“No?” Rylen was stunned, “What do you mean, no?”


    Furion was surprised as well.


    The Fourth Eidolon wouldn’t budget though, “I told you two months ago that I wanted to keep her with Gabe until she went through the whole program.  It’s a six-month mentorship.  He’s finally on-board and they’re actually getting on well now.  I’m not just saying no because I was asked to say no, either; I’m asking you to let her stay for his sake, too.  As a favor to me.”


    “You were asked to say no.” Rylen echoed in disbelief, “…Is that why you wouldn’t answer my call this morning?”


    “You called this morning?”


    “Yes!  Yes, I did!  From this very spot!” He gestured at the floor of Furion’s office, “The Captain watched me do it!”


    “Oh.  It must’ve been when I was sleeping.  Gabe was the one who woke me up, and he did so specifically to pose that request.  Him and Ren kind-of double-teamed me.”


    Furion’s eyes widened a bit, She was in on this?  He lowered his gaze a bit to look away, I thought she was ready to come back…  The way we spent the night…  When he looked up again, Xanarken had already taken his leave, and Rylen was left alone there looking sour.


    “Well, that’s certainly putting a damper on things.”


    “Sir?”


    Rylen turned in annoyance, “If he won’t release her, we can’t announce that she’s coming back yet.  In fact, until he does, we can’t say anything about it.  I can borrow her for missions if I want, but given the whole ship is about to go on leave, there’s nothing to borrow her for.”


    “We’re about to go on leave, sir?” Furion was doubly-surprised, “It wasn’t scheduled for another month.  We have that other mission coming up in two days that we were getting ready for…”


    “I’m rearranging the schedule.” The Eidolon stated simply, “Your leave and Dame Ren’s recovery will happen at the same time.  Then, with any luck, she’ll have had enough rest-and-recovery time that I won’t be seen as a monster for asking to use her in the field for that mission.  That said…”


    Furion felt a whirl in his stomach; there were opportunities now.  He could hardly wait to get dismissed.


    “…Three days ago, Xanarken finally had some success with the Emperor of Sargon.  Apparently, that little kerfuffle on the border with Kitez got back to him and he was sufficiently spooked about the direction Kitez is taking itself in.  He’s agreed to send his son to the College at Agartha.  The transfer will happen in four weeks.  Since all these pieces are conveniently falling into place right now, the Aegis will dock in Trazad for that scheduled leave, you’ll get your two weeks off, we’ll all be crossing into the south for the new mission, and when we’re back, you’ll be escorting the Prince to Agartha.”


    “…The Emperor is worried about the direction Kitez is going in?” Furion repeated, “Sending his son to Agartha will be sending a really strong message about what side of this argument Sargon is on.”


    “I know!” Rylen clapped his fingers together excitedly, “One step closer to bringing Sargon into the Hadiran Accord.  Then we’ll be down to just one reluctant hold-out.  It’s taken 300 years to correct course…but we’ll finally be on the verge of achieving what we set out to do when we left Earth…  A single united world; no more childish colonial squabbling, no more primitive territorial disputes or saber-rattling political disagreements…  Just Hadira.”


    “I’ll refrain from congratulating you too early, but…I’ll thank you for moving up our leave, sir.  It’s much appreciated.”


    “Oh, and one more thing…”


    “Sir?”


    “If your brother is mentally recovered from what happened in Kitez, he’s welcome to come with us.” The Eidolon explained, a certain gleam in his eyes, “It’s not a feral void scar, but…it’s a bit closer to the truth.  I’ll leave it to you if you want to offer him the opportunity though.”


    “Yessir.  Thank you for your discretion.”


    .


    Seth, meanwhile, was looking over the slides from his last sample-gathering foray with his test subject, and marveled at the results, “…It’s…it’s really blood cells.  But…how?  The dry un-activated ones are just coming up as red hair, like it grew out of his head that way.”


