Chapter 10: That Special Relationship...

The harbor was remarkably empty. I could only see a couple of Primas in the area. The number of people present could be counted on one hand. Normally it was a lot more busy than this.

It was then that I remembered to my chagrin that it was a Sunday. All of the Pairs and the Singles who did not have a shift on the traghetto had the day off. It didn't really matter to me. I spent most of my days practicing anyway. It made no sense to be on Aqua and not be on the water. It was why I had come here in the first place, and it was the thing I most enjoyed doing.

As always, the old man who watched the boats was there. Most of the Primas had long since left Orange Planet on their respective tours, but the few who didn't have morning appointments or walk-in customers were there as well. Those Primas could have a late start of the day. It was only fitting that I saw them, given my own relatively late start of the day.

The sparse population which meant that I had little chance of finally finding a practice partner. I had been practicing on my own ever since being promoted to a Single months ago. Adriana still refused to acknowledge my presence except in the most superficial ways, and April and Ashley were likewise reluctant to practice with me even if I were to stay in the confines of the practice harbor. All of the Singles I saw always seemed to have their own cliques they always socialized with.

"Good morning again," the old man greeted me as I approached.

"Good morning," I chimed back.

"Do you practice every day? I feel like I see you every morning I'm here," he asked.

"I try to," I said. My last day off had been a month or two ago when I had been forced to stay off the water. I had ended up spending the day in the kitchen, and it had turned out to be quite fun despite not going into Neo Venezia.

"I don't see a travel plan for you. Is this thing broken again?"

"Eh he he he... Actually I didn't fill one out."

The man frowned at me. He said, "Okay. We're still in trial mode so I'll overlook it this time, but you need to start doing them soon."

"Okay."

"Well, you know where the boats are. See you this evening," he said.

"Thanks," I answered before walking in the direction of the gondolas. No small talk today it would seem. I didn't have anything in particular to talk about, and it sounded like he didn't either. Sometimes we would chat, and sometimes it was all business. Today was an all business one it seemed.

The lack of other Undines meant there was little competition and no confusion in retrieving what I had come to consider as my boat. There was only one other girl here. Moreover she was a Pair. While she was facing away from me I couldn't help but think the back of her head looked familiar.

"Good morning," I said. She turned to me. Her long hair swayed for a moment and then her face became clear. It confirmed that it was Alice.

"What're you doing here?" she asked me.

"It's a beautiful day to be on the water," I answered with a bright smile. The air was fresh and new, and it filled me full of energy. I wanted to go out into the snowy day. It had a nice balance, where I would warm myself up by my rowing while the weather would simultaneously keep me cool.

"I see," Alice said.

I moved over to my gondola. It wasn't my gondola officially, but I felt like it was mine nevertheless. I had grown very attached to the particular pattern of wood and to the various creases and patches it had. It was my favorite gondola and I used it every chance I could. I liked its personality.

"What are you doing here?" I asked back.

"Is there a problem?" Alice asked back.

"No, no. I just meant I never see anybody else here besides Primas on Sunday." I said. More than the other trainee Undines, I was surprised to see Alice here. I couldn't remember ever having seen her in the dock area. I would occasionally see her on the water in Neo Venezia, but never at the docks.

"I'm here to practice," Alice said. "I have the day off of school so I can spend the whole day rowing."

"That is nice," I said, momentarily lost in the daydream of floating on Neo Venezia. A daydream which would become reality soon. "Hey, hey, do you want to practice together?"

Alice looked at me with suspicious eyes. "Why?"

"It's much easier with two of us to tell how we're doing. And it's hard to practice talking to customers by yourself. We both know different things and we can teach each other stuff about Neo Venezia," I said.

I remembered my early days as a Pair, back when I had practiced with Adriana and April and Ashley. It had been so much easier when somebody told me how I was doing than trying to tell how my rowing was on my own. It was much more fun as well.

The occasional opportunity to go on the water with Ariel was nice, but those were few and far between. I ended up spending most of my time practicing on my own. As good as it was to row on my own, it would be so much better would be some company.

"I already filled out a practice plan. I'm going to be going over to Scuola Grande di San Rocco," Alice said.

"The registration is still in trial mode. I'm sure it will be fine," I said. "Come on. It will be more fun together than alone."

"I guess," Alice said. She sounded hesitant.

"Wait over there. I'll come around and we can share," I said. "I already have this gondola ready to go. It's my favorite one." Alice's lack of energy didn't deter me in the least. It just meant I needed to have more enthusiasm to make up for it.

