Notes: Another chapter. Hopefully nearing the end. I am aiming to have this done by chapter 21, but there may be more than that. I expect 25 would be the upper limit. May be done as early as chapter 19. I don't know. Depends on how Vriska decides to work with me (or not).
Behind Blue Lies – Part 17
There was a huge difference between planning an assassination while running only on adrenaline, caffeine, and sopor pills, and pulling off an assassination while running on only adrenaline, piss poor coffee, and sopor pills. Unfortunately it was just something she had to deal with. Since the moment she'd awoken in Veruna's respite block things had been all business. Keeper had been looming over her, a lecherous look in his eyes and disgusting feelings flowing from him that made Vriska long for another bath. Luckily it had been a simple matter for Vriska to knock him out with a well placed kick, though it meant over the day of planning he made sure she got far less than was proper whenever he brought food or drinks into the meeting room for Vriska and the violet blooded adviser named Kythal who had arrived during the night. In the end Vriska wasn't sure what had made her less comfortable: the insufficient food and sleep, or the sheer amount of cunning wisdom that Kythal possessed.
Kythal wasn't like any other seadweller Vriska had ever met. He possessed a level of self-assurance that Veruna lacked, that Vriska hadn't even sensed from the Empress Gyleia and Heiress Feferi when she had first been in their presence. When he looked at Vriska it was a calm, cold kind of calculating that she could only hope to match on her best days. And he was smart, too smart for Vriska's tastes. Every time she tried to work a deliberate hole into the plans to make things easier for the Web and whatever plans Sollux would make, Kythal found them and ways to sew them up. More frustrating than that, he managed to do it all without making Vriska seem like a total failure in Veruna's eyes. Instead he just made himself seem superior, made it seem like it was his superiority as a higher blood that made it possible for him to notice something that a 'moderately respectable blueblood could be expected to know.' It was infuriating, in a platonic kind of way. And yet it was also useful to know. Something that she'd set Sollux to the moment she could get back into contact with him. Whoever this Kythal was, he was the true threat behind the hemohierarchist movement. An old, wise violet with savage horns shaped like the scimitars he carried at his sides, who wanted more than the world and Empress saw fit to give him. Veruna might be the spirit of the hemohierarchist movement, but here was clearly her strongest supporter, and with him the true pan of the operation. Taking down Veruna would mean pulling the power out from under Kythal's feet, but that wasn't a task to be taken lightly, or while getting by on adrenaline, caffeine, and sopor pills.
In the end, though, the finished plan had been more than 90% of Vriska's construction, drawn out as long as she could manage, and tweaked in that 10% by Veruna's desires or Kythal's intelligence on the wriggling day celebration's arrangements. Kythal had slipped out, begging his Empress's pardon to go out and start to assemble the three teams they would need for the work. For all that Vriska had been promised the right to build her own team, Veruna had quickly relented to the will of the troll who would be her general.
And now, tired, undermined, and terrified about what came next, Vriska sat at her appointed waiting position in a cafe a few blocks away from the Imperial Palace. Her team, already nominally briefed by Kythal, would be arriving by bits and pieces for the next hour or so, leaving Vriska to another cup of coffee to stand in for the lack of rest. The only positive side to all of this—to the knowledge that her life as she knew it was about to end—was the fact that at least the coffee was of high quality.
The thought almost made Vriska break into hysterical laughter. Here she was, throwing her life away, working to murder the Empress of Beforus, and all she could really think about was the quality of her cup of boiling water passed through ground up beans with only a hint of sugar. Was she going mad from lack of sleep? Or was the stress getting to her, now that the moment was approaching and she didn't have her moirail or her number one conspirator to fall back upon?
The wheels were in motion, the irons in the fire, and there was nothing she could do to stop things from starting now.
As Vriska moved to set aside her coffee, there was truly only so much of it that a troll could handle in two days before losing all taste for the stuff, she noticed that there was a small, white slitherbeast curled up on the small saucer that had come with the cup. With a sigh she set her cup to the side and reached for the tail of the slitherbeast. What was the creature even doing here? Oh well, it didn't belong on the saucer and wasn't going to do the beast any harm if she moved it, whereas leaving it in place might upset a troll with a more delicate sensibility and get the thing harmed. Tavros would hardly respect her if he ever found that she'd failed to protect a poor little slitherbeast just because she couldn't be bothered to care.
It was odd to see one of the pure white creatures such as Tavros tended in the middle of one of the larger cities. Other beasts were kept more frequently as pets, valued as they were for the various colors they lent to a hive. But the pure white beasts were far less common in cities, for all that they were abundant in the wild areas. Pretty much all of the creatures she'd seen Tavros tending to had been the pure white beasts.
The slitherbeast didn't even try to flee when Vriska reached for it, for all that it raised its little head and let its warm orange-brown forked tongue flick over her finger. It tickled, and Vriska even smiled at the small creature. Hopefully it wouldn't decide that she tasted bad and that she should be bitten. Instead, the slitherbeast rose further, its tongue flicking out once more as it started to move, of its own will, up Vriska's hand. The scales of its belly rasped as they passed over her flesh, and the beast's tongue flicked out time and time again as it worked itself further up her hand, and finally slipped its spade shaped head under her sleeve. With a sigh Vriska pulled her sleeve back, then gently grasped the slitherbeast around its head and removed it from her arm.
