It was designed to be inspiring by reminding them of the D'ni caverns of old where sunlight never reached. Khovin was told the only reason for the window was the painters on the outside needed a place to sit and eat their lunch.
He enjoyed the fact that this room was the same no matter the time of day. It made him feel better when he couldn't sleep.
Khovin walked through the room and down the hall, brushing his thin hand over the stone. He was getting old and knew it, disliked it, and for the most part, ignored it. But for a moment he wondered if this was another one of the many signs he was getting old…waking early in the morning before everyone else, and going to bed just after the sun set. When he was younger he would make remarks at the older guildsmen for doing that, and, in the normal greater irony of things, was forced to sit in that position himself.
At least the guildsmen here had the respect not to say it as loud as he once did.
Khovin wandered until he felt at least a bit more tired, and by that time the sun was up, so there was little point in going back to sleep. He made his way to the kitchens where tea was already being brewed.
"Good morning, guildmaster," said Shakor, the head cook, and the only one to be awake at this hour. "Did you sleep well?" it was a formality, of course, since Shakor knew Khovin for years and knew of his chronic insomnia. Shakor assumed it was the curse of Writers, since many young guildsmen would also do the same.
"Not this time," Khovin replied, accepting the tea that Shakor handed to him.
"What was on your mind?"
"Getting old, I suppose."
"What made you think of that?" Shakor was older than Khovin, and raised a grey, thinning eyebrow that would disappear into his skin any day now.
"Atrus and his girl, Yeesha. The celebration last night, I suppose. She is fourteen and Writing, and Atrus is older now, and Catherine has not been to Releeshahn in years…and Yeesha wanted to know about Ti'ana, and…think of it, think of how long Ti'ana has been dead."
Shakor huffed to himself and poured another cup of tea. "I haven't thought that far back in a long time."
"Nor I, but I suppose we all must, some days. Join me, my old friend. We do not sit together enough, though we are both up early."
Shakor smiled and nodded in agreement, first plucking a pastry from the cooling pan and then sitting beside Khovin. The two of them ate and drank in silence while the sun rose, then nodded at each other when the people started to awaken and the noise in the rooms rising. Shakor thanked Khovin for the company, and then went to prepare breakfast. Khovin, feeling more relaxed now, decided to walk back to his rooms and maybe rest and Write.
He was not expecting to see Atrus waiting for him, his eyebrows pinched tight together in worry.
"Good morning, Atrus," Khovin said, bowing respectfully. "Meaning no disrespect, of course, but what are you doing in my bedroom?"
Atrus sat up immediately. "Yeesha is missing," he said without precedence. "I went to wake her up this morning and she wasn't there." Atrus wrung his hands together nervously. "You talked to her last night. Did she seem alright to you? She wasn't too overwhelmed by the celebration?"
Khovin blinked in bewilderment. "No, she seemed fine when I last spoke to her. That was last night, after you'd gone to sleep, and most of the celebration was finished…she was on the balcony watching Releeshahn move, as I do, and we spoke for awhile."
"And she was fine? She didn't say anything odd or unusual?"
Khovin pulled up a chair for himself and another for Atrus, and indicated the two sit down. "And what do you mean by that?"
"I suppose I…" Atrus looked towards the window where the morning sun shone through a crack in the closed drapes. "She acts strange sometimes, and I worry, that is all, and I worry even more when I find her missing in a place she doesn't know very well. She disappears into the desert all the time in Tomahna but she is aware of it and knows where to go. But here…" Atrus sighed. "She wanders, that is all. She never used to wander. She finds peculiar places…the top of a railing, the middle of a canyon…and will just sit there and stare for hours, and then run off and start writing or swimming and not speak to Catherine or myself. She wrote that Age almost nonstop, erasing and rewriting and focusing on it where she would forget to eat. She would steal things around Tomahna…a leaf, a bird feather…and just hoard them on her desk and not do anything with it. I would find her sometimes in the room touching them…just that, just touching them." Atrus sighed heavily and put his head in his hands. "She never used to do that, Master Khovin. And I am worried."
Khovin never married or had children, but he had heard other guildsmen speak of such things. Children were a mystery to him, something he could watch over and chide when they made a mistake and reward them when they focused. But he did not know what to do when they acted strangely.
"Perhaps it was…it could have been…well, with the last few years…" Good at Writing words, no good speaking them. He always fumbled and stuttered his way through conversation since he was young. "All that happened, such tragedy in your family…"
Atrus nodded, very slowly. "That is what Catherine said, too." He told Khovin. "She taught Yeesha how to cook and Yeesha made delicious dinners for us, but Catherine said she felt wrong…that Yeesha did…the way she held Catherine's hand and spoke. But that was a long time ago, and it has been at least a year since she has done any of that…but I worry so much about her, especially now that she is Writing. What if something happens? What if something is wrong with her that I never…noticed before?"
