Warm Heart #29; Beet Red #29 [Starfall]

[thisbluespirit]

Name: Singled Out
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #29 (Pleasure); Beet Red #29 (Wear it well)
Supplies and Styles:
Word Count: 3726
Rating: PG
Warnings: Minor injury.
Notes: Portcallan, 1313; Viyony Eseray, Leion Valerno, Kadia Barra, Seahra Jadinor, Kettah Jadinor.
Summary: Leion is being frivolous, Viyony has a question, and Kadia is behaving strangely yet again...

---

Viyony hung on tightly to her light straw sun hat as Leion led her through the crowd. He had invited her to the races, and she had been too pleased to ask what now appeared to have been pertinent questions about what kind of races he meant. She had barely seen him since the day he had been locked in the cellar by Chiulder and she had begun to think he was never going to seek her out again. Summer was fully under way in Portcallan now. The grass under her feet was yellowed and sere—where there was any left this close to the race track and sports field. It was late afternoon and saner souls would have been safely in the coolest spot they could find, not standing around in an area heaving with spectators, all talking and shouting while somewhere behind them a musical band fought to drown them out.

"Viyony," said Leion, tapping her arm. "This way if you want an ice or we'll run out of time before my race."

"Your race? What do you mean?"

Leion tugged at her hand until they had made it the last few lengths into the shade afforded by the pavilion's overhanging roof. "It's just a joke race—they always have several. I've been putting my name in for years and I finally came up lucky."

"Yes, but why?"

"I've been trying for ages," he said again, as if he thought she hadn't heard. "And why not?"

Viyony looked at him. Now they were in the shade, he removed his hat and grinned at her. She narrowed her gaze. "Have you practised?"

"Some, but there's not much point. I don't know which costume they'll give me."

Viyony sighed. It was too hot for trying to work out the weird things that went on in Portcallan, especially those that involved Leion. "Costume?"

"Viyony," said Leion, gently, "in between the serious races, they have extra ones, mostly for a laugh. You pay a fee to put your name down, which probably goes to the Lower City funds and if you get picked you get the chance to run for a prize. I've got the costume race. It will be very silly indeed, so I apologise in advance."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I understand the concept. I'm just not sure why you want to do it."

"For fun," said Leion. "Which reminds me, I have been shamefully neglecting your education in how to enjoy yourself. You've been backsliding without me, but this afternoon should fix that."

Viyony stifled a laugh. "Oh, so you brought me here to witness your ritual humiliation?"

He attempted a little bow but accidentally elbowed a sturdy woman in blue trying to move past them. She glared. He straightened hastily and shifted closer to Viyony. "Come on. Let's get those ices."

"It won't affect your odds, will it?" she enquired. "Should a person eat ices before dressing up as something silly and running in a race?"

He shrugged. "Well, I shall eat an ice and let you know afterwards. I think the risks are minimal."

"I suppose it's your duty to find out." Viyony followed him up the three shallow stone steps onto the dais on which the pavilion was standing, where they joined a great squash of people also chiefly in pursuit of ices or cold drinks, or trying to exit having obtained one. It didn't look very organised.

Leion gently tugged her out of the way of a tall man pushing past everyone on his way out, with his shirt sleeves and trouser ends rolled up, ready for running. Leion raised an eyebrow at him as he went. "Someone's late for their race."

"We're not missing Kettah's, are we?" Viyony twisted her head round to look, but what she could see of the track, even from this vantage point, was limited. "I presume hers are real races? She's not running backwards or on her hands?"

"No, on both counts. Kettah's good. Very serious. The toast of her Regiment and all that. We'll make it back in time to catch her, don't worry."

As they shuffled on inside the pavilion itself, Viyony gazed about her. It was crowded and echoing with the low roar of everyone's chatter. The promised ices were out of sight in a serving area at the far end while the main section of the building was full of small stands selling everything from bags of nuts and sweets to small flags and coloured strips of fabric to wave, set up against the marble pillars down the centre and more around the walls. Viyony paused with her hand to one of the pillars. It was blessedly cool to the touch. As she haltered there for a moment, she had the oddest feeling of being watched. She frowned, but then shook it off. Of course someone must be watching her—she was surrounded by people.

"I'm so glad you invited me," she said, turning her attention back to Leion. "It's been too long."

Leion smiled. "My pleasure, Imai Eseray. And I know. I didn't mean to avoid you, I promise."

Viyony pulled her hat off and fanned herself with it. "Good. If only it wasn't quite so hot."

