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?”
End Waking shrugged. “A little, perhaps. I think it is this upcoming audio-video tech. I do not think he wanted–“
“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? Dropping the clade name?”
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 to stay.
“And AwDae? The Name?” he asked. As he always did when Debarre said their friends name, the skunk stiffened, hunched his shoulders, and drew his hood up over his head. All the same, he’d made it a point to say it at least once per visit. There had been a row the first few times, but he’d won on point that AwDae had been his friend, too.
“I do not know, Debarre. That is, I think, the one thing that I will ever defer to True Name on.”
He snorted. “Really?”
“If she, of all of us, were ever to feel comfortable speaking it, to talking about em, then I will know that this embargo will have been lifted.”
“Well, fair,” the weasel said, finishing his tea before handing the mug back to End Waking to let the skunk snack on the remnants. He’d never really enjoyed them enough to do so himself. “I’m happy for you, you know that?”
He laughed, swallowing the spent lemon balm and mint he’d been chewing. “Happy?”
“Yeah. Like…” Debarre trailed off, hunting for words. “I’ve never seen you move forward so much all at once. Or at all, really. Like, it’s not a bad thing to have a life that you’re happy with, but watching you work on the things you weren’t happy with is nice to see. Kinda glad May Then My Name talked you into the merge, honestly.”
“It has brought me a lightness, yes. She is meddlesome, but kind-hearted.”
“You’re telling me. She gave me rules of engagement when I first showed up. Thought she was being weird, but they worked pretty well.”
“She is a brat.”
Debarre laughed. “You all are. But hey, I should get going.”
The slight sag in End Waking’s shoulders spoke of relief. He nodded, saying, “Of course. Thank you for the chance to talk.”
“You’ll let me know when you’re going out to this meeting, right?”
“Of course.”
“And you promise you’ll send a fork?”
“I will.”
“And call if you need?”
“Debarre, shut up,” End Waking said, patting his knee. “Go. I will keep you up to date.”
“Fine, fine.” He gave the skunk’s paw a squeeze and grinned. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Debarre quit, rather than bothering with stepping back home. The pile of memories caught his down-tree instance in the middle of a sentence — thankfully something unimportant — and he had to spend a minute reconciling the memories with the ones he’d made since.
“Well, that was interesting.”
“Fuck,” user11824 said. “I was worried you’d say something like that.”
He laughed. “You’re right to worry. Shit’s going to get really weird here. Life’ll get both more and less simple in the next little bit.”