15[21:36] From a certain perspective, the Four Fangs have just been directly implicated in high treason, which they'd previously been passively implicated in by association and calculated deception, against the Realm that made each of them who they are today. You could make the case that this is a life-defining catastrophe, and that the safest and smartest thing to do is to abandon your mission, 15[21:36] flee your kinship, plead ignorance and beg for mercy from the very Houses you spurn. 15[21:37] From another perspective, things are basically the same, except the phonics of Piu's name aren't as silly. [21:37] 14Airson ifrinn le orra ma tha iad nach urrainn a ghabhail fealla-dhà. [21:38] 07In for a penny, in for a pound... [21:38] 14Can you even commit treason against an empty throne? Mothers know we've been trying. 15[21:39] The hearth's had about an hour to themselves and their curriculars. It's solidly dawn now; the sky is all shot through with pink and gold. 15[21:39] At some point they've agreed to explore Jiewei's ancient ruins with one or more potentially-doomed guides... but not right now. 15[21:39] What are they up to instead? [21:40] 14No chance there's someone here to kill on freelance. [21:41] 07There is a powerful and adept spymaster on this boat. Best to finally introduce oneself. [21:41] 14Probably not. Piu will probably brief Ratel on their plan with regards to the upcoming meeting, then. Orrrrrrr she'll be part of that conversation. 15[21:42] If Dryas is looking for Mik Samperson, she can find him in Piu's cabin. 15[21:42] Then again maybe she means Piu... who is also in Piu's cabin. [21:42] 07How convenient. [21:42] 07Knock, knock. 15[21:43] Caedus looks up sharply, then glances over at Piu. He continues dressing, albeit with some urgency now. [21:43] 14Piu, slipping into a top: "Yes?" [21:44] 07Dryas: "It's me." [21:45] 14Piu: "I'm with Mik." [21:45] "I'll be out in a moment." 15[21:46] Caedus's expression darkens. [21:48] 14Piu: "We're going to have to have the talk with her at some point." 15[21:48] Caedus: "If you say so." [21:49] 14Piu, putting up her hair: "Would you rather she cornered you without me there?" 15[21:49] Caedus: "With no witnesses? Absolutely." 15[21:49] "Kidding." 15[21:49] Or is he? [21:50] 14He gets a look either way. 15[21:50] He shrugs back at her. "We're all here now." 15[21:50] "Might as well get down." [21:51] 14That gets him a playful slap across the chest. "Not what she's here for." 15[21:52] Caedus takes her hand and kisses it, then he steps past her to open the door. [21:52] 07The door swings open and Dryas is standing there, examining her nails. Not a speck of dirt in the post-Saucer manicure. Her eyes snap up. "Hope I'm not interrupting." 07She has the sensory acuity of a bloodhound and, naturally, knows the extent to which she is not interrupting. 15[21:53] "Lady Dryas," says the Chief Petty Officer. "Piu's just inside. Should I leave you two alone?" [21:53] 14Piu rolls her eyes. [21:53] 14More at Dryas than Caedus, to be clear. [21:54] 07Dryas: "That won't be necessary." 07She glides inside, closing the port softly behind her. [21:55] 14Piu: "Sister." 15[21:56] Caedus: "Ma'am." [21:56] 07Dryas: "I'm going to begin by thanking you, Mik, because I know it is not for my own sake that you have not done, what I think some people think you might ought to have done." [21:57] 14Piu frowns as she parses that. 15[21:58] Samperson inclines my head. "I do what I'm told, ma'am. No more, no less. That's how I was raised." 15[21:58] *his hea 15[21:58] d 15[21:58] Iselsi Caedus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ofVsxTPoc - Though you drown in good intentions, you will never quench the fire: you'll give in to your desire when the stranger comes along. 15[21:59] For a moment the room is so quiet you can almost hear the pipes whistling. [21:59] 07Dryas: "That is how you were raised, isn't it, Caedus? Forgive me for being so familiar. I thought we might formally introduce ourselves." [22:00] "And there's the amulet again," 14grumbles Piu. [22:00] 14Caedus has been forewarned, of course. [22:00] 07An impish wink. 15[22:00] Caedus: "Tha thu an ceannard." [22:01] 07Dryas exhales, scanning the two. Not a tongue she's heard. [22:02] "Feuch nach bi thu mì-mhodhail." 14 [22:02] 14Piu: "So, Sister. You want to know things, presumably. Or just...say hi." [22:03] "I can't say the degree to which we're comfortable...being comfortable. At least not until we check some things." 