The View from the Grad
Seldene Shorts, #2
Radi knew that it was really only one village — but from above, it looked like two. The shoreward buildings marked a long, wonky X in the land before the shingle, sand, and sea. Higher inland, on the other side of a copse, her unclicked pen traced marsh country: houses, mostly, grouped among sloping fields and larger woods…
All, presumably, very boggy. Radi reached for her notepad and pulled it towards her, over the map. She added a few items to the list she’d begun, doodled a sun in the corner of the page, then put the pad back in its spot on the desk.
And so, Radi returned to the world around her. The map’s edges showed more familiar territory. A light blue line charted the path of the Sel — the river that, in real life, was as brown as Radi’s coffee as it flowed through the grad — the city — outside her attic window.
Solway City was only a very small city, but it still didn’t make it onto the map. So, how far away was the vill-
Ping.
Radi sighed. That was her watch, bringing up her other study responsibilities. She swiped its alarm away… well, she could always figure out the distance next time.
There was only one quick thing left to do. Moving her coffee and notepad off the desk, Radi reached over to the far side…