"It'll get much worse than this before summer is done. Sorry. Still, you'll be all right in here once we move along a bit. They've got icestone slivers in the walls. It helps."

Viyony edged forwards. "So, what happened to your resolve to become a recluse?"

"Ha, yes," he said. "I calmed down by the next day and realised it wasn't very practical."

She was tempted to put her hand on his arm, but refrained. "I don't blame you for being upset."

"Oh, the real reason is that it's taken this long before the stench finally died away." That was clearly not true, but Viyony let it pass. Leion nudged her with his shoulder and nodded upwards at silvery tiles that lined the walls only a little ahead of them. "See? Icestone slivers."

Trapped amid a crush of people as they were, the icestone's effects were limited, but Viyony thought she detected a slight drop in the temperature, and she breathed more easily. "Isn't it inconvenient in winter?"

"Oh, no. They're just thin covers that go over the tiles. They swap them out for firestone threaded ones in winter. Courtesy of the days when Portcallan was trying to give Copperfort a run for its money in ostentatious overuse of starstone."

Viyony twisted her head round, feeling her hair rise on the back of her neck, and the icestone wasn't that effective. She thought she saw someone in the throng pull back behind a pillar with a brief flash of yellow, but it was impossible to be sure.

"I see," she said absently, still scanning the room. Then she shook herself. She must be imagining things. "But I am glad you invited me—I have something I needed to ask you."

"Viyony!" Leion said. "You didn't need to wait. If ever you want to ask me anything, just send a note or come straight round."

"You were, quite specifically, going on about people never being allowed in your office again last time we met," she pointed out.

"I suppose I was. Well, ask away—what is it?"

Viyony edged forward with the queue. She was about to explain to Leion, when she happened to glance across and catch sight of Kadia Barra—in yellow—swiftly moving out of sight on the opposite side of the hall. Viyony tugged Leion's shirt sleeve, and nodded in the direction of Kadia. Someone had been spying on them.

"So, ask then," said Leion as if nothing had happened, but he frowned at where Kadia had been.

Viyony released his sleeve. "I've been invited to Calla Island—to stay at Allin House."

Leion turned back to her and whistled under his breath. "Have you now? Congratulations. That's quite the honour."

"I know," she said. "That's all anyone can say. Lynah Allin was very kind. She said there should be a few people who will be useful business contacts, as well as someone who knows Imoren."

Leion poked her onwards as the queue moved again. "Lynah is a thoughtful host. And, while I know you might find this hard to wrap your head around, her house parties are usually highly enjoyable. Calla Island is stunning—so is Allin House in its own way."

"So I had gathered," said Viyony. "But you told me I should be careful to avoid Portcallan's elite—Barras and Hyans and Allins, in particular, you said. Isn't this exactly the sort of thing you warned me about?"

"Barras, certainly," muttered Leion. "And do you listen?"

"Leion, please. If I'm going to turn it down without looking ungrateful, or alienating people I might want to do business with in future, I need a good reason."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Honestly, I don't seem to be right about anything these days. You'd do better to make up your own mind."

"I will. You ought to know that by now. But I would like to know what you think first. Is it likely to be dangerous?"

Leion sighed as they stepped a whole length forward. "Lynah is all right. You can trust her. Will Vollo be there?"

"He'll be away for most of it, I'm told," said Viyony. "Kadia's not going, but Eollan is, and Tess Hyan as well."

Leion nodded. "Was the invite Eollan's doing?"

"No. Laida Modelen wangled it—her sister is married to Vollo's brother, and she put a good word in for me."

"Oh, Tia. Yes, she is. Not very sinister, then—that's a start. And I don't trust Vollo, but if he is involved with any experiments with affinity, it's never directly. He's as careful as they come—knows everyone's looking at him. The last thing he would do is risk having something happen on Calla Island to a guest."

"As safe as anywhere else round here, then?"

He grimaced. "I don't know—I keep misjudging everything lately. But Chiulder won't be lurking about over there—and no Kadia to worry about, always a bonus. I've got no overriding reason to advise you not to go anyway."

"You haven't been invited, then?"

Leion smiled slowly. "Oh, no. I don't go to Calla Island these days. Best not to, really."

"And yet you seem to know Lynah Allin so well." Viyony stifled irrational disappointment. Calla Island might be as picturesque as everyone kept telling her, but if she was taking a trip away from Portcallan, she would so much rather have gone with Leion than with anyone else.

