[ may i log: the good fight ]

[barrayarmods]

Who: Everyone
What: The culmination of months of planning and suffering finally comes to bear as the Barrayarans launch their debilitating attack on the Cetagandan base. Politics, as always, go sight unseen but felt everywhere.
When: May 1st - 18th
Where: the Barrayaran camp, the Cetagandan base, Riverfall Village
Warnings: TBD

Quick links:
Riverfall
Barrayar: Camp / Missions
Cetaganda: Base / Missions

TIMELINE
5/5 Eavesdropping
5/7 Hacking
5/11 Mystery Plot
5/15 Attack on the Cetagandan base

riverfall
The village is finally starting to get back on its feet after a few blessedly uneventful weeks. Other than the routine Cetagandan patrols, there hasn't been much activity in the village, and no new strife. The villagers merely continue their rebuilding efforts and tend to their fields, and they'll still gladly accept any help offered by outsiders.

With the village down nearly half its population, there's room to grow, even after last month's fight destroyed some of the homes, so Speaker Gura has been taking in refugees from other nearby hill villages – about ten refugees have moved to settle anew in Riverfall in the last few weeks.

barrayar
The time to strike is now.

All three camps are preoccupied with preparations for the attack on the 15th: as far as Barrayaran intelligence knows, no reinforcements are on their way to the Cetagandan base, and the guerrillas need to strike while the Cetagandans are still down nearly half their forces. It's the only shot they have at forcing the occupying troops to leave Vorkosigan Vashnoi and give them a chance at retaking the city – and they're not throwing away this shot, because they might not get another one.

The political unease surrounding Dorca and Yuri is a quieter tension, plaguing only those politically savvy (or well-positioned) enough to understand the situation, but if you're paying close enough attention to the moody Crown Prince, you'll note that Yuri's primary concern isn't the outsiders, but something much closer to home. He's never been a particularly warm man by anyone's account, but lately he's especially given to foul moods, and only part of it is grief for his most recently deceased son.

All further attempts at hostage negotiation from Zahal have been as curtly denied as the first, and just about as politely. Incorporating a rescue plan into their attack strategy wasn't exactly easy, but they won't get another shot than this at rescuing Princess Sonia – or Byerly, whose cover as a spy was recently blown during a failed attempt at smuggling Sonia out of the base. On the 15th, the Barrayarans prepare for war, some donning Cetagandan uniforms and face paint, others swiping mud over their faces to better camouflage themselves in the dark.

And the attack is a success. There's no real such thing as acceptable loss, but the top brass consider the 70 lives spent on the attack a fair cost for what they got: almost destroying the immediate Cetagandan power supply and the return of their Princess. Plus Byerly. The mood lightens considerably, but there is no rest in war, and just as soon as they take their next victory, Piotr, Dorca and Yuri are already planning the next move: finally retaking Vorkosigan Vashnoi.

camp
All three camps are heavily preparing, officers running drills nearly around the clock, quartermasters taking inventory and making sure every piece of equipment is clean and in working order, medical officers and techs preparing the sickbay tent as best they can for the inevitable injured who will return.

But despite the impending mission, tensions are still rising within the army – while top brass is vocally discouraging the fights that have broken out, it hasn't put a complete stop to them, and no one has openly endorsed the outsiders except for Piotr Vorkosigan. Vorvolk and Yuri are both still staunchly in the skeptic camp at best, but Dorca does not seem to have passed a final judgment on the outsiders before the attack. Perhaps he's merely biding his time, because for all the dissent about the outsiders, the Emperor hasn't barred Piotr from letting them participate in critical missions.

The soldiers make enough noise about it on their own. They're especially tetchy about the outsiders who crossed over from the Cetagandan side – they're as good as spies, as far as some of the soldiers are concerned. But even worse is letting Duv Galeni, a Komarran, not only remain in camp and feed on their resources, but actively participate in missions. For the most part, the soldiers in camp who have known the outsiders from the start and have befriended them are sticking with them, but the half of Piotr's army that was with Vorvolk after the split when the location of their last camp was discovered by the Cetagandans are nearly as suspicious as the Vorbarra battalion. Hostility towards Duv and those who escaped from the Cetagandan camp is especially severe, and it's no secret that some of them would prefer the outsiders dead rather than taking up space and resources in their army, though no one has been so bold as to actually make any attempts. Falco Vorkalloner, one of the Rangers who had been in Vorvolk's half of the army, hasn't been afraid to make his voice heard, though. He's even been heard saying that he thinks someone ought to make an example out of the Komarran and demonstrate just what they think of those who would side with the Cetagandans.