I maneuvered the gondola out of the maze of docked boats over to where Alice was waiting. I approached the shore and clumsily brought the gondola mostly in alignment with the land. Once I was certain it wouldn't go drifting away I stepped over the small gap between the boat and the land, anchoring the gondola with my feet.

"What's that bowl there for?" Alice asked me. The metal mixing bowl was placed in the center of the gondola, right where I had left it.

"I use it to help me improve my rowing, It helps me tell how much I'm wobbling. See?" I intentionally bobbled the gondola a bit, and the bowl bobbled back and forth in response. The bowl wasn't very social, but it was useful. It was a bit disappointing how much wobbling it showed I did through the canals of Neo Venezia, but it was better to know than to not know.

Alice still looked wary but stepped into the gondola regardless. She had a light step. It barely affected the boat at all. She took a seat, facing the front of the boat. I made sure she was settled, like I would have for a customer, and then stepped back into the gondola proper. I was getting ready to push off when a voice called out, "Akari-chan!"

"Hahii?"

Near the entrance of the harbor was Ariel. It was surprising to see her. It wasn't one of the days I was scheduled to practice with her. I had assumed she would be out on the water with a customer. Or possibly she had a free morning and was relaxing for a few hours doing whatever she wanted in preparation for some later appointment.

"I knew I could find you here," Ariel called out. "Alice-chan. What are you doing here?"

"Ariel-san, you know Alice-chan?" I asked.

"Of course. Everybody knows her. She's the genius Pair, the up-and-coming star of the gondola association," Ariel said.

I had had no idea. I enthused, "Alice-chan, you're famous."

"It's hugely annoying," Alice said.

"We were going to go out and practice together," I answered Ariel's original question. "What are you doing here?"

"I just found out that Orange Planet has this mentorship program we're supposed to be doing. I got a budget to take you out to lunch once a month. We have to go today or this month's allowance will be wasted," Ariel said.

"Okay. I'll just go back to practicing on my own," Alice said.

There was no way I would let that happen. I knew how bad it felt to be excluded. I said, "No, Alice-chan can come too, right? We can make it a group practice session, right?"

"Uhh... okay..." Ariel said back. She looked unconvinced. Alice also looked unconvinced.

It just meant I needed to have more enthusiasm to make up for it.

"You know, I can row us there, if you want," Ariel said.

"Thanks, but I think I would rather row. I still need lots of practice if I'm going to get better," I said.

"Then let's go," Ariel said. She helped herself into the gondola. She didn't even bother having brace it; she just climbed aboard. Naturally that pushed the gondola away from the land a bit. Ariel kept her footing despite the rocking of the boat and took a seat without any incident. It was the mark of the skill and experience of a Prima.

"Hahii," I said.

The day was getting better by leaps and bounds. I had started the day expecting to practice on my own. The first improvement was when I had gotten a practice partner by convincing Alice to join me. This was further improved when Ariel also joined to make it a more directed and experienced teaching session rather than just being an ordinary practice session. I wondered what good thing would happen next.

I pushed away from the shore and guided the boat into the tunnel which would lead us into Neo Venezia proper. It felt very different having two people on board than when I rowed all by my lonesome, and very different than when I rowed with Ariel alone. The weight distribution of the boat was completely changed. Keeping the gondola balanced and smooth was easier because there was more mass to keep everything steady, but it was harder because Alice's and Ariel's moving around added unpredictability to everything. It was kind of liking rowing the traghetto except that there were fewer people, and they were sitting, and I didn't have a partner to help maneuver the boat.

We emerged from the tunnel of Orange Planet into the wider city of Neo Venezia. The city was covered by a thick blanket of snow. It was like a layer of makeup which covered all the out-of-the-way crevices and blemishes of the city and left them a smooth white. I could see the footprints left behind by those who had come before us. It was a snapshot of the life of the city, from the heavily trampled paths of the high traffic roads to the lonely footprints of adventurous children forging their own way through the grass.

"Which way should I go?"

"Go straight here," Ariel directed me.

It was just like the monthly practice sessions I had with Ariel, despite the unplanned arrival of Ariel and the unusual inclusion of Alice. I described the various things which I passed along Ariel's directed path. The demands of needing to spontaneously notice and remember interesting sites was good practice for me, as was speaking in front of an audience. It was somehow different than when I said the same things to an empty gondola on my own. Facts which normally sprang to mind were sluggish in making themselves known to me, and they fumbled around in my mouth when I tried to express them. I also had to be extra careful to avoid upsetting Ariel and Alice in the boat and to avoid collisions within the narrow passages Ariel directed me through.

