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.“First the attack on the Zimmer.Then our ti'Linn moving in.Then the ti'Linn response to what they saw as the Empress's involvement.And then Ulandadropping into.” And himself following.Or had he? At a touch, the Net restraints crumbled.The toast was a mound of crumbs before he finished reviewing Bolda’sLaurel Hickeywww.2morrow.bc.caEye of the Ocean – Book 1: Ji’Jin Stationanalyses.He picked the plate up and put it on the service tray, then added anorder in the domestic link for breakfast to be brought to him.Eunni was back to feeding the kitten.A fresh tea service was on the floor just inside the door, he hadn't noticed it being delivered.Neither Alicia or Eunni had retrieved it.Placement had Ulanda in the bathhouse.“I'll join her there,” he said as he gotup.Then to Alicia, “You look as though you could use a break.Why don't youcome?” His wife shared a look with Eunni.“Am I missing something here?” heasked.“Apparently not,” Eunni said dryly.“You were explaining what happened,” Alicia said.Explain? He shook his head.“I don't know.”“So you said before.” She took a step closer.“Just describe what happenedthen.”The memories were too close, as though tissue paper was all that separatedhim from where he had been and he had to resist the urge to look through thebedroom door.Without answering, he walked past her to the window.The rainhad stopped.He wished it would keep on, that the sun wouldn't come out.From the window, he could see shrubs and a little further, one corner ofanother pavilion.Eunni's.Then the wall of the common, vines climbing the sides until the tiles became sky and the plants lost their grip, as fooled as his eyes were at the illusion.Birds flickered among the vines, seen only by the leaves moving and flashes of yellow in the distance.Birds in the design of the rug - he looked at the rug a while, then knelt, facing the altar, chest level to the shallow bowlformed where the shell flared out in a last spiral.The box of joss sticks was of heavy reed corded around with black silk, theopening at one end.Rit shook a single stick out.Lavender scented, black in color.At the scent, the image came to him of a garden in the snow, and he saw it first as though from very close, the pale gray-green leaves of the lavender plantsfilling his vision, each narrow leaf with a cap of white and on the winter blasted flower stalks, an irregular frosting of snow.Snow still fell, tiny dry flakes.He must have stepped back - now he could see an oval raised bed of lavender plantswith a walkway around.He placed the new stick upright into the sand next to the burnt-out stubs.Inprivate, Alicia mustn't follow the Zimmer custom of laying the sticks out, and he found himself grateful of that, not wanting to see any pattern that might havebeen formed by ash and stick.From the brazier by the breakfast table, Alicia brought a coal - holding it with tongs - to light the stick.She didn't say anything.Gray smoke coiled then rose steadily.No breeze, there should have been, thewindow was open and there was enough of a wind to move the leaves of thevines.He checked: barrier-style warding surrounded the pavilion.Laurel Hickeywww.2morrow.bc.caEye of the Ocean – Book 1: Ji’Jin StationHe held his hand out and Alicia took it, then after putting the coal and tongs on the side of the altar, knelt next to him.Ash fell from the ember, showing the red heart underneath.“What is the design of the rug?” he asked.Alicia frowned and looked, goingbackwards a bit, still on her knees.She ran one hand across the wool and silksurface, fanning the soft fibers.“Flowers,” she said.“Roses.For the Zimmer, I suppose.Birds.For Cassa.Orthe soul, the passage from life to death.I'm not sure.Li-cassa flowers on the border, maybe they're for her and not the birds.The tree, from what you had said from your vision in the diamond, are the branches of probability.Or the different realities.”Her sentences were choppy, she must be thinking hard in between.He hadn'tasked for the meanings.“A vine, not a tree,” he said.“A rose vine.”Alicia drew her hand back from the rug as quickly as she had from him whenhe had flinched at her touch.She licked her lips.Eunni came over.“Is the symbolism different? Vine to tree? Alicia? It's alwaysbeen a tree, hasn't it?”His wife shook her head, still frowning.“I'm not sure.When I said it, therewasn't any doubt in my mind that it was, but now, I just don't know.”Rit looked again, feeling the pile of the rug with his fingers.The vine was still there, coiled around the tree, even thorns if you searched for the shading ofcolor.But where the vine lay over the tree, further down on the tuft of wool, the color changed from greenish-brown to the dark ochre bark of the ni'at and belowthat, cool yellow shot with purple.The wood the pavilion in the garden had been made of.The heart of the tree.As though the tree was rising to existence, coming up out of the rug
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