The wash of warm air pouring in through the screen door was heavy with the scent of flowers in bloom. As they stepped out onto the porch, Kala closed her eyes and let it engulf her completely, a quiet breeze moving across her skin in a gentle rhythm, like the earth itself was breathing.“Come on, out here.” She opened her eyes at the sound of Cero’s voice; he had already stepped down into the grass beyond the wooden porch slats, his bare brown toes wiggling against the verdure. A thin blanket hung from his shoulders like a cape, and Kala smiled a little at the sight.“Are you a superhero?” she teased, following him into the yard proper.“Oh, yes, I’m a superhero who grows flowers.” He laughed, sounding not at all displeased by the prospect. “Or maybe that’s just my secret identity. Maybe I take the shop apron off and untie my hair and then even my own girlfriend can’t recognize me.” He swished the blanket around, affecting a mysterious look as he held it up in front of his face. Kala laughed.“Cero, I think I would recognize you no matter what disguise you were wearing.” She tugged playfully at the blanket, unhooking it from the shoulders of his beaten white tank top; it slid to the ground, and he feigned a pout as he picked it up and brushed away the leaves that clung to the surface.“You made me drop it,” he said in mock-accusation.“And you’re worried about a little dirt?” Kala winked, and he grinned and shook his head.“No. I was the kid who actively avoided baths and showers until I was ten years old. I garden for a living. Dirt can’t scare me.” He shook the quilt off and crossed the yard, passing the elaborately-arranged plots of flowers and bulbs on the garden side in favor of a pair of gnarled, aged-looking oaks at the far edge, near the fence. A wide Eno hammock had been strung up between them, and he tossed the blanket inside and gestured at it grandly. “Come have a seat.”Kala approached with interest, slipping her shoes off at the base of one of the trees and gazing at the arrangement curiously. The hammock was obviously not a recent addition to the yard; although it was well-cared for, the wear and tear of time was evident over the woven surface, patches and mends decorating it here and there in cheerful, mismatched colors. Vines from the anchor trees had twisted themselves into the ropes, forming a living tether to accompany the strong hemp cords already holding the hammock in place.“How long has this been here?” she asked.“My mom and dad put it up for us when I was nine,” Cero said with a fond pat to one of the further tree’s knobs. He was already sitting in the hammock, his feet dangling a few inches from the ground as he swung serenely back and forth. “I don’t think we’ve ever untied it since then. My grandmother and I have just patched it up whenever it gets a hole.”“It certainly has a history.” Kala whistled and took her seat beside Cero, tensing unconsciously as the fabric canopy sagged beneath her weight. The tree branches creaked, and she gave him an uncertain glance.“It’ll hold,” Cero said confidently. “My brother still sits in it sometimes with his wife and their daughter, and they’re heavier than we are together.”“This is the one with the odd name.” Kala leaned back slowly, but the trees did not seem inclined to make any more noises, and she gradually let herself relax, the swaying motion oddly soothing.“Which one?” Cero chuckled. “We all have odd names. My parents are a little eccentric.”“Thelo?” Kala raised one eyebrow. “I think that was the name I remember.”“That’s the name he prefers.” He nodded. “My oldest brother. He doesn’t come here much anymore; he and his wife both have jobs now and they work a couple of shifts each, and then they have a three-year-old to take care of on top of that.”“How old are they?” Kala asked.“Thelo’s twenty-four, and Nyl is twenty-one.” Cero paused and rubbed his chin. “Well, I think. Don’t quote me on that.”“That’s young to already have a three-year-old and two jobs. How do they manage?” Kala’s eyes widened in amazement.“Sometimes badly,” Cero snorted. “Nyl had Ivy when she was eighteen and they weren’t married. My parents weren’t really happy. They just got married in the last year, and she’s doing school and working a few shifts on the side while he hires out with different design companies. His degree is in 3D computer modeling, so it’s not bad work, but it’s a lot of work.”“That sounds hard,” Kala said quietly.“It is. But they’ll be all right, I think. They’re digging themselves out of the hole they made, and we’re all proud of them. And they know that my parents and grandparents and my sister and I would help them if they ever needed it.” Cero shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Not that they’d ask. They’re both cut from the same stubborn mold.”“Like Isa,” Kala said with a faint smile. “And Killian.”“Isa and Killian don’t hold a candle to Nyl and Thelo,” Cero laughed. “They’re downright compliant.”“And how did you come to be the brother of someone so utterly different from you?” Kala grinned in amusement.Cero shrugged. “We got uneven splits in the gene pool, if you ask me. My brothers got all the stubbornness, my sister got the feisty sarcasm, and I got…this.” He spread his hands around and gestured at the yard. “Peace, tranquility, and a green thumb. Which isn’t a bad trade, in my opinion.”“And kindness, gentleness, cheerfulness, humor, and a knack for solving problems,” Kala added, counting them off on her fingers.“Well, thank you for saying so.” He leaned back fully with the blanket hiked up around his waist, one leg hanging lazily off the side of the hammock. “Although I don’t know where you get the problem-solving part. I usually just sit back and wait until problems are easier to solve.”“Sometimes that’s a good way to solve them,” Kala laughed. “I just meant that you never overcomplicate things, and you always look for ways to mediate between other people. You’re a peacemaker, and I admire it.”“Kala, if I were half the peacemaker you are, I think I could help establish peace for the whole world.” Cero smiled contentedly. “I accept all your compliments, but I have to say you’re a better mediator and seeker of balance than I could ever be or hope to meet. I admire you.” He winked playfully. “Plus, you’re beautiful, and that’s definitely not a bad thing.”