The unpredictable direction Ariel led me through made it hard to put together an overall theme for my impromptu tour of Neo Venezia. I settled for saying the interesting history of each of the sites as they appeared. Venice, and subsequently Neo Venezia, was tightly interconnected in such a way that a thread of commonality could always be found between all of the different sites surrounding the city.

"Akari-senpai knows a huge amount about each place," Alice said in a lull of my description giving.

"She needs to. She rows so slowly she needs to fill the time somehow," Ariel answered.

"Hahii..."

"Alice-chan, you switch in. You'd better take over if we want to get there before dinnertime."

I held the boat steady as Alice stood and switched places with me. Once Alice had the oar I then took the newly vacated seat for myself. It had been a while since I had had the pleasure of sitting in a gondola rather than being the Undine. It was also fun. I wondered what Alice's rowing would be like.

Alice pushed forward without so much as a word of warning. And I discovered what her rowing was like. In a word, it was amazing. We glided forward at a much faster pace. I could only feel the slightest hesitation of the gondola when Alice's oar entered the water and the barest tip of the boat when she pushed forward. Alice was a Pair, but her rowing was far better than mine. She was better than any other Single I had seen.

The second half of the ride to the restaurant went by far faster than the first half. Alice was economical and decisive in her motions. She barely hesitated before squeezing into spaces which I thought were too tight for a gondola to get through. Moreover she maneuvered through them without a hitch. The Pair had amazing judgment and skill.

Alice's second half of the ride to the restaurant was much more quiet than my first half had been. Ariel gave her directions much more rapidly than when I had been rowing as a result of how much faster we were coming upon each intersection, but that were the only words which were spoken. Even when we passed by the most famous of monuments, like the Bridge of Sighs, Alice stayed silent. She had a look of intense concentration on her face. I instead took the opportunity to mentally recite what I knew as we went by them. More practice. I didn't get to see them from a seated position very frequently. I absorbed as much of the customer perspective as I could while I had the chance.

"I love those giant palinas," I couldn't help but remark as we passed by one of them. The one which I was referring to was a huge one, where something like a dozen of logs were all tied together to make a giant pole in the ground. "It's like all these regular palinas all came together to make one big family."

"Those aren't palinas," Ariel said. "They aren't for tying down gondolas."

"Then what are they for? Are they like dama?" I asked. I knew that dama were three logs tied together to mark the numerous canal entrances and waterway crossings.

"That's hugely wrong," Alice said. It was the first thing she had said outside of the occasional "gondola passing through" she quietly muttered sometimes.

"That's called a bricola. See the numbers on it?" Ariel asked. I looked and saw there was the number 14 slapped haphazardly on a few of the logs. "You can use them to check where you are in the city. I can show you a map when we get back to Orange Planet."

"Big ships need to use them to navigate around the city," Alice added.

"Hohee... So they're like guides for the city," I said.

"I guess," Ariel said.

"Good work, guide-san!" I called out to the departing number 14 bricola as it disappeared from view.

We continued onward. Alice rowing was not only smooth but fast. We practically flew along the water, both in speed and in gentleness.

"Akari-chan! You're the passenger today?" a woman called out to me as we passed by.

"Hahii! Ariel-san is taking me and Alice-chan out to lunch!" I called back. We didn't really have time to talk. I would need to wait until the next time I saw her to ask how her husband was feeling and if he had recovered from his cold.

We arrived at the restaurant in short order. Alice completed her half of the journey by gliding the gondola into the dock without hesitation or need for adjustment. I was amazed she was still a Pair.

"This is place is my favorite. Order anything you like. The company is paying for it," Ariel beamed. She then led us into the cafe.

"Welcome to the... oh, Undine-chan," the host greeted when he recognized me. "Thanks for your help. You were right. My girlfriend really liked that opera."

I was delighted to hear that. I had quite enjoyed the play "Iron Shores" myself and was happy that my conversation the last time I had seen him a few weeks earlier had led to more people enjoying it. I said, "It was really good, wasn't it? If she liked that you should both see 'Carma de Sol' too. It's like 'Iron Shores,' but with a love triangle too."

"That sounds exciting," the host said. He led us to a table. "For three, right?"

