Lesser by Viola Grace Page A

pockets.”
    Norz laughed.
    He lifted a tablet and nodded. “I believe we can offer you a position as an Unseen—a bodyguard that is famed for its ability to blend in with its surroundings and remain innocuous to those around it. It will involve quite a bit of physical work on your part and a lot of combat training, but I believe that you would thrive in that position.”
    Iridia scowled. “I don’t think I am cut out for combat.”
    “It is a requirement of the position, but your actual assignments would be to accompany dignitaries and negotiators during their postings. You would see things and worlds that you cannot imagine.”
    “So fitness and combat training is a job requirement?”
    “Indeed.”
    She nodded and closed her eyes, creating a decision web and working out the pros and cons. Seconds later, she nodded. “I accept if you are making the offer.”
    “When can you leave?”
    “Two days. I have to go home and notify my parents of my decision.”
    “Excellent. We have a shuttle leaving at the end of the week. This is the address to appear at, and you will be driven to the launch site from there.”
    Iridia smiled. “Good and thank you.”
    “No, thank you. Your talent is very rare. I have only met one other since I have been posted here. She was in the first wave. You will be given the training you need to gain mastery over your situation. Sign here and place your thumbprint here.”
    He turned his tablet around and showed her the contract for three years in service as one of the Unseen . The contract was renewable at that time, and she would not have to remain out in space if she did not wish to.
    “It says here that my work training will take six months, so I will only have two and a half years in space?”
    “There are plenty of new experiences and peoples to see at the moon base above us and the Alliance training centres. You will see all you wish to see, and if you like it, you can see some more.”
    He smiled, and she saw the jagged teeth that his tight mouth contained.
    She grinned back and signed with her finger, sealing it with her thumbprint.
     
    Iridia walked into her parents’ house, dusting her fingers off on her jeans. Her mother was in her workroom, mathematical problems on every surface.
    “Mom, I need to speak with you and Dad. I will be in the kitchen.”
    Her mother didn’t respond, so Iridia left the room and walked to her father’s lab at the other end of the house.
    Her parents agreed early on to split their interests in the house. They each had work and research areas separate from the other, and they only got together for one meal a week.
    Iridia had become used to being invisible early in her life because she was. She was the contractual obligation of the marriage, and once their only child had been born, both parents had lost interest, farming her out to a number of nannies and grad students.
    She had grown up watching people, new people constantly coming into her life. They were all happier if she was out of the way and quiet, so that is what she became. Watching people was her self-defence mechanism. Not all of her babysitters had been pleasant, but if she was careful, she could avoid them.
    It had been a strange way to live, but it had forced an evolution inside her that may never have happened. It had changed her into what she was today.
    She opened her father’s lab. “Dad, I need to talk to you and Mom. I will be in the kitchen.”
    He didn’t even twitch.
    She hadn’t expected much; she walked to the kitchen, made tea for three and wrote one letter to each of them, putting one on each side next to the teacups. They would come in and find their notes eventually. She suspected it would be after she was already on the moon.
    She poured her tea and sat in the familiar space and looked around, reliving every memory she had. The student who had baked her cookies when she was four, the nanny who took care of her skinned knee and the tutor who helped her with