NationStates Jolt Archive

Solomon International Airport, in the newly built city of Solomon, Selinia (Terran) was much quieter and much less diverse than most Danaan international airports. Most of the people buzzing about looked to be social workers or soldiers or government officials of some kind or another. Almost without exception, the people who didn't seem to be there on official business seemed to be working class, their dress and manner reflecting it easily. The airport was not a place people dressed up for.

Marie-Anne Hellenique might have noticed the air of newness about the place as the Pantocratorian got off of her plane. Everyone seemed a little excited and a little anxious, living or moving through a city under construction. Nonetheless, the young woman knew that she wouldn't be staying in Solomon but in the town of Benoni, a good deal outside the new Selinian capital, with a Catholic family known as the Greniers.

An older woman with curly grey hair waited for Marie-Anne, holding a sign with the girls name on it. She was a little overweight and dressed like a French housewife, although she was smiling brightly.

Marie-Anne didn't look quite as glamorous as she had tried to make herself look before she got onto the plane in New Rome - a twelve hour flight tended to have that effect. She was a pretty girl with natural light brown hair which she had ruined by dying platinum blonde. She wore a skirt which ended at her knees and a matching blouse, and pulled her luggage behind her. Although she was excited, she just looked tired from the long flight. She spotted her name being held up on a card and made her way over to the woman.

"Hello?" she said with a smile. "Madame Grenier? I am Marie-Anne Hellenique."

Arriving at the same airport was Barent Kruger, a tall teenage boy with brownish hair and small glasses was looking out at all the new things to see and smell. Dressed in blue jeans and a shirt and overshirt he looked like an ordinary city boy would – only his hair was a bit more neatly combed as usual. His skin complexion was rather pale white and was covered with little zips here and there.

However, it was the fresh air of the new world which made him forget the tiresome trip in the airplane that had ferried him to The Resurgent Dream. He, too, then noticed a sign.

The woman smiled down at the girl. "Yes, I'm Jeanne Grenier. It's nice to meet you, Marie-Anne." She offered her hand politely to the girl.

"You must be exhausted from your flight. Let's go get your bags and get you home." She headed for the baggage pick-up.
...
The woman holding Barent's sign, a trimmer woman in a blue pantsuit, smiled as he walked over. "You must be Barent." she said as she walked over. "I'm Esther Goldstein. I'm your host mother for the next nine months. Shall we go get your bags and head on home? I know it's been a long trip from Knootoss."

Esther walked the Knootian boy towards his luggage pick-up just as Jeanne was walking Marie-Anne towards hers. The two mothers smiled as though they knew each other.

Barent was a bit shy, but looked nonetheless happy to see Esther Goldstein. He was beginning to make conversation when they walked to the luggage pick-up, and wasn’t really paying attention when he leant forward to grab his own brown bag.

Both students were taken home in short order. Marie-Anne found herself staying with a fairly easy-going middle-class family while Barent found that his host family was quite wealthy. Marie-Anne found herself sharing the house with only one younger girl of thirteen while Barent's host parents had a son, two daughters, and a nephew living with them, in addition to a live-in butler. After a week to adjust, both students found themselves on the same bus to the first day of school.

Marie-Anne sat next to her thirteen year old host sister on the bus on the way into school that morning. She was dressed in a fashionable outfit - a cute skirt which ended just above her knees, ankle high boots, and a loose fitting frilly white blouse whose neckline stopped just before her cleavage, revealing only a little skin and a silver crucifix necklace. She chatted along to her host sister on the bus ride.

Barent was first in his group to step into the bus. The free spots had been scattered throughout the bus, and so he had to sit down next to people he did not know. More in the back of the bus, he stopped and glanced over the spot next to Marie-Anne, on the other side of the aisle.

In his best French he asked the boy seated next to him if he could sit there, but the boy appeared to be sleeping in his seat. He had to hurry to get himself on the seat because the bus was already moving again. The 16 year-old Knootian looked around with a smile, saying hi to the two girls seated beside him.

Amelie was talking animatedly with Marie-Anne. "I'm still getting used to the fact that they have all of us on the same bus. Back at home, we would be on different buses cause we're in different levels of school. I guess this is home now, though. It just...I don't know." She smiled brightly at the older girl and turned her gaze out the window.

The young boy Barent asked for a seat smiled and nodded. "Sure thing. My name's Reuben, by the way." He offered the Knootian a hand.

"Hi." Marie-Anne replied unenthusiastically when Barent greeted her, barely giving the boy a second glance. She resumed her conversation with Amelie. "Is it really something to get used to? In Pantocratoria, all grades of secondary school are together in the one school, so we certainly have the same buses."

The Knootian shook Reubens hand enthusiastically.

“Hi, I’m Barent!” he said, eager to make friends.

Amelie shook her head. "No. We do it the same way they do in the FMSA. High Queen Agwene used to have estates there."

Reuben smiled. "Nice to meet you, Barent. Are you a Marlunder?"

"No, I'm a Knootian", he answered with a fairly heavy accent. "I'm from Rotterdam, but I'm staying here as part of an exchange programme. How about you?"

"I'm from here." Reuben answered in a tone indicating he thought it was rather an odd question to ask. "So what's it like in Knootoss? I heard somebody say it was illegal to go to Synagogue there. Is that true?"

Barent raised an eyebrow. "What is a synagogue?", he asked thinking he had not understood the French word. "It must be a really bad thing, because we dont ban a lot of things where I live."

"It's a house of religious worship." Reuben said, like it was something everyone should know. "It's kind of like a church except they only worship God there and not people."

He shook his head. "I think it must be hard to live in a place where you didn't have freedom of conscience. In school, they tell us that it's one of the most important freedoms."

"They have freedom of conscience in Knootoss!" some other boy yelled from behind them. "They just don't use it. You're going to make the exchange student think we're all ignorant about his country."

Reuben looked over his shoulder and yelled back at the other boy. "How was I supposed to know that? I don't take Geography until next year." No explanation was profferred as to why Geography would be the class where one learned about Knootian law and politics. Despite the seeming absurdity of the subject as a heading for the information under discussion, all the students clearly considered it normal.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I did not know", Barent said apologetically. He was a bit surprised that others had been listening in. "I was told that almost all of you have one, but I never understood why."

He smiled sheepishly at Rueben

"Do you go to a sienagoog?"

"Yeah." Reuben answered. "We're Jewish. Most people in Selinia are but some of them are Christians. There's some Muslimes and Hindus and such as well but not very many of them. We go to Synagogue because God rescued us from slavery in the land of Egypt and chose us to be a righteous nation and part of being righteous is worshipping him. I don't understand why other people have other religions but my Social Studies teacher said I'll understand when I'm old enough to take philosophy and read Kant."

"Anyway, you're right. Almost everyone in the Resurgent Dream has a religion. I've never met an atheist before now. People are free to not believe in God if they want to or even to be Sirithilists or Invisible Handists or Scientologists or other weird things like that if they want to. The Uasal Court says that no one's allowed to tell people they can't be things like that and the High King says the Uasal Court is allowed to tell him he can't tell people not to be things like that. Of course, the Uasal Court says the High King can tell them they can't tell him that but he's not supposed to want to because of some kind of directions..." Reuben looked rather confused. "I really don't understand constitutional law yet. They'll tell us when we're older."

Barent nodded, not really understanding much of what Reuben said about Jews but listening nonetheless. A frown rippled on his young forehead, as most of what he said seemed to be some sort of code.

"Hey, do you play football or something?", he asked instead as Reuben finished..

Reuben shook his head. "I don't really. It's the most popular support in Selinia though and the school has a really good team. We call it soccer, though, so we don't get it confused by the other kinds of football they play in the Resurgent Dream. Gridiron is really popular in Wintermore and Pele and they play Gaelic Football and Ladies' Gaelic Football in Holista." He tilted his head at the Knootian boy. "How come you look confused?"

Around this time, they pulled up to the school. Lots of students were milling about outside the building, waiting for the bell to ring. Stern looking teachers stood outside the doors watching the students. The conversation seemed lively, in a mix of French and English. A few of the students even seemed to switch back and forth between the two languages without even giving it much thought. It was, after all, assumed that everyone they spoke to was literate in both.

The school building itself was a large brick building. One long, main hall lay parallel to the road where the buses parked. On both ends this hall was connected to perpendicular wings so that the entire building looked like a U in block font. The hallway seemed to continue as a paved walkway which was itself perpendicular to another brick wing at the other end. Behind this walkway was a brick building which was not connected to either the main structure or the third wing. A ceiling over the walkway was connected to all three structures.

Marie-Anne got off the bus with a broad smile on her face and a curious twinkle in her eyes. She wandered up the path a little, and then turned back to her host sister.

"Well, I guess we're going in different directions now. I'll see you later on, Amelie!" she said in French to the younger girl, before slowly heading towards her homeroom, looking for groups of kids nearer her own age on her way.

Briseis Butler smiled over at the Pantocratorian girl as they were both stopped together at the door to her hall. The black teen frowned slightly. "Apparently we can't go inside until the first bell rings. Then we go to our lockers. Then another bell rings and we're supposed to go to class. Then there's a third bell and we're late for class if we arrive after that." She laughed slightly. "This place is just so fancy. My school back home doesn't even have a text book for every student. We always had to share."

Her clothes, while neat and clean, did look fairly inexpensive. She offered a hand to Marie-Anne with a smile. "I'm Briseis. I'm actually an exchange student from Marlund. They told me there were also going to be Knootian and Pantocratorian exchange students. I'm worried I'm going to look bad compared to them. They've had first class educations in their homelands and I...well..." She looked down and, if she could be seen to blush, Marie-Anne got the impression she was blushing now. It was rather clear she assumed the Pantocratorian was one of the local children.

"I'm Marie-Anne." the girl replied, accepting Briseis' hand with a smile, although she didn't shake or squeeze it, since Pantocratorian ladies didn't do that. "And I'm the Pantocratorian exchange student. Don't worry, I'm sure you won't look bad compared to me, and I'm sure you won't have anything to worry about from the Knootian... if he's the nerdy looking boy I met on the bus today with the accent."

She grinned at Briseis and glanced about.

"Maybe we should try find some of the locals..." she suggested, and shrugged before resuming the conversation. "So, where abouts in Marlund are you from?"

The locals were buzzing all around them. They were talking about the kind of things high school kids talk about. The boys were telling lies and bad jokes about their own sexual experiences. The girls were telling lies and insulting jokes about other girls' experiences. Some kids were talking about how tough they were or how lame their parents were. It was high school.

To a very large extent, it seemed that the Jews and the Catholics segregated themselves socially without even reflecting on the fact that they were doing so. The groups weren't unfriendly or exclusive in their behavior but everyone just seemed to gravitate towards their coreligionists. Of course, cultural markers were weak enough that the foreign exchange students were only able to get a weak impression of this phenomenon. They had no real means to judge exactly how separated or mingled the students were.

The nearest local girl to Marie-Anne was a short, raven-haired girl in a very, very short black skirt, rather high heels, and a tight white blouse. She had a body most of the boys couldn't keep their eyes off, although she was standing by herself for the moment. She looked around, almost impatiently.

Marie-Anne became aware of the subtle divide, but had no idea that the self-segregation was along religious lines yet. The fact that she belonged in the Catholic group was made fairly obvious to anybody close enough to her to notice the small silver crucifix around her neck (in a position where the eyes of most boys to whom she spoke would be drawn to it), but she wasn't aware of that.

"Hey Briseis..." she said, indicating to the short girl with the raven-hair dressed like jail bait with her eyes. "She looks like a local. Let's go introduce ourselves."

She went over to the girl and smiled.

"Hey," she said in French. "Is it your first day here too? I'm called Marie-Anne, I'm an exchange student from Pantocratoria, and this is Briseis, she's an exchange student from Marlund."

The girl grinned as Marie-Anne and Briseis walked over. "Oh, hi. I'm Corri!" She offered her hand, shaking firmly, even if it did make the Pantocratorian a little weirded out.

OOC: Posting this would just be rude, I think. (http://knootoss.blogspot.com/2005/10/posting-for-panto-pt-ii.html). Can we talk? :(

OOC: Panto made me. >_>

“That is just so many kinds of football. Back where I live it is just soccer. All of my friends play it”, he sighed briefly, thinking about his friends back home.

As the bus pulled over, Barent got out together with Reuben. He overlooked the school yard, staring a bit intimidated at all the kids talking in all these different, strange languages. While his English was fairly good, his French was pretty basic and he had difficulty understanding what many of the people around him said. He looked over at Reuben and decided to follow him.

Reuben looked around as he walked towards the school. He paused a long moment, staring at the girl Briseis and Marie-Anne were talking to. "See, Barent, what nice things we have here in Selinia?"

The other boy slipped his hands into his pockets, moving towards another door to the building quietly, too shy to go over to talk with the girl he obviously had the hots for. "So what do you know about Selinia, Barent, and what would you like to know? I think hardly anyone outside the Resurgent Dream knows much of anything about specific principalities."

Marie-Anne noticed Reuben and Barent walking by but didn't think either boy was worth anymore comment now than she had thought they were worth on the bus. She wasn't bothered by the way Corri shook her hand, although it wasn't a very ladylike thing for Corri to do. Then again, the way Corri was dressed, Marie-Anne didn't exactly expect ladylike. Still, the girl seemed friendly enough, and Marie-Anne smiled back cheerfully.

"It's our first day here and we have no idea what's going on." Marie-Anne said, clearly hoping that Corri might fill them in about the school.

Corri grinned curiously. "Oh?" she asked, looking to Briseis as she asked "Are you girls from Carasia?"

"Anyway, there's not much to know about this school. I can introduce you to everyone worth knowing, what to wear, things like that. The teachers are too strict and the female gym teachers are all gay...not that there's anything wrong with that. The male gym teachers are all pervs too and they'll leer at you but at least they can't come into the locker room." She shook her head. "Don't worry about that, though. You'll do fine."

The short girl paused as if considering what else there was to say. ""Oh! Gym class is co-ed here. It's not in most Danaan principalities but things like that are decided by the Principality Legislature and we're a lot more liberal than about gender issues than somewhere like Zutern or Shieldcrest. Not that we're hairy legged feminists are anything. We just like women's soccer. Well, I don't, but some of my friends are on the team. Anyway, what do you girls want to know?"

"Carasia?" Marie-Anne asked, oddly seeming a little insulted by the question. "No. I'm from Pantocratoria."

She let Briseis explain where she was from, and then listened to Corri's various warnings about gym teachers with increasing alarm.

"Is... gym class compulsory?" she asked.

Reuben looked around as he walked towards the school. He paused a long moment, staring at the girl Briseis and Marie-Anne were talking to. "See, Barent, what nice things we have here in Selinia?"

The other boy slipped his hands into his pockets, moving towards another door to the building quietly, too shy to go over to talk with the girl he obviously had the hots for. "So what do you know about Selinia, Barent, and what would you like to know? I think hardly anyone outside the Resurgent Dream knows much of anything about specific principalities."

"Nice things all-right", Barent said with a mischievous grin. He let out a small whistle to show his appreciation - loud enough to be heard by Reuben but not loud enough to be heard by the two girls. Obviously dissapointed that they were not going to talk to them, Barent instead followed the boy again.

"Well, I don't know I must admit", he said with a grin. "I've been told much some things about the Resurgent Dream but all the principialities were so hard to remember!", he said, "I'm sorry if that sounds rude -" he immediately added, "But back home the different places are much more the same. What is special about this one?"

After Reuben had talked for a while, Barent looked over at the schoolyard and noticed that it was almost time for classes to begin.

"Hey, why don't you introduce me to some of your friends?", he asked tentatively. "That would be cool."

Reuben pondered a moment. "Well, Selinia is in Ambara which means it's a lot more security conscience than a lot of places. It has to be. The Sons of the Reformation are running around the continent murdering people when they can. The majority religion is Judaism. Most people speak French and English. English is in general use in most places but little towns like this, people speak French more, I think that's why they sent you here."

Reuben smiled at Barent's question. "Sure. I think we have time before class starts." He walked over to a an olive-skinned, moderately attractive, athletic girl in jeans and a t-shirt. "Hey, Hannah! Have you met Barent yet?"

"Not yet." the girl said with a smile, offering her hand to the Dutch boy.
...
Briseis frowned slightly at Marie-Anne's response. "What's wrong with people from Carasia?"

"Nothing at all." Corri said with a grin, looking at the Marlundish girl. "But where are you really from?"

"Marlund." Briseis said, looking slightly shy as she spoke.

Corri nodded. "You'll have to tell me about it sometime." She turned back to Marie-Anne, still talking rather fast. "And, yes, gym class is compulsory."

"Nothing's wrong with Carasia, but I'm from Pantocratoria, not Carasia." Marie-Anne shrugged in response to Briseis' question. She blanched when Corri confirmed that gym classes were compulsory. "Oh... they didn't mention that in the brochure..."

"They don't have gym classes in Pantocratoria?" Corri asked, a little surprised.

The bell rang a few moments later. The exchange students were in many of the same classes. The first two classes went easily enough but they were all three scheduled to take gym for their third class.

Marie-Anne made her way to gym class, frowning most of the way. She managed to wipe the frown off her face when she got there and immediately went to speak to the teacher. The class was gathering in one corner of a large gym. Three other classes were in the same gym, including one containing Barent and Reuben, though the two boys were not in Marie-Anne's class. Corri and Briseis, however, were. The teacher, unlike practically all the students, was of African ancestry and looked to be in her early forties. She was an athletic woman, perhaps overly muscular, and not particularly attractive. She looked at Marie-Anne in a way which likely made the young teen a little uncomfortable.

"Morning. You need something?" the teacher asked in French.

"Actually madame, I didn't know I had to do gym classes. I'm an exchange student, from Pantocratoria, and so I didn't know. I didn't bring anything suitable to wear." Marie-Anne excused herself.

"Welcome to the Resurgent Dream!" the woman said with a friendly smile. "How are you liking it so far?"

"Very much." Marie-Anne replied with a slight smile.

The coach looked over exactly what Marie-Anne was wearing thoughtfully.

"Well, you can't work out in that. We have some extra gym clothes for you though." she said with another smile. She then turned to look to the whole class, apparently done with Marie-Anne. "Alright, everyone, take a seat on the floor!"

"Oh." Marie-Anne pouted, obviously disappointed. She rejoined the class and carefully sat down on the floor, making sure that her skirt didn't ride up as she did so.

The coach, who introduced herself as Latisha Smith, went over the rules for class with the students. They were to dress out every day. They would be graded primarily on effort. No one would be hurt simply because they lack athletic ability. She expected them to follow instructions carefully. After going over the rules, she called each student up to receive a lock. Marie-Anne dutifully got up and retrieved the lock when her name was called.

"Go pick a locker out, sweetie. I'll be in in a minute to give you some clothes." she said.

"Yes mademoiselle." Marie-Anne said, only just avoiding a sigh, and then went off to pick a locker.

Corri and Briseis were already in the girls' locker room, half-dressed at their lockers. Corri grinned as Marie-Anne came in but then her grin faded. "Something wrong?"

"Yes!" Marie-Anne replied. "I have to wear some... icky spare set of clothes. And I have to do gym class. Why? It's stupid."

"Don't you have it in Pantocratoria?" Briseis asked curiously.

"Of course we have it, but it isn't compulsory." Marie-Anne replied. "Not for girls anyway. Why do they have to make it compulsory?"

"So we'll be fit, I guess." Briseis said.

Miss Smith walked in around this time. "Alright, Marie-Anne..." she said. "Let's see what we have for you."

"Yes, mademoiselle." Marie-Anne said.

She placed a hand casually on the girl's shoulder, guiding her over to a large cardboard box in the corner, filled with shorts, t-shirts, gym socks, and sneakers. "Pick out something that fits, Marie-Anne."

"Are... are they clean?" Marie-Anne asked, her pretty young face curled up in a look of distaste.

"Yes, girl, they're clean."

"Hmm..." she buzzed as she went through the box to find shorts, t-shirts, socks and sneakers in her size.

When she looked back up, she saw Smith glancing at Corri, who was in her underwear at the moment, just reaching for her shorts. Marie-Anne's face remained in a look of intense distaste as she took her clothes and made her way back over to her locker next to Corri.

Corri pulled her shorts up. "Well...."

"Mademoiselle was staring at you." she whispered to Corri as she stepped into her shorts whilst still wearing her skirt. She pulled the shorts up underneath the skirt and then removed the skirt, so as to minimise the view everybody (and particularly the teacher) had of her underpants. "God I hate gym class..."

"It could be worse." Briseis said softly. "A little glance is hardly the worst that could happen."

"She wouldn't dare do anything else, surely?" Marie-Anne whispered back, looking a little concerned.

