Part Two
~Fan Fiction~
160.5.18
Hurvig waited patiently for his sister in her private sitting room. It was a smallish room, designed years ago by one of the old D'ni survivors and was said to be in the traditional D'ni style. His sister put a lot of store in being traditional. Even here in her private apartments, unseen by any but the closest family, she maintained this position.
Luesa entered the room apologizing. She doted on her young brother, and was the only living person who treated him with both deep respect and unalloyed affection. Hurvig loved his sister. She was, in many ways, more a mother to him than their mother had been.
"I couldn't hurry Ch'ana, Hurvig. I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. She is the wife of the newest Great Lord and I'm cultivating her studiously." She said as she settled in close to him for one of their confidential chats. She and her brother held closely similar views and often confided in and advised each other.
"Oh, quite the right thing, Luesa. No need to apologize. I'd have done the same. We can't let these opportunities slip by us!" he replied with a warm smile of approbation.
"She tells me that she's heard that the submissions for the design of the new city will begin to be accepted in a few months time. The announcement of the project and the request for designs will be made very soon. So, tell me. What was the cavern like?" she said in a low conspiratorial voice.
"Well worth the trip. Very well worth the trip." Hurvig began, basking in the warm glow of her rapt attention, and the undivided loyalties behind it. "It's huge. Well supported. Solid rock everywhere. Not much rock fall for eons, so it looks stable. A good brisk river running right through the middle. The surveyors have checked all the surrounding rock to make sure our building and tunneling won't weaken the structure of the cavern. I made extensive measurements and drawings, noting the rock formations carefully."
"I suppose Master Sigo sent you hopping around doing all the work as usual. Did he claim your notes afterward? Could you remember them all? You have such a splendid memory." She said with a doting smile.
"I told him they were jumbled gibberish and had gotten wet when my pack fell into the river, and begged to be allowed to write them up neatly before he saw them. I showed his such a mass of ugly jottings that he agreed. I made him a good clean report and kept the rest for myself. I even managed to copy off some of the maps sent over to the guild by the cartographers. I had plenty of time to make sure I had all the needed materials for my own project before he remembered to ask for my damaged notes as well. They allayed his suspicion, and I'm sure no one else has even the slightest thought that I'd want to submit a design of my own."
"They're always underestimating you, Hurvig." His loyal sister said, patting his arm. She felt, as much as he did, that someday he'd surprise them all. "Is there something special you want to discuss? My husband will be home soon."
"I heard that the young people, Tewa and Eamon, are coming here tomorrow night to ask Klayo if they can go to Sea Cliff to look the place over. Their father seems to feel it will be a safe adventure for them to be allowed to visit Tigano and Sea Cliff. Give them a better idea of their family heritage." He said the last phrase with a sharp edge to his voice.
His sister knew exactly what he was thinking. After the fall of D'ni their great family, once numerous and noble in rank, had been reduced to this single pair of siblings and their now dead mother who had depended on the charity of others to survive. While the family of her husband, the heirs of a merchant, had become very rich and increasingly powerful, Luesa and Hurvig had had to struggle for the opportunities they would have automatically been given in Old D'ni. She waited silently, knowing he had a point to make.
"I know that Klayo wasn't terribly pleased to have inherited Sea Cliff House while his elder, though certainly less socially worthy brother, inherited the rest of the Age and that gorgeous mansion in New D'ni itself." He said, playing on his sister's feelings.
Hurvig saw his sister's eyes narrow at the thought. He resumed. "Now it seems his younger brother's children have an interest in that house and want to visit it. Who knows if they were put up to it by someone else, or whether it's their own idea, but if something of interest and value is to be found there, surely it should belong exclusively to Klayo... and to you and your family."
He paused here and watched, waiting as she thought this through. He could read her thoughts and emotions from the expressions on her face, fleeting and minute as they were, as she pondered the implications of his words. Finished, she simply looked at him, awaiting his next suggestion.
