Page 37 of Out of Sight

“Let go, Nanna. You will go blind.” Lucia put her hand over both of theirs, and Anya started to grin. “Yorwell, let go. I know what she’s seeing and want to get out of here before she tells anyone.”

He blinked. “Why? How far does she see?”

Anya grinned. “Babies.”

Lucia gave up. “Oh, lord. There she goes. They aren’t mine, Nanna. My body is stone. No flesh to have little ones with.”

Yorwell quirked his lips. “We should discuss that. When you learn your own anatomy, having children may be possible. Internally, you design your own body.”

She blinked. “I... have questions.”

“I shall answer them, but that can wait for a less public moment.” His expression was kind, and she realized that he wasn’t kidding about being a mage.

“So, you are an instructor.”

He grinned. “I am. The emperor believed that anyone that he sent for the djinn and mages should have more to offer than just magic.”

“And you had to be pretty.”

He grinned. “You think I am pretty?”

She smacked a hand onto her face while Ted snickered. “You fell right into that one, Lucia.”

There was some chuckling in the family, and Anya said, “We are all standing; this isn’t right. Someone, get our returned children some tea and introduce yourselves to them one by one.”

Lucia paused. “I thought I was leaving.”

Anya smiled. “If you leave, I want you to come back as many times as is necessary until you feel like this is home again.”

“That will hurt, Nanna. It is hurting now.”

Anya hugged her again. “Life is pain, and you know that more than anyone else at this gathering. Let them fight through the fog to find you again.”

“When I was here, I wasn’t really here. I was kept in the kitchen and always ate last. There isn’t much me to remember.”

Anya stared at her, and Lucia could see her trying to remember, but Olyna’s family had everything first, and Anya’s was there to support them. They worked alongside their cousins in the shops and kept the family businesses running. While getting ready for school, Lucia had been a manicure master, painting tiny masterpieces on fingernails and toenails.

“Your artwork at the salon. I remember the designs you made.”

Lucia nodded. “I am very good at it. I can also reprogram a mainframe over a weekend. One pays considerably more.”

Anya blinked. “Right. That... makes sense.”

“Yeah, that was the life I wanted to start. A life where folks saw my worth in the work of my hands and mind. Getting swatted by socialites and told to work faster wasn’t a destiny I wanted to embrace.”

Anya winced. “Of course not.”

One of the cousins smiled. “We have set up tea and a place for you to talk.”

Yorwell asked, “What is that?”

“A samovar. It keeps the water hot so you can keep drinking fresh pots of tea.”

“Interesting.”

She looked up at his thoughtful expression. “You can’t make it out of stone; it has to be metal to take the stresses of heating and cooling.”

He nodded. “I can work with metal. Can I examine it?”