shedding light (and a little fur)
Fandom: Cats of Grand Central – Diane Duane
Rating: General
Character(s): Rhiow, Hwaith, Iaehh (Mike)
Relationship(s): Rhiow/Hwaith
Spoilers and Warnings: Spoilers for The Big Meow; warning for off-screen canonical minor character death.
Notes: Written for rmc28 in Yuletide Treasure 2012; kindly beta-read by Staals and VelvetMouse.
For people unfamiliar with Ailurin and the Speech, please note first that "Iaehh" and "Mike" are the same person. Most names and many words in human languages have an Ailurin (that is, cat speech, in this universe) cognate. Rhiow and Hwaith are simply Ailurin names, and as such, have no direct human equivalent. "Mike" is "Iaehh", "Susan" or "Sue" is "Hhuha", "T'hom" is, of course, "Tom", and "Har'lh", Carl. "Ehhif" is Ailurin for "human", as cats call themselves and other felines "People".
The Speech, otherwise known as "the language all things understand", is purely wizardly and understood by all species. "Sevarfrith" is the Speech word for a place or society where wizardry must be conducted under cover.
Summary: "He followed me home. Can I keep him?" Rhiow gets a little time to talk to Iaehh - about several things. What do you do when the Queen grants your wish?
Iaehh's face was a picture.
Rhiow had heard that expression thrown around a lot, but his expression really brought it home to her. Her ears came right up to match her already forward-tilted whiskers, and she laughed, delighted. Thank you, my Queen! She could feel the smile, but Queen Iau said no more.
"...Puss?"
Hwaith glanced at her, tail still entwined with hers, then turned in Iaehh's direction and deliberately began to purr at a level even an ehhif could hear. Rhiow head-butted Hwaith gently before she moved over towards Iaehh.
He's smart for an ehhif, she thought to herself, not immediately making the assumption that he's crazy for hearing a cat talk to him... though, maybe he does think that and he's just playing along?
She felt a little guilty about the qualifier. Iaehh is smart, of course he is! He has a good job and he manages living on his own— the claw in the heart made a lump in her throat as she had that thought, and she pushed the idea back as quickly as she could. Sa'Rrahh had repaid her well for this intervention, in Her own inimitable way, but that didn't mean she could forgive all past injuries incurred—nor would the Whisperer or Queen Iau expect it of her.
Hwaith stepped a little nearer to her, silently offering her his support, and Rhiow was grateful for his presence. The Ear must come in handy sometimes outside of errantry, too, I'm certain of it...
She was fairly sure she wouldn't be allowed to provide Iaehh with a full and detailed explanation – even the one kits got from their dams would be too much for a non-wizardly ehhif to hear, in a mostly sevarfrith society like theirs. But she could say enough, couldn't she? She realised she'd been quiet too long, and Iaehh was still staring at her with his mouth a little open, one hand still raised in mid-air above the counter with his keys clutched in his fist.
"Iaehh," she said in the Speech, "I'm only allowed to talk to you like this for a little while." Rhiow thought quickly, knowing only too well that she would not be able to lie to him in the Speech and knowing, too, that she couldn't tell him the truth behind all that was going on.
She padded slowly towards him, stepping onto one of his leather-shoed feet with her forepaws, affectionate and lightweight enough for a Person as 'plumptious' as Iaehh liked to call her.
She stretched her neck upward to meet his gaze as he looked down at her, a slightly dazed look in his blue eyes. He was still taking the occasional glance over at Hwaith, who had settled into a brief bout of composure-washing, evidently still a little unsure of his welcome—with Iaehh, never with me! Iaehh dropped his keys and reached down with both hands to pick her up, and Rhiow let him, purring a little bit as he settled her against his shoulder, stroking her head.
"Are you really talking to me, plumptious?" he asked, a slight tone of worry in his voice. Rhiow smiled to herself a little on hearing the word she had so recently thought. "I'm not going crazy because of Sue?"
She almost winced at that. "No, you're not crazy. I miss her as much as you do. I'm sorry," she said, patting Iaehh's face gently with her paw, claws very carefully retracted as she leaned against his forearm for balance. It had been a long time since he'd stayed still enough to hold her properly, and Rhiow appreciated it while she could get it. Iaehh wasn't the type of ehhif to stay still for very long; he hadn't even been that when Hhuha was still around.
"This is Hwaith, my partner," she introduced Hwaith, who looked up at them and put his ears forward slightly in amusement at the sound of it. He gave Rhiow a very fond glance, an affectionate curl to the end of his tail. Partner, tom, I don't mind what you name me, he told her, mind-to-mind, so long as I'm yours.
Had Rhiow been human, she would almost certainly have blushed then. As it was, her whiskers went as far forward as they would go. She curled her tail around Iaehh's wrist and turned her head back up to his.
"My name's Mike," Iaehh said, nodding to Hwaith. "Good to meet you—feels weird saying that to a cat, but what the heck." He looked back down at Rhiow. "Can cats all talk English?" he asked, wondering, stroking her fur absently with the backs of his fingers while he held her. "Or is it just you? You said you can't talk for long—can you tell me why? I don't always get what you want when you meow at me—cats have a language of their own, right? And can your friend talk, and doesn't he have an owner already, or someone who'll worry where he is?"
Rhiow smiled on the inside. So many questions, that's the Iaehh I remember from before. From back when Hhuha was alive, and from my own kittenhood. Well, I'll answer as many as I dare—I'll tell him as much as the Whisperer and my Queen will allow./p
She took a deep breath, hopped down from Iaehh's arms, curled up on the couch in what Hhuha had always called her "meatloaf position", and settled in for the long haul.
