Stars Rise

XXXVI. The Meeting of Tony Solari and Portia Nero

Tony Solari settled back in his chair and squinted at Cytheria's presentation.

His vision was imperfect, and he had to squint to read the text, but he paid close attention.

Gaia Solin's strategy unnerved him. A twenty-five percent increase in router licensing, that was the kind of radical insanity he expected to hear out of Sunyin Aura's mouth. Matter of fact, when he turned to Aura's side of the table, a smugness lit her complexion and expression — as if she refrained from grinning.

Looked like she liked the presentation.

He couldn't believe Cytheria would dare to propose numbers like that the day the sun rose early. Tony had yet to recover from his shock. He hadn't needed to leave for work until minutes to prima anyway — he could link to the conference room from his condo, so he had remained in bed, blinds drawn, snoozing and smelling pancakes frying in the kitchen, listening to his wife, Cordelia, singing while she cooked. Her voice belted loud in the morning quiet, melodic and crystal clear over the sizzle of the pan. Linking allowed Tony more time with his family than any corporate man in history.

Completely unaware of the premature sunrise, Tony had showered, dressed for his meeting, and come into the kitchen to see his adopted niece and nephew, Carali and Anton, gulping down a syrupy breakfast and chasing it with orange juice, sitting on bar stools in a pool of radiant solar illumination.

The world outside, through the kitchen window, had been flooded with light. "How did it get to be that time?" he said, kissing them each on the cheek. "Off to school."

"We're not late," said Carali. "The sun rose early."

"Right," said Tony, turning to kiss his wife and preparing to sprint to is meeting. "That's a good one. Very creative."

Cordelia smiled fondly at Carali and said, "Go on, baby. I'll clean up, just this once. You better get going."

Brother and sister exchanged glances, but they weren't arguing if it meant they didn't have to clear their places at the table. A second later they had fled out the front door. Tony had gazed after them. Maybe he would buy the family a consumer link, to get them to school safely. And on time.

"Candra Satiri called while you snoozed," Cordelia had told him. "Said she had some important news she would like to deliver in person. Will you be getting home late tonight, Antonio?"

"No," Tony had answered. "I'll deal with it over the phone. I wouldn't miss your dinner for the world."

"You sure?" Cordelia had asked. "At least one of the chefs at those fancy, expensive restaurants downtown has to have something on my cooking."

"Not a single one." That's when he had looked down at his wrist watch. "What's this nonsense? Did those jokers tamper with my watch?"

And his wife had assured him it was not a joke; the sun had crested the horizon well before dilucinum. It wasn't even first light yet, Solari time — but it was light out.

Tony had had a good fifteen minutes to get to Portia's meeting at his leisure.

An incredible phenomenon. Tony couldn't wait to get out of this scheduled meeting and barge in on the emergency response department to get some answers, see what was the matter.

Now he listened to Liao Cytheria's numbers and figures, her reasoned arguments and her projections. As Cytheria wrapped up her expansion proposal and flipped slides, she moved on to her concessions — security features to gain the votes of the safety obsessed, reductive Marian faction.

She said, "I expect that Exequi Nero will have prepared a number of safety regulations that her faction will expect to put in place in exchange for any expansion whatsoever. Here are a number of our suggestions to improve magical safety."