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Chapter continues from previous part (Level 35, Scenes 1-10)


That was light halfway up the wall, he thought. Was it because the tower was so tall? The horizon was farther, higher up.

But Runa, he thought—oh, where was Runa? He threw off the cover— But Runa was in Celadon City. That was it; he was to wait in bed until she came.

He settled again. Gaia was gone, he saw. That was fine—she needn't stay just for him—she was probably out talking to the others.

He lay and listened. Dyna would be up and knocking things about, Tanwen keeping quiet, Rita drawling about something or other … Nothing. Suppose they left without him? Suppose they all ate and laughed downstairs, and Runa returned, and thought he didn't care, only wanted to sleep and lie about, taken in by luxury?

The lounge was empty, he saw, all the pillows strewn about. So they went and left him, went to breakfast—he did not even know the way! But the door now produced a beep: the lock undid itself: the handle slowly turned and he rushed forward—there was Gaia, dropping the card key as he surprised her.

"[You're up finally,]" she said. She pressed the card with her nose, lifted and snatched it in the corner of her mouth. "[It took you so long to fall asleep, we only left you.]"

"[O— Oh!]" he said. He bothered them all, only laying about.

"[Are you hungry?]" she said. "[They're holding breakfast for you.]"

Everyone held up by him! he thought, all the staff and the champions. "[I'm sorry,]" he said. "[I didn't— Sorry!]"

"[Oh, hush,]" she said, passing into the room, observing the mess, inspecting him. "[You look terrible … You've got bed-eye. Why don't you use the shower? You don't want to look sloppy to the champions.]"

She was right, of course. It was like Runa to behave just the same whether on the roads or in a rich hotel, neither dressing nor acting differently, but the humans and even the Pokémon put on shows. When he finished daubing on the towel rack he saw Gaia had put away the blankets and pillows: To save the humans work, she said.

The hotel was remarkably suited for Pokémon, he thought: the corridors were all very wide and the lift, according to the sign, was Metagross standard with two sets of buttons, one nearer the floor, all of them very large. They lay on the floor and Gaia pressed the bottom one—all the way from the top, he saw, forty-four stories. Some part of the lobby, he thought, some little spot for cakes and tea he'd see was set up for them, where he would only count the hours till Runa.

"[Rita's in bliss,]" Gaia said. Of course she was. Gaia looked but that was all.

In the lobby people stopped, seeing them: a rare sight perhaps, two Dragonair flying out a lift, one of them pink. Would they be out in the open where people looked? But it was just here, Gaia said, a room right off the lobby. A human attendant waited at the door, held the handle as they approached—actually bowed—shut it behind them.

Room was not quite the word: he had seen houses that were smaller! Had they shut off all this, some reception hall meant for a hundred, at least, some major function, just to let them lie about and wait? And that wall was only stone pillars and glass, opened right out into a garden with ponds and red-leafed trees that, by the look of it, had to be fully enclosed by the hotel—all for them, it was. But this was too much, he said—Runa would have balked and refused it—and there was Rita reposing on a couch, or was she sleeping? and there Dyna was inspecting the cushions, and there, Tanwen walked around the garden. And there on the nearest couch was the Charizard Apollo, with an enormous pot of tea; and beside him was Diana, the Raichu, who they only saw a minute before with Apollo; and that had to be Jeanmarie, the world number-one Golduck, who was napping when they arrived yesterday, Apollo had said, and now was napping on a reclining chair.

Gaia said, "[Not exactly the Corner, is it?]"

He said, "[It's too much. It— How much is it costing?]"

"[Nothing,]"—Apollo said it, leaning over and laughing. "[Or a loss, rather! Don't you know they own the place?]"

The Pondelores were wealthy, he knew, owned entire valleys, bred thousands of Pokémon; yet camping on the Golden Coast, even staying in hotels in Olivine and Cianwood, always it seemed abstract, just an explanation for Runa's resource. Hardly anyone was rich, she said; one ought to know what real living was. (Was it real living, that way?) Once or twice a human, recognising Runa, accused her of it, that she didn't know real life. How horrible to say! But supposing the boy who said it, he thought, had imagined something like this room, had seen kitchens on hold for Pokémon, a Ninetales or Golduck dozing on a fancy chair, then it was not so surprising—no less to be denounced, of course, as Runa wasn't that way at all, but a little more understandable why people called the Pondelores different, not so out of nowhere as it seemed on the beach at Cianwood before Stefan came over, as Runa only stood embarrassed holding two halves of watmel, and the boy with his net stood and pointed and said that she didn't know real life: this was what he saw.

