overture

[isthisart]

Nine days into their fourteen-day trip, the courier ship arrives in the Komarr system. Five more jumps to go. Miles is not yet capable of peeling himself off a willing Linya before he passes out (and willingness is in no short supply), and the resulting peculiar sleep schedule causes Ivan no end of giggling. Linya draws him diagrams of more complicated braids as aspirational goals (getting five and a half feet of slidy-soft hair to be in even the simplest braid properly is a little tricky), which induces Miles to spend most of a day fascinatedly braiding and rebraiding her hair in various configurations. She, meanwhile, writes pen software that eats standard comconsole software and renders it for pen-ability in what she thinks is a user-friendly manner, and works on Russian.

When they reach the Komarr system, there's a message squirt, bounced at lightspeed from the little ships that do nothing but dance back and forth from side to side of the intervening wormholes collecting and broadcasting data. It says that Captain Illyan invites Miles to supplement his mission report by bringing his wife along.

Comments

[greatcomposure]

"Did he? I'm not surprised. Granted, I'm also not surprised that he liked you after you took down your force-screen."

[isthisart]

"He liked me a lot after I took down my force-screen," says Linya wryly. "It was actually the first time I'd gotten a reaction like that - I'd seen people reacting to other haut-ladies, but not me. Everyone who'd seen me before then was either another haut or a ba."

[greatcomposure]

"You're very striking," says Cordelia. "But you have much more to recommend you than a pretty face, that much is clear."

[isthisart]

"Thank you."

[thisvorlunatic]

It is at this point that Miles returns.

"I've had all our things moved to Grandfather's old suite, and taken off all the dust covers," he says to Linya. "Did you, ah, have a nice chat...?"

[isthisart]

"Yes. Please don't disable safety devices on lightflyers while I am in them."

[thisvorlunatic]

...He cracks up.

"Mother! I didn't know you knew about that!"

[greatcomposure]

"I know everything," she says. "It's a mother's job."

[isthisart]

"And I'm going to retune the piano, whenever tuning equipment can be turned up, and she wants a pen, too."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Everyone's going to want pens. Pens are amazing. You're amazing."

[isthisart]

Linya is not sure if "right in front of his mother" counts as "private", so she does not scoop him up, but she does beam.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles hugs her.

"Do you want to see the rooms?"

[isthisart]

"Yes."

[thisvorlunatic]

Then he will show her the rooms! It's a somewhat longer journey, up to the fifth floor. Their luggage is all lined up in a cozy sitting room, where a slight sprinkling of dust here and there suggests the floor was hastily cleaned while all the dust covers were being removed from the furniture. Beyond that, more coziness awaits - bedroom, bathroom, closets, an office or study with a huge oaken desk. More than enough space for all of Linya's things.

[isthisart]

"I suppose I'd better unpack. Unless there is someone else I should meet as soon as possible who is also immediately to hand."

[thisvorlunatic]

"No - Father's in Hassadar, tending to District business. He'll be back... sometime in the next few days, probably."

[isthisart]

"Does he know I exist?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes."

[isthisart]

"Good. I imagine I'm surprising, but I would rather not come around a corner and startle him."

[thisvorlunatic]

"No," he agrees, "that would be a bad plan. Luckily he is forewarned."

[isthisart]

"I asked your mother about how he's likely to react and she made what I assume was a reference to how the two of them met. Is unconventional bridal acquisition a family trait?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Um? I don't know, is it?"

[isthisart]

"Unless I misunderstood something, she implied that she was your father's 'honorably treated captured prisoner' when he proposed."

[thisvorlunatic]

He blinks. "Well, that's not something I ever heard before... I can believe it, though. I guess they did meet when Barrayar was sort of at war, and I remember something about Mother discovering Sergyar, and Father being somehow involved... anyway, I don't know any other Vorkosigan bridal acquisition stories. But probably lots of them are boring, the Vor go in for arranged marriages fairly frequently, especially as you look back into the Time of Isolation. I guess we're starting a new tradition, Father and I. Unconventionally acquired brides. From other planets."

[isthisart]

"I think to top our story, future generations of Vorkosigans will have to discover, and then marry, sapient aliens."