Corri shook her head. "Not forcefully anyway. A coach got caught for that a few downs over, a male. He's in jail now."

"Oh..." Marie-Anne replied, obviously not reassured.

She looked about the room to see if there was anywhere a little more private to change her top. There wasn't, of course. She groaned sulkily, and quickly unbuttoned her blouse. She self-consciously covered her bra with one arm and grabbed her t-shirt with the other one, and pulled it on as quickly as possible. She then pulled on her shoes and socks.

"OK. You two ready?" she asked the other two girls.

"Yes, ma'am!" Briseis affirmed.

"I'm ready." Corri said, starting to lead the girls back out to the gym.

Marie-Anne followed, although she was definitely dragging her heels. Once they got back out to the gym, Coach Smith put them through sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, and stretches before sending them to do laps around the gym. Marie-Anne, who had never done a sit-up, push-up, or jumping jack in her life, was quickly exhausted and when the other students got up to do laps, she was thoroughly tired and extremely stroppy. She groaned audibly and dragged herself to her feet.

Smith frowned concernedly, walking over to the girl. "Are you alright, Marie-Anne?"

"No!" she groaned. "I think I'm going to die!"

"Do you need to go see the nurse?" she said, putting a hand out to steady the girl.

"I don't know, 'demoiselle..." she replied.

"Corri, walk Marie-Anne to the nurse!" she called out.

"I don't think I need to go to the nurse." Marie-Anne said.

"Alright. You feel up to doing some laps?" she asked.

"No!" she replied insistently, her mouth open, aghast.

"So what do you want to do?" Smith asked next.

"I want to take a break, mademoiselle." she replied.

"Come sit with me on the bleachers." Smith invited with a warm smile.

"Umm... yes, mademoiselle." said Marie-Anne, dutifully following her over to the bleachers.

She sat, patting the seat next to her. Marie-Anne sat down next to her.

"So girls don't do gym in Pantocratoria?" she asked.

"They don't have to, no." Marie-Anne replied, catching her breath.

"And you don't?" she asked.

"No." Marie-Anne replied.

Smith nodded. "What do you take instead?"

"You know, normal classes." she replied.

"Go on." she prodded.

"Well it isn't an issue of what I do instead of gym. It isn't like there's a choice between gym and one other thing, you pick your subjects. I didn't pick gym." Marie-Anne replied.

"Do you take home economics?" she asked.

"No. I used to but I dropped it last year." Marie-Anne replied. "My school makes us take French, Mathematics, and Religion. Other than those three, I can pick whatever subjects I like from the academic and non-academic lists. In your last two years, you need to do at least five, including those three, from the academic list if you want to be eligible to go to university. Home economics is a non-academic subject, so I thought I should change to an academic one so that I could go to university when I finish."

Smith nodded. "By religion they mean Catholicism, right?"

"Of course, it's a Catholic school." Marie-Anne replied. Now that she had changed out of her blouse with the plunging neckline to the unflattering t-shirt, her silver crucifix was no longer visible.

"Last year, exchange students only came from public schools." Smith noted.

"Yes mademoiselle, this year it's different." Marie-Anne nodded.

"Well, I'm very glad to have you here." Smith said.

Reuben pondered a moment. "Well, Selinia is in Ambara which means it's a lot more security conscience than a lot of places. It has to be. The Sons of the Reformation are running around the continent murdering people when they can. The majority religion is Judaism. Most people speak French and English. English is in general use in most places but little towns like this, people speak French more, I think that's why they sent you here."

Reuben smiled at Barent's question. "Sure. I think we have time before class starts." He walked over to a an olive-skinned, moderately attractive, athletic girl in jeans and a t-shirt. "Hey, Hannah! Have you met Barent yet?"

"Not yet." the girl said with a smile, offering her hand to the Dutch boy.


Barent shook hands with Hannah, smiling cheekily as he eyed her.

“Hi”, he said, “I’m Barent. I’m here from Knootoss as an exchange student, nice to meet you.”

After gym, Marie-Anne got changed out of her gym clothes and went to lunchbreak with a sense of relief. She still thought it was silly that the students had to do gym as a compulsory unit, and she was quite sure it wasn't on the exchange programme brochure. Corri and Briseis fell in next to her on her way to lunch.

"Where do you sit for lunch, Corri?" asked Marie-Anne.

"I normally sit in the courtyard outside the cafeteria." Corri said.

"With whom do you sit, Corri?" Marie-Anne inquired. "Can Briseis and I join you?"

"Sure thing." Corri said. "I'll introduce you to everyone." She got in line for the cafeteria.

"Cool." Marie-Anne smiled as she got in line after Corri. "I can't believe they make us do gym..."

"I liked it." Briseis said.

"Why? It was hard, and pointless." Marie-Anne complained.

"It wasn't that hard. And you'll be in better shape." Briseis argued.

"Is there something wrong with my shape?" Marie-Anne asked, betraying a little bit of adolescent insecurity as she looked down over her form. She nervously adjusted her blouse in case it was sitting in an unflattering fashion.

"I mean you're not in good condition, not much exercise." Briseis clarified.

"Good condition?" Marie-Anne almost whined. "But..."

"You practically fell over after just warming up." Corri commented.

"So what?" Marie-Anne demanded defensively.

"That's pretty...well..." Corri hesitated to say it bluntly.

"Well what?" the Pantocratorian girl asked.

"Weak."

"So what if I'm weak?" Marie-Anne pouted, crossing her arms in front of her. "I'm a lady, not an athlete."

"None of the other ladies fell over." Briseis pointed out.

"That's only because they're used to doing unladylike things. Like gym class." Marie-Anne replied, a spoiled pout still on her face.

"There's nothing unladylike about not being inept." Briseis snapped back.

Marie-Anne's eyes went wide and she looked upset at Briseis snapping at her. She blushed and looked down sullenly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." she said.

Corri patted her on the shoulder. "You'll get better, kiddo."

"I don't want to get better, I don't want to do gym class." Marie-Anne sulked, following Corri along in the line.

"You'll get better." Corri repeated as she got some of the lamb chops being offered for the meal.

"I'll just take a salad." Marie-Anne said to the person behind the counter when she reached it after Corri.

"What kind of dressing?" the woman asked.

"Low cal dressing please."

She was handed her salad. Marie-Anne took it and moved to one side, waiting for Briseis. Briseis got the lamb. Briseis and Corri both got orange juices and mashed potatoes, even though they were unbuttered. Marie-Anne got a vegetable juice and followed along after the other two. Corri sat down in the courtyard, grinning.

"What's with the smile?" Marie-Anne asked Corri as she sat down.

"What?" Corri asked confused.

"I dunno, you just look like you saw something funny. Sorry." Marie-Anne replied.

Corri shrugged a little as a few more girls, dressed fashionably but suggestively, sat around them. Marie-Anne smiled at the new girls as they joined them, and waited for Corri to make the introductions.

"This is Anna, Maital, Hannah, and Amanda." Corri said, pointing to each girl in turn.

"Salut, I'm Marie-Anne, an exchange student from Pantocratoria." Marie-Anne told them.

They all said it was nice to meet her. Marie-Anne smiled and told them each that it was likewise nice to meet them, and started eating her salad and listening in to the conversation. The girls were mostly gossipping about boys. All of them seemed to have boyfriends. After Marie-Anne had finished her lunch, she sat sipping her vegetable juice and absent mindedly fidgeting with the silver crucifix around her neck, not following very much of the conversation since she didn't know any of the boys about whom the girls were talking, trying to keep her mind off the fact that she was still hungry.

"Did you meet that new Knootian boy?" Maital asked.

"Hmmm? Oh yes." nodded Marie-Anne. "Spotty nerdy guy, he was on the bus."

"I think he might be an atheist." Anna said in a fascinated tone. "I've never met a real atheist before."

"It's probably because he has been sexually abused." Marie-Anne observed in a matter-of-fact tone.

"That's pretty mean." Amanda observed.

"I know, isn't it awful how they do that over there?" Marie-Anne replied, shaking her head disapprovingly. "I couldn't believe it when I heard."

"What?" Corri asked.

"In the Knootian Low Countries they sexually abuse school students to make them atheists." Marie-Anne replied, as if reciting a well-known fact.

"That's not true." Hannah pointed out.

"It is!" Marie-Anne replied. "Not every school does it of course, but a lot of them. It's left up to the headmaster. It isn't official policy, but the Government knows about it and doesn't do anything about it."

"Nope." Amanda said. "Not what happens."

"It is too. The headmaster dresses up as a priest and molests students who show an interest in religion to scare them off!" Marie-Anne replied, as if there wasn't a trace of doubt or dishonesty about it.

"I think you might have them confused with a real Catholic school!" joked Anna, the others laughing heartily.

"I have not! Real Catholic schools don't do that." Marie-Anne frowned, although she was beginning to look uncertain. "Do you mean you honestly haven't heard about that before?"

"No!" said Corri.

"Oh..." Marie-Anne said quietly, shrinking back a little awkwardly. "I thought everyone did."

"It's really not true." Maital said gently.

"It is too..." Marie-Anne replied uncertainly. "...or they wouldn't have taught us it in school."

"You learned what was called propoganda..." Anna explained.

"I know what propaganda is, and no it wasn't, they wouldn't teach us propaganda, not in Religion class..." Marie-Anne protested quietly, not sounding entirely convinced.

"They did though." Maital said.

"No, they were explaining why atheism was so widespread in the Knootian Low Countries, and... nevermind." Marie-Anne said.

"What'd they say about Jews?" Corri asked with interest.

"Hmmm? They're not atheists, Corri." Marie-Anne replied. "That's a common misconception, but they're not atheists."

"That's not a common misconception at all!" Corri said, laughing out loud at what Marie-Anne said. "Who would think Jews were atheists?"

"Wh... but weren't we talking about atheists?" Marie-Anne asked, frowning. "Sorry, I thought that you were asking about Jews because you thought they were atheists."

"I already know I'm not an atheist." Corri said. "I just wanted to know what your teacher would say about me."

"What?" Marie-Anne asked, frowning again. "Are you... oh... I see. Ummm... what do you want to know specifically?"

"What your teacher said, generally." Corri said.

"Well mostly that we should pray for them so that they don't go to Hell." Marie-Anne told Corri.

"Oh! What'd he say about Lutherans?" Briseis asked. Find out what the evil Pantocratorian teacher said about you had become the game of the table.

"Lutherans? What's a Lutheran?" Marie-Anne asked Briseis.

"You know, regular Christians?" Briseis said, clearly having no idea she was saying something offensive.

"I've never heard of a Lutheran... oh wait a moment..." Marie-Anne paused. "Sorry, that's one of the German Protestant sects, right?"

"It's world-wide now." Briseis informed her. "Not just German."

"Oh. I don't know..." Marie-Anne said. "I'm pretty sure they're not regular Christians though. I think we learned about them in Religion two years ago. Pretty sure we're supposed to pray for them so that they don't go to Hell too. But I don't know what that has to do with Knootians being atheists..."

"Hey! We are too regular Christians!" Briseis protested.

"Umm... OK." Marie-Anne replied. "I didn't mean... sorry. So wait, are all of you, except for Briseis anyway... Jews?"

"Yep." Amanda confirmed.

"Oh." Marie-Anne said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Cool."

"Is something wrong?" Corri asked gently.

"Not really. I didn't like... offend anybody, did I?" Marie-Anne asked.

"No." Anna answered her. "It's alright."

"Cool." Marie-Anne exhaled, obviously a little relieved.

"Briseis's pastor told her that we had horns hidden beneath our hair. I remember. I was on her bus." Amanda said.

Briseis looked a little abashed and glanced down at her lap. "They said a lot of things in the old days. They said things just as bad about me."

"That's stupid. The Virgin Mary was a Jew and she didn't have horns underneath her hair." replied Marie-Anne. "Why would your pastor think that the Virgin Mary had horns?"

"He said she wasn't the same kind of Jew as Jews today." Briseis said. "He said that Mary had blonde hair and blue eyes and alabaster skin."

"That's dumb. She might even have been black like she is in a lot of icons." Marie-Anne replied.

"Really?" Briseis asked in awe. The idea that God, or at least His mother, might have looked anything like her in human form was one she hadn't heard before, even with real Lutherans having replaced the extremists with doctrines bordering on Identity who had previously controlled the Church in Marlund.

"Of course. It might not be very likely, I don't know really, but lots of people think that the Virgin was black. The Black Madonna is a famous and much copied icon from the earliest days of the Church, so it is obvious that lots of people think that she was probably black." said Marie-Anne. "And she definitely didn't have blonde hair."

"Wow..." Briseis said. "So Jesus didn't have blonde hair either?"

"Of course not." Marie-Anne said. "Even in icons where they're white, which is most of them I guess, their skin is much darker than mine, certainly not alabaster. And their hair is never blonde. Icons are thought to be true representations of what Jesus and Mary looked like because the icons we have today are based on icons which were based on icons which were based on icons which were made by people who knew them in real life or saw them in visions and things... and none of them have blonde haired Virgins or Christ-childs, and many of them have black Virgins or Christ-childs, and those which don't have black ones have at least dark skinned white ones."

"Wow...it'd be even better if Paul were dark too. But that wouldn't make any sense. He was German." she said.

"St Paul was a Jew. He persecuted Christians until God appeared to him. I don't think I've ever seen an icon where he's black though. He usually has dark olive skin..." said Marie-Anne. "Doesn't your sect have icons?"

"What's an icon?" Briseis asked.

"It's a picture which was painted of a saint by a person who knew them, which has since been copied so as to preserve the saint's appearance. What did you think I was talking about before?" Marie-Anne asked.

Briseis shook her head. "No. We don't have those. The church in my village used to have a painting of blonde Israelites killing black Canaanites but the new minister who came after the war smashed it, said that it was just there to make us hate ourselves and that the men who made it were enemies of God."

The table was pretty quiet now. While the religion discussion had started out just as teasing Marie-Anne, it was hard to maintain any kind of levity talking about what Marlund used to be like.

"I don't get why anybody would think that Jesus was a barbarian, that's really dumb. That sounds to me like propaganda. Do you know if all Lutherans say that?" Marie-Anne asked Briseis.

"I don't think the guy who smashed the thing didn't think it. The Conference was supposed to have sent him to educate us on real Lutheranism and to undo what the man there before him taught. I came here before I could hear what he had to say. I guess most Lutherans don't think that though." she said.

"So it was probably just propaganda. The people who used to run your country were evil." Marie-Anne told Briseis. "Don't worry about their stupid lies about the Virgin being German. That new man was right, it was all just racist propaganda."

Briseis pasued a moment as though taking all this in before suddenly hugging Marie-Anne and starting to cry. Marie-Anne looked surprised and uncomfortable and looked about at the other girls as she gently hugged Briseis back.

"Ummm... it's OK, Briseis." she told her. Briseis let go after awhile.

"Sorry...it's just..." Briseis didn't finish the sentence, looking back to the other girls.

"So..." Corri started. "...what class do you have after lunch?"

"Mathematics." Marie-Anne answered.

Hannah shook Barent's hand. "Oh, cool. I'm Hannah. So what do you think of Selinia so far? Is it very different from Knootoss? Knootoss has a Calvinist prince, right?"

"Oh Selinia is wonderful and... a what?!", Barent said with a frown of surprise. That particular question broke his 'cool' composure for a moment as he looked at Hannah.

"Wasn't Knootoss a Protestant country that rebelled against Catholic oppression at the hands of Lavenrunz?" Hannah asked. "That's what they told us in history class." She peered at the Knootian, looking slightly confused.

"Uhuh", Barent said, "that was centuries ago. Things have changed quite a lot. We haven't had princes for, uh... very long. We're a democracy now. In two years I can go and vote", he said a little proud.

"How old do Knootians have to be to vote?" Hannah asked. "We can vote when we're seventeen. I think it's eighteen in most countries, though, or even twenty-one. Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying classes so far."

Barent's first few classes were fairly uneventful. After lunch, he found himself in Ambaran History with Marie-Anne, Briseis, Corri, and Hannah.

Marie-Anne sat next to Briseis in the desk behind Barent, and studied him closely. Ambaran history was boring anyway.

That's funny... he doesn't look like he's been molested by a headmaster dressed up like a priest. she thought to herself. Wait... what does someone who has been molested by a headmaster dressed up like a priest look like anyway? As if they'd teach me propaganda, I come from Pantocratoria, not Marlund. Those girls had it wrong...

"Can you tell us what was significant about the reign of Emperor Ogimachi, Marie-Anne?" Mr. Goldberg asked suddenly.

"Hmm?" Marie-Anne snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at the board. "Emperor who, monsieur?"

Barent turned around to look at the person the question had been asked to, looking straight into Marie-Anne's eyes, grinning as he noticed that the Pantocratorian girl did not know.

"Ogimachi." he repeated.

"Umm... I don't think there was an Emperor called Ogimachi, monsieur." Marie-Anne replied.

"Of Adoki." he said impatiently.

"Oh." Marie-Anne said, frowning slightly at Barent, who was staring unnervingly at her. "Monsieur, I'll be honest, this is my first day of Ambaran History class. I have no idea who Emperor Ogimachi was."

"I just mentioned him." the teacher responded sternly.

"Oh." Marie-Anne replied, thinking quickly. "Oh, sorry, I misheard you before, monsieur, I thought you said the Emperor Opimachi before."

"Uh-huh." he said. "And what did you hear me say Opimachi did?"

"Uhh..." Marie-Anne blushed and looked down, out of smart answers. "Not a lot, sorry monsieur."

Try to pay attention." he said. "Do you remember, Hannah?"

"He was the first one to style himself Emperor of Adoki instead of Emperor of Japan." she answered.

Barent was grinning at this point as he was watching the Pantocratorian girl struggle. Turning, he whispered to Hannah that paying attention probably isn't something big for Pantocratorians.

"Good." he said.

Hannah, who was sitting next to Barent, laughed slightly. She guessed Protestants like Barent paid attention a lot. Marie-Anne frowned at Barent and Hannah. Being right behind them, she heard enough of the whispering to know it was bad and knows it was about her. This feeling was only confirmed by a short, playful glance Barent cast over his shoulder.

"As you can see..." Goldberg went on "...Ambara has been inhabited for centuries by two fundamentally hostile peoples. And yet it lacks indigenous human life entirely."

Marie-Anne paid attention to the lesson, deciding that Barent's creepy stare and whispering were definite evidence of sexual molestation. Hannah frowned slightly as Barent kept looking at Marie-Anne.

Barent raised his hand, "Mr. Goldberg," he asked, "When did the Danaan settle in Marlund?" He frowned a little, "Because you have the Marlund and the Adoki warring over the continent, and they are both really primitive nations."

Marie-Anne glanced at Briseis to gauge her reaction to Barent's incredibly insensitive and arrogant question. Briseis was glaring at the back of the Knootians head like she wanted to bore through it with her gaze.

"Primitive in what way?" the teacher asked Barent.

"At least they have pimple cream." Marie-Anne whispered to Briseis.

"Well," Barent frowned a little as he had not actually expected to be asked anything back, "I've always heard that they were socially backward and really isolationalist. The Knootian East India company tried to get a trading post in Adoki but the natives killed the crew of one of their ships, I heard. And I heard in Marlund they boil people alive."

"Well, the first thing you mentioned happened two centuries ago and the latter, while more recent, is also outdated." the teacher explained.

Barent looked at the teacher, waiting for an answer.

"In 1990." the teacher answered with a slight sigh.

"Oh, okay", Barent answered softly. He would have asked a follow-up question, but Goldberg did not seem to like it so he bowed his head even deeper over the desk to scribble something down on the paper before him.

"Any other questions?"

"I have one, monsieur." Marie-Anne said, raising her hand.

"Yes, Marie-Anne?" he said.

"What was a ship doing from the Knootian East India company doing all the way over near Ambara? I mean... Ambara's not the East Indies." Marie-Anne asked. "Couldn't they read their maps?"

"The Knootian East India company had operations throughout the Pacific, including on the western coast of Ambara." he informed her.

"Pantocratoria lost both Wars of Insolence because they could not read maps", Barent said, turning to Hannah with a giggle. "In fact their country only exists because they cannot read maps."

Hannah giggled lightly. She and Barent both got a stern look from the teacher.

"When did you become the teacher, grease ball?" Marie-Anne scowled at Barent. "And Pantocratoria won one the Wars of Insolence..."

"Did not!" Barent retorded as he turned around in his chair. "I knew Pantocratorians couldn't read maps, but maybe they can't read books either."

"Monsieur, I'm trying to pay attention, but this twerp keeps on interrupting!" Marie-Anne complained directly to Monsieur Goldberg.

"This is not Pantocratorian or Knootian history class." Goldberg reminded them sharply.