After the attack, the atmosphere of the camp is noticeably changed – the return of the Princess as well as what can only be considered a resounding victory for the Barrayarans has led to a jubilant and triumphant environment. And with Barrayarans, all celebration comes with a whole lot of drinking. Wine, vodka and maple mead are passed around aplenty in the nights and days following the attack, as soldiers burn offerings for their dead comrades and trade stories of action.

The tension with the outsiders begins to lessen after this victory, too. The fact that two outsiders, Wash and Lucy, are responsible for the Princess's rescue goes a long way toward relations between the outsiders and the rest of the army, and after the attack, Dorca gives the outsiders his endorsement as comrades to be trusted and honorary warriors fighting alongside them. Of course, this doesn't mean all hostility and tension merely dissipates – there are still plenty of soldiers like the now-deceased Falco who still think the outsiders are a threat and a parasitic presence. But things do start to lighten up a little after this victory...finally.

missions
General Piotr Vorkosigan himself leads the attack on the Cetagandan base, and Yuri leads his own contingent. Although there are some hitches getting in undetected, their plans to disable base security are overall successful, as is their sabotage of the power supply generators and Sonia and Byerly's rescue.

Meanwhile, Lakshmi and Sisko have found Falco Vorkalloner's dead body, and while it looks like an accident, it also looks like someone might have taken care to make sure it looked like one.

The unabridged mission results can be found here.

cetaganda
The social relief brought by the flower-viewing party quickly fades, and tension settles back over the Cetagandan base, underlined by Zahal's frustration with Piotr's flat-out refusal to meet his demands, or even so much as discuss them. He's sent more than one political ransom demand since Dorca's arrival, too, but to no effect. Given the recent guerrilla activity in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, he knows Piotr must be planning something, but with no informants left in the Barrayaran army, his intelligence is dry, and the investigations into weapons smuggling were ultimately fruitless. All known civilian resistance cells seem to have scattered and disappeared, their bases of operation boarded up or burned down. All he can do is concentrate as many troops as he can afford on the city's occupation, though he doesn't leave the base totally unmanned. But he does add another thousand troops to the occupying force in Vorkosigan Vashnoi in the week before the attack on the base.

Not everyone is being sent over, though, and the transfer doesn't make for as smooth a cover as one might hope. Gail is caught on an unauthorized trip to the city while off duty, and you might hear -- or overhear -- the dressing-down he gets from his commanding officer for it. He doesn't appear to have a ready excuse for it -- at least, not one that doesn't sound flimsy as hell.

Military matters affect those of the Star Crèche, however, and Zahal's frustration does not touch that sphere. Not that it isn't without its own tensions -- anyone who spends enough time with Diya and Sei (and Ba Talim, for that matter) will feel the rising tensions between them, though their origins are as obscure as the haut always are. The Star Gate Project, now officially under the jurisdiction of the Star Crèche, continues on with Micah at the lead, although they haven't for a moment forgotten that they are a prisoner here, or where their true loyalties lie.

After the attack, Zahal's fury reaches a boiling point, and since the Barrayarans did so much infrastructural damage, the consequences of military matters finally reach Diya and Sei, rankling them, too. The power shortage and damage to the science/medical complex has put a serious damper on Star Gate research, although as far as anyone is aware, the gene therapy trials and other related Star Crèche research goes on unimpeded, thanks to the successful protection of the secondary backup generator, which seems to exist only to power the medbay and gene labs. But since power is a hot commodity right now, Zahal is going to start pushing to reroute some of that power to what the haut would probably deem as lower priority needs.

base
The mood around the base is restless, Zahal's frustration trickling down into tensions among his officers and seeping into the very atmosphere. They're hardly prepared for the attack that comes because they don't even know what to expect. The soldiers all seem on edge, nervous, a little tetchy, particularly after Tarn's altercation with Diya and Natasha, and then the failed attempt to smuggle out the Princess -- but that did, at least, lead to the outing of Byerly Vorrutyer as a spy among the Cetagandans, confirming some suspicions held by the higher brass in Cetagandan intelligence. About the only comfort, if one can call it that, in all this tension is Byerly's summary fast-penta interrogation.