Once we were seated and the host had walked off, Ariel said to me, "You didn't say you've been here before."

"Just a couple of times," I said. It was nothing really too special. I had just happened to have eaten lunch there in the past.

"Welcome back, Undine-chan," the waitress enthusiastically greeted us. She addressed me and said, "There's this new dish the chef's been trying out. It's roasted mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce over penne pasta. He's looking for feedback. Do you want to try it?"

"Hohee... That sounds exciting. I'll try it," I said.

"How about you two? What would you like?" the waitress asked Ariel and Alice.

Ariel ordered in a subdued voice, and Alice followed after that.

"You know them?" Ariel asked me in a quite voice.

"Not really. I've only been here a couple of times before," I said. I hadn't been here any more or less than anywhere else. If I were being honest, I would admit to not actually knowing the names of anybody in the restaurant.

Throughout the meal we chatted about nothing in particular. The most notable aspect was that Ariel and I did most of the actual talking. Alice was relatively quiet throughout the meal. I tried to draw her in to the conversation as we ate, but had only limited success. She would answer some questions when I asked her directly but she would rarely offer any observations of her own. I still considered it a success.

The chef came out towards the end of the meal to meet us and get some feedback about his new dish. I was happy to have the opportunity to tell him how much I had enjoyed it. He exchanged some other general pleasantries with our group as well.

Alice got to row us back to Orange Planet. Ariel said she had an appointment in the afternoon and couldn't afford to be late. Alice wasn't the only who got practice. On the way Ariel had me practice too by giving short lectures of the different sites we passed. Alice's pace ensured I had to be much more terse in my brief snippets than I usually was.

Ariel gave Alice a bit of rowing advice as we went. She gave me quite a bit more advice on my speaking and presentation. She additionally gave a few extra facts or pointers about the various stops we passed by. I had passed by the Fenice Theater with Ariel several times before, but she still managed to find new details which I didn't know. I wondered how many times I would need to pass by places like that and the Dogana de Mar before I had learned everything that Ariel already knew about the city. I found myself wanting to hear more and more of what Ariel said, but there was so little time. It was the same way I felt whenever Ariel and I went out on a regularly scheduled training session.

We returned to Orange Planet in short order. Alice docked the gondola with just as much decisiveness as she had had at the cafe. It was much faster than I would have done. I would have needed to go forward and backward and forward and backward to get into the correct spot without bouncing against anything. Alice simply drifted to a stop and we were there.

"I'll see you in a few days for our next practice session," Ariel said to me before she hurried away. She was off to her next appointment. It seemed like every time I saw a Prima she was hurrying somewhere. It was a symptom of having too much to do and too little time.

It was still early in the day. Even though we were back at Orange Planet I didn't want to go back inside yet. It felt like such a waste. I said, "Do you want to keep going?"

"Sure," Alice said.

"Hey, let's switch. I want to row a bit," I offered.

"Okay."

We both caused the the gondola to rock around as we swapped places. I took my place at the back of the boat with my oar poised and ready, and Alice took her place at one of the seats in the middle.

"I'm going," I announced. I pushed off for the second time of the day. Embarking was much easier than docking a gondola. I only needed to make sure I wasn't steering into a palinas or any other structure littering the side of the water. Positioning didn't matter beyond that. I could afford to be careless as I rowed to the exit tunnel and into Neo Venezia proper again.

"Do you have anywhere in particular you want to go?" I asked.

"No. Anywhere is fine."

I selected a route which was not too easy but not too difficult. The canals were a bit smaller than usual, but they were also a lot quieter than usual too. These locations were a bit of less known to me, too, which let me exercise my memory of what we were passing. I wanted something which could challenge my skills but where I wouldn't get into trouble.

Alice seemed very quiet as I rowed. I had to prompt her several times by asking how I was doing or if she had any advice I could use to improve myself. I had no illusions that Alice was far better at rowing than I was. It took a while but towards the end Alice did give me a couple of good pointers of things I could do better.

Once we reached the other side of Neo Venezia I switched places with Alice. She was the one who selected the route she would row on the way back. She selected some canals I didn't know about. There were still countless canals in the city I didn't know, and they were ever changing with the tides. During high tide certain canals were blocked by bridges, and during low tide other paths didn't have enough water in them to support a boat. It was a challenge, and I enjoyed discovering a new route from Alice.

