Andrea Höst - In Arcadia [Touchstone: Extras]

With thanks to all the fans of the Touchstone Trilogy. Your love ofthese books made it impossible for me to not want to revisit Muina.

This book is in Australian English. It can be read as a backstory-heavystand-alone, but with inevitable spoilers for the Touchstone Trilogy.

When expanding a couple of paragraphs from a novel into a story of itsown, errors come to light. In writing In Arcadia, I had to correct aseason and a date in Gratuitous Epilogue, but any other variations aresimply the filter of Cass vs Laura.

Laura Devlins first two months on her new world were full and hectic.There were a great many people to meet, particularly a son-in-law andfive grandchildren. There were inoculations, medical examinations, andthe injection of a nanotech computer interface that was followed by adictionary download into her brain. After that came tours to view thegrand wreck of the planets original civilisation: ruins that werequickly being overshadowed by technically advanced cities supporting themore than two million people who had migrated to the planet of Muina ina scarce few years.

In between, Laura fit in some infant-level virtual schooling, a generousdose of gaming, and a good dollop of time prodding at the empty gardenbeds that came with her brand new house. Most of all, she reaffirmed,over and over, the fact of Cassandra. Cass. Never Cassie. Her daughter,alive, safe, and happy.

None of this had eased Lauras nightmares. Far too often she would wakefrom endless scenes of all the worst that could have happened to herfunny, sweet, uncertain child after she had vanished on her way homefrom high school. It had been three months before Cass had been able toreach her family with a partial explanation of her disappearance, andthat strange apparition had been in a large amount of danger, so Laurahadnt truly deep down relaxed until a surprise package of detaileddiaries allowed her to finally accept that Cass was alive, safe, butnever coming home.

Thankfully, after three and a half long years, Laura had had the chanceto make Cass' new world her own home, and finally been reunited with herdaughter. But messages and reunions and many hugs could not erase theindelible mark left by those first months of despair.

Rising in the pre-dawn, Laura left the latest nightmare tangled in hersheets and pulled on a light dress and sandals before venturing outside.

To a lifelong Sydney resident, the Muinan summer around the city ofPandora was mild and pleasant, but Laura had maintained her habit ofwalking in the cool of early morning, tracing the paths of the islandthat was now her home.

An island! With all her daughters strange powers, large new family, anduncomfortable level of fame, for some reason Laura kept stumbling overthe fact that Cass owned an island.

This was something less of an enormity than it would be on Earth, sincethe planet of Muina was going through a resettlement rush, and largeplots of land were being portioned out to all manner of people. Cass hadgained hers because shed been key to unlocking the planet tohabitationalong with some incidental saving of the galaxy. Shed namedthe island Arcadia, and built a secluded house that allowed her someprivacy from several planets'-worth of crowds fascinated with her everymove.

Then she had built a place for her mandatory guard detail to stay.

When Cass had learned that she would finally, after more than threeyears gone, be able to bring her family to her new planet, shed addedhouses for Laura and Lauras sister, Sue. They were rather impracticallylarge, and felt empty and strange to Laura, lacking the crammedbookshelves that she had left behind. But the island itself wasmagnificent.

This morning was particularly still, and Laura paused on the north patioto drink in the hush, then started along the whitestone path that ledpast her sisters matching mini-mansion, down the slope to the main paththat circled the entire island. Left would take her to Cassandrashouse, with a stop on the way for the guard house where a pair ofSetari'psychic space ninjas'would be stationed to watch over theislands valuable inhabitants. To the right, the path traced theislands eastern and southern shore: a part of Arcadia still completelyfree of buildings.

Laura inhaled deeply, the stillness entering into her. The lake wasrarely so glass-flat: a mirror to drink the sky. She followed the pathto the north-eastern point of the island, where a stone bench was set ona small spit, commanding an unimpeded view east over the vast freshwaterlake to the city of Pandora. The new capital of Muina, a barely visiblewhiteness on the horizon, picked out in the rosy tints of dawn.

A bird sang sweet, fluting welcome, and Laura sat and listened, absentlyturning over the question that had been growing over the last few weeks.

What was she going to do with the rest of her life?

Part of the answer was obvious. Her son, Julian, was still only sixteen,and not quite ready to set up house on his own. And Cass, all oftwenty-one years old, had become mother to five children: a little foundfamily of four she had adopted, with an addition born seven months ago.There was a lot of grandmothering in Lauras future.

As rewarding as this had already been, Laura felt the need for somethingmore. She had gone from school to a career in IT support. When hermarriage had fallen apart ten years in, shed supplemented her income byselling handmade dolls and jewellery, and shed worked hard to make timefor the people she loved and the things she enjoyed. Now, there was nomortgage, no debts. Instead there was a strings-free house thatgenerated its own electricity, and a formidable chunk of money gifted toher by Cass to cover any other bills, leaving Laura free to enjoyParadise.

Was it taking too much for granted to do nothing but game, garden, andplay with the grandkids? Or did she need to earn this futuristic happilyever after?

A ship lifted above the distant city. A sleek wedge of a thing rising onblue impellers. Laura watched with awe and appreciation.Inter-dimensional spaceships. Teleportation platforms, psychics, andcities that grew themselves. A computer in her head. An expectedlifespan of a hundred and thirty years. And Cass.

No, she wasnt taking any of that for granted. She was grateful everyday.

It was such a lovely morning that she decided to do a full circuit ofthe island: a trek that took just under an hour and a half at Laurasstandard walking pace, but stretched to more than two hours because shekept stopping to collect unusual leaves and the occasional flower. Andto take photographs using the interface installation in her head,which did everything a smartphone could offer, and a great deal more.

The most marvellous thing, though, was that her knees didnt hurt goingup and down the occasional steps. She felt like she could walk forever,with the easy energy of her early twenties. That was Muinan medicalscience.

"Unna Laura!"

Circuit almost complete, Laura was not surprised to be spotted as shepaused on the bridge that crossed the natural pool below her daughtershouse. She waved up at Sen, who was hanging rather far over the railingof the main patio balcony. But only briefly, before the girl was hauledunceremoniously back. Then Cass was looking down.

"Hey, Mum! Come up, were having breakfast."

The sight of Cass, smiling and relaxed, still hit Laura like a blow tothe chest. Not a bad sensation, but dizzying, and Laura took a deepbreath as she circled the pool and climbed the broad, flat stairs to thepartially covered patio Cass used as a breakfast area in summer. She wasgreeted with a warm clasp around the thighs from Sen.