Private Reach

[Rinea]

UNV VAUNTED INTEGRITY - Officer's Quarters

"Here you are, ma'am."

A guardsman placed a tray of food before Linegrave , a renowned Master-Cipherum whom he had grown familiar with these past months.

"I made sure they prepared it exactly how you liked," he offered a warm if not sympathetic smile.

His role was a difficult one. The young man turned away and began to leave, but before he was even halfway to the door, it opened.

"You're not supposed to--"

Rinea stepped in, hands clasped behind her back. She made direct eye contact with the guardsman, whose tongue seized, and his head could not help but turn to stay fixed on her gaze as she sauntered past. The poor man went limp and dropped like a mannequin as soon as she turned her attention elsewhere. He'd wake up with a rather terrible headache--much later.

The chiss continued her slow march forward and soaked in the room as if it were a work of art. "So it's true then," she began to speak. "The great Master Linegrave under house arrest, and nary a soul knows save for High Command and one unfortunate guardsman." There was no point in maintaining an actual security team.

Her glowing red eyes settled on the woman before her, then on the food tray, and back up again. "Not the treatment I would have expected for someone accused of treason."

She took a seat in the chair opposite. "At least that is the rumor going around."

 

[Linegrave]

She watched impassively as the Chiss waltzed into her quarters as if she owned it, her gaze shifting to the prone body of the guardsman and then back to the way she said down as if it was a throne instead of just a comfortable chair.

"High Command could not establish consensus to put the mark of treason on me, child." Fingers flicked up and her food tray floated towards her.

"They barely managed it for the quarantine protocol."

She sounded bored, dismissive.

"I assume there is a point to you arriving here so theatrically and knocking the poor guy out. Out with it, I am not getting any younger."

Linegrave began to eat.

Her attention seemed oppressively focused on Rinea anyway.

 

[Rinea]

Rinea leaned to one side, supporting her weight on an arm.

"They could not?" She pretended to chew on it. "But they did consider?"

To hear that High Command was so indecisive, well... The officer smirked, only slightly. "A man from Spire--Knight Vale. He is about to face a fate much worse than yours, and yet he seemed more concerned with you. Or at least, what happened to you."

She withdrew a small datachit from her uniform and tossed it onto the table. "Your dessert." The chit contained analytics on recent fleet activities, namely the rapid decline in critical resources, and the indecisiveness in their operations. Not to mention witch hunt after witch hunt.

Rinea leaned forward as Linegrave examined it.

"I think you'll find it as tasteless as I did."

 

[Linegrave]

She gestures towards the Chiss and her seat suddenly pulled all the way up, the table to the side until their knees practically touched each other.

"That's a lot of foreplay, officer...?" Linegrave did notice that the woman had not given her name or shared her rank.

It wasn't necessary for her to read the datapad herself.

Quorum was already reviewing it. She would have a better idea of what it meant and how it would effec them than her anyway.

"Just tell me what you want. You didn't come here to play footsie. You want to commit. You are done with prom and now you want me to take you back home."

She didn't have to reach out.

Ghostly fingers ran along her jaw.

"What is it you want me to do once we get back home again?"

Irreverent, relaxed, but behind those eyes there was a moment. When Quorum relayed her findings.

It wasn't anger. It was a hardening, as if Linegrave suddenly steeled herself.

Rinea