Yet Again
That day was a day of meetings, I suppose.
That afternoon, while I was sprawled out on my rooftop, basking in the warm winter sun, Jahar, my main servant, interrupted me.
"A boy named Raiyan and his two companions, Asari and Selas, wish to speak with you, sir."
I raked my mind for a moment, before the name finally came clear to me. My son!
Snow clung to my skin and clothing as I sat up in shock. What was he doing here? Last I had heard...
Wait, had I missed his college graduation? Was that why they were here? Surely Jahar would have reminded me... or had it been so long ago that Jahar hadn't been my head servant at the time? But Jahar had called him a boy, so perhaps... perhaps I hadn't forgotten, and he was just visiting me.
Though I doubted that.
I rose and slipped back inside, dusting snow from my front as Jahar worked to remove that from my back. It wouldn't do to show up covered in snow, much as I might like the feel of it against my skin.
When I walked into the sitting room, the three were already seated in a defensive triangle, with Raiyan at the point. Right then and there, I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"So, what did you come here for?" I asked, as a young servant slipped in and set a glass of ice wine at my elbow. I thanked him with a nod -- somehow, I knew I'd need it.
"I want to be listed as a Fallen, not a Lost." Raiyan declared, his voice low but powerful.
I paused, sure I'd not heard him right. It almost seemed ludicrous, after the conversation with Luna and Eli earlier this morning, about Lost claiming to be Fallen. I took a swallow of the wine in my glass, observing my son over the top of it as I did. His translucent, smoke gray hair gave him an ethereal look that was only reinforced by my own silver edged blue eyes staring back at me from a face only slightly softened from my aquiline edges by his mother's heritage. His bone pale skin was at once creepy and fascinating, so unlike my own pale skin by the sheer intensity of the whiteness of it.
"You want what, now?" I finally managed to articulate, as I sat back in my chair and took another sip of my wine. Yep, I'd definitely be needing it today.
"I want to be accepted as a Fallen," he repeated, as he brushed futilely at several strands of his hair, his body tensing subtly, as if waiting for an explosion from me.
Not that he was going to get it. I prided myself on my calm -- and in this instance, at least, I had not been completely unaware of everything that was going on. Or, at least, I wasn't now, as my memory finally managed to churn out the necessary details when faced with the source. His Test scores had been a small interest of mine, that grew into a fascination as each subsequent Test placed him higher in the rankings. By age seventeen, when I'd finally remembered to visit on Christmas, he had exceeded the standard score of Pure Lost, and looked to be still growing.
Movement behind him caught my eye, and I watched as the woman on his right shifted restlessly, starting a low buzz of memory in the back of my mind. I couldn't recall it at the moment, though, so I just let it be. It would work its way free eventually.
His second companion was as still as his first was restless, her pale blue gaze fixed firmly on me, barely blinking or moving. She was as unreadable as most people said I was.
"You realize the effect this will have on Fallen society?" I spoke after a long moment of contemplating exactly that. The idea that we could actually have true children, though so rare that in three hundred years only one had been born (and how much of that, my mind whispered, was because of the rarity of Fallen dealing with Lost of any sort?)... well. That very idea would throw the community into an uproar. It was life altering, in its own little way. It meant that we had a chance at survival. That we could have real children. Children that wouldn't die before us... "There is no precedent of this ever happening before."
"Maybe because this has never happened before!" Raiyan leaned forward in his seat, reiterating what my mind had just been over. "Look, I out-scored you in agility on my last Test, and nearly tied you in strength. My dexterity is perfectly tied with yours, and my endurance is only a few points below you. All in all, I have the same overall ranking as you -- fifty five, which is higher than over half the Fallen on record, even when you count the deceased."
"Don't quote scores to me, child." I growled, "Eli, Luna, and I devised those with the help of several leading physicians at the time. Scores don't make or break a Fallen, lifespan does. We are functionally immortal... are you?"
It was a legitimate question. Had he even thought about that when he was gathering his facts?
"The doctors say so."
Well, that answered that. I fell back into silence, turning the concept over and over again in my mind. Did I want to go against tradition and set a precedent for Lost being able to petition for listing as Fallen? Humans wouldn't understand the difference, but to us Fallen it was everything.
The woman on his right shifted again, beginning to drum her fingers against the arm of her chair, before being silenced by the one on his left. My memory stirred again.
She didn't stay stilled for long, though. As soon as the second woman turned her gaze back to me, the first had resumed shifting restlessly, bouncing her leg in a swift jitter that caught my attention.
Ah! I had it now.
"Jahar!" I called, noting that my suddenly raised voice caused the three to jump in their seats. "Fetch that perch we have. One of my guests is a Pure Lost with the same trouble as Cara."
"Very good, sir," came Jahar's response.
Not long after, he and two others came back into the room, carrying the perch I'd had made when I was housing Cara for long stretches of time. A restless soul, Cara was a Pure Lost with a neurosis best described as 'fear of remaining still'. Even in her sleep, she had been restless, or so Jahar had reported, saying that they often found her trying doggedly to straighten her sheets out every morning after a restless night's sleep.
I'd been rather proud of my solution to the problem, and had taken to teaching her while she scampered from platform to platform. She learned marvelously as soon as I gave her permission to move as much as she wanted, and that solved that little issue.
As soon as the platform was set up, I gestured to the woman, "I will not fault you for your nature, but neither will I force you to remain motionless like the rest of us. Go, work off your energy as you will."
She was off immediately, a blur of motion that made me slightly heartsick for little Cara. Her joy in the perch was obvious from the expression on her face.
"As for you," I redirected my attention back onto Raiyan. "This is no decision for just me to make. I don't know whether to praise your timing or deplore it, but there is a full gathering of Fallen in a month. I will be your sponsor for this, but the ultimate decision will be the decision of the collective."
He sighed at my words, and relaxed slightly. "Promise me you won't forget?"
I nearly laughed at his question, but settled instead for an amused smile, "Raiyan, you should know me better than that, merely from the histories on me. Of course I'll forget... but Jahar won't permit me to. He'll make sure everything is in order for us to go."
He nodded his acceptance. "Alright then. I guess we'll leave, then... that was all I wanted to ask you..."
"Hmm... Jahar, don't I have a dinner with Eli and Luna sometime soon?" The thought came randomly into my mind, but I wasn't about to discard it yet.
"Tomorrow night, sir."
"Do you think Sasha could accommodate three more? Pure Lost, as a note."
"I'm sure she would be more than pleased to cook for a larger gathering, if you don't mind my saying, sir," Jahar replied with a slight smile, "Should I tell her to expect it?"
I nodded, "Do. Raiyan, you three are invited to dinner tomorrow night, so that Eli and Luna can meet you. Jahar will tell you the little details that I've forgotten." I gave a self-depreciating smile and a shrug, "I'd never survive without my servants."
I waited for his response, watching as he checked with both his companions first before responding. Good, at least he upheld the Celestial Covenant. One mark in his favor.
"We accept, with thanks. We'll see you tomorrow night."
He rose and gestured for the two to follow him, before leaving the room at last.
I gulped the remaining wine in my glass, then set it gently down on the table by my side. "Jahar, what have I gotten myself into?"
"Oh, I would only say... a rather life altering adventure. With more yet to come, if my senses prove to be right."
"Great. Just great. Well, I'm back off to sunbathing. Talk with you later."