Now Apollo and Diana invited them to coil in some armchairs near their sofa; they waited for breakfast (the others going ahead with it, he heard) so that he and Gaia would have conversation; the champions, he thought, spending time with them on their vacation. If he was not with Runa was there any chance it happened? She said they would make friends—they would think he was a waste of her time! But Gaia was perfectly relaxed, as always: she at least would make an impression.

A Blissey with little lace sleeves blew through a set of double doors and said, "[Yes! Do relax and grow comfortable! You will be taken by the pleasure.]"

She stopped beside him; she looked very close; he couldn't help but quiver.

"[Sweet,]" she said, and looked at Gaia, who looked at her. "[… Sour. Breakfast is preparing presently. If there is anything you require,]"—she pointed her white sleeve—"[you will inform me!]" And then she left, swept through the double doors.

Perhaps this was how they did things in other regions, he thought. Was she a servant tending the champions, one of Manda's extended crew? He couldn't possibly ask.

Diana said, "[That's Maria. She's always bothering the staff. She can't relax unless she's got a hand in things.]"

Just as well he hadn't, he thought. He wouldn't speak at all unless they wanted it. Apollo asked how they slept, how their breakfast was and so on, and Gaia answered. And they were the champions, of course, very devoted, very professional, beyond all possible question; yet now, he thought, however hard they seemed on the screen, now they were only like normal Pokémon: Manda's training didn't show.

In hardly minutes a crew of human waiters rolled a table into the room with four large, lidded trays. They had been to restaurants with Runa that catered to Pokémon, but this was different: whole menus prepared to match their favourite flavour, placed on tripods before their seats! Even Gaia had to look and twist in surprise. The man lifted the lid: unsweetened meringues, thin tarts, a salad with sour dressing: all the things she liked, like that. And she looked at him; this was to be properly spoiled, she meant.

But his—oh! far too much it was! It was at least twice the size of Gaia's: sweets and pastries, and fruit parfait; a blended drink of what seemed to be cream and pitayas (how did they know?); heaps of cake and unidentifiable tarts all in sizes for a Dragonair to bite, and a stack of what looked like miniature waffles—all things that would spoil him entirely, quite outside what he allowed himself. He couldn't look at it; he ought to apologise, he felt, even if he never asked for such rotten luxury. Runa said not to worry, that it was only two days and to enjoy it (she didn't think of this!) but still he must resist for Runa; and yet they made such effort to make it, and didn't Runa always say not to waste things? (Still, he would have a fraction of it; he would skip lunch.)

Apollo looked past his own tray, a large bowl of porridge with some off-colour drinks and hard breads; he twiddled his claws and said, "[Oh, ah, let me know if you can't finish that, hm?]" For wasn't it fair, he said to Diana, that on vacation they had a break from every regimen? Diana frowned and snapped her protein tart. Manda would be after him, he thought, for corrupting her champions.

At length the stories began, Gaia asking how they came to be: a precocious Charmander, born on the Hoenn estate and given to Manda, her first Pokémon; the road in Viridian Forest where she spotted a quality and caught Diana the Pikachu; a Psyduck with a splitting headache wandering indoors which, hardly days later, saw her on the team, apparently proving perfect. Gaia and Apollo did most of the talking, seemed on a similar wavelength; Diana interjected now and then to correct Apollo, it seemed, when his spirits carried him away; he only ate and listened. All three, they heard—Apollo, Diana, and Jem, or Jeanie, they called her—evolved in the same few weeks, Nero the Growlithe coming along much later. And there was Runa, in all that, living in the same places; they could tell of things she never said, what she never volunteered.

"[But we're boring you,]" Apollo said, taking one of the waffles from his dish—"[I know that! Why don't you tell us about Runa? I mean, she must have had fun, I imagine, finally having things her own way!]"

And that, he thought, pausing from his dish, was a curious thing to say. Gaia seemed to think the same, looking at him. This Charizard and Raichu were two of the greatest battlers in the world; they might get their advice in anything, Runa's journey, her technique or potential, had now an invitation to discuss the method at length; yet even Gaia only wanted secrets about Runa. For lately she agreed, when he said that in all these months they knew hardly a thing about her.

—We'll see if they won't tell us tomorrow. (But it was nothing, she had said—do sleep.)

