Bolted to a wall where it could be seen while sitting at the desk was a fairly small video screen. It was not that small, but compared to typical entertainment systems, it was not very large. It did, however, have a slot for her to plug in her ketcom and that caused the apartment to come to life. The screen displayed a preferences page allowing her to adjust various aspects of the apartment’s environment. She decided to play with that later so just put the settings on to a music channel she enjoyed, then set off to unpack her belongings.
She was in the middle of unpacking the third carton of four when her door chimed. She stared at the offending portal for a second. ‘Open.’
The girl standing in the doorway was familiar; Nava had been staring at the back of her head for most of the day. ‘H-hello,’ Melissa said, ‘I am Melissa Connelly Avorn. I’m y-your n-neighbour.’
‘I know who you are, Melissa Connelly. We met in class.’
‘W-well, yes, I know, but now I’m introducing m-myself as your n-neighbour.’
Nava had the last apartment on the floor, so this was her only neighbour. They were in the same class too. It seemed that it would be a good idea to make a friend of Melissa Connelly. ‘Okay. In that case, I’m Nava Ward. Please come in. I’m afraid I don’t have anything to offer in the way of refreshment. I’m still in the middle of unpacking.’
Melissa’s expression shifted into a smile which, this time, seemed a lot less nervous. ‘That’s okay. Uh, if you want, I could make coffee and bring it over. I moved in yesterday.’
Nava looked around at her few belongings, piled on the table, and the box-and-a-half she had left to unpack before she could begin arranging things to her liking. ‘Actually, Melissa Connelly, that would be nice.’
‘Call me Mel. All my friends do.’
‘Then you should call me Nava.’
~~~
Melissa, it seemed, had a number of coping strategies to deal with her shyness. She admitted that she was shy, but she was working on it by, for example, forcing herself to go next door and talk to her new neighbour. Admittedly, that had been easier since they had already met, but it was all part of her plan to become a less timid person.
Nava heard all of this while she put away her things because one of Melissa’s coping strategies was to talk. Nava barely had to say a word, just drop in appropriate sounds such as mm, ah, and oh. That worked fine because it told Nava a lot about Melissa while requiring nothing in return.
Melissa had three brothers, two older and one younger. None of them had any real talent for sorcery, though the youngest could manage a basic cantrip. Neither her mother nor father could work magic. In fact, magicians were rare among the Connellys as a whole, so when someone with real talent turned up, the entire family got together to pay for them to be properly educated. So, in a way, Melissa was there on a grant too, or so Melissa said.
Melissa knew several spells already. That included Armour, Shield, and Force Wall, all important support spells, and Flight. Melissa loved flying. She was the kind of person who liked to be around other people, so long as she knew them reasonably well, but she also loved the freedom of flight. It was a shame the weather was not exactly great because she would have loved to go flying.
Melissa kept up her stream of chatter through Nava’s unpacking and then through dinner, which they ate at the nearest of several refectories dotted around the campus. Then Melissa suggested a trip to the baths. Nava was feeling a little funky after her labours and had nothing better to do…
Public bathing on Shinden followed the Japanese model. The original colonists of the system had been Japanese, hence the name, which meant ‘temple’ or ‘sacred place’ apparently, and there was a sort of overlay or veneer of Japanese culture to the place. It was more like someone had picked the best bits and plastered them on top of a more generic culture, or maybe it had started with a Japanese culture from which the worst parts had been cut away. Whatever, the baths were run like a Japanese sento and Nava was quite surprised to discover that she had to guide Melissa through the process. In fact, Melissa said there were no public baths on Avorna.
‘I’m a little surprised that you wanted to come here if you’re not used to this,’ Nava said as they sat at individual wash stations to clean themselves before entering the bath itself.
‘It’s part of my plan,’ Melissa replied. ‘A-and, okay, so I’m trying really hard n-not to freak out being naked in public, b-but we’re the only ones here, so I think I’ll m-manage.’
Nava was also a little surprised that, yes, they were alone in the women’s side of the bathhouse. It was not long after dinner, and some students might be eating late. It was also the first night in a new place, so some would be out discovering what they