The gene therapy trials, despite some...trials, continue, and with much greater success than last month. Sei and Diya are as impassive as ever, but even so, there's a tangible undercurrent of mixed relief and triumph. Micahworks as feverishly as ever on the Star Gate Project with the aid and oversight of the military's scientific division and the exotics working as lab assistants. The satellite launch has proven to be a highly productive venture -- it's yielding data they couldn't have gathered otherwise, which is proving to be critical, and Micah spends time having Kaidan, Symmetra and Pearl put through another series of brain scans and consulting the neurology team as they study the results.

Although Sei is never seen outside of her force bubble, and doesn't actually travel around the base all that much, her presence seems to dominate the more civilian areas of the base, overshadowing even Diya -- although Diya is considerably less visible around the base after her altercation with Tarn. Amai is, of course, somehow seen just about everywhere, a constant social and professional presence that refuses to let anyone forget she's there. But after the 5th, she seems to be troubled -- she's far less impassive than the haut, and her anxiety and discomfort are much easier to see.

After the attack, Diya seems somewhat shaken -- it's almost impossible to tell how Sei is affected, but with facilities down, audits are being done on all existing projects to determine what's important enough to remain active while they have limited power. The base isn't quite in a shambles, but there's a lot of damage -- while the Barrayarans personally only carry swords and bows, they clearly have no issue with taking the Cetagandans' plasma arcs to wreak havoc at home -- and the atmosphere is overall demoralized. Sending more troops to Vorkosigan Vashnoi was clearly the wrong move, and it's a bitter pill to swallow, but Zahal begins to recall troops from the city in small waves to help better man the base, knowing full well that this must have been what Piotr intended.

missions
A few interesting tidbits are overheard in the dark of night, and Amai finds herself in the uniquely uncomfortable position of holding Diya's dark secret in one hand, and Sei's in the other -- and Ba Talim seems to know something, though it isn't clear what. And some creative hacking turns up some unexpected dirt on Sei that makes Diya's illicit ba experiments look like mere misdemeanors.

Despite the best efforts of the soldiers and the exotics and the fact that, even undermanned, they still outnumber the guerrillas by a landslide, the base is still overrun by Barrayarans and their attack is successful. The main and backup power generators are totally disabled for the time being, and it's unclear how long it will be before full power is restored to the base.

The unabridged mission results can be found here.

Note: Gavalas, Olivia, Zahal, Diya, and Sei & Ba Talim are available for threads on request. Hit up Madi (Gavalas, Diya, Sei & Ba Talim) or Ammay (Olivia & Zahal) if you'd like threads with these characters!

Comments

[vorrutyer]

He lets out a noise of sheer frustration - but this time, it's directed at himself, rather than at her. "Foolish," he bites out. "What a joke. A disgraced and disinherited scion of a family of no account at all. A scandalous no-ranker. Pretending that someone like me can play at any sort of heroism."

He looks down at their joined hands - his laying limply in hers - hardly even seeing them. His jaw works, but he's quiet a moment. Finally, when he does speak, his voice is low and choked. "Don't listen to this idiocy. I shouldn't. None of this matters."

[vorbratta]

"Byerly," Sonia says, not stern or demanding but softly entreating. Her own voice is a little thick, but whether it's from a surge of emotion or just the liquor, it's hard to say. Her other hand goes to his face, to turn it toward her. "Byerly, look at me. There's nothing foolish about it, and it certainly isn't a joke. Honor -- real honor -- doesn't care about your family history or where you come from. It exists independently of all that. And that is what you have. A desire to serve so sincere -- there's no joke in that. What you did for me back there, when you tried to break me out, when you were ready to die trying, were you pretending at playing a hero? Or the second time, when Wash and Lucy came for us, and we had to run through all that madness? You weren't pretending or playing anything. You would have died trying, just because you believed you were doing the right thing. That you were serving the greater good."

