The lounge didn’t have a lot of lighting. A bit of ambient brightness in a few places, more to create shadows than to actually illuminate anything. Here and there, odd geometric shapes decorated the walls. If you looked slightly away, after a few moments you might get that sensation that something moved or appeared or went away. If you watched very carefully, you might notice that the shapes changed slightly over time in some sort of pattern.
In the middle of the lounge stood a small floor-to-ceiling partition. Water cascaded quietly down its ridges, producing a bit of quiet white noise.
A petite woman with short white hair stood in front of the water display. She didn’t move, but her stance indicated a sort of unpredictable dynamism about her.
Softly, a chime sounded from an indistinct direction. The woman formed her hands into a symbolic shape, what some Intaki called a mudra, and the chime repeated itself an octave higher. She altered her hand formation slightly and a door behind her opened.
Two men entered the room, a wiry Krusual and a solid Brutor. She kept focused on the water display. But as they drew closer, she turned slightly, though not entirely all the way around.
“No one saw you?”
Brutor grimaced before Krusual spoke. “Don’t insult us.”
She inclined her head a notch, acknowledging his point. “So you must have a good reason to visit me.”
Brutor glanced sidelong at Krusual before grunting and removing a datachip from his pocket. He held it in the light for a moment. Interface crystals sparkled where the dim light caught them.
Her hands twisted again and a small drone came around a corner. Inaudible except for the sound of small air jets used to navigate, it darted over to Brutor. A tiny manipulator took hold of the datachip and the drone flew off.
She clucked with disapproval. “You could have transmitted it. Or sent it somehow.”
Krusual lifted his chin. “If we didn’t have another reason to visit you, we would have done just that. But we have something a bit more sensitive to ask.”
She arched her eyebrows and took half a step back.
Krusual looked over at Brutor, saw what he wanted to see, then looked back at her. “We want you to visit our friends in Curse. We want them to be your friends, too.”
The woman looked back and forth between the two men, searching for understanding. “After everything else I’ve done, you ask me to do this? That doesn’t seem like part of our deal.”
“We know. If it was, we wouldn’t have had to come out here.”
“You have to tell me why.”
“We’ll tell you why you will want to do it. Partly because not doing it could cause you a lot of trouble. That means less ISK for you. It could cause trouble for other people, too.”
At this, Brutor furrowed his brow down slightly and grinned. Krusual continued.
“Partly, too, because we can help you with some problems. We know people in Ezzara. People that owe us favors.”
The woman set her mouth in a thin, taut line. Muscles in her neck flexed and throbbed.
Before she could say anything, he spoke again, this time in a much lower tone. “And because they have what we know you really want.”
The woman stood very still for several beats. Her eyes blinked and her hands moved rapidly in a series of gestures and signs, but she didn’t shift on her feet at all.
“When should I leave?”
“We prefer soon, but the specifics will remain up to you. As usual. Once you’ve gotten set up, you’ll receive more instructions.”
An angry red symbol started to appear on the outside of her right shoulder: jagged lines with the faintest hit of purple shadowing.
Brutor’s eyes fell to the symbol as it faded into sight on her skin. Without another word, he turned to leave.
Krusual leaned in to whisper. “Watch your back, egger.”
The two men exited. She turned back to the water display for a long while.
I’d like to know whether any of you play EVE Online with your kids. How old are they? What do you do together?