"Working," he said.

"Ya don't say."

"No, truly, I am. Dad asked me to...um...entertain Van here."

"Hi, Van." I looked down at the messy gameboard between them. "Who's winning?"

"He is," said Dryden. "Six times in a row. He's a king. From Fanelia."

"Oh. Right. Gotcha."

"Indeed." Dryden winked at me.

"Just what does your job-" I stared at the fuzzy orange creature in his lap. It blinked at me and turned over, presenting me with its... "-entail?"

"I dunno," said Dryden. "Evidently I'll do just about anything for pocket money. It's way better than filing anyway."

The little boy frowned suspiciously at our conversation. "I'm not a king, I'm a prince, and are you letting me win?"

Dryden looked back at Van. "Let me ask you this first. If I beat you six times in a row, would you cut my head off?"

"Yes, of course," said Van.

"Ah. Then I'm not letting you win. You're just naturally brilliant at this."

"...You're lying." The little boy's eyes flashed angrily.

"Now, why would you think that," asked Dryden innocently.

"I'll cut your head off if you lie, too."

I interrupted them. "See you at dinner later, Dryden?"

"Yeah, sure. If I'm still alive by then."

Dryden was waiting for me in front of the refectory, looking out over the wall at the commons. He didn't hear me when I said hello. I nudged him. "What are you thinking about?"

"Languages within languages. What I want to do when I grow up."

"Eh?"

"Did you know there are hundreds of dialects within Asturia?" he said.

"What?"

"Yes. Even on one airship, the captain, the navigator, the crew, the chef, they all use a massively different vocabulary. And depending on what words you use and how, the meaning changes."

"Well, duh."

"I mean... like, I have a collection of history books, each one ten years older than the next, going back 150 years, and if you read just the little bit about the founding of Pallas in each one, you can see that the words, the emphasis, the focus and the details of the events change over time as you watch."

"History gets rewritten?"

"As you said, well, duh."

"So why is that important? What do you want to be?" I said.

"I don't know what I want to be."

God, this son of a lawyer sometimes insists upon such precision of language. "Well, what do you want to do?"

"Get perspective. Find ultimate truth. ...What do you want to do?"

"Well, I was gonna say I wanted to be one of the best warriors in the world, but after that speech about ultimate truth, it just sounds stupid."

"Allen, from what I've read, we're just taking different roads to the same place."

"Oh. ...Well, you wanna go eat then? The refectory's just down the hall. We could at least take the same road tonight."

"Yeah, sure," he said and we went inside.

"So what do you really want to be when you grow up?" I asked him.

"An autodidactic philologist."

I stared at him. He is such a geek. I don't know why I even bother asking. "Food. This way," I said.

It's an honour.

Although the Caeli change the order of their lineup, it's always the same. I lose the first four bouts, fight the next four out endlessly to a draw, and ...then they let me win the last three. The same thing, every time. I know the outcome of every bout.

It's an honour. No, really, it is. Ugh.

My morale is slipping. I have to force myself to keep doing my best, all the while wondering what's the point.

I know they kind of like me, for all that we have so little to talk about. They wouldn't be doing this to me if there wasn't a reason. What are they showing me, that I'm not seeing?

I looked again at my current opponent. He was poised waiting for my advance. His stance was powerful, flexible and also ...elegant. His ridiculous Caeli uniform fluttered in the breeze.

Oh.

It's art.

I couldn't help myself, I smiled. I grinned at him and matched his elegance. The other Caeli smiled back. And then he charged.

He didn't let me win. He beat the crap out of me. And very artistically, too. I don't think I've ever been so happy in my entire life.

There was just one woman in the stands, up in the Royal Box. She was beautiful with long blonde hair and a violet dress and she was clapping. Our entire company bowed to her as one. Eeehehehe!

You only have to fight one battle in low cut shoes to realize that blood feels nasty between the toes. Sure, boots are hot and sweaty, but they are less disgusting to clean after. Somehow I'd lost my boots during the course of this battle. Very odd.

