Gathering Blue

Matt, Branch, Kira, and Thomas are investigating the floor of the Edifice beneath the one on which Kira and Thomas. Branch is usually eager to run through new places, but now he’s quiet and cautious—indeed, the only sounds are the tap of Kira’s walking stick and her lame leg. Kira hears Jamison’s voice around the corner. Even though Jamison has been her defender in court, and in large part the reason why she lives in the Edifice now, she is afraid of him in this moment.

Kira hears a child’s cry, following by Jamison’s voice. Then, she hears a child singing, in a high, clear voice. Then the child begins to cry again, and Jamison speaks again, in a harsh tone that Kira’s never heard before. After listening to the child’s voice, Matt whispers to Kira that the child is a friend of his, Jo, who lived in the Fen. Kira, Matt, and Thomas decide to return to Kira’s room and talk there.

Back in Kira’s room, Matt explains how he knows the child from the lower floor. She was a gifted singer, he explains, and brought joy to everyone in the Fen who heard her. She is an orphan now, since her mother and father died—the same thing that happened to both Thomas and Kira’s parents, they note. The child’s mother died of sickness, Matt says, and her father stabbed himself in the Field after taking his dead wife there. Kira finds it difficult to believe that a man would kill himself and leave behind a tyke. Thomas notes that orphans are always passed on to other family, “unless they sing.”

Later in the day, Jamison comes to Kira’s room. By this time, Thomas has returned to work and Matt has left the Edifice. Jamison examines Kira’s progress, and while his tone and expression are friendly, Kira can’t shake her memory of the way he treated the child earlier in the day. Jamison tells Kira that her work is excellent, and better than her mother’s. He asks Kira if she’s able to walk to Annabella’s cottage every day, and mentions that he’ll install a fire pit in the Edifice so that Kira need not leave as frequently. Kira insists that she’s strong enough for the walk, but tells Jamison that she’s afraid of beasts. Jamison responds that she needn’t be afraid as long as she stays on the path. Jamison encourages Kira to trust Annabella, with her four-syllable wisdom, but when Kira tells Jamison that Annabella told her there were no beasts, he responds that Annabella’s mind is “beginning to wander.” Without saying anything, Kira doubts Jamison: Annabella is an excellent teacher, whose mind is clearly very sharp.

Kira continues to question Jamison about beasts, asking him if he’s seen the beasts himself. Jamison tells her that he’s seen them many times, and reminds her that he saw her father being taken by beasts. He tells Kira that she’s doing an excellent job with the robe, and leaves. Kira touches her cloth, but it brings her no comfort. She thinks she can hear a child crying.