RavensDagger

  Chapter Eighty - The Fvor of Failure

  "What do you mean?" Ivil asked.

  She wasn't unfamiliar with failure, but it had been some time si had st fvoured her life.

  Aurnced around them. They were in one of the wider corridors linking several stations together. There were some doearby, and Ivil had been uhe impression they were heading that way before Aurora had stopped.

  "This... this not-a-date we're going on," Aurora said as she gestured betweewo of them. "It's a farce."

  "How is it a farce?" Ivil asked. "I am not pretending to be ied in you."

  Aurora scoffed. "As blunt as always, Miss Ville," she said. "But no, that's... that's not what I meant. It's not you who is an issue, it's... it's me."

  "Is this a reje?" Ivil asked.

  "Yes."

  "No," Ivil said. "I'm not sure I want to be rejected."

  Aurora crossed her arms. "I don't think that's how it works."

  "Sure it is," Ivil said. "Why am I beied, exactly?"

  "I told you, it's me, not you." She gestured vaguely in Ivil's dire with a hand. "You have been very... good. Strange, yes, but frank and ho. I would be lucky to find a partner like yourself. I'm certain that Twenty-Six will be a very happy girl."

  "You still haven't expined yourself," Ivil said.

  "I don't want to," she replied.

  Ivil sidered that for a moment. On the one hand, she couldn't force Aurora. Not without harming her and their retionship. Oher hand, "I don't accept that answer," Ivil said slowly, eaeasured.

  "You're being far less romantic when you're so pushy," Aurora warned.

  "A you've decided that romance is over. A choice that I categorically disagree with. Hence, I'd appreciate it if you could expin. What did I d? What I do to fix things? Please?"

  Aurora eyed her for just a moment, but her gaze never met Ivil's. "I said. It's not you Evelyn, it's me. Or my family, I suppose."

  "Then I'll get rid of them," Ivil said.

  Aurora shook her head. "Don't be that way. This isn't a problem you solve with violence."

  Ivil was tempted to be glib and say that there were few problems that couldn't be solved with violence, but she chose not to be so dismissive. Aurora was genuinely ed, and that deserved a genuine reply. "I'm sorry. You might be right. But truly, unicate with me. Please?"

  Aurora might have felt her hoy, or maybe she just wao tell Ivil to begin with and just needed a push. Iher case, she hen looked around them. They were gathering some attention, more for having stopped in a corridor with no signs that they inteo move.

  "e, let's... there's a cafe over there."

  Ivil followed. The cafe was a small space, entirely unworthy of note. Just a rest-stop for uters with a young man behind the ter looking like he despised his work and a small line of people waiting for their drinks.

  They weren't bothered as they took some seats he baext to a row of vending maes. It was cramped and the space smelled like artificial sweeteners and grease, but they sat across from each other anyway.

  Aurora was quiet for a while, then she spoke. "I want to be angry at you, you know? But... we had these courses on Phobos, for the young nobility. I think half the kids there slept through them but I loved those csses. They were on psychology."

  Ivil nodded.

  "Anyway. They mentiohat when you do something to harm someohere's a defence meism that activate in your mind. A trick of the brain. It looks for reasons to make it so that you bme the other for your own faults. It's something we were told to watch out for in our subordinates, because that might cause them to report things incorrectly. We were aught to apply that reasoning to ourselves."

  Aurora locked her lips and finally met Ivil's eyes.

  "I want to bme you for my problems, Evelyn, even if I know it's nht."

  "I don't mind, not that much," Ivil said.

  "Hmm, maybe that makes you a better person than me."

  "I very truly doubt that," Ivil replied. She carefully reached across the table and ed a hand over Aurora's. "What is it?"

  Aurora looked at their hands for a moment before replying. "I'm not on this diplomatic mission because... my parents wao be. In fact, my family is very much opposed to it. The Sterlingworth family is on a dee and has been for some time. My uhe heir, is... a fop. He wasted away a lot of the money and prestige that my grandparents earned. My own parents are better, but not by too much. I think I've heard this referred to as the three geion problem?"

  "I'm familiar," Ivil said. It art of an old proverb. The first geion of a family would make the wealth, the sed would spend it, and the third would see none of it. In this case, Aurora was that third geion.

  "Well, a solution to that problem is tying the Sterlingworth's to another family or two. I have a cousin who did just that. She married into one of the other noble families around Phobos."

  "Happily?" Ivil asked.

  "Killed herself a year ter."

  "Ah."

  Aurora shrugged. "I don't want that for myself. So when I saportunity, I took it. If I establish myself as a valuable diplomat for Phobos, then I'm set. That was my thinking."

  "It seems reasonable."

  "It's not. It's stupid, wishful thinking. No matter how valuable I am as a diplomat, that value is personal. It's not tied back to the family except taially. It won't be enough to escape the stant push to be married. Worse, if the family decides that my stant refusal is too mud they cut ties, then I'm... screwed, for ck of a better term."

  "And this prevents us from being a thing... how?"

  "Because even if I do find your pany quite enjoyable, and your brute charm somewhat endearing, you aren't a Phobian noble. My family wouldn't accept this. There's no political value in being with you, so it would be wasted."

  Ivil blinked.

  Well, there was one simple solution to this.

  "Aurora. There is not a single person around Mars that has more political strength than I do. So please, let's go to this dance where you amaze some fools with your wit and I'll amaze them by having you on my arm, and then we tinue and see where this all takes us."

  Aurora smiled slightly. "You're strong, I'll grant you that, and maybe that would be enough, but personal strength isn't everything."

  "It's a lot though, especially when you reach the top."

  Aurora sifted. "I suppose one dance couldn't hurt."

  Such a simple sentence shouldn't have been enough to light a supernova in Ivil's chest, but it was, and that burning star only grew brighter when Aurora spared her a smile. It was one part sad, but many more parts hopeful.

  She stood, theended a hand to Aurora who took it.

  They both casually ighe wage sve who remihem that they couldn't use the cafe without paying for something as they walked out towards the dog bay across the station.

  Aurora seemed determined not to talk about anything important as they found their way to a well-guarded dock leading to a pleasure yacht. A s by some guards and they were let into the yacht. It was rge, even by the standards of Phobian nobility, with elegant curves and wide windows aff a view of Callisto below and the stars beyond.

  "No more running," Ivil said ohey were doh the pleasantries of meeting the busybodies that lingered by the entrance. "One dance."

  "One dance," Aurreed.

  There were already a few sparse couples occupying the ballroom floor. Ivil pced a hand on Aurora's waist, gently, but firmly, holding her close. For a moment, they just stood there, but then Aurora pced a hand on Ivil's shoulder, and took the first step.

  Ivil smiled, and with a small push from Aurora, they began to move. Slowly at first, both unsure, but gradually their steps fell into a rhythm, the world outside spuly, stars slipping by and strangers staring, but none of that mattered.

  Aurora rested her head against Ivil's shoulder, and Ivil's breath was filled with the st of her perfume. She found herself... not speechless, but unwilling to speak.

  For now, nothing truly o be said.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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