necrosaint | Rubilykskoye; IC inbox

[After Gideon moved into their room, Ianthe made some moves to mitigate some fear she's pretending doesn't exist, that with lyctor and cavalier reunited neither of them needed her anymore.

Harrowhark would find a small cloth bundle on her bed. Within it, there was a little carved wooden box. The inside was segmented to make two compartments, each containing a clay-like material - one black in color and the other that of a light ash. Accompanying it all was a small bristle brush and a handwritten note.]

This wasn't easy to come by and won't be easy to replace. Make it last. -I.N.

[If Ianthe looked at this and the corresponding act to Gideon objectively, it would reek of desperation, but she's not. Hopefully the other two wouldn't notice.]

Harrowhark.

[ The voice of God. Well, the text of God. Regardless, here it is in her mind. ]

Coronabeth Tridentarius is here.

[ She's really going to have to get used to it someday. She's bad at cloaking her thoughts, and so there's a jumbled response at first that feels like ... this, visual representation provided: ]

dͭoͪeͥˢs ͩhͦeͬ ͫwaͬnͦtͦ ͫmeͥˢ ᵍtͦoͥᶰ ᵍdoͭ ͦsᵇoͤmͨeͦtͫhͤinͮgͤ ͬʸinͥᶰ ͭpͤaͬrͤˢtͭiͥᶰcᵍuͩlar ƨiʜɈ Ɉυodɒ ϝԍʁʁᴉpɼԍ ʇuɐᴉʅʅᴉɹq ɹo?

[ But then she works it out to— ]

This bothers you, I think? How may I be of service?

[ he hears the soft static of her third thoughts all layered over a question to herself, garbled upon garbled, and doesn't bother trying to untangle it. ]

I wouldn't say "bothers".

[ his jimmies are a little rustled or he wouldn't be reaching out. ]

I'm curious about her potential involvement with Blood of Eden on New Rho — and she seemed to think you were there.

[ Had mentioned the rescue of Harrowhark, which meant Harrowhark's body, which given he knows why Harrow had been able to walk through his memory-dreambubbles like a consumed cavalier for six months, means Coronabeth might have been exposed to Alecto, a bigger concern than her potential treason. He still thinks she's probably too much of a bimbo to be anything but a tool in political manoeuvring, but she might tell her sister something dangerous, and Ianthe is a capital T threat in this place. ]

Ianthe said that too, but I am not even sure where New Rho is so I couldn't have been unless

[ actually that thought is just gonna die there. ]

I can see what I can find out, though I suspect Coronabeth will have little to say to me--more likely to treat me like a fragile imbecile. [ for good reason, harrow ]

Look, I care for all my people, I do. But I hope you don't care what someone like her thinks of you.

[ She'd treated him like a celebrity footballer for five seconds and then lost interest in him, he gets to be a little petty. Only with Harrow, though. ]

[ oh. harrow's heart does a weird little thing she doesn't understand: that sounded like a compliment. he thinks she is better than someone. wow. ]

Not in a way where it influences my state of mind. If she chose to decide to pick on me it would require that I retaliate which would be tiring, and on that level I care.

Gideon likes her, though.

[ That doesn't surprise him; John also has a deep and innate preference for beautiful giant blond women who could step on him. And Kiriona is just so very nineteen. ]

Yeah? Did I ever tell you that when we first met up here she left behind two free drinks and the chance to punch me in the face again to go make sure you were all right?

[ All these roundabout compliments. ]

[ Harrow's mouth actually falls open a little in shock, which most people would probably not be aware of, but there's nothing in her head she doesn't leave open to him. It would be rude, otherwise. Shielding the Necrolord Prime must be some form of insult. ]

... No. She did not tell me such a thing either. Not that I think she would have.

Yeah, doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would come up. You two doing okay being separate? I know it's not exactly the priority for study here, but she's full on alive again, and you're still as much of a lyctor.

It's unusual and how it works makes absolutely no sense, but out of the interest of not giving myself a nosebleed I have not been trying to figure out how it worked. This is one area in which not being sure is likely the safer move no matter how much missing information chafes.

Thus: I think we are both more comfortable separate than we would have been fully combined.

All right. Good.

[ Harrow could leave it there. Harrow should leave it there, just at his being reassuring, revel in the moment and convince herself that God really just cared about her and ~~his daughter~~ her cavalier--

But she doesn't.

Because that would be too easy. And sensible. And devoid of loaded statements. ]

And yourself, if I may ask? Without ... your cavalier?

I miss her.

[ It's hard to say if he misses her as a person or as power, as an inevitability to reach for. That ambiguity threads through his simple psychic statement like a second text: never before so alone / never before so weak. ]

Being here I could almost forget the last ten thousand years. But I can't forget her absence.

[ she's awkward in an uncertain, hesitant way, like "am I allowed to say this?" ]

I miss her too.

Rubilykskoye; IC inbox

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