12.21.2132 - Meeting of the Minds (Temmit & Leslie)

[Dray]

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Leslie skipped than ran as she saw Temmit in the hall before her. They were still hundreds of feet and many twists and turns away from the secret entrance in the underground tunnel system, so she didn't fear attracting any attention. 'Not that there are many kids around anyway', Leslie thought. The guild was always careful to schedule meeting beginnings well after most kids would have already headed out to the city above.
 
When she caught up to Temmit she was slightly winded.
 
"Hello." he said, only slightly turning his head to her.
 
Suddenly she couldn't think of anything to say, her cheeks growing warm with embarrassment. 'Why do I always get this way around him?' she thought while flustered. 'It's because he is the most perceptive and intelligent boy in the whole gang,' her mind answered.

"So um...what do you think...erm, I mean have you put any more thought to what we... I mean...all of us talked about today at lunch?" she questioned him lamely.

*   *   *

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'Tell her that Renee is going to disband Whisper!' Smokey whispered energetically in his mind. 'Tell her that this will be the last meeting of Whisper, and Kaine is going to be at this meeting to discuss our collective future. Also...'
 
Temmit shushed Smokey as a wry grin crept across his thin face. The little prevaricator continued on his outlandish rant telling stories of espionage and treachery.
 
"You know I don't like to predict the future, Leslie." He answered. "But if I had to guess, I'd think that proceedings to select a new leader are going to be necessary, if only to plant the seeds. Renee is graduating after this next semester, so we'll need a new leader. I also wouldn't be too surprised to find a new inductee as well. The first years must have *some* interesting candidates, eh?"
 
'...and they've released demons in the courtyard...' Temmit laughed aloud, though quietly, at Smokey's latest story line.

*   *   *

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Leslie, already flustered, was further shaken. 'Does he mean me? Was I that bad of a candidate last year?' she worried. 'Damn draft! I wish I could remember that first interview!' she thought in anguish. Her cheeks flushed all the more red and she looked down at the floor.
 
'If only they could know my secret, they would think I was such a baby,' she thought as her hands clenched into fists as she walked.

*   *   *

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Temmit realized that his inadvertent laugh was a bit misplaced, and noted Leslie's slightly abashed response as well. The female ability to take things wrong never ceased to amaze Temmit, and it didn't seem to get any better as they aged.

"Personally, I haven't seen any that rate as well as last year's recruits." He hoped that his words might console her.

He turned his inner attention to Smokey then, saying, 'Would you quit it already?!?! You're causing me trouble again.'

Smokey's only reply was 'It wasn't me.' Then the little crystal was again silent. For a moment, the only sound in the corridor was the echo of their footsteps. Of his footsteps, Temmit noted; Leslie made no sound as she walked.

*   *   *

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Leslie started to skip lightly in her soft leather slippers, a little more relieved she had been wrong.
 
"So with Renee leaving the next logical choice would be you or Emma wouldn't it?" she stated more than asked.

*   *   *

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Temmit looked around and then shifted uncomfortably. He was never comfortable at the center of attention.

"It's really up to everyone in the clan." Temmit liked to use the familiar for The Whisper. He wondered idly why not everyone did. "Leaders are born, not raised. It's not enough to have one set of attributes or another. People have to have confidence in you and they have to want to follow."

'That's not true.' Smokey said. 'You can lead by fear, or because someone else in power gives you power. In fact, you can make people do whatever you want...you just have to want to. I knew this guy once...'

Of course, Smokey never knew any guy. Temmit knew that, and Smokey knew that Temmit knew that, but it didn't stop Smokey from saying things.

"I suppose that there must be a few candidates. Emma would be a great candidate, although as daughter to the High Priest, she's in a particularly precarious position. Although..." He stopped for a moment, his feet halted while his mind flew. "If her father is a Priest, I wonder if that means that he too has gifts?" Smokey babbled in the back of Temmit's mind as the young man stood motionless, his mind working its way around whether or not all priests were in fact casters, and from there whether all casters could tell who had gifts and who did not (although this was clearly not the case, as the casters in Whisper had demonstrated), and from there ultimately how much danger the entire group might be in for this particular tenuous link.

He started walking again, unaware that he had never halted in that dark hallway. "On the other hand," he said, "having a leader so close to the clergy would have its advantages." He looked down at Leslie and smiled. Noting the look in her face, he became concerned for his young friend. "Are you all right?" He asked concernedly.

*   *   *

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Leslie smiled up at him, but above the smile, created by pure joyful innocence, were two big blue eyes which shined with intellect.
 
"Emmanuella has been in The Whisp....the clan for years now. She is the same age as you right?" she asked and with Temmet's nod she continued. "Well, since she joined a year before you, at the young age of 10, I think we would have been discovered bye now?" she proposed.

*   *   *

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"Aye, Leslie, aye." Temmit hugged her head fondly as they continued down the corridor. Leslie was a surprise for Temmit. He had never really been close to anyone, and he certainly wasn't truly comfortable even with Leslie, but he was much more so with her than with any other. She was the sister that he hadn't had the opportunity to know, growing up as he did in the orphanage.

 "I would think that Emma would be the logical choice to succeed Renee. She has the experience and charisma to pull that off.

*   *   *

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Leslie short, pixie haircut was a mess as she smiled from ear to ear, and although her cheeks were returning to their normal color, she was embarrassed again, this time by the surprising show of affection. As she daydreamed of her standing next to him as the lieutenant to the clan, she looked down at her feet as they walked on. She didn't note that Temmit had stopped prior to Jared stepping out of the shadows of an adjoining hallway.
 
Temmit of course sensed him far earlier and watched with amusement as the absent-minded Leslie walked straight into him.
 
"Oh." said Leslie as she stopped in the boys' personal space.
 
"You want a hug from me too?" teased Jared.
 
"Sorry, I was thinking...on something," Leslie said, looking towards the secret door many paces down the dark corridor Jared had just stepped from.
 
"Yes, I imagine it will be an easy break up with Stu now that you found someone even weirder," he said with a chuckle. He didn't dare look up at Temmit though, lest he intend the quip was directed equally at him. Jared, only 13, was half a foot shorter than Temmit.

*   *   *

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Temmit had indeed sensed the younger boy before his companion had, but not in time to prevent Jared from observing Temmit's familiar moment with his young friend. Temmit gritted his teeth and admonished himself for his lack of self control.
 
"Leave her alone, Jared." Temmit said quietly. He placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder and turned him towards the meeting hall.
 
Why didn't you tell me that he was there? He scolded Smokey.
 
'You told me to stop talking.' The grey crystal responded.
 
'And you pick *now* to obey?!?'
 
'I guess you should be a little more aware of you surroundings, eh? How many times am I going to have to tell you that you need to pay attention to the details? For instance...'and Smokey was off on another one of his lectures on details. Temmit tried to sequester the little insistent voice in the back of his mind and to concentrate on the matters at hand.
 
"Come on, you two...we don't want to be late."