“You should feel so more often,” Tritt said. “You always tell me to leave her alone. You look for her.” And he went on into the deeper recesses of the home cavern.
Odeen looked after his right-ling with some surprise. At almost any other occasion he would have followed in an attempt to probe the unusual uneasiness that was making itself quite evident through the ingrained stolidity of a Parental. What had Tritt done?
—But he was waiting for Dua, and growing more anxious by the moment, and he let Tritt go.
Anxiety keened Odeen’s sensitivity. There was almost a perverse pride among Rationals in their relative poverty of perception. Such perception wasn’t a thing of the mind; it was most characteristic of Emotionals. Odeen was a Rational of Rationals, proud of reasoning rather than feeling, yet now he flung out the imperfect net of his emotional perception as far as he could; and wished, for just a moment, that he were an Emotional so that he could send it out farther and better.
Yet it eventually served his purpose. He could detect Dua’s approach, finally, at an unusual distance—for him—and he hastened out to meet her. And because he made her out at such a distance, he was more aware of her rarefaction than he ordinarily was. She was a delicate mist, no more.
—Tritt was right, Odeen thought with sudden, sharp concern. Dua must be made to eat and to melt. Her interest in life must be increased.
He was so intent on the necessity of this that when she flung herself flowingly toward him and virtually engulfed him, in utter disregard of the fact that they were not in private and might be observed, and said, “Odeen, I must know—I must know so much—” he accepted it as the completion of his own thought and did not even consider it strange.
Carefully, he slipped away, trying to adopt a more seemly union without making it seem he was repulsing her. “Come,” he said, “I’ve been waiting for you. Tell me what you want to know. I will explain all I can.”
They were moving quickly homeward now, with Odeen adapting himself eagerly to the characteristic waver of the Emotional flow.
Dua said, “Tell me about the other Universe. Why are they different? How are they different? Tell me all about it.”
It did not occur to Dua she was asking too much. It did occur to Odeen. He felt rich with an astonishing quantity of knowledge and was on the point of asking, How do you come to know enough about the other Universe to grow so curious about it?
He repressed the question. Dua was coming from the direction of the Hard-caverns. Perhaps Losten had been talking to her, suspecting that despite everything Odeen would be too proud of his status to help his mid-ling.
Not so, thought Odeen gravely. And he would not ask. He would just explain.
Tritt bustled about them when they returned home. “If you two are going to talk, go into Dua’s chamber. I will be busy out here. I must see to it that the children are cleaned and exercised. No time for melting now. No melting.”
Neither Odeen nor Dua had any thought of melting, but there was no thought in either mind of disobeying the command. The Parental’s home was his castle. The Rational had his Hard-caverns below and the Emotional her meeting places above. The Parental had only his home.
Odeen therefore said, “Yes, Tritt. We’ll be out of your way.”
And Dua extended a briefly loving part of herself and said, “It’s good to see you, right-dear.” (Odeen wondered if her gesture were part relief over the fact that there would be no pressure to melt. Tritt did tend to overdo that a bit; even more than Parentals generally.)
In her chamber, Dua stared at her private feeding-place. Ordinarily, she ignored it.
It had been Odeen’s idea. He knew that such things did exist and, as he explained to Tritt, if Dua did not like to swarm with the other Emotionals, it was perfectly possible to lead Solar energy down into the cavern so that Dua might feed there.
Tritt had been horrified. It wasn’t done. The others would laugh. The triad would be disgraced. Why didn’t Dua behave as she should?
“Yes, Tritt,” Odeen had said, “but she doesn’t behave as she should, so why not accommodate her? Is it so terrible? She will eat privately, gain substance, make us happier, become happier herself, and maybe learn to swarm in the end.”