Rachael felt horribly self-conscious. She didn’t see Butterfly anywhere, or Chryseïs, or anybody whom she could put a name to. The room was half-full of colourfully dressed people, the unrelieved grey-black of Guardians thinly scattered along the walls.
Enormous windows – no, they were some kind of force field – reached from floor to [...]

Rachael opened her mouth, then closed it. She studied the plain white cup – it was more of a small, delicate mug, really – trying to think what to say. Looking out a window at the brilliant light and greenery, she began, “I can’t tell you everything. I can’t even tell you [...]

Signalled by some obscure motion Rachael apparently hadn’t seen, Chryseïs appeared at her side, briefly saluting Tevani. Butterfly swept along toward the door, Mihangel and Kieran’s table directly in her path. Too late, Rachael saw what she was up to, and made a split-second decision not to try to prevent it. Butterfly [...]

“I think I’ve figured out that much,” she responded, smiling back. “It looks complicated, though.”
He grinned. “Oh, a bit,” deadpanning.
“You always lose,” his companion interjected. As she watched, he flicked a long, calloused finger through one of the pieces, then through a square two levels down. The piece flickered once, then [...]

Rachael wasn’t sure going that far was necessary, but she was willing to admit that she couldn’t really see any other way of attaining any official status here – something she suspected she might need, if getting home took any length of time. It was one thing to impose accidentally on hospitality for a [...]