Glyphia has stopped eating sugar. She collected the elderberries from the trees at the university to make wine. The man with the piccolo followed her back to the House, and we all had to band together to get him off the property.
There were rumors Alix and I needed to put to rest. Rumors about Bosco and misconduct and a girl of the House. Bosco played for Alix and me folk songs and taught me to play ancient Mayan stone games. Bosco slept curled up in Alix's chair, purring. Caught in transition between lives, the beast, the man. Bosco never spoke above a whisper.
I thought Alix would stand up with me. As all the House sat around half-naked in the summer time heat, drunk on elderberry wine, four hours of seated aggression, I stood and defended Bosco's integrity at the House council.
I looked to Alix. He responded.
"If there are members of the House that feel threatened by another member, we have an obligation to remove him."
That was not the right answer.
"No." I said. "No, no. Members must keep personal grudges separate from the affairs of the House. We have an obligation to expose the truth."
Alix and I were Bosco's alibi. He was with us the night in question. Our testimony means everything. And Alix's testimony means I'm not a liar.
Glyphia and Zylon whet their spear heads.
Alix's eyebrows said, "Sorry Signe." My eyebrows said, "you dirty liar."
The Vote was in. Bosco and I spent that night curled up under roots with the piccolo man by the lake.
