The daily business of the Protectorate, filled as it was with continuing to identify collected evidence and interrogate the array of people that had been arrested in the search for Brac and the source of juice meant that, by the time Vance received the invitation to dinner at the Fortress, the hour had already passed. The evening was young enough, however, to present himself and learn what the new co-Laedans wanted, and so Vance nodded at the door attendants who let him in and followed the young woman who led him up the stairs to the sitting suite where Lowell had often met with guests and visitors. There were no flowers adorning the room now, very little trace of any of those who had come before and the old artwork of floral arrangements had been replaced by faded photography portraits of sunlit landscapes that no one alive had ever seen, taken with cameras no longer in use. Bowing to those seated within, not only the Laedans but Addi Marrock, Liam from Queens College, Torben, Lilla, and one of the Zone mutani he had seen before, he assumed Nik had been responsible for those changes in the room. “I’m sorry I missed dinner; there’s been a lot to catch up on at the Protectorate. I did not get the invitation in time…” “Understandable,” Nik said, the one who had risen to greet him while the others remained seated around the warmth of the hearth fire. He had the sense, from the smile she gave him, that Jia might have stood as well, if not for the men seated on either side of her. “Are you hungry? I can send for something?” “Thank you, but that’s not necessary.” He refused to allow his gaze to linger on Jia and instead bobbed his head at Lilla and asked, “How are you finding LaGuardia so far?” “I’ve never seen a more stately home,” she replied. There had been grand houses passed in her travels, but none had been occupied, left abandoned at the Undoing or shortly thereafter, left to molder and decay once the desperate came to strip them of their useable contents. “Sit, please…join us.” The tremor in Jia’s voice that had been so prevalent since leaving Fort Hamilton, was more pronounced tonight; Vance nodded, keeping his frown from his face, as he crossed behind the sofa where she sat, tempted to soothe her with a gentle touch to her neck but deciding not to, to settle in the empty chair Nik dragged over. Torben, leaning against the wall by the window, nodded in greeting; Vance nodded back. He had a feeling, from the big man’s furrowed expression, that he was not going to like what he heard.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-01 05:15 pm (UTC)Bowing to those seated within, not only the Laedans but Addi Marrock, Liam from Queens College, Torben, Lilla, and one of the Zone mutani he had seen before, he assumed Nik had been responsible for those changes in the room.
“I’m sorry I missed dinner; there’s been a lot to catch up on at the Protectorate. I did not get the invitation in time…”
“Understandable,” Nik said, the one who had risen to greet him while the others remained seated around the warmth of the hearth fire. He had the sense, from the smile she gave him, that Jia might have stood as well, if not for the men seated on either side of her. “Are you hungry? I can send for something?”
“Thank you, but that’s not necessary.” He refused to allow his gaze to linger on Jia and instead bobbed his head at Lilla and asked, “How are you finding LaGuardia so far?”
“I’ve never seen a more stately home,” she replied. There had been grand houses passed in her travels, but none had been occupied, left abandoned at the Undoing or shortly thereafter, left to molder and decay once the desperate came to strip them of their useable contents.
“Sit, please…join us.” The tremor in Jia’s voice that had been so prevalent since leaving Fort Hamilton, was more pronounced tonight; Vance nodded, keeping his frown from his face, as he crossed behind the sofa where she sat, tempted to soothe her with a gentle touch to her neck but deciding not to, to settle in the empty chair Nik dragged over.
Torben, leaning against the wall by the window, nodded in greeting; Vance nodded back. He had a feeling, from the big man’s furrowed expression, that he was not going to like what he heard.