Codrin Bălan#Emissary — 2346
-(AWNH breaks down (revealing she’s AWNH, not WAQ), quits, break immediately called, TN is having a REALLY HARD TIME, Turun Ka shows up, TN comes clean, talks about getting lost, Turun Ka says Artante’s race ran into similar, but stops her from talking about AWNH further for now. Codrin helps TN to her room, “you heard nothing today, Mx Codrin Bălan”)
“Prophets!”
Silence around the table. Answers Will Not Help pushed herself to her feet. Waves of skunk and human crashed violently across her form. She was laughing. She was crying. Her back arched taught and she laughed up toward the ceiling, a choked, gasping sound.
True Name, struggling to hold her own form together, reached out to tug at Answers Will Not Help’s sleeve. “Please, my dear,” she murmured. “Why Ask Questions, please sit down. I know it is–“
@@ -33,6 +32,19 @@“She should not have been able to do that,” Iska said, nearly growling. “She should not have been able to do any of that. No skew, no exit. What was she?”
“Leader True Name,” Turun Ko said. “Please explain ‘lost’ in this context.”
She did not move from her spot on the floor. “
+(TN comes clean, talks about getting lost, Turun Ka says Artante’s race ran into similar, but stops her from talking about AWNH further for now. Codrin helps TN to her room, skews it to fast time to give her as much time as she needs)
+“You heard nothing today, Mx. Bălan,” True Name mumbled, quiet enough that ey had to lean closer to hear. “I know what you thought you heard, but you heard nothing. Do not tell anyone. Do not tell Ioan, and certainly do not tell any others within the Ode clade.”
+Ey took a half step back from the skunk. So hoarse and clouded was her voice that ey couldn’t piece together her mood. “I feel like there’s some deeper implication there.”
+She smiled weakly and shook her head before laying on the bed, facing em. “There is not. It is a request from me to you, from my clade to yours, across our two entangled clades.” The smile faded as she added, “Not a request, a plea.”
+Ey nodded, struck silent by the sincerity in her voice. Real, actual sincerity. It made em feel almost bashful. Ey bowed and started to turn back toward the door.
+“Codrin?”
+“Yes?”
+Her voice was small. It bore fear and anxiety alongside the omnipresent exhaustion. “Can you please stay for a few minutes?”
+“I, uh…” Ey swallowed dryly. “Do you need anything?”
+“Just for someone to be present,” she said. “I may need your help writing a note back to Castor in a little bit, but right now, I just need someone to anchor me. You are very good at that.”
+After a moment’s hesitation, ey nodded, pulling up a chair from the small table in the center of the room. Ey sat beside the skunk as she lay still on the bed, eyes closed, her breathing growing more steady, and then slowing as she apparently drifted into sleep.
+Ey watched her doze fitfully.
+What the hell just happened? ey thought. And how the hell am I going to keep this buried within me?