Gaia licked the sour dressing and said, "[Runa has a little brother, doesn't she? Is he going to be a trainer too? If he's like Runa, I mean.]"

"[Oh, no,]" Apollo said. "[He's got a Torterra of his own, but he's not interested—that's all right! It's not for everyone, is it? Not like Runa—she's always been for Pokémon. Say, is she still working on that little book of hers? Her manifesto, she called it, on Pokémon.]"

Gaia said, "[She's mentioned it. She says she'll rewrite it from scratch with Torus.]"

"[But isn't that fine?]" Apollo said. He smiled at Diana; Diana looked at him. "[Well, I think it's fine. There's no one else like Runa, that's for certain. You're lucky to have her!]"

And Gaia waited and said, "[Because we're not her first Pokémon.]"

For an instant he thought he would choke, cough up his tart—he didn't think she'd just say it! But she held her head a little high—she was bluffing, he knew, trying to play it off as a thing they knew all about, and he spoiled it!

Apollo looked at Diana for a long moment, and said:

"[Www-where'd you get that idea?]"

Diana kicked him on the foot. But she couldn't blame him, the Charizard seemed to say, looking at her.

"[She didn't leave for Johto until she was almost fourteen,]" Gaia said. "[Manda started training when she was seven, and you said Runa couldn't wait to follow. She was hardly doing nothing for seven years. She had other Pokémon, didn't she?]"

To think Gaia called him clever, simply because he watched a lot of shows! Was this a thing Gaia wondered for a while? Even centred entirely on Runa he missed such details. Oh, but it was a mistake to tell her, he thought. Other Pokémon, another team taking her affections, getting close to Runa when he was still an egg, possibly, planting roots no effort could replace … this he didn't need to hear at all.

Apollo looked uncomfortable. He twisted in his seat, looked at Diana who glared at him, said at last, "[Now look … You won't get any more from me. This fellow won't cross Runa for anything.]"

But then it was true: Runa had a team before them, other Pokémon she loved and then left somehow. Other Pokémon she carried, travelled the routes for years perhaps, longer than them, until somehow they were separated, and it was too painful, too hard a memory, that she never said a word. That or something else went wrong and now they were all recovered, all waiting for her; actually present in Celadon, being given back. Your future champions, her parents said, now that you can handle them.

"[But she'd never abandon them,]" Gaia said. "[Did her family take them away? Why's she in Celadon with all you watching us?]"

He felt sick; Gaia looked at him. It had to be the family. Runa argued with them even presently, fought to keep her new Pokémon, tricked to come by those convinced she couldn't handle them. Tanwen was the test, and as she turned out vain and wanting, wasn't happy at all—; and as she had been excited to meet them, had a chance, she thought, to get approval and lift the threat of losing them, but only found, while she was apart in Celadon—

He was about to faint, he knew: the white was swimming in front of him. Gaia looked and dropped a pile of sour tarts on his dish, which he bit whole: anything to keep awake, she meant, to calm.

Apollo looked shocked. This a Pokémon of Runa's, he must think—fainting on the spot! The Charizard clasped the balls of his tail and said, "[D— Don't be like that! It's nothing whatever like that! It's nothing to fret about at all.]"

Diana leapt to her feet and said, "[It was her Pokémon that did it, all right? The family's proud of her. They're happy you're doing well! It's was her Pokémon couldn't cut it.]"

And that was hardly better! he thought; for now a line of brutes passed before him, each more rash and violent than the last, who were meant to be Runa's first but, owing to their completely rotten natures, not even she could endear them. What little Pokémon had she raised that evolved into a monster? who, after all her tender care, grew up not to love but abused her, even struck her—Runa, attacked by a Pokémon so all the rest had to save her! But the faintness passed; he believed Apollo really meant it, stroking his tail; all a terrible misunderstanding, the Charizard seemed to say.

"[Now listen,]" Apollo said, straightening up, for he seemed committed now, even if it breached with Runa, to calm them entirely. "[You know Runa's not like other trainers—she's gifted, I say, how she understands us. But, you know, it also depends on the Pokémon, doesn't it? Turns out some fellows would rather just do as they're told. Then if Runa only wants her Pokémon to be themselves, they don't know what to do: they can't accept it. So the training fails, and Runa—it's not fair, I know—Runa gets the blame, because after all she wasn't following her family's method. Then after a while they let her try again and travel the routes traditionally, and here you are! So you see it was all a … suspended persuasion, wouldn't you say? Because given how you've grown up under her, I guarantee they're all persuaded.]"

