All That Glitters Ch. 44

Urano turned their attention to the number blocks in Standard and showed them how to count and simple math, like 1 + 1 = 2. Guinevere noted that Zarrenia was watching with interest but Ikekia had all the number blocks, so Zarrenia pulled the number blocks from the Pod-Drran language and started using them to count as Urano was showing the pair.

Guinevere, Junelliya, and Hanalei were all shocked. While Zarrenia was four and a half months younger than her elder sister, she had no problems keeping up with her in simple math, even though she had to translate the numbers into Pod-Drran numerals.

The door chime sounded again and Hanalei went to open it. An unknown woman, obviously from Hollander's World by her hair, stood at the threshold. The woman had red hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes, making her an anomaly on Hollander's world.

"Hello, I am GME Clarrisiya. I have been asked to come and help your family for a little while," she said.

Junelliya and Guinevere came to the door. "Hello, I am Junelliya Harlen, this is my co-mate, Hanalei Anar and this young woman is Guinevere Soulange, our next door neighbour."

"Ah, Cnslr. Petronellaya asked me to keep an eye on your progress as well. She said you were an exceptionally gifted person," Clarrisiya said, pushing a little of her power to see what level was returned.

Recognizing empathic power, Guinevere smiled at her, shaking her head, then pushed an image of herself and the Toolend practicing telepathy at the newcomer. Clarrisiya took one step back in surprise.

"You are not an empath!" she exclaimed.

"Nope, I'm a telepath, as is my mother, though she is not as powerful as I am," Guinevere stated. "However, I think that Cnslr. Petronellaya is interested in me because of Junelliya and Dr. Maya."

"I think you might be right," Clarrisiya agreed. "Petronellaya said there were several gifted children on Liramor-23. I see she is correct."

"I think the two children you want to meet are over in the corner with our Nanny, Takebayashi Urano," Hanalei explained, pointing out the group.

"Well, if I may come in, I would like to introduce myself to them," Clarrisiya told the two women.

They entered the apartment and walked up to the trio, Hanalei identifying them to the newcomer. She still didn't know if she would take this case as she had never worked with children this young nor heard of children this young displaying empathic power. Clarrisiya watched as Zarrenia touched Ikekia's hand, the pair looking at each other.

"Zawwy say you stwong," Ikekia told Clarrisiya in her immature voice.

"I think she means she can sense your power levels, Clarrisiya," said a new voice coming out of one of the side rooms. Clarrisiya noted another woman from Hollander's World, who gave her a warm smile of greeting. The woman sent a tendril of power to Clarrisiya telling her that she was another GME and a strong one.

"This is my bodyguard, Violletiya," Hanalei introduced them.

"Bodyguard?" the new woman asked, perplexed.

"We are rather well off and that can make us targets," Junelliya explained.

"Ah, I see." She turned back to the children who were still watching her. Once again Zarrenia touched Ikekia's hand, who laughed so hard she fell over, starting Zarrenia to laughing too.

"So little ones, what are we doing?" she asked the children as she sat cross legged on the floor.

"Make wohd," Ikekia said. She said a word in a language unknown to Clarrisiya, who watched as the two children built the word from alphabet blocks in an unknown language.

"Very good, you two," Urano told the babies. "You are getting much better in Byandi, our friends will be impressed."

Clarrisiya looked around at the number of blocks. There seemed to be a lot of them.

"Twelve alphabets," Urano explained to her.

"Twelve?" Clarrisiya asked.

"Yes. We have a lot of visitors here at the apartment. When they discovered that the children were starting other languages, they all 'helpfully' provided blocks in their own languages, and just as 'helpfully' provided language lessons for the children.

"Being non-human, they have no idea of the mental capacity of children Ikekia's and Zarrenia's age, so they just taught them as if they were teaching children of their own kind.

"These two absorb languages like sponges. Their soft palates are not formed enough to allow them to speak well, especially Zarrenia who is younger, so they make up for that with the spelling blocks," Urano finished.

"You will need to upgrade your comp's translator," Junelliya advised.

Clarrisiya sent a tiny tendril of power to the two children, hoping to get a response from them that would give her an idea of how far the children were in their power development.

Both children instantly stopped what they were doing and looked at her. A frisson of surprise raced up her spine at the speed of the reaction from the children.

"How old are they?" she asked.

"Me ewevn," Ikekia told her, holding up two hands, fingers spread, then one finger. "Zawwy six an haf."

Clarrisiya felt her world spinning. For a moment, she might have blacked out. So young! She thought.

Ikekia was suddenly beside her, holding her hand and stroking it. Then Zarrenia crawled up into her lap.

Clarrisiya felt an image form in her mind. It was not a very clear image, but it conveyed the message that the two children were concerned for her. Clarrisiya smiled at that. She brought Ikekia into her lap and hugged both children.

"I honestly wasn't expecting much when I came here," she explained to the adults. "However, I think that you do indeed need my assistance."

That brought smiles all around and happy giggles from the children, who cuddled up in Clarrisiya's warm arms.

End of chapter forty-four.

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