"Yes," she began, "we can all talk, and Hwaith can talk too, of course, but we can't all talk to humans in their own language..."
A little under an hour later, Iaehh and Hwaith were curled together on the couch, one stretching out flat and the other perched on the back above him, discussing wizardry and the Oath quietly in the Speech. Rhiow gave them occasional, thoughtful glances from the kitchen, where she was lapping contentedly at a saucer of cream.
Now, this is the way to take a break from talking, she thought. But look at me—I can only talk to him for today and I'm already in need of a rest! She purred wryly through a mouthful, and lifting her head from the dish, licked her nose clean before walking slowly back towards them.
"So you see," Hwaith said, "we sign up for this saving-the-world stuff, as a certain pastrami-loving friend of ours would call it." He flirted his tail at Rhiow in amusement as she jumped up to cuddle beside him, letting her tail fall over his back comfortably. It was lovely, and unexpected, how quickly she was getting used to being like this with him.
"What do you get out of it, though?" Iaehh's tone was curious.
"Well," Rhiow said, her whiskers going forward so far the two sets almost met each other, "there is this." She began to wash Hwaith's ear, and he let her.
Iaehh smiled at them, a little sadly. "Happiness?"
"You could say that," Hwaith murmured, a purr in his voice. "Of course there are other things, such as job satisfaction."
Iaehh chuckled out loud, and Rhiow's heart lifted to see it. "I just bet," he said. "Must be some satisfaction, to save people's lives all the time."
"Well, we don't save lives every day," she admitted. "Actually, our usual job—we do the same kind of thing—involves working on wizardly gates for people to use to travel all over the world, all over the universe, in fact." She washed one paw, idly. "Of course, that has a certain amount of satisfaction, too."
"Can I help?" Iaehh spoke so suddenly, she was startled. She'd had little hint of this idea in his mind before the last hour... And I thought I knew him so well. Maybe he needs a distraction? If this will help him come to terms with the changes in his life... why not?
When Rhiow looked back at him, he had moved back and sat leaning forward, his posture full of interest and his hands clasped together in front of his chest. He grabbed for the drink he'd left on the table and sipped it, watching her and waiting for her answer. I'm supposed to be on sabbatical, she thought wryly. 'Wizard's holiday...'
"Well," she said slowly, "we could always talk to T'hom and Har'lh?" She glanced at Hwaith, unsure whether he knew who they were. She wondered for a moment if it was possible to be a wizard in one life and not the next; the Whisperer didn't respond to the silent thought, so perhaps She was busy elsewhere. Rhiow considered asking the question, later on when she could no longer talk to Iaehh—right now, she had other priorities than fulfilling her own curiosity.
Hwaith was a wizard again, surely. He had to be, or he'd never have made it up to her litterbox, as it was almost impossible without skywalking—and he'd mindspoken her, too. In that case, he should know who T'hom and Har'lh were—but since Iaehh didn't, best to say it aloud. "They're the East Coast Advisory wizards."
"Are they cats too?" Iaehh asked. Rhiow laughed a little.
"No, no. They're human, both. Though some of the wizards in senior positions for Earth are of other species." She thought of the whales in Hudson Bay, but didn't mention them, preferring to keep her explanation as simple as possible for the time being. "T'hom and Har'lh have a big house together, here in New York, and they watch over wizardry and individual wizards for the entire east coast of North America," she explained. She shifted position, settling her front paws beneath her head comfortably.
Iaehh looked surprised. "That's not—is that their day job, then? I mean, can wizards make money with what they do? Can you create it out of nothing, or what?"
So many questions, Rhiow thought, tickled. Had she been like this when she was new to it all? She couldn't remember; it had been a few lives ago, now.
Hwaith shifted to lean his head comfortably against her side, slinging a paw across both of hers. He looked as amused as she felt, and briefly she was glad ehhif weren't very good at understanding the whole of Ailurin. She leaned down and licked the paw he'd moved, just once, a quick shot of affection.
"No," she said, "we can't create things out of nothing. The universe doesn't allow it. But T'hom and Har'lh have other jobs—T'hom writes for a living and Har'lh sells commercial time for WNXT. Har'lh does a lot of work with the gates, too. He'll know how you can help, if you can." Rhiow paused. "Iaehh—you know we won't be able to talk to you like this after today, right? I'm sorry. It's something in the nature of a reward for, for something big we did for the universe, but it won't last forever."
Iaehh reached over and scratched her behind the ears, rubbing his thumb in a circle over the top of her head. Rhiow purred in response. Neither of them said anything for a little while.
"Well," he finally said, "now I know you understand me anyway, I guess I can live with that." He shifted his hand to rub underneath Rhiow's chin, smiling slightly as her green eyes went unfocused with pleasure. "It's always good to have your company, Midnight, either way. And your handsome friend—yes, he can stay, if you want. I can afford to keep another cat, just about, and it'll be good for you to have company when I'm at work, even if you can get down from that balcony."
He sighed, putting his glass down and reaching his other hand to stroke Hwaith's side with the back of his knuckles even as he continued to pet Rhiow. "Anyway, I'll still be able to talk to these advisory guys, right? Tom and … what did you say the other guy's name was?"
"Carl," Hwaith said, speaking for the first time in a while and clearly enunciating the human word, more difficult in a feline mouth.
"We can take you to see them, on your day off, if you're sure that's what you want," Rhiow offered.
Iaehh withdrew his hands and sat back, crossing one leg over the other, ankle on knee. He was silent for a moment.
"Yes," he said at last. "I think it is."
"Well then," Rhiow murmured, "that's what we'll do. Soon."
And so it goes.
-fin