Still smiling, Eurybia extended a hand for Tritogenes to shake, taking the role of the social senior. He let it slide; she was his senior in experience, after all.
Enyalios remained seated, and Tritogenes greeted him first with a respectful nod while he was still a step away from Eurybia. A flicker of annoyance crossed Eurybia's face, but nothing more. His greeting to Enyalios only lasted a few seconds and he turned back to Eurybia with a smile he tried very hard to produce genuinely. He extended a hand and they clasped arms just past the wrist, shook once, and parted.
“First Lord Eurybia,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”
She nodded, absently wiping at her forehead. “As well as could be expected on such a humid planet.”
Enyalios laughed. “Now you know how I felt when I visited Kokkinos.”
“My planet, First Lord, is dry. We have none of,” she waved a hand toward the nearby waterfall, “that.”
“I know. Why do you think I don't like it?”
She sat, motioning for Tritogenes to do the same. “I assumed it was because you had no sense of culture.”
“I'm sure last night did away with that assumption,” he retorted with a bemused smile.
Eurybia returned the smile, then morphed it into a smirk. “It did not.”
“First Lords, please,” Tritogenes said, holding up both hands. “Can we all agree on something, for once?”
Eurybia raised an eyebrow. “What do you propose?”
Tritogenes laughed. “Instead of arguing about humidity—which, by the way, Limani is the planet with the ideal humidity—let us agree that our planets are all nicer than cold places like Dasos or Kipos.”
Eurybia raised a glass of some orange drink. “Hear, hear!”
A Second Lord came to take their food orders, and Tritogenes's drink order, then attempted to vanish with minimal attempt at conversation.
“One moment,” Enyalios said, pitching his voice to carry.
The Second stopped mid-stride, apparently petrified with sudden fear. He turned, hands at his side in a relaxed posture that was almost believable.
“First Lord?” he asked.
“What's your name?”
“Lykourgos, sir. Thi—Second Lord Lykourgos.”
Enyalios smiled, amusement radiating from his posture. “When was the Elevation?”
“Three weeks ago, First Lord.”
Enyalios pantomimed applause, knowing it would not carry above the noise. “If I may pry,” he said, and Tritogenes stifled a laugh, “what did you do?”
Now, the man truly relaxed as a smile of relief passed across his face. “Violin, First Lord. Second Lord Cassandra sponsored me. After the performance at Evander Hall last month, she said it was time.”
“I saw that concert,” Enyalios said. His voice was relaxed, conversational, but Tritogenes saw the new Second Lord stiffen. “You had the solo, then?”
“Yes, First Lord.”
Enyalios nodded. “Then it's an Elevation well deserved.”
“Thank you, First Lord.”
Once their server was out of earshot, which did not require very much distance at all given the proximity and volume of the nearby waterfall, Tritogenes leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table.
“Enough distraction,” Eurybia said.
“Agreed,” Tritogenes interjected, speaking quickly enough to cut her off before she could begin her own line of questioning. He placed the same sort of affectations on his voice that he would have used when interviewing a prospective actor for his opera house. “So, First Lord Eurybia. We haven't heard much about your part of the Project on Limani. What can you tell me about it?”
She smiled, disarming. “You'll have to find out at the Council meeting.”
“Come now,” Enyalios protested. “Everyone's projects are public knowledge at this point.”
Eurybia raised an eyebrow and turned that inquisitive expression toward Tritogenes. “Everyone?”
He nodded. “Of course.”
Her smile never faltered. “That,” she said, “is new.”
Tritogenes resisted the urge to frown. He knew she was baiting him, but it would take something a lot less obvious than that to draw him out. “Not at all. In fact there was significant media coverage when I adapted Aphelion to serve as my Titan's training ground. I might understand if you missed that, however. You've been quite busy, after all.”
She smiled, perfunctory. There was nothing genuine about it, and for someone with the iron control over her emotions that Eurybia had, letting him see that meant the gesture was deliberate.
“We have all been 'quite busy,'” she replied, mimicking his intonations exactly.
Enyalios made a show of leaning back in his chair to the point that Tritogenes expected him to cross his feet on the edge of the table. He cleared his throat equally dramatically. “Why are you here, First Lord?”
Tritogenes's comm flashed a single holographic light over his left hand. Normal messages blinked blue on his system, while high-priority messages either showed as green or red depending on their subject and who the sender was. Every one of the Hexarchs had a similar system, and as sure as he was that some of them bothered to memorize everyone else's color codes, he was even more sure that most did what he did and changed those codes at regular intervals.
This message came in with a green flash, and so he opened a single-sided holo to read it. The screen actually showed several messages, most from Philip and a single one from Hyperion. He opened that one first, revealing a short note agreeing to his proposition and implying that the meeting would be a feast.
The messages from Philip he opened and scanned in more detail. The first contained information about the Titans. Philip apparently realized Eurybia was here on Katarraktes—Hexarch movements were never secret—and forwarded what he had. He focused on the information about Eurybia's Titan, a man named Panatakis. In a few moments he had a few useful facts to throw out at her to test her reactions. If she was going to poke at Aphelion and his part of the Project, he would do the same thing.
Second were the numbers he asked for about his opera house. When the time came, those would be useful. Tritogenes manually moved those over to a readily accessible notes file under just enough layers that it would look like he did not have them already ready to display, but not so many that it would take a while to find the data. That way he could seem prepared without coming across to the others as being overeager.
They all played that delicate balancing act, and the social consequences for failure to handle things the right way were something Tritogenes learned early on in his career as a Hexarch.
The final message was much shorter, containing no additional data beyond the reply itself. “I haven't heard of any group by that name, but I can pay special attention for it. While I do, you ponder the potential symbolism behind such a name. It may be that you come across information before I do.”