"Sorry, little guy, you don't want to hang around me. It isn't going to be a pretty ride," she said as she cradled the slitherbeast's body in her now free hand. For a moment she was almost willing to swear that the creature was glaring at her, which she quickly discarded as she lowered the slitherbeast to the ground. "My moirail would be disappointed if I let you come along."
No sooner had she released it than the slitherbeast was making its way for her boot. The creature moved surprisingly fast for your garden variety small slitherbeast, and as Vriska watched it started to wrap itself around her boot, obviously trying to climb her leg and not getting very far with it. Well, say what she wanted about it, the slitherbeast was obviously as determined to linger around her as she was to deal with the hierarchists. It was almost respectable, if there was any chance that the slitherbeast was doing anything particularly intentional. She probably just tasted good or something. Beasts didn't think after all, didn't plan didn't act like...
That wasn't right, was it? At least, not necessarily true of white beasts. Hadn't she seen such at Tavros's hive. Was the behavior of the creatures he tended to because they were more intelligent than normal creatures kept as pets, or because they spent time with him, or because of his psychic gift? The white fairybull had been intelligent enough, but had that been Tavros or the fairybull? What about the young hoofbeast? Or the hopbeast that had announced her approach? How much was the beasts and how much Tavros.
And a better question... Just how far could Tavros's influence reach?
Carefully Vriska bent over and started to unwrap the slitherbeast from her ankle, coiling it carefully in her palm as she did so. Once she was done she lifted the creature back up to the table, setting it before her and staring at it carefully. At last she leaned in, staring the slitherbeast in the eyes as she tried to reach out with her empathy and glean something from the mind of the creature. But it was useless. Predictably useless. There was really no point in trying, but she had hoped, just for a moment...
"You're just outside of my knowing, little slitherbeast," Vriska sighed, leaning down to rest her head on her arms and look at the creature even closer. "I don't know why I even tried."
Again the orange-brown tongue flicked out, this time tickling the tip of her nose. Vriska couldn't help but smile. How many trolls could claim to have had their nose tickled by a slitherbeast and be telling the truth?
"You did that on purpose," she accused, her voice playful. Better than annoyed. If she was amused people walking by might just assume she was talking to her pet, not to some random slitherbeast that had decided it liked her.
Much to Vriska's surprise, the slitherbeast seemed to bob its little head in agreement. All she could do for a moment was stare at it. Had she really just seen that or was she getting delusional with all of the stress and lack of sleep and caffeine?
"Did you just nod?" she whispered to the slitherbeast, almost ashamed to ask. Of course it hadn't.
But there it was again, the bobbing of the head, very deliberate. Very exaggerated. This... couldn't be happening, could it?
"No, this isn't real. I'm just..." And yet, if Tavros was strong enough, it might be possible. Vriska herself couldn't know, had never developed her gift enough to reach very far with many people, but Tavros had been properly trained. But the chances of him finding her... No, even those could be solved if Sollux was half as smart as she knew he had to be, and if Tavros just searched for her through the eyes of the beasts of the city, not truly latching onto a mind until he found her.
"Okay, so let's go about this logically. Yes is two taps of your tail. No is shaking your head twice. Do you understand?"
Two taps. By the Mother Grub.
"You're really understanding me?"
Two taps again, these slow and exaggerated and oddly seeming impatient.
"Is this slitherbeast sharing its mind with a beasttalker?"
Two more taps, and Vriska's pusher was pounding. What were the chances? Infinitesimal, either towards large or small. Sollux could tell her one way or another, but she had no way of asking him.
"Tavros?"
Another two taps and Vriska was doing her best not to cry. He kept on finding ways to be there for her when she needed him the most. How could he be so impossibly amazing?
"You found me," she said, trying hard not to get choked up. "I don't know how you did it, but you sure did do it, Tavros. Thanks."
The slitherbeast moved closer, pressing its head against her wrist as if to soothe her. Somehow the gesture was enough to relax her, just a bit.
"So, you can hear everything I tell this slitherbeast?"
Again the double tap, and Vriska couldn't help but smile. "Why don't you stick around for a while? You can do that, right? Good. My team will be here soon and I'm expected to take them off to a preparation location and go over the plan again. Sollux will need to act fast, but I'm sure the extra information can do him good, you know? If he's got all of it, maybe he can make this less bad. So I need you to keep the slitherbeast calm so I can hide him somewhere on me. Is that okay?"
Double tap, and the slitherbeast was raising its head more as if very attentive.
"So what we're going to do is I'm going to try him in a few places I don't expect him to get hurt, and you've got to let m e know if you can hear what I'm saying. Two taps for yes, four for no, okay? If you can't hear anything, wait about three seconds before tapping. Right?"
A confirmation and Vriska proceeded about the weirdest game of hide and find she had ever heard of before. At last she settled for letting the slitherbeast wrap itself around her throat, careful to hide it under the collar of her shirt. It didn't seem to lend itself as well to Tavros hearing other people, which Vriska learned when a waittroll came to refill her coffee, but kept the slitherbeast out of sight and relatively safe even if she should trip and fall during the upcoming stress.
It didn't hurt that it almost felt like the living necklace in its loose coils around her neck was embracing her like a moirail should.
"Thank you, Tav," she whispered, half to herself and half to her newly hidden passenger, as she leaned back in her chair and waited for her team to arrive.
The slitherbeast's head momentarily brushed against her collarbone.
Somehow, it was one of the most reassuring things Vriska had ever felt in her life.