    The weather-deck was something of an unofficial meeting space for when the Fafnir had nothing better to do.  Though Seth was physically present there, he was so engrossed with his research results that he hardly noticed anyone else around him.  Ren looked over at him as she and Gabriel came on-deck, and shook her head, “Nose-deep in his books.  Typical.”


    “He’s always been that way?” Gabriel wondered, coming through just behind her.


    “Yeah.” She answered, “One thing about the Fafnir that’s different from other units, is that…the ladies who get accepted have to undergo continuous hormone therapies, so missions don’t run the risk of being interrupted by unfortunately-timed cycles or…well, you know, such things.  The menfolk, however, don’t have that problem, so they are left alone.  The Rydell family has been running this ship for generations, and in large part, it’s considered to be because Rydell men are passing on artificially-enhanced genetics.  To that end, they’re breeding out nigh-legendary warriors and scholars left and right…  I don’t wanna take away from Seth’s clear genius, but…there’s likely a reason he has it, beyond just luck of the draw.  His and Furion’s father was a once-a-generation kind of Knight.”


    “Ah…  Yeah, I saw that the Captain got into the unit pretty much straight out of boot.”


    “Yeah.”


    “…So did you, though.”


    She turned her head quickly at him, “…Wow, you really did read the file.”


    Gabriel just puffed and crossed his arms, “Not the point I was trying to make but, yes, I read it.”


    She huffed a quiet laugh, “I get it.  To answer your question; yes, I did get recruited straight out of boot-camp.  Thank you for noticing.”


    “I don’t hear you bragging about the Nibasai lineage though.”


    “I was the lucky one.  But, I’ll have you know…I got in as early as I did because I beat Furion up when we first met.” She said, and started walking towards some of the gathered, leaving her mentor a bit baffled.


    He blinked a few times, “Wait, what?  Whoa, whoa, whoa…Ren, you can’t leave me hanging on that!” He skipped to catch up to her, “You have to elaborate.  I have so many questions.”


    Ren snorted a laugh, “Put a pin in it.  Right now, I’m going to train you how to be social.” She pat her palm against his chest reassuringly and stepped away again, right into the middle of a group of – what looked like – literally every Fafnir on the Aegis, “Well now, isn’t this a proverbial den of thieves.” She commented, getting their attention, “I thought I’d see one or two of you up here, but…everyone?”


    “Ren!” Was the consensus-response to her being there, and the group shifted from their own circle to suddenly absorb her into it.  Everyone had something to say, and she couldn’t respond to everyone at the same time, but she did revel in the attention.


    Gabriel just stared in awe, “…They sucked her in like a white-blood-cell finding a pathogen…” He tried to stand on his toes and see around some of their heads, “…She’s literally the shortest person in there.  I can’t even see her now.”


    “Gaaaaaabe!” Her voice rang out though, and to his surprise, the group between them parted, revealing her in their midst.  Everyone around was at least a head taller than she was, which made it even more strange to know that she could probably take every one of them.  She lifted her hand towards him though to beckon him in, “Everyone?  This is my mentor, Gabriel Lugios.  Don’t let his reputation deceive you…he’s actually a really nice person.”


    Gabriel could feel the blood drain from his face, and he felt sweaty all over with all those eyes on him, “Uh…hi.” He raised a hand.


    “Now, my understanding is that he’s only really met a handful of you since we were brought aboard, but no one’s actually introduced themselves.” Ren went on, and as the gathered moved forward to absorb the mediator into their midst just like they’d done with Ren before him, she started listing people off in a clockwise circle, “Jense Dmitry, Bianca Felipe, Corbin D’Shay, Annashi Dessaw, Michael Remmy, Sammy Einhardt…” She turned around to point at those behind her, “Ravan Damien, Gareth Fitzroy, Michelle Napple, Donivan Parker, Xandra Cephyr, and last but not least…Alexander Rogers.  Not present currently of course is the Captain, whom you already know.”


