After the careful surgical extrication of Aria's foot from the stygian depths of her thrice-damned mouth, she was corralled into one of the nice conference rooms. They were reserved for senior command, and someone at her rank would only ever be in there if it were for an extremely thorough dressing down, or if she'd seen the kind of thing colloquially referred to by the rank and file of the Admiralty in hushed tones as an "embarrassing incident".

As she did her best not to stare too much at the woman lounging lazily in the chair across the table from her, Aria wondered if perhaps she now qualified as an embarrassing incident in and of herself.

"So. A-ri-a, Ros-to-va, Chen." The woman speak each syllable as though she hadn't used her mouth in a few decades and was trying to remember where she'd put all her teeth. "You hold a very interesting name."

"I get it from both my parents in equal measure, Honoured Immortal."

"Well, that explains what you're doing all the way out here." She lazily flicked her wrist, and Aria had to make a conscious effort not to flinch at the gesture. "No matter. You filed a suspicion of conspiracy." It wasn't a question.

"I did, Honoured Immortal. I stand by it."

"According to you, someone wanted to destroy Dawnbreaker."

Aria took a moment to collect herself. She wanted to choose her words carefully. A misunderstanding could prove troublesome for her.

"Upon further consideration, I feel that given the obvious and preventable nature of the sabotage, they had not intended to destroy Dawnbreaker. Merely disable it for a period of time."

Something subtly changed in the immortal's posture. A near-imperceptible shift, but Aria picked up on it; she was actually paying attention to her now. Aria didn't know if she liked the feeling.

"And why would someone wish to do such a thing?"

"I would dare not presume in the presen-"

"If you call me 'Honourable Immortal' one more time, I'm going to rip your tongue out."

"…I would dare not presume before someone who is undoubtedly far more abreast of circumstances than me."

"Presume all you wish, child." The immortal sighed. "Sincerely, do. I frankly do not give the slightest fuck if you get it right or wrong. Just be interesting. So far you're the only one who has been."

Aria steadied her nerves with a deep breath, before speaking in a uniform, measured tone. "Originally I would've said a border conflict. A territorial bid from a faction within the Conclave would be possible, and while establishing a presence of terrestrial forces is an unorthodox tactic it's by no means a new or novel one."

"Your presence here eliminates that theory. The Monastery doesn't intervene in mortal politics, and an Inner Disciple is far too valuable to send scrambling for a sabotage report."

"You would think so," the immortal rolled her eyes, "And yet."

Aria paused for a second, contemplating her next move. She wasn't stupid, of course. She understood what this was. The woman was taking her measure. Toying with her. The question was, what was she looking for?

Aria's mind went back to the first thing she'd ever heard the woman say.

I would so very much like to see you try that, little firebrand.

"I would think so. Because it's true. I'm not important enough to be worth your time. No one here is. Which means you're not here because of any of us. You're here because someone very far away is being a pain in your nose."

"I dislike when people presume things about me. Unless of course, they get it right." The woman smiled, It didn't reach her eyes.

"Monastery cultivators don't interfere in the affairs of mortals, as a matter of course. The only exceptions are in matters of their descendants, or something to do with one of the Great Houses, which are more often than not the same thing. Even then, immortality be damned, mundane problems wouldn't be enough to compel you to be sitting here with me."

Also, the woman seemed like if someone propositioned her for "making descendants", she'd tear their hopes of a legacy off right then and there with her bare hands, but Aria wasn't gonna say that out loud.

"Don't sell yourself short," the woman grinned. "You've been the most enjoyable part of my time here, so far. But no, I would not have come here just for the conversation."

"Your presence here is also…" Aria groped blindly for the least offensive word she could find, "Prominent. The matter at hand is obviously a sensitive one, otherwise your arrival would've been dressed in considerably more pomp and circumstance, but whoever is bothering you clearly can't wait that long. They need you to handle the matter delicately, but quickly…"

Pieces started coming together in Aria's mind. Seemingly disparate, but the more she thought about it, the more the big picture all fit together.

Unfortunately, as much as she didn't want it to, the final piece slid into place.

"It's either Rostov or Lance."

The woman gestured for Aria to continue, but she saw the glimmer of intrigue in the cultivator's eyes.

"I know you're here on behalf of one of the Great Houses," Aria carefully avoided using words like "we".

"Whatever favours they had to burn to get you to handle this, they wouldn't have squandered it on anything as pedestrian as money. Something money can't buy, something they can't afford to lose, and something they can't afford for anyone to know they lost."

"Furthermore, it's something that was tied to Dawnbreaker's sabotage. Something so small it could be inconspicuously moved in, or more likely out, on a vessel small enough not to rouse the suspicion of lower-resolution surveillance. Which means small enough a single individual could carry it on their person without strain." She'd had to learn the ins and outs of smuggling logistics and economics as part of her qualification exam to become a SupTech. That was the only reason why. No other reasons whatsoever.

"There's only two things in the mortal world that can fit that much value in that small of a package. The first, is, of course, knowledge. Information in the wrong hands is dangerous. In the right hands? Cataclysmic."

"The other is a cultivation elixir. And given that both House Rostov and House Lance have managed to find a golden princeling to rally behind as their tribute to the Monastery, I think the most likely reason for your presence is that one of them had their hope of the clan's bright future struck out from under them by common thieves. You're here to retrieve it, and do it without anyone finding out they lost it to begin with, to keep them from losing face or seeming weak. Ma'am. That would be my educated guess."

"You're a very educated young woman then, firebrand. So, tell me, as someone quite educated in the native criminal element — don't worry, I won't tell — where would you have me look for my thieves? I'd tell you the sort I'm in search of, but I think you know better than I do."