There was a glint in his eye. "I do, yes."

Viyony waited for him to say more, but he didn't. She pulled a face out of his line of sight as they stepped under an arch into the area where they were selling the ices. She opened her mouth to say that she'd begun to wonder if they were mythical, when someone jostled her elbow roughly and she felt a cold, sharp sting in her arm. She gasped and swung round in time to spot Kadia Barra disappearing into the crowd. "Ow," Viyony said belatedly under her breath, clutching her arm; more focused on following the glimpses of Kadia's bright yellow dress as she pressed her way through the mass of people back into the main hall.

"Finally," said Leion, who as far as protecting her from wicked Barras and the like went, was being no use whatsoever. He had his eyes fixed on the ice stalls ahead of them. "Now, I would recommend the peach, personally, but I think the southern orange might be more your thing." He glanced over at her and then narrowed his gaze. "Viyony? What is it?"

She rubbed her arm. "I don't know. Kadia. She pushed me and then—she cut me, I think." She pulled her arm around to try and see the damage, and came away with blood smeared on her fingers. Viyony held them up for Leion to see. "Everything she does is so strange. It's like the vinegar all over again."

Leion put a hand to her shoulder. "Stand still. Let me look properly." He pushed up the light, loose fabric of her sleeve, a trickle of red visible on it. "Viyony, this isn't a scratch—it's quite a nasty cut. We'd better get you to a medic. Come on—there'll be a Vionnic tent somewhere outside."

"But our ices," protested Viyony.

Leion put his hand to the small of her back and guided her gently but firmly towards the exit. He ploughed forwards with repeated excuse mes; Viyony trailing in his wake "If Kadia's sticking knives into you at random, I'm not waiting around for you to collapse on me, not for every last ice in all the Eight Districts," he said as they paused momentarily in the centre of a human blockage. "Besides, they'll throw us out if you bleed over the ices."

"She's evil," said Viyony, letting him pull her back outside and gasping at the solid wave of warm air that washed over her. She blew out hair from her face. "Wicked."

Leion let go of her waist and took her hand, tugging her on as they went in search of the medical tent that had been set up close to the main race track. "Very," he agreed. "Coming between us and our just desserts."


Viyony was worried the medical people in the Vionnic tent would have something to say about her running to them with nothing more than a small cut, but the man who examined her arm made no such comments.

"You'll live," he told her with a smile, as he finished cleaning up the wound. "It looks as if it was done with a fine blade—a pen knife or razor—something like that. Mostly shallow, but deeper here." He touched the skin next to that end of the cut lightly with his thumb.

Leion hovered beside them. He muttered something under his breath about the knife, but then leant forward. "It was done deliberately, so you'd better keep an eye on her—make sure there's no sign of poisoning, anything like that."

"Don't you have to go to your costume race?" asked Viyony, looking up at him. "I'm in good hands now."

Leion halted. He turned his head to the physician, who nodded, and then back to Viyony. "Are you sure? The race doesn't matter if she's hurt you."

"There's no obvious sign of blistering, discolouration, or swelling," said the physician, his tone calm and reasonable. Viyony supposed he must think it best to humour them and their odd paranoia. He set about anointing the cut with ointment and then placed a soft little cloth pad over it, before fastening it in place with a strip of bandage. "Any pain, Imai?"

Viyony shook her head. "It just stings a bit. Leion, go! What could you do that the physicians couldn't, even if it was poison?"

That was the wrong thing to say. He had taken one step away, but now he stopped and crossed back to her. He perched on the wooden chair next to hers. "I would go and find her and I would get out of her whatever it was she'd used on you, if I had to drag her back here by the hair to do it."

Viyony drew in an unsteady breath, and floundered for words for a moment before she mastered herself. "Well, since it isn't, I don't think that would help very much. Go, Leion—run your race. By the time you're all lined up, I will be there to cheer you on."

"Of course," he said. "I'm sorry. It's just that when it's Kadia, I feel it's partly my fault—this childish sort of feud we have going between us." He shrugged, and screwed up his face into a smile. "Well. I shall see you after the race."

"Good luck."

He kissed her, hastily and clumsily, on the forehead, before striding out of the tent too quickly.

"You're all done," said the attendant. He stood. "There's some orange cordial over there. You have some and I'll take another look before you go, but certainly there's no visible indications of anything beyond a straightforward cut. However if you feel any pain, dizziness, stiffness, breathlessness or nausea, shout."