Khovin was not entirely sure why Atrus was telling him this, but was as supportive as he knew how to be. "She is a brilliant child, and I am sure she will find her way. She is young and going through a time when we are all confused…I remember being fourteen and it was tumultuous and difficult, and I was between arrogance and timidity and never knew which. I am sure she will find her way. She is a pathmaker, of course."
"Yes, of course, she is, always was." Atrus raised his head and nodded, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. "Though the Protectors said…"
"Yes?"
"Nothing." Atrus shook her head. "Nothing that bears repeating. They were always strange people, and I am glad Yeesha goes to them no longer."
"And I am glad at least that gives you peace, Atrus. Perhaps we should walk? That always helps me when my mind is troubled."
Atrus thought about it a moment, then agreed. The two of them left Khovin's room and went outside, walking down the path in the early sunlight. It wasn't humid yet, though the haze near the ground showed promise of a thick, hot day. They walked in silence and every once in awhile Atrus would stop and touch a leaf, turn it over, look at it for a moment, and then keep walking.
"Releeshahn won't fall apart anytime soon, you know," Khovin said the fourth time he did it, startling Atrus from his examination.
Atrus chuckled. "Catherine tells me the same thing all the time."
"She's right, of course. Women often are, I've been told, and it is best to agree with them."
Atrus nodded absently, dropping the leaf to the ground. "What did you and Yeesha talk about?" he asked then, starting to walk again.
"Just Writing, I suppose," Khovin replied. "The appreciation of dissonance and not always constructing the ideal Age, because leaving a little room for something to happen, I believe, is one of the finest marks of Age writing. To Write something and then link there and see a species of birds poking their beaks into a nectar flower, the birds I didn't Write in…I have always found that to be a wonder."
"I thought the same when I found inhabitants on Stoneship. I didn't Write that. Yet here it is."
"What Writing is about, I think." Khovin plucked a leaf from the same plant Atrus was examining. "I have not seen plants like that in any Age Written by us. How did you come about this?" He could see Atrus was still worried, but people worried never think clearly, and Khovin was sure Yeesha knew what she was doing and would come back from wherever she was.
But she didn't, not after an hour, or two, and when they returned, she was still nowhere to be found. The day passed and Atrus searched the entire building, and by the late afternoon, the building and the nearby areas were being searched. Yeesha was nowhere to be found, and by the end of the day, Atrus was very close to taking a search party into the jungle and finding her that way.
"We haven't tried the other places nearby," Khovin insisted. "She…" Khovin's voice trailed off when he remembered more of their conversation from the night before. "The library. She has to be in the library. We spoke of it, and she expressed interest in Ti'ana's books, and…"
"The library, then?" Atrus paused for a moment, thinking, and then rushed out the door, heading to the library as fast as he could. It was all Khovin could do to keep up with him, for Atrus was still younger and faster than the guildmaster. Khovin finally caught up, and managed to tell Atrus how far it was to the library and how it would be much easier to wait for a tram.
Atrus slowed down and waited for Khovin to catch up, and then they both walked to the tram stop and sat down on an ornately carved bench.
"I'm sorry," Khovin said after a time. "That this is causing you such worry."
"It is not your fault." Atrus shook his head. "It isn't anyone's fault." He folded his hands and stared down at them.
The tram took its time, and they boarded in a still awkward silence. Atrus stared out the window and muttered something to himself that Khovin couldn't pick up. They arrived at the library and Atrus ran inside before Khovin even had a chance to get off the tram.
"Is he going to be alright?" asked the tram operator.
"I hope so. He is worried about Yeesha, and, I believe, worried about something else other than the girl."
"Good luck to both of you, then. Have a good day, guildmaster."
"And you too."
When Khovin caught up with Atrus again, he was scouring the front of the library, pulling books aside in search of secret passages (they had build none in the library, despite Atrus' requests. The guildmember in charge had said they wanted people to feel wholly open and at home in the library, rather than secretly fearing that something bad would happen or that they were missing something). Khovin decided it would be best if he searched himself, so he went down the stairs in the back, and through several back rooms, and then he finally found Yeesha curled up in a corner, with several books at her feet and her arms wrapped around a particularly large one.
"Yeesha?" he said gently. "Yeesha, you should wake up."
The girl's eyes fluttered and she tightened her arms around the book. He noticed then the necklace she always wore glowing slightly at the base of her neck.