But Gaia was not persuaded, he saw. "[Is that it?]" she said. "[They took her Pokémon away because they weren't performing?]"

"[No,]" Apollo said. "[I mean,]"—and the Charizard glanced at the Raichu, who was looking very hard at him—"[I mean, silly as you'll find it, I'm sure, maybe Runa could have handled it better, too. Now I've known Runa all my life. She's always been a very, very sweet girl. But when her family said, Oh, you're too liberal with Pokémon … they have a point. Back then, Runa would let her Pokémon go practically wild before an exercise or a drill … so it's not such a great surprise if they started thinking they didn't need a trainer. Well, that's what happened—don's honour. She was so much against the family's old style that she went overboard, and her Pokémon didn't trust her—and don't you think that was daft of them, dismissing Runa? She was only still young and growing up! Now she's far wiser, and her family's proud, so don't you even slightly worry. It's like you say: you're lucky it happened, and now you've got a wonderful trainer for life! Isn't that enough you'll let it go forgotten?]"

"[Yes, let's,]" Diana said, kicking the Charizard's foot and slumping back. "[You're such a gossip, Polo. Imagine Manda was here!]"

"[Yes, well,]" Apollo said, settling back with his bowl—all full of cake, he saw. "[What Manda doesn't know won't hurt her.]"

These champions, he thought, weren't simply on vacation; they relaxed between bouts of disciplined training, yes, but they had another task to fulfil: to report whether Runa had slipped into her previous failure, her family thought it, and gave her Pokémon too much liberty so that they spoiled. And the report was good, Apollo said; but still he nearly fainted at a few words like the most pathetic wretch, and made Runa look like she oughtn't to have them.

"[Anyway,]" Apollo said, "[what's all this worry spoiling inside you? As far as they're concerned it's all in the past, now. So don't worry!]" He laughed; for they were absurd, he seemed to say, if they thought once more about it. "[And do you know, I envy you? I can't think of a finer thing than routing with Runa, no title hanging round your neck. It's been—how long?—five months since the championship and thanks to you this is the first real break we've had. Our victory lap was the press circuit, heh!]"

Diana frowned; Gaia frowned, but turned away. Now the moment passed, he thought: they would get nothing else about Runa.

The conversation moved on. Diana asked how it came to be there were two Dragonair in Runa's team, and Gaia described the Game Corner, the journey over the routes to Cianwood and back and then, following the coast, to Goldenrod and Saffron. Was that all it took to summarise? he thought—eight months with Runa like that? Apollo tried to involve him, but what was there to say Gaia couldn't? If Runa had a team still in Hoenn … But did Runa mean to become a Dragon Master? they asked. They had no idea, nor what it was. (That was something he missed on the screens.) Runa said she didn't think of Pokémon as different types, but the team, it had to be said, was forty percent dragon. Was there such a thing as a human who, by closeness to dragon natures, developed such a connection to them they understood the other quite fluently? Perhaps they would meet Clair in Blackthorn City, Apollo said; there was a lady Dragonite there who may advise them. But Gaia said it was perfectly fit, having two Dragonair, as they complemented each other: she was the heavy hitter, the sweeper with special attacks, and he the reliable backup, neither having ever fallen in battle. And how could she talk like that? he thought, making them out like a big thing, a rising force, and in front of the champions!

Apollo said, "[Of course when you evolve it really starts. Two Dragonite in a team—well, well! That's not a weak thing.]"

And Gaia looked aside, as if to say she would keep speaking for her other Dragonair, if he wouldn't, but he really ought to speak. "[Shadow's convinced he'll never make it.]" she said.

"[Is that true?]" Apollo said, looking at him. "[Don't you think you'll be a grand battler, a great big Dragonite as you'll be?]" The Charizard laughed as he looked away. "[Well, battling's not for everyone. Maybe you'd like the big estate. Two friendly dragons, one shiny … plenty of space, you know.]" And Diana told him to give it up, and Gaia, he thought, turned red—as if they would wander about in the wilds again, after Runa! she meant. She looked at him; and by a sort of solidarity, he felt, as the Charizard grinned and brushed his chin and asked the Raichu what was the matter, he felt he would somehow defend her by leaving.

He said, "[When is— Oh.]"

But he lost track entirely: the dish was nearly empty, just a few bits of fruit and mess after what Apollo took. That was the tightness in his wrap: gorging on sweets and distending when Runa was gone just a day. Didn't Gaia say not to be an embarrassment around the champions?