    To Gabriel’s great assistance, as soon as he knew he was going to get singled-out, he had opened an app within his HUD that he had regularly used when meeting dignitaries and other important groups of people.  Every time Ren named someone and pointed at them, his overlay singled that person out and labeled them, making it far easier to look impressive with his supposedly-mystifying recall later.  Once the introductions were done though, he immediately realized the kind of microscope he was suddenly under, “…Welp…”Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Does he hate us?” Was the first question asked once the circle had been completed; it had been Xandra.


    “Eh?  No.” Ren answered on his behalf.


    “Then how come he hasn’t talked to any of us this whole time?”


    “He-“


    “No, Ren, it’s fine.” Gabriel interrupted, “You don’t have to make excuses for me.”


    Ren shrugged and stepped aside to let him have the floor.


    “I’ve, admittedly, been focusing on what I know rather than delving into what I don’t.” He explained, “This is your home.  Ren’s home.  Since she was hurt, my singular focus has been on her recovery.  I’ve…also been commandeered by a certain cadet who isn’t paying attention to anything happening around him.” He said louder, looking past the crowd to see if Seth heard him.  The teen did, but all he did was wave before going back to his data.  Gabriel sighed, but the group at least laughed, “He’s ravenous.”


    “Welcome to the club, he does the same thing to all of us.” Jense said, and suddenly, the whole room seemed more relaxed.


    “So why is everyone up here at once anyway?” Ren wondered, “What’s the occasion?”


    “The Captain told us to come up here.” Donivan answered, “He should be down here any minute.  You sure you want to be here for that?”


    Ren stared for a moment – that relaxed aura shifted to tension – but when she shrugged, it moved to confusion instead, “…It’s fine.  We talked last night.”  Everyone sighed with relief.


    And just as well that they did, because mere seconds later, the man himself arrived, “Captain on deck!”


    The Fafnir moved out into two rows – presumably into each of their Wing Groups – and saluted.  Ren was awkwardly left in the middle of it like a dog that got caught-up in a marathon.  Gabriel found himself with the Captain directly behind him, and he flinched when he realized, then finally stepped out of the way.  Of course, being who he was, under the now-formal conditions of the situation, Furion couldn’t get to his own soldiers before saluting the No. 2 of the Fourth Wing.  With that all done, Ren stepped up through the middle of them and gave Furion something of a knowing look before she veered off around Donivan to join her mentor off to the side.  Furion’s eyes followed her for a moment, but he was there for a purpose, so he had to get right to it.


    “Thanks everyone for coming up on such short notice; I won’t keep you long.” He started, “As you all know, the Aegis has been undergoing preparations for a mission in the southern hemisphere.  We were supposed to leave in two days’ time.  Things have changed.”


    No reactions just yet.


    “…Our shore leave has been moved up, and the mission moved out.”


    That made people twitch a little.


    “I know many of you had plans with family and friends already arranged for next month, and I do apologize for this.  However, Lord Xanarken had made inroads with the Emperor of Sargon, and Lord Rylen has given the Aegis’ crew the distinct honor of participating in the result of that.”


    Gabriel was the one making a face then, “What’s going on?  What’s he been doing without me?”


    “In four weeks, Prince Iresha the Younger will be getting on a Sargonian flagship to be taken to the College at Agartha.  As such, the new timeline of our deployment is as such: starting tomorrow, when we arrive in Trazad, we will begin our two weeks of shore leave.  Immediately after that, we’ll be launching from Trazad onto our previously-scheduled mission into the south.  Upon completion of that assignment, we’ll be returning to Trazad to escort the Imperial flagship to Agartha.  Questions?”


    Corbin spoke for all of them, “…You called us up here to tell us something that you’re just going to send as a ship-wide message to everyone else?  Did you want to see the disappointment in our eyes personally?”


    Furion could feel his cheek twitch slightly, “Nothing nearly so ghoulish.  Unfortunately, I had something else I was going to tell you that was team-only, but…that’s been put on the back-burner for now.”


