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"Once I saw that the credentials for a janitor we don't employ had accessed the seating plans for this table, I had them adjusted." Aunor said, her voice smug, as people all around them continued to find and take their seats at their assigned tables.
"Well… there goes all that prep out the window," Drifter said.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us what that prep was for?" one of the other Warlocks across the table from Eris asked. He had long blond hair with a beard and mustache almost as long.
"Would you believe me if I told ya it was to try to plan polite dinner conversation in order to reduce social anxiety?" Drifter asked.
The Exo sitting next to Eris laughed briefly and then said, "No."
A glass bowl with flowers and floating candles was placed by a passing server in the centre of the table. Large Dawning braziers were lit on the ground interspersed between tables to provide extra warmth for the diners in the cool air. Light snow continued to slowly drift down upon everyone. Strings of Dawning icicle lights were slung above them from one side of the dining area to the other, giving extra illumination.
Drifter sighed. "Aunor you're bein' rude," he said. "And at the Dawning, no less. You should at least introduce us to your friends."
"Rude?" Aunor asked, "I'm simply matching the company I'm with."
"Are you, now?" Eris asked with a voice that could freeze water, or blood.
The Awoken Warlock next to Aunor leaned forward. Her glowing yellow eyes gave the blue skin around the top of her face a slightly greyish tint which contrasted sharply with her bright pink hair. "I'm Chilliwack," she said. "This is Morg Hartvigsen." She held out her hand to the blond man. "And this is Koharu-4." She gestured to the Exo. "And we're all here to make sure that whatever you're planning doesn't go how you want it to."
"Really. Does Ikora know you have done this?" Eris asked Aunor.
"I'll be sure to put it in my report," Aunor answered with a smirk.
"I will do so as well… with mine." Eris said, enunciating each word carefully through a snarl that showed off her teeth.
The Exo and Chilliwack exchanged a glance.
Drifter chuckled. "Can't help but wonder whose report is going to get more clout in this situation. The one from the agent who routinely breaks protocol and leaks information to the public or… the Vanguard Spymaster's best friend." He gave them all a wink. "Hope you all like deskwork. If you wanna know what it's like, just ask Aunor. She's had quite a lot of it lately."
Morg raised his eyebrows and looked from Chilliwack to Koharu-4, then to Aunor. Aunor rolled her eyes.
"Why are you here, Drifter?" Aunor asked.
Eris turned to Aunor and glared at her. "He is here with me because I asked him to be."
Aunor shook her head. "What kind of dirt does he have on you that you're willing to cover for him like this, Eris? You're supposed to be one of us."
The Soulfire in Eris' eyes flashed. Below the tablecloth, Artemis growled.
"Well, Moondust, look on the bright side!" Drifter said, leaning closer to her with a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Dinner just got a whole lot easier."
Eris gave him a confused look.
He looked back at the four faces around the table as he reached out and took Eris' hand, lacing his fingers between hers. "We were all worried about sayin' the wrong thing and makin' friends uncomfortable." He brought her gloved hand to his lips for a light on one of her knuckles. "Now we don't even have to pretend to be nice."
Eris straightened her back and nodded, accepting his assessment of the situation, glaring at each person around the table in turn.
"See the rules at this sort of a thing are highly favourable to people who don't get their panties in a twist," Drifter continued. "This is social combat. First person to cause a scene loses."
"I see," Eris' body language shifted she turned slightly. Drifter did the same, angling their backs against each other, subtly taking up defensive positions.
Across the table from them, Chilliwack raised her eyebrows.
Glasses of water were placed next to their plates from small tables being rolled around by servers going from table to table. Firesprite-7 made eye contact with Drifter as he set a jug of water clinking with ice cubes near the centrepiece in the middle of the table. Eris noticed. The Exo waiter winked at Eris and left to attend to one of the other tables.
"Our fine companions here think they're in one of them old school action movie recordings I salvaged," Drifter said. "All gunfire and explosions." He took a sip of water and and leaned back so his arm was brushing against Eris' while he continued to hold her hand. "But in fact, the name of the game at this sort of a fancy do is intrigue - something the action hero types tend to… not be too good at."
"Hmmm…" Eris hummed an acknowledgement of his words as she studied their opponents.
"We're here to prevent you from causing a scene - not create one," Koharu-4 said from next to Eris, her purple Exo eyes glowing brighter when she spoke.
"Ha! Really? When exactly does ol'Drifter cause a scene?" the rogue Lightbearer asked the four Warlocks. "Surely you've all read the excellent bedtime readin' material that is the file of VIP number thirteen-fifteen. It'd be pretty sloppy if you hadn't. And I will admit, it's got some excitin' bits - whole lotta… what's that word you like?" He turned to Eris. "kin-fabricatin'?"
"Confabulation," Eris helpfully supplied while continuing to assess their opponents across the table.
Chilliwack was reserved, watching. Aunor was on the attack, her body language aggressive as she traded barbs with Drifter. Morg seemed almost too relaxed. He looked young, but Guardians could be any age. He seemed to be following Aunor and Chilliwack's lead. And Koharu-4 was feigning disinterest but Eris had no doubt the Exo was alert and looking for weakness.
"Con-fabu-lation," Drifter repeated. "That's it. Nice big word for complete bullshit."
"I had always assumed the inaccuracies in that file were due to you editing it." Eris said quietly next to him.