And, though I had recently started guymelef training, now I found myself without a guymelef but attempting to hold my own against several warriors in guymelefs anyway. Mostly I was dodging. But I'm really good at dodging, so I was still alive and unhurt. I kept dodging.

And then I was falling. I hit the ground hard, but I retained my grip on my sword and then I...I...hey! It was a dream!

Gee, maybe the fact that I was fighting all those guymelefs in the nude should have tipped me off. Why the hell can't I have some nice hot and sexy dreams like ordinary guys? Aaaaaargh!

I hate ironing, and I especially hate trying to iron my intricate uniform. It's completely worth it to hang everything up after washing before it all can wrinkle. I besieged the mound of laundry with coathangers while Dryden, waiting for me to finish up, amused himself by looking through my textbooks. "Managing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Is this on the Caeli syllabus?" he asked.

Oops. I had not meant to leave that one out. "Nah. Just something I happened to pick up at the library."

"Just happened? ...You feeling okay, buddy?"

"Fine," I said. Now, Allen, beating the shit out of nosy little parkers is NOT very Caeli.

"Uh....right." He dropped the book as if it were on fire. "So...ready to party?"

"Lemme just get a clean shirt."

"I'd recommend pants, too, unless you want to get even more popular."

"You so funny. Ohoho." I rummaged through the pile on the bed. "Hey, look, Dryden! Caeli socks!"

"Ah, a rare sight. I am privileged indeed."

It was only a short walk to Tansy's, Dryden's cousin's house. The girl who popped open the door before we could even ring the bell was short and voluptuous, but she had Dryden's colouring and his grin. "Hey!" she said, "You're empty-handed! You're supposed to bring me a present!" Definitely the birthday girl herself. She put her arm across the doorway and attempted to look fierce. She did not succeed.

"Uh..." Dryden was momentarily nonplussed, but then he grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me forward. "Look! I brought you a Caeli knight! Isn't he lovely? C'mon, let us in. What flavor cake you got?"

"Lemon and coconut. ...All right. Come on in. Wow. My very own Caeli knight. Kewwwwwwwl." I stepped under the lintel and Tansy watched me with half-lidded eyes and smiled. Eeep!

The party was loud and happy, but I could not remember the names of any of the people Tansy introduced me to and she seemed to have no intention of letting me hide inconspicuously in a corner. She dragged me into the center of another group of people. "Do you like parlour games?" she asked me.

Tansy's hot gaze made me so flustered that I could not think at all. "Like what?" I said, "Spin the bottle?"

"I was thinking charades, but spin the bottle will be just marvelous! You hear that, girls! The Caeli wants to play spin the bottle!"

Nooooo! "I didn't say that!" But it was too late. I was instantly surrounded by girls with big shiny, woogly eyes. Eeek! And some very happy looking boys. But, standing behind the crowd, I saw ...Eries. The Crown Princess was at this party! Oh!

Tansy put an empty bottle in my hand and I did not protest, for I can make a sword do almost whatever I want. Perhaps a bottle would be just as obedient in my hands.

It was.

"I never said I was playing," said Eries, with a warning look. I approached her anyway, and kissed her hand quickly, let it go and looked back at her face. She was wearing this tiny little smile...

Tansy was quite disappointed. "Well, that wasn't very exciting. Are you actually going to kiss anyone, Eries? No? Well, at least spin the bottle so someone else can start this game properly."

Eries didn't even get up from the couch where she sat. She nudged the bottle with her toe. It spun around once, pointed right back at Eries and went one more inch around to point at Dryden who was sitting on the floor by Eries's feet. He looked up at her. She shrugged. Dryden didn't get up either, he kissed Eries's hand from his seat on the floor, then leaned over and spun the bottle.

"Oh, no," said Tansy, looking down at the bottle that pointed straight to her, "This game isn't working out at all!"

"Come here, cousin," said Dryden.

"No, thank you!"

Dryden stood up and stepped across the circle. "You have to kiss me!"

