Advocate of Ro Soridica
We exchanged the gifts with the usual formalities. I presented a sealed cylindrical casket; I presumed it to contain fossil material from Vetebbi. In return she gracefully handed me a long, slim case half my height. The embassy hadn’t explained the purpose of the public ceremony taking place above us at the same time - a misdirection?
“Before you go, Oumian-”
I could feel potency in her fronds, and the sense of many eyes watching.
“Don’t believe this means we have forgiven what happened at Mitoma.” She bowed, and retreated.
Bemused, I carried the gift back to the embassy and thereon to the Alice, waiting in orbit.