Reclamation

"I have had plenty of time for thinking while you were recovering," she said. "Adu helped some, but mostly I…" She touched her pouch of stones. "Reviewed what I had learned on Kethran." She moved her hand away from the pouch with a quick jerk. "Think on this. The Words say we were named individually by the Nameless. Zur-Iyal then tells me our ancestors must have been constructed individually by some great technology. The Vitae say they lost their home-world. The Words say the Realm was moved to rescue it from the Aunorante Sangh. The Vitae have been searching for their world for years. The Words warn they would be back. There's also the story that the Servant was aided by a Notouch who 'made the Realm hear his commands…' "

Eric started. "Where did you hear the apocrypha?"

She smiled her twisted smile. "From my mother, when she showed me my namestones for the first time." She touched the pouch again. "That Notouch was my ancestress. The way she made the Realm 'hear' was with the stones I'm carrying. Or so the story goes, but our stories are turning out to be remarkably close to the truth, are they not?"

"What manner of Notouch are you?" Eric asked softly. "I've been over the World's Wall for ten years and I never, ever thought like this."

"You never wanted to," she said simply. "You wanted to run away and you did. I, however, wanted to understand what the Skymen wanted of us. Now, I do." She closed her jaw so firmly, Eric heard her teeth click together. "They want to get their flabby hands on my children. I will prevent this, Teacher Hand. If it costs my life and my name, I swear I will."

For a moment all he could do was stare at her fierce, unwavering expression. "That's why you left the Realm? Just to find out what the Skymen wanted?"

She laughed deprecatingly. "I admit, I didn't think I'd find myself over the World's Wall. I went to the Skymen because…" she shook her head. "I also thought the Words were lies. The Skymen were friends with the Heretics. The Heretics have been known to violate the caste laws. I thought if I helped the Skymen in their aims, I would be able to secure their favor and they might persuade King Silver to raise my family from the ranks of the Notouch." She traced her scars again, slowly, meditatively. "I thought to keep my children from groveling in the mud all their lives. I did not know that to save my family, I would have to save the Realm." She glanced up at him. "Or indeed, even save one Teacher. Nor did I expect to find that the Words of the Teachers were closer to the truth than the words of the Heretics." She sighed. "But the Nameless did not ask my permission when they opened their eyes, did they?"

Eric realized he was staring. Of course she would have children. She would have been married shortly after she hit pubescence, and started having babies right away. He was an overindulged rarity and had only been allowed to stay unmarried because his older sister was already producing power-gifted heirs. He knew that. It was the way of the Realm.

So why was it hitting him so hard to hear that this woman, this Notouch woman, was married?

"You did all this for your children?" he rubbed his palms together. "That's…very brave."

She shrugged. "I grew up being told I had been chosen by the Nameless, and yet I was treated like a Notouch. It was…difficult. Infuriating. I wished to spare my children." She looked at him curiously. "What drove you out here?"

Lady Fire's curses, his son, red, wet, and bawling, in his power-gifted hands, his father's voice, Heart's wary eyes…

"The Words of the Nameless Powers," he muttered.

"Strange," Aria folded her arms. "The Words of the Nameless forbid climbing the World's Wall. 'There is no place for you but here.' " She touched her hands again.

"They also say a Teacher may bear or sire children without marriage, but only if the other is unwed, and they say that anyone who knowingly harbors one who does not hear the Words in the Temple must recant or be executed." His voice dropped to a whisper. "The words of the Nameless say too much to be endured."

Aria glanced away toward the view wall and didn't ask any more.

"Listen, Aria." Eric leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. "I understand why you want to return, truly I do, but even if there was something we could do, there is still no way to reach the Realm. If we had an armed shuttle or an upgraded runner and an experienced crew, maybe, maybe, we could make it, but this is only a runner's side ship and I'm little more than a glorified passenger. I never had the thirteen years it takes to learn to pilot one of these by oneself."

A gleam sparked in the depths of Aria's black eyes. "So my Lord Teacher does not really know if this ship could get past the Vitae, does he?"

Eric pulled back. "Yes, I do know."

"You just said you did not." Now she leaned forward, eagerness shining in her features. "Does the ship know?"

"What?"