Before she could respond, I added,I just want to be sure I understand the rules.I promise I'm not planning anything.
I was, in fact, planning something, or I was beginning to.A plan-shaped thing was beginning to take a semi-corporeal form in my head.
For a long moment, nothing came back, and then her words floated up.Please review your schedule: you are meant to be sleeping.Humans require many hours of sleep.Please engage your rest cycle now.
I sighed and shoved myself off of the couch.I was going to give myself a day to think it over and to gather a bit more information,and then – well.Then I thought I'd go a little off-script.After all, what was the worst that could happen?
Chapter 19 –The Library is Open
The next morning, I met Araxis in the hot training room as always.We slid into our usual back-and-forth, comfortable and challenging all at once.Grigor glowered from across the room, and I worked hard to keep an eye on him, just in case.He stopped pounding on the punching bag whenever he saw Araxis and I draw near to each other, his face a permanent scowl.Once, Grigor even spit on the floor – this was why aliens thought humanswere backwater slobs!– when Araxis stepped in close behind me, hand falling to my hip as he showed me a variation on one of the dancing sequences that could be deadly as an attack.
"Hey," I gasped, bent over with my hands planted on my knees after we'd finished running through all nine sword-dancing sequences at a brutal pace, "I'm going to try and talk to shithead over there."I tipped my chin toward Grigor, who was fighting a punching bag like it had personally offended him or maybe propositioned him, which were probably the same thing."Would you mind just waiting in the stairwell for, like, five minutes?If I don't show up, you can assume he's killed me."
Araxis stared at me, black eyes wide."That does not sound wise, Sashen.I could accompany you."
I waved one hand, dismissive."I think it's better if I talk to him on my own.He gets all bug-eyed whenever he sees us together.Since, you know."I straightened, fighting against the pleased little smile that wanted to slip free.I lost."He seems to think you mightlikeme."
Araxis blinked several times, rapid."Idolike you," he said slowly."Why would that –" He stopped, apparently catching up with what I meant bylike; I could see him restrain himself from looking up to the silver camera glinting just over our heads."Hm.And he would find this unacceptable."
"For a whole slew of reasons," I said, shoving my hair off my forehead.
"And wouldyoufind it unacceptable?"Araxis asked, mild.
I laughed, unable to stop myself.Across the room, Grigor's head swung in my direction, his face tightening in disgust.Since we had an audience, I drifted to Araxis, brushing my hand against his shoulder."No," I murmured, tipping my head in close to his ear."I would definitely not find that unacceptable.I might even be pleased.You'll wait for me?"
"Yes, of course."Dropping my fingers away from his upright shoulder felt like trying to pull two magnets apart, but I did it anyway and cut a path across the training room.
When I drew near to Grigor, who'd gone back to beating the ever living shit out of that punching bag, I was careful to school my face to pleasant blandness.He rocked back on his heels, glowering at me."What doyouwant?"
I shrugged, leaning against another piece of equipment designed for someone who had more limbs than either Grigor or I did."I was thinking about some of what you said."
"Wereyou?"He looked unimpressed and skeptical."It looked to me like you were continuing to indulge in the sins of the flesh.Haven't closed those legs yet, Alikander."
Well, so much for an easy in.He clearly wasn't feeling convivial – how incredibly in character of him.But that was fine: I was a virra.I was pretty sure I could get even someone like Grigor to do what I needed him to.
"I was thinking about some things,yes," I said with an affected earnestness."You said Seraphim is fine with – different cultures.Alien cultures.And you're obviously with a mining outfit.I guess I just wondered where you're mining."I held my hands up placatingly as he turned to square off with me, features pinched."It can't be on-planet.You must be working with a partner somewhere else.So I was… curious."I swallowed, throat dry, and added, "I don't know, maybe thingshavechanged since I left.I never would have expectedthe Shepherds would send anyone to something like this, and I guess a decade is a long time."The words tasted sour on my tongue, but I said them anyway and then watched, careful, to see if they'd landed.
He huffed out a hard breath, shaking his head."Why do you care?Did yourboyfriendask you to find out about our operations?"
"He's not myboyfriend," I said, sharper than I intended."He's not a man."
Grigor snorted."Who knows what it is.Can't be your girlfriend.You wouldn't know what to do with a woman anyway."
He was so ignorant it might be laughable, except that it wasAraxishe was talking about.How hard could I bite my tongue before I actually bit clean through it?And if I spit blood in his face, would that be enough of a distraction that I could kick the shit out of him?Long enough for me to get to my practice blades and use blunt force trauma to shut him up?
"They really didn't send their most tactful, did they?"I asked, my voice nearly even and my mouth only tasting a little of blood.
He scoffed, hauling on his collar so he could swipe at his sweaty neck."Tact isn't what wins anything that matters,Alikander.It's competence.It's righteousness.It's not hesitating to put the wicked in their place."
His flat stare told me exactly where he thought I belonged in that sequence.
"If your objective here is to make Seraphim look better, I've got to let you know: you're doing a shit job," I said finally."Genuinely.Is this a joke the Shepherds are playing?You haven't convinced me of shit.I came over here to chat, and you've just been a dick.You sound like an idiot in your interviews.Sky Pebble told me you can barely string together a coherent sentence in Standard, and that's evenwitha chip helping you.And all you're doing for Seraphim's image is making them look like the kind of place that sends violent, bigoted brutes to competitions they don't know shit about.The only reason you're even gettinganyscreen time is because you're talking to me.You should try saying thank you.And maybe the next time you decide you wanta late night chat, you should start withplease, Sashen, won't you help me interest anyone in the slightest?"
Grigor purpled as he listened to me, fists curling tighter and tighter.
"And," I added in Standard, feeling a grim satisfaction as I set my own pieces into play, "it's a good thing I'm working the love triangle storyline on your behalf.Otherwise, you'd be well and truly fucked.You'rewelcome."
I turned on my heel and beelined out of the training room before Grigor could make heads or tails of what I'd just said.I knew he'd belatedly understood me when I heard the juddering thuds of his fists landing on the punching bag, again and again and again: violent, furious, relentless.
