arsegoetia | TLV: IC Inbox

"I - no, not yet."

Lucy steps over to the kitchen side of the room to get started on that tea.

"I know some inmates don't like wardens reading their files, and - I get that. I don't know how I'd feel about somebody being able to just sit down with my whole life story."

She looks over to him.

"How do you feel about it?"

He looks back evenly, his feathered face unreadable.

"I deal in knowledge, Miss MacLean. Prophecy, contracts, deals and laws of all manner of shapes. Which is something my previous warden failed to understand - I don't expect you to form a complete picture of my crimes until you actually read the paperwork that's been given to you."

"Call me Lucy, please."

She grabs the tea from a cupboard.

"That's...not exactly the same as saying you want me to read your file, but that is what it means? Just checking!"

"I want to graduate," he corrects primly. "And at this point I'm rather unbothered as to the route we go about getting there."

Which isn't a yes. But he's not telling himself that.

Lucy gives the kettle a thousand-yard stare for a moment.

"...I want you to graduate too, Stolas. But how we get there does matter to me. 'You didn't say I couldn't, so that means I can' is the kind of thing the kids in my classroom would say, but we're grown-ups. You deal in knowledge, and I want to know if I have your consent to read your file. Yes or no."

...well how is he supposed to hide behind his eloquence when she says it as plainly as that?

His hand knot tightly in his lap, but his voice is calm and professional. Betraying none of the anxious turmoil of faking that steadiness. He's had a lifetime of practice, after all.

"I want you to read my file."

Lucy smiles over at him.

"Thank you, Stolas. I'd like you to read it too, when I'm done. So we're both on the same page."

She pours steaming water over the tea leaves, then closes the pot and reaches for two cups.

"I've...had a lot of experience lately of finding out I've been lied to, and had really important things kept from me, and - I did not like it. So I want you to know right now that I'm going to be as honest as I can, even if that means sometimes telling you things you don't want to hear."

He manages a smile back, a little wobbly but he thinks that's within the realm of acceptable given the circumstances.

"Ah, well, I-I don't imagine there's much in there that I'm not already aware of."

While she's reaching for the cups, he gestures a hand, and the teapot gets limned in the same blurple luminescence as his portals, and gets politely lifted into the air around her to get carried to the table - there's a matching aura around his hand, as he catches the teapot to put it down gently on the table.

"I know. It's your life, right? But - I'd at least like you to know what I know," Lucy says. "That way if there's anything missing, or - anything you think needs more context, you can tell me. Thank you," she adds, nodding at the teapot as she brings the cups over. "Do you take cream and sugar?"

"Just cream, thank you," he smiles, a bit more easily now that he can put his game face back on. "I suppose I should let you know in advance the that my previous permanent warden did give me the full use of my powers back, but he did somewhat limit the range of my grimoire."

She ferrets out cream from the refrigerator and brings it over to the table with spoons and saucers, then takes a seat.

"Your grimoire," she echoes, handling the unfamiliar word with care. "Is that what you use to move around the ship like you did just now?"

"Ah, yes and no."

He pulls open his vest and reaches in, but she'll see the glow of another portal, and when he pulls his hand out he's holding a massive book - average in his hands, but something encyclopaedic to hers. "I learned the spell from my grimoire, but I've got it memorised to cast whenever I so please, these days. It was one of the first I learned, in fact!"

He rests the book on the table, both hands on it. "Mr Caffrey ensured that if someone else were to attempt to take it, it would be returned to me instantly. I believe he also ensured that any attempts to cast spells from the book would result in him being alerted - I assume this may have been transferred to you, now."

"I'll check," Lucy says, tilting her head to look at the tome. It looks appropriately large and magical and important. "What other kinds of limits did he ask for - you said range?"

"My apologies, I simply meant that." He gestures to the book. "That no-one else is allowed to touch my book in any capacity, and that I can't even allow for consensual lending of it. Not that I do it all that much to begin with - there's only one person on the ship who's ever laid hands on it otherwise."

Lucy looks uneasy for a moment.

"Do you want to be able to lend it out to other people? Here, I mean."

"Honestly I do prefer not to," he admits. "It's still an extremely powerful magical artefact, and if someone learns how to read the demonic runes it's written in it could be utterly disastrous." His hands rest on it again, relaxed and neatly folded, not in the least bit possessive. "While my purview is predominantly of knowledge - prophecy and portals and such - it also allows me to be recognised for my authority, as it's a completely unique tome in all seven levels of Hell."

Lucy nods.

"Okay. So I'll make sure that's still the case. Is there anything else you want me to check up with the Admiral, or anything you need?"

"Quite honestly, it hasn't presented itself as an issue, yet," he admits easily. "And if I ever were to teach anyone my own sorcery, I can simply show them the page. I'd have to actually teach them how to read it first, as well."

"Could you do that? Teach sorcery to someone else? This - isn't really a warden-type question," Lucy admits, "I'm just curious. We don't have any magic where I come from."

"Oh, I-" But he actually perks up a little, his smaller eyes relaxing with his smile. "I certainly can - I've been teaching my daughter, after all. And humans do have some capacity for magic, seeing as they're able to summon demons at all. Especially here, when all the known laws of magic seem to be incredibly flexible."

"I've gotten the impression that different places have different rules for how their magic works, but they all work here," Lucy agrees.

Their tea will be ready now, she's sure, and goes to pour a cup for each of them.

"How long have you been here, Stolas?"

He gives a soft hoot of a laugh. "Nearly six months to the day, in fact. I was permanently paired the month after I arrived, but Mr Caffrey spent most of that in stasis after he restored my powers, and he finally vanished in September."

"Oh - gosh, I'm sorry," Lucy says, and means it. "That can't have been easy."

She gets that inmates wanting to graduate isn't universal. That he did, but didn't have a warden to support him? That's tough. Unfair, even.

"Well, the rate at which wardens do or don't disappear here is sadly something even my prophetic abilities aren't able to predict," he says with an anxious, tittering laugh. "But it does make it somewhat difficult to have faith in the Admiral's decisions, to grant me someone that was predominantly absent."

"I wish I could promise you that that's not going to happen again," Lucy says, frowning at her teacup. "But it's not our choice - I went back home for a little while, before I planned to. What I can promise is that my roommate will know right away if anything happens to me, and - I'll make sure she knows to keep you in the loop, okay?"

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