Barent scowled at Marie-Anne, making a babyface with his lips.

"How old are you, eight?" Marie-Anne snapped at Barent, frowning and shaking her head.

"Turn around, Barent. If you speak out of turn again, I will assign detention. That goes for you too, Marie-Anne."

"Yes Sir!" Barent said compliantly as he turned around in his chair, staring at the wall in front of him.

Marie-Anne frowned that Goldberg was painting her with the same brush as Barent, when she felt she wasn't the one misbehaving.

The teacher went on about the basic outline of Ambaran history, the details to be covered throughout the class. "...I expect to get to the Second Ambaran War by the end of the year. Perhaps we can get a little bit about Danaan and Pantocratorian colonization in as well."

"What the hell is your problem, you spotty little geek?" Marie-Anne demanded angrily from Barent at the end of the class as the students began to rise from their desks.

"Hey, cool it, princess." Hannah said. "Don't get your panties in a bunch."

"Excuse me?" Marie-Anne demanded, aghast.

"Calm down." she repeated.

"My problem?" Barent asked with false indignation as he stood next to Hannah, casting a quick glance at her.

Briseis put a hand on Marie-Anne's shoulder. "Let's just go."

"Sure, Briseis." Marie-Anne said, but looked back to Barent and Hannah. "But I just want to know one thing. What did I do to you that made you act like a total jerk?"

"I didn't do anything!", Barent replied with a shrug that tried to hide his agitation. "You've been looking at me with that smug superior look of yours ever since you saw me, lady. What's with the attitude?"

"Whatever." Marie-Anne shook her head and left the room with Briseis. She tossed her hair backwards with a wiggle of her shoulders as she did so.

"Damned racist." Briseis muttered under her breath as they went.

Hannah walked close to Barent as they walked away. "Don't worry about them."

"Silly Pantocratorians", Barent remarked. "No wonder we're always fighting with them."

Hannah, Reuben, and Barent were standing in line in the small cafe. It was not as sophisticated as the ones in Solomon but the place did give off an air of class and intellectualism or at least tried to. The outside tables were filled with people, mostly their own age, dressed in black and watching the people walk past.

"Whats that?", Barent asked, pointing at a strange-looking name on the blackboard on the wall which described the menu.

"That's just an ice-blended frozen coffee with chocolate chips, syrup, and whipped cream." Hannah informed him. "It's delicious."

"I'll take one of those then", Barent said, tossing a generous smile at Hannah. As the line was long, everyone was standing fairly close together, and Barent's arms would occasionally touch hers. When they approached the counter, Barent placed his order.

"I'd like the heavenly hazel please" he said. Hannah and Reuben ordered the same thing, smiling as the person behind the counter made their order.

"It's Italian." Reuben commented inaccurately.

"I'll take a bowl of chocolate with skim milk, please." they heard a familiar voice order on the other end of the café.

"Is that...?", Barent looked up, the question lingering at the back of his mouth. He quickly scanned the crowd facing the window, but did not see anyone familiar. The three kids made their way to a big table with room for six. The café was quite busy, and it was the only table which still had so many places.

Hannah and Reuben sipped their drinks. Hannah's sneaker lightly brushed against Barent's foot. Barent's cheeks became slightly red, but nothing was shown above the table, and both Barent and Hannah listened to some story Reuben was sharing as they sipped their drinks.

"Briseis, Corri?" Marie-Anne turned to the two girls with her. "What would you like?"

Corri ordered a strawberry ice-blend with whipped cream and Briseis ordered, oddly enough at a café, an actual cup of regular coffee. Marie-Anne paid for the other girls without making a fuss of doing it, modestly waving off any attempts by the others to pay for themselves.

"Let's find some place to sit." Marie-Anne smiled to the two other girls when they were handed their drinks.

Corri looked around, frowning as her eyes alighted on the only available seats. Marie-Anne wasn't any more impressed with the available seats than Corri, but after a few minutes spent waiting for somebody else to leave so that they could sit down somewhere else, the girls gave in and went over to join Reuben, Hannah and Barent at the table.

Reuben looked up from his story and grinned at Corri. "Hey, there!"

"Hi." Corri said with a tiny half-smile.

"Mind if we sit here?" Marie-Anne asked Reuben, with a smile on her face as she tried to block out the people with whom he was sitting.

"Do you two mind?" he asked Barent and Hannah.

Barent looked at Hannah, waiting for her to answer. Hannah looked at Barent, letting him answer. Marie-Anne sighed and glanced at her watch as she clasped her bowl of chocolate in her hands and stood around waiting. For a few moments there was an awkward silence. Barents lips curled up into a grin as the two kept locking eyes. Finally it was the Knootian who broke the silence. "Sure."

Marie-Anne looked at Briseis and rolled her eyes at the display, before sitting down. Briseis shrugged lightly. Corri and Briseis sat down uncomfortably, frowning at the awkwardness of the situation.

"So anyway, Reuben," Barent asked in order to break the mood, "you were saying?" Barent had completely forgotten what Reuben had been talking about, but figured that he probably had not finished yet.

"Oh, right. I was talking about how my uncle, who's a driver for Cousin Books, got harassed by some soldiers crossing the border into Pantocratorian Ambara. The soldiers pushed him around, called him racial and religious epithets, and stole some of the candies being transported with the books. So then this one soldier, a Sergeant..."

"Was he taking in any banned books?" Marie-Anne asked Reuben.

"You have banned books?" Corri said in horror... as Barent rolled his eyes.

"No, we haven't banned books. Just some books. Or we used to. Or something." Marie-Anne replied matter-of-factly, referring to the previous powers of the Ministry of Cultural Development. "What sort of books were they, Reuben?"

"I thought Pantocratoria stopped having banned books when you voted out the Francoists?" Reuben asked, sounding a little shocked.

"I don't know, probably." Marie-Anne shrugged in response to Reuben's answer. "Wait, Francoist? You mean Princess Irene."

"Yes." Reuben said. "Anyway, they were mostly Catholic theological commentaries on the Book of Acts. That load, anyway."

"Boooooring." Barent said jokingly. "Why would they stop that from getting in?"

"He must have done something to annoy the soldiers. Soldiers can be real jerks at the smallest provocation." Marie-Anne said, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"Maybe they don't like the Bible, even when other Catholics talk about it." Briseis said. "I thought Catholics didn't like the Bible?" She looked at Marie-Anne for clarification.

"We invented the Bible!" Marie-Anne frowned, but the frown soon disappeared when she remembered the earlier discussion about the vile propaganda Briseis had been taught at school. "Nevermind. Anyway, I'm sorry I interrupted... umm... I'm afraid I don't even know your name?"

"We invented the Bible!" Corri corrected.

"Reuben" Reuben answered. "Anyway, it's not that important. Pantocratorian soldiers make it hard to do business though. They're always stealing. You have to factor Pantocratorian theft and bribes into any business decision involving cross-continental transportation these days."

"Actually Corri," Marie-Anne replied. "The Vulgate was compiled before the complete Hebrew Bible."

"Like inventing the Bible is something to be proud of." Barent said, looking a little bored with the display of theological fervor.

"Look, oily," Marie-Anne said to Barent sharply, but softened her tone as she remembered it wasn't his fault he was such a jerk. "It's not my fault the man touched you like that, but he wasn't a real priest so stop giving the Church a hard time."

"Barent!" Hannah said in shock. "I thought you were a Protestant?"

"That doesn't really happen, Marie-Anne." Corri reminded her.

"What?!", Barent said, looking first at Hannah worrying that he had said something wrong and then over at the Pantocratorian poodle. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Did... please don't speak like that." Marie-Anne asked, flinching visibly as Barent swore violently at her.

"Pantocratorians are taught that Knootians are conditioned to be atheists by being raped by fake priests." Corri explained.

"Not as a matter of policy, but you have to admit, the Government turns a blind eye to it." Marie-Anne said. "It was some school district in Friesland which started it I think..."

"The Koine Greek Septuagint is not the complete Hebrew Bible! It's just something you made up!" Hannah yelled at Marie-Anne.

"It doesn't happen at all." Corri said. "Pantocratorians made it up, like they made up the Koine Greek Septuagint."

"Where the fuck do they get that insane idea?" Barent asked Corri, incredulously. He completely ignored Marie-Anne's request, not realising there was some problem with the way he had expressed himself, and turned again to Marie-Anne. "And no, sheesh silly cow, that's, like, totally made up."

Corri shrugged lightly. "I don't know. I guess from people in Koine Greece."

"Hey!" Marie-Anne replied, taken aback by Hannah's yelling and at Corri's statement. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, I just meant that the Church compiled all the books of the Hebrew Bible into the Old Testament first. I don't know what this Koine Greece thing is, I am talking about the Latin Vulgate. And I didn't mean to offend you either, Barent..."

"Pantocratorians get lied to a lot then." Barent concluded. "It's time that they were told the truth. I mean for fuck's sake that story is just silly."

"Will you please stop speaking like that?" Marie-Anne pleaded with Barent, finding his language unbearably offensive.

"Like what?" Barent asked.

"Like using that word for sexual congress repeatedly." Marie-Anne replied. It was a term which was only used in the most extreme of circumstances in her family.

"That's not true." Corri corrected Marie-Anne again.

"I'm not talking about the Pentateuch, I'm talking about what Christians call the Old Testament." Marie-Anne told Corri. "I'm not trying to be insulting either..."

"What Catholics call the Old Testament includes books that we don't consider canonical at all, so naturally you're the first ones to compile it." Corri said. "But the Hebrew Bible was canonized officially at the Synod of Yavne in the early first century."

"OK, but if you just ignored those books, it was still the first time that the rest of those books were collected in one volume." Marie-Anne said.

"It might be." Corri said, not really knowing. "But they had all been decided upon as a single canon before that. Binding them together in one book is just a technicality."

"Maybe, but that's what I meant by compiling them into one volume, Corri. I didn't mean to imply that we invented the Hebrew scriptures, that would be stupid." Marie-Anne told her.

Corri nodded a little. "I thought you meant you picked which ones were canonical."

"How come there's so much more interest in Pantocratorian theological circles about the Book of Acts this year?" Reuben asked.

"I don't know anything about theological circles, Reuben." Marie-Anne replied.

Barent had been listening to the theological discussion with growing amazement. To be frank, he had no clue what the heck it was that these Danaans and the Catholic girl were talking about. More then one Bible? He had no idea. In the end he just stared glazily at his drink, not really following the discussion anymore. Hannah discretely resumed playing footsie with Barent, giving him a sidelong smile as the conversation trailed off for a minute or so. She didn't really feel the need for anyone to talk yet. Barent reciprocated, not really showing anything obvious either.

"So... what do young people... you know... do for fun here?" Marie-Anne asked after some awkward silence.

Reuben shrugged. "Come here. Go to the movies. Go to parties. Sometimes we go into Solomon."

"What's Solomon like?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Like any big city, really." Corri said. "I doubt it's much different from New Rome."

"New Rome is a pretty special big city..." Marie-Anne said dubiously.

"How come?" Briseis asked.

"Well, there's a lot of really beautiful architecture there that's preserved a lot better than in most cities, because they've stopped more modern buildings from encroaching into the Old Quarter, which is like the nice part of the original city..." Marie-Anne explained.

"Beautiful Pantocratorian architecture?" Reuben asked. "But my Dad always said..." He shut up as Corri kicked him lightly under the table.

"I know, it's not for everyone." Marie-Anne smiled knowingly at Reuben. "Some people like it and some people don't, if you like it, the Old Quarter of New Rome is really beautiful. And of course the rest of the city... it's a major artistic and cultural hub. And over the last year it's become the centre of new fashions and music and style in Pantocratoria. So New Rome is a pretty major city... is Solomon really like that?"

"Well...I guess not." Reuben admitted. "Hundreds of thousands of people live there." he said. "And there's a much more diverse population and more than seven different cinemas."

"You should visit Rotterdam then." Barent said with a smile.

"Is it nice?" Marie-Anne asked.

"I like it." Reuben answered her.

"But what about all the pollution and crime and poverty?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Rotterdam?" Briseis asked. "Where's that?"

"It's where I live." Barent said. "I'm pretty sure that it is bigger then New Rome." he continued hestitantly as he glanced at Marie-Anne. "And the crime and pollution isn't so bad, really. It doesn't really have any old buildings, but we have the biggest port in the known world!" Turning to Reuben, he raised an eyebrow. "You've been there?"

"I like Solomon." Reuben clarified. "I've never even been to Tarana."

"I hear that the city is carved out of one single block of marble." Marie-Anne nodded, in response to the remark about Tarana.

"Just the Old City." Corri said.

"That must be so beautiful." Marie-Anne said. "Have you been?"

Reuben shook his head. "I meant Solomon. I've never even been to Tarana."

"I know, I was asking Corri." Marie-Anne clarified.

"Yeah, once or twice." Corri answered. "My grandmother lives there."

"Cool." Marie-Anne smiled. "Is it as beautiful as they say?"

"The Old City is." Corri said. "The rest is OK too. I saw Grand Duchess Morgan!" she added, excited at the memory.

"I saw the Emperor once." Marie-Anne boasted proudly.

"I read on the Internet that she is going to the Excalbian Isles, isn't she?" Barent said idly. "Morgan, I mean. What is she like?"

"They say she's really smart." Reuben said. "And that she's a Liberal, even though nobles are all supposed to be Nationalists and Patriots."

"That is good, I suppose." Barent observed. "For the negotiations."

Marie-Anne shrank a little and looked back down into her hot chocolate, embarrassed that everybody had ignored her remark, even though the Emperor was much more important than some foreign Grand Duchess.

Briseis looked over at Marie-Anne with a reassuring smile. "You've been to Adoki?"

Hannah snorted a little. "I'm sure she meant the Emperor of Pantocratoria."

"Oh, right." Briseis said.

"That's right, I didn't mean Emperor Tamagotchi." Marie-Anne replied with a dry smile.

"I think she means the dictator of Pantocratoria." said Barent.

Hannah shook her head. "Pantocratoria isn't a dictatorship. It's a democracy. Knootian propagandists just lie about it so they don't have to abide by the norms of the democratic peace when dealing with Pantocratoria. A guy was talking about it on TV. One of the Liberal MPs."

"Oh, is that what you meant?" Marie-Anne said, frowning at Barent as if only now displeased by him referring to the Emperor as a dictator.

"Uhm." Barent said, "We don't have propaganda. We have all sorts of different information. And they are not a democracy. Their Emperor can make all sorts of decisions and just overrule their Staten-Generaal." Barent argued. "The parliament is just for show. They say the Emperor is really behind all that stuff in Saxmere too. At least that makes sense to me,", he added, "I really cannot imagne that their parliament really wants to install a puppet King and stuff, it is communist or something and I don't think communists really like Royalty." He shrugged, "but I suppose Marie-Anne here knows better."

"Well, for one, the Emperor isn't a dictator although his position is similar, because there hasn't been a dictator since the days of the Republic." Marie-Anne started, matter-of-factly. "And for two, we do too have a real parliament, or so many of my friends wouldn't have left my school to go to a public one last year. The Emperor would never do something like that."

"The High King has all sorts of powers too." Hannah said with a thoughtful frown. "And so does Prince Aaron. Do you think we're a dictatorship?"

"Well, it's not really democratic", Barent said hesitantly. "But the Danaans are better because they take democracy seriously. But the High King isn't so bad, he doesn't do all these strange things that the Pantocratorian Emperor does." he tried in vain to distract Hannah.

"That's because the Emperor is different from the High King, stupid." Marie-Anne frowned.

"Oh?" Barent said, pointing his lips a little as if taunting.

"Syskeyia is a republic." Reuben said. "And the man on TV said they hate freedom, God, and civilization as such."

"Barbarians." Corri said in agreement. "But can we talk about something besides politics and religion? It's really boring."

"I'm not the one who keeps bringing it up." replied Marie-Anne, nodding that she too wanted to change the topic.

"I want to know if Barent thinks Syskeyians are civilized first." Reuben said. "Since he likes republics so much."

"Syskeyia sucks donkey balls." Barent said with a smile. "They really do."

"So do you guys want to go into Solomon sometime?" Hannah asked. "I just got my license."

"Cool!" Barent replied enthusiastically. "I'll come."

As they were leaving, Hannah pulled Barent aside and spoke to him quietly while the others were out of earshot. "Are you doing anything tonight? My parents are going out. My big sister Anna will be there but she's cool. We could watch a video or something."

Marie-Anne came home early that evening after sitting around in the café with the others for a while longer, still seething about how much of a jerk that pale Knootian nerd was. Amelie was sitting in the family room, watching a television show in English. "Hey, Marie-Anne!" she called out.

"Salut Amelie!" Marie-Anne replied (in French, naturally), and walked into the family room, setting her school bag down on the floor. "How're you going?"

"I'm doing OK." Amelie said. "This cartoon has a princess in it named Emily. That's just an Anglo-Saxon way of saying Amelie. That means I'm really a princess."

"I'm not sure that follows, Your Highness." Marie-Anne replied with a smirk and sat down on the couch next to Amelie. She watched the show briefly without any understand whatsoever about what was going on. "English is such an ugly language, isn't it?"

"It is not!" Amelia said angrily. "It's our national language. All educated people speak it."

"I don't speak it!" Marie-Anne replied defensively. "Sheesh, everybody is taking everything I say in the worst possible way today."

"All educated Danaans speak it." Amelie corrected gently. "What happened today?"

"Well it was actually pretty good for the most part, except for the fact that gym class is compulsory! How stupid is that? Anyway, there was this Knootian boy, another exchange student, you remember, the really pale, pimply nerdy kid on the bus?" Marie-Anne said, unloading quickly. "He is such a jerk, and he was constantly picking on me and... ugh... and a few of the Jews were overreacting about my answers to their questions. They seem obsessed with religion here, and I come from a very religious country."

"Yeah, but you don't have to think about it much in Pantocratoria." Amelia commented.

"That's an interesting idea..." Marie-Anne nodded, her eyebrows raised as she contemplated it. "You might be right. Why do you say that?"

"Because everybody's Catholic." Amelie said. "So why would they need to think about the fact that they're Catholic all the time?"

"I guess." Marie-Anne nodded, thinking that Amelie made a good point. "But anyway, it was like I couldn't say anything which didn't offend them in some way, not seriously offend them, but... I don't know, they were taking everything the wrong way at first and I had to explain stuff a lot. And that Knootian made things so much worse..."

"I can tell him to stop. I'm a princess." Amelie pointed out.

"I somehow don't think that would work." Marie-Anne replied. "He's really annoying about politics too. He's a republican and he called the Emperor a dictator. Which is really dumb because dictator is a republican term and nobody usually calls monarchs dictators, and doubly dumb because dictator is a legal title in Pantocratoria, and Emperor is the one which replaced it."

"Oh." Amelie said, feigning interest poorly.

"Anyway, I'll let you watch your English show about Princess Amelie." Marie-Anne said when she worked out Amelie wasn't interested. "I'll go talk to your mother."

"She's in the garden." Amelie said.

Marie-Anne got up and went outside to the garden, standing on the back patio since she was still wearing her heels. She looked around close-by for Mme Grenier. Jeanne was down on her hands and knees in casual clothes, weeding her garden.

"Hello Madame Grenier." Marie-Anne said.

"Hey, Marie-Anne." she said. "Did you have a good day at school?"

"Yes mostly, madame, asides from gym class and one of the other exchange students being unpleasant." Marie-Anne replied. "Did you have a good day?"

"My day was alright..." she started before turning to look towards the west. They could both here the sound of a distant bell.

"What is that?" Marie-Anne asked. "Some sort of alarm?"

"No..." she said, shaking her head. "That's the prayer bell for a Baptist church the next town over. But it shouldn't be ringing now."

"Oh? Why not?" Marie-Anne asked.

Jeanne shrugged. "It's never rung this time of the week before. I wonder if something's wrong." She pulled herself to her feet with a slight groan.

"Something wrong, madame?" Marie-Anne asked with concern.

"We'll see." she said heading inside and to the family room.

"I meant with you, madame, not the Anabaptists. You groaned when you got up..." Marie-Anne explained, following her back inside.

"What's an Anabaptist?" Jeanne asked.

"The bell you heard ringing?" Marie-Anne replied.

Jeanne smiled at Marie-Anne slightly before taking the remote control from Amelie and starting to flip the channels. After a few moments, she came to a channel carrying news of the Excalbian Emperor's condition. Marie-Anne sat down and watched the pictures on the TV uncomprehendingly.

"The Excalbian Emperor had a heart attack." Jeanne said somberly.

"Oh." Marie-Anne replied, nodding gravely more because that seemed to be the general mood than because she was worried for him. "Is he still alive?"

"That's what the lady says." Jeanne informed her. "I wonder if the Knootians did it."

