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The following day they visit the 149th Annual Bioestheties Exhibition, Class A, Dedicated to the Memory of the Celestial Lady. This dedication, though rather last-minute, makes it a key stop for offworlders on Eta Ceta for funerary proceedings. Lord Vorreedi is, unexpectedly, present too; he may be hard to slip.
The exhibits are gorgeous. Unnatural colors of various flowers are sufficiently routine to be used as borders for the real show - fish with clan marks on their scales (this exhibitor is about twelve), a pet unicorn (this one is possibly not even an exhibit), a tendril of vine that attempts to entrap Ivan's foot (its keeper dislodges it), and a kitten tree.
Ivan is displeased by the kitten tree, believing there to be glue involved in the attachment of kittens to their pods. He picks one in a determined rescue attempt. It is not ripe; the kitten expires when detached. Vorreedi offers to discreetly dispose of the poor beast, for which Ivan is intensely grateful.
Their erstwhile friend Yenaro is present. When Ivan notices, he points the man out to Miles.
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middlingalong
isthisart
As soon as he's within the bubble's sphere and no longer standing on the floor, she puts it back up. The view out is clear, if slightly filmy. She bobs out of their little hiding-place. If she is perturbed by having a lap occupant she doesn't show it.
thisvorlunatic
Her lap occupant seeks desperately for some topic of conversation to distract himself from unauthorized sensory enjoyments. He comes up with, "I saw the haut Vio d'Chilian here, staring at the Celestial Garden in... what I would call an unnervingly hateful way. The more I think about it, the more I can't help feeling that might be relevant."
isthisart
"I hadn't even been born when she got married, so I don't know her personal story," says Linyabel as they go out through the force screen to a landing pad. "But in any case she has reason to be resentful. Hang on."
Over the edge they go.
Over the edge they go.
thisvorlunatic
Miles shuts his eyes and hangs onto the armrests and vents a very, very quiet "eeeeeee".
isthisart
Aww.
"I'm going to miss gliding like this when I don't have my chair anymore, personally," Linyabel sighs.
"I'm going to miss gliding like this when I don't have my chair anymore, personally," Linyabel sighs.
thisvorlunatic
Oh, good. A distraction from the fact that he is riding a flying soap bubble.
"I have a lightflyer, at the family's country house - you could borrow it," he offers. "I'll take you for a spin, teach you to fly it if you don't know already. If you want. I'm fine with heights when I'm experiencing them in something my brain considers a vehicle."
"I have a lightflyer, at the family's country house - you could borrow it," he offers. "I'll take you for a spin, teach you to fly it if you don't know already. If you want. I'm fine with heights when I'm experiencing them in something my brain considers a vehicle."
isthisart
"I don't know how to pilot a lightflyer, as it happens," she says. "If we pull it off - I'd like to learn."
They are gliding in a steep but not freefall-ish arc towards the dome of the Celestial Garden; their starting altitude is sufficient to carry them over the parks and boulevards. They change to a horizontal trajectory and decelerate just outside the dome. And then she says, "Shhhh," and glides without a flicker of obstacle through the security between the outside world and the Garden, and they're in. Once past the security, she says, "Okay, they can't hear us anymore."
They are gliding in a steep but not freefall-ish arc towards the dome of the Celestial Garden; their starting altitude is sufficient to carry them over the parks and boulevards. They change to a horizontal trajectory and decelerate just outside the dome. And then she says, "Shhhh," and glides without a flicker of obstacle through the security between the outside world and the Garden, and they're in. Once past the security, she says, "Okay, they can't hear us anymore."
thisvorlunatic
"Oh good. I suppose their scanners either aren't sophisticated enough to pick up on your passenger, or are too polite to look?"
isthisart
"I don't think they scan me at all. They know I have to be a haut-lady, the chairs are locked to particular users. And I live here."
thisvorlunatic
"That falls under 'too polite to look' as far as I'm concerned. Why am I here, by the way? I assume the Handmaiden hasn't found a way to teleport me into orbit and back..."
isthisart
"No, she hasn't," says Linyabel. "The consorts are here, all of them. Plus Lisbet. You might not want to be on my lap when I take the bubble down, but I'll leave it up to you."
She takes him back to the low white building, and inside.
