[IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

[heavensreader]

Is it worki - oh. Ahem. This is Kesara Freamon. Please leave your message here and I will call back on you as soon as I can.







Wait, is it still - argh, how do I ma-

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[heavensreader]

[Oh, this sounds like a story. Kesara's attention, already focused, immediately strains to go up yet another notch.]

You did, but, you didn't say anything about your father in it.

[devoutish]

Nah, I wasn't putting those two together. My father wasn't in that war.

But I was, as a soldier. Not a commander. I did follow a commander; a sergeant. But things were very different there then they are here.

[heavensreader]

[So that would be two stories, quite possibly. What a lucky Kesara she is today!]

Why were they so different? I mean - I know we are not at war, but I think, it's a little similar when conditions are so hard and everyone might die at any moment. Isn't it?

[devoutish]

A bit. But it's not similar enough to treat the same way.

Kesara, tell me - why do you want to do this?

[heavensreader]

I'll - I'll explain if you tell me the story about your sergeant. In the war.

[You can't leave her hanging like this, Mr. Solomons, honestly.]

[devoutish]

It's not much of a story. He's an example of someone I followed, yeah? But we were from the same country, fighting for the same goal. We agreed on who our enemies were. There was none of the uncertainty that there is here.

[heavensreader]

That's the problem, that's exactly it. That uncertainty.

[She echoes his tone exactly, though with a shade more vehemence.]

I'm frightened. I'm not meant to be, since in the Great Game, many times I won't know who is with me or against me. That's how the Game is played! But I don't know and I'm scared. In Serindia I understood men. I knew what to do. Here I don't understand anything. I feel like such a fool sometimes!

[devoutish]

People are people everywhere.

[He's been able to use that to his own advantage, up to a point.]

But it is different, when those people are from places we can't even imagine. It means there's angles that we can't always predict. I do not judge you for being frightened, Kesara. I've seen you keep your head when you need to, and that's the important thing. Yeah? That's when it counts.

[heavensreader]

That's what I said, too... but I still made all those mistakes.

[She isn't speaking entirely to him now. It's a moment of musing, a little morose, and under that, angry. A lot angry.]

I always need to keep my head, Mr. Solomons. It's very tiring. I'm - I'm not so old yet. Not so strong.

[devoutish]

What other mistakes did you make?

[heavensreader]

I thought I could get Duster to - to do what I wanted, and I was wrong. And before, when I lied to Zach and hurt him so... and now with Ecks. People are the same, but the way they look at me is different. It makes such a big difference!

[devoutish]

How do they look at you now, and how do you want them to look at you?

[heavensreader]

Oah, in Serindia no one hardly ever looks at me. Because I'm a girl, and half-caste... no one is easier to trick than people who think they're much too smart to be tricked by the likes of you. But here they don't make this mistake, and I have to keep thinking of new tricks all the time. And maybe I'm...

[She falls silent. The end of that sentence is horrifying to contemplate.]

[devoutish]

Mm?

[It's an encouraging sound. Go on, Kesara.]

[heavensreader]

[Maybe I'm not - maybe I'm not -

She is not gracing that thought with a voice. No. She refuses.]

... it's only that it's tiring. And I have other things to do. Important things.

[devoutish]

What do your teachers tell you about mistakes, at home?

[heavensreader]

That depends on how bad they were. Sometimes Dr. Stein would say we cannot learn without making mistakes. But other times... other times she would say a thing was unworthy of me.

[devoutish]

[The more Alfie hears about Dr. Stein, the more he approves.]

I do not think this was a mistake that was unworthy of you.

[heavensreader]

You're nothing like Dr. Stein at all, Mr. Solomons.

[She says it with a little laugh. But there's something loose about her breathing in it, that says his words have found their mark.]

Maybe - maybe it's one of those mistakes that I need to learn by making. But isn't that a terrible thing to say about a mistake that someone's died for? Duster shouldn't have died to teach me. He wouldn't like to think so.

[devoutish]

He didn't die to teach you, but it would be a waste not to learn from it.

[heavensreader]

He still died. You're supposed to learn before someone dies. That's - that's why they don't let untrained colts out into the Game.

[devoutish]

Kesara, will you tell me more about the Game?

[It's clearly very important to her, but he's never been able to get a concrete explanation of what it is.]

[heavensreader]

[It's a substantial request. Kesara is silent for a moment, over on the other side chewing on her lower lip. She begins very slowly.]

Do you know - in your time, Mr. Solomons, is there still the British Empire? Is India still the jewel in the crown?

[devoutish]

[He settles in to be told a story, for once.]

It is, yeah.

[heavensreader]

India is the jewel in the crown, but in the North there's the Bear - the Russians. They'd like nothing more than to pluck the jewel, and of course we the British must defend what is ours. But Serindia, all that land between our border and theirs, is vast, all terrible deserts and mountains, heathen princedoms, hostile tribes, places where a white man - or a black, if he speaks the wrong language and bows to the wrong god - would be shot like a rabbit in a trap if he makes a false step. And that is if he is lucky to die quickly.

[This, her tone suggests, is tremendously exciting.]

Whoever has the best maps, the hearts of the people there, the markets, that is who will have India. The information, not the soldiers. And that is the Great Game. The war of spies.