[vorrutyer]

He lets his face be lifted to hers, but he can't quite meet her gaze. His eyes stay on her lips - watching as she speaks, intently and unblinkingly. But he doesn't look up to her eyes.

"And yet all the good intentions in the world didn't save you," he responds, finally, at length. His voice is low. "To do anything at all - it takes a combination of intention and talents. And I can have the former by the shuttleload, but that doesn't create the latter." He shakes his head, very slightly, not wanting to dislodge her hand. "The man who dies while trying and failing to do good is worth very little. That's the joke, I suppose. Outsize ambitions for a sad little man."

[vorbratta]

"Stop that," Sonia says, a little more sharply, a little more thickly; he hasn't angered her, but seems to have struck a nerve instead. Both her hands go to his, wrapping around them tightly. "You're wrong. Maybe in your world, where there isn't any war, it's easy to see it that way. But millions of people have died trying to do good here. Do you think their lives were worth just as little?"

She bites the inside of her cheek. Her grip tightens unconsciously around Byerly's hands. "Twenty-two Barrayarans died the day the Cetagandans came for me in Riverfall. I asked, when I got back. I couldn't count them at the time." But she'd had to know. After all of Tarn's taunting, she couldn't go without knowing. "Twenty-two. Half of them weren't even soldiers, just villagers -- just people. They all died trying to do good and -- and failing. Do you think their lives were worth so little, just because they failed at trying to keep me safe? At the very same thing you were trying to do?"

[vorrutyer]

He isn't so cruel - not even in his drunken state - to answer in the affirmative. That answer would hurt her; he's certain of that. But he does answer, simply, "The world isn't changed by intentions. The world is changed by results."

He looks down, then, fixing his eyes on their joined hands. His - enormous, long-fingered - dwarf hers. He feels a little twist of nameless emotion at that. How pathetic he is, whining on and on. She shouldn't have to listen to him like this. He's supposed to be serving her, helping her, keeping her strong, not the other way around...

"Whatever force brought us here simply has a rather cruel sense of humor, I suppose," he murmurs. "A whole world full of champions, able and glad to fight for Barrayar. And out of all those proud Vor warriors, you get - what? Miles Vorkosigan and Byerly Vorrutyer. Heaven help you."

[vorbratta]

"I'm sick of proud Vor warriors," Sonia says flatly, ever stubborn. "I'm up to my ears in them. I've been on a steady social diet of proud Vor warriors for the better part of my life, and not a single one of them has ever made me feel less lonely. What use could I possibly have for two more?"

A note of frustration slips into her voice, her hands tight around Byerly's, willing him to look at her. "You haven't failed me yet, Byerly. You might not have succeeded in getting me out on your own, but you haven't failed me. Because you were with me. Even when you couldn't tell me the truth, even when you were locked in that cell, you were with me. If you had died there, and left me all alone -- then you would have failed me."

If he had died, she'd never have been able to look at it that way, she knows, but he hadn't. She swallows, a well of unbidden emotion rising in her chest, too drunk to keep it in check. "I know that making me happy doesn't make for much of a cause. I know it's selfish. If I thought it'd give you a sense of purpose, if it would satisfy your desire for service, I'd swear you into my service right here and now, Byerly, I would. But you're alive. And if you think there's really nothing left for you to do here, then you need to spend a day sober and take a good look around this camp. It isn't the same one you left."

[vorrutyer]

The thought of sobriety is intolerable to me, he thinks, but doesn't say it aloud. After all, if he said that, he might end up sounding like a drunk. So, instead, he says (to his mind, a very polite-sounding) "I'll take it under advisement." But then, because his curiosity is aroused, he has to ask. "But - how is it different, then?" A small shrug. "More people, obviously."

Let this be the new topic of conversation, he prays. Let them discuss this instead of his hopes and dreams and aspirations and how he failed or failed to fail and so on and so forth. Gossip. Gossip is much, much safer.