"Yeesha, your father has been looking all day for you, and he's terribly worried."
"Father?" Yeesha opened her eyes, blinking blearily at Khovin. "Father is here?" the necklace made a soft chime, and instinctively, Yeesha's hand went to brush it. Her body trembled slightly, and her fingers closed on the amulet. She didn't say anything for a moment, then curled tighter around the book. "Don't take it away," she said. "I'm keeping this book. I am. It's not yours."
Surprised by the forceful tone of her speech, Khovin took a step back and held up his hands. "I will not touch it right now if that is what you want."
"Don't touch them ever." Yeesha continued. She glared at him from under long lashes, and it was an oddly possessive glare. "They're not yours. They're…Ti'ana's, and she's not from Releeshahn and never even saw it! Her books shouldn't be in your library." When Yeesha moved, the necklace touched another part of the book and glowed again. Biting her lip, Yeesha touched the amulet. It was only a moment later that Khovin noticed the girl was crying, silently, and buried her head in her arm.
There was a noise from the steps and Khovin turned and nodded to Atrus, who heard noises and came down to investigate.
"Yeesha!" Atrus exclaimed. "Yeesha, what are you doing down here? You've been gone all day and I was worried you'd gotten lost in the jungle, and…"
At the sound of Atrus' voice, Yeesha lifted her head from her arm and tossed the book aside in one swift motion. She rose stiffly to her feet, uncurling herself from the position she had been sleeping in all night.
"You let them take the books here?" Yeesha said, curling her hands into fists. "You let them take her books away and hide them here in a dusty room that no one goes to at all? Why did you let that happen?" Her voice rose with each word until she was screaming shrilly at Atrus, holding one of Ti'ana's other books accusingly in front of him. "Why didn't you keep them? Did you not want them anymore? What if mom wanted them? Or someone else? Why'd you just leave them?" She dropped the book at Atrus' feet and sat down, holding her hands almost reverently over the covers. She was crying again and not looking at either one.
"Leave them?" Atrus looked bewildered until he picked up a book, opened it, and saw Ti'ana's careful writing. "Oh, Yeesha." He knelt beside her and put an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I really am."
"I found the memories," Yeesha said. "I found all of them. My necklace glowed all the time."
"I'm so sorry." Atrus pulled Yeesha close to him, and the girl buried her head in his shoulder. "I didn't…I didn't think."
"No," Yeesha agreed, her voice muffled from the cloth of his shirt.
"I had the books with me for all those years, and…you were only a baby when we moved to Tomahna, and…it was painful for both your mother and I to have the books around all the time, and remind us of everything that was and could never be again. The people of Releeshahn are respectful and honorable, and they held…your great-grandmother…to just as high a regard as we had. It is the best place for her, among Releeshahn, among the people who once belonged to D'ni, Ti'ana's people. She would have loved to see this place and stay here, and she would be happy that the D'ni had a place at last."
Yeesha didn't say anything for a long time. When she spoke, it was soft and almost incoherent. "She would,"
"So we keep her books here to honor both Releeshahn and Anna herself, for she would be happy to have them among her people, who are safe and protected and will never die."
"Never die…"
"Yes."
Yeesha looked up and saw the room illuminated by firemarbles, and read the titles of the other books, all collected works of great Writers. "She was a great Writer," she said after a time. "She was the best of them. She should be here with the rest." Yeesha leaned her cheek on Atrus' shoulder. "You're right,"
"I am glad you think so."
"Would you like to keep one?" Khovin interrupted. The two of them looked up, having completely forgotten he was there. He had gathered the books up and put them in a neat pile on the table, and held out the one that Yeesha had been wrapped around before. "It would be right for you to have it."
Yeesha looked questioningly at Atrus, who nodded. Khovin handed over the book, and Yeesha took it, touching the cover reverently. The necklace glowed again, and she clasped her other hand around that and waited for the memory to pass.
Atrus stood up and left one hand on Yeesha's shoulder. "Maybe it is time we return to Tomahna for a bit."
"I would say that is a good idea. It has been a busy few days, I can imagine you would want to be back home again."
Atrus nodded. "Thank you, Guildmaster, for your patience and your hospitality."
"You are always welcome here."
Yeesha bowed slightly to Khovin. "Thank you, guildmaster," she echoed, her voice soft and somewhat hoarse. "I promise you I will be back again. I will become a great Writer, too, like everyone else in my family."
Khovin smiled and bowed back to her. "I have no doubt that you will."
He waited for Atrus and Yeesha to leave, and then went to put all the books back in their proper places.
