Free Girl Takes The Oath (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 5) by Jacques Antoine Page B

her friend with an elbow.
    “Tenno Michiko,” Emily replied, extending a hand, though the gesture didn’t seem to make sense to either girl. Finally, the quiet one touched her hand lightly with very soft fingers.
    “I’m Ma Ruochen. My family is in Shenzhen.” A shadow seemed to pass across her face as she said this, or so Emily thought. “Are you from around here?”
    “I grew up in Virginia, a few hours drive south of here. It must be hard on you, being so far from home.”
    “I miss my family.”
    “I don’t,” Diao Chan said. “I like the adventure.”
    “Are you upperclassmen here?” Emily asked.
    “She is,” Diao Chan said. “It’s my first year.”
    “I hope you don’t mind my saying, but you seem a bit old for a freshman.”
    “It’s okay,” she replied. “I had to work for a couple of years before my family could put together enough money for college.”
    Listening to Diao Chan, Emily wondered what she’d worked at. The air of confidence she exuded, together with her bearing, her posture and the strength visible in her hands and shoulders, all suggested military training. The more Emily looked at her, the more struck she was by the sheer physical beauty of the girl—the sort of beauty typical of people at the peak of physical training—her body lithe and athletic, a face framed in a soft oval by a mane of black hair, and a little bit of magic in her eyes.
    Ruochen Ma, by contrast, had nothing of the soldier or the athlete about her. Softer and sweeter, with a fine nose and gentle eyes, she gave the impression of wounded innocence, as if the world oppressed her.
    “You look like you’ve had some physical training,” Emily said.
    “My father taught me Qi Gong ,” Diao Chan said. “And I’ve been teaching it, too.”
    “I’m not familiar with that style. Is it like Tai Chi ?”
    “Yes. They’re both about channeling vital spirit, but Qi Gong emphasizes more flowing movements.”
    It sounded familiar to Emily, but she couldn’t help wondering how this girl could seem so restless inside, if she had really devoted herself to a study like that. Surely, it would have taught her to focus that energy better.
    “I envy you, you know, being able to follow a career in the military,” Diao Chan added after a moment, then nudged her friend.
    “I hope to see you again,” Ruochen Ma piped up, before Diao Chan pulled her away.
    After a bell rang, the larger half of the crowd departed, filing past Ed Braswell and his partner by the main glass doors. Emily watched as Ruochen and Diao Chan left, and then, with a little smile tipped her head toward the Conversation Room, a sort of invitation to her DSS watchmen to join her in the Question Period. She found a seat on the edge of the main oval seating area, and felt the eyes of the students upon her. Did midshipmen ever attend these things? She didn’t feel unwelcome, though she was certainly an object of surprised curiosity.
    The first few questions came from students, and Emily was impressed by the self-assurance with which they presented themselves. One young man, with a barrel chest and roman features asked about the role of philosophers in Hölderlin’s vision of spiritual life. “Wouldn’t they just be a distraction?” Emily thought, but the lecturer spent some time sketching out a philosophical method that seemed to have a poetic sensibility. “Plato may have announced a feud between poetry and philosophy,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean we have to take him at his word.” He spoke at some length about Martin Heidegger and his notion of Being with a capital B, but it didn’t really register with her, seeming more like a word-game than a genuine insight.
    When she eventually raised her hand, the room went silent in what seemed like an exaggerated deference to her, which she found a little annoying. Haven’t they ever seen anyone in a uniform before? Her irritation distracted her for a moment, but no one dared speak in the