It would be a while before I would try to attempt the route she selected. There were numerous cross currents and narrow passages we crossed through. I saw them more than felt them. Alice would glide through places which I would have detoured around. I held my breath and had to close my eyes for the first several areas before I had gained the confidence that Alice knew what she was doing. Intellectually I knew she must have been up to the challenge of the route she took, but it took me a while for me to really feel like she was.

The trip felt a bit strange to me. I didn't even realize why until a good bit into it. The route was very good for rowing practice, but we didn't see very much of the city at all. It was the functional parts of Neo Venezia. It was almost exclusively limited to the parts of the city which the locals and businesses used. We passed by countless boats, and there were very few visual spectacles which a tourist would expect. Alice stayed more or less silent as we went as well. She barely even called out her warnings when we came to the intersections.

"This is a pretty complicated path. Have you taken it before?" I asked Alice.

"A bit," Alice said.

That explained how Alice could be so sure about where she was going. Even taking that into account her control was very impressive.

"What's your favorite part?" I asked.

Alice didn't answer. I was afraid I had offended her somehow. I fell silent after that.

"The part with church bell," Alice abruptly said. She pointed to a tall church just off to the side.

"What do you like about it?" I asked.

"It's hugely colorful," Alice answered.

"It is," I agreed. It was covered in reds, and oranges, and yellows, and some blues, and some greens, and just a bit of purple. It proudly stood out against the blue sky and beige buildings all around. "It's like it's really excited and it's trying to get all of the attention it can in this quiet place."

"This was originally one of the main canals of Neo Venezia when it was first being built," Alice said. "They used to use it to move wood around before the Canal Grande was finished."

"Hohee... I didn't know that," I said.

Alice continued to explain the history of this particular canal and how it had been built. It was the type of information that didn't appear in tourist books, not in the least because tourists typically didn't care about the mundane details of how the city worked. It was the type of information only locals who really cared about the subject knew.

As she spoke Alice continued to pilot the gondola back to Orange Planet. She didn't slow down in the least despite the history she was providing. Her skill was still apparent even when she was distracted by my questions on the little details of her explanation.

The path Alice had selected emerged into one of the main thoroughfares near Orange Planet. We emerged into the bright winter light and the passage we had just left faded into the background as one of the countless nameless canals I passed every day while idly wondering where they led. There were too many of them to explore, and each was a mystery. Now due to Alice's unorthodox tour I had one fewer mystery. It was doubtful I would ever take a tourist on the functional and complicated path that Alice had selected, but I still enjoyed learning all about another face of Neo Venezia.

I had just known that practicing with Alice would be a good idea.

Alice maneuvered the gondola through the entrance tunnel of Orange Planet and docked it for the second time of the day. I offered all the help I could. She didn't really need it, but it would have been rude to just run off. If I were the one rowing I knew I would have appreciated any help Alice would have given to me.

Having two sets of hands did make the work go faster. The boat was moored in short order and we departed the harbor.

The transition from the stony harbor into the well-warmed Orange Planet proper was stark and sudden. I felt it most in my left hand, which didn't have the protection of a glove to shelter it from the air. The warmth assaulted it which resulted in my fingers swelling into a puffy, toasty sensation. The almost but not quite painful feeling of bloat brought with it a feeling of relieving expansion after hours in the cold air.

Both Alice and I walked in the same direction. That was hardly a surprise. We were both heading back to our rooms and there was only one dormitory in the building. It was a bit more of a coincidence after we got to the second floor when we both turned down the same passage. The dormitory was fairly large and disperse. I kept expecting Alice to peel off into a side passage, but it never happened. Alice finally did turn, right at the same interaction where I did.

"Are you following me?" Alice asked.

"No. I'm just going back to my room."

Alice looked suspicious but didn't say anything back.

In short order, Alice pushed the door open to one of the rooms.

"That's your room?" I asked.

"It is," Alice said, looking even more suspicious. She stood there with the door half open.

"That's incredible. We're neighbors," I said. I hadn't known that. Somehow I had never seen Alice either entering or leaving her room.

It felt it was destiny that we had met each other. I was sure we were going to practice together a lot more in the future.

"Huaa... Welcome back," a sleepy voice announced. I could only half see her but I recognized the figure. It was the same Undine who had been so hard to serve in the cafeteria when I had helped out that day. It was the same Undine with that positively angelic voice in Canal Grande which could almost stop time. After hearing that voice it was impossible to forget her.

"Athena-sempai. What are you doing here?" Alice asked.

