Editing Rivers Between Us (section)

==Epilogue==

The frame was nearly completed.  Struts of alloy had been welded to the chassis, wrapping snuggly around the essence collectors and mist generators in a scaled down, modestly constructed version of its first age predecessors.  The clockwork efficacy servitors worked silently around him, never questioning, never speaking.  Rivers Between Us worked alone in the dream and the nightmare of the subterranean fortress, the Infinite City.

“Brother?”

[[Marta]] entered accompanied by a folding servant.  She was still small, like her brother, though the past year and the many preparations for the wedding had given her a deeper bloom.  She was becoming a woman; her eyes no longer shined with the bright, tenuous hope of her childhood.  They were somehow softer, more lovely, with the wisdom gained by living through the events of the past years.  She entered wearing the same dress she had worn last time she had entered the Infinite City, but her solemn expression was so changed that she was barely recognizable as the same person.

“Ah.  Marta.  What are you doing in this horrible place?  The Halls of Venus are not for the living, not these days.”  He bent over his blueprints and began flipping through them.

“I was looking for you… you know, after the prayer, I thought you were going to start living in the Retreat again…”

“I was.”

“But I haven’t seen you… for almost three months now.”

Rivers winced and grabbed a wrench.  He half ran to the project and began tightening bolts.  The servitors looked at him with confusion for a moment, then began following him and loosening the bolts to the appropriate level of tension.  Marta did not notice.

“Is it true… about the wedding?”

Rivers dropped the wrench.  “Blast those spies.  I told them to get back to work.  Will they never stop watching me?”

“Oh…”

He placed both hands on the frame and leaned over it, staring at the floor.  “I’m sorry.  I just… really needed… uh…”

“No, it’s all right, I understand completely…”  She began blinking rapidly.  Her voice caught in her throat, and she found herself looking for a place to sit.

The sorcerer stood and drew his robes about himself.  He stepped over to her slowly and lifted one hand to hold the back of her head gently.  “There’s more, actually.  Marta… sister… you have someone else to look out…”

“Will you be there?”  She interrupted him breathlessly.  “It’s just a couple of months away.  You can wait that long, right?  You haven’t finished your project.”

Rivers’ face became blank.  He too had changed much in the past year; though he was still shorter than all of his automatons, his hair had grown into an unruly tangle, constantly on the verge of sweeping into his face.  His round face had lost the boyish glow and feverish tinge that had flushed it for so long, the features hardening through the rigorous training of the snake style.  His voice was even, almost flat when he spoke the words, as though they were a scripture written in stone since the beginning of time.

“I will always be there for you.”


----
[[River's Contacts]]

[[Heaven's Mandate]]