Viyony rose and flashed him a smile. "We must sound ridiculous—making such a fuss over nothing."

"Someone unquestionably sliced into you," said the man. "That isn't nothing. And if you say it was deliberate, then poison isn't an unreasonable concern. I'll take a look at this blood—insofar as I can here—but I don't think you should worry too much."

Viyony crossed over to the table nearby and claimed the drink he had offered her. She sat down on a folding chair in a corner of the tent, next to a teenager with their arm in a sling. She felt like a fraud. She could have patched herself up without bothering anyone else. She shivered, though. The inexplicable malice of it shook her more than the injury itself. Viyony sipped at the sweet, cold drink gratefully. After she had emptied the cup, the attendant double checked the area around the cut, and then let her go. She emerged into mellowed sunlight as late afternoon merged slowly into early evening.

She made her way through the scattered crowd of people towards the main race track, managing to slip through to the front, near to the starting point. She had only just made it in time, since the improbable figures lining up to race now must be Leion and his fellow costumed competitors. She adjusted her hat so that the brim didn't block her line of sight and looked for him. The costumes were mainly loose affairs—a sort of cape of fabric with a cloth full head mask to top it off. One was dressed in a vivid yellow and blue, with a headpiece that had a beak sewn onto the front of it—a bird of some kind. She knew immediately that it was Leion, even before she confirmed it by spotting the rolled up ends of his shirt and trousers poking out from underneath the costume's folds.

"Why," she breathed, not even bothering to make it a question. She turned to studying his fellow participants. She couldn't work out if there was a pattern to the costumes, if perhaps they were symbolic of something, or merely random. One was a fox, another was a red fruit or berry, and one she thought must be a cabbage, with fiddly folds of green material. The one on the end was a fleshy pink colour and the shape so amorphous she wondered if it was a cloud, but it had tentacles, so she decided in the end it was probably an untransformed sea creature.

The official blew a long note on their whistle that was the signal to start. Viyony duly yelled Leion's name, fighting with all the competing shouts from around her, and then the improbable set of colourful and unsteady runners were all gone, heading on round the track. She subsided, waiting there until she heard the sudden roar from the finish line that signalled the end of the race.

Viyony made her way in that direction, walking behind the main body of the crowd at the track's side until she reached the point that marked the end for the shorter races. She raised the brim of her hat as she looked around for Leion. It wasn't hard to spot him. He had the bright blue and yellow costume draped over his arm, and he was talking to his sisters, Kettah and Seahra. Viyony slowed her pace, not wanting to interrupt, but Leion caught sight of her and broke into a smile.

"You're still with us," he said moving forward to meet her. His hair was damp and pressed down on his forehead; he'd been sweating under the costume. "Are you all right?"

Viyony nodded. "Yes, don't worry. All patched up and showing no sign of any of the symptoms the medic kept asking me about."

"Did you you get there in time for the race?" he asked.

She nodded. "I was there, cheering you on at the start, I promise. How did you do?"

"Third," he announced with pride. "Although mainly because the vegetable fell over a couple of lengths short of the finish."

Kettah rolled her eyes. She turned to Viyony. "He's been trying to have a go at that for ages. Can you believe it?"

"Now that I've seen it, I must," said Viyony.

Seahra put a hand on Kettah's arm. "When's your next heat?" In contrast to her youngest sister, who was dressed for racing in a pale green shirt with sleeves folded up and dark grey shorts, Seahra was wearing a floating, light blue dress and looked as if she had drifted straight out of an icestone store.

"I'm not sure, but it must be soon. I'd better find out." Kettah shook her head at Leion, but kissed his cheek in congratulations before she left.

Seahra watched her go. "You two are as bad as each other. Leion, I need to find Ymise, but please remind Ket she's to come over to our place afterwards." She held out a hand for his costume. "I'll take that back for you. You can't run off with it, you know."

"Thank you," he said. "And I'll tell her." Once she had gone, he looked at Viyony. "What now?"

"I suppose it's too late for ices?"

"I'm afraid so. I'm sorry about Kadia."

Viyony walked alongside him, as they sought an advantageous spot where they could watch Kettah in her next race. "Why did she do it? It can't only be spite. She must have had a reason!"

"I agree, but stars alone know what." Leion touched her arm. "If Kadia's not going to Calla Island, you should go. See the place. Be out of her way."

"Out of your way, too?"

"There's a downside to everything."

Viyony stared across the race track. "I expect I will. As everyone keeps telling me, it's too good an opportunity to miss."