Category: Freebies

by Siri Paulson Marius glanced up from the airshipman’s breeches he was mending as the front window of his shop darkened. Someone had passed close by and was now standing in the doorway, blocking the light. A tall, bulky someone. Marius bit back his annoyance. “Come in, good sir, and tell me what Marius the Tailor can do for you.” A deep voice rumbled, “I’m told you have the finest eye in town.” Marius stared at the long justacorps coat his visitor carried, dyed in the richest red Marius had ever seen, outside of royalty. He strode to the table where Marius was sitting near the window and dumped the coat on top of the trousers. “Can you mend this?” The coat was a fine velvet. He resisted the urge to stroke it. “Is this…cochineal dye?” “That’s not your concern. Can you do it or not?” Marius flipped the coat over. A long slash ran through the right front, cutting through intricate gold braid detailing that matched the wide cuffs and pockets. The frayed edges of the braid made his heart ache. But the velvet fabric had been cut cleanly. If he patched the lining together from the inside, mended the tear with his tiniest stitches, and then covered it over by matching the braided pattern on the left front… “Yes,” he said, and looked up. His customer wore an ivory brocade jacket, a beautifully cut white linen blouse, and a tricorn hat. The only thing that ruined the effect…

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by Siri Paulson   Oyez! Oyez! Gather, people of Epsilon Dome City, and listen to the data! This bard standing before you has made her rounds through your neighbour, Gamma, for many years. They have known her since her implant was new, her limbs straight and her eyes clear. They are a small community with many small data of news, none significant except to those within that dome, and so she is the only bard that visits. Yet this bard has made her rounds faithfully and spoken to them the data from outside. She has listened and remembered. She has imparted, to the best of her ability given the needs of her audiences, the data from Gamma to other domes, so that all may hear and know. Yet when she landed her flyer in Gamma Dome City ten days past, something was different. # A man from Gamma asked her once, several years ago, whether she remembered every data she heard. She said yes, of course. That was what the implant was for. Then he asked her whether she told every data she heard. Are no conversations private, he asked. She told him that part of the training to be a bard was discerning what to tell and to whom. The confidence of a friend, a family matter that has no bearing on others, those things may be kept silent. Then how, he asked, may we trust that you are not keeping other things silent. How do we know that…

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