Room 313, after classes

[solo_sword]

Between the end of Parents Weekend (including the meeting she was glad went as well as it did), Fandom finding even more ways to scar her, and other things, Jaina was having a pretty interesting week so far.

Some parts of it (okay, the Parents Weekend parts only), she knew she had to actually update people about, especially since it was official that she wouldn't be going home permanently for a while. Which was why she'd started recording a transmission to her mother before realizing talking about how great her weekend with her dad was might not be such a great idea, and had resumed sitting there and trying to figure out what to say.

[For Karal, but open, much like the door. SP for workishness and time zones yay.]

Comments

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

He gave her a small smile and shut the door, before walking over to sit on the edge of the bed. Altra just looked smug and started to purr. "Thank you," he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a beaded pouch. "I thought you might wish to see the results of our last talk."

[solo_sword]

She pulled her chair over, sitting across from them. "The, ah, reconnaissance thing?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Yes, exactly." Karal slid a large, glossy black stone from the pouch and held it out to show her. "A scrying stone. It is connected to the leader of the Imperial forces."

[solo_sword]

Leaning over to look, but not touch, she tilted her head to see it from a couple angles. "Nice going," she said approvingly. "Have you seen anything yet?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Many things, Jaina. A great deal of it involving snow. Conditions there are far harsher than anyone knew." His voice was sympathetic and he shook his head. "Altra, will you?"

Altra stretched out enough to touch the stone, making it glow, reflecting the blue of his eyes, and then there was a man in the stone, and voices rang out from it, quiet but clear, as he spoke with a very much older man, dressed in robes. "They are speaking in the Imperial tongue, unfortunately, but I can explain what they're saying."

[solo_sword]

That was a neat little thing to be able to do, she thought, watching Altra.

Even if she couldn't understand them, she was paying attention to the scene she was watching. "Please," she said.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

He gave her a quick smile, then frowned in concentration. "The very old man is a mage of some kind,or an advisor, and the other is Grand Duke Tremane. They are discussing," he listened for a moment, head tilted, then nodded, "apparently there are children from Shonar lost in the snow. The townspeople have to come to ask for help."

The conversation between the two men had become more animated, and Tremane was gesturing at the door while he fastened a heavy cloak around his shoulders and reached for his sword.

[solo_sword]

Jaina's eyes widened as she saw him go for the sword. "I'm reading this wrong, right?" she asked slowly.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Karal looked away from the stone, wondering the same thing. "I'm not certain. What are you thinking?"

[solo_sword]

"What's he doing with the sword?" she wondered.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

The picture followed Tremane as he strode out into a larger room, waving his arms at the men there and calling out instructions. Karal's eyes got wide. "I think he's intending to go after the children himself! He is saying that they have got more lost children and that those men should go and get more volunteers!"

The response was immediate, as some of the men began donning weapons and warmer clothing, and other left at a run.

[solo_sword]

"I should probably learn not to expect the worst," Jaina said, sounding surprised. "Does he normally do things like that?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

I...do not know." Karal was just staring at the stone. "This is the first time I have seen him at something other than paperwork," he said slowly. "My understanding of the Imperial tongue has increased as a result, but this is nothing I've seen before. Maybe," he couldn't help the cynical little thought, "maybe he is simply bored, and wishes to escape outside for a time."

Tremane led his men down snow covered and roofed tunnels while Karal spoke, and they stepped outside the walls of Shonar, and into hard, diamond-bright sunlight. It was brutal, snow-covered wilderness, tracks cut through snow up to the waist of a grown man with drifts going higher than his head. Tremane's group wrapped scarves around their faces, covering every patch of exposed skin, before they trekked across the snow after their leader.

[solo_sword]

"I guess everyone needs a good deed every now and then," she said, still watching. "Though given this weather, that's a pretty impressive good dead."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Shaking his head slowly, he lifted his eyes from the stone. "This makes no sense. Why would he go out into that after some lost town children? Even if we credit him with the purest of motives, to go out into that...I don't believe even Solaris would do that!"

[solo_sword]

"Does he know some of them personally?" Jaina wondered. It was really the only thing she could think of.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"I don't think so. If I understand the words properly, he referred to them as 'brats', though there seemed to be no malice in it." Karal rested his chin on his hands. "I think they were out with the herds when they were lost. This is unbelievable."

Altra closed his eyes and the picture disappeared.

[solo_sword]

She frowned at the stone for a minute, and then looked up at Karal. "Does seeing this change anything?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"He cannot be a heartless man, else he would not have gone to help. If all he wanted was to secure the loyalty of the townsfolk, he could have sent men out and stayed safely behind the walls." Karal rubbed a hand over his face. "He almost has to be acting out of some sense of personal responsibility."

[solo_sword]

And because she couldn't seem to stop showing off how jaded she'd gotten lately, her next question was, "Can you use this as an argument? Appeal to this part of him?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Use it as a lever to get him to seek to join the Alliance?" he asked, reaching out to stroke Altra. The 'cat had curled into a ball and was fast asleep. "Given all of this, I suspect if he is offered the chance to make an overture to the Alliance, he will take it. This is beginning to convince me that he must get that chance."

[solo_sword]

"Looks like your spying idea was a good one," she said with a little smile.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"The idea I never would have followed without your support," he replied, sliding the stone back into its pouch.

[solo_sword]

"Yeah, if you've ever got one of those plans that you know is a good idea but you're having doubts? I'm like the queen of followthrough there," she said. "I'm glad it's helping."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Karal laughed quietly and offered her a small bow. "It truly is, and I am grateful for your royal attentions." Smiling, he slipped the pouch back in his pocket. "There is much for me to think on, but it can wait until later. Right now I must ask how this past weekend went."