My big amusement of the moment is a new program from the same producers who are behind The Hidden War. The Hidden War will wind up after this season – and all the kids except perhaps Sen are extremely pleased about that because they despise the way they’re being depicted (they opted to not communicate more than their ages and the scriptwriters – perhaps trying not to offend – came up with these tremendously brave and noble children who are a little too good to be real). But just as we’re coming into the final throes of The Hidden War (next episode is the one where I get sucked into the Cruzatch’s trap), this new show has started called Muina Ez (Into Muina) which follows two settler families (one from Tare and one from Kolar) from the acceptance of their settlement applications onwards, showing all the minutiae of what average people are encountering when moving to Muina.
It’s interesting and well-produced, and really gets the feel of the process right, I think. But it’s truly funny to me because of the way my family is depicted. They don’t get actors to portray us – or show images or anything – just long-distance shots of Arcadia and the other islands as this near-mythic goal on the horizon. Both sets of settler kids are shown as completely fascinated by me and Lira and Kaoren (and Setari in general), except for the primary heroine of the story, who is fixated on Ys. Ys, Rye, Sen and Lira’s personalities and traits are better known now, and the primary heroine of Muina Ez is this smart, slightly socially awkward Kolaren girl whose head is stuffed full of stories of epic derring-do, and Ys has been her hero since saving me after I projected the dragon. She has a counterpart (and obvious future love interest) in a brainy Taren boy and it looks like they’re going to play up Kolaren-Taren-Nuran culture clashes for all it’s worth. It’s a fun show, and very informative about the settler process.
Ys' reaction to the first couple of episodes has been priceless. She’s used to the focus being on Lira or Sen, but Ys is definitely the mythic heroine of this plot so far and she’s trying to be infuriated but it’s hard for her to withstand such a high compliment. Lira teases her a little about it, but not too much (most of the other kids on the show are severely Lira-worshipful, which she’s loving).
I probably shouldn’t be enjoying it so much. Being such public figures is a whole extra strain on them, but so far the kids are handling it better than I expected. The last episode had a long discussion about House Renar and just what was going on inside it, and the whole issue with Sen’s parents – and even just who Ys and Rye’s parents are too (a subject too touchy for them to discuss even with me). All pure speculation – according to Maze they’re not going to present anything as fact about us which isn’t known as fact, but they’re certainly willing to argue through all the rumours. Both families are based in Pandora (with parents with exotic jobs which mean they get to visit other settlements) and the characters' absolute aim is to get canoes and paddle to Arcadia – exactly as two Kolaren teenagers attempted to just recently, except they don’t want to be intercepted by greensuits as the teenagers were. The show’s entirely produced and created here and Lira’s very curious to try and spot the actors whenever we go into town. Muina’s gradually accruing more and more personalities and celebrities, and famous people from Tare and Kolar seem to be constantly migrating here. It fortunately takes some of the focus off me and the Setari (although a lot of the famous people are just as much Setari-fans as the next person).
There’s whole heaps of rumours going around about my wedding plans now. All wildly wrong except for the obvious guess about it being held on Arcadia. Kaoren’s parents will be coming back to Muina a little beforehand – they’ve decided to emigrate, but to my relief don’t want to be based in Pandora. Arden’s going to visit, but not emigrate as yet.
14 - January
January 15
Close Call
Sight Sight talents are tremendously useful.
Since Maze and Alay adopted, Alay hasn’t been scheduled to be one of my minders, but we do see her quite regularly. She’ll drop in to chat (to me or to my minders), or we’ll see her when we go visit to view the latest things Maze, Rye and Lianz have done to Maze’s garden, or during one of the school runs or at someone else’s house. Still, it had been a few weeks since I’d seen her – she’s been travelling about a bit less now that she’s getting toward the awkward end of her pregnancy. The weather’s been tremendously hot and sunny lately, and our shady pool is excellent for swimming on these really sunny days, and the waterfall is always a favourite, so I invited Mara, Alay, Ketz and Jeh to bring their kids over for a small swimming party while Fourth and the combined non-pregnant bits of First/Second were due to be off an on Ena mission. Sen of course leapt on Mara and Alay to say hello to their babies. Babies are definitely her favourite thing in the whole world (and she’s literally counting the days till our wedding and is expecting Kaoren and I to produce one immediately).
Kaoren has been giving Sen a lot of Sights training the past couple of months while she struggles with Place, and also teaching her the ethics and social conventions which have grown up around talents who can see things people might wish to keep private. Sen, while a very joyful little girl, is well-versed in harsh realities. I’m willing to bet she was in no doubt about the enjoyment Kimirenar got from his treatment of Ys and Rye, and Sight Sight can reveal all sorts of infections and fatal diseases and cancers and things. Kaoren says he’s seen pregnant women and known that the child wasn’t viable and there would be a miscarriage, and it was obvious that Sen had seen much the same thing. We’ve been giving her lots of tips about what she should do when she sees personal information about someone – particularly how to keep calm about exciting pregnancies, or what to do if someone’s sick or ill. Dragging someone into your bathroom to ask if their secret is a secret is not the best way to go about it. In the end, since anything Sen could see would probably be obvious to Kaoren or Siame as well, we told her if her Sight showed her something she wanted to talk about, she should check with one of them before doing or saying anything.
Sen still isn’t much of an actress yet, though, so when Lohn, Mara and Alay arrived with their horde, I knew that something was up by the way she behaved after her usual greeting-the-babies hugs. She wasn’t totally obvious about it, just getting rather subdued, but it was enough to have Ys and Rye, who know Sen backward and forward, trying to work out why she was hiding being upset. I simply opened a channel to all my kids, and asked Sen if this was one of those Sight issues we’d been talking about, then was all approving about the fact that Sen had sent for Siame. I could see Mara had picked up on the atmosphere too, and after a sharp glance at Sen and then me, she tidied everyone down to the pool, making sure Lohn was along as supervisor, then came back. I did my part by keeping Alay distracted, and giving Sen a hug to make her feel better.
Siame was in her studio, which we’d built her on the sunniest side of the hill – south, and kind of around the corner of the hill from the house on the way to The Wedding Garden[15]. Rye (with Maze and Kaoren’s help) worked out the course of pathways between our house and the two new buildings, and laid stone paving and even steps in a few places, so they’re both connected but quite separate from our house. That Siame, still mildly paint-daubed, suddenly dropped out of the air on our patio rather than walking told me that Sen must have sounded quite urgent in her summons.
15
We’ve also planned the