Aria most certainly did, and it made her stomach drop just thinking about it. So she very deliberately didn't.

"They needed Dawnbreaker to be down for 12 hours. For a wilderness rendezvous, that's just barely a comfortable margin for reentry, landing, heatshield replenishment, boarding, liftoff, and escape. If they missed their ride out, they'll have gone to ground somewhere close by where they can try to secure a different route offworld, or reschedule the pickup. If they had enough pull to try something like this, chances are they're holed up somewhere nice, but discreet. You won't find them in the usual dens. The Aurora Hotel, in sector B-3 of Arborhaven, is a good place to start. Ma'am."

The old cultivator finally stood from her chair, and walked up to Aria, and suddenly she realized just how imposing the woman's stature was. A gloved hand came to rest upon her breast, but just the woman's gaze had her pinned in place, paralyzed.

"Your reward, for being the only entertaining part of this little trip so far."

Aria suddenly felt Radiance against her skin. Not the thin, barely noticeable, almost hallucinatory wisps of energy she'd grasped before, but the feeling of a midday sun, focused, concentrated, until it threatened to singe and sear. She began cycling Nascent Tides, almost on reflex, unwilling to let go of such a generous bounty of power being simply handed to her.

Only as her inner world filled with the energy did she realize what she'd done. The Radiance refused to move in accordance with her intent. It had a will of its own. Or rather, it was being governed by the will of the woman standing in front of her.

"When you get to my age, burned channels are a bit like broken bones. Get to it quick, splint it right, and it'll get better in time on its own. Let it set wrong…and you'll have to break it again before you can set it right."

Pain.

Incandescent, all-consuming.

Aria's world was pain, and nothing but pain.

She would have nightmares about this pain. She thought she remembered it well enough through them. She couldn't have begun to imagine how wrong she was.

Consciousness left her. She no longer existed as a physical being. She was simply an awareness bobbing around in an ocean of agony.

The pain lasted for a single, soul-searing moment. Not the weeks that it had plagued her before. It passed, and in its wake…

Aria gasped. Again, she cycled Nascent Tides, on pure reflex. Every time the Radiance flowed through the channels in her left arm, it sent a jolt of metaphysical pain into her mind. Like poking a tender bruise. But the energy flowed through them. It didn't just bounce off anymore.

She could've wept for joy, had the moment not been interrupted by a scoff from the mysterious woman standing before her. "Are you cycling what I think you're…oh that's embarrassing, stop that."

Aria didn't want to. She hadn't felt so…complete in years. But she had the presence of mind not to disobey a woman who could turn her into smoke with a thought.

"That technique is trash. Not bad enough to damage your cultivation, but that just means it's not worse than nothing. Where did you even find that garbage? That miserable little dirt hovel's 'cultivation library' was so pathetic none of us even bothered taking any copies back to the sect. We burnt it to the ground once we were done killing the disciples and evacuating the acolytes."

"A thousand apologies, Hono -- ma'am. It's what I have. I will strive to find something better."

The woman tsk'd, before reaching into…thin air, and producing a pair of small, flat, glass plates, roughly the length and width of a finger. Aria recognized them, of course. High-density data plates, the internal crystalline structure was laser-etched in three dimensions for data storage. Non-rewriteable and immune to bit rot, thermal shock, oxidation, or vibrations, as well as deceptively difficult to scratch or break, they were perfect for cold backups of massive amounts of data, though the Admiralty generally used much larger ones for their archives.

"You can have them if you promise never to remind me of that embarrassment ever again. Consider it compensation for your cooperation."

Aria nodded fervently, "You'll never see me using it again, I promise. Thank you, ma'am."

The woman rolled her eyes, "Please, just call me Sir Volkova. I loathe obsequience."

"Sir Volkova. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart." Aria tried and failed to choke back tears. "I don't have the words to express how much this means to me."

"You don't have to." For a moment, Volkova's eyes softened. The weight of lifetimes remained, but it was more…weary. Gentle. Understanding. It disappeared as quickly as it came. "You intrigue me, little firebrand. Enough for me to take some risks on you. Keep being interesting, and who knows what I might bring your way." Her tone was equal parts promise and threat, and something about it sent a chill up Aria's spine.

"Now, hurry along and tell Lance I got what I came for. The man's been pacing incessantly back and forth in his office since your little insubordination incident in the training deck, and it's driving me up the wall."

Before Aria could ask how she knew this, or point out that Commander Lance's office was on the opposite end of the facility, two floors up, and 53 meters away from where they were standing, with several meters of reinforced steel and vitrified regolith between them, Volkova was simply…gone. One moment she was there, the next she wasn't. Gone in the blink of an eye, except Aria hadn't blinked, nor moved. Volkova had simply ceased to be where she once was, and whatever manner of technique she'd used to do so was something Aria simply couldn't even begin to see as she was.

Very intently determining that she had no Goddamn clue what the fuck had just happened, Aria gently placed the data plates inside of one of her jumpsuit's inner pockets, did a textbook marching ground about-face, and trotted along to Commander Vance's office. She would convey Sir Volkova's missive, as was of course her duty, and the responsible thing to do.

And then she would sprint full bore to her quarters as fast as her body would carry her, something that took a concentrated effort of will not to do right that second.

Nascent Tides was an utterly mediocre cultivation technique, she knew that, but it had given her hope for many years. Unfortunately, she'd learned long ago that hope only got you so far.

Apparently, it was bold-faced audacity that took you the rest of the way.