"No, I don't!" Tansy leaped over the coffee table and galloped around the room. She was pretty fast at the corners, but she had no chance at all on the straight-away, I've seen Dryden run.

"Yes, you do! Come back here, my leetle skunk cabbage!" Dryden was quite obviously taking his time about catching her. Maybe he was watching her bounce up and down as she ran; everyone else was. Oh, sheesh!

"Eehehehehe! But we're cousins!" Tansy careened down the hall.

"Do I look like I care?" yelled Dryden and he chased her into the kitchen.

We heard squeals, thumps, loud smacking sounds and shrieking giggles. It was loud enough that Tansy's parents emerged and made everyone sit down and eat cake. Thank god!

The cobbled streets were more and more deserted as Dryden and I made our way home after the party, but not so dark that I couldn't see his smirk. "You like Eries, huh?" he said. Eries had left in style in a carriage with guards and ladies in waiting.

That little smile...

"Um... I don't know. She's...um..." I changed the subject. "You didn't actually kiss your cousin, did you?"

He shook his head. "Nah. She wouldn't let me."

"Oh."

"You ever kissed a girl?"

"No. What's it like?" I asked.

"I don't know yet either. None of them will let me kiss them. I figure they can tell I'm a magnificent kisser and they don't want to risk it."

"Good lord! Where do you get such gall?"

"I just call it like I see it," he said and grinned hugely.

"If a swordsman were to be so boastful of untested skills, someone would challenge him to a duel and cut him down a peg."

He laughed. "I'll take you on any day, Allen."

"Eh?"

"I bet I'm a much better kisser than you. Challenge away," he said.

"Well, how in the world can we test that when no girls will kiss us?"

"Well, how about I kiss you and you see what you think," he said.

"Eeeeeeew! No way!" I said.

"Ya chicken? Buc, buc, buc, buc!"

I knew his teasing was silly, but I still responded to it. "I am not chicken!"

"Then stand and deliver, buddy." He grabbed me, swung me around and glomped me.

I leaned back away from him. "This is stupid. And icky!" I said.

"Now, now. If you were kissing Eries would you stand there like a pole? I wouldn't."

"Uh..." No one had put their arms around me like this since... before my mother died.

Dryden leaned his cheek against mine. "Imagine Eries, her pretty silver hair and her perfect porcelain skin. ...What colour are her eyes?"

I shut my own eyes, trying to remember. I had held her in my arms, danced with her and looked into her eyes... "They change. Mostly grey blue," I said.

"Okay. Grey blue. Imagine your arms around her..."

And... my arms were around her, her warm breath was on my cheek, her petal-pink lips parted...

It was a very lovely kiss, but it was quite evident that Allen had completely forgotten himself, so I thought we should stop. I leaned back a bit, but Allen stepped forward, pressing his leg between mine. I leaned back a bit more and he stood on tiptoe.

Wow. He's just not letting me break this kiss. Okay, whatever. May as well enjoy it.

I hugged him tighter and he sucked on my tongue and moaned into my mouth. Yum! His hand slowly slid down my back...

Good heavens! I do believe he's going to feel me up! Whee! I am SO winning this bet!

My knees were trembling. I clamped one arm around her waist and my other hand traveled up her back into her ...shoulder length curls? Oh no! I was sucking on Dryden's tongue! It was a nightmare, but I wasn't asleep. "Bleah!" I said and leaped away.

"I think I win," he said.

"I think you're disgusting!" I said.

"Yeah, but I still win. Took you rather a long time to remember to go 'ack, ack, spittooie.' I'm a good kisser, aren't I."

"Uh......."

Dryden grinned maniacally and leaned closer. "Ya need a rematch?"

"You win, you win! You kiss great, just get your tongue the hell away from me! Eeeeeeew!"

"Wahahahahahaha!" He laughed at me on and off all the way home, and then as we entered the palace, said, "You like Eries."

".......um...."

"Allen and Eries sitting in a tree-"

"-Will you SHUT UP!"