[vorbratta]

Sonia looks at him with one slightly raised eyebrow, pursing her lips at him. "God, you have been drunk," she sighs, albeit a little hypocritically, and her hands loosen around Byerly's as the breath leaves her.

"More people, yes. Not just Grandfather's battalion, but the rest of our army as well. About a month before you all showed up, we'd had to disband camp and split up. Colonel Vorvolk was the ranking officer of the other half. I saw Grandfather and Uncle Yuri almost as soon as we got back." Sonia chews on a lock of hair, considering more mead, but she needs to retain enough faculties to talk coherently, because in her mind, right now, this is important. And she'll give Byerly a damned job to do even if she goes mad in the attempt. "Things are...tense. It wasn't like this before I was taken. There've been fights breaking out. Outsiders getting jumped by soldiers. Colonel Vorvolk doesn't trust the outsiders, especially not where military matters are concerned, and I guess he doesn't trust Count Piotr's judgment that far, either. Uncle Yuri is of the same mind. But our soldiers -- or at least the ones who've been here all along -- at the very least, they don't mind the outsiders, and a lot of them have become rather friendly. It's...not a popular opinion lately, or so I've been able to gather."

She sinks back against the rock, her face drawn now, flickers of uninhibited emotion flitting over her face. Discomfort, unhappiness, trepidation, a hint of fear. "And then -- and then my cousin died last month. Uncle Yuri's last child. And no one's said anything to me directly, they're all trying to be hush-hush about it, but I'm not stupid. I overheard one of my grandfather's advisors talking to Uncle Yuri about it. About how he needs to start looking for a new wife. And Uncle Yuri -- " She breaks off, her gaze dropped to her hands around Byerly's, and then, as if self-conscious, withdraws them. She looks troubled. "I think everything seems fine right now because everyone's feeling all giddy over winning, but I could feel it. Uncle Yuri and Colonel Vorvolk are both butting heads with Count Piotr, and it -- if they cause some kind of schism -- it wouldn't be good, Byerly."

No, Sonia's never had the stomach for soldiering or the savvy for military strategy, but she can read a room -- especially when her family is in it.

[vorrutyer]

You don't know the half of it, Sonia. Byerly turns his gaze away, his lips thinning. In that moment, he's half-tempted to tell her everything - because she has the right to knows, doesn't she? To forearm herself, to know what's coming - But Miles, more cautious than he, doesn't want that to happen. Though maybe, with the odd twists and turns that history has been taking, Miles will be willing to revisit the subject...

"No," he agrees simply. "Yuri isn't someone to piss off. That much is true."

What if I killed him? That would be a job. Something I could do...

"But if you have in mind that I could do anything about Yuri - I'm afraid not. I don't exactly have a grand track record with persuading his type of Vor of anything."

[vorbratta]

"What? God -- no, that wasn't what I meant. I wouldn't -- "

Sonia balks visibly, a look of alarm on her face. She wouldn't ask Byerly to do something like that, no -- and for once, not out of any family loyalty. Yuri makes her uneasy enough as it is, he's already...difficult, and while she knows perfectly well that Byerly can hold his own in a social arena, subjecting anyone to her uncle seems...unfair. And he's right, anyway; there's nothing Byerly could do, except piss Yuri off. Sonia rubs her face with both hands, her cheeks feeling oddly numb. In the absence of better judgment, she reaches to take the bottle back, shaking her head.

"That wasn't what I meant. I'm not asking you to be a fixer, Byerly. What I meant was -- there's all this tension, and people are whispering, and there's all this...this business going on..." She fumbles for words, shakes her head again. "What you did for ImpSec -- you just put yourself in a position to listen to things, didn't you? Wasn't that basically it?"

[vorrutyer]

A small bubble of pride causes Byerly to murmur, "Well, it was a bit more than just that..."

But then, handing the bottle back to her, he sighs in acknowledgment. "But yes. That's essentially it. But - then what?" He shrugs at her, his face twisting in a bit of honest irritation. Because buried underneath all the self-loathing is this fundamental source of frustration, this wall he can't quite batter down. "The General isn't going to give a damn about what I have to say. He hardly holds me in high regard in principle - which, I was fine enough while I was risking life and limb in the Cetagandan camp, but now that I'm back here, I'm sure he thinks I'm about as useful as a sixth toe." A vicious self-description indeed for a Barrayaran. "A spy is only as good as the ear he whispers his secrets into."