Gaia said, "[We'll skip lunch, all right?]" Apollo took his dish and said he'd clean it for him, if he didn't tell Maria.

Not that he wanted to be near others, he thought, stretching out, but he ought. The other girls were in the garden, sitting separately; Rita had gone out to lie on the wood, as the autumn sun was still high enough to pass the interior wall, while Dyna snuffed around the bushes and Tanwen sat out on the stone. (They wouldn't want him near.) The Golduck, Jeanmarie, was still sleeping on the chair. He wouldn't bother her; but Runa would be some hours yet, he thought, so lacking anything else to do, he would wait for her to wake, that at the very least he spoke to all the champions. As Runa asked that he make friends, he would lie on the sofa near. There was a pitcher of some bright blue drink next to the Golduck, with a chunk of ice that matched the shape as if it thawed in from the sides, which once or twice she stirred from her nap earlier to turn and take a sip.

Presently she yawned and looked at him. But wasn't it too forward, he thought, laying near before they were introduced? She scratched herself and didn't speak. (It was a mistake to leave the bed at all, he felt.)

She said, "[You're that Dragonair.]" Quite a mistake, he thought.

She said, "[You like ice cream?]"

"[Um,]" he said, "[yes.]"

She said, "[So you like cream.]"

"[Um,]" he said. Didn't she see his dish?

She took the pitcher, poured a glass and, with a blow of white breath, refroze the thing entirely. "[And you like ice,]" she said.

Perhaps he made a noise; across the room, Diana said, "[Don't scare him, Jeanie! He's Runa's.]"

"[Oh, that's no fun,]" Jeanmarie said, sitting up and stretching, scratching. "[I have a way with dragons, is all.]"

"[A … a way?]" he said.

"[She's a real genius for ice,]" Apollo said. "[Didn't you see us in the final?]"

And he had to get out of bed, he thought, and be a fool for the double-league champions! Of course they all saw the championship matches, a close thing as well, everyone fainting but Jeanmarie and Apollo, who never fainted once in their careers—knocked out half Lance's team by herself, her signature Ice Beam, and bashed up the number-one Dragonite in the world for Apollo to finish : a genius, they called her, with a power greater than if she had the type.

"[But I'm fond of dragons,]" she said—she, the destroyer, sitting now on his sofa and holding his tail—"[really. It's just we battle so often, often it's a cold thing. You look surprised. You think it's odd we're not like Nero. He's the odd one. He hatched leering.]"

They were none of them as he expected, he thought; and was it very wretched that he wished, in fact, they were a little harder? Runa's method was entirely for Pokémon and their dreams, so that they might be very happy, and yet her team (himself, of course, excluded for other reasons) would hesitate to say, if one asked them, that they were completely happy. Yet even though Manda only aimed at battling, ordered them about, so all her Pokémon seemed content. Ought not those Pokémon who were most controlled be least happy, and those with the greatest liberty be happiest?

"[I don't—]" he said, and paused. He mustn't be the fool again. "[It— It's just really big you can do Manda's sort of training. I'd never manage.]"

"[Really big!]" she said. "[Maybe it's just Manda's direction. I don't have much of an ethic—nor Apollo.]"

"[What's that?]" Apollo said, leaning back on his sofa.

"[Just your predilection for a good lay over battle,]" she said. "[Shadow says he couldn't cut our training.]"

"[Oh, I don't know,]" Apollo said—"[with a little help, he might! I wouldn't mind a Dragonair about. Maybe you'd think about swapping a while, and—no—maybe I'll swap with that Typhlosion a bit, eh, try it a while with you and Runa? You wouldn't mind another lady, would you, ladies?]" And Diana produced a spark, he saw, right between her cheeks; the Charizard laughed and rubbed his neck.

Jeanmarie looked back at him and said, "[So she's been using her method on you: no commands. How is that?]" She leaned closer. "[I mean Manda's hard, yes. We train ten or twelve hours a day. It's how they've always done it, les Pondes, la première famille de Pokémon—plus de champions, after all, than any other family. But it's all in moderation—hard work, good rest. That's us. What's it like with Runa?]"

What could he say? he thought. He could hardly enlarge Runa as a trainer when he was speaking to a champion. And weren't Golduck partially psychic? Did she see something inside him? But she only looked at him with mild interest, as like an unusually mottled egg.

