We tasted his grief at the death of Lores Vibben, but I had Vance pass along quickly to spare us the empathic pain. We clung to him through several exhilarating dogfights, sharing the joy of virtuoso manoeuvres and expert kills. We watched as he saved my life, or the lives of my companions, over and again.
We listened at a dinner table while he made the company roar and clap with an outrageous tale well told. It made all three of us laugh out loud. We saw him, in silence, studying a regicide board and trying to fathom out how Bequin had managed to beat him again. We watched him, through a blizzard of coloured streamers, take his bride to the altar of the High Church at Glavia Glavis. I glimpsed myself, alongside Fischig, Alizebeth and Aemos, in the front pew, cheering and ringing our ceremonial bells with the rest of the congregation.
That's my mother!' Medea whispered. The veiled woman on Midas's arm was stunning, exquisite. Jarana Shayna Betancore. Midas always did have such good taste. Jarana lived still, far away on Glavia, a distinguished widow and director of a shipwrighting firm. 'She looks so young/ Medea added. There was a note of sadness in her voice. She hadn't been back to Glavia to visit her mother for many years.
Then, almost as if we were intruding, we saw Midas and Jarana embracing on the shores of Taywhie Lake. Midas was beside himself with happiness and excitement.
'Really? Really?' he kept asking.
'Yes, Midas. Really. I'm really pregnant/
I looked at Medea, saw the tears in her eyes.
"We should stop now, I think/1 said.
'No, I want to see more/ she said.
"We should/ I advised. I could tell that Vance was getting tired. And I knew it wouldn't be long before we stumbled into memories of Fayde Thuring and the last hours. 4Ve should stop. We-'
I was cut off by the sudden shrilling of my communicator. I cursed loudly. Kircher had been told: no interruptions.
The sound shattered the seance at once. The blue light flashed and vanished, and the room returned to normal with a sudden lurch that blew out the candles and cast us painfully out of the warp. Vance slumped forward, breathing hard, in distress. My head ached with a sudden piercing pain. Medea pulled the jacket towards her across the table and buried her head into its silk folds, sobbing. The walls were sweating.
Damn Kircher. Seances shouldn't be broken like that. Any one of us could have been badly damaged by the abrupt termination. As it was, we were all emotionally dazed.
I got up. 'Stay here/ I said to them both. Take a moment to recover.' Vance nodded feebly. Medea was lost in her own storm of feelings.