In the Tea Party Room

[smallestopener]

It's not that Ingress forgot what happened in Valdemar? How could you forget such meanness?

It's more that summer is a busy time full of books to read, places to explore, and things to do. She's looked at the surveys that people answered and thought about what her friends said.

She did finally talk to Tom and Door, and while Tom was apoplectic

Comments

[mmquitecontrary]

"I have missed you, too," Mary says, very seriously - not that this is unusual for Mary, but she has a vague awareness that there is perhaps something important going on, even so.

"There was not one of the girls at school who I liked even a - a tenth so well as you."

(On the other hand, she did, at least, learn fractions.)

[smallestopener]

"Thanks," she says, pleased. Mary's friendship means a great deal to her, but this news is sad, too. "Did you make any friends at all?"

She pours the tea into their cups.

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary considers this as she takes a dignified sip of tea. "There were some of the smaller girls who were not awful. I might have liked some of them a little if there were not always so many of them, and always together."

Big groups are not so much Mary's thing.

[smallestopener]

"I thought I made a lot of friends in Valdemar this summer. I'm not so sure now. Megwyn says that of course the Heralds and Heralds-in-training are my friends, but I just don't know any more."

She looks forlorn as she sips her own tea. It's still hard to talk about what happened.

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary frowns.

She is not necessarily the most talented at reading people, but it is not at all hard to tell that something is not right.

"Were they cruel to you?" she asks, a little sharply.

[smallestopener]

Ingress nods. "They said some really mean things about Megwyn's mum saying I wasn't any good as a Herald and Megwyn should get rid of me. It was all a lie. It made me cry."

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary's face is like stone.

Angry, angry stone.

No one is allowed to be mean to Ingress!

"Some people," she says, "are only cruel for no reason - none at all. There is nothing good about such people." Then, now very sharp indeed: "Someone ought to teach them not to lie."

That someone might very well be Mary!

[smallestopener]

"Lots of people gave me good advice when I asked. Not fighting them is the biggest one, but I'd like to tell them that what they did was wrong and I'm not putting up with it any more. They're not Heralds, at least. Megwyn says Heralds don't treat each other like that."

She'd like to know this for sure, though.

[mmquitecontrary]

"And so you ought," Mary agrees firmly.

"They ought to know that it is wrong if they do not - and they must see that you are not afraid of them."

Mary . . . maybe doesn't give the best advice about dealing with bullies or threats. But she does mean well!

[smallestopener]

"I was thinking about saying something next time I go back. Maybe next summer."

Ingress doesn't look to brave about going anytime sooner.

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary's eyebrows arch up.

"Until next summer is an awfully long time. They will likely have forgotten all about it by then - it shall hardly mean anything if you say something to them then."

[smallestopener]

It is a long time, but Ingress isn't in any particular hurry...

"Maybe Christmas?"

That's close, right? And people are nicer then...

"Oh, wait. Valdemar doesn't have Christmas. Just a winter festival."

[mmquitecontrary]

"Can you go back whenever you should like?" Mary asys, after a pause to think about this. "Or must you wait for somebody to take you?"

[smallestopener]

"I'm still too small to open that far away. But I've been practicing. I'll be able to do it soon."

She pauses.

"Door said she'd take me there any time I needed to go."

And then there is a long pause.

"I'm kind of scared to go back, though."

[mmquitecontrary]

"There is nothing to be frightened of," Mary says, startled - doesn't Ingress know more about protecting herself than Mary does?

"If I were you, I should be angry - but not afraid! There is hardly anything worth being afraid of."

[smallestopener]

"I am angry. It's just- they're bigger than me. They were born in Valdemar. I wasn't. If I just had to fight them, it would be easy. But they use words to fight, and not swords or hands."

She shrugs. "I have friends who aren't Heralds, but they're small, too. I'd ask Megwyn to go with me to tell them, but the mean girls can't hear her words. Not like we can here."