He said, "[It's … well, I don't know other training. But if I didn't have Runa—I mean, her way, her, her philosophy … She says it's a trainer's purpose to, to help us do what we want in life, and only battle if it helps. She says to make us happy is what a trainer's for.]"

"[Sounds chill,]" she said; she looked at her hand. "[How are the battles?]"

"[We haven't lost yet,]" he said, "[and we've got two badges! I mean, that's … nothing to you, but it's not bad!]"

And she put on a smile and said, "[It's not bad. But here's a secret: Most teams aren't very good, and gym leaders are only meant to screen out the bad ones. If they kept getting stronger, how could anyone make eight badges for the tournament? There's big business in that. No, they're not supposed to be top tier—they're like Watchogs. They're filters, not supposed to grow, while every one of you can. You'll get your badges, y'a pas de lézardon.]"

So he was in the club, he thought, where other trainers and Pokémon were easily put down, and everyone knew secrets and spoke sophisticated dialects—as if the whole thing were planned, the title and everything! He said, "[I … I never thought of it that way. We … We're not really proper battlers, though. I mean most of us battle—we owe it to Runa—but she says not to worry about badges.]"

Jeanmarie stopped smiling. "[Most,]" she said.

Oh, he thought—Diana and Apollo had said nothing, but were they only being polite? It had to seem wretched to a champion that not all of them battled, that Rita only used Runa and became a dead weight. (They didn't need to know about his first few weeks.) He said, "[R— Rita doesn't. But Runa says she doesn't have to to, to grow.]"

Jeanmarie looked away to the garden. "[Are you entering the championship?]" she said.

"[Runa says it's up to us,]" he said. "[We don't really know, yet.]"

She looked a long while, watching the others outside. And as he thought himself forgotten, as he wondered if he might remove his tail and go, she said, "[What.]"

"[I—]" he said. But what did she mean?

As if she was deciding whether to believe a thing, whether what he said could possibly be accurate or he was only joshing her, she looked at him and said, "[That Typhlosion said you only train four hours a day. In eighteen months, you got two badges. And yet she's evolved both you dragons, and all the rest are fully evolved, aren't they?]"

But what did she mean? he thought. "[Torus isn't evolved yet,]" he said.

"[Isn't he coming through Bill?]" she said; and now she was sitting up, he thought, oh, and getting cross for arguing. "[Look—it doesn't matter—what I mean is you don't make sense. Pokémon grow slowly even when they're in the gym every day. She's had you Dragonair, what, six, eight months? And you've evolved. Dragons take years to evolve. Something's gone right—and it's not battling. What is Runa doing?]"

Perhaps it was her only context, he thought, wins and contest; after so long with Manda they thought of nothing else. Was it that Runa treated them differently, and somehow that evolved the energy? Some trainers were very kind to their Pokémon while others treated them like tools; but even the kindest trainers, Runa said, who loved their Pokémon, only thought of them as friends and not as people.

He said, "[I don't know—maybe her training's different, but I don't know. I just know Runa says she thinks of us like humans, and, and she says that's how it ought to be, and that's the best way to, to be close. And that's what makes a good team, she says.]"

Or family, he thought, as Runa really put it; but family seemed a hard word around the Pondelores and their Pokémon. Jeanmarie looked at him a long while, and finally she turned and stood. "[Closer than Manda, you mean,]" she said, taking her drink. And as the Blissey Maria came in and approached the others, she excused herself, and went out toward the garden.

It was all a mistake, he thought, waking up, coming to Saffron City, ever letting Runa leave his side! Didn't she say he might come but, looking at him directly, that he would be very bored, and she would rather he had fun apart? No, he thought, he never ought to have left; he should have stayed with Torus in Goldenrod, come over the network with Bill. But now (how rotten through he was!) he felt a knawing in his gut, even though he stuffed himself already, even though he felt it on his skin: a rotten disappointment to Runa: he wasn't fit to be in their company.

Maria was taking orders, marching about. She said, "[There's something you want—say.]"

He would wash it all away, he thought, as Runa did with a book and a cup of sencha. "[Just a tea, maybe, thank you,]" he said.

The Blissey's eyes seemed to overflow with pleasure; she performed a half spin toward the door. "[Just as Apollo!]" she said. "[I shall double every quantity of gyokuro and cake!]"

No use at all, he thought, as she rushed away, nor could he help it: without Runa he was just a quivering, gnawing rot. He left for the garden; some time in the water, some time alone until she came and held him, would help.