[vorbratta]

Sonia purses her lips at him, though her expression is at least partially sympathetic, because it almost always is when it comes to Byerly. It could be called a weak point, but if sentiment is weakness, then Sonia is full of weak points. She takes a drink.

"Have you actually spoken to him since you got back?"

[vorrutyer]

Ah. Well. By shrugs. "Leaving that to Miles," he answers with a bit of a shrug. He studies his nails. "I don't really need the old son-of-a-bitch telling me all about what a failure and a disappointment I am. Honestly, I've heard that speech from his sort of Vor enough that I could probably write out a full script.

"Miles gets off on that kind of thing, though. So it's better for everyone if he handles all of it."

[vorbratta]

Sonia gives him a look, just shy of rolling her eyes, and takes another drink before wiping the mouth of the bottle with her sleeve.

"Let me tell you something about Piotr Vorkosigan," she says, leaning in almost conspiratorially, and she has achieved Peak Drunk by now, her words slightly slurred but still perfectly intelligible. "When I first met him, I positively hated him. He's a difficult man to get along with sometimes, God knows how my sister does it. But he is honest, and good God is he ever forthright. If he were really that pissed about your...performance or whatever on your assignment, if he really thought you were a failure and a disappointment, you'd have heard about it by now. He likes to tell these things personally. Honestly, he's probably more pissed that you haven't debriefed him by now. And anyway," she says, letting the bottle dangle from a crooked finger for a moment before swinging it over Byerly's way, "I didn't say you had to be whispering in his ear."

She squints at him, pulling back. "And -- old? Really? He can't be any older than you are."

[vorrutyer]

"Are you calling me old? I'm offended, dear Sonia. I'm sprightly and youthful." It's a dodge, of course, though one accompanied with a slightly confused look. Doesn't she know about him? Where he's from? He thought Miles had told her. Ah, well.

"Anyway. I went against orders to try to save you. Or, well - not against orders, but...I didn't wait for orders. And then I fucked it up. I imagine the good General Count will formally adopt me into the Vorkosigan family, then and there, just so he can immediately turn around and disown me." He gives a little burp, then collects the bottle to take a grand swig out of it.

"But do tell. What are you proposing? Are you thinking of running your own personal spy ring? Become a spymistress? It's an interesting occupation for a princess."

[vorbratta]

"Ah, no. You're the one calling yourself old."

No, somehow Sonia remains in the dark as to Byerly's time traveller status. Miles hasn't told her, and she certainly wasn't privy to the details of Byerly's fast-penta interrogation. She lets out an annoyed little tch as she watches him drink, and she really does roll her eyes this time. "For God's sake, Byerly, just go and give the man your report tomorrow. I think you're flattering yourself, and avoidance pisses him off more than failure anyway. He'll track you down if he has to. I don't recommend that."

She sounds like she's speaking from experience, although definitely not in any military context. She gives him a surprisingly shrewd look for how drunk she is, but the effect is almost entirely ruined by the way she cocks her head to the side. "I'm becoming more ambitious," she declares, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "No ring. I'll start small. Just the one. It's all thanks to you, you know. Do you know what I did after you left?"

[vorrutyer]

"Well, he'll want me sober when I give the report," Byerly retorts, "and I don't intend for sobriety to happen." He gives a little waggle of the bottle, and drinks - but, unfortunately, rather soberly, because of that second question. It makes guilt twist in him, a little lump of unhappiness, lingering from the way he'd hurt her. He doesn't think, for as long as he lives, he'll get over the guilt of that.

"And...I know you put together a photographic exhibition."

[vorbratta]

"If he comes for you, he'll get the report whether you're sober or not," Sonia murmurs in a warning tone. But she sincerely brightens when he confesses knowledge of her little art show, her smile going sunny even in the dark. In a way she wasn't entirely conscious of, she sort of wanted to make him proud by it, even if that hadn't been the reason she'd done it.