"I bet they did." Marie-Anne replied, absolutely certain of it. "They're probably looking for the spy right now..."

"That's probably why the bell was ringing. The Excalbian Emperor is the most powerful Baptist in the world." Jeanne explained.

What, the most powerful sorcerer as well as being an Emperor? Marie-Anne thought to herself and surpressed a smirk at her own little joke. She nodded seriously again. Jeanne sat down on the couch.

"Is he going to be OK?" asked Marie-Anne.

"I don't know." Jeanne said.

"It doesn't say?" Marie-Anne asked, indicating to the TV.

"It doesn't know." Jeanne said.

Marie-Anne frowned a little at the odd phrase, and thought how unfair it was that the news was in English. Jeanne turned the television off. "So you were saying, about school?"

"Uh... I think Amelie was watching something else, madame." Marie-Anne replied.

Amelie went upstairs quietly. Marie-Anne looked a little confused to see Amelie leave without a word, but shrugged and resumed telling Jeanne about her day.

As they were leaving, Hannah pulled Barent aside and spoke to him quietly while the others were out of earshot. "Are you doing anything tonight? My parents are going out. My big sister Anna will be there but she's cool. We could watch a video or something."

"Sure thing", Barent answered excitedly, "I'll just pop..." - he paused for a moment thinking the better of it. After all, his host family might feel differently about Barent dissapearing randomly at certain evenings than his own parents did. "I suppose I’ll just have to ask my most family first if that is okay?"

He gave Hannah a conspiratorial smile as he pulled up one of his sleeves a little, revealing something which looked quite a lot like a watch. Barent pulled two tiny buttons, which made a small holographic display pop up right above the watch – very much like the technology the Excalbians used for their communications, but a consumer electronics version of somewhat lesser quality. A tiny blue holographic world spinned around a corporate logo for a moment as the little machine played a welcome chime. The Knootian boy held his arm at eye-level while he looked over at Hannah from his peripheral vision for a moment.

"Bel gastfamilie", he told the little machine. As it was operated by voice, the little globe began to swirl again above Barents wrist while it called the host family.

"Hey this is Barent", he told Esther Goldstein, "First day was great fun and I’ll be back soon. Yeah. Hey, I’ve got an invitation from, uh, a friend to go watch a video. Is it okay if I go there tonight after dinner?"

Hannah looked pretty impressed with the gizmo, grinning at him. Esther couldn't be seen in the hologram because there was just a normal telephone on her end. However, she could be heard. "Sure thing, Barent."

Hannah grinned. "I'll see you around...say...seven."

Hannah's house wasn't nearly as nice as the one Barent was staying at. It wasn't poor or anything but it was the home of a man who earned his living by the sweat of his brow in a neighborhood of like homes. It was a small, single story white house with a small but nicely kept yard. Barent had gotten off a bus stop nearby and looked a little nervous as he stood in the small front yard. After dinner at his own place he had changed into some fashionable Danaan designer clothes which his host family had bought for him, and his hair looked just a little neater than it had at school. He hesitated for just a moment before he rang the doorbell. About a minute or so passed before the door opened. A young woman of about eighteen stood there, bearing a sisterly resemblance to Hannah. She was dressed casually in a white t-shirt, cut-off jeans, and sneakers.

"You must be Barent. Hannah is still getting ready. You can come in though."

"Hi", Barent said shyly as he stepped into the home. Inside, he looked around with that slightly uncomfortable sense of being at someone else's place with the person you know not yet being there. The front room was a small entry room with brown, hardwood floors. There was a small chair and a lampstand. A bookshelf built into the wall contained the complete works of John Stuart Mill. A stand set aside in one corner held an open copy of the Torah.

"You are Hannah's sister then?", he asked in an effort to strike up conversation.

"Yeah, I'm Anna." she said.

"Nice place", Barent said as he looked around
"Thanks." Anna said.

It was then that Hannah came out. She had let her curly hair hang freely, although she had clearly spent a good period of time combing it just right. She wore a black dress which hugged her form, coming down to mid-thigh, and a pair of matching heels with silver sparkles. The dress left her smooth shoulders bare. "Hey." she said with a grin.

"Hey", Barent said seemingly casually, although his jaw dropped just a little as he stared at Hannah. After a second that felt like far longer, he swallowed a little. "That is a very nice dress," he observed matter-of-factly, inwardly cursing his limited French. "It looks good on you." He immediately blushed after having said that.

"Thanks." she said. "Do you want some snacks or something?" She walked up to greet him as Anna quietly slipped out of the room.

"Sure", Barent replied. He wasn't actually sure how to greet Hannah. A hand? Far too formal, a kiss on the cheek? Too intimate! So he stood there in doubt, holding out one and a half arm in greeting. His dilemma was solved as Hannah gave him a casual, sideways half-hug as she went in to the kitchen. "We have some salsa flavoured corn chips if you want...or some nachos...or popcorn?"

"Popcorn is nice", Barent said as he followed her. "But all of these others are good, too, if you like those better."

"Popcorn it is." she said, sticking a bag in the microwave. "Did you bring a movie?"

"Oh, I did!", Barent said - remembering the paper bag he had brought with him. "I brought several actually; I didn't know what you would like. I've got some nice Danaan movies from the little library of my host family and I also burned some Knootian movies from my computer just in case you would like to see any of those."
Barent walked over to the kitchen table, putting down the bag and picking some movies from it and laying them out on the table for Hannah to see. Hannah walked over to examine the movies. "I'd like to see Knootian movies but I don't know any Dutch. Are there subtitles?"

"Yeah, of course", he said with a grin, "I burned it on them before I left, so my hostfam could watch them if they wanted. It has French and English subtitles."

"Which one's the best?" she asked, looking at the Knootian movies. "Are there any about the rebellion against Lavenrunz?"

"Well, I haven't got one about the rebellion, but I think I've got one set in the era", he said, pulling two more from the bag. "Prince of the West, it's called. It is about pirates that fight Lavenrunzians, and they meet Menelmacari elves and stuff and they help them win the war", he grinned, "It has a lot of, uh, action." Barent showed Hannah a copied cover of a ship giving a broadside, with a very handsome Elvish lady on one side and a bare-chested blonde man with a pirate hat on the other side superimposed below some title in Dutch.

"Let's watch that." she agreed, picking it up and taking it into the television room. "Grab the popcorn." she told him. Barent grabbed the popcorn along as he followed Hannah again, catching a glimpse of her backside as he did so. Hannah turned the movie on and settled down on the couch next to Barent as the introduction credits started to run. The music was quite heroic, and both were watching an impressive introduction scene. The pirates, mostly blonde and attractive men, attacked and boarded a large Lavenrunzian merchant ship in some tropical sea. Just as the main character was using his sabre to threaten the Lavenrunzian captain in a fight on the deck (the captain was a very fat, powdered man who was begging for his life) did Barent lay his own arm on the back of the couch behind Hannah.

"You're supposed to pretend to yawn first." Hannah said teasingly, even as she settled back into his arm and leaned into him slightly.

"Hehe", Barent giggled quietly. His arm settled itself around Hannah as the pirates carried chests filled with gold and other treasures onto their own ship. When the ship started to sail away into the golden sunset, he nuzzled a little closer to her.

"This is a date, right?" she asked, confirming the obvious as they were nuzzling.

"Ouais", Barent whispered back as a new scene in the movie started, exotic Menelmacari music announcing an Elvish princess. She smiled and nestled a little closer at that, now lying against him in his arms. "So you're not a Protestant?"

"Uhhh, not really", he said distractedly as he started to slowly stroke her arm. Of *all* the things she could say or do she asks me if I am a protestant?" he wondered a bit alarmed. What the hell does that matter?" She shrugged a little and kept watching the movie, a contented smile on her young face. The movie itself was fairly shallow. The pirates of course had an exciting adventure fighting Lavenrunzians [historical] and dragons hiding in treasure caves [not so historical] and the main character ended up (predictably) with the very handsome Elvish princess. Hannah smiled as the movie ended. "That was pretty good."

"You think so?", Barent asked. He was still a bit rosy and had not really paid all too much attention.

"Yeah." she said, flipping the television off. "So what now?"

"'sup to you", Barent said, looking into her eyes before he stretched a little.

"We could just hang out and talk." she suggested. "Or go for a walk or something."

"Sure thing", Barent said. He glanced at Hannahs dress, thinking it might not be the best piece of clothing to a walk in. "Hey, could we maybe get a drink? I'm actually thirsty."

"Sure. What would you like?" she asked.

"I'd kill for a Pink Bunny Cola", Barent grumbled, "but I don't think you have those here."

"We don't." she said. "Anything else you want?"

"Maybe something boozy?", he suggested with a grin, "My host folks aren't big on it so I have not gotten out to try anything Danaan yet. But a normal cola is good too if you have it"

"We can have some beer." she suggested. Barent followed Hannah into the kitchen, and they both shared a beer, chatting a bit about school and little everyday things. Barent was telling some tales about his own school and his friends there. Hannah listened with interest. "Knootoss sounds like a pretty interesting place."

"Oh I dunno", Barent replied. "its just what you're used to I guess", he looked into her eyes and put down his beer. "They have some pretty interesting people here, too."
She smiled a little. "It doesn't sound like what I'd thought it was. I feel several centuries out of date."
"How so?", he asked with surprise.
"Well, I thought you were a Protestant country with a hereditary aristocracy, remember?" she said with a slight blush.
Barent laughed a little. "Well, it isn't at all. And I have never really seen any Protestants or monarchs around in Rotterdam."

"The way you are is more exotic though." she said. "It's kind of sexy."Barent blushed a little as he fumbled with the beer glass. He tried playing footsie under the table again and she ran her heel over the top of his foot.

"It's getting late. I'll walk you to the bus stop."

Barent nodded and got up, preparing to get his coat. She slipped her arm into his, walking down to the bus stop as they continued to chat about what they were going to do tomorrow. They arrived a few minutes early and sat down on a little bench next to the stop. It was already dusk. Birds were singing their evening songs, but for the most part it was quiet.

"So..." Barent said slowly as he put his arm behind Hannah. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess." she said, standing up. But she didn't walk off as soon as she stood. She seemed to be waiting for something. Barent also stood up, leaning a little closer until his head was very close to hers, and Hannah could feel his warm breath (smelling faintly of Danaan beer) against her. She closed her eyes slightly as he pressed his lips against hers. She kissed him back passionately, wrapping her arms around his head and pulling him close...

Marie-Anne seemed to be deep in thought as she rode in to school on the bus with Amelie, her eyes passing over the heads of the other students. After a few minutes of serious contemplation, she looked across to Amelie and ran her hand through her platinum-dyed hair.

"Amelie, do you think I should dye my hair back to its original colour? Naturally it's a light brown... all the girls at home dye their hair all sorts of colours now since the law about hair dye was changed, but looking around, it doesn't seem like... well I think I might look a bit weird. What do you think?" she asked.

"I think it's really pretty." Amelie said. "A lot of my friends dye their hair."

"They do?" Marie-Anne asked, frowning faintly. "It just seems like I'm the only one with this silly coloured hair at school... maybe my mother was right. She threw this big fit when I got my hair dyed, saying that the only reason I did it was because everybody else did it, and because it was a novelty... I don't know."

"I bet some do." Amelie said. "Maybe you should check more closely?"

"Maybe they do, but I bet they don't dye their hair this stupid bleeched platinum blonde..." Marie-Anne said, flicking some of her painfully artificial blonde hair out of her eyes for effect.

"I think it's pretty." Amelie continued.

"Maybe." shrugged Marie-Anne, dropping the topic as the bus pulled over to the next stop.

The next stop was actually Barent's. The bus driver opened the door to allow Barent and the six other kids who waited at the same stop to board the bus. A few of the other guys were teasing and joking with Barent, having heard a rumor that he had a girlfriend.

Barent looked self-confident as he strawled further to the back of the bus. He was looking slowly at both sides to see if Hannah would be there and (more importantly) if there was a free spot next to her.

Seeing as he was rather new he didn't have anything on the other guys to snap back with (as he might have done back home) but he took all the jokes in good fun, shrugging and not really saying anything of substance on the rumours.

When Barent did not see Hannah he sat down on an empty seat in the back of the bus.

Hannah, of course, normally drove to school and thus did not ride the bus. Reuben, however, got on at the next stop and sat down next to Barent. "So, how was your date?" he asked with a smirk.

Marie-Anne frowned when Barent got onto the bus, and fixed her gaze firmly out of the window, pretending to have not noticed him.

Marie-Anne had brought her own gym gear to school that day. She didn't much like sneakers and had never bothered to get a particularly nice pair of her own, which made her feel self-conscious when she lined up with the other kids in the class, some of whom had very impressive sneakers indeed. She decided to stand next to Briseis.

Briseis smiled slightly at her. "You look nice, Marie-Anne."

"Thanks... I don't think I look good in these shorts though..." Marie-Anne winced as she adjusted the tight pair of shorts she had borrowed from Amelie. "I'll have to buy some of my own..."

"We can go shopping after school if you want." Briseis volunteered.

"That'd be nice." said Marie-Anne. She had never really worn shorts before, certainly not in front of so many people. It felt vaguely wrong. She set the feeling aside and made light conversation, waiting for the teacher.

Coach Smith smiled slightly to herself as she finished with the attendance. "Alright. Give me ten laps around the gym."

Marie-Anne set off with the other students, keeping pace with the slower kids. Marie-Anne smiled at Briseis while she ran, but couldn't speak because she was out of breath. When they finished their laps, she doubled over in two, resting her hands on her knees as she sucked down air in deep breaths.

Briseis looked down at her, concerned. "You alright?"

"Ouais..." Marie-Anne answered breathlessly as she straightened up. "Just tired."

Smith walked over to the two, frowning down at Marie-Anne. "What's wrong here?"

"Nothing, miss." Marie-Anne answered.

"Do you need to sit out again?"

"No." Marie-Anne replied.

"Alright. Today we're playing basketball, class." she said, walking towards the equipment locker.

"This is such a dumb class." Marie-Anne remarked to Briseis as the teacher walked away.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it's ridiculous, we don't learn anything." Marie-Anne complained.

"We get exercise though." Briseis argued.

"So what, that's not what school is for." Marie-Anne argued back. "It's meant to be about learning. Fine, as an optional class, but it shouldn't be compulsory."

"It is though." Briseis said.

"I know, but that's dumb." Marie-Anne replied. Of course it's compulsory, I'd hardly be here if it wasn't, would I?

"You're supposed to be learning about how other countries do things, though, not complaining that it's not like in Pantocratoria."

"Well I've learnt that the Resurgent Dream does some dumb things, then. I don't need to be an active participant in order to learn that." Marie-Anne frowned, crossing her arms in front of her. "Now I suppose I'll learn what basketball is. Whoopdee. Are we having fun yet?"

Briseis frowned a little and walked a few steps away in irritation. "Whatever."

Marie-Anne wondered what she had done to offend Briseis personally, but decided it wasn't worth pursuing for the time being. She waited for Coach Smith to retrieve the gym gear. The coach came back, passed out the balls, gave some brief instructions, and sent the students to the hoops in small groups. Marie-Anne, not being with Briseis at the moment, wound up in a group with Corrina, and four other girls she didn't know.

"Why is it called dribbling, anyway?" Marie-Anne asked Corrina after the brief instructions as they made their way to the basketball court. "She doesn't mean we're supposed to walk around drooling, does she?"

"No. We bounce the ball off the ground. It's a game they play in...I don't know. It's from somewhere."

"OK." Marie-Anne said. "Well I'll work it out I guess."

"It's not that hard." Corrina said, as they started playing.

"I can certainly see the educational benefit." Marie-Anne said sarcastically as she bounced the ball a few times to practice.

The rest of the week went by fairly quickly, except that it had quite a few more unpleasant gym classes for Marie-Anne and just as many more lustful glances from Coach Smith. Barent got to spend a lot more time with Hannah at school, although there was not yet a second date.

That Friday, after school, Aaron, Hannah, Corrina, Marie-Anne, Briseis, and Barent were all scheduled to drive into Solomon. To make matters simpler, the others were simply to go home with Hannah after school, relax for a short while, and then head into the city.

As they gathered by Hannah's car, a 1997 model van from Peacock Motors, Hannah gestured for Barent to take the passenger seat. Briseis and Corrina sat in the very back, which looked as though it could seat three. Aaron sat in the middle which looked as though it would fit two.

Aaron was dressed moderately nicely, in clean jeans and a warm pullover shirt. Hannah was wearing a long black skirt and a matching tee which drew slight emphasis to her shapely arms. Corrina wore white capris pants, a sleeveless blue tee, and clean sneakers. Briseis, having fewer resources, was in a relatively plain, modest brown dress, complete with long sleeves, long skirts, and high neck.

Marie-Anne wore a colourful print, medium-length skirt and a light blue blouse. Yesterday she had started a gradual process of returning to something approximating her natural hair colour by dying her hair a dirty blonde - eventually she would get back to her original hair colour. She sat down between Corrina and Briseis in the back seat, ignoring Barent but greeting Hannah and Aaron as she climbed into the car.

"Nice van, Hannah." Marie-Anne offered.

"Thank you." Hannah answered. "I hope Barent likes it." She grinned almost stupidly at the mention of her Knootian love.

"I love it!" Barent exclaimed. He had taken the passenger seat next to Hannah, who was driving, and he slowly ran his hand over the dashboard. "What build?" he asked innocously.

Marie-Anne grinned as she recognised the van, which was quite common in Pantocratoria. She let Hannah answer though.

"It's from Peacock Motors." she said, starting the engine.

"Very cool." Barent said as he carefully managed to supress a snicker, instead casting a brief smile at Hannah.

"Too bad they went under this year, I think." Marie-Anne observed. "They made nice cars."

"Well, it's what I could afford. I wanted a Menelmacari car." Hannah said.

"I suppose that is what we will be driving in Pantocratoria soon, elf cars." Marie-Anne shrugged with a nostalgic smile.

She put the car in reverse and started heading out of the parking lot. "Maybe. You don't hear as much about any of the Elf countries as you used to." Hannah commented.

Barents nose wrinkled. "Inefficient things, those", he remarked. "Look pretty, but the mechanics are shite. All the quality that Pilonese slave labour buys you, those things," he said, "even if they ARE very goodlooking. But if you want a car that lasts you gotta go Lavenrunzian."

"Lavenrunzians make cars? I thought it was even more agrarian than Pantocratoria?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Lavenrunz really scares me." Hannah commented.

"Uhuh" Barent said. "They make the best cars around." He turned his head. "Why, Hannah?"

"They just always come across as fascists lucky enough to have a good PR person moreso than our democratic allies." Hannah answered, heading for the highway.

"Did you watch the royal wedding though?" Marie-Anne asked. "That was good PR. The Empress looked so beautiful in her wedding dress..."

"Meh, which one?" Barent said uninterestedly. "I guess you're right, though, Hannah." he affirmed.

"What do you mean which one, the Lavenrunzian one!" Marie-Anne frowned as if Barent was an idiot. "The whole world watched it!"

"Yeah, there's girls that go here that hang out with old men too. Kaelah Weidenseld brought this grown-up cab driver to the prom last year." Hannah said, commenting on Aurora and Andreus's wedding.

"Huh?" Marie-Anne asked Hannah.

"You know, kids our age marrying grown men. I thought it was pretty gross." Hannah commented.

"But the Despot is so handsome..." Marie-Anne protested.

"Well I didn't watch it." Barent stated matter-of-factly.

"Did you watch it, Corri?" Marie-Anne asked Corrina.

"No. We didn't have a television then." Corrina commented. "I heard about it though."

"Oh." Marie-Anne said. "Did you, Aaron?"

"Nope." Aaron said. "My parents made a few jokes about it though."

"Jokes?" Marie-Anne asked, a little aghast.

Marie-Anne thought she could hear a quiet snicker from the passenger seat.

"Yeah." Aaron said. "Mostly about all Prince Andreus's extramarital affairs and how horrible all the people in New Constantinople are treated. Like..." she laughed slightly remembering "...my mom wondered if His Highness would be disappointed when he learned the Prince Consort didn't get prima nocto or whatever that term is in Lavenrunz."

"Prima nocto???" Marie-Anne almost exclaimed. She crossed her arms and sank back into her seat, and sulked quietly. "Well, I wish I could get married to a prince."

"I do too." Hannah said. "But if you want Prince Andreus, you don't need to marry him."

Marie-Anne opened her mouth to protest but didn't bother, looking vaguely insulted.

"By the way, wasn't there a festival in Solomon today?" Barent asked Hannah as he looked out over the highway.

"Probably a lot of stuff going on." Aaron said. "It is almost Channukah."

"Fun." Barent said, "I'd like to see that. Never been to a Ghannoeka celebration before."