15[22:04] Caedus: "Yeah, so, couple ground rules: I don't talk about our operations. I don't talk about our operatives. Whatever arrangement you've got with Piu is between you and Piu. But it's not with me." [22:05] 14This is in High Realm, or whatever they're usually speaking: "Compartmentalization." 15[22:05] "Discipline." [22:05] 14Mmmm. [22:05] 07Dryas: "That's the kind of information I wanted. Operations, operatives... I want to know about you, and us. And I want to give you the chance for information, as well. If there's anything you care to hear from me." 07It's certainly High Realm. [22:06] *that's NOT the kind [22:06] 14Whew. 15[22:08] Caedus: "Okay. I'll go first: why now? Why are you only finding this out now? If it's from that amulet, which you've had all along." 15[22:08] "Are you so in love with danger that you thought you'd tempt fate in the remotest spot in the whole Direction?" [22:10] 14Piu finishes dressing quietly. [22:10] 07Dryas: "Second question first: same reason I like safari season more than court season. I can see them coming." 15[22:11] "With the lights out, it's less dangerous," replies Caedus. [22:21] 07Dryas: "First question: the first thing you hear is the song. Not everyone has one. But once I learned to hear the songs of people, I could learn to hear it for places... and learn more than just the song that people have, attached to them. Once I learned how to do that, it was a matter of time before I came upon one of your Housemates." [22:22] 07Dryas glances towards Piu for a moment - almost imperceptible. [22:22] 07Dryas: "Ironic that you and Piu kept such utter secrecy, but if was To who betrayed you, however unwittingly." 15[22:23] Caedus: "She's not as clever as she thinks she is." [22:23] 14Piu, stiffly: "It's not like she really had a choice. As soon as Dryas thought to point that thing at either of us..." [22:24] 07Dryas searches for the right words for a moment. "Have you ever been to Harborhead, Master Samperson?" 15[22:26] Caedus: "Not inland. I've been to Kirighast, the main port." [22:29] 07Dryas: "My family does some business there. I passed through on my way to Chiaroscuro. But they have a saying there: 'no man can serve two masters. he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.' A curious saying, in a land much enamored of slave-taking." [22:30] 14Piu grimaces. [22:30] 14Gonna just bring up slaves like that. 15[22:30] Caedus: "Who says he can't hate them both?" [22:35] 07Dryas pauses to look him directly in the eye. "But your heart isn't ruled by hatred, Iselsi Caedus. You do love your master." 15[22:36] His voice gets low. "And who would that be?" [22:36] 14Piu: "Dryas." 15[22:37] "No. Let her speak." 15[22:37] "That's why she's here, isn't it?" [22:38] 14Piu demures. [22:45] 07Dryas: "Is there any point in my being coy about it? Love has stayed your hand. And no love for me, regrettable though it might be," [22:46] 14Piu is staring at the ceiling now. This is so embarrassing. 15[22:47] Caedus: "Okay. Let's not be coy. Where did you get the idea that Piu was my master?" 15[22:47] "I know it wasn't from her." [22:49] 14This is so incredibly uncomfortable. 15[22:52] Caedus, for his part, seems to be acting like Piu's not even there. Hard to say if that helps or hurts. [23:10] 07Dryas: "You are upset, because you think I am denigrating your professionalism? Your training? The way you were raised? Everything you gave up to be here, at this point, only for a jumped-up Cynis bitch with a fancy family brooch to skip past it all, la dee da, and snipe at you about your sex life? Is that about it? Phwoah, what a man, Piu." 07She says this last bit truly admiringly. What a catch! 15[23:12] The room gets a bit colder. 15[23:14] When Caedus exhales, after what feels like minutes, you can see it. 15[23:15] "Okay." 15[23:15] "Consider it moved past." 15[23:15] "I have another question. Who are your people?" [23:16] 07Dryas: "What?" 15[23:16] "Besides present company. Who, not on this ship, in the entire world, is on your side?" 15[23:16] "That you aren't paying." [23:16] 14Professionally and increasingly personally, this is humiliating. [23:23] 07Dryas: "You mean like Pud?, Querulous Snipe, Skipping-Stone Shen, Peleps Deled, Peleps Catela, those kinds of people?" [23:24] 14Piu: "Technically we're paying at least some of those people in kind." 15[23:24] Caedus: "Paid, paid, paid, bribed, paid." [23:24] 14She shuts up again. 