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[use_everything]

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[failureisntachoice]

[ Wait. Did he just say yes? She stares for a moment, caught in shock.

Once she finds enough of her voice, she murmurs, ] I didn't think it was any of those things. [ Then more loudly, ] Nothing in my life has fallen that way.

There's a reason why I came to talk to you and Gregor once I realized what had happened.

[use_everything]

You are uncommonly considerate, yes.

[failureisntachoice]

[ She snorts. ] Telepathic links aren't exactly common.

[use_everything]

Completely impossible in my own world.

[He lifts an open palm.] I had meant in general.

[failureisntachoice]

[ She shrugs. ] I've dealt with something similar before. I know I appreciate the privacy and the lack of barging in unnanounced.

[use_everything]

A less agreeable experience?

[failureisntachoice]

You could say that. It was part of what made the military project I was in so experimental.

[use_everything]

Your complicated gentleman, again?

[failureisntachoice]

No, someone worse. [ The name Omega bleeds through the link for only a brief second, eclipsed with a flash of red, hot aggression that she suppresses and pulls back even further from him. ]

It's a long story.

[use_everything]

[That sensation was familiar, and it stills Aral, both on the link and the man across from her seems to scarcely breathe for half a second.]

I trust if it becomes an issue, you would let us know.

[failureisntachoice]

[ Could she trust them to help her with that? Her frown deepens as she watches him for a moment before letting her gaze drift to the side. ]

He's not here, so unless the porter is feeling particularly malevolent towards me, it won't be one.

[use_everything]

[It certainly did not escape him that it was not a yes, and as she had pulled away at that memory of Omega, he did here as well, shuttering to a mere distant presence. His expression remains even though, the nod graceful. After all, it is not as though they had given HER reason to trust.]

Just so.

I have faith in your ability to keep up with Miles, as much as I believe it may try even your tactical acumen.

[failureisntachoice]

[ It's less a matter a trust and more a complex history that she hasn't tried to explain to anyone from home, much less people she's met here. The last time she tried to get rid of the asshole AI, she had gotten a friend killed in the process.

But that's nothing here nor there and she keeps her complicated mess behind her, out of sight. That's a burden no one but herself needs to deal with.

Dryly, ] Glad you trust me that far. I have experience with kids his age even if they haven't been as energetic.

[use_everything]

[There's a wry sort of humor in return.]

He could hardly move at all most of his life thus far. I always assumed it would even out.

[Of course, they'd both met 'adult' Miles.]

[failureisntachoice]

[ She snorts. ]

Yeah, too bad he just keeps cranking it up. At least I have a better way to keep tabs on him now.

[use_everything]

I'd have appreciated precognosis rather than telepathy in his case, but it's serviceable.

[failureisntachoice]

[ She sighs. ]

I can imagine. How bad is he when he's older?

[use_everything]

Ah... that you know as much about that as I do. Cordelia has mentioned some things that has made me wonder if it simply keeps rocketing upwards.

[failureisntachoice]

I meant over the link. I don't need to know more about his future than he does.

[use_everything]

Hm. [He opens his hand, acknowledging the error.] The volume is the same, the content subdued.

[failureisntachoice]

At least I can't get headaches. [ It's a light grumble and she lets out a small sigh. ] I'm still not sure what I want to do about this whole link business, but I appreciate you explaining it better.

[use_everything]

The links are wholly new and... role quite undefined. Though, though it pleases me to think you would be the first female armsman Barrayar has seen. [The first one knowingly sworn, like stories of women dressing as men to join the wars, there were the occasional tale of a lady so taken with patriotism to her lord, skirts were discarded and hair was shorn.]

... Though, I would implore you, knowing what it means now, as well as I can present it. If you decide to remove it, do it while he is still young.

[failureisntachoice]

[ That causes her to completely freeze. That was the opposite of what she'd been planning. ]

You're joking, right? I can't talk to him seriously about this while he's a kid.

[use_everything]

Stone serious. As a child, when he returns to an adult, he will have innumerable reasons to rationalize why you, an able bodied and capable armsman, would leave his service. There is his age, not understanding his seriousness, Gregor also being young and quite overwhelmed with other links...

But when he is an able and capable lord, and you are an able and capable armsman, that changes the field significantly.

[failureisntachoice]

So you're saying I have an indeterminate amount of time to make this decision. And what if I wait? It sounds like I only need Gregor's permission to take care of the oath part.