"I don't know," she says seriously, and almost laughs, because she's also been desperate to know how it's set up. Of course they both want to know where the receiver is on the Sixth. They've both been all over the Library, know it as well as anyone, and if someone's still maintaining something like that -- or maybe it's simply just very sturdy, basic technology and doesn't need much maintenance, but. "That's one thing I don't know," she shakes her head. "How it was set up, how it's been maintained, who knows and who doesn't..." She gestures uselessly. "The only thing I can think is that it's hidden among the various external structures, so only maintenance constructs ever see it." It's not the meat of the question and she knows it. Things are always double-stamped, triple-checked, peer-reviewed, everything in the name of transparency. There's a lot of jostling for importance and credit, but the idea of a conspiracy on the Sixth is unsettling.
But in some way that she can already hear Judith calling radicalization in her head, she isn't entirely sure that the conspiracy isn't most of how the Empire's been set up, and this gesture -- not even approval, per se, just one little act of rebalance -- a tiny light in the name of truth. Camilla, feeling a little adrift about all this, nods morosely at Palamedes' comment. Most people who aren't close with the Warden are taken a little aback when they first hear him swear, which tends to amuse her as he really does do it quite often; but it does betray that his anger is real.
Pal sits up straight then, though, rallied, his silvery eyes lit almost from within with a determination and passion. She's seen it before, of course she has, but it never fails to amaze Camilla, after all these years together, how he can take something as devastating, as world collapsing as all this and come back, bearing the flag of innovation and change. She can't help but love him for it, that insistent, contagious passion to work for more, for better. She couldn't do anything but march behind that banner.
Right now, she leans forward, smiling a little, and puts his repaired glasses back on his face. "Then we'll do it," she says, as though it's that simple. Maybe it is. Her believing there was no other option but to do something brought him back from the River. Why not change the Empire as they know it? "I'll help you with whatever you need."
She leans her head back, thinking, and recovers her tea. "In the name of making you prove your thesis, how do you know Gideon wasn't still alive because of Harrow's lobotomy? And you can't say because it was stupid."
no subject
But in some way that she can already hear Judith calling radicalization in her head, she isn't entirely sure that the conspiracy isn't most of how the Empire's been set up, and this gesture -- not even approval, per se, just one little act of rebalance -- a tiny light in the name of truth. Camilla, feeling a little adrift about all this, nods morosely at Palamedes' comment. Most people who aren't close with the Warden are taken a little aback when they first hear him swear, which tends to amuse her as he really does do it quite often; but it does betray that his anger is real.
Pal sits up straight then, though, rallied, his silvery eyes lit almost from within with a determination and passion. She's seen it before, of course she has, but it never fails to amaze Camilla, after all these years together, how he can take something as devastating, as world collapsing as all this and come back, bearing the flag of innovation and change. She can't help but love him for it, that insistent, contagious passion to work for more, for better. She couldn't do anything but march behind that banner.
Right now, she leans forward, smiling a little, and puts his repaired glasses back on his face. "Then we'll do it," she says, as though it's that simple. Maybe it is. Her believing there was no other option but to do something brought him back from the River. Why not change the Empire as they know it? "I'll help you with whatever you need."
She leans her head back, thinking, and recovers her tea. "In the name of making you prove your thesis, how do you know Gideon wasn't still alive because of Harrow's lobotomy? And you can't say because it was stupid."