"Tomorrow" turned out to be late in the afternoon, after the infirmary staff finally decided that Roi did not have a serious concussion. "Not that I got off lessons," Roi grumbled as he guided his chair alongside Cory to the infirmary door. "They got all the class notes to me, and then every one of my instructors showed up to make sure I understood them. And piles of homework, and they didn't have a mental interface at the infirmary, so I just had to do the answers in my head. Can I use your interface this evening, Coryn?" Then Roi saw what lay outside the door, and forgot all about homework.

White flakes were drifting down from a dark gray sky, forming lacy tables on the grass and fluffy balls on the bushes. The paths were clear—part of the same weather shielding that kept them dry when it rained—but Roi sent his chair as close to the edge of the path as he could, and reached through the weather shield to the white stuff. It was cold, and when he pulled his hand back, he found that the weightless stuff turned to a few drops of water in his hand. "It's ice," he said wonderingly.

"Snow," Coryn corrected him. "Rain started turning to snow 'bout an hour ago. Roi, you've seen snow before. Haven't you?"

"I was a pleasure slave, a house slave. I never saw weather 'til your father bought me, and it was never this cold at his place." He looked around in wonder as they moved along the path. It was almost dark, even though it was not yet suppertime, and the flakes were clear in the lights. This was what he was named for? He'd noticed even before meeting Coryn that the oppressive heat was fading, but now he was really glad for the jacket Coryn had brought from his room and insisted he wear. "After I put my homework in, do you think I could find out a little more about this kind of weather?" he asked.