[Closed Post: Be You and I Behind an Arras Then]

[timebethine]

The moment draws nigh. Laertes will soon speak to Aornis in the library. All is in readiness--Asmodean long since in place, invisibly veiled in saidin; SecUnit's drone watching from its customary vantage.

In the game room, SecUnit, Claudius, Sagramore, and Nightingale gather around the grainy CRT television, watching the drama unfold ...


[This post is for live reactions from the war room! Participation in this thread is totally optional.]

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[wickedwit]

Claudius bumps his shoulder with his own. "Nay. Thou hast found enough to make me doubt she is as she appears to be. She told thee a jurisfiction agent's job consists of brute force, persuasion, and paperwork, but I know she has skills beside that, which she did not volunteer. And her awareness of the rumors about her was so pointed she could've been speaking to me directly, even using that word hypothetically, which abutted our last conversation. All the business with her brother I wouldn't have arrived at alone. That's most telling." Gently as he can, he says, "I did tell thee to adjust thy expectations. Thou wouldst not strike the heart of her. But thou hast peeled back several layers."

[timebethine]

"What will her next move be, thinkest thou? How might we be better prepared for it?"

[wickedwit]

"Her answer about Luo Binghe was interesting," Claudius muses, still on the subject but coming at it slantwise. "What did you make of it?"

[timebethine]

"Anyone with ears knows of thy strife with him," says Laertes, and quite frankly he would be surprised if Claudius hadn't tried to turn her attention toward Luo Binghe when he was still working out his angle. That's the kind of thing he does when he's in a panic; he recruits allies against whoever he fears is the biggest threat to him. He did it to Laertes immediately upon his arrival, after all. "She means to stoke that strife, the better to conceal her own ends. And much though I hate to say it--if she knows thou art set against him, it may be because he has some useful power that she fears."

[wickedwit]

Claudius nods. "It's the tactic I would take. If I were her, I'd press now, when I'm most vulnerable, but she may not be aware of that particular vulnerability -- I haven't even told Sagramore yet." And he may never. Annoyed, he realizes, "I should. It will be far less exploitable if I do. There's a certain frustrated loneliness in keeping things quiet, and it makes me more likely to cling to signs I'm not alone with this particular pain. But I think whatever her next move is, she'll want some cover, she'll want some measure of deniability. She'll line everything up first, like lining up a shot in billiards. Then she'll strike."

[timebethine]

"How might I aid thee?"

[wickedwit]

He closes his eyes, considers the question seriously. It's not enough to wave Laertes off, to say he's done his part, and Claudius will take it from here. "It's better to keep her attentions on this scheme than let her give up, and go on to another, which we may not guess the shape of. But I should settle matters with Sagramore." With frustration, he says, "Whatever shape that takes. Thou shouldst not let me give it up. If the next time we meet, I still have said nothing to him, thou hast the right to chide me terribly. I trust that will not be a challenge for thee."

[timebethine]

A touch wryly, "It will not." Then, letting Claudius's serious mood take him, too, he adds, "Ay, resolve it; let what conflicts lie between thee and Luo Binghe be between the two of thee, and not sink their claws into the rest of us. To have us arrayed like pawns between the battle lines only furthers her ends."

[wickedwit]

“I know, I know. There are times I wish I could excise all memory of Luo Binghe — then Sagramore’s close acquaintance with him wouldn’t concern me. But I doubt Crowley would be keen to try that particular trick again.” And there’s no one else, of course, he knows with the ability to remove memories. “Lan Wangji would have a lecture for me, too. Regrets light our path forward — we have to live with them to keep moving.”

[timebethine]

"But there are other lights than regrets," says Laertes, and he dips his head a little to kiss the back of Claudius's hand. "Thou hast found so many here. Canst navigate by those stars, and one day, thou wilt leave the inconstant lamps of the past behind."

[wickedwit]

He takes a slow breath, then lets himself lean upon Laertes's shoulder. "Thank thee. I know thou didst this in part to ease my worries, and so thou hast. Thou art one of the lights I look to."

[timebethine]

"Canst always come to me," says Laertes, low.

[wickedwit]

It's new to him, new to share his doubts and fears and failings, even among his select confidantes -- he still isn't sure what counts as earnest faith in his loved ones, and what becomes a burden, what loops back from honesty to manipulation again by obligating others to hear him by leveraging their care for him. But he kept the future of Elsinore too close to his heart for too long. He knows Laertes feels the same complicated, frustrated love for the people who still live there, and despite loving them, the same desire never to return. That lonely fear blinded him, made him unable to look at Aornis clearly or question her story. And his lonely fear of Luo Binghe drove him back and forth between stark self-denial and vicious, fruitless scheming.

Another slow breath. "I will," he promises.