Page 31 of Rhuyin

“You tell me,” I said, sighing.

“I’m Dagan,” the boy said, sticking his hand out.

I looked at the outstretched hand, then down at my mud-covered one.

“Really? I’m a mess,” I said gesturing at his body.

Dagan shrugged and took my muddy hand in his anyway.

“Doesn’t matter to me. Nice to meet you…?”

“Rhuyin,” I’d responded automatically.

Nice to meet you, Dagan signed hesitantly.

I felt my eyebrows disappear into his hairline.

You know sign? How? Where are you from?I signed excitedly in response.

Dagan’s face broke into a smile at the excited look on my face.

“I’m sorry,” he said, making sure he was facing me. “That’s the extent of my knowledge so far. One of the other cadets told me you didn’t hear well, and I saw you signing to yourself, so I looked up some simple signs this morning. IthinkI can ask you where the latrine is, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

The rueful look on his face made me laugh.

“It’s okay,” I said. “That’s more than anyone else here has done. I do pretty good at lip reading, though, as long as I can see the person who’s speaking.”

Dagan nodded.

“Still, I’d like to learn to sign. Would you teach me?” the new boy asked.

“Really?” I looked at him in surprise. “Why would you want to learn?”

“Well, I certainly don’t want to be friends with any of thosekopanos,” he said.

I felt the confusion cross my face.

“Kopanos? Like Captain Kopanos?”

“You didn’t know?” Dagan’s smile got even larger. “Kopanosis Greek for ‘jerk’. So Captain Jerk and his little buddies can take a flying leap.”

I felt the first laugh in ages escape my lips as Dagan grinned back at me.

They had walked the remainder of the course back to the barracks. After a quick shower Dagan had insisting on going directlyto the Commandant’s office and filing a complaint about the captain’s actions. Kopanos tried to deny it, but the tell-tale videos and pictures he had captured on camera were discovered on his phone. He had been transferred out of the Academy and back to the capital and the friendship between Dagan and I had blossomed from there.

I taught Dagan sign language and Dagan helped communicate instructions I might have missed. By the time we graduated six years later we had tied for top honors. Which was why, shortly after graduation when the Touchpoints began, Dagan had been incensed on my behalf when I had received an overall rating of one star.

“Let it go, Dag,” I had finally had to insist.

“It’s not right,” he’d said, slamming the door behind them hard enough for me to feel the vibrations through the floor. “It’s fucked up to shoot you down just because of your hearing. I mean, when you Bond, it might even improve enough so it doesn’t matter!”

“There’s no guarantee that will happen,” I’d said, slumping into the armchair. Dagan’s folks lived in the city and I’d become a fixture in their home over the previous years.

“Besides, we can’t take the chance. If there’s another match for a Mageia they need to Bondnowand be protectednow. We need them too badly to take the risk. I don’t like it, but I understand the reasoning.”

So now I stood at the side of the auditorium, waiting to escort the new Mageia to their quarters after everything was over. Dagan was going to hit the roof when he found out I had been disqualified.

A stage was set up in front of the auditorium with cameras trained on it, the feed showing on giant screens. The event would be broadcast all over Illyria. Polemos felt it was important to give all the Somas in Illyria hope of eventually finding their matches.