002 ☆ voice;

[precludes]

[They will argue about moral choices until the city burns away. The choices here are ugly, and knowing the outcome regardless of their actions makes them uglier.

She never does this. Oriko has always believed that action is better than telling. People don't listen to soothsayers; truths must be learned on their own time. Never once has she simply come forward with information like this - everything was a speech, a story, a revelation, pulling threads and nudging.

She sounds, frankly, cold. Detached, but hoarse.]

What I have to say is brief, if you will hear it.

Here is what is going to happen:

There is no conceivable escape for Exiles at the shoreline. The fate they will meet there is no different. Guns wait for them, and death.

Don't send them down there indiscriminately, rashly, unless you send them knowing that.

Comments

[ringwizard]

It is. But look, I barely know how to put up a tent.

[He'd been perfectly serious--he wasn't any kind of wilderness survival expert.]

But there are a whole bunch of Transports out there, and a lot of them are angry. One of those angry Transports might be better at the whole camping thing. [A small, bitter sound that might have been a laugh.] I'm good at violence, Oriko. Point me, and I'll take care of it.

[precludes]

[She levels him with so quiet and stern a look, as if camping is the whole of it, as if finding a warm place to stay would be the only challenge facing those capable of making it through and escaping.]

...If there's an opening in their patrols we may be able to find it.

[ringwizard]

[He straightens up under her gaze, uncomfortable.] I'll do whatever it takes.

[That part, he thinks, is important to reiterate.]

I can't think of a better dream team. [That rings false. He can think of at least two. But for this--] I can kick a gap open, if it comes to that.

[precludes]

[Her eyes linger on him longer than necessary.]

Let's try to avoid it, for the time. [She has agents of force, already, guilty as she feels about using them.] That violence would have its consequences, too.

[She's no qualms with doing damage, a muted and dying raging against the inevitable fate of the city here, but drawing attention to such a gap would only close it, not open it. She's interested in opening.[

[ringwizard]

[He nods.] It'll get us farther, in the long run.

[He's not much for long-term plans. He's best at taking care of what's in front of him. But he can see how she thinks, in flashes.

He shifts topics as his posture shifts, his arms dropping into his cardigan pockets.] How much does seeing this take out of you? [He'll have to learn to plan for it, to account for it, the way he's learned to account for Nitoh's weaknesses.]

[precludes]

[It's difficult, to be half plans and half in the moment.

Nothing she's seen has been worse than that first moment, the horror she will never forget. Oriko knows that true helpless terror.]

I try never to give it lease enough to let it get there.

[ringwizard]

[He snorts, looking away. He's heard this story--hell, he's written that story.]

Not what I asked.