Ark was on his own. Having left backup behind, he stepped up to face his opponent. The scattered sounds of utensils clattered in the background, accompanied by the din of conversation, as the mess hall was alive with the motions of the evening meal. It was as soothing as a scratchy song to his nerves.
Coming to a halt before one of the tables in the mess, he spoke without preamble. “Can we talk?”
Rex looked up at him with her brown eyes full of certain expectation. She had seen him coming from a mile away, he was sure, from the very moment he stepped into the mess hall. “Sure,” she said, giving him a crooked smile as she waved at an empty chair opposite her, “Have a seat.”
Ark made no move to take it. He knew a power play when he saw one. Instead, he nodded at her companion and said, “Alone?”
Jenson gave Ark a death glare, his knuckles turning white around his knife and fork. Rex, one the other hand, widened her smile slightly, tilting her head slightly as she studied him. Then she turned to Jenson and said, “Do you mind?”
“Nah,” Jenson said, gathering up his tray while keeping his eyes locked on Ark, “I’ve lost my appetite anyway.” He stood up and marched away, leaving Ark alone with the predator in front of him.
Only then did Ark sit down in front of Rex, leaning back for effect. He needed to be relaxed and casual. “You’ve got him on a tight leash, I see.”
Her eyes danced with delight, as she returned as hard as she got. “So do you with yours.” Noticeably, her eyes wandered off over his shoulder, to someone sitting behind Ark; someone who was probably trying, and failing, to keep his big eyes from their meeting.
Unable to hold back his emotions, Ark felt bile rising in his throat at her words. A taste of his own medicine, right back in his face. He controlled himself and—managing a tight smile—said, “There’s no need for a leash among friends.”
Raising her palms, Rex said, “Then we are in agreement. Now, Ark—“ She stopped herself, her eyes dancing across Ark’s features with calculation “—do you mind if I call you Ark?”
Taken aback by her question, Ark knew he had lost all initiative in the conversation. Attempting to regain it was futile right now, so he played to her tune. “Sure, I’ve got no last name for you to call me by.”
“I know,” Rex said, nodding to herself, “But it’s polite to ask. Rex is my last name, in case you’re wondering, but I prefer to be called that anyway.” She offered that tidbit for free, leveling the playing field between them.
“So,” she said, leaning forward, “For what do I owe the honor of your company, Ark?”
Circling the point, Ark tried to feint. “You seemed interested in swapping information, the day we met. Are you?”
“Perhaps…” She said, noncommittally, “I have questions, sure. Some of them I’ve already found the answers to. Some have been annoyingly difficult to dredge up from the sewage that is your past.”
Ark was not entirely sure if that was an insult. The words certainly were, but her tone affected boredom, tinged with a slight edge of annoyance. Thinking it was his chance, Ark leaped at the opening. “Then I propose an exchange, a question for a questio—“
Her hand stopped him dead. The gesture was as clear a refusal as any words she might have said. Even now, her eyes were like scanners, extracting every hint of information from his face and body language.
“Why—” she started saying, keeping her tone level and as bored as ever, “—would I exchange information with someone who might not make it onto the team in the end?”
It was a devastating blow. Ark felt it all the way in his toes, as she hit him in the head with seasoned pragmatism. Here it was, the one issue he had to get around if he wanted her attention. He needed to matter.
“We are going to make the team,” he said with a confidence that he plastered onto his face, “And when we do, you are going to want to be on good terms with us.”
“Why?” She repeated, still looking as bored as ever.
Tapping the side of his head, Ark kept his tone steady. There would be no second chances if he screwed this up. “You’ve never worked with a mindweaver, have you? I can do a lot for our team communications and intelligence gathering.”
She shrugged. “I’m strong. Those things are for the weak.”
“Not if you want to be the leader of the team,” Ark said, throwing out his biggest piece of bait.
Her response was the most predatory smile he had seen on a young woman outside of the Maze. “You’ve got my attention.”
“If we make the team, I will use my skills to help you,” Ark said, keeping himself from speaking too quickly. She might know he was desperate, but there was no point in showing it. “If you agree to swap information now, both Mino and I will back you as team leader, and we’ll support you fully to make the riftrun a success, without holding anything back.”
Tapping the table, she tilted her head back and forth a few times, then gave him a nod. “Alright, that’s what we call a win-win. Or a you-lose-I-still-win, in case you don’t make the team.” She smiled, leaning back. “And I’m not giving you a pass when the two of you try team fighting again—no point in having weaklings on the team.”
“Understood,” Ark said, swallowing his breath of relief, “In return, can I have the first question?”
“Sure. I’m the generous type,” she gestured expansively at herself, grinning.
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“Right. So, what’s Jenson’s problem?” Ark said, throwing his first question out for her interpretation.
“That’s your first question.” She raised an eyebrow at him, then shrugged and said, “I guess know your enemy, and all that. Alright, Mark has two problems, as far as I know. The first is his family—which are a bunch of dicks—and the second is that he likes to know the pecking order. You coming into our training upsets that.”
“How?” Ark said, furrowing his brow.
She raised a finger, wagging it back and forth. “Ah, ah, ah,” she said, in tune with the movement, “That’s a new question. I get mine first.”
“Fine,” Ark muttered, disappointed.
Rex pursed her lips, clearly thinking on what line of questioning she should pursue first. Finally, she said, “How did you manage to take Alistor’s powers at full strength?”
Ark had expected this, and had his answer ready. Doug already knew some of the answer, so he might as well tell her himself. “I’m as close to immune to psionic mind attacks as I think is possible,” Ark began, deciding to offer her a little more, since she had answered his question in two parts. “The drawback is that I can’t sense psions at all, much less use them.”