"Channukah." Hannah pronounded for him more slowly.

"Channukah" Barent said after her, exchanging a brief glance. She smiled at him a little, finally getting on the highway.

"I haven't ever been to one of them either." Marie-Anne added.

"Me neither." Briseis said. "They...umm...nevermind..."

"They what?" Barent asked curiously.

Briseis frowned a little. "It would have been a very dangerous thing to do. It was a sure way to get killed if you got caught."

In the passenger seat, Barent frowned, not really understanding.

"We never went shopping, Briseis." Marie-Anne observed, hoping to change the topic to something less depressing as she put her arm around Briseis' shoulder. "We said we'd go shopping sometime this week after school and we didn't. Maybe we can in Solomon while they go to the Channukah."

"Why wouldn't we go?" Briseis asked.

"Well... we could if you wanted to, I was just offering..." Marie-Anne said.

"Are you alright?" Corrina asked Marie-Anne, a little worried.

"Fine... I just wanted to go shopping for new shorts... or maybe some sports skirts instead... for gym class." Marie-Anne replied to Corrina.

"We can do that." Corrina said.

"What do you think, Aaron? Sport skirts or shorts?" Marie-Anne asked Aaron with a grin.

"Definitely shorts." Aaron said. "You'd look great."

"Really?" Marie-Anne blushed faintly and grinned. "You prefer girls in shorts to skirts?"

"Definitely" Aaron said. "Skirts seem too fluffy to me."

"Fluffy?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"Yes." he answered.

"You know, stuck up." Barent couldn't help but mix himself into the conversation.

"Don't... don't you think..." Marie-Anne started delicately with a grin, ignoring Barent's rude remark, not wanting to offend Aaron but finding it difficult not to be a little cheeky. "I mean, do you like girls to... you know... dress up like boys?"

"Wearing shorts isn't dressing up like boys." Aaron said. "It's dressing up like an attractive girl."

"Aaron!" Corri exclaimed.

"Ummm...no offense." Aaron tacked on.

"I deserved it I guess." Marie-Anne said quietly and sank back into her seat.

"I think you're really pretty, Marie-Anne." Corri said with a soft smile.

"Thanks, Corri." Marie-Anne replied even more quietly, giving Corrina a quick appreciative half-smile.

The conversation continued on like that for another hour or so. The other girls made an effort to cheer Marie-Anne up before they got there and Aaron seemed apologetic. They pulled up in a parking garage and got out. "This should be near downtown." Hannah said.

"Do we go shopping now or go to Channukah?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Let's go shopping." Hannah said.

"I'm not really used to wearing or buying shorts, I'd appreciate some advice." Marie-Anne said to the other girls.

"Sure thing." Hannah said. "I'll get some too."

"You know Aaron, some boys wear skirts." Marie-Anne observed with a grin.

"Those are kilts." Aaron said. "And they only wear those in Fireforge."

"Do they look fluffy?" Marie-Anne asked Aaron.

"They look kind of dumb." he said. "Boys look dumb in shorts too. Shorts are just for girls."

"Uhhh..." Marie-Anne frowned, not really knowing how to reply. "Well... OK, I thought they were kind of normal actually, but anyway."

"They're OK for little boys." Aaron said. "Not for men, though."

"It's so warm down here I would've thought that everybody would wear shorts." Marie-Anne observed.

"I think jeans are more comfortable." Barent observed quietly.

"I guess gay people do." Aaron said. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"Do Catholics celebrate Hannukah?" Briseis asked Marie-Anne.

"No, of course not." Marie-Anne replied to Briseis.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Well.. do Lutherists?" Marie-Anne asked back.

The group were walking down onto the street, a few blocks from a government building and heading towards a string of shops.

"No, but we don't have the Hannukah book in our Bible." Briseis answered.

"The what?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Massadees one and two." she replied.

"Maccabees." Corrina corrected.

"Not again." Barent groaned to himself.

Hannah shrugged. "You came here as a cultural exchange student. You should learn about other cultures and holidays."

"I don't really read the Bible so I wouldn't know about any Channukah book, Briseis." Marie-Anne told the Marlunder. "We don't have Channukah because have Christmas, just like Lutherists."

"They're on the same day!" Briseis protested.

"All the more reason not to celebrate both of them, Briseis." Marie-Anne frowned at Briseis' odd remark.

"Do you want to learn about Hannukah?" Hannah asked the exchange students.

"Can we go shopping first?" Marie-Anne asked hopefully.

"Of course." Barent replied apologetically to Hannah meanwhile, "I'd love to."

"We can talk and walk." Aaron said. "Anyway, according to the legend..."

"According to the tradition..." Hannah chided, slightly irritated with Aaron's apparent skepticism about the veracity of the story.

"According to the story..." Aaron began more neutrally, rolling his eyes slightly at what, for his part, he regarded as Hannah's superstition.

Marie-Anne checked her watch and wondered how much longer the shops would be open. Barent, likewise, felt his hands slip into his pockets. Unfortunately, they did not get a chance to hear the story just then. There was a sudden loud blast and they all felt a force hit them, smoke burning their eyes and making it hard to see or here one another. There was a stench and the smell of burning. Hannah had been quite a good bit closer to the blast when it went off and Marie-Anne had been the farthest from it. They could hear men shouting in an unfamiliar language.

"Wat de fuck!?!" Barent yelled, more or less in his native language. "Is everyone OK?"

"I am." Briseis called out. One of the strange voices made a grunting sound before footprints were heard going a different way.

Marie-Anne lay in a daze on the sidewalk, having been knocked over by the unexpected blast. She groaned in pain and pulled herself up into a sitting position.

"I'm fine..." she replied as she got up to her feet, finding it hard to stand in her heels post-explosion.

With his eyes still half, closed from the smoke Barent reached out to find Hannah's hand. "You okay?" he whispered now. Barent didn't find it.

"Hannah?" he asked again a little louder and with a hint of desperation.

"Corri? Aaron?" Marie-Anne asked, putting her arm around Briseis, who was the nearest person to her.

Sirens were wailing in the background. Footsteps could be heard heading off away from the group. "I'm here." Aaron called out belatedly.

Briseis, just then standing up, steadied Marie-Anne.

"Corri?" called out Marie-Anne again. Her ears were ringing. "What happened?"

"There was an explosion." Aaron said uselessly.

"A big one", Barent added equally uselessly as he tried to wave away the smoke in front of his face. His voice was cooler now, almost calm. "There may be more. We should get everyone and get out. Where are Hannah and Corri? Fuck, I can't see a thing."

"Corri? Hannah?" Marie-Anne called out again as she began to cry. "Mother of God..."

Barent could clearly hear Marie-Anne now, and he turned around and grabbed her shoulders. The smoke was gradually clearing enough that they could see.

"Where's Corri and Hannah?" Marie-Anne asked Barent hopelessly.

"Shhhh," he motioned, "don't cry now. Look for the others. They cannot be far, but maybe they are hurt."

Marie-Anne nodded in response, trying to stop herself from crying but not having a great deal of success. The building front immediately in front of them was blasted asunder and a few cars lay in smoking ruins nearby. There was no sign of Hannah or Corri or the people whose voices they had heard, although they could see now that there was an alley where the footsteps had led. Barent was looking mightily confused, staring dumbfounded into the alleyway.

"Where are they?" Marie-Anne repeated her earlier question.

"Maybe they ran away from the blast?" Barent speculated.

"Maybe they were blown to pieces..." Marie-Anne blubbered.

"That is stupid." Barent bitched. "They were right next to us and we are all not hurt...." his voice trailed, as that sounded surer of himself than he actually was. "If they ran away from the blast they must have gone in here..." he thought out loud.... "and maybe we should call 112."

"I don't have a mobile phone." Aaron said. "The police have to be around here anyway. There's sirens."

"We should go look for them." Marie-Anne said, struggling to regain control over herself.

They cannot have missed this." Barent said anxiously, "we should find them and get out. In here." Barent urged as he motioned the group into the alleyway.

As the group headed into the alley, they could hear voices arguing in an unfamiliar language, just around a corner.

"Turks!" Marie-Anne whimpered, frightened.

"Don't be silly" Barent said as he quickened his pace towards the voices. "Hello?" he began to call out. "Hello?"

"They blew up the building!" Marie-Anne whispered in terror to Briseis and Aaron. "They'll kill us, let's get out of here!"

As he rounded the corner, he saw two men arguing. One of them had dark hair and an olive complexion, wearing his beard and hair long. He was dressed conservatively in black and wore a wide-brimmed black hat. The second man had a very fair complexion and dirty blonde hair. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and had Hannah and Corrina tossed over his shoulders, his hands holding them in place in a rather inappropriate fashion. As the group turned the corner, the man who was not holding any teenagers started moving towards the group, smiling slightly.

"Hello, there." he said in English.

"I'm scared..." Marie-Anne said in French, backing off a few steps, pulling Briseis back by the hand.

"Why are you holding them like that?" Barent asked in English with a fairly Midlonian accent suspiciously, reaching in his pocket with one of his hands.

The man started to reach under his coat. Briseis squeezed Marie-Anne's hand and started to back away. Aaron just kind of stared.

"Is he helping them or kidnapping them?" Marie-Anne squealed hysterically, in French.

"I think he's trying to kidnap them." Briseis said. "His accent is Marlundish."

"I.. uhhh..." Barent stuttered, taking a step back. "Look... whatever it is you want please let Hannah and Corrina go."

"I like them, though." he said, smacking Hannah sharply across the buttocks.

Barent flushed red with anger.

"Oh, you like the little kike?" the man asked. The other man looked at him in faint anger but said nothing. "Is she your little whore?"

Marie-Anne ran for it, dragging Briseis behind her, although the uneven ground the ringing in her ears, and her damaged high heels made running extremely awkward, and she staggered and fell over in a few steps. Briseis ran after her, also stumbling.

"Police!" she screamed. "Police!"

"She's done NOTHING to you!" he yelled, but then noticed that the other two kids were running. He looked over in doubt at Hannah, the man, and then over his shoulder and he went after them, trying to pick up Marie-Anne from the cobblestones.

"Let me go!" Marie-Anne shrieked in French, not realising it was Barent at first, but not particularly keen to be held in the alley by anybody, friend or foe.

The man who wasn't carrying anyone turned and ran as he heard sirens coming closer.

"Get up." Barent snapped as he grabed the girl firmly under her armpits.

The other man dumped Corrina on the ground, tightened his hold on Hannah, and started to run. On instinct, Barent dropped Marie-Anne and started to run after the man. Marie-Anne fell back down to the alleyway on her side with a yelp.

"Wait!" Barent yelled over his breath as he sped through the alleyway.

Marie-Anne crawled and scampered quickly over to Corrina to check on her.

"Corri?" she asked.

The man tossed Hannah to the ground and spun, pulling a gun and pointing it at Barent. Just as he was starting to aim, sirens could be heard pulling up outisde the alley. The man fired an unaimed shot that hit the boy in the shoulder and then ran. Corrina groaned faintly in response, not seeming particularly conscious. Marie-Anne screamed when she heard the gun shot and pressed herself down on the ground next to Corrina.

"Goooodver!" resounded through the alleyway as Barent yelled out in pain.

The Knootian boy fell over, his hand grabbing after his shoulder. He hit the cobblestones hard, the shock nearly knocking him out. Police were soon filling the ally, helping the students, conscious and unconscious, into an ambulance. Marie-Anne sobbed in relief as she was helped into the ambulance, and tried to remain as close to Corrina as possible. Hannah and Corri lay unconscious. Aaron and Briseis just sort of stared blankly. Barent was clearly in shock, not responding to anything at all as the medics started to look at his wound.

*Bookmark for IC post to come*

The students were all taken to the nearest hospital. Their parents were all informed, as were the host parents of the exchange students. The Danaan parents and host parents were on their way to the hospital while arrangements were made for the Pantocratorian and Knootian to go home for a little while to recover. Meanwhile, a police officer entered Barent's room, where the students were gathered. "Good evening. My name is Detective Tamar Aharoni. I understand that you kids have had a rather rough day but I do need to ask you all some questions."

Marie-Anne nodded and waited for the police officer to actually ask some questions.

Detective Aharoni took out a pad and a pen, sitting down near Barent's bed with a somber expression. "Your parents have all been informed of what's happened, as have the host parents of the exchange students among you. After you're rested up, you'll be able to go home. The doctor tells me that you're in fairly good condition. If any of you feels the need for protection from the constabulary, just ask." She smiled slightly, reassuringly. "Alright, let's begin. Did any of you see the perpetrators? Why were you in an alley a few blocks from the explosion? Did you hear anyone say anything?"

"Yes, detective, we saw them. We were in the alley looking for Hannah and Corri... I mean, Briseis, Aaron, Barent and I were in the alley looking for Hannah and Corri, and we heard these voices speaking a foreign language... and we saw a Jew and a..." Marie-Anne paused as she realised almost all the other people in the room were Jews. "I mean, a man dressed as an Orthodox Jew, and another man, a big tall man with blonde hair, a German or a Norseman, with a Marlundish accent... so I guess he was a Marlunder then."

"And these two men, did they seem to be getting along? What had become of Hannah and Corrina?" Aharoni asked.

*bump*

"I don't know." Marie-Anne replied, and looked to Hannah and Corrina to answer the question. "Maybe you should ask one of them, we were looking for them, we didn't know what happened to them."

OOC: What, only my character can talk to police officers? I wasn't ignoring this thread, I was waiting for your own characters to answer your question, since they would know the answer, not Marie-Anne.

"We were unconscious." Corrina pointed out.

"I saw them." Reuben said. "They seemed to be arguing. The Marlunder had Corrina and Hannah in his arms and he was arguing with the other guy. Then he dropped them and ran."

Aharoni nodded. "Anything else you can think of that might help us out?"

"Not that I can think of." Reuben answered.

"Do you know why they would target us?" Corrina asked.

Aharoni shook her head. "Not yet. We're working on it, though."

"Well..." Aharoni said "...we'll let you know what we find. It looks like the work of the Sons of the Reformation but I can't be sure. The other people...that's what I can't quite figure out. I understand that some of you will want to be leaving for a respite before returning to school. If you're leaving town, please make sure you leave your contact information with our people." And she left at that.

Marie-Anne returned to her host parents that night rather shaken up. She spoke to her parents over the phone for several hours and they agreed that she should return home for a little while. The Helleniques and the Greniers worked out the details between them, and in a few days, Marie-Anne caught a plane from Solomon back to New Rome. Her parents were worried sick about her, and she was glad to be home.

For the first couple of days she wasn't sure if she wanted to return to Ambara, she didn't feel safe there anymore. On the third day of her stay at home though, she met up with a bunch of her Pantocratorian friends and caught up with them. Despite the fact that she was happy to see them, after a little while listening to what she had missed back home, she realised that it was all the same old thing, and realised how much she'd miss if she remained in Pantocratoria. She decided that she'd return to Ambara after all.

She went shopping with her friends, who were all surprised and amused when she dragged them along to look at sportswear. Marie-Anne bought several sport outfits, some with sports skirts, but some others still with shorts, which her Pantocratorian friends were all surprised about since they had never seen her wear shorts. She also bought a couple of pairs of new sneakers she liked the look of - her parents, hoping to cheer her up after the bomb blast, had given her rather a generous amount of spending money. She bought some new, more conventional outfits as well, which relieved her fashionable friends.

Her mother was relieved that Marie-Anne was dyeing her hair back gradually towards her original hair colour - her mother had always thought that she had ruined it by dyeing it platinum blonde. Her mother was less enthusiastic when Marie-Anne started going for runs every morning - Marie-Anne tried explaining that gym class was compulsory at her Danaan school, and that she didn't want to keep embarrassing herself in gym class. She had always been slim, but now Marie-Anne wanted to be fit as well. She convinced her father, who was more receptive to the idea, to go running with her, but he was a smoker and found it increasingly harder to keep up as his daughter improved.

Marie-Anne told her parents that she wanted to go back after Mass the second Sunday morning of her return to Pantocratoria. Her mother was predictably anxious about the idea, but Marie-Anne and her father won her over before dinner that same night. They booked the earliest Peacock Airlines flight back to Danaan Ambara they could, which was in another week's time, and so it was that three weeks after she had left Ambara, Marie-Anne Hellenique returned to her host family, ready to return to school just as soon as she had slept off the jet-lag!

OOC:

During Marie-Anne's trip home to Pantocratoria, the "Beyke incident" (from What Fate Ambara? (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=441446)) occurred in Marlund. The relevant posts from that thread start here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10121849&postcount=82

A lot can happen in a few weeks. The terrorists responsible for the bombing in Solomon had been apprehended and they were not who the authorities had expected. The two men who the young people had encountered were revealed to be Telem Machuv and Oliver Babbel. Babbel was indeed revealed to be a member of the Sons of the Reformation but Machuv, on the other hand, turned out to be a member of a previously unknown extremist group known as the Kahane Chai Ambara, led by a religious extremist and advocate of terror and racial hatred, Rabbi Madron Kafni.

On Marie-Anne's first day back to school, the students seemed to be discussing politics and terrorism in a fairly animated fashion. There seemed to be increased tension between different groups of students. Here and there she could see Anti-Pantocratorian and Anti-Montmanuel t-shirts, as well as general Anti-War ones, things which had not been around before she went home. A few people blushed slightly when she walked by and murmured that they had nothing against ordinary Pantocratorian people.

Briseis, who hadn't gone home at all after the attacks, caught up with Marie-Anne on her way to her first class. "I'm so glad your back. We all missed you while you were gone. Do you think Barent is coming back too?"

"Hey Briseis!" Marie-Anne grinned at the Marlunder when she saw her. "It's great to be back. I don't know if he'll be back, I take it he went back to the Knootian Low Countries? Oh, I have a present for you! It's in my locker though, we'll have to wait until recess. I have so much to tell you, what's been going on here? What's our first class anyway, I've forgotten my timetable..."

Just then, the pair passed by a student with an anti-Pantocratorian T-shirt, and Marie-Anne frowned, only just beginning to pick up on the fact that this wasn't an isolated thing.

"Oh, sorry, nothing against individual Pantocratorians..." the student mumbled at Marie-Anne as the girl passed.

"A present? You didn't have to do that." Briseis demured.

"It's OK, it's not much, don't worry about it." Marie-Anne said, her attention returning to Briseis.

"Is something wrong?" Briseis asked.

"No, I just didn't want you to worry..." Marie-Anne said. She didn't want to embarrass Briseis with an expensive present. "It's just a thought. So what class is first?"

Briseis furrowed her brow slightly, thoughtful. "No, no...I mean...does it bother you what kids are saying about Pantocratoria?"

"What kids are saying about Pantocratoria? I've seen a couple of people wearing shirts..." Marie-Anne frowned, looking over her shoulder down the hall at the student in such a shirt.

"Don't take it personally. They don't mean you." Briseis assured her.

"They mean my country!" Marie-Anne pouted. "That shirt had a peacock with a bloody sword in its beak, that's just goofy!"

"It's symbolism. It's not supposed to be a real peacock." Briseis pointed out the obvious.

"I know, it's supposed to be my country, my country which has never started a war, with a bloody sword!" Marie-Anne complained. "It sure feels like they mean me, personally. Like the way Barent always picked on me because I am Pantocratorian."

"And how am I supposed to take it that Pantocratorians killed thousands of my people in cold blood?" Briseis snapped unsympathetically.

"What?" Marie-Anne asked, shocked.

"In Beyke!" Briseis insisted.

"Oh... oh, Briseis, did you have any family in Beyke?" Marie-Anne asked sympathetically.

"My cousin died there." Briseis said. "She was killed in a Pantocratorian strike on her building. She was eight."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Briseis." Marie-Anne apologised, blanching. She put her hand on Briseis' shoulder.

"It's ok. It wasn't your fault." Briseis said, gently laying her hand on Marie-Anne's. "Are they talking about it in Pantocratoria?"

"Umm, yeah, but... I think they're saying different things." Marie-Anne told Briseis as another kid walked by with an anti-Pantocratorian shirt.

"Like what?" Briseis asked.

"Well, from what I've seen, it was the terrorists who were to blame, they used the people like human shields..." Marie-Anne said tentatively.

"So naturally they thing to do was just blast away anyway, since the lives of those human shields don't count." Briseis said sharply.

"The terrorists would've killed them themselves!" Marie-Anne protested.

"They would not have!" Briseis said. "Where'd you get that?"

"They're terrorists! That's what they do! That's why they're terrorists!" Marie-Anne answered.

"Terrorists don't randomly kill any and all people!" Briseis exclaimed. "You have them confused with Bugtroopers!"

"Huh?" Marie-Anne frowned, confused at the reference. "What's a Bugtrooper?"