She takes him back to the low white building, and inside.
thisvorlunatic
"...I think I would rather not be in your lap when you take the bubble down," he agrees, and climbs carefully up to perch on an armrest.
isthisart
Float float float.
Consorts plus Lisbet.
Linyabel deactivates her bubble.
"I've brought Lord Vorkosigan to testify," she says.
Consorts plus Lisbet.
Linyabel deactivates her bubble.
"I've brought Lord Vorkosigan to testify," she says.
thisvorlunatic
Consorts plus Lisbet plus Linyabel equals ten unbubbled haut women in the same room.
Miles has to wait a few seconds for his breathing to stabilize before he alights from the float-chair onto the floor.
"I... believe you have the advantage of me, ladies."
Miles has to wait a few seconds for his breathing to stabilize before he alights from the float-chair onto the floor.
"I... believe you have the advantage of me, ladies."
isthisart
"The Handmaiden you've met," says Linyabel smoothly. "The others are the haut Pel Navarr, consort of Eta Ceta," she points at a honey-blonde who looks forty and is probably eighty, "the haut Nadina Alagri, consort of Sigma Ceta," an ancient silver-haired lady, near-contemporary of the late Empress -
Linyabel introduces all of them in their variety, dark and pale, oatstraw blonde and mahogany-brunette and silver and inky-black haired, all varying flavors of "tall and perfect". Their titles are exclusively associated with their planets, not with those satraps' governors.
Linyabel introduces all of them in their variety, dark and pale, oatstraw blonde and mahogany-brunette and silver and inky-black haired, all varying flavors of "tall and perfect". Their titles are exclusively associated with their planets, not with those satraps' governors.
exerce-imperia
"Lord Vorkosigan," says Lisbet. "Please repeat for the consorts the story of how you acquired the fake Key, subsequent events as they seem relevant to you, and any new information you have gathered or guessed since we last communicated."
thisvorlunatic
...Well then.
He takes a deep breath and starts talking. The first encounter with the ba - his subsequent conversation with Linyabel - the ba's body discovered in the rotunda - ghem-Colonel Benin - Lord Yenaro - and on and on. The order is not completely linear, but he carefully notes timing wherever it is important.
He finishes up with, "And just before we came here, I ran into haut Vio d'Chilian at the garden party. We didn't talk, but when I saw her, she was staring at the Celestial Garden looking very, very angry. I have the unshakeable feeling that it was relevant somehow."
He takes a deep breath and starts talking. The first encounter with the ba - his subsequent conversation with Linyabel - the ba's body discovered in the rotunda - ghem-Colonel Benin - Lord Yenaro - and on and on. The order is not completely linear, but he carefully notes timing wherever it is important.
He finishes up with, "And just before we came here, I ran into haut Vio d'Chilian at the garden party. We didn't talk, but when I saw her, she was staring at the Celestial Garden looking very, very angry. I have the unshakeable feeling that it was relevant somehow."
isthisart
"I assume her departure was involuntary, but how involuntary?" inquires Linyabel. "Where on the spectrum between - she had plenty of warning and vaguely admired the general before his award was issued, versus she despised him from the start but had already turned down her first two or three possible marriages and was eventually driven out by her constellation closing ranks and had to leave a love-poem behind in so doing...?"
exerce-imperia
"She volunteered, and certainly wasn't leaving behind friends of any kind; in fact, as far as I know she has never had any. But by the same token she had no particular admiration for the general."
isthisart
"There's a thin veneer of voluntarism around it," Linyabel explains in an undertone to Miles. "The ones who are going to have to go eventually know it and agree to the next palatable possibility to come up. If she were in denial she wouldn't have gone with the first one offered her."
thisvorlunatic
"'She had no friends' seems like a good reason to have volunteered; 'she has no friends' seems like a good reason to have started regretting it," speculates Miles.
isthisart
"What exactly are we suspecting her of here, besides this regret?"
exerce-imperia
"The original plan called for the consorts to take the usual place of the Empress in overseeing the new copies of the haut genome. If the traitorous governor means to make himself an Emperor, he will require an Empress for that purpose, and the haut Nadina is not available. Who, then, is his candidate? Vio d'Chilian seems like an excellent guess."