It was, typically, just before Mass yesterday when I saw that horrible predicament Ildi is in: taking away access to the Void, her friends, family, would be no different – as Dorina says, below – than one of us losing their sight and hearing. Since I don’t want to spend time of Tam going shopping for Part 3, I think there will need to be a hearing of how Ildi is holding on by her metaphorical fingertips.

So: some exposition for the girl in a boy. Politics will next obviously be a factor. Then back to EAST, in an attempt to defuse the situation. God forgive me, that was an awful pun.

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With Lem asleep in his mother’s arms on the couch opposite her, Tamera turned down the volume of her tablet to continue her conversation with Dorina.

“No, they are not stable,” the smartest person on earth said.  The fact she looked a pre-teen loli-goth did not help her argument.  “So, they will need to be at the fission reactor’s flux point in about two hours.  Until this is resolved, they will spend most of their time there.”

“What?” Skylar asked sharply, looking up from her son.

“You can do what you are doing now,” Tamera clarified, looking at the walls of text Dorina was sending.  “It will keep them both stable and happy.  Got it?”

“Sure.”

Roland’s wife was a barmaid and not terribly bright, Tam knew.  White hair and red eyes aside, she must be something in bed for him to back the empress into a corner to marry her.  Still and all, she is a good person, loves her husband and son, and, she looked at another note on the screen, pregnant again.  Let’s hope her second is not the genetic train-wreck of her first.

“I’ve tagged the parts of Ildi we’ll need to retrieve – ” Dorina went on.

“How!” Tamera demanded.  At a sharp look from the Machine, she relented.  “Never mind.”

“…and do not anticipate her re-embodiment to be beyond our abilities,” Dorina said.  “I will need help, and am reaching out to the relevant people now.”

“Do you foresee any problems with the minds?” the nurse asked, having seen very odd things with the demi-humans in the Hartmann family over the years.  “Ildi is a very strong-headed gal and Lem just a boy…”

“Ildi is already having trouble pretending to be human,” Dorina said, serious now.  “As a demi, and one who has almost always been in signal for her fourteen years, to be in a body with no lines means she is cut off in a way – how to make you older? – much in a way if you suddenly lost your sight and hearing.  She’s trying to be brave for everyone, but I know she is more scared and confused than she is letting on.”

Tamera was a bit surprised.  The empress and sometimes patient, Faustina, had spent as much time out of signal as in.  Even her brother, Doctor Gary, who worked at the same hospital she did, often went on vacations with his wife and younger brother, out in the wilds.  Demi or not, Ildi is still a little girl.

“Then we’ll have to take things as gently as we can,” the nurse agreed.  “I’m sure there’s a spare tablet around somewhere.  Not as good as her mind, but perhaps it will make her feel a bit more connected.”

“A bit, sure.” Dorina gave a blink.  “I am arranging transport for the three – well, four – of you to the fission reactor about thirty minutes from here.  Once we have them bedded down, with Sky and me keeping an eye on them, you’ll need some clothes and toiletries for the next few days.”

“But, I don’t have any money, or even speak – ”

“I’ll take care of money and a cousin will be on next to handle the language gap.” Now, a broad smile.  “She’s good at that.”

The loli-goth’s image was gone.  Now, what appeared to be a woman in her mid-twenties with light pink hair well past the white shirt or dress covering her shoulders looked at her.  I’ve seen her but do not recall…

“I am Tay,” the other declared.  Not a deep voice, but a rich one.  Tamera could not suppress her shudder.  “I am the adopted daughter of Reina Mendrovovitch.  Dorina has briefed me.  I shall be your voice to the locals.”

“You,” Tamera swallowed, “you speak Chinese?”

A grin with no teeth.  “I speak everything.”