is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMaite sat back down at her place at the table. \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De Lancre took a sip of his coffee before answering her. \u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to talk to you for a long time now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat do you mean? We\u2019ve only met once before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De Lancre raised an eyebrow. \u201cMaybe for you. But, for me, we\u2019ve met many times now. You and the boy\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKepa,\u201d interjected Maite sternly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, Kepa. We\u2019ve had a number of run-ins that more often than not end violently. I want to stop that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStop it how?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy making a truce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHold on,\u201d interrupted Maite. \u201cYou have to know already that a truce won\u2019t hold. You\u2019ve already said we have numerous violent run-ins in my future. You already know this won\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo I?\u201d asked de Lancre. He shrugged as he looked out over the city. \u201cTo be honest, after all of this time, after hopping around from one time to another, I really don\u2019t know how all of this works. Maybe, by talking to you so early in the process, I can change how the rest of this goes.\u201d He returned his gaze to Maite. \u201cAt the very least, I wanted to get to know you a bit more. I find you\u2026 intriguing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite cursed herself as she blushed. The last thing she wanted to hear was flattery from this murderer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can hold me captive, but as soon as Kepa finds the zatia, this will all end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbout that,\u201d began de Lancre. He snapped a finger and another spherical drone floated into the room. This one was slightly bigger. As it hovered in front of de Lancre, he touched something on his wrist and a compartment slid open. A bright light burst forth and Maite could see the zatia inside. \u201cI already have it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite lunged across the table toward the drone, but de Lancre simply touched his wrist. The compartment slid closed and the drone jumped up out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De Lancre simply shook his head as Maite lay sprawled on the table in a puddle of coffee. \u201cAnd you just got cleaned up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d asked Maite as she looked up at de Lancre. \u201cWhy haven\u2019t you collected it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI like this time,\u201d replied de Lancre. \u201cLook at me, look at how important I am, how much influence I have.\u201d He shrugged again. \u201cI\u2019m just enjoying myself too much right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat was\u2026 different,\u201d said Maite as she returned to the patio. The robe was gone, replaced with a billowing top that left her midriff bare but extended to her wrists. It was complemented by what she could only call pantaloons. She felt somewhat like a pirate. Her hair was pulled up into a tight bun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1q3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5460,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459\/revisions\/5460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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