“We’ll be staying at Narana’s,” Mom says.

“Ooh! I can’t wait to see their house.” Sunlissia is my parents’ adopted daughter. She is four years older than me, twenty-one, and very interested in all things art.

“Ktine?”

“Yeah, I heard you the first time, Mom. Are the boys coming?” I have two brothers, Lenor and Torin. Lenor is twenty, Torin fourteen.

“They’ll be staying here with your father. The travel restrictions are too onerous to drag them all the way there. Plus, they can watch Nationals on the TV.”

I prefer to pretend the television didn’t exist. I don’t like people watching me.

We meet up with the rest of the family in the Tevoecae Port. We live in Rirae; they live in the south, in Lousat. There is cheery Reana, who I haven’t seen in a little while and is my age exactly and bold Tyanna, who is a year younger. Mirin, Ari, and Lilly are all the little Elites, too young to compete internationally.

I can’t wait to get to Narana’s and shower after a day of traveling. Dad couldn’t drop us off at the Lilia Island port, so we’ve taken bus, ferry, bus, and now foot apparently. Aunt Mil is walking very slowly, even though she isn’t carrying much.

“You okay?” Mom asks her.

“I’m fine, just unhappy.”

I remember that Mom once said that Aunt Mil and Narana don’t get along very well. Aunt Mil doesn’t get along very well with my coach, Trili Swirl, either.

Finally, we are at the house. It is huge. A little girl greets us. She’s Narana’s daughter Tirelle.

“Do you do gymnastics?” Sunlissia asks her.

Tirelle nods. “I passed my test to be a Junior next year.”

I remember that the Isvartoi gymnasts have a different system.

Tirelle shows us around. The sloped earthen walls make the house feel like a cave, except skylights brighten it. This house is quite old; it once housed the family of the head of the Rhetian senate. The hallway between the bedrooms is a little warm, the air a little stale. Our bedrooms are on the other side of the grand staircase leading down to the main rooms. Sunlissia, Mom, and I put our bags in one of the rooms. The rooms are very spacious, with high ceilings and carved windows giving a beautiful view of the Isvartoi countryside.

“These carvings are around a thousand years old,” Sunlissia gasps.

The stairs are pure stone. Water flows through glass on either side so it feels like walking in a waterfall. Skylights light our way, but I see candle holders. The staircase opens immediately to the main room. Windows with fine carvings of animals and plants open to the south.

“This is so cool,” Sunlissia says. “Each of the carvings represent a type of prayer.”

I look closer at the carving. A bird sitting on a tree. “Food?” I guess.

Sunlissia laughs. “Shelter, silly.”

I hear Ari over by the next window. “Who’s Queen Srlina?”

Sunlissia starts to open her mouth, but Lilly beats her to it. “Probably Queen Sarina, since her reign started in 194.”

“How does that kid know everything?” I whisper to Sunlissia.

Sunlissia shrugs. “I guess future senators have to memorize all the queens and stuff. You know a lot of math.”

That’s true. I’ll be going to college in a couple years. I can’t wait to get out of the house. I don’t understand how Sunlissia stands it.

We look at the window Ari and Lilly were just at. The carving was a mountain with smoke over it, with an inscription in ancient Rhetian symbols. “Navi, Aarae 0. For Isvartoi lya Yai and all others who have perished from the mountain flames, ash, and shakes. This house shall not treat fire disrespectfully and so may avoid all punishment and sorrow from Navi and Mavi. This house was built to house Larilina lya Nonsaii, head of the Senate, and her family. This house was completed in 197 under Queen Srlina.”

The next morning, we take the bus to Yahvsii Isvar for podium training. Even though it hasn’t been the capital city for over a century, only Ornod in Lilaca Island has more people.

The stadium is huge. I’m glad I get to practice in it. We are here because, for the first time in over twenty years, we qualified a team to the Olympic Games. Gymnastics is very popular. My World Championship Team Bronze Medal at home reminds me that I was part of that team. I hope I am good enough to make the Olympic team.

After our practice, we run around the Sraeselen Stadium. Sraesel is an ancient Rhetian sport. “Lilia competed here once,” Tyanna tells me.

“Really? I bet that was why she was so good at gymnastics,” Sunlissia says.

“She only competed Vault,” I reminded Sunlissia. Vault was as different from graceful Sraesel as could be.

My grandmother had won Vault, though. In those days, a simple Tsukahara vault sufficed. Now, I wouldn’t be good enough to medal with a Yurchenko double.

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