“The last anyone heard about Brae, he was in the Great Lakes Duchy.”Monseigneur Rhys and Canon Lider made suitable hums of acknowledgment. Brae’s father continued:
“He was upset by the broken engagement. Personally upset. Not just because—”
Sym Los Nares broke off, frowned at his hands, and glanced at his wife, Jyll.
The parents plus Rhys and Lider sat in Sym and Jyll’s home overlooking a river in the ancient city of Schenectady. The main room, like in many Siphon houses, included a sliding panel that allowed easy access to the river. Also, like many Siphon homes, it was a single floor. Beyond one door, at the end of the front room, would be screens and communications that connected the Los Nares to the clan’s company. Beyond the other would be the bedrooms and eating area.
Husband and wife were currently two-legged. Siphons produced their tails or stems when immersed in water. Their Siphon natures showed in the faint shimmer of color along their hairlines: both green, in this case. Siphons often married within clans, a second-cousin type of relationships, though consanguinity wasn’t as much an issue for Siphons as for humans.
Green was associated with a clan that humans would deem middleclass. The Los Nares twenty-year-old son, Brae, had been slated to marry “up.”
Jyll said softly, “The broken engagement was an offense.”
“You have filed a breach of promise suit,” Rhys said.
“Yes,” Sym said. “It has stalled until Brae is found.”
Jyll said, still quietly but the words were deliberate, “The RaykJanes would have reason to keep him unavailable.”
Sym gave his wife a quick, unreadable glance and lightly clasped her shoulder.
Rhys said, “You suspect abduction.”
Lider said, “The Anthros approach involves direct contact. I understand the Siphon method is more about maintaining isolation.”
“A Siphon is sequestered in a place with access to the deeps. Much to explore but no way to leave.”
Jyll’s hands clenched, the knuckles white. The green along her forehead flared.
“The RaykJanes have many properties,” she said.
Rhys said carefully, “Will the suit be decided against the RaykJanes?”
Lider leaned towards him, shoulders touching. He said, “There would—will—likely be a cash settlement.”
Sym said, “The RaykJanes have the funds.” He sounded resigned.
“You know the RaykJanes took Brae?”
Not quite a statement or a question. No one said, Do you have evidence? Eyewitnesses? A note?
Sym shook his head. Jyll’s mouth firmed but she reluctantly mimicked her husband.
“He was enamored,” Jyll said. “Pillala RaykJanes was his sole focus.”
“A broken heart, then,” Lider said.
“Yes. She threw his heart into a current.”
Rhys said, “A broken-hearted young man may search for a different purpose in life. We checked the manifests for the Moon and for the Mars Mission ships. We’ll request a direct check in all those places.”
Both Sym and Jyll looked doubtful. Brae was apparently not the type to extoll the glories of space travel.
Rhys said, “A broken-hearted young man may also seek for a cause, a purpose—”
“The priesthood,” Lider murmured, and Rhys gave him a quick glance.
“Has Brae expressed interest in a particular group? One in the Great Lakes Duchy perhaps?”
Another shake of the head. “He underwent his initiation ceremony in the Great Lakes Duchy,” Sym said. “Some Los Nares reside in the area, but none of Brae's friends, not that I heard of.”
“We paid for an upscale temple,” Jyll said, the soft voice edged with another emotion—defensiveness.
The RaykJanes fell into the last category, and Jyll said, “The Great Lakes’ temples are better regulated than anything a RaykJanes honors.”
Older temples had been known to accept bribes, to underpay initiators, to overplay clerics, who did very little. A recent scandal revealed that a temple with RaykJanes’ funding accepted money to sabotage an arranged marriage. The scandal didn’t involve the Los Nares, but it indicated willingness by the RaykJanes to patronize temples for their history rather than their respectability.
Not all older temples were so self-serving, of course. But even more upright temples worked with families to arrange deals between clans.
Families from the same class as the Los Nares believed more firmly that initiation—the ceremony where a teen Siphon chose his or her sexual alignment—should be random chance, door A or door B.
Families like the RaykJanes were less…faithful.
Both detectives thought, Why did these two families get together? Marriage-wise?
Rhys said instead, “Siphons often return to their initiation temples for vacation, a kind of retreat.”
Especially the Great Lakes’ temples, which resembled spas and had—some of them—branched out to welcome humans.
Sym said heavily, “We checked already. Our daughter, Kyz, traveled there. She went through all the temples, spoke to all the clerics and imitators. Sometimes, broken-hearted Siphons will want to change their alignments. The change occasionally ‘takes.’ But not usually.”
Jyll said, still in that fierce undertone, “We only supported the match because Brae was so insistent.”
“Besotted,” Sym said. “The RaykJanes were interested.”
And the Los Nares had clan members on Mars; one couple had once worked for the RaykJanes as sub-contractors. A RaykJanes-Los Nares marriage contract was not unreasonable, not from a purely business point of view. And that point of view was not despised by Siphons.
“How did Brae and Phillala RaykJanes meet?” Lider said.
“Kyz can tell you. She was there.” Jyll’s tone contained both resignation and blame.
A romantic young man. An unsuitable choice. Inevitable? Preventable? Go back in time: could Brae or Phillala be distracted into meeting other potential mates? If they were so distracted, might they circle round to each other or to a similar mistake anyway?
Regrets were pointless but people crossed the line from acceptance to blame anyway. Especially when a child was missing.
