Page 23 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
The board Zero produced was Tal, with glossy green and white stones. Painted symbols indicated the rules the token had to abide.
“I played all the time with my brother. Do you know Earth rules?” she asked.
“Not as well as Talmar rules, but I’ll try.”
The kid was being polite because he beat her without trying very hard. Mari scrambled to anticipate his moves, but Zero seemed to know the outcome of the game by the third or fourth move.
While they played, he chatted and asked questions. It soon became obvious that he worked his way down a “ten questions to get to know someone” checklist. It felt like a job interview.
What’s your favorite season? None. She lived on a space station.
What historical figure would you most like to meet? Probably the person brave enough, or hungry enough, to realize that they could eat a tomato and not die, despite it being a fruit from a family of poisonous plants. Then she had to explain tomatoes and nightshades and that Earth was not a death planet filled with tricky poisonous plants.
Favorite subject in school? She enjoyed literature and physics.
Best meal you’ve ever eaten? Mari waxed on about a vendor on Olympus Station that fried balls of dough to order and then rolled the balls in sugar. They melted in her mouth and were divine.
And Mari’s personal favorite: if you could have a superpower, which one do you pick?
“I’m not going to pick. I’ll take whatever the universe gives me,” she said.
“That’s cheating. You have to answer,” Zero said.
“It’s too big. How can I pick?”
“That’s the point. It shows how you think about problems.”
“Ah,” she said, sliding her token across the board. She figured she had two more moves left before Zero captured her king. “Then I’d like to be able to give other people superpowers.”
“That’s cheating. That’s like wishing for more wishes.”
“How? I give people superpowers. What am I getting out of it?”
“It’s overpowered. Pick again, and only one that affects you,” he said.
“Well, then define the question better. You said any, not ones from limited criteria.”
Zero grumbled but good-naturedly. “What is your age?”
“Thirty. What’s yours?”
“Fourteen. My father is forty-one. It sounds like a lot, but I bet it’s not when you’re thirty.”
“Yeah, that sounds like something a fourteen-year-old would say,” she answered.
A laugh drifted out from the other room. Winter had been lurking nearby but had not taken part in their conversation.
Just as well. The man practically blamed her for the storm that ruined his bot, like she controlled the weather. That should have been her superpower, and then she’d zap him with a bolt of lightning. And then she could fry Nox and Tomas’ behinds. Weather control had a lot of appeal at the moment.
Thunder boomed, and she jumped.
Maybe not.
Mouthwatering aromas drifted out of the kitchen. Mari offered herself up for manual labor and was set chopping fruit she did not recognize for dessert. Zero’s questions continued about her favorite film, book, and so on. She made the mistake of asking Zero about his favorite music, which launched him into a mini-lecture about sociopolitical dynamics in Earth opera. He seemed disappointed that she recognized the opera names but knew none of the music.
Winter listened as he prepared the meal but remained silent. Good. She liked him better when he brought her food and didn’t say anything.
When the storm passed, the sun returned, and the roads cleared, Winter offered to drive her down to the village.
