SAM
Indeed, dessert was a Spire.
Of chocolate.
It started white. Then turned a variety of colors, each increasing in flavor. Sweet. Fruity. Tart. Spicy. Full-force ice berry. Then dark. And darker. The innermost ring was almost bitter, every bite perfection.
“Amazing,” Cora and I said at the same time.
Giggling, I turned to her, “We really do need to figure out how to pull food from our dreams so we can do this again.”
“Oh yeah, let’s get on that, Sam,” she chuckled.
“Fantastic! As soon as you do, please hail me. Telepathically shout—or I suppose a message will do. I must tell Gran of this new gift,” Jax said.
What was the deal with the matriarch who needed to know what the Talented were doing in Uru?
“You keep talking about your grandmother. Is she a dreamer too?” I asked, honing in on Jax.
He waved, “Gran hasn’t the time for pandering about at night; she’s far too busy with court affairs.”
“Well, that clears everything right up,” Cora said flatly, and I laughed.
Ree chuckled with me, her eyes flicking from Jax to me. Was I supposed to be putting pieces of a puzzle together? Were we playing a game? If so, I didn’t know the rules.
“Do Cora and I need to understand the cultures of Five Spheres?” I wondered since our hosts seemed to be giving us a tour of local ingredients and customs.
Stolen novel; please report.
“The backbone of civilizations are foundational, don’t you think?” Jax said unhelpfully.
Games.
We were playing games. But what were they trying to show us? I tried to think like my best friend Rhoda. What would she be doing in this situation?
Loving it, no doubt.
Jax talked about the exports of Five Spheres as though they were products personally developed by people ee knew. Then said “we imagined it into existence” about Uru.
Who was the “we?”
Were Jax and Ree related to the founders of Five Spheres? And why were they so personally invested in the agriculture? My eyes flicked to the balcony railing—fantasy creatures. Ree’s favorites.
There were dots here. I knew I could connect them.
Talented had been here for generations.
There were seelies in the street. Telepaths like Jax, probably. Were there more? People who made bannisters into mermaids with their minds? Talents like Borden Sloans?
Borden didn’t create Uru. Someone else did.
Who?
Jax’s Gran was too busy holding court to be a dreamer. Did she have something to do with all of the agro-domes? How they grew all these local ingredients in a climate too harsh for warm-weather produce like corn and melons?
We’d gotten a lecture from Ree and Jax last night about the exports of Five Spheres and Borden Sloan’s miracle marble cache.
Remembering the search Ree did last night at Encore, I pulled out my pad and flicked my fingers across the screen. I’d start with something basic.
Search: So you’ve moved to Five Spheres economy exports
Results: link So You’ve Moved To Five Spheres Top Exports
Ice marble
Ice berries
Ice shrimp and mussels
The list went on… too boring to follow. Cora took the pad and entered new criteria.
Search: So you’ve moved to five spheres ministry trade guild
Results: link So You’ve Moved To Five Spheres List Of Ministers By Guild
We scrolled the endless list of names, and Cora paused once she found the one she was looking for.
Oh no, we weren’t looking at agriculture. Not even the same wheelhouse.
“Tell me your Gran isn’t Brill Sloan, Andromeda’s Galactic Minister of Technology,” Cora accused Jax.
In response, Jax held a palm open on the table. A stream of white particles flowed from the nearby salt cellar into es hand, twisted into a funnel cloud, then formed a likeness of Ree’s face. The crystals solidified for a few precious seconds, then broke apart, winding their way to a napkin Jax twisted up and set aside.
Cora and I gaped.
I looked at Jax’s blank face, truly seeing it for the first time. Unassuming. Kind. Flexibly principled.
Shrewd.
“You’re somehow related to Borden Sloan?” I guessed.
Jax nodded. “He’s my great-great grandpa, and you’re right to be thinking that there are Talented unimaginable hidden away in this system.”
