#yuyuno

Stepping up to the cells, he peeked into Yuyuno’s first and curled his fingers around the barred windows. The lalafell was nestled on the bench, her arms around her legs under a thin blanket. She’d had her suit confiscated, and only Cookie’s clothes fit her, so she’d been given some of their spare clean laundry. She acknowledged him with a half-lidded glance. They exchanged a look—he read her expression, and she his. He knew that she knew.

Tearing his gaze away, he peered into J’nairoh’s cell next. She had been pacing like a caged tiger—he’d heard her footfalls. Like Yuyuno, she’d been stripped and searched as well, then given plain clothing. Her blanket lay pooled in a heap near the corner of the cell. She stopped the instant she saw him. Her eyes flashed, but her fury died as swiftly as the flame was lit when she read his face.

“The captain of this ship informed me that Cadmus didn’t make it out of the facility,” he told her. He was about to go on, but something made him pause. He realised, when her gaze fled to the ground, that he had been the last one to hear. J’nairoh knew Cadmus had been left behind, so Yuyuno knew as well once J’nairoh was brought to the brig. Somehow, that was worse than having to be the one to tell them. He pressed his lips together.

“Yeah, well,” J’nairoh sniffed, wiping a bloodied nose. She must have hit the ground hard when she fell. “I don’t believe it. He’ll have had a plan. He always had a plan. He kept contingencies in his back pocket in case taking a shit went sideways. Until they dig up his body, he’s not dead.”

“There is no plan that could survive an Elemental’s wrath,” Okhi’to told her flatly. He wasn’t sure which of the stages of grief he was currently processing as he registered her denial, but he felt the ring in his hand dig painfully into his palm as his grip tightened around it.

“You sound like you want him to be gone. You left him to die like you left me,” spat J’nairoh. Anger crackled in his chest, and his ears pinned back. She threw up her hands. “If you’d stood with me, if you’d fought with me, we could have defeated them. They would have had no chance. Instead, you let me fight them alone, ten to one—ten to ONE, Okhi’to.”

Okhi’to’s ears flattened against his hair, and he bristled, baring fangs. She snarled. Yuyuno’s weary voice rose to cut through the tension.

“Don’t blame him, Nairoh.”

“He turned on us,” the jackal snapped at the wall dividing her cell and Yuyuno’s, her ears standing to attention to catch the lalafell’s input. “He’s a traitor. He walks free while we’re behind bars. He’s thrown his lot in with our foe, and for what?”

“For the Farsent,” Yuyuno answered, exhaustion weighing down her words. “He’s not a traitor. He doesn’t stand with them. He stands with his Farsent. You’d have realised that if you’d been paying any attention these past few moons. If you’d ever understood what we were here to do.”

“I know what I was here to do. And it didn’t involve rotting in a cage while this likely lot quarrels over whether I should be hanged, shot, or drawn and quartered.” She scoffed. “If Cadmus sent me up there with Okhi’to to begin with, or to fight with you, it would have never come to this.”

“No. It would have been worse. If we’d put up that much resistance, they’d have brought Gridania’s might down on us, and we’d all have been dead, Farsent included, not just him,” the Architectus pointed out. “And then our killers too, when the Elemental broke free.”

Okhi’to’s fury abated with a slow dawning of realisation, and he looked over towards Yuyuno. “I noticed the defensive systems were down. I had been prepared to work with their chief engineer to disable them, but there was no need apart from during our confrontation with you.”

“I shut the others off,” Yuyuno replied.

J’nairoh recoiled from the adjacent wall, staring at it in disbelief. He had the luxury of being able to see them both at once: Yuyuno’s impassive features, the jackal’s indignant snarl. “You’re fucking kidding me. Traitors on all sides! Why in the hells would you do that? ”

“Those were my orders.”

“Why would he have given those orders?” J’nairoh hissed at her comrade through the wall. “This is the work of that illusionist of yours, Okhi’to. They must have messed with Yuyuno’s comms. Another traitor. I told him as much when they refused to go with him.”

