“Remember, we are friends and that requires no excess of formality, Constable.” Etelka’s modes of speech depended on the situation. Calling him Constable in private, was almost always facetious, though in public, it was always appropriate.”
The same applied to references to Miss Tagore. In private she was Nila. In public, in front of others, she was Miss Tagore. Really, only Nila understood the nuances. Etelka wondered where and when she was. So did Pool in his own way.
The table in Baba Yaga’s Hut’s lounge was covered in engraved metal. Pool had always guessed it was an alloy of tin. The engraving was that of the world, Terra, their world, as mapped as accurately as they could manage.
Etelka was sitting there, the chair closest her cabin (first forward [starboard]). Her hair was loose, a look that Pool always liked, adored. Cobalt locks drifted in loose curls over her pale shoulders. She twiddled the nyereg having only one ring on it now in her right hand. Etelka looked up when he returned from the cabin.
“Baroness…Etel….” he stumbled over her given name. “You want to discuss the ring?”
“Yes, Pool…Blackwood.” Pool had never heard her pronounce his given name before. No one but his long-dead mother ever called him by that, anyway.”
“‘Pool’ will do. That name never really suited me, I think.” He meant it.
Etelka stared intently at him, trying to read him—it was always very difficult for her to read the expressions of others. They all wore masks—or she just didn’t get their meaning—regardless, it was hard for her. She knew Pool was a dear friend, but sometimes he seemed an inscrutable automaton, a character in a story.
Etelka swallowed, her mania draining away. “P…Pool, with this ring…” she held it up between her right thumb and forefinger. It was much larger than a human would craft. Bright, yellow gold. The nyereg was necessary for humans to wear them. “This translates language to language by means of rakshasan magic, or as we say, technology, though we do not as yet understand it.”
“And the reason for translating?”
“In the Schwarzwald, Fekete-erdő, also known in Brethmanic as the Black Forest—as you know—we encountered a race…a species never before documented on Terra.”
“I sincerely desire to document them, to discover them and uncover their culture.”
“Baroness, I had always assumed that you were primarily interested in mechanical devices.”
Etelka tilted her head in the way that a parent often does with a child. “I am interested in everything, Constable Pool.”
Work in progress. Mistakes and misspellings are present. This is a very rough draft. Copyright 2021 Ion Fyr
#science fiction #fantasy #scifi #writing
Ion Fyr 