galvarelli/calvin-meet-yakaterina.txt

Yakaterina sat at her dining table in her kitchen, and poured two cups of tea.
The Heresiarch's hair was long, and he marked the long curls around her ears.
Traitor to the republic, and her prison cell was still nicer than many could afford.
Calvin stood stiffly at the entrance to the kitchen until she gestured for him to sit down.
He slowly lowered himself on the chair and gave her a stony stare, but she only sipped at her cup and gave him a polite smile back.
The tea's vibrant, grassy aroma seemed to curl around his nose, and he had begun to reach for his own cup before catching himself.
He couldn't let himself fall into the trap of falling for the façade of normalcy she wanted this meeting to have.

―You're stuck in this cell for a reason, he said.

―Of course, Your Excellency. The Suppression of our Flocks by your predecessors, she said, smile unchanged.

Calvin stood suddenly.

―It was a mistake coming here.

She'd been right about the voices coming from the hair, though.
And as far as he knew, she'd been right about the book, infuriatingly enough.
He sat back down.

―Fine, I'll accept your help.

She raised an eyebrow, and if anything her smile widened.

―Your Excellency, simply ask and I'd be happy to oblige.

―Heresiarch Yakaterina, I need your help. We need your help. You were right about the hair.

She dropped her smile and set the mug down.

―Well of course I was, I don't make a habit of being wrong.
	Nor will I make a habit of replying to people who can't address me properly.

Calvin groaned internally.

―Could you tell me what you know?
	We think whatever's happening is spreading.
	Old Imperial is struggling to do anything besides sedating the people who can't sleep, and it's clear that it's related to the Meadowlark in some way.

―Nonsense, it's not related to the Meadowlark at all. 

―It's talking hair, of course it's related to some sort of magic.

Annoyance flitted across her face.

―Calvin, the Meadowlark isn't some non-existent magic.
	You've seen what the Hierarchy can do.

―Fine, but the hair isn't just ordinary hair, right?
	Is it at least related to why the Flocks have been growing more violent?
	Or is that your doing again, trying to attack the Republic?

She stared icily at him.

―I believe, President Calvin, that you were asking me for help.
	Nasty slurs like that won't get you anything.
	
	It's not the Meadowlark itself, but something else is attacking the Meadowlark.
	It doesn't feel like something from Dwarves, or even other Beasts.
	The Aery might be able to do something like this, but if the Aery wanted to attack us it wouldn't be this subtle.

She closed her eyes and hummed, pensive.

―As you can see, she said, opening her eyes again, I've kept my hair long, listening out for the New Voice.
	I think it's clever enough to avoid coming to me at all.
	The trick with the notebook worked, right?

Calvin nodded.

―That means whatever's causing it has to be close enough to maintain enough control to choose who hears it.
	And they have to have enough control to react to the notebook, otherwise they'd have targeted the government.

―Will I be safe to leave the notebook, then?

―No Calvin, you have no skill with the Meadowlark.
	Although, hm.

She sat for a moment, before reaching for a notebook on the kitchen counter behind her, writing something down and tearing the page out.

―Take this to Auroklos, and he'll give you a book.
	You should at least get familiar with the Meadowlark, if you'll be any help at all in saving it.

―Why would I want to save it?

―Whatever's attacking us is here to attack all yaks, so if you care about your little Republic, you should focus your attention on this.

Calvin folded the page in four, and tucked it in his bag.

―Should I get more notebooks for the rest of my staff?

―One or two at most, but if you do too many, you'll risk drawing them out to do something more drastic.

―At least then we'll be able to fight whatever it is.

Yakaterina leaned forward on the table.

―Our enemy is attacking the Meadowlark itself, one of the Great Voices.
	Again, we have to assume they won't be strong enough to do it over a great distance, meaning they're nearby.
	If they're strong enough to control this attack like this from afar, we have no hope.
	But even otherwise, someone very powerful is in our midst, probably even in the city, and are strong enough to attack on the scale of cities.
	For someone to be able to try to subvert one of the Voices, it's not a single strong connection to the Meadowlark, it's not even a group.
	Even all the Telaugurs at their peak, working in unison, couldn't affect hair like this.

Calvin felt a shiver run down his spine.

―Is this related to the farm animals at all, then?

Yakaterina chuckled, and her solemn posture relaxed.

―Of course not, they're Unvoiced.
	Is that the sort of trash that gets peddled by Auroklos without me there to correct him?
	Or no, he'd be too weak to say no if you told him to stop preaching against them.

―You're right, he had too much decency to continue that sort of horrible talk, Calvin said, slightly snarling.