    Gabriel and Ren both knew exactly what that meant, and stayed quiet.  Ren stepped in a bit closer and brushed her shoulder against his arm, acknowledging that very thing in her own way, linking them together in their knowing silence.


    “Oh…”


    “Anything else?”


    Crickets.


    “Dismissed.”


    “Sir!” They all saluted again, and dispersed.


    Ravan, Jense, and Corbin all stuck together though, and Ravan made her way towards her semi-exiled friend, “Ren, if we’re all being kicked off the ship tomorrow, you should come hang out with us.”


    She was surprised the woman would speak so loudly about solo-time in front of her partner, but when she looked back to find the blonde, he’d already walked away and seemed to be focused on something.  Her brow crinkled, but she turned back to her friends, “Yeah, that’d be nice actually.”


    “…What’s his deal?” Corbin wondered, “He just wandered away and started talking to himself.”


    “Oh, he’s not talking to himself.” Ren defended, and turned back to look at where Gabriel had gone-off to again, “…He’s talking to Lord Xanarken.”  She turned back again, “So, what are you guys planning?”


    “There’s a really great restaurant in the city that I’ve been dying to go back to,“ Jense explained, “It was the first thing I thought of when the Captain told us where we’d be docking.”


    “He literally never shuts up about it,” Ravan laughed; Corbin nodded enthusiastically in agreement, “To get some relief, we promised to go with him if we ever got the chance.  You should come suffer with us.”


    Jense guffawed, “You guys make it sound like I’m going to torture you.  It’s a restaurant.”


    “But it’s with you.”


    “…That’s so mean.” He complained, and grabbed the two with an arm over each head, pulling them both down to be more on a level with their short friend, “You see what they do to me when you’re not here?  I get picked-on maliciously.”


    “You’ve survived so far.” Ren laughed.  By then, however, it was becoming painfully obvious that someone else was waiting for her, “I think I’m missing an appointment right now though.  I’ll catch you guys later.”


    Ravan wiggled to look over Jense’s arm where he maintained his head-lock on her, and spotted their Captain waiting patiently off to the side.  She turned back and pulled a hand up to cover her mouth, “Ohoho.”


    “Honestly, get.” Ren shooed them all off, waving her good arm after them as they went.  At that same time though, Gabriel was coming back to her as well, “What happened?  What’d he say?”


    “The Emperor sprung it on him.” He answered, “He couldn’t go into much detail while I’m here.  Wants me somewhere more private.”


    “Do you need to go?”


    “…It’s Prince-related stuff, so…yeah.  You can come if you want, but I’m not gonna make you do work-things while you’re on recovery.”


    “…I mean, I’m in-uniform, so…”


    “Ehhh…  This is an in-progress project.  A lot of the finer details will probably be lost in the mess of not knowing what was said before.  Let’s put a pin in this one.  We’d be better-off starting something else fresh.”


    Ren scoffed, “Revenge for me leaving you hanging earlier?  Rude.”


    He laughed though, “Your story is far more juicy than mine.  I can assure you, there’s nothing about this that will entertain you half so much as that would entertain me.”  He looked past her shoulder to the still-waiting Captain, “I think you have more important things to deal with right now though.  I won’t make him wait any longer.”


    “So willing to split my time already?”


    “I suppose I should expect to get used to it.  He’s already swallowed his pride to disappoint the crowd when he could’ve just blurted out what he wanted to say.  I’ll give the man his moment.”  He gave her good shoulder a gentle squeeze, “Cya later.”


    “Cya later, Gabe.” She answered, and returned the gesture as he turned to go.  Now that everyone else had scattered, Ren finally turned on her heel to treat with the final contender, and bowed her head slightly as she made her way over to him, “…I feel like I probably owe you an explanation.”


    “Owe me?” Furion echoed, “…Nah.  I’d like one, but…in the end, Fourth Wing business is none of mine.  Lord Xanarken’s word on the matter is all I’m entitled to.”