“And that’s why you’re a mindweaver instead.” She nodded, opened her mouth to ask a follow up, then smiled and said, “Your turn.”
“How does Mino and me arriving upset the pecking order? We’re clearly at the bottom-rung anyway.”
Rex snorted and laughed. “I think it’s a boy’s thing. Mark was pretty intent on placing himself above Ran, and then you come along and he has to establish himself all over again—something like that. I won’t pretend to understand it, so I think you’ve wasted your question.”
Shrugging, Ark disagreed internally. No need to tell her.
“Alright, my turn. Who trained you?”
This was a harder question to answer, Ark knew. He suspected she was good at spotting lies, so he mixed in as much truth as he dared. “I’m self-taught,” he said, “We grew up in Respite. The Governess has books from before Operation Moonfall, enough to get me started.”
It was not exactly a lie. His instruction in mindweaving had mostly been through text books and simple hands-on experience. That it had not happened in Respite was beside the point.
Seemingly satisfied, she nodded. “Plausible. Even I know the Iron Ogre, and if anyone in Lowtown would just have a library of old mindweaver textbooks lying about, I guess it would be her. That doesn’t explain the military grade netlink you’ve got, though.”
Mimicking her from before, Ark wagged his finger back and forth. “My turn.”
Rolling her eyes, she threw up her hands. “Fine, shoot.”
“If Jenson is that obsessed with the pecking order, why does he willingly follow you around?” Ark could not help himself. He was curious about that part, although he doubted it would be useful information for him.
Rex just shrugged. “Because I beat him within an inch of his life when he tried that shit on me,” she said, then parted her lips in a smile, “And I’m a girl. He’s not that competitive with either me or Naomi. You, though, he’ll make sure to put you in your place.”
“That seems a bit…” Ark was not even sure what to make of that.
“What? Sexist?” Rex laughed. “I don’t mind, as long as it is to my advantage. You boys can go ahead and have your dick-measuring contest—as long as I get to be in charge in the end.”
“And that’s all that matters?” Ark said, sighing at the pragmatism at play.
“Yup—I’m giving you that one for free,” she said with a wink. “Alright, I think this will be my final question for now. How did you pay to get into the guild?”
Ark weighed lying, but it seemed unnecessary. Leaning forward, he beckoned Rex closer. With an eyebrow raised, she obliged him, until she was close enough that Ark could smell the faint scent of lemon from her hair, mixed with a hint of sweat from training.
“We sold a rift egg,” he said, voice as low as possible.
Her eyes widening in surprise was worth telling the truth. She went from bewildered to suspicious, and finally contemplative. “I see,” she said, leaning back in her seat, “Got a final question for me?”
“I’ll save it,” Ark decided, “Once we’ve proved that we can be on the team, I’ll come back for another round, deal?” He held out his hand to her, observing her closely.
“Deal,” she said without hesitation and took his hand, shaking it firmly. Her hand was rough and calloused, but surprisingly gentle in his grasp. Neither forceful or overpowering, she concluded the handshake, before picking up her tray and getting to her feet.
“I’ll see you around, Ark. Good luck on your training.” Then she was off.
Ark leaned back in his chair and felt his exhaustion. The conversation had taken it’s toll on him, aside from the bad condition his body was already in.
Let’s hope it was good enough, he thought, closing his eyes.
----------------------------------------
“So?” Mino said, when Ark walked back to where he had been sitting during his conversation with Rex. “Do you think it worked?”
“Maybe,” Ark said, biting his lip, “But she’s clever. I think she figured out I wanted to distract her.”
“So it didn’t work,” Mino said, downtrodden.
“No, I think it did.” Ark nodded to himself, considering the conversation he had just had. “Her curiosity is sated, for now. I don’t think she’ll see the need to call on Doug for more information.”
“And Doug? Don’t we need to talk to him?”
Ark shook his head. “No. He’s not loyal to Rex, or anything like that. Remember how open he was about spying to us? That works both ways, I think. If we don’t tell him anything, he has nothing to report. If she doesn’t call on him, then he won’t tell her anything. It’s sorta like that, see?”
It was the kind of mind games that Ark remembered from the Maze. Brutal politics among adolescents who were more than happy to harm one another for an advantage. Without that knowledge, Ark might have done as Mino had suggested, and went straight to Doug, asking him to stay quiet of the weapon. It was the same as telling someone to ‘not look in that box’.
Of course, they would have to look, and as soon as Doug learned of the weapon, he would tell Rex about it the next time she wanted information from him. Now, hopefully, she had no need to do that. At least not for a couple of days. Ark hoped it would be enough.
“So, now what?” Mino said, finishing the meal he had left more or less untouched while observing Ark’s conversation.
“Now we go to the archives, just as planned. Mallis promised to tell us what he has in mind, soon. I’m hoping it will be tonight.”
“Or it will be never,” Mino said, frowning, “What if he doesn’t have a solution, and he’s just using us?”
It was probably the third time that Mino had opened up this argument over the last couple of days, and Ark could not blame him for it. Their situation was not improving, and time was running out. They needed a solution, and quick.
“Just a little longer, Mino. If he doesn’t give us anything before the break, I promise we’ll stop and try something else.”
Mino swallowed his food and looked at Ark, his big eyes full of understanding. It was a terrible thing to behold the trust that Ark felt in those eyes, a trust he felt he was failing daily.
“I believe in you, Ark,” he said.
Ark felt that very belief was the heaviest weight he carried, and was desperate to prove himself worthy of it. If only feelings were enough, he thought.