Yakaterina gave Calvin a particularly ugly smile.

―Well Calvin, don't let me stop you from falling in love with those Ottawan pets.
	But no, they have no influence on the Voices.
	The Hidden Lands only respond to those who belong here, and they can only visit.
	Whatever is going on with the Flocks, it's likely just sleeplessness from the New Voice, and poverty and pain from what your government has done to them.

―Then is our only option to look for whatever entity is causing it? Assuming they're in the Haven, I mean.

―No, you wouldn't do so subtly enough.
	I suggest you guard yourself from other dangers.
	The paper mentioned a group of citizens stepping in during the riots.
	What do you know of them?

―It's some sort of new Flock, calling themselves the New Meadowlark.
	They seem to be practicing the Meadowlark without the hatred of the farm animals.
	They helped keep the peace when the City Garrison shirked their responsibility.

The Heresiarch's eyes narrowed, and questions seemed to come out of her mouth all at once.
―They practice the Meadowlark in what way?
	Do they hear the New Voice?
	Can they understand it?

―That's all unclear to me.
	They haven't seemed like any kind of threat as far as I know.
	All we know is what they told us after the riot, from the few that were arrested.

―Dammit Calvin, that's the point.
	How did your intelligence miss a Flock that could organise this quickly, respond to a riot this quickly?

―I'm not my predecessors.
	We don't suppress or monitor the Meadowlark Flocks.

―Well, I hope you feel comfortable with that decision.
	Don't worry about the real Flocks, they are harmless.
	You need to understand this new group, and figure out what they're doing.
	Figure out what it means when they say they're practicing the Meadowlark.

―Yakaterina, I can't ignore the Flocks.
	They're threatening the Barns, they're threatening my Guard.

―Calvin, the New Voice is an existential threat.
	Either the New Meadowlark is related, or it isn't, but we simply cannot take any chances.
	You can't worry about some local issue with the Unvoiced.

Calvin tried his best to regain his scowling advantage over her.
She rolled her eyes and scribbled another message in her notebook, which she tore out and handed to him.

―Give this to Auroklos, he'll know it's a message from me and will try to enforce it from within.
	Maybe he'll be able to help out with your little City Garrison issue.
	And maybe you should try to take it as a sign to focus on the Voiced in the future.
	We're the ones with the stone hooves, who shaped the mountains and flattened the plains.

This kind of nonsense marked the end of Calvin's interest in this meeting.
He stood, and started to leave the kitchen.
After a moment, he paused, and asked

―If you hate the Republic so much, why have you tried to help me?
	In the past, you barely blinked an eye at inciting violence.

She looked at Calvin, and he was forced to notice how steady her eyes were.

―It's simple, Your Excellency.
	I wish to scrap the government that attacked the Flocks, and put the Hierarchy back above all Galvarelli.
	I can't do that if someone's destroyed both the Hierarchy and all of Galvarelli while I'm rotting here in this prison.

Calvin nodded, and left.

Outside, he told the prison guards to resume their post outside the door, and headed to the chamber where Nikki was waiting.
They began to walk towards Havenmount.

―Anything useful?, she asked.

―Yes, we'll need to arrange a meeting with Auroklos.
	She seems to think he can be convinced to do more to end the rioting.

―That was it? Nikki asked.

Nikki seemed almost hopeful, Calvin thought.
Unsurprising, given that she possibly thought less of the old Heresiarch than Calvin did.

―No. She suggested a deeper investigation into the New Meadowlark.

―Should I send that over to the Justice Secretary?

―June's competent enough, but she'll need to keep it contained.
	Either have her do it herself, or tell her to pass the orders directly onto whoever's doing the work.
	I don't know whether we should worry about leaving a paper trail either.

―Great, well she hates transparency anyway.

Calvin stopped walking.

―One more thing, Nikki.
	This might sound odd, but you'll need to grab a blank notebook and keep it with you at all times.
	If you hear whatever the Voice is coming from your hair, you need to drop everything you're doing, and write down what it says, as it says.
	I know it's strange, but I think it's important.
	Can you do that?

Nikki stared blankly for a moment, but realisation seemed to break across her face.

―That's what that notebook you've been carrying around was? I've been wondering.

―Yakaterina wrote me a letter a few months ago, predicting this.
	She said it's possible that people will forget what they hear, and by writing down what it says we'll be able to better track what it's actually trying to do.
	And even better, it seems like it doesn't want to be tracked, and has avoided me entirely.

―That seems to suggest it's trying to do something?
	Is this something intelligent?
	I assumed just, some contagious parasite or something.

―Yakaterina is scared, very scared.
	And that means we should be too.