“I wish the first thing was as important as the second thing in terms of making international relations, but apparently for a woman in my field, beauty is everything.” Kala felt heat flood her cheeks, her hands clenching unconsciously into tight fists that pressed her nails into the heels of her palms.Cero noticed, and he sat up a little, eyebrows raised inquisitively. “What do you mean? Did something happen?”“Nothing important.” Kala sighed and rested her elbows on her knees.“It’s important to me.” He reached out and squeezed her arm, the closest thing he could reach. “Tell me, Kala. I promise I won’t make fun of you.”The sincerity in his eyes brought the tide of words rushing out, burning as much as they had in Kala’s heart where she had stored them up. “All the political sciences classes are mostly men, and they…they don’t understand that what I want is to use my mind and my words to make real, lasting peace as an ambassador. They think that a woman’s only place in the international field is to useother means to secure friendships.” Her eyes narrowed, and she shook her head. “They won’t listen to anything I say, Cero! It’s frustrating and humiliating and demeaning and I just…I just want to go home sometimes. I want to quit.”There; she had said it, and now it was out there, hanging in the air with the floral tang and the heavy warmth of the drowsy Virginia spring. Kala closed her eyes and bowed her head, willing herself not to cry and make the embarrassment that much worse.The gentle touch of a hand on her shoulder made her look up, biting her lip hard to keep her expression under control. Cero’s face had become utterly serious and still, and he looked at her with such intensity that Kala had to shut her eyes again momentarily just to hold her composure.“They don’t know anything,” he said quietly. “They don’t know anything, and they certainly don’t know you. And if that’s all they think you’re capable of, then I would hate to be them when you’re changing the world and they’re stuck in office jobs they don’t want.”“But…Cero, what if they’re right?” Kala whispered harshly. “What if no one ever takes me seriously, just because I’m a woman? What can I do then?” The unfairness of it stung bitterly, a sour taste against her tongue, and she shook her head.“I take you seriously,” he said simply. “I think you can do anything. And if you walk with your head held high and don’t listen to what they say about you, then they’ll notice, and they’ll respect you.” He folded his hands, face pensive for a second. “You want to know what my sister’s friends said to her when she said she wanted to join the Air Force?”“What?” Despite herself, Kala felt the tug of curiosity, faint and unyielding beneath the settled unhappiness.“They said she’d quit after a year,” Cero said quietly. “They said she’d drop out because she wasn’t tough enough and even in the Air Force they don’t take women seriously. You want to know what she’s doing now?”“What?”He smiled, a trace of unusual pride in the expression. “Telling people what to do. In the Air Force. She didn’t quit, and now she’s giving people orders, and they respect what she says. She took herself seriously first, and when people found out she wasn’t going to back down, they looked away. That’s what you have to do, Kala. You have to walk and talk like you think there’s no reason for anyone not to take you seriously. Eventually, they’ll figure out that they can’t go on treating you this way.”“It’s hard,” Kala said softly.“Yes.” Cero nodded. “It is. But you can’t quit. This is what you’ve always wanted to do, and it’s where you belong. You can make such a huge difference, Kala; quitting would be unfair to the world and unfair to you, because it lets them win. You quitting means they win. Don’t let them win. Show them what Kala Sveta can do.”“I can’t do it alone, Cero.” She raised a hand and pressed it against her eyes. “I can’t keep sitting in there alone and listening to all of that.”She was surprised when he reached out and pulled her into a gentle, affectionate hug. “You aren’t alone,” he said into her ear. “I’m sitting right there with you. So’s Isa, and so’s Killian, and Ammi, and Kol, and your sister, and your aunt and uncle, and your parents, and everyone else who loves you. And when those guys start talking like you aren’t there, you don’t have to answer with just your voice. Diplomats never speak just for themselves, anyway. They make peace for whole nations.”His words seared her heart with their innocent sincerity, and Kala wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight, feeling a lump forming in her throat.“Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll try.”“You’ll do it.” He patted her hair. “I know you will. You’re Kala, and Kala’s an amazing person.” When she looked up at him, his smile was soft. “She’s the most amazing person I know.” They settled back in silence after that, and Cero didn’t know if what he’d said was enough, but Kala laid her head on his chest and clasped his hand in hers, and he was content to let his presence speak for itself. He wouldn’t be going anywhere.Fireflies began to twinkle in the dimming air, the little lights winking on and off inside the bowls of the flowers or behind the buds and leaves on the trees. One of them landed on the edge of the Eno, crawling a short distance before taking off again in a faint flash. Cero remembered catching fireflies with Cysei when they were children, and how she had always managed to chase down the ones that were intent on getting away. Persistent and fierce; that was Cysei, and it was Kala, too, in a different sort of way.He wasn’t sure exactly when she drifted into sleep, only that her fingers had relaxed slightly in his, her breathing evening out into a deeper rhythm. He curled an arm around her shoulder and held her close, peering down at her face where the soft moonlight poured over it. She really was beautiful, but there was so much more to her than that.“I can see you, Kala,” Cero said quietly. “I can, and I always will.”He closed his eyes and spoke no more.
