Debarre was still mostly full from dinner at home, but he had a few bites of fish forked from End Waking's plate. Tasty, but, as always, lacking in salt.
After they ate, End Waking tasked Debarre with washing off the plate while he tucked another small log into the stove and started the kettle for tea, which they shared while sitting on the step at the entrance to the tent, keeping the last of the spring chill away.
"So, my political junkie friends aside, do you have a better idea of what's going on with Jonas and company?"
"Moment," Debarre said, holding up a paw while he sent a hasty message back home. "Sorry. We'd been guessing at that, just sent a confirmation. Done now."
"Please do not act on it yet, my dear."
So serious was the skunk's tone that Debarre set down his mug of tea and turned to face him. "I won't, but you gotta tell me why."
"I am going to be at this meeting. I should probably not even know about their AEC, but I do because of True Name."
"And given you and I, there's probably only one place I'd get it," he guessed and, when the skunk nodded, sent another message back home. "You sure this place is secure, then? And you're sending a fork, right?"
"Yes and yes."
"Good."
End Waking smiled. "I know that you do, but it is always pleasing to have confirmation that you think so much of me, Debarre."
"Of course I do," he scoffed. "But I interrupted, sorry. You were saying?"
"Right. With this AEC technology, I think that Jonas sees an opening to edge True Name out. I do not know why, but she mentioned something about a diversity of governance across Systems. I do not agree with him on this. I think he is playing a dangerous game by treating each of the Systems so differently. Each System treating itself as a separate country is one thing, but potentially destabilizing them by giving each a different form of governance feels like him treating politics as his plaything. I do not like it."
The longer End Waking spoke, the deeper Debarre's frown got. "Yeah, ever since they set up that Guiding Council thing over on Pollux, we've been wondering about that. It sounds innocuous enough. Reasonably close to the Council of Ten over on Artemis, I guess, just folks you can go talk to about disagreements and mediation, at least on the surface. That part was inoffensive, but that they would even do such a thing in the face of the *History* is just wild."
End Waking shrugged. "You know more than I on that end. I do not keep up with either LV beyond what you and Ioan care to pass on. There are messages from the clade, but you know my feelings on them."
"Mmhm." Debarre hesitated, then added, "Though if you do wind up going through them and come across any juicy details about those politics you don't care about, you could always share them with me."
He laughed and shook his head. "Should my life become so boring, you will have more to worry about, my love. I am better at being a pest than you give me credit for."
"Fine, fine. I'll just get them from May Then My Name."
"You will have to put up with her ceaseless flirting."
Debarre grinned. "I'm pretty well used to it by now. You're really going to go to this thing, though?"
End Waking nodded, chewing on a mouthful of tisane-bits. "Yes."
"Why, though? Isn't that going to be dangerous? Never mind totally outside your interest. It'll all be politics."
The skunk was a long time in answering, staring out into the forest and listening to the far-away rush of the waterfall. "There is what Jonas hopes to accomplish and what I hope to learn. Jonas, I think, would like to gloat. He would like it known that he can loop even me into his plans. He would like even me, even the recluse scared, to use as a lever over True Name if she is to come out of this alive."
"And me."
"And you, yes. I do not doubt that even he knows what you are up to these days, though I do not know to what extent." He poked around in his mug to hunt down the last of the gooseberries. "I am pleased that you are so careful. I worry about you."
Debarre sat, silent. The comment all but demanded silence from him, so rare was any expression of worry from his boyfriend.
"I will be going because if this is to be the end of True Name or whatever she is becoming, then it will be a step towards letting go. It will be an in for me to become independent. If I am to move beyond that which defines me, I would like to know how."
"Still thinking of cutting your ties?"
End Waking shrugged. "Would that be so bad? May Then My Name would become simply a friend, rather than a friend and cocladist. True Name would become someone I know. I do not speak with the others. Serene, perhaps? But even then, it has been many years. It would not change my relationship with you. The forest will not care if I am an Odist or if I am not. To it, I am called Nobody, and when I die and moulder beneath the roots, then it will say that it feasts on Nobody."
Debarre sighed. Hearing End Waking talk so much was a rarity, but that the death-thoughts were still there, meant it'd be a while yet before he'd be allowed back for good.
((What EW hopes to learn from the visit with Jonas, EW is mostly just there to witness, or to be scared into silence, but Debarre worries that it's to scare *him* into silence. Why is he even going? Because this feels like a step towards letting go and becoming independent))
((Debarre heads back home to afterdinner w/ a few people, talks in generalities, that something big is coming soon, that he'll keep them up to date, but that life will be getting both more and less simple in the next little bit))
