As he walked, he zipped up his jacket. Autumn was coming, sending gusts of cooler winds across the broad river. All around him, the park’s terrestrial trees were wrapping themselves in the spectacularly rich red and gold tones that signaled winter’s approach.

For a while he walked slowly along the stone promenade, relaxing into the park’s slower pace of life. Below him, on the dark water, swans glided about with arrogant grace. Almost all of this year’s cygnets had lost their gray plumage now, transforming to a pristine white, except for a couple of black swans he could see farther downstream. They were the only ones in sight. He grinned forlornly at them. The ratio was similar to the boy-girl quotient within the clans.

Up ahead, someone in a long blue wool coat was leaning on the rails, dropping bread to the big birds. If he had any, Dellian decided, he would have thrown it to the black swans first in sympathy. Then he realized it was actually Alexandre who was feeding the swans, and back in their hangar the cohort reacted with happiness. He knew it wasn’t coincidence.

Since he’d moved to Eastmal, Dellian hadn’t seen much of their former mentor. It wasn’t deliberate; they’d all been so busy in preparation for their starflight. And partying, he admitted guiltily; that was a really good part of city life.

“You’re looking very fine,” Alexandre said as they hugged in greeting.

Dellian kept his welcoming smile in place as hir gray eyes gave him a level appraisal. Inside, he was mildly shaken by his mentor’s appearance. Sie was male cycled, as sie had been for the last seven years now. It was an usually long time to remain as one gender and an uneasy indicator of age. Not only did gender cycles last longer as people grew older, the transition phase was also extended. It wasn’t detrimental, simply a sign of an older body slowing down.

Alexandre had been there for him his whole life, and Dellian didn’t like to acknowledge sie was getting older. But now he looked closely, hir dark-blond hair was thinner now and becoming lighter from the rise of gray strands. It wasn’t something he wanted to consider, that one day Alexandre wouldn’t be there to turn to. Death was something he’d only encountered on rare occasions, except poor Uma and Doony that one wretched morning…

“You too,” he replied.

Alexandre’s grin widened affectionately. “You were always a rotten liar. That’s why you were always in detention.”

“No more than anyone else!”

“I know. Your whole year—it’s a miracle any of us came out of the estate alive.”

“But here we are.”

“Aye, here we are. So how’s the graduation exercise going?”

“Pretty good. They’ve missed some caches that’ll be useful, but I just gave them a scare that should send them back to reevaluate everything. If not, Xante and I are due back later. That should kick them into gear.”