15[23:34] Caedus: "My point is that you've never taken an active interest in your people's motivations before. Why is it so important why I do what I'm told?" [23:36] 14Piu is wound tenser than a steel wire around a throat. [23:48] 07Dryas: "First, things are changing. Mercenaries alone will not suffice in the future. Second, I want to find a way to coexist with you. The Fangs are all but a family now. And I want my new family to be a little less dysfunctional than my old one." [23:49] 14What's the saying? The ship is sailing on that one. 15[23:50] Caedus: "Well, I can promise I'm not going to humiliatingly beat you. If that helps." 15[23:51] "I get the sense you want more than that." 15[23:51] "Dynasts always want something more." 15[23:52] "Even though they have everything." [23:55] 07Dryas: "You were just making a point about the one thing I don't have?" 07To say nothing about the fact that we established early on that Iselsi Caedus is a Dynast, himself, of a sort. 15[23:56] "That was your decision. If you hadn't decided to shop around for better minders, you'd have a whole House at your back, instead of two and a half at your throat." 15[23:57] "Here's another question. Merchant princesses love this one: where do you see yourself in six months? How about five years?" [23:59] 07Dryas: "Six months? Full speed out from Onyx. Five years? Conservatively, governing, conservatively, Wu Jian to Khirigast, Bittern to the Caul." 15[00:00] Caedus glances at Piu. "You want to lay odds." [00:02] 14In response, Piu stands up, walks to the washroom, walks inside, and closes the door. 15[00:03] "...guess not." 15[00:05] Luckily, Piu knows that once the door is sealed, it's soundproof in there. [00:05] 14That's good. She knows tricks to make her eyes less puffy afterward. 15[00:07] Caedus: "Now what, Lady Dryas?" [00:12] 07Dryas: "Now that the formal introductions are over, I think we know where we stand. In some ways that's better than we were yesterday, at least." 07Dryas pivots to leave. 15[00:12] Caedus scoffs at her back. [00:22] 07Dryas pauses at the threshold: "But. What you said, about how my choices have put two Houses at my throat, instead of one at my back? It's true. I made that choice - not without help from Piu, without her it would never have been possible. But I found the courage to do that. We're going to do it, to save lives and avert the war. We can realize something better than the devastation that waits to swallow the world. I won't tell [00:22] you what to do, but you might come to a similar conclusion one day." 15[00:28] "...see that you do. Because we're all in it now." 15[00:28] "Ma'am." It's a farewell. 15[00:31] After Dryas is gone, there's a knock on the washroom door. [00:32] 14It will take a few minutes before the door opens. Piu's redone her makeup. [00:32] 14Evenly, tiredly: "No one died?" 15[00:33] Caedus: "So far, so good." 15[00:33] "How are you doing?" [00:34] 14Piu: "I'm functional." [00:34] "There won't be any more problems." 15[00:37] Caedus: "I don't care about problems. We can solve problems." 15[00:37] "If we can say them out loud." 15[00:38] He says this neutrally, like it's a genuinely open question whether they can or not, and either way is fine. [00:39] 14Without looking at him: "If you ask me to take a side between you and my hearth -- between the House and my hearth -- you already know what the answer will be, and you know how much it will hurt me. I would ask that you not put me in that position until then, to score points on a joke." [00:40] 14She realizes belatedly that she's started trembling, and immediately corrects that. [00:40] 14They were taught perfect body control early. [00:40] 14She's slipping. 15[00:42] Ordinarily Caedus would be letting her lean into his arms right now. Instead, he's just about fully turned towards her as she looks away. "Fine. And if you ask me to take a side between you and my House, you know what my answer will be. Because I've already given it." 15[00:43] "But they're your kin. They're not mine. I didn't swear an oath to them. They don't know me, no matter what she thinks. I don't love them." 15[00:43] "You are the only reason I'm here." [00:45] 14Wordlessly, she turns, walks over slowly and buries her head in his chest. She's cried out all her tears. As per her training, everything's back under control. [00:45] 14Everything's fine. [00:45] 14Everything's going to be fine.