Not quite a shir-or passed before Anyu woke to strange distant sounds. Crawling out of bed, she looked at the indicator on her small electrolysis box. Thanks to the box she was able to breathe deeply over the night, filling her lungs with pure nirlar so she could rest wearing only one of her two ciphers. With an unhappy groan, she dressed and checked all survival gear before bringing the box with her to the outside.
A slightly older woman wearing a saffron kirtle under an emerald green side-less surcoat greeted her, a damp wind blowing her white silk veil away from her neatly braided black hair. Mocha skin against bright green eyes sparkled pleasingly, “Good morning. You are up late.”
“I … over slept.”
“So it would seem. My name is Marion.”
“Nice to meet you Marion. What is wrong with the fire?”
“It … overnight.”
“May I help?” offered Anyu.
“The wood … damp. … you re-ignite?”
“Watch,” grinned Anyu, opening the box and dumping the pure natrium onto the wet coals. The fire roared to life.
“How did you?”
“Science.”
“That box did not contain pure metallic sodium did it?”
Anyu listened to the translation in her ears, “Yes. My people call it natrium.”
“You had better not tell anyone else you have pure sodium. That stuff is dangerous. How do you have it?”
“The box makes it from that white compound served at dinner last night. I hope it was not a problem that I took some. I needed it for the box.”
“Why would you keep a box that breaks table salt into pure sodium and pure chlorine gas? That’s dangerous!”
“How do you know this, Marion?”
“I teach chemistry to unwilling young people at a school not far from here.
“I engineer. I needed.”
“In a tent? At a living history event?”
“I needed,” repeated Anyu.
“Why?” pressed Marion.
“Because I asked her to, of course,” replied Lord Christophe with a wink from behind Anyu’s back. Noticing him, Lady Marion bowed respectfully towards Christopher. Anyu turned to him with an incredulous, questioning look. Christopher put his arm protectively around Anyu’s shoulders whispering so only she could here, “Later!”
Christopher escorted Anyu away from the fire, “Lady Marion is not one to trifle with. She worked for yen-ars as the supervising chemist at a factory seven hundred li 里 from here before changing careers and obtaining her teaching license from the nearby university.”
“The cook fire was out; my box needed to be emptied. I could not think of a safer place to empty the box,” explained Anyu.
“Just do not permit Marion from seeing you use it. You were right the fire pit was the proper place for the natrium; it seems even more reactive in this bilast-filled atmosphere than back home. But be aware of this: many of the people at this living history recreation know their science. Not as well as we do and certainly not as well as one apprenticed by and serving as part of the engineers of Xing-li. You no doubt can astro-navigate and engineer circles around the best of their theoretical physicists. But they are not completely ignorant either. True, their theories about the universe are off, but they have managed to launch machines, even a few of their own people, beyond the confines of their own world,” clarified Christopher.
“But they are primitives!”
“Primitives still have eyes, ears, and technology – just different from ours, less evolved from our perspective,” cautioned Christopher. “Speaking of which, these people are experimenting with learning our kind of sword play. Would you like to show them what the grand-daughter of King Kendric can do with his sword?”
“Is that wise?”
“This is a heritage blade; I do not think they would notice the difference between their metallurgy and ours – at least not in this setting. Come! This is a celebration of their past. Let us join them. Once upon a time, I used to dally with a blade. Shall we practice together?”
Three xiao-shirs later, Anyu and Christopher reached the tournament field. King Gavin greeted Christopher warmly, “Ah there you are, Lord Christophe! I was wondering where you disappeared to. Now I understand!”
Christopher bowed, “Your majesty, do you know my old friend, Lady Anyu? She and I are from the same country, born in the same municipality as I’ve discovered.”
King Gavin raised his eyebrow warmly, “I did not know that. When she arrived we were not sure what to think.”
“Understandable. This is not our country nor our kingdom. It is true Anyu just arrived and is still learning the language. But we go way back in the old country,” explained Christopher.
“Good to hear! We were wondering if you had much of a past back home or if you just descended out of the sky and into our fellowship,” joked Gavin to Anyu’s horror.
Christopher guffawed, “Oh nothing so dramatic, Your Majesty!”
“Naturally,” chimed Gavin.
“Your majesty, with your permission, may we use the battlefield for some fencing practice?”
“You know of course it cannot be official – but if you like, the field is yours.”
Christopher bowed, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Christopher headed to a nearby tree against which stacked his heavy fencing tunic, sword in its sheath, gorget, gloves, hood, and fencing mask. From his gear, he tossed Anyu his extra hood, gorget, and fencing mask that he kept for those situations where a potential sparring partner lacked them. Anyu watched as Christopher donned his gear before following suit, the gorget proving to be difficult to fasten on in her heavy protective gauntlets. With a smile, Queen Tamera helped Anyu buckle on the gorget. Anyu bowed her head at the queen appreciatively.
Finally, with both readied, Christopher and Anyu walked to the specified battle field. Drawing their swords, they saluted one another before circling, their steps ritualized and precise, following Beinarian martial arts forms. To King Gavin, their steps looked like a variation on ba gua gongfu or perhaps wudang gongfu. Anyu circled patiently, then slashed and lunged with her sword. Christopher parried, redirecting the momentum of Anyu’s lung back at her. Un-phased, Anyu used the skirt of her dress to her advantage in concealing her next move, effectively landing a clean blow on Christopher’s gauntleted right hand which he put behind his back in recognition of the hit.
Undaunted by the princess’ success, Christopher attacked fiercely. Anyu counter-parried with a swift slash to Christopher’s back. Acknowledging the hit, Christopher “played dead” by crimpling to the ground. King Gavin applauded as Christopher rose, sheathing his sword and bowing politely to Anyu, whispering in her ear, “Well done. Our cover is now restored.” Anyu bowed with her eyes in response.
The local sun rose and fell with remarkable swiftness, the sky returning to its velvety blackness soaked in stars from thousands of galaxies, near and far. Instead of dining with Baroness Cindy and Baron Geoffrey, Lady Anyu dined at Christopher’s left hand before walking with him in the starlight. At length relative to the wheeling sky, Christopher turned to her, “I have a favor to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Sleep with me tonight.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Not like that. I would not dream of such things without a legal betrothal. I am an honorable peer of Beinan, after all.”
“I do not understand.”
“My tent is large enough for both of us. I propose you move your belongings to my tent and sleep under my roof – where your electrolysis box will not be noticed as unusual and where it can do no harm to anyone else. I need nirlar as much as you do. But to the natives of this world, contact with pure nirlar is as deadly as bilast and dilast are to us.”
“Very well then,” consented Anyu, heading to Baroness Cindy and Baron Geoffrey’s tent to gather her belongings. Five xiao-shirs later, she carried everything she owned to Ch
ristopher’s tent, setting up her bed on the opposite side of the tent. From the door flap of his pavilion Christopher watched her with a smile before slipping off into the woods.