"They're these TV aliens." Briseis informed her. "They want to exterminate everything different than themselves."

"Oh." Marie-Anne answered. She thought it was weird that Briseis watched science fiction shows. "So... what is our first class, anyway?"

"Literature." Briseis reminded her.

"Oh, right, cool." Marie-Anne said, nodding. "We should get a move on, we're going to be late."

"Yeah..." Briseis said, speeding up a little. "I guess you'll have to catch up some."

"Yeah, I guess so." Marie-Anne nodded, speeding up with Briseis. "So, what's been happening here? Are the others doing OK?"

"Yeah. No one was really hurt or anything. They caught the guys. I don't know if you heard." Briseis answered.

"Yeah, I did." Marie-Anne nodded. "How are they otherwise? Did you take any time off school at all?"

"No." Briseis said. "I didn't want to make too much of it. Corrina and Hannah each took a week though."

"You're so tough, Briseis." Marie-Anne grinned.

"Maybe not. Maybe I just wanted to avoid dealing with it." she confessed.

"Oh." Marie-Anne replied as they reached Literature class. "Well, that's OK too. I just tried to fill up the time and catch up with friends and family, I didn't really deal with it either."

Mrs. Carmela Gadi was the students' literature teacher. She was an older woman and one of the kinder teachers at the school. She tried to create an atmosphere of discussion in her classroom. She smiled as Briseis and Marie-Anne took their seats. "Welcome back, Miss Hellenique. You've been in all of our thoughts over the last few weeks and we're very glad to have you back. I don't know how up to date Miss Butler has brought you but we've begun studying Candide while you were away. I think you'll enjoy it. It's quite humorous. I saved you a copy."

As Mrs. Gadi retrieved a copy of the book and handed it to Marie-Anne, she asked the class "Who can bring us up to date on some of the background for the book, before we begin the actual text itself? Who was Liebniz?"

Hannah raised her hand and answered when called on. "He was a German philosopher. Voltaire's making fun of him."

Marie-Anne smiled as she sat down, and started looking through the book.

"This Liebniz guy was really dumb." Briseis whispered.

"Right." Marie-Anne answered, thumbing through the pages.

"Do you have something to share with the class?" the teacher asked, smiling gently at Marie-Anne.

"No, madame, I haven't read the book yet." Marie-Anne said, arching her eyebrow at the teacher's question.

"None of us have." came the reply. "I'm assigning the first chapter for tonight."

"Right, I haven't been here though to study the background, madame." Marie-Anne pointed out.

"I know that." Mrs. Gadi pointed out somewhat chidingly.

"So I don't have anything to share with the class, madame." Marie-Anne answered, wondering why the teacher had asked her in the first place.

Mrs. Gadi frowned slightly, wondering if Marie-Anne was being a smartass or if it was just some sort of cultural difference. She studied Marie-Anne for a long moment, walking over to her desk and looking briefly for something. Marie-Anne's eyes widened in surprise and she glanced to Briseis as if trying to ask her with her eyes what was going on.

"She was calling us out for talking out of turn. That's what teachers mean when they ask if you have anything to share." Briseis whispered under her breath, looking a little embarassed.

"I barely said anything." Marie-Anne frowned. She looked up at the teacher. "Sorry madame, Briseis was just trying to explain to me quickly what I missed."

"It's alright." Mrs. Gadi said. "I suppose she tried to tell you Liebniz was dumb?"

"Umm... yes, madame." Marie-Anne answered.

"He was!" Briseis protested. "You taught us that he said that the world was the best it could possibly be."

Marie-Anne read the blurb of the book to try get a feel for what sort of book it was. Candide was a satirical adventure novel by the famous French author, Voltaire. The protagonist, Candide, moved from one outlandish situation to another before finally finding happiness in the most unexpected of places. Marie-Anne inhaled deeply and set the book back down on the desk, and sat back to watch the discussion between the teacher and Briseis.

"This is a bit beyond the scope of a high school literature class. If you want to study Liebniz, there will be plenty of chances in college." Gadi said.

"Is it a good book, madame?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Very good. I think you'll like it a great deal." she answered.

Marie-Anne nodded and waited attentively.

After literature, Marie-Anne had history. Briseis had history at a different time but Marie-Anne was able to sit by Hannah. Hannah smiled over at her. "Mr. Sayar wants to know if we're comfortable talking about our experiences with the Kahane Chai Ambara. I told him that I was fine talking about it. How about you?"

A few minutes later, Mr. Sayar, a youngish looking teacher, entered the classroom. The students fell silent as he began to speak. "Good morning class. As promised, today we're going to talk about the history of some of the more recent threats to the security of the Resurgent Dream but first I'd like to welcome back Miss Hellenique. You were in all of our thoughts, Marie-Anne."

As Sayar paused, a number of the other students greeted Marie-Anne or expressed pleasure in her return in one way or another. After they seemed to be done, he continued. "The organization Kahane Chai Ambara has a history which is just now being uncovered. Kahane Chai is Hebrew for Kahane lives, referring to Meir Kahane, an extremist Israeli rabbi who lived from 1932 to 1990. Kahane was an extreme racist and religious bigot, focusing most of his hatred on Arabs and Islam. He was an Israeli politician until he was banned from electoral politics by laws against racist candidates..."

Marie-Anne had never particularly liked Hannah, since the girl had done virtually nothing but tease her, along with her Knootian boyfriend, but being in an explosion together was an odd sort of bonding experience, so when Hannah came and sat next to her, Marie-Anne decided to give her a second chance.

"I suppose, I don't have much to say though." she answered Hannah's question before class began.

Marie-Anne smiled faintly at Mr Sayar and the students who extended their welcomes at her return, and then listened attentively.

Mr. Sayar went on for an hour about the ideology and inner workings of the Kahane Chai Ambara. He explained how they believed that gentiles were owed no moral respect whatsoever and could be killed or allowed to live as it might benefit or harm the Jewish people. He explained that they were fanatical haters of Arabs and Muslims, generally advocating policies which were outright genocidal. However, he explained that the people they hated most of all were Westernized Jews who lived in and embraced multiculutral societies, especially those who were largely assimilated in the societies where they lived.

Marie-Anne went to her locker at the start of the lunch break, to retrieve her packed lunch and the present for Briseis. Briseis, Hannah, Maital, Corrina, and Aaron normally ate in a rectangular area between the cafeteria and the main walkway. It had two picnic tables and casual foot traffic was kept to a minimum by a thin and someone rugged hedge of bushes. A large tree provided shade for the tables. Marie-Anne headed over to the usual lunch area once she had retrieved both items and slipped them inside her port, swapping them for the books from the morning classes. Briseis and Maital were the only ones there when she arrived.

Briseis waved and Maital rose to meet her. "It's good to have you back, Marie-Anne."

"Hi Maital, hi Briseis..." Marie-Anne smiled and sat down next to the two girls.

"Did you bring your own lunch too?" Briseis asked.

"Yeah... the cafeteria food is usually kind of... I don't know... fatty..." Marie-Anne observed as she opened up her bag and retrieved her lunch. She looked to Maital. "I hope I'm not being rude, Maital, but I brought Briseis something from home. I got little touristy things for you and the others, but I saw this thing and I knew I had to get it for Briseis. I hope I'm not being rude, but it's probably best for me to give it to her before everybody else shows up as well..."

Maital shook her head slightly. "It's fine. I won't take it the wrong way."

"Cool..." Marie-Anne smiled. She retrieved a peacock broach with 'Nouveau Rome, Pantocratorie' written on it in small gold letters, of the sort found in many tourist shops in New Rome and gave it to Maital. "Just touristy things, I'm sorry, but... oh well, here you go anyway."

"It looks really nice. Thank you, Marie-Anne." Maital said, accepting the broach and seeing how it looked on her light violet sweater.

Marie-Anne smiled, although the greenish peacock feathers on the broach combined with the violet might not have been the best look. She reached into her bag again and produced something about the size and shape of a large hardcover book wrapped in silver paper and handed it to Briseis.

"It's not... well... I thought you might like it." the Pantocratorian offered.

Briseis looked at the item with interest, hurriedly opening it to see what it was. Inside, Briseis found a small icon of a Black Madonna and Child. Although the image itself was obviously a mass print reproduction, it was framed nicely with beaten copper and heavy oak hand-rubbed with lineseed oil in an authentic Byzantine style, with a beeswax red seal on the back of the Archbishop of New Rome, since Marie-Anne had bought it in the Cathedral's book store, obviously remembering one of their early conversations.

Briseis gently put the icon down on the table and hugged Marie-Anne closely. "You...I like it...I...Thank you..."

"You're welcome." Marie-Anne said, smiling in satisfaction as she hugged Briseis back.

Briseis let her go and put the icon away in her bag. "So how was your first day back at school?" she asked.

"It's been OK, so far... I don't like all these people in the... hey, that looks like Corri." Marie-Anne stopped to wave at Corri in the distance moving towards where the girls were having their lunch.

Corri waved back. She was dressed fashionably and a tad revealingly as usual and seemed to have her strut back after the attack. She walked up to Marie-Anne first. "Welcome back! We were worried you wouldn't be rejoining us."

"Not so lucky, I'm back!" Marie-Anne grinned.

"So how was home?" Corri asked.

"It was good, but not much seemed to be happening, compared to here anyway." Marie-Anne said. "Although some exciting things did happen. Where are the others?"

"Hannah's still getting lunch." Corrina said. "Aaron isn't here today. He has some kind of bug or something."

"Oh, that's too bad." Marie-Anne replied. "Is it bad?"

"Not really." Corrina said.

"How have things been here?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"Pretty good. I've been seeing this new guy." she answered.

"Oh? Who's that?" Marie-Anne grinned.

"His name's Henri." she said. "He's a Catholic, like you."

"Does he go to school here?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Yeah. He has a different lunch period though." Corrina informed her.

"Oh... is he in our grade?" Marie-Anne further enquired.

"He's a senior." Corrina said.

"And is he handsome?" Marie-Anne grinned.

"VERY!" Corrina exclaimed.

"Wow, that was... loud..." Marie-Anne blinked. "I wonder where Hannah is..."

It was around then that Hannah came to join them, giving a little wave on her way.

"Has everybody else met him?" Marie-Anne enquired, looking to Maital and Briseis.

Maital and Briseis both nodded. "Very handsome." Maital said.

"Well, congratulations are in order I suppose." Marie-Anne said. "Have you met Corri's new beau, Hannah?"

Hannah nodded. "Handsome, isn't he?"

"I don't know, I've not met him." Marie-Anne replied with a shrug. "I'm told so, though."

"So what's up?" Hannah went on to ask.

"We were just talking, I was trying to find out what had happened here while I was in Pantocratoria." Marie-Anne replied.

"Not much." Hannah said.

"Well, it's the same in Pantocratoria." Marie-Anne said. "Although, I saw the Emperor again, which was exciting!"

"How's he?" Hannah asked.

"Umm... good I suppose..." Marie-Anne replied, frowning a little at the odd question. "I didn't speak to him, I just saw him in church."

"You and the Emperor go to the same church?" Briseis asked.

"Not usually, but just that Sunday I went with my parents to the Cathedral of Christ Pantocrator for Mass, instead of to my local parish church, the same Sunday as the Emperor went." Marie-Anne explained.

"Cool." Hannah said.

"Yeah..." Marie-Anne smiled. "I'm glad I'm back though, although I don't like all these t-shirts..."

"Oh, yeah..." Hannah said.

"Hey..." Corrina said. "Why don't we all get together Friday night?"

"That's a great idea, Corri!" Marie-Anne said enthusiastically.

"Like an all-nighter?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah." answered Corrina. "We could go skating and then go back to my place and watch movies and hang out and talk and eat ice cream."

"A what?" Marie-Anne asked.

"An overnight." Hannah answered.

"Oh. Would you two go too?" Marie-Anne asked Briseis and Maital.

They both nodded enthusiastically. Marie-Anne smiled and looked to Corrina, nodding herself.

The rest of Marie-Anne's first week back was fairly uneventful. The t-shirts which had been bugging her persisted, much to her annoyance. However, nothing in that area had happened yet to bring the situation to a head. Marie-Anne found that all her teachers were more than willing to work with her to help her catch up and all were very understanding of her situation.

Now, Friday had come. Marie-Anne normally boarded the bus home in the large parking lot by the athletic fields. However, this Friday was different. She was going to Corrina's house and Corrina had asked the girls to meet her near her older sister's car, in the elite senior parking lot next to the music building. Marie-Anne arrived at the car park on time after school.

Amanda Glikman, Corri's older sister, was probably the most popular girl in their school. She was a slender, leggy young woman of eighteen years with her hair dyed platinum blond. Her car was a red sports car made in the Dominion. Amanda was already tucking her backpack in the trunk when Marie-Anne arrived. "So are you one of the girls I'm giving a ride today?"

"I don't know, are you Corri's sister?" Marie-Anne asked. Her own hair had by now completed its transition back to her natural hair colour from the sort of platinum blonde that Amanda wore.

"Yeah, I'm Amanda." the older girl answered casually. "Stick your bags in here. This is going to be a tight enough fit with just people in the seats."

"Oh, sure. I'm Marie-Anne." Marie-Anne said as she walked over to the boot and put her bag inside.

"You're Pantocratorian?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, I'm the Pantocratorian exchange student." Marie-Anne nodded, assuming that Amanda was familiar with her name from something Corri had said.

"That's cool. I'm actually going to Pantocratoria this summer, before I start uni." Amanda shared.

"Oh, really? That's great. Where in Pantocratoria?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"We're going to be moving around. We'll spend a night in New Rome, a night in Adrienople, a night in New Jerusalem, a night in New Constantinople...though my father isn't too keen on that last one..." Amanda answered.

"Who are you going with?" Marie-Anne asked.

"A few friends from my class." Amanda said. "We're going to see Pantocratoria, Excalbia, the Danaan mainland..."

"You can't call it a mainland. It's an island. We're on the body of a continent here." Hannah pointed out teasingly as she hopped over one the long blue bench lining the walkway between the music building and the vocational building to join the other two.

"Hey Hannah." Marie-Anne said, and turned back to Amanda. "One night isn't very long to spend in a city like New Rome, you won't be able to see very much in just one day."

"Site-seeing is what old people do on holiday. We're going to travel." Amanda said vaguely. "And Dana is the main part of the country, wherever it is, Hannah."

"Oh... what are you travelling for then?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"To experience other places." Amanda answered.

"She means to get drunk on foreign drink without paying import prices and flirt with cute guys with sexy accents." Corri teased as she too, appeared. Unlike Hannah, she exited the walkway the normal way.

"Oh..." Marie-Anne answered, thinking it seemed like an awful waste of money to fly to Pantocratoria to do something which she could do anywhere.

"That's not what I mean." Amanda said, as she helped Hannah and Corri put their bags in the boot as well. "So who are we waiting for?"

"Briseis." Marie-Anne said.

"And Maital." Corri reminded her.

"Yep." Marie-Anne nodded.

It was Maital who showed up next, tossing her bag into the boot. "Do people want to go somewhere tonight or just hang out at the house?"

"Any preferences?" Corri asked the guests who were there.

"I don't mind." Marie-Anne replied.

"I'd like to go out." Maital said.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to find my math book." Briseis called out, scurrying from the main building to join her friends.

"Hey Briseis!" Marie-Anne smiled.

"What's up?" Briseis asked.

"Not much, we were just talking about whether we wanted to go out or stay in tonight." Marie-Anne explained.

"It might be fun to go out. We could get sandwiches." Briseis suggested.

"I don't mind." Marie-Anne reiterated.

"But what do you want to do?" Hannah asked.

Marie-Anne looked to the other girls.

"Marie-Anne, are you alright?" Briseis asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, I just want to hang-out and catch up with you girls, I don't care where we do it." Marie-Anne nodded.

Marie-Anne sat next to Briseis in the backseat, tight squeeze though it was. Briseis sat in the middle with Marie-Anne on her left and Hannah on her right. Corri sat in the front. Maital spent a moment looking across the three girls in the back.

"I think we can squish in tighter, Maital!" Marie-Anne said, shifting herself hard up against the door. "Slide across a little Briseis..."

Briseis tried to slide across a little but they weren't able to make more than another inch of space and they were squashed quite thoroughly against one another.

"Umm... Amanda..." Marie-Anne began.

"Just do it, Maital." Hannah said.

"Maybe you could sit on Corri's lap in the front?" suggested Marie-Anne.

"Maybe I could slide in next to her." Maital reflected, forcing her way onto the front seat with Corri where the two girls were now most uncomfortably seated.

"We better go slowly, I don't think this is very safe..." Marie-Anne said in a concerned tone.

"It's pretty illegal." Amanda said. "Make sure no constables see you girls." And she started to drive at that, going a sensible speed for once.

"We should've taken your van, Hannah." Marie-Anne commented.

"In retrospect, that might have been wise." Hannah granted.

"It didn't get damaged did it? In the blast?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"Oh, no, it's fine. I just...never mind." Hannah said.

"What?" Marie-Anne pressed.

"Really, don't worry about it." Hannah insisted.

"We still haven't decided what to do." Corri pointed out as they drove.

"Like I said, I don't mind. What do you think we should do, Corri?" Marie-Anne asked.

"We could go get sandwiches and then rent a movie." Corri said.

"Oh, what movie?" Marie-Anne said, excited. The movies in Selinia were so much better than in Pantocratoria, whose native cinema was fairly abysmal with the exception of the propaganda films produced by the Ministry of Cultural Development before the Drapeur Government was elected.

"Well...what are you in the mood for?" Corri asked, trying to get Marie-Anne to contribute something to the plans.

"Anything! Danaan movies are so brilliant!" Marie-Anne gushed.

"But they're almost all in English too." Hannah pointed out.

"If they have subtitles I don't mind." Marie-Anne replied.

"We could get Nighthawk Returns." Hannah suggested. "I thought that was pretty cool. I loved how they did up the new Hawkmobile."

"Is that in French? Or does it have subtitles, or even dubbing?" Marie-Anne asked.

"We can get it with subtitles." Maital said. "You can get just about anything with subtitles if you know where to look."

"Oh great. Well, I don't mind what movie, all Danaan movies are great." Marie-Anne pronounced.

"We'll go as soon as you guys get settled in." Corri pronounced.

"How much further is it?" Briseis asked. "I've never been here before."

"Just a few more minutes." Amanda informed her.

"This is a really nice car." Marie-Anne observed.

"Thanks." Amanda said. "I got it for my birthday."

"Wow..." Marie-Anne said, her mouth dropping open in surprise.

"What?" Amanda asked.

"That's some birthday present!" Marie-Anne replied.

"I hope I'll get one for my next birthday." Corri said.

Marie-Anne decided that the Glikmans must have been really rich, and quietly looked out of the passenger window. They were driving along Lindala Ave, a rather busy street that went by the school. In one direction, it led downtown. In the other, it led away from the center of the town. Amanda was driving away from the town, out past a number of suburban residential developments. Marie-Anne waited quietly until they arrived.

Eventually, they pulled off in a development several miles from town. All of the houses out here were very nice. They seemed to vary between two and four stories. They were all done in the same homey, picturesque style. They all had gardens and walkways and large backyards. Most of them had three or four cars in the drive.

The Gliman residence was one of the four story homes. When the girs arrived, Mr. and Mrs. Glikman weren't home yet. Amanda, after helping them get their things from the boot, seemed to feel herself relieved of responsibility for the younger girls. She went to the kitchen to drink grab a can of vegetable juice before retiring to her room to call her own friends.

Corri showed her guests up to the very top floor, which they could see had been a playroom for the girls when they were little. There was a large screen TV, a kitchen set that made real cupcakes, and a wide collection of dolls still in evidence. There were also three couches, a few chairs, a table, and a small snack pantry. "Make yourselves at home." Corri told them. "This is where we're sleeping tonight. My room would be too crowded with all of us."

Marie-Anne explored the playroom, feeling pangs of jealousy that she had never had such wonderful things as a little girl even though she knew it was silly to do so. Hannah, who had been here many times before, flopped down on one of the couches and reached for the remote, flipping through the channels.

"We're about to go out." Maital chided her.

"This sure is a great rumpus..." Marie-Anne declared, finally settling down on one of the couchers herself.

"Isn't it?" Hannah said. "We used to come over here and play Rainbow Pegasi when we were little."

"What's Rainbow Pegasi?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"I think I still have some." Corri said, going over to a far shelf.

"What do girls play in Pantocratoria?" Maital asked, reluctantly taking a seat.

"I don't know, dolls, board games, what's Rainbow Pegasi?" Marie-Anne pressed.

