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First Gran'da comes in and makes sure that I'm sleeping because he's going off to the Residence, that's where the Emperor lives, it's the Imperial Residence, but no one calls it that, it's just the Residence, because it's the most important because that's where the Emperor lives, and I'm to be in bed and do my very best to do my Vor duty and get an adequate amount of sleep for a child of my age, which Gran'da says means I have to stop sneaking in when he's having company, and he promised he'd tell me more stories if I did. So I have to sleep instead of staying up and he tells me a story, but only a short one, because the Emperor has commanded his presence because it's the Winterfair season and that's what Counts do a lot during Winterfair season and also Midsummer, and the Emperor wants to see them but they don't have a ceremony to give the Emperor presents, they do that on his birthday, but I don't think that makes sense, because there's no fun only getting presents on your birthday. It must be very lonely to be the Emperor and not get presents on Winterfair. Prince Serg gets presents, I bet.
Padma says that the Emperor gets lot of presents all the time, but the Counts giving him presents on his birthday is important because it's a financial showing of something about that, and Padma is going off to the Academy soon, he says, but he says he'll make sure he comes to visit me on my birthday. He promised.
And Padma's going to this party, too, because he's nearly a grown-up now, and that means he can't stay over here tonight and watch for Father Frost with me. But that's okay, because Gran'da said I can't stay up, and Armsman Petrov will put me into bed bodily if he has to and then tell Gran'da that I can't be a good liege man and obey orders, and then I won't get presents and I can't go to the Academy like Padma is going to be doing and that would be a waste of potential and a shame upon House Vorkosigan and Da is already enough of a shame so I can't be one, too, and Padma made me promise that if I ever decided to be a shame on my family, I would tell him first. Padma says he'll visit when the party is over, but I think that will be very late and I might even be sleeping by then even though I'm too excited to sleep.
And then Gran'da comes home and then it's midnight and it's Winterfair proper, not just the social season where they're pretending and practicing for the real time, and the party goes on all night, but Gran'da comes home at midnight because he says that's the time most of the drunken revelry starts and he wants no part in that, and I shouldn't either, but the party goes on until dawn, which is a long time away because it's the longest night of the year, and that means that Father Frost has time to come and make sure the sun comes back by giving us all presents and making us happy and giving us back the sun as a present for all of us and then the days start getting longer and longer and longer again until Midsummer and then they start getting shorter again and that's how time works.
And then Father Frost comes flying around the world and Airspace Control brings him down and then he's taken to ImpSec and Captain Negri says, hello, Father Frost, and Father Frost says, hello, Captain, have you been eating your vegetables, and Captain Negri says no, because ImpSec can't eat anything they didn't bring with them, and Captain Negri won't eat my vegetables for me, and then they inspect the presents and Captain Negri says they're all within acceptable security parameters, and he lets him go and he calls Traffic Control, who makes sure he can get around without being seen, and then Father Frost knocks on the door and the sergeant on duty looks at his paperwork and calls Captain Negri and Captain Negri says it's okay, it's really Father Frost, he made sure and Father Frost promised to cooperate with all adequate security measures, and then they bring in the presents and Father Frost goes away because you can't ever see him or else he never comes back, but not like Ma, he's not dead, he just doesn't come back to you, but he's still there, but he doesn't visit you anymore because you broke the magic, but you can get it back, Armsman Petrov says, if you are a very good boy and eat your vegetables for an entire year.
And then we all wake up and it's presents and Da might be there if he's sober, and Padma will be here all day, he promised, and I can show him all my presents and give him the one I made for him, but it's a secret, I can't tell anyone, I made the armsmen promise not to tell anyone, not even Gran'da unless he asks, because they can't lie to Gran'da because he's their Count, and they promised they'd never lie to him, but I said you don't have to go ahead and tell him without being asked first, and they said they would do their best, and I have one for Gran'da too and Da also and also Gran'da Vorrutyer and Gran'ma Vorrutyer and Gran'ma Vorbarra, and I saw her yesterday and she tugged at my hair and said Gran'da needs to stop making me look like a raw recruit and then she hugged me and she told me I looked very proper and then we had cookies and she gave me a big one with my name on it and the number five and then we crunched it together like they do on Beta Colony, which is another planet, like Komarr and all those Cetagandan ones, but only better because they didn't invade us or blow up Gran'da's capital, and then she said happy birthday and she gave me another big cookie, this time that said six, and we split it in half and I ate half of it and she ate the other and it was a very good cookie. They have cookies on Beta Colony, even though it's a different planet. They just make them differently. Did you know it's a desert? It's very hot there, Gran'ma Vorbarra says, even in the winter, which is silly, because the snow drifts outside right now are taller than me and it's very cold and that's how you know it's winter. But Gran'ma showed me pictures and then we went to a bonfire in the Great Square and then she took me to Vorhartung Castle, that's where the Counts vote, but they weren't voting then, and we saw the exhibits and I got to touch one of the old swords and I told Gran'da later and he said it was his Gran'da's sword, during a war a long time ago and he would tell me the story but only if I was very good and went to sleep and didn't try to spy on Father Frost.
And that's what Winterfair means to me.