Dreamitory1 WIP

Rhodin

He first saw her at one of his mother’s gala events, held 15 kilometers up in a bubble of ionized air. She moved with the slow, feline grace of one born beyond the heavy grip of Earth’s gravity and she was built like a Martian, all arms and legs and bronzed skin. Her hair fell in waves of the blackest of blue ringlets and held in perfection by a nearly invisible net of silver, giving her a halo when seen at the right angle. Her eyes, surrounded by delicate pale streaks of Osiris, were a flat, natural grey set above the high flat cheekbones that betrayed her Asiatic ancestry, and her lips a glistening black. Most importantly of all, though, was that he had never seen her before.

He nudged his head Minder Mel, a squat red-headed man of indeterminate age, and nodded towards the girl. “Who’s she?”

Mel squinted a second, running a facial recognition program. “Midori Athena d’Aquilia-Ryujii, daughter of a minor-branch cousin to the CFO of the Yakuza. Born on Mars, raised alternately on Mars and Earth every three years. Age 16. No information on the Mesh besides school records and general government records. Wasn’t even allowed out in public until last year, pretty tight leash for someone with such minor pedigree.”

“Mother’s courting the Yakuza now? What’s next, Selenian separatists?”

He continued watching her from the corner of his eye for the rest of the party, she kept aloof surrounded by Minders whip-thin but steely-eyed. When attendees deigned to speak with her, her face was casually devoid of any topographical information and he could tell it unnerved the brave few who came too close.

Since his twelfth year he had invariably fallen in and out of lust and infatuation with various daughters of Houses and even some of the help if he felt especially rebellious. He had not however fallen in pove before. The feeling confused him provoking a childish anger that well’d at the very sight of the young woman, barely more than a girl. Fellow partygoers quickly sensed the emotional roil and an island of silence grew. He quickly moved to the edge of the platform, glaring at incandescent cloudbanks below. He didn’t notice until too late the girl approaching him, their Minders speaking concisely and closing ranks. She joined him on the rail, her gaze directed away from him. “You look stupid standing here all alone,” her voice a cool mountain steam sending shivers down his spine. His mind throbbed as her words echoed in his head, eliciting embarrassment and bright anger. He turned to snap at her but she was gone, nestled like an egg between her Minders. Mel just gave him a look and shrugged. The party became too much for him then, the laughter and brass band and the floating lights dug under his skin, radiating pain. Mel brought the grav-chutes and he left.

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Athena

She wasn’t one to display any outward emotion in public but the incredulous look on the moping boy’s face after she spoke with him elicited a signs of a smile. Once outside earshot of the boy Harudo, her Minder, grabbed her arm and whispered sharply, “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

“He needed something to wake him up, I was merely the conduit.”

“You know who he is, right? If he whines to his mother it could jeopardize you and your fathers position, and dishonor your Uncle.”