hellonspectacles | Once more into the breach, dear friends

It is nighttime, or what passes for nighttime in space, and the ship Mount Ida is quiet.

It isn’t a particularly large vessel. There are berths for a dozen crew members and private rooms for the ship’s two officers, a mess hall, a med bay, an armory, a brig. Nothing about it is particularly luxurious—Blood of Eden doesn’t go in for luxury, and the members of Troia Cell are no different—but everything is functional and well maintained. The ship hums faintly with the sound of engines and life support and electric lights, a but most of the crew don’t notice it anymore.

Near the officer’s cabins is another berth, occupied (or so it seems) by a single person. It contains a bed, and a sink, and a table on which, strangely, sits the perfectly formed skeleton of a human hand. The door is locked from the outside and a crew member stands guard. Are these precautions to keep the person inside from escaping, or to protect them from coming to harm? No one is sure anymore.

The crew member, Sergeant Hot Coals of Vengeance, is bored. Their shift is almost over, they need a piss, and they’re not even sure what the point of this assignment is anyway. Sure, the room’s occupant might be a zombie lover, and she might be a little weird. And sure, she did dislocate Lieutenant Pash’s arm when they tried to take that gross little bag of bones from her, but that was months ago. These days, she’s polite, and she spends long hours in secret meetings with the Commander, and she always asks for an escort when she needs to leave the room.

Coals really needs to piss. They peek through the little window in the door.

Inside, Camilla Hect is curled up on a narrow bed, breathing steadily. She’s asleep, and anyway, the door is locked. What’s the worst that could happen if they stepped away for a few minutes?

Coals leaves their post, and Camilla sleeps on—or so it seems.

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"That's the gist." Palamedes exhales and rubs the bridge of his nose. He suddenly looks uncertain, almost sheepish. It’s an expression that Camilla Hect’s fact wears awkwardly. “Look, the situation here…it isn’t good. I’m keenly aware that I’ve pulled you into it without so much as a by-your-leave, and that you have no reason to care about the people here. But they’re my people, Yuuki. I had to do something.” He sits down heavily on the bed.

“But if we’re being entirely honest, I’m dreadfully glad to see you.”

Trust Palamedes to put the issue into words so accurately.

"I'm not gonna pretend I want to be in this situation, or that I'm happy about leaving the others behind." Clarke, Rita, Jade. "But you're my friend and I'm going to help you."

Sometimes it's really as simple as that.

"And I'm glad to see you, too."

And suddenly, the question Palamedes is dying to ask is on the tip of his tongue.

How is she?

He's worried about all of them, of course. Jade, and Rita, and Ari, and Security, and Valdis, and Wayne. Even people like Skulduggery and Ava, who probably wouldn't want to be worried over by the likes of him. But first and foremost, he worries for Clarke Griffin--and he misses her, desperately.

But he can't ask now. He's afraid of the answer. More than that, he's afraid that once he starts asking after her, he won't be able to stop, and Camilla's soul will get eaten away while he forces Natsuno to answer inane questions like Did Clarke have mashed potatoes for breakfast again? or Which of you won your last arcade tournament?

He can't do this now, no matter how much longing claws at his throat. So he just offers Natsuno his hand to shake.

“Thanks, friend. I can’t stay much longer, but,” a tiny quirk of a smile, “I promise Cam won’t try to kill you again. Try to get some sleep?”

He takes the hand and shakes it, warmly.

"I don't need to sleep." A small, crooked grin. "But I can pretend, since I'm a miserable stowaway and all. I'll tell Camilla what we talked about."

Remarkably, the plan goes off without a hitch. Despite Natsuno’s healing abilities, which they must take great pains to hide, he makes for a good stowaway-turn-Blood of Eden recruit. He’s seething with anger, and he doesn’t say much, and his eyes speak of pain that most of the ship’s crew recognizes and all know better than to ask about. Maybe a few members of Blood of Eden are puzzled as to why a former refugee has become the Sixth’s closest confidant, but even that doesn’t raise too many questions.

When the Blood of Eden ship hails the Sixth House station, it’s Archivist Juno Zeta who speaks over the intercom, and Archivist Juno Zeta who allows them to dock when they reveal that they have the Sixth’s presumed-dead cavalier primary on board. There’s an awed crowd waiting when Camilla and Natsuno step out of the airlock (Palamedes-as-Camilla had insisted that Natsuno be the only BoE representative to accompany him on his first visit), and Zeta pushes through it and guides them back to her office as quickly as she can.

For the time being, dark sunglasses remain on Camilla’s face, hiding her grey eyes from view.

The moment the door is shut, Zeta pulls Camilla into a tight hug. “My dear girl, you are a sight for sore eyes.”

Hiding his abilities is a pain, but the rest is easy. Natsuno wears his anger like a familiar old coat and sees its reflection in every Blood of Eden member's eyes. The sheer scale is incomparable, but the core of the story never changes.

All you wanted was to mind your own business, but those who cheat death had other plans. They came to your home, drained it out of life and gave you a choice: submit or die. So you took a third option, and you will destroy them.

Natsuno's loyalty is with Palamedes, but boy does he get it.

He keeps his mouth shut when they reach the sixth, when Pal insists he come with and when Archivist Juno Zeta leads them through the crowd. All eyes are on Camilla, of course, but if anyone's gaze lingers on Natsuno, he's determined to give nothing away.

He hangs at the back of the office as Zeta hugs the cavalier. Until Natsuno is spoken to directly, he'll stay out of the way.

Camilla isn’t very big on hugs as a general rule, but when Zeta pulls her close, she clings to her, her heart hammering hard in her chest. She’s doubly glad that the sunglasses hide her eyes, if only to stop the older woman from discovering that her eyes are wet.

“Archivist,” she says with careful formality that hides the swell of emotion in her chest. “It’s an honor to speak with you—“

“Oh, don’t ‘it’s an honor’ me. Tell me how you are, and tell me what’s happening. That ship out there, it’s a Cohort ship, but those aren’t Cohort soldiers. Who are they, and—“ her gaze settles on Natsuno with a searching intensity that he might recognize from Palamedes— “tell me who your friend is.”

Camilla starts with the last request. “This is Natsuno Yuuki,” she says, and when Zeta looks puzzled, she adds, “A representative of Blood of Eden.”

“Blood of Eden? My girl—“

“He knew the Master Warden.”

Zeta’s eyes go wide.

Natsuno bows. Though he rarely bothers, he is perfectly capable of being polite. Juno Zeta may wave Camilla's attempts at etiquette, but he is a complete stranger and this authority figure is owed respect.

"Hello, Archivist. How I know the Master Warden is a long story." Know, not knew. Natsuno doesn't elaborate for now - if the Archivist is anything like Pal, she will know when to wait and when to ask the right question. "But I would like to make one thing clear. I don't really care about 'representing' Blood of Eden. I'm here because Palamedes is my friend."

Once more into the breach, dear friends

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feel free to skip to the sixth the next tag!

Sixth House Time!

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