"Nah," Drifter said. "Read access is much easier to get without havin' to be overly invasive. Edit access leaves a paper trail. Just ask Aunor, what with the amount of records she's edited."
Everyone at the table, including the other three Warlocks turned to look at Aunor.
"He's diverting attention from himself. Be wary of his tactics. He's known for being manipulative and evasive. He's a professional liar and a con man."
"Now that ain't entirely untrue. I used to be that, yeah," Drifter leaned back in his chair. "I ain't pulled off any large scale scams in a long while though. Drifter's been behavin' himself. Lot easier to be a nice guy when people around you aren't tryin' to kill you every five seconds. Got a fireteam now." He squeezed Eris' hand. "Don't need to be scramblin' around lyin' through my teeth to survive. Drifter's into building shit up lately, not tearin' it down. Don't need to do that no more, so I ain't been doin' it. Not sayin' I won't do it again if I have to, but… things are lookin' up and ol'Drifter's real happy with how thing's have worked out. No need to go around rockin' the boat."
Aunor's mouth fell open and Eris watched the other three Warlocks lean forward while Drifter talked. He really did have a silver tongue.
"Aunor, on the other hand," Drifter continued, "loves rockin' boats. She's so hellbent on punishing anyone she thinks is the slightest bit out of line that she'll break all the rules herself just to stick it to 'em. She's a real 'ends justify the means' kinda person." He turned to Aunor. "Ain't ya?"
"Nothing he says can be trusted."
"Really? What exactly am I lyin' about right now?" he grinned. "Do tell."
Aunor's fists clenched on the table in front of her as the whole table turned to look at her.
Artemis lifted her head up off of Eris' boots and moved to sit between Eris and Drifter, ears perked up, listening.
"If you want some good action movie readin' with guns and explosions… and considerable collateral damage…" Drifter added, "just check out the file versioning for what happened about six years ago in District 125. You know about file versioning, right Aunor? Even when you scrub something, there's always a trace."
"That was a Vanguard approved operation," Aunor snarled.
Drifter chuckled and sipped his water. "Aunor blew up a whole city block tossin' a maglev train into a warehouse, all because she wouldn't pull that stick out of her ass and try negotiatin' with a pack of lowlifes who just wanted a way out."
The whole table stared at Aunor.
"They crossed a line." Aunor said. Eris noted with pride how Drifter had seemed to effortlessly shift the conversation to the point where Aunor was now feeling the need to defend herself.
"The line they crossed was takin' her ghost and tryin' to ransom it for a way off-planet. And at that point…" Drifter placed his water glass on the table, raised both his hands, brought his fingers together and then extended them in a subtle but clear motion indicating explosions. "All logic went out the window."
"Like you wouldn't have done worse," Aunor glared at him.
Drifter snorted. "Well, for one I don't leave my ghost dicking around to get captured. But I do gotta wonder if all those civilians would agree with you… that their homes and all the people injured were less important than your ghost. 'Course… no one bothered to ask them."
Aunor slapped both hands on the table and started to stand, shaking with rage. Chilliwack put her hand firmly on Aunor's shoulder and pushed her to sit back down, hard. Aunor sat, opening her mouth to speak.
Before she could say anything an Exo hand appeared between her and the Drifter, offering a basket containing a cloth wrapped around something warm and steaming.
"Ooh! Dinner rolls!" Drifter exclaimed. "I like dinner rolls. I wonder if it's the fluffy white ones or the ones with all the seeds." He leaned on his elbow to bring himself closer to Eris conspiratorially. "Fluffy ones are like little clouds but the ones with seeds always have a real nice texture to 'em. Seeds add a nice crunch."
Drifter grinned up at the politely impassive face of Firesprite-7 as the Exo walked around the table and placed a second basket of rolls between Morg and Koharu-4. Eris' nose picked up the smell of fresh baked bread.
Aunor took a deep breath and let it out slowly, visibly calming herself. "That operation was messy and things didn't go as planned," she said, "but it had to be done."
"Did it?" Drifter asked, unwrapping the towel around the bread. "Well, if that's so, then uh… maybe you can explain somethin' to me that I've always wondered. I'm such a curious creature, you know."
"What?" Aunor growled.
Drifter picked up a steaming bun in one hand and a butter knife in the other. Then, he smiled unkindly, his eyes glinting in the light of the candles in the middle of the table in a way that managed to be both smug and subtly intimidating. "If it was so legit, why'd you edit the records?"
Aunor blinked, suddenly silent. She moved her mouth to speak but then thought better of it and just glared angrily at Drifter. The other Warlocks exchanged glances between them and looked back and forth between Aunor and Drifter. Eris could feel the sentiment at the table shifting. One corner of her mouth quirked slightly.
Drifter turned away from Aunor to look at Eris with a vicious smile, his eyes still sparkling with that vague sense of menace. "See? Told ya. This dinner conversation shit's easy. Just ask some nice open ended questions and then… let people talk."
Eris regarded him with a mixture of pride and appreciation. "I see," she said, regarding the rest of the Warlocks with the same level of contempt she would hold for Thralls attempting to approach her on the Moon. "They sought to provide disruption and discomfort to our evening, but… we are not trapped due to social conventions at this table with them. It is they who are trapped here with us."
Drifter stifled a laugh. Eris did as well. Leaning close together, the two shared a moment of low giggles between them as Aunor seethed and the other three Warlocks shifted uncomfortably.