Page 58 of Guiding Desire
Orrey nodded. Senlas watched him staring his eyes out as they took the most direct route to the nearest exit on the Grounds’ side, which dropped them close to the hubbub around the Guardian Wilan statue, so close some regulars turned when they spotted Senlas. Some pointed. Senlas sighed.
Orrey saw too, and hid behind Senlas’s larger Guardian frame, much to Senlas’s delight. “They’re just looking, kitten.”
“I know, but my face is still very…unhealed. I don’t want that to reflect badly on you.”
Col sighed and waved at an auto-drive, something the ones here were set to recognize unlike outside the Grounds. “You are too good for him, you know. Senny hates the public, which is weird, considering he moved outside. To where more of the public is.”
“All of you like my place.” Seeing Orrey still behind his back made warmth gather low in Senlas’s belly, and he wished the auto-drive would take its time, which it didn’t.
“He forgets we spend so much time there because we don’t want him to be lonely,” Col said to Orrey when they all filed into the vehicle. “He’ll be less lonely with you now.”
The auto-drive took them past the crowd and the food offerings set out and prepared on tables along the twelve paths where tarps and standing parasols provided shade. Senlas remembered being assigned to be out here when he was a student. He hadn’t enjoyed it even then, though the young Guardians and Conduits looked happy enough, out of their uniforms and smiling at the regulars while making friendly conversation.
Orrey’s nose was practically pressed against the window when they got closer to the Archway, which separated the area that was open to regulars from the space which—generally speaking—wasn’t.
Senlas leaned over to Orrey, pointed. “There are drones hidden in the walls. They come out if anyone not allowed past this point tries to get in. Every now and then, you get some Guardian chasers who are looking to take photos or dream of seducing someone. Protectors usually pick them up here.” He dared lean a little closer. “I wish you’d been summoned. Maybe I’d have met you sooner that way.”
Orrey’s neck reddened, and the fresh skin showing through on his cheeks pinked as well. “I don’t think that’s the kind of assignment they give a first rank. And it sounds a lot like something out of that show.”
“You’ve been missing most of the genius that isMy Secret Guardian,” Col said. “Orrey, I think as recompense for you missing out, the next thing we stream as a team should be a Conduit pick, don’t you agree?”
“I don’t mind watching along now. Whatever everyone prefers is fine for a stream party.”
Senlas could see how that rubbed Col the wrong way and made him go all interventional. Or fully seize his mentor role. What it would mean for the team, Senlas couldn’t say, but whenever Col got that particular expression, it meant something. He’d looked that way when he’d gotten Senlas to take extra studying. And when he’d pushed for them to be an official team and remain small, more like a family than team one was or even team two.
To steer the conversation elsewhere, and because he enjoyed being close to Orrey, Senlas went back to pointing. “These’re still administrative buildings,” he said of the one on the left, all transparent walls that would light up at night, like pattern recognition puzzles when some offices were inhabited for longer than others. “Behind that, the old-timey-looking building with the stone façade, that’s higher schooling for the artistic sector. We call it the Artists’ Rock or simply the Rock. You see, it’s not masonry. Guardians who can adjust pressure—baromancers—did it.”
“And lithoplastors,” Col said. “They house an impressive collection of sculptures.”
Orrey’s head whipped around. “Is it possible to go see them?”
Senlas smiled. “There’s an entire gallery as well.”
Orrey nodded. “I’ve seen some pieces from the gallery. When paintings were loaned to the Argentean Municipal Gallery. But if it’s possible to see all of them, I’d love to.”
“We’ll do that, kitten.”
Col cleared his throat. “Senlas, while we are here, I think I can give Orrey a quick look at a few of the sculptures. You should go ahead, find Karmine and the others, say hi to the Ferrean Conduits. Let everyone else know we’re on our way, and that your Conduit doesn’t need overwhelming curiosity to greet him when we arrive.”
Senlas hated the idea. He could also tell that Col wasn’t exactly asking. On a wild guess, the Op-AI’s decision to send Orrey out on a med drop with them had something to do with that, or maybe that whole issue of the possibility to convert the bomber’s death sentence.
Either way, Senlas knew what Col wanted to hear. Only this was Orrey, and letting him go anywhere where Senlas didn’t have eyes on him made him feel all sorts of irrational fears and physical manifestations thereof.
“Would that be possible? Just for a quick look?” Orrey asked.
Senlas let out a breath in a measured, calm way, took Orrey’s hand. He felt him buffer, a thrumming like a heartbeat. “Promise to stick with Col. Do you have your screen on you?”
“Sure.”
“If I call you, please answer. And stick with Col.”
“You already asked that, and I will. This place is huge.”
Col hit the vehicle’s stop button. No one was out and about in this courtyard at the moment, and the vehicle came to an immediate stop.
“It’s decided then. We’ll catch up soon, Senny. Come on, little brother.”
Orrey opened the door on his side and stepped out.