"I had a break," Athena said. Her voice had an absentminded quality which bore only the most passing similarity with her unbelievable singing.

"Athena-sempai? Wait. Alice-chan. Your Prima is Siren? You're so lucky," I said.

"Ara, ara," another voice said. It was a voice full of comfort and warmth. It was the voice of the loving wife of a slightly strange teacher. It was the voice of the motherly sister whose caring benevolence more than made up for any shortcomings in ability. I thought it sounded familiar somehow.

Alice more fully opened the door to reveal somebody else in the room besides her and Athena. The woman was wearing an Undine uniform with blue accents which somehow felt familiar. She had long blonde hair pleated in a single large braid down the back of her neck. It wasn't just her voice or her uniform. The Prima struck me as vaguely familiar somehow.

"Aren't you that Undine I saw with that painter a few months ago?" I asked. She had been the one to mention the prominence of chrysanthemums in the city. There was something else, though. Something more recent which tickled my memory. "Ahh... You're that Undine from the cover of Undine Magazine!" Orange Planet always had several copies of the magazine displayed around the building, especially wherever visitors would congregate. I always read through it when a new issue came out. This latest issue had a thorough article on Aria company and its incredible Undine, Alicia, also known as Snow White.

"Ara, ara."

"Welcome back. Do you have a new friend?" Athena asked. I found myself invited into the room.

"We were just practicing together," Alice said. "Never mind that. How do you know Snow White?"

"Alicia-chan? Hmm..." Athena said. She bobbed her head to the side and then up as if in deep thought.

"Athena-chan and I were friends from back when we were Singles," Alicia said. "We had a break at the same time so I thought I'd come and visit."

"Hohee... So Siren and Snow White are friends," I said. I was duly impressed. That made for two of the Three Water Fairies. Two of the three best and most recognized Undines in all of Neo Venezia actually were friends. It was an incredible coincidence.

"Is this your junior?" Alicia asked.

"That's right. This is Alice-chan," Athena said.

"Nice to meet you," Alice said. She bowed in greeting.

"Nice to meet you too, Alice-chan," Alicia said. "So this is the Pair everybody is talking about. What a wonderful junior. I'm sure you'll both do very well for each other."

"Th.. thank you," Alice said.

"When are you going to take somebody under you?" Athena asked. "Aria-company can't survive just by yourself."

"I don't know," Alicia said.

"You don't have a junior?" I asked. It was very strange. All of the Primas in Orange Planet had multiple Singles and Pairs under them. I thought it was a requirement of some sort. I had assumed that it was that way for every Prima.

"I know anybody would be hugely excited to be able to learn from you," Alice said.

"Ara, ara. Thank you," Alicia said.

"Nobody answered your advertisement?" Athena asked.

"I couldn't find the right person. I'm wondering if maybe I should try expand my horizons. Maybe I should try listing something at Manhome or something," Alicia said. The idea wasn't without merit. It was rare to find people interested in living in such an old-fashioned way like me, but Manhome had lots of people. The planet was far more populated than Aqua was. It was practically guaranteed that there had to be more people like me who would jump at the chance to being an Undine. All of that fresh air and sunlight. I hadn't even seen a blue sky until I had come to Aqua. It was even better than I had imagined.

"Here," Athena said. She had a tray with some tea cups in them. The tray shook in her hands and half of the tea had spilled out of the cups.

"Thanks," I said. I rescued a cup and ignored the slimy feeling of wet tea on its side. Alice took the other cup before Athena's unsteady hand could spill any more.

The tea was warm and soothing. It was the perfect thing after spending the day out in the late winter air of Neo Venezia. It had stopped being so cold, but the first blush of spring was still weeks away. Winter seemed to last forever. It was twice as long as on Manhome. It meant there was twice as long to enjoy the blankets of snow, the crunching of feet on half-hidden paths, the sharp air which made everything clearer and more real, and the moments of relaxation after escaping the cold into a warm building with warm drinks and food.

The discussion we shared was nice too. We didn't talk about anything in particular. Athena and Alicia spoke with the easy familiarity of long friendship, while Alice and I chimed in with the tentative first steps of of a friendship yet to come. It was short. Too soon Alicia and Athena needed to leave. The life of a Prima was a busy one, and neither had half as much time as they would have liked. The only reason I could imagine anybody choosing to become a Prima was that they loved their job.

I could hardly wait to become a Prima.

Last Updated: January 21, 2016