"Here it is!" Corri exclaimed, hurrying over to Marie-Anne with a large, plastic container. She opened it to reveal a dozen or so plastic toy horses, in all the colors of the rainbow and a wide variety of patterns. They were about six inches tall each and some of them had brightly colored manes and tails that could be combed while others simply had plastic mains and tales. There were a few combs, bows, and other accessories in the bottom. Each horse had a set of wings, set in a variety of poses.

"Oh, we had things like this in Pantocratoria." Marie-Anne smiled with a hint of recognition. "Without wings, though."

"That's what makes them Pegasi though!" Corri protested somewhat ditzily.

"Yeah, ours were horses. Ponies, actually." Marie-Anne explained. "There was this farmset which had all these other animals in it too, but I didn't have it."

"What did they play in Marlund?" Maital asked Briseis.

"Oh..." Briseis said, sitting down and looking at the television. "We didn't have anything like that. We used to... Well, we would race sticks in the river."

"Did you live on a farm, Briseis?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"Yeah. My master owned a sugar plantation before the war." Briseis answered.

Marie-Anne took a long breath in and decided to change the topic. "So are we going?"

"As soon as mum gets home." Corri said. "We have to borrow her car."

"Yeah, good idea... is there enough room in your mother's car?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Yeah, it's a minivan." Corri said. "We'll look like losers but we'll be comfortable."

"So what will we do until then?" Marie-Anne asked, getting up and walking towards the kitchenette.

"Maybe we should change." Maital suggested. "We want to look nice going out."

"Aren't we just getting a video?" Marie-Anne asked, frowning faintly.

"We're going for sandwiches too." Hannah reminded her.

"So we're going to a sandwich shop and a video store, what's to dress up for?" Marie-Anne shrugged.

"It was just an idea." Maital said.

"What did you think of the new sports outfits I got while I was at home?" Marie-Anne asked Corri and Briseis, who were both in her gym class.

"They look nice." Briseis said.

"Pretty hot." Corri added.

"Good." Marie-Anne smiled. She wondered if they had noticed that she was trying to get fit as well, but didn't say anything else. She closed up the Rainbow Pegasi box and offered it back to Corri. She took it and set it aside.

"So do you have a boyfriend in Pantocratoria?" Corri asked.

"No." Marie-Anne replied, blushing a little.

"Anyone you're interested in?" Hannah asked.

Marie-Anne shook her head faintly and crossed her legs self-consciously. She crossed her arms across her midsection to complete the defensive posture.

Hannah kept flipping the channels. "Anyone have any preferences on what to watch?"

"Do you have a boyfriend back home?" Maital asked Briseis.

"No." Briseis answered. "I haven't started dating."

Marie-Anne smiled at Briseis, glad she wasn't the only one.

"Maybe we'll see some guys at the sandwich shop." Corri said hopefully.

"Well... if you think we should change Maital... I did bring some extra clothes in my bag..." Marie-Anne said tentatively.

"I think it'd be cool." Maital said. "What'd you bring?"

"I brought some new boots I bought in New Rome, and I have another skirt, and a couple of different tops." Marie-Anne answered. "I have this one I haven't worn yet, do you want to see?"

"Very much." Briseis said with a grin. "I'm sure the guys will go nuts over you."

"Oh..." Marie-Anne blushed. "Do you have anything else to wear, Briseis?"

"I have a nice pair of jeans with a very dashing sleeveless top." Briseis said.

"Oh cool!" Marie-Anne grinned. "That top I haven't worn yet is sleeveless too, we could both wear sleeveless tops."

"We'd catch every eye in the room!" Briseis exclaimed somewhat overconfidently.

Marie-Anne smiled and looked to the other girls. "Well, where should we go to change, Corri?"

"We can go down to my room. It's right down the stairs, first door on the left." Corri answered.

"OK, great, let's go Briseis!" Marie-Anne said, getting up and gathering up her bag.

"At the same time?" Briseis asked.

"Uhh..." Marie-Anne blushed, not aware that she had suggested something inappropriate.

"Why don't we all just change at once if we're going to do it that way?" Briseis asked. "We are all girls."

"I'm game." Maital said.

"Great, let's get changed." Marie-Anne nodded.

The girls all reached for their bags, picking out outfits to wear and changing clothes right there in the top floor room. Marie-Anne changed into her new top and boots. She played around with her hair as she waited for the others to finish changing. The other girls all changed into outfits appropriate for going out.

Hannah did a little spin for Marie-Anne. "Do you like it?"

"Sure, it looks nice." Marie-Anne smiled. "But... it's pretty black..."

"Black is in this season." Corri informed her, trying to sound like someone really involved in fashion as opposed to just a high school student.

"But a long black skirt on Friday night..." Marie-Anne hummed. "You might look a little like a witch, Hannah!"

"Hey!" Hannah protested.

"Don't get me wrong, it looks nice on you!" Marie-Anne covered. "But, it will be dark outside before long, and then it might look a little odd..."

"It is a little edgy." Maital said. "I think it works though."

"Have you spoken to Barent since he went back to Knootoss?" Marie-Anne asked Hannah as everybody else finished changing.

"Not really." Hannah said. "He keeps saying he's coming back and then not doing it."

Marie-Anne almost remarked about how lying came so naturally to Knootians that they had to really concentrate to tell the truth, but decided against it on the grounds that it might be insensitive to Hannah's feelings. She straightened her skirt a little instead.

"So, I think we're all ready. Let's head on down. Mum should be home any minute." Corri said.

The sandwich shop was a small place but part of a large chain called Roy's Sandwiches. The girls entered happily, moving immediately into the line. They began to order, one by one, first saying the kind of bread they wanted, then the basic sandwich, and then any extra ingredients.

"What's good?" Marie-Anne asked Maital as they lined up.

"The roast beef is great." Maital suggested.

"Is it fatty?" Marie-Anne asked, wincing slightly as she looked at the menu.

"No." Maital answered.

"Oh good." Marie-Anne answered, relieved. "I'll get that then."

"I like it with provolone." Maital said.

"Naughty!" Hannah exclaimed.

"What's provolone?" asked Marie-Anne. "Is it fatty?"

"It's a kind of cheese." Corri answered. "And less than the roast beef."

"But Maital said the roast beef wasn't fatty! Maital?" Marie-Anne replied to Corri, frowning and turning back to Maital.

"It's not that fatty." Maital argued.

"Oh, good... so why is it naughty?" Marie-Anne asked, turning to Hannah.

"Maital's parents are very religious." Hannah answered. "If they found out she was having meat and cheese in the same dish...they'd be pretty upset."

"Oh, is that against Jewish laws or something?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"Yep." Maital said as she shamelessly took her sandwich anyway.

"But... aren't Jews just not allowed to eat pork?" Marie-Anne asked. She ordered provolone on her sandwich too, following Maital's advice.

"Oh, no." Maital explained. "No pork. No shellfish. No meat and cheese together. No alligator. There's other things to but most of it is stuff no one eats anyway."

"Like alligator, for instance?" Marie-Anne grinned as she took her sandwich.

"People eat alligator." Corri protested. "I love it. Rattlesnake too."

"Gross... and I thought Jews couldn't eat alligator, how come you eat it?" Marie-Anne asked. She glanced across the room to survey the other customers of the sandwich shop.

"I'm Reform. I don't really care about all that stuff." Corri said.

There weren't very many other people in the sandwich shop. Most of them were other teens around the same age as the girls, as well as a few families.

"Not very many cute boys..." Marie-Anne dryly observed to Corri as they looked for a seat.

"Not really..." Corri said.

"Where should we sit?" Marie-Anne asked.

It was around that time that another party entered the restaurant. It consisted of a nerdish boy about the same age as the girls, a solid middle-aged man, and a man in his late twenties with a craggy face. They were laughing and joking among themselves. However, they wore the most offensive anti-Pantocratorian shirts to date. The nerdish boy sported a picture of a cartoon man urinating on a Pantocratorian flag. The older man had a shirt bearing a picture of the Emperor as a vampire sitting on a pile of dead babies, and the man in the middle had a picture of a peahen laying bombs instead of eggs. Marie-Anne scowled at the sight of the new arrivals, particularly at the shirt depicting the Emperor, whose imperial countenance was unmistakable even on a poor quality t-shirt depicting him as a vampire.

"That's sacrilegious!" Marie-Anne growled to Corri, somewhat exaggerating.

"Let it go, Marie-Anne." Corri said. "The oldest one looks pretty tough."

"That's the Emperor on his shirt!" Marie-Anne protested to Corri. Her tone was hushed but the word 'Emperor' was quite audible because of the offended emphasis she put on it.

"Do you really think the Emperor cares that he's portrayed badly on some guys t-shirt?" Hannah asked.

"Yes. He should be arrested for lèse-majesté." Marie-Anne declared. "Let's sit down somewhere away from these cockroaches."

"What's less majesty?" Briseis asked.

"It's a crime." Marie-Anne answered. "Come on, let's sit down already, before they get too close."

The girls went to the other side of the restaurant and sat down. Marie-Anne scowled at the men as she undid the lid of her bottle of orange juice.

"Are you alright, Marie-Anne?" Maital asked.

"No! Well... yes I suppose, but no..." Marie-Anne frowned indecisively. "I'm just... nevermind..."

"What?" Corri asked.

"Well this whole... I hate how so many kids at school are wearing dumb shirts like that, and now these guys..." Marie-Anne complained, indicating to the seedy looking trio who were lining up waiting to be served.

"I know." Hannah said.

"I just find it... really offensive..." Marie-Anne concluded. She glared again at the men over her sandwich. "Pigs." she mumbled and then took a bite.

"Maybe you should say something." Briseis suggested.

"You think so?" Marie-Anne asked, somewhat unsettled by the idea of confronting them. If it was just the teenager alone maybe...

"What could they do?" Maital asked.

"I don't know." Marie-Anne shrugged. She looked at Hannah and Corri. They just looked back, letting her decide. "What would I say?"

"Say what you feel." Briseis suggested.

"I can barely describe what I feel to you, I don't know how I'd tell them..." Marie-Anne said, although it was quite obvious she was thinking seriously about it. She took a sip of her orange juice and looked across at the restaurant at them. "That old guy looks like of creepy..."

"I don't think so." Corri said.

"Oh? Will you come with me then?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Yeah." Corri said and the other girls soon joined in.

Emboldened by the moral support of her friends, Marie-Anne set her food down, and crossed the restaurant floor over to the three anti-Pantocratorians. She put her hands on her hips and glared at them. The other girls followed her, waiting curiously to hear exactly what she would say. The men didn't seem to even notice her yet.

"Excuse me." Marie-Anne addressed them in a loud, clear voice.

"Yes?" the older man asked politely.

"Uhh..." Marie-Anne said, somewhat surprised by the man's tone. "I find your shirts offensive. Especially yours."

"That's too bad." he said. "You shouldn't."

"Do you deny that it's a deliberately offensive shirt? I mean, it depicts the Emperor as a vampire!" Marie-Anne said incredulously.

"He is a vampire." the man answered calmly.

"What?" Marie-Anne scoffed. "He's the Emperor!"

"Exactly." the man answered. "What does your father do for a living?"

"None of your business!" Marie-Anne replied. She looked to the older man's companions. "And your shirts are almost as bad... why are you wearing them?"

"They don't speak French." the older man said. "Well, for the sake of argument, let's say your father is a tailor. This works the same whatever he is, whether he's a cashier or a trucker or a tailor or a taxi driver or even a bank teller although it becomes more complicated there..."

"What are you talking about?" Marie-Anne said, crossing her arms. "What has this got to do with your shirt?"

"My point is that your father is probably not a vampire, like the Emperor is." the man said. "I'm Ernst by the way. And you young women are...?"

"Insulted." Marie-Anne replied. "Your shirts denigrate my fatherland, and there's no reason to wear them except to deliberately insult people."

"The Pantocratorian people have no greater enemy than the Emperor... Well, Dr. Drapeur might be more dangerous in a way... he's the Pantocratorian Kautsky." the man said.

"You're a communist!" Hannah exclaimed suddenly in realization.

"He's a cockroach!" Marie-Anne replied to Hannah with a frown. She looked back to the man. "The Emperor was sent by God to look after the Pantocratorian people, he's not their enemy, and if you knew anything about Pantocratoria you wouldn't say that. And your... I don't know... sons... wouldn't wear stupid shirts like they're wearing, with people pissing on the Cross of the Pantocratorian Crusade..."

"There's no such thing as God, for one thing. He certainly doesn't appoint the monarch. No one outside Pantocratoria believes that. If you ask your Danaan friends, I'm sure they'll tell you. For another thing, until just last year, the Emperor allowed his son to have soldiers go on an annual rampage of rape and violence through the streets of New Constantinople. He drains the Pantocratorian people of the value of their labour to live in wealth and splendor but more importantly he focuses as an ideological focus for reaction. He contributes greatly to racism and to the special persecution of women and he persecuted the Greek-speaking population on national grounds until two years ago. So, if you'll listen to me explain, say your father is a tailor..."

"Communists got all those people in Beyke killed!" Briseis yelled angrily.

"That's a good one. People try to blame the Pantocratorian mass murder at Beyke on the people of Beyke fighting for their freedom. It's a classic example of blaming the victim." the man insisted. "I have some newspapers in the..."

"I'm not giving money to the RCWP!" Corri exclaimed.

"They're free." the man protested. "I really think they show a lot about how this kind of symbolic use of crowned heads can go in..."

"If you're communists then what the hell are you doing buying sandwiches here? They probably don't even allow union labour." Marie-Anne clucked. "And I don't know why you keep mentioning my father, but he's not a tailor and he's not a communist, and he has nothing to do with you wearing insulting shirts."

"If you don't want to seriously discuss then, then don't. But you have no right to stop of from wearing these shirts here. So, if you ladies will excuse me..."

"You're not seriously discussing anything, you're going on about my father being a tailor, and I don't see what that has to do with your shirts. If you cared about the Pantocratorian people, you wouldn't wear shirts which would hurt their feelings. I'm a Pantocratorian person, how come you don't care about my feelings? You don't care about the Pantocratorian people." Marie-Anne declared.

"I care about your feelings changing." he said, sitting back down along with his friends.

"Let's go." Maital insisted.

Marie-Anne nodded triumphantly and returned to the table with her friends to eat their sandwiches.

"How can you just walk around saying you're a communist?" Corri asked as they sat down. "That's like admitting to being a serial killer or something."

"How can you just walk around in t-shirts insulting Pantocratoria and expect Pantocratorians to be happy about it?" Marie-Anne nodded and added her own rhetorical question. She started drinking her juice again.

"What does your father do?" Maital asked curiously.

"My father is an accountant." Marie-Anne replied.

"I wonder why that communist thought he was a tailor?" Corri asked.

"He didn't think he was. He was just using that as an example." Maital clarified.

"Oh." Briseis said. "It was still dumb."

"Communists are dumb." Hannah said. "Democracy rules."

"I wonder how that guy justifies the way his fellow communists got all those little babies killed in Beyke. It's just sick." Briseis said. "How can...I don't get how people can go around really believing stuff like that. It's sick."

"Do you think all the kids at school wearing shirts like that are communists too?" Marie-Anne asked. "That sure seems like a lot of communists..."

"No. They're just jerks." Briseis said. "People were already angry about it. I think that's why these guys jumped in. We have a lot of communists at home and that's what they do. They wait until they see people mad about something, whether fairly or not, and then they jump in. They start off saying they just want to work with everybody on this one thing while trying to get more and more in control and trying to phrase everything in communist terms. And whatever happens they claim it as proof. If they win, they claim it as the result of their communist outlook being correct. If they lose, they claim it proves that the authorities are the evil tools of the bosses. It's really tempting for a lot of people. I mean ... we've been through a lot. I think it helps though that girls like me can now see people like Prime Minister Sacker or that new American President ... Aracelis ... who look like us and lead their countries. That probably sounds horrible. I know people shouldn't care about stuff like that but ... it really does help."

"I understand it." Hannah said. "I've never really felt that way but my grandparents said they used to feel a similar way. I don't think ... I mean I don't think it can be that simple about the Marlund communists, though, can it? I mean, there's a social context to these things. The communists are probably the first people to treat these folks like human beings."

"Hey!" Corri exclaimed in protest. "Danaan soldiers are. It wasn't any revolutionary force that got rid of Fabel and his thugs. It was the Danaan Armed Forces."

"Only to avenge Armonvale and rescue that Pantocratorian, not because they cared about the people there." Hannah retorted.

"I think that it was some of both." Maital said. "You don't have to be motivated by pure altruism to do something good and still care. I mean, we have to live in a complicated world."

"Rescue which Pantocratorian? I didn't think that the Danaan army had any idea that Princess Theodora was being held in Marlund. Everyone on the TV was really surprised that she was there I remember." Marie-Anne said. "I remember that most of the people in my parish thought she was being held in the Reich somewhere. We had a vigil to pray for her. The Mayor was there, I remember him saying that the Princess was probably being held hostage in North Star. It made sense too, because the kidnappers made us pull out of Syskeyia. It's kind of weird actually, if they hadn't done that, then the Duke of Montmanuel wouldn't have been sent to Marlund..."

The plane thundered in the sky as it began its slow descent.

“Um, excuse me?” the flight attendant leaned over slightly at the boy who was turned away and hunched slightly.

“Um, excu- EEK!” the flight attendant jumped back when the boy turned around, one of his eyes magnified several times blinked bewildered at her, before lifting the jewellers glass up from his eye and blinked.
“Yes?” he asked as he showed what he was doing, apparently combining a pocket watch, Compass and Barometer into one larger pocket watch case.

“Uh, we’re landing soon, please put your, um, things. Away and fasten your seatbelt.” the attendant walked off to the end of the business class area and fastened her own seatbelt.

The boy merely ran a finger through his long silvered hair before packing away the loose parts into a box, then into a backpack and fastened the seatbelt, he smoothed out his T-shirt, a simple red affair with a white splodge of paint on it and shook his legs a little so his cut jeans billowed a little, he then stared out of the window, his grey eyes reflecting back at him, he smiled a little as the plane kissed the ground and taxied to a halt.


Walking with the busy crowd with his backpack on his shoulder he walked down the arrivals corridor,

Jonathan Horatio Tinker had just turned 16 and had somehow wound up on this exchange trip when the Knootians had apparently pulled out, he glanced around the massive concrete and steel cathedral of an airport as he tried to pin out his name from all the different signs and people, or even the family he was meant to be staying with.

A woman who looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties was holding up a sign with Jonathan's name on it at the airport. She didn't especially stand out among the rather cosmopolitan crowd in the airport, including many non-humans. She looked to be in good physical shape and had dark brown hair. She smiled slightly when the Midlonian approached, addressing him in English. "Jonathan Tinker? I'm Karlotte Sackel. I guess I'm going to be your Mum for the next few months."

Meanwhile, back at the sandwich shop, Hannah looked curiously at Marie-Anne. "Really? Everyone was talking like they rescued her on purpose on television here. They might have just been trying to get as much credit as possible though. It's hard to tell. Obviously, there were no public announcements about the operation before the fact."

"I doubt they knew." Maital said. "How would they have?"

Tinker bowed a little.
"Nice to meet you Mrs Sackel, uh, I guess I'm your son for the next few months then." he hitched his backpack. "Can we go and collect my suitcase please? I think it'll have arrived by now."

"Well, maybe with spies and things I guess." Marie-Anne shrugged. "But I don't think they knew she was there. I mean, it would be pretty horrible if the only reason Danaan, Pantocratorian and Excalbian troops got involved in Marlund was because of one princess getting kidnapped, after all the decades of the horrible things they did to Briseis' people."

Marie-Anne looked to Briseis sympathetically, but a troubling thought occurred to her. For one of the first times in her life, Marie-Anne began to question things she had been told about her country and its place in the world.

"...but... why would we have let it go on so long?" she asked, suddenly disillusioned. "We could've stopped it at any time..."

Maital paused in thought before speaking. "They could have done that in Marlund but they couldn't have done it everywhere where it needed doing. There's places still around that are just as bad. Look at Infinite Loving. We'd all have been lobotomized and enslaved if we lived there and, for all their insincere rants about slavery, the Iesian masters of that part of the world would have just smiled. Iesus Christi is just as bad and so is North Star. Central Facehuggeria has slavery. Skeelzania conducts wide-scale, systematic genocide. I could go on and on. I was just reading the other day about this little turb of a country called..."

"What's that?" Corri asked suddenly. Her hands shook a little and her sandwich fell from her hands, spilling all over her lap.

Hannah turned to look ... at the plain white wall across from her. "There's nothing there, Corri. What was it? Are you ok?"

Meanwhile, at the airport, Sackel was walking the young Midlonian towards the escalators leading downstairs to the luggage pick-up area. "It should have, yes." she confirmed. "But please call me Karlotte."