"I did. And not just my photographs -- anything from anyone. And it worked. Things got...just a little bit easier. You were right, Byerly. I really could do something. I could make a difference here, I could help. You were right, and I might have just gone on being miserable about it forever if you'd never talked to me about it." She draws up one knee so she can rest her cheek against it, looking at him with bright eyes. "And now I'm branching out."

[vorrutyer]

He turns his head to look at her. To see her beaming at him. He doesn't smile back, because - he hasn't earned that joy, hasn't earned that smile from her; he hasn't. Not after what he did. But his grim expression lightens maybe just a little bit. Her moods are infectious.

"Don't give me credit," he says. "You'd have come around to it in time. I'm quite certain." He shrugs, then, and passes the bottle back over. "Quite a jump, though. Princess to artist to spymistress. They'll make holovids about you, just you wait."

[vorbratta]

She's determined to make him smile at least once tonight. A real smile. And that slight shift lights up her face even more.

"No take-backs," she says insistently, as if this is an entirely reasonable and adult response. "And I can be a princess, artist, and a spymistress. God knows I've got the time on my hands." She takes a drink that ends in a hiccup, rocking back against the rock. "I don't like what's going on, Byerly, and I especially don't like not knowing half of it. It's...I can just feel it. And Count Piotr -- "

She waves with a limp hand. "He's a soldier. He doesn't deal in finesse outside of the battlefield. Hmm, yes. The more I think about it..." She taps her lower lip thoughtfully. "He's right in the middle of it. Not the most receptive ear, no. But someone needs to be paying attention. So -- yes, actually. I want you to spy for me." She holds out the bottle. "Will you take the job?"

[vorrutyer]

He hesitates a moment, then bows his head very slightly. His voice isn't ironic when he speaks. "I can. But - I do need to know exactly what it is you want." He lifts his head again, looking past the bottle, gazing only at her. His eyes are serious. "Is this just from curiosity? Do you just want rumors and gossip? Or - " A small incline of his chin. "Do you want intel up to ImpSec standard? Because if that's what you want, I can provide that for you."

[vorbratta]

"I don't need you to give me gossip. I can find that just fine on my own." Sonia leans forward, matching his gaze with wide, dark eyes, just as serious. "I want to know what's going on, Byerly. The politics are all different now, and you're better at this than I am. I just have a bad feeling. So if that means ImpSec standard, then -- yes. That's what I want."

She rocks back and forth a bit, rubbing her mouth. "I heard today that one of the soldiers from Colonel Vorvolk's camp turned up dead not long ago. It looked like your usual stupid drunken accident, but he was pretty unfavorable toward the outsiders and making a fuss about Galeni, insisting that they make an example out of him. I don't like it, Byerly. A -- a political schism would be bad right now. This is what you do, isn't it? I need you to use that. I have to know what's going on."

[vorrutyer]

"Ah," he says, and hesitates, but - Well. She's asked for it. And he lives to serve. "That was your cousin Ezar who did that. He ordered that child Negri - the odd, quiet one who hangs around camp - to kill him. Presumably. It's possible death wasn't the intention, that it simply got out of hand - but there you are."

He shrugs, and then looks over at her, searching her face for some alarm or dismay. "I'm quite certain the order stopped with Ezar, but that Ezar didn't do this to undermine Piotr's authority or challenge him. The man's loyalty seems firm, if a bit cock-eyed."

[vorbratta]

"Ezar?" Sonia looks taken aback at first, blinking, but the surprise quickly fades from her face and she twists her lips in a strange expression. Not pleased, but entirely horrified, either. She huffs out a short breath through her nose.

"It makes sense. It sounds like the sort of thing he'd get up to -- and I think Count Piotr is inclined to leave my cousin to his own devices." She blinks her eyes back into focus and then she narrows them at Byerly, brow knit. "You think he used Negri? That little boy?"

[vorrutyer]

Good. Even knowing Sonia, he'd half expected denials. She does think the best of people, after all. Always. But at least her view of her cousin is...accurate enough.

"Hence the small footprints." He shrugs. "Negri is a vital intelligence agent for Ezar. Capable and unflaggingly loyal."