“No, they didn’t. Cadmus gave that order himself. Discovery is defeat,” Okhi’to recited, sitting down heavily on the bench outside J’nairoh’s cell. “When the ship’s going down, all you can do is control its descent.”

The room was quiet until the sound of J’nairoh’s palm smacking into the wall startled Okhi’to out of his thoughts.

“No. I don’t accept any of this shite. We fucked up. That’s what this came down to. He was counting on us to stop them, or at least buy him enough time to get us all out, and…” She hesitated, her voice faltering. “We failed. That means we have to face what comes next without him. And what is that, Okhi’to?”

Okhi’to looked up. The fear in her eyes wrenched at his heart. She was looking at him like he was her last hope. He didn’t want to lead them. He didn’t want to have to step into Cadmus’ shoes and take charge. He didn’t know how. He didn’t notice Yuyuno turn to him as well, her gaze laden with sympathy.

“They intend to deliberate over what is to be done with us. They were sincere when they told Cadmus that they were going to petition for our sentence to be non-lethal, and the possibility of myself and Yuyuno being deported to Garlemald to help rebuild it has been procured in writing,” he told her. “In your case, it was suggested that the Viper tribe your operation affected be the ones to determine your sentence, but the captain—”

“How did they even find out, Okhi’to? You told them, didn’t you?” J’nairoh was up against the bars, gripping them so hard her knuckles turned white.

“They already knew,” Okhi’to insisted, rising to his feet and backing off a step, turning to face her. “Listen to me. The mother of one of the children we killed has been hunting us. Calls herself the Arbiter. She had dossiers on us all. You must have heard them over the radio.”

“Aye, I heard. I heard she’s twisting their arm. Like Cadmus said, she can only twist so far before they give us up, so any promises they make’re pure lies. Oh, but even that fate’s too good for me, huh?” She covered her mouth, turned from him, and went back to pacing. “These—these are my options? Let that mad bitch have her way with me, or vengeful Vipers burn me alive?”

“The captain, like I was saying, will plead for leniency. Things have changed since the Empire fell. No one’s eager to see more blood spilt.”

“If you believe that, you’ll believe anything. Okhi’to—I get the chance, I’m gone. You understand?”

“Please don’t, Nairoh. It’s hard enough losing Cadmus. Running away wouldn’t do any good. We’ve reached the end of the line. If there’s a chance we can stay together, we should—”

“What, die together? I get you always thought of us as family, ‘cause you never had one of your own. It was cute. I didn’t hate it, and going along with it kept you happy. But if you wanted to keep us together, Okhi’to, you should’ve stood with us,” she spat at him. “You’re gonna end up alone when all’s said and done. Mark my words.”

The medicus huffed like she’d knocked the wind out of him. “Don’t worry, Nairoh. Dead or alone, aught else would be more than I deserve to hope for.”

“Nairoh…” chided Yuyuno softly when he couldn’t manage to look her way anymore. “Come talk to me, Okhi’to. Let her simmer down. We can go over some ideas. Proposals for those Unsung when they’re deciding what’s to be done with us.” The lalafell chuckled mirthlessly. “‘Rebuild Garlemald’. Pah. I don’t think so. And you, torn from Nura? Let’s figure out what else we could do, hm?”

J’nairoh crossed her arms and turned from him. He could hear her pacing continue.

Okhi’to moved to where he was out of her sight, leaning against the ledge in front of Yuyuno’s window. “The captain said we should think about what we dedicate our lives to from now on. That’s how I understood him, at least. It feels personal, with him. I don’t claim to fully understand why, but he has lodged his hopes with us and our ability to make amends. Not in a way that arises from our own arrogance, this time,” he told her.

“You, not us. We’re not the ones with free rein of the ship,” Yuyuno pointed out with a wry smile. “I don’t need anyone vicariously working on their regrets through me, besides. I have enough of my own. But I’ll think about it, because I don’t want to go back there. Because you’ve got more to give this realm than Garlemald deserves. And while she may have a chip on her shoulder, damned if I let them consign Nairoh to death.”