Tinker held onto the escalator rail as they moved slowly down, he nodded, his silvery hair swaying slightly as he did so. "Ok, um, Karlotte." he casualy stood on the right and looked around, when they reached the bottom they walked across the highly polished floor before pretty much immediately grabbing a slightly battered brown suitcase, where it'd worn slightly at the edges, he then smiled as he turned back to Karlotte and nodded. "Where now, Karlotte?"

"I'm parked in the parking bay. We'll be staying in Solomon for the weekend so I can show you some of the major attractions. There's a new exhibit at the Aquarium I thought might be interesting and Prince Arthur is visiting the Court of Selinia and we might be able to get a peek at that, albeit from the tourist galleries. We'll head home and I'll introduce you to my youngest son, Markos. He just turned seven so you probably won't be interested in the same things but I'm sure he'll love having a big brother around. He's staying with my sister and her husband now." Karlotte began, speaking in a rush born slightly from excitement but also in a way giving the impression that she was always trying to say too much too fast.

She and Jon had to run across both an outer and an inner drive where cars, taxis, and buses were all circling to pick people up. She walked him to the parking deck, showing him to a black sports car of Pantocratorian make. "I'm afraid the people at the program didn't tell me much. What do you like to eat? Do you want to go to church? Stuff like that."

John simply blinked at all the questions and rapid talking, he couldn't really form an answer until they were near to Karlotte's car.
"Um, the Aquarium sounds ok, and uh, church is ok, I doubt they'd have any Machi-Pagan sites or altars this far from Tinker territory."

He put his suitcase and backpack into the boot of the Pantocratorian car before turning back to Karlotte. "Um, and a bite to eat would be great Karlotte, you know what airplane food is like." he smiled a little before getting into the car with Karlotte.

"Oh, I suppose I should explain, Machi-Pagan is kind of a sub-cult that has to do with Brigid, the pagan goddess? Through her and her work to inspire and to forge we make and keep machinery working. We dont always have holy-sites per se. But it sometimes helps us in our work to be in a spot we feel is blessed, if you get what I mean." he yawned slightly.

"So, what places are there to eat around here?" he asked looking around at the carpark and city beyond.

"Oh." Karlotte answered, sounding quite surprised at the young man's words. "No, I'm afraid we don't have anything like that around here. I'd thought you might have been in the Church of Midlonia or something and there's a Church of Excalbia around here. I think they're pretty similar."

Karlotte helped him load his bags into the boot of her car before starting them off. "Well, there's a Nilde's. There's a lot of sandwich places. There's some kosher delis. There's a lot of French restaurants. There's a stuffed bread place called Marcini's. In Solomon, there's pretty much whatever you want to eat. Do you have a preference?"

She pulled away from the airport, heading towards the city. Traffic was heavy but they made good progress on the freeway, Jon could see the tall office buildings and hotels that went to make up the skyline of any large, modern city. Below them, he could see a wide variety of establishments near the side of the road. While she waited for him to decide, Karlotte pulled into a petrol station, hit a few buttons by the pump, and started to pump herself fuel. "I used it all up on the trip over here." she explained.

John watched the city trundle past. "Yeah, its a kinda small religion, even in Midlonia. I've never heard of the Church of Excalbia, I wouldn't really know anyhow.


John nodded and looked around. "The buildings are really tall, taller than mountains even, we never have them this tall back home." was about all he could manage from the sheer dumbfounded look on his face.

"Uhm, I guess a sandwhich bar or something would do." he nodded.

"This car drink alot of petrol? Or is it really far to your house?" he glanced first at Karlotte, then at the engine of the car itself. "What kind of engine does it have anyhow? I've never really seen this type before, mostly Midlonian and ZMI makes back home." he moved around and bent down to look at the grill a little and peered at the badge.

Maital paused in thought before speaking. "They could have done that in Marlund but they couldn't have done it everywhere where it needed doing. There's places still around that are just as bad. Look at Infinite Loving. We'd all have been lobotomized and enslaved if we lived there and, for all their insincere rants about slavery, the Iesian masters of that part of the world would have just smiled. Iesus Christi is just as bad and so is North Star. Central Facehuggeria has slavery. Skeelzania conducts wide-scale, systematic genocide. I could go on and on. I was just reading the other day about this little turb of a country called..."

"What's that?" Corri asked suddenly. Her hands shook a little and her sandwich fell from her hands, spilling all over her lap.

Hannah turned to look ... at the plain white wall across from her. "There's nothing there, Corri. What was it? Are you ok?"

Marie-Anne jumped a little in her seat in surprise when Corri dropped her food all over herself and followed Corri's gaze to the plain white wall. She turned back in some confusion.

"Corri?" Marie-Anne asked.

"I thought the Church of Excalbia was the most ... Nevermind." Karlotte said. "Anyway, this is a Peacock Motors car. It's a new model. And my house isn't in Solomon, remember? I'm just picking you up from the airport. We have at least a hundred kilometers to go Sunday night. But wait here, I'm going to go get us some snacks. What would you like?"

It was then that Jon could hear the wailing of sirens but the cars that drove by weren't marked as part of the Solomon Constabulary. They were, instead, large black vans with the words Liberman Security written on the sides. The sirens were flashing green and white from through the windows, rather than from the roof, after the manner of an undercover vehicle. "Fascists." Karlotte hissed under her breath as she turned to watch them pass.

"I don't know what it was." Corri was saying a hundred miles away. "I thought I saw a man over there but then I didn't. It was weird."

"You're probably just tired." Hannah rationalized. "Let's get to the video store and then get home."

"Alright." Corri agreed. "But I hope no guys see me with sandwich spilled all over me. I can't think of many things more embarassing."

Marie-Anne grinned almost inanely she was so enthusiatic. Pantocratorian cinema must truly have been dismal indeed for her to be so keen on foreign movies.

"Movies! I can't wait!" she said. She picked up her almost empty bottle of juice to take with her. "Quick, let's go, somebody else might get out all the good ones!"

"Oh! Yes, right, sorry, bit of jetlag I guess," John shook his head "uhm, I'll just have a cheese sandwhich and a Pink Bunny, please."

He watched the vans trundle past, his shoes scraping a little on the concrete forecourt of the gas-station, he simply blinked as the vans shot past.

"Private police force? You have private Police forces here?" he asks, slightly confused by the mysterious vehicles.

He heard Karlotte hiss something behind him and he turned.
"Pardon?"

The girls headed quickly back out to the car, piling in to go to the video store. Briseis was looking thoughtfully out the window. Marie-Anne squeezed in next to Briseis, and turned to her as the car drove towards the video store.

"What are you thinking about, Briseis?" Marie-Anne asked her curiously.

"I was thinking about what you said earlier." Briseis answered her.

"Oh, about Marlund?" Marie-Anne asked delicately.

"Yeah." Briseis answered vaguely.

"What were you thinking?" Marie-Anne enquired.

"I don't want you to be right." Briseis said.

"Neither do I... I mean... I don't think I think what I thought I thought." Marie-Anne said rather bewilderingly, although she seemingly didn't understand what was so confusing about the sentence. "I was just thinking out loud."

"So what do you think?" Briseis asked.

"I don't know." Marie-Anne admitted.

"I try to just have a normal life now so I don't talk about it much but... growing up the way I did..." Briseis started hesitantly. Marie-Anne nodded attentively and offered Briseis her hand to hold. Briseis took it with a small smile. "It just... it just always seems amazing to me that people like you and people like me can be friends still. It was... or at least it seemed impossible growing up."

"Marlund used to be really horrible, huh?" Marie-Anne nodded sympathetically.

"I had an owner." Briseis pointed out.

"Did he... used to hurt you?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Well... there were actually two. The first one was nice to me but his wife hated me and eventually made him sell me and Mum off to the second. I found out later that I was his daughter. My mother was only thirteen when it happened." Briseis answered in a trembling voice.

"That's..." Marie-Anne murmured, horrified. She squeezed Briseis' hand. "I'm sorry, Briseis. What about the second one?"

"He beat me sometimes." she answered.

Marie-Anne looked uncomfortably about the car at the other girls, and let go of Briseis hand in order to hug her. Briseis hugged back. "Let's talk about something else."

"I'm sorry, Briseis." Marie-Anne told her again.

"It's not your fault." she answered.

"Should we get another movie besides Nighthawk too?" Maital asked nervously.

"Sure!" Marie-Anne nodded eagerly.

"Any ideas?" Maital went on.

"What about that Le Porc thing? My uncle was talking about it." Hannah suggested.

"What's that? Is it good?" Marie-Anne asked. "I love foreign movies, they're so great."

"It's supposed to be." Hannah said. "It's about modernism and the rejection of communism and it's in French and German and English, I think."

"I heard it was in Amestrian and English." Maital said.

"You've heard of it too?" Hannah asked, having thought she was showing off an esoteric knowledge of films.

"My father went to see it with a few of his friends when it came out." Maital answered. "He thought it was interesting, if impious."

"Well is it in French or not?" Marie-Anne asked.

"It's in something like French." Maital said.

"Will we be able to understand it?" Marie-Anne asked. "And it sounds like it might be blasphemous..."

"You should be able to understand it." Maital said. "And it's a movie. Most of them are evil. It's what Caer Gawen does."

"Movies are evil?" Marie-Anne frowned. "What do you mean? They're fun."

"Oh, they're not evil like that. They're fun to watch. You just shouldn't expect much of real value in them and there's a lot of sex and violence and things." Maital explained.

"Oh, I know what you mean." Marie-Anne said. "I almost threw up when I was watching 1453, there was so much blood."

"Yeah, but sex and violence can be good. Bello Gallino is soooo hot as Nighthawk. Let's just get that." Corri said.

"Let's get a few! We can watch them all night!" Marie-Anne suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." Hannah said as they pulled up.

The girls piled out of the car and headed into the Rent a Flic, as the movie rental establishment was called. It was a medium sized store, nicely lit, with rows of films in both DVD and cassette formats. They were divided into sections: New Releases, Action, Classics, Comedy, French Language, Foreign, Horror, Documentary, and Kid's. There was also a small section devoted to video games.

Marie-Anne might have recognized the two boys behind the counter as Peleg and Fadhl, too of the least popular boys in school. One of them was an overweight boy with thick glasses, pimples and curly, dark hair. Fadhl was a skinny, bookish looking Arab kid with slumped shoulders and big ears. Both boys grinned and waved at the girls as they came in. "Hey, Corri! Hey, ladies! What's up?" Fadhl called out.

"How's it going?" Peleg asked Hannah. "I heard Barent wasn't able to make it back."

Meanwhile, Karlotte turned to Jon. "Sometimes I think we might as well. Technically, no. Those aren't police. I can give you a bit more detail when I get back. I actually am a barrister. But is there something else you'd like to drink? We don't have Pink Bunny in Selinia."

Giving the Arabic (or as she thought of him Turkish) boy a wide-berth and responding to the "Hey, ladies!" with only a brief faint smile and a half-hearted wave, Marie-Anne wandered over to the French Language section and began looking through the titles there.

"No. His Mum wouldn't let him come back." Hannah said, walking over to the boys with Corri. Meanwhile, Briseis and Maital moved into the shelves with Marie-Anne.

"Hmm...." Marie-Anne said, picking up a copy of Le Porc. "Are we going to get this one?"

"It looks confusing." Briseis said.

"We were going to get Nighthawk as well I think." Marie-Anne said.

"So we're going to see a confusing foreign film and a film about a crazy man who dresses like a hawk to beat up criminals?" Briseis asked.

"First of all, Briseis, we're exchange students, everything here is confusing and foreign to us." Marie-Anne pointed out. "Second of all... I am just saying what I thought we all said in the car on the way here."

"He's a very sexy man dressed as a hawk." Maital noted.

"That's what Corri said." Marie-Anne nodded.

"And 'Le Porc' is supposed to be good." Maital said. "I'm sure it won't be that confusing."

"Will we get anything else as well?" Marie-Anne asked. She looked back to Corri and Hannah with the boys. "Think they'd want another movie?"

"Like what?" Maital asked.

"I don't know. Three movies is a lot... we probably wouldn't get any sleep. Let's not worry about it." Marie-Anne concluded.

"Are Hannah and Corri actually flirting with those guys?" Briseis asked.

"No, they wouldn't be..." Marie-Anne decided even before she looked over at them.

"Good." Briseis concluded.

Corri and Hannah were speaking to the two boys. Corri was leaned slightly over the counter while Hannah looked thoughtful.

"Hmm..." Marie-Anne thought out loud. "They might be. Let's go, get the movies, and bail them out."

"Alright." Maital said.

Marie-Anne led the other girls over to the counter with the tapes, which she placed on the counter.

"There is no way Prince Arthur is gay!" Corri was arguing heatedly. "He is way too hot!"

"We got the movies." Marie-Anne piped in.

"Do you think Prince Arthur's gay?" Corri asked.

"No. I don't know." Marie-Anne shrugged.

"I bet he'd go out with me." Corri continued.

"I said I have the movies." Marie-Anne repeated.

Hannah took the movies and checked them out. The girls started back towards the car.

"Were you flirting with those guys?" Marie-Anne asked when they were out of the store.

"No!" Corri insisted.

"Good." Marie-Anne concluded as she got into the car.

"She was." Hannah said.

"You weren't though?" Marie-Anne inquired.

"Nope." Hannah said.

"So how come you were flirting with them, Corri?" Marie-Anne asked.

"They were guys." Corri explained patiently.

"They were Turks." Marie-Anne answered.

"Don't be a bigot, Marie-Anne." Briseis said.

"I'm not, I just... uhhh..." Marie-Anne began. She winced a little - did she have to mention that they were Turks? "Sorry. But why did you have to flirt with them?"

"They flattered me." Corrina said. "They think I'm hot. I was just being nice. I wouldn't date them or anything. I have a boyfriend."

Marie-Anne resisted the urge to warn Corrina that Turks were pernicious deceivers who would lead her astray and even kidnap her to subject her to their unnatural lust. She just trembled quietly at the thought of dating a Turk. As Hannah began to drive, Corri patted Marie-Anne on the hand.

"What was that for?" Marie-Anne asked with a smile.

"Would you still like me if I was Turkish?" Briseis asked.

"You're not Turkish, Briseis." Marie-Anne replied.

"That's not an answer." Briseis noted.

"Can we drop this, please? Turks scare me, OK?" Marie-Anne answered truthfully.

"That's not healthy though." Briseis said.

"What do you mean, not healthy?" Marie-Anne asked.

"It's divisive and prejudiced and unfair." Corri said.

"Can't we drop this? I did ask." Marie-Anne sulked.

"It bothers me." Briseis said.

"Why?" Marie-Anne asked.

"Because I've experienced prejudice a lot in life." Briseis said. "And I'm not OK with it."

"This is different though, I'm not doing anything to Turks!" Marie-Anne protested.

"It still really bothers me!" Briseis said.

"Well I'm sorry, Briseis." Marie-Anne apologised. "But I can't help it, they scare me, OK?"

Briseis didn't say anything. Marie-Anne looked miserable. She looked at Corri hopefully. Corri sighed and shook her head, giving Marie-Anne another pat on her hand.

"I'm sure you can get over it." she said reassuringly.

"Briseis?" Marie-Anne asked.

"I love you." Briseis said.

Marie-Anne blushed pink and smiled, embarrassed. "I don't mean to be a bigot."

Briseis hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Who made you scared of Turks?"

"The Great Turk Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror." Marie-Anne answered. "When I was a kid I thought he'd come and kidnap me if I didn't stay in bed at night."

"He's dead." Maital pointed out.

"I know that. I was scared of his ghost." Marie-Anne said. "And of Turks generally, but especially him."

"Saxons used to be like that too." Corri noted.

"Kidnappers?" Marie-Anne asked, confused.

"They would murder and kidnap everyone back in the old days. But now a lot of them aren't barbarians anymore or anything. Beatrice Wake is a Government Minister and she's a Saxon. She never kills anyone who doesn't deserve it." Corri noted.

"Well children are still scared of Turks in Pantocratoria." Marie-Anne said. "And I am too, it's hard to know what's true and what was just made up to scare me."

"Lots of bad things are true. But bad things are true about Pantocratorians too." Maital noted. "Do you know what Rent Day is?"

"No." Marie-Anne answered. "And haven't I heard enough bad things about Pantocratoria today from those communists in the sandwich store?"

"Ok. Ok." Hannah said.

Marie-Anne emerged from Corri's kitchenette with a bowl of popcorn. The girls were half-way through watching Le Porc. Marie-Anne set the popcorn down on the coffee table and sat back down next to Briseis.

"What did I miss?" the Pantocratorian asked at a normal conversational tone in the middle of a crucial moment in the dialogue.

"You missed...I don't know. Something's happening." Briseis said.

"What's happening?" Marie-Anne asked, once again at a normal conversational tone despite the on-going dialogue.

"I don't know!" Briseis snapped.

"I'm sorry!" Marie-Anne whispered, shrinking down into the couch.

Briseis smirked slightly and reached a hand out for the popcorn bowl, making eye contact with Hannah as she did so. Marie-Anne watched sullenly, trying to catch up with what she had missed. These foreign films were so much more complicated than the ones she was used to, it was hard for her to follow them. She still liked foreign cinema though. Briseis moved the popcorn bowl to another table a few feet behind the girls, some distance from where Marie-Anne was sitting.

"I can't reach it there, Briseis..." Marie-Anne whispered to Briseis quietly.

"I didn't want to spill it." Briseis explained.

"Yeah." Hannah said.

"Spill it? I don't understand." Marie-Anne said. "Is there something wrong with the coffee table?"

Giggling, Briseis and Hannah pounced on Marie-Anne, tickling her playfully.

"Aieee!" Marie-Anne screamed briefly as the girls set upon her, continuing to yelp and squeal intermittently as she tried to fight them off.

"I'm trying to watch the movie." Corri said half-jokingly, tossing a pillow at Briseis. Briseis momentarily got off of Marie-Anne to toss the pillow back, hitting Maital.

"This is really childish!" Marie-Anne protested between giggles, squeals and exclamations.

"At least we moved the popcorn!" Hannah said, tickling without mercy.

"I give up!" Marie-Anne surrendered, hoping for clemency.

Hannah rose a little and looked over to Briseis with a grin, turning her back on Marie-Anne. Marie-Anne took a few seconds reprieve to catch her breath. She rearranged her clothes and fixed her hair self-consciously.

"Get her, Marie-Anne!" Corri yelled.

Not knowing which one she was supposed to get, Marie-Anne took a little longer than perhaps she should've to turn on Briseis, but nevertheless, soon she was starting to tickle the Marlunder. Briseis giggled wildly, squirming and trying to pull herself over the arm of the couch, Hannah, turning at the sudden shift behind her, turned swiftly on her former ally, also piling on Briseis.

The girls carried on like that for almost half an hour, tickling, wrestling, pillow fighting. Finally, they collapsed and turned their attention back to the movie. “Now I’m really lost.” Hannah commented, tossing some of the cold popcorn in her mouth.

“Well, you and Briseis are the ones who started acting like children.” Corri pointed out, lying on the floor, belly down, with her feet raised behind her and her ankles lightly crossed in an interested but casual pose.

“I’m still trying to catch my breath.” Maital said, sitting on the floor with her back against the couch. She reached a hand up to brush her red hair out from in front of her eyes. “It was kind of fun though.”

“It’s what boys think girls do all the time at slumber parties.” Corri mentioned. “Henri said he thought we’d wrestle and do one another’s toenails in our underwear. He thought it was hot.”

“Well, we’re not really doing that second thing. That’s just creepy.” Briseis said.

“Yeah, let’s just watch the rest of the film.” Hannah agreed. “I actually think it’s pretty good. I never really heard anything about this Xirnium place though. What about you girls?”

“It’s a strongly democratic, atheist, liberal democracy.” Maital noted with a learned air. “We learned all about it in World Studies last year.”

“How can you be atheist and be a liberal democracy?” Hannah asked.

“The same way you can be Jewish and a liberal democracy, or Catholic, or Lutheran.” Maital answered dismissively, and in a fashion few Xirniumites themselves would have been likely to agree with.

“You can’t.” Hannah said. “That’s my point. Well, you can. But the country can’t. It has to have a public conception of justice and not just a comp…”

“Why do we always wind up talking about stuff like this?” Corri said abruptly. “It was kind of an artsy movie though. The kind that seems like it has some kind of deeper meaning.”

“Yeah, I liked it.” Maital said. “So what should we do now?

“That’s the problem with not being a little kid.” Briseis noted. “You can’t really do things. You can just talk and watch things and stuff but there’s nothing to do because there’s no more playing.”

“We can play with the Rainbow Pegasi if you really want.” Corri said, regarding Briseis oddly. “I certainly have enough.”