    “You could always ask me, though.” She teased, and stepped into the cover of the Captain’s wide cape.  Though he had his hands clasped loosely behind his own back as they walked, his uniform’s pauldrons made his real-estate footprint rather large, and she all-but vanished within it if anyone were to spy the man from behind, “I’d tell you.”


    “Alright…  I’ll bite.  Why’d you do it?” He glanced down at her, “After last night, I was pretty-much convinced you were ready to abandon the diverted path and come back to the one you’d carved for yourself.  The one we’ve been carving together for the last…what, eight years?”


    “Has it really been that long?”


    “I’m afraid so.” He answered, “It would’ve been all nine but you played hard to get.”


    “Sir, I was a good new recruit and didn’t want to do the wrong thing.” Ren puffed, “Wasn’t it enough that I put you on the ground with my butt the first time we met?  You could wait a year for me to get used to being here before you put the moves on me.”


    Furion nearly tripped over his own feet to hear it, “Why would you phrase it that way?”


    “Was any of it untrue?” She laughed.


    “…Technically, no.”


    Ren beamed proudly, “Well, there you go.”


    “Anyway…  My point is that…is this mediator thing really that important?  It was never on your radar before, but now you actually want to go through the whole thing?” Furion wondered, as they walked together along the weather-deck’s massive 20ft floor-to-ceiling windows; they could see the entire upper hull of the Aegis from there, and the bridge above it, “What are you going to use mediation skills on in our line of work?”


    “…It’s not about the mediation, to be honest.” She answered, “It’s about him.”


    “Oh?”


    Ren nodded, and made a point to tunnel her way under his cape, and around his back, to get onto his left side.  Once there, she reached up with her good arm to hook her fingers around his elbow, “Around half an hour after we first met-up with Seth, everything went to shit.  Ianori went down right away, Seth was terrified, and Gabriel…?  Well, he stepped up.  He had just learned what I used to be, and instead of holding it against me and making our escape difficult, he listened to me.  He followed my directions in the heat of the moment without question or need for explanation.  Now…I’m not saying that it made a difference to our fate in the end, but it impressed me.  I saw something in him that I hadn’t in the entire four months we’d been together to that point.  I want to foster that…make him better for it.  Even if nothing he teaches me will matter once I’m back here, giving him the room and opportunity to be a teacher will help him be a better mediator.”


    Furion guffawed, “…You have a crush on him, don’t you?”


    She puffed a laugh, “Maybe a little bit.  He is, after all, a foundational reason why I ever got into the Fafnir to begin with.  Now that I’ve finally cracked the ice with him a bit…I’m starting to see the person I always hoped he’d be.  You’ve waited this long for me to come back…what’s a little while longer?  Let me fangirl a little.  Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right?”


    Furion could only shake his head and sigh, “The insane amount of jealousy I have right now is indescribable.  We finally got back on the same page last night after all this time where you actually hated me.  I…don’t want to let you go already.”


    “Well, you’re going on leave for two weeks.” Ren noted, and gave him a bit of a sultry look, “That’s a lot of nights where we could be getting caught up on lost time.  Let’s make the most of it.  When Gabe and I inevitably shove-off again, it’ll just be a countdown to when I’m back permanently.  Maybe by then I’ll even be able to use both hands again.”


    That made the Captain smirk, but he shook his head anyway, “I’ve really missed you.  Your smile, your eyes, your cutting sarcasm…  These next two weeks couldn’t have come at a better time.” He said quietly, and looked around over his shoulders briefly before he nudged Ren out in front of himself, putting her back towards the windows.  With hardly anyone paying attention, and Seth still lost in the mire of his own research, Furion lifted one gloved hand to his lips and bit down on the tip of one finger to pull the glove away.  He cupped his palm to her cheek, and the warmth of feeling her lean into it sent a tingle through the whole of him.  He dared the public spectacle, grabbed the glove with his free hand, and leaned down to steal a kiss.  He could feel her grinning, and stole another before he stood up straight again, “Can I come by later tonight?”


    “Please do.  Then you can be the one sneaking out before dawn.”


    “All things in balance.”