"They really ought not be sent there alone. Someone representing your immediate family ought to be there to keep an eye on your interests." He said. "Of course, you, with your social obligations, and Klayo with his work, can't really spare the time, but I might be able to get away, and I've been wanting to check the library there at Sea Cliff for some time, to see if there are any books that might have anything of value in my profession. Even a book of children's stories might be useful, if it has drawings that show D'ni architecture."
"Of course!" she breathed in an enthusiastic whisper. "You really ought to have access to that house and its library. If anyone could make good use of any information laying around there, it would be you, Hurvig."
She paused a moment, lost in thought. Klayo was ambitious, but he tended to be wary of ambition in others. Telling him that Hurvig wanted to use anything he might find at Sea Cliff to further his own career might not be well received. Another tack was indicated.
Suddenly smiling, she leaned in closer and confided, "Klayo was so annoyed when the distributions of property were read and he was given 'that pile of rocks on a cliff,' as he calls it, that he failed to consider that he had no direct link to the house. Apparently Ga'nerin never created any linking books that go directly to Sea Cliff House. He rarely went there after the family moved to New D'ni. It's been lying neglected... oh a hundred and fifty years or more. Klayo was so young when they left it for the last time, he doesn't remember anything about it except that his father always referred to it as a rustic camp of a place, and his mother wouldn't speak of it at all."
"They were there when D'ni fell, I understand. Perhaps there were such painful memories, she couldn't bear to think of the place." Hurvig said.
"Very likely," his sister said, waving her hand in dismissal. "In any case, she never returned there. Well, as I said, Klayo was so annoyed that he left the reading ceremony in frigid silence, never bothering to ask Selamin to have a Book made. That was three months ago, and at first I was inclined to dismiss the house as worthless. Recently, I've had second thoughts."
"It occurs to you that possessing a pre-Fall D'ni-made home may be a social advantage." Hurvig interrupted smoothly. "It may very well be a worthless pile of stones, but it might be wise to judge that for ourselves before we dismiss it."
"Precisely," she said, taking up the thread. "If it's suitable, or could be made suitable, it would be a good place to entertain. A chic little get-away, almost as good as having our own Age to invite people to. When I first mentioned this to Klayo, he wasn't very enthusiastic. What good is a hovel, even a pre-Fall hovel, he asked me. He said he'd like to have a look at it, but, as you say, he finds it very difficult to leave his work, and since there is no direct link, he'd have to spend a full day walking there, after he links to Selamin's Tigano City Book Room, and then there is the time it would take to write the Linking Book home."
"Not to mention that he might not find the house in any fit condition to inhabit while he's there." Hurvig added, joining his sister in a smile of mutual understanding. That point would certainly figure in her conversation with Klayo.
"It isn't just anyone he could trust to have first access to that house, and with Eamon and Tewa eager to go and no good excuse to put them off, he'll find himself in a tight situation. He doesn't dare risk alienating his brothers, who would be sure to think him unreasonable and take offense if he refuses." Luesa said, rehearsing what she'd say to her husband.
"And who better to send than I, your only living relative, a man who venerates and supports my dear sister's husband in any humble capacity my talents can offer." Hurvig said, finishing the thought for her.
It was soon settled between them, and before retiring for the night, Klayo had decided it was a very good idea he'd had to send Hurvig along with his brother's children to Sea Cliff House.
The twins, when they heard it, were less than thrilled. They managed not to cry out in protest, but their dismay showed briefly in their faces before they could bring their features under control. Seeing this, Klayo was more convinced of his brilliant foresight, putting him in very good humor. The twins' father nervously offered them their choice of another destination, and tried not to look too relieved when they politely repeated their desire to go to Sea Cliff. Selamin, though somewhat annoyed with Klayo's lack of respect for family tradition and the unspoken distrust behind the maneuver, said nothing. The rest of the dinner passed off dully and without incident. The twins and Hurvig went their separate ways after promising to meet in two days time at the Book Room at Selamin's town house.
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