fandomhighdorms | 2nd Floor Common Room, Tuesday After Classes

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2nd Floor Common Room, Tuesday After Classes

It had been a while since Ender had put in any effort to spend time out in the open. He wasn't really avoiding anyone - he never really was - but he had been busy: with colonists, with research, with the mess going on in Ben's universe.

It had been a while, and he was planning to change that, at least right now.

So when his classes had finished, he ambled into the common room and put on a documentary about insect hives. Took out a notepad, just in case there was anything to take notes on that he didn't already know - he'd spent a lot of time comparing Earth insects to Formic behavior in his time - and sat back.

Maybe not the most fascinating material. But if worst came to worst, this was just going to be a quiet moment by himself. He was fine with that, too.

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"Not as many as there could have been, but I think we know some were inevitable," Gabrielle replied carefully; that admission said a lot about how her perspective had changed. "One of them was one of my closest friends, though."

Ender's expression softened. "I'm sorry," he said. "As useless as it sounds."

"It's all right. And thank you," Gabrielle replied quietly, giving him a smile to show she meant it, and appreciated the 'useless' gesture. "I think it's safe to say she's been avenged."

"Who was she?" Ender asked.

"Her name was Ephiny." If that sounded a touch formal, it was just her bard's habits kicking in reflexively. "When I was first accepted into the tribe, she's the one who taught me everything about the Amazon way of life. She had the courage to marry a Centaur back when the peace between the Centaurs and Amazons was brand new and there was still distrust on both sides . . . one of the best warriors in the tribe, and the one I trusted more than anyone to rule while I'm away."

"She died in freedom. Fighting," Ender said. If there was a question mark hanging off that last word, that was probably because it was a masked prompt.

Gabrielle nodded. "The man who killed her told me it was his honor to defeat such a fine warrior," she said a little bitterly, but shook it off (though not without some effort). "She bought her scouts enough time to get back with the information we needed to mount a defense, though."

She chuckled once, without much humor. "Cheerful conversation, isn't it?"

"We're talking about the death of someone you love," Ender said quietly. "I have no desire for cheerful conversation."

He had a morbid sense of humor, but not about something like this.

"But at least her death was not in vain. It sounds like she wanted it that way."

Well, better to talk about Ephiny's death than her own, anyway. It didn't really seem fair that only one of them had gotten a second chance, so paying tribute to Ephiny was the least she could do.

"It's the only way she would ever have chosen to go," Gabrielle agreed. "I'm sorry -- I didn't mean to come in here and talk about depressing things, but it means a lot that you listened."

"It's fine," Ender said, a little encouraging smile on his face. "My world hasn't always been butterflies and rainbows, and I'd hardly expect anyone else to pretend theirs is."

He put his notepad aside. "So if you want to talk about it, I'm available," he said. "And if you don't, I'm sure I can pony up a number of meaningless but funny anecdotes."

"That almost sounds tempting," Gabrielle remarked, gesturing vaguely in the air with her index finger. "Seeing how many anecdotes you can come up with. I don't know what there is to say, though, besides how I miss her, and how much I owe her for how far I've come from being that little girl who could barely pick up a staff without dropping it."

"How did you meet?" he asked, leaning forward a little.

Sure, Ender, invite her to tell a story . . .

"That was the day I first met the Amazons," Gabrielle recalled; her expression went a little distant as she relaxed back into the chair. "We'd run into some of their scouts in the woods when some warlord's men attacked them -- trying to provoke outright war between them and the Centaurs. I ended up being granted a place in the tribe after I tried to save the princess's life, and Ephiny was assigned to giving me the crash course in Amazon ways. I still remember the look on her face when she saw what she had to work with."

She laughed.

"And her asking Xena how she put up with someone as annoying as me."

Call it a hunch on his part that she might need - or at least appreciate - the chance to tell this particular story.

He listened, though, and nodded along. "You seem to have worked out okay for her," he offered. "Though I don't know how much ass-kicking went into it."

Gabrielle considered for a moment. "Oh, a decent amount. I know she wasn't thrilled with my recent peaceful phase, but she never said a word about it to me. I'm just glad she gave me a chance."

As if she wasn't persistent enough to keep at people until they did.

"Well, clearly she saw something in you," Ender said. "Past whatever it was she thought she didn't see."

"She did," Gabrielle agreed, her voice going a touch husky. "I'll always be grateful for that."

It was hard not to wonder if Ephiny would have expected her to become what she had. She fell silent for a moment, just long enough to take a breath before looking at him. "But that's always how it seems to be with the important people in our lives, isn't it?"

"Is it?" Ender asked.

His own smile was deceptively vague.

It almost sounded like something Xena would say, usually when Gabrielle started to go off on a philosophical tangent. Much like she had now.

"I think so, anyway," she replied with a good-natured but self-deprecating smile of her own. "But that's my experience, not necessarily everyone else's."

"It's a good thing to be grateful for the people we've had in our lives, anyway," Ender ameliorated. "But they pass in and out; that's what people do."

"Does that mean they're any less important, though?" Gabrielle countered. "I travel all the time. I'm rarely ever in the same place for long, when I'm not here, and I'm lucky to see any of my friends more than twice a year unless they happen to be traveling with us. I don't count that against the place they hold in my life any more than I think someone might be less important to me because I only ever met them once but they had an impact on my life."

She might have had a point, but she was talking to Ender, who was making damned sure that he didn't get too close to about 95% of all the people he knew at Fandom -- not that he was going to say that.

"Of course they're important," he said. "I wasn't trying to imply they weren't."

"Sorry," Gabrielle -- quite used to dealing with that kind of stoicism -- said sheepishly. "I get like this sometimes when I latch onto an idea and . . ."

She waved her hands. "That kind of babbling is what Ephiny thought was so annoying for a long time."

"You're thoughtful," Ender noted. "By which I mean 'full of thoughts'. Naturally they're going to come spilling out from time to time."

If he sounded like he was teasing... well, he was.

Gabrielle laughed and ducked her head briefly to acknowledge the teasing. "That's been a problem my whole life. I've long since given up trying to stop them from spilling out. It's more a matter of learning how to channel them into something productive, now."

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