Oblivious, or at least pretending to be so, to Tritogenes as he checked his messages, Eurybia directed her reply solely at Enyalios. “I have not been away from Kokkinos in some time, and I was visiting some of my holdings among the iron mines in the First Belt. Katarraktes lay between those mines and the capital, and I thought I would pay a visit to my dear friend First Lord Enyalios.”
Enyalios laughed. “'Dear Friend,' you say? This is news to me!”
Mock affronted, Eurybia replied, “it shouldn't be!”
Amid continued laughter, Enyalios replied, “it's the superlative you threw in there that's giving me pause. I didn't think you were 'dear friends' with anyone but Aegesander.”
Tritogenes shut off his holo and looked up in time to see Eurybia's face darken for a fleeting moment. When it passed, she placed a bright smile in its place. “If you must know the real reason I'm here, Aegesander needed my help.”
Tritogenes stared at her for a moment, parsing the myriad potential social interactions that could have led to that, then the thousand ways in which either party cou
ld leverage her actions on Katarraktes for political capital.
A young, orange-robed Fifth Lord chose that particular lull in the conversation to approach the table with their drinks. The Hawk and Arrow's house dish was a type of crepe, and each of them ordered a plate with different fruit spreads. The Fifth Lord took a moment to assign the proper plate to the proper seat, doing so without, Tritogenes noticed, having to ask who each plate belonged to. The drinks were simpler, strong espresso for each of them and refills for whatever juice they had already been drinking.
The Fifth Lord then nodded politely to the Hexarchs and wordlessly excused himself. Tritogenes smiled, letting the other two see it. He suspected that young man would tell all his friends from school about how he personally served breakfast to not just one, but three Hexarchs today. The Ten Thousand knew Tritogenes would have done the same thing in his place. If memory served, he actually had done so in his youth.
“I remember when you were that age, Tritogenes,” Eurybia mused. “Don't you, Enyalios?”
The latter Hexarch laughed, but shook his head. “I don't think I ever met Tritogenes until he was an adult.”
“I was never that starry-eyed,” Tritogenes protested.
Eurybia laughed. “No, I don't think you were. Even as a teenager, you had quite the opinion of yourself.”
Tritogenes smiled and made a broad gesture with both hands that indicated his companion Hexarchs and his own purple robe. “And look where it got me!”
“I have to give you that, yes.” Eurybia sighed, allowing her demeanor to change entirely. Stress showed now in her posture, as did as strange sort of guilt.
She was entirely too chameleon-like, Tritogenes thought. Even for someone who grew up in the world of actors and opera singers, Eurybia's ability to conceal her thoughts and emotions was impressive. It made working with her very difficult, though working with her mining conglomerate allowed Tritogenes to save a great deal of cost on several projects, Aphelion included. Despite that, he never felt entirely at ease around her, even when she was being nice like this. The feeling that she was hiding something never quite went away.
But, he thought with a smile that carefully did not reach his face, they were all hiding things in some way or another.
Eurybia picked up her espresso cup. Straight-sided, the white ceramic had been carefully hand-painted with floral motifs. Hers was primarily red, roses and azaleas, from what Tritogenes could see. He picked his own up, blue and purple and decorated with hydrangeas and hyacinths, and raised it in salute. Enyalios did likewise, raising a cup of brown ceramic painted with white moonflowers.
“Exquisite,” she said, taking the cup away from her lips.
“Thank you,” Enyalios replied. “I'll pass your thanks on to the staff.”
“Do so.” Over the rim of her cup, she smiled at Tritogenes. “To get back to the subject at hand: before you arrived, Tritogenes, First Lord Enyalios was telling me about the success he's had with Project Titan.”
The look that he passed to Tritogenes told the other Hexarch that, in fact, had not been the subject of conversation previously. Nevertheless, he carried on with with gusto. “As I was saying, Second Lord Daniel has been spending more and more time synced up with the Aegis system. Presently, he can manage six hours before mental fatigue sets in. Perhaps twice that when his grasp of the armor's sleep functions gets better.”
“And you feel this armor is up to the task?” she asked.
He nodded once. Enyalios made a show of reaching for his plate of crepes, slicing off a piece, and taking a bite before replying. “In trials, the current iteration of the Aegis system has proven able to stand up to multiple strong blows from enraged gigas with little to no damage.”
Eurybia raised an eyebrow. “Current iteration, First Lord?”
“Indeed.”
A ghost of a smile, one very different from the friendly expressions she showed before, passed across her face. “I hope the expense of multiple iterations of the Project has not put too much strain on your holdings. I would hate to see Hermes's efficiency suffer.”
Enyalios barely suppressed the wave of annoyance that threatened to sweep across his face. From his seat, Tritogenes saw the corner of his mouth twitch once, but if Eurybia noticed, she failed to react.
It was not the first time Eurybia had brought up financial concerns with Enyalios, whose Hermes Corporation served much of the binary, including Eurybia's own planet of Kokkinos. Her mining conglomerate had to rely on his ships for much of their transport, a fact about which she had been unhappy since Tritogenes was a mere Second Lord.
Tritogenes bit back the retort on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to ask why she simply did not use Aegesander's merchant fleet. He owned the largest fleet by number and second largest fleet by firepower in the entire binary.
Enyalios's reply was as fast as it was short. “My shipping services have been unaffected, I assure you.”
“Excellent,” she drawled.
Something in her tone set off Tritogenes's “bullshit detector,” as Pallasophia referred to his bullheaded tendency to forget the social niceties of being a Hexarch. “Has the Project been such a strain on First Lord Aegesander that his ships are unable to meet your increased demand, Eurybia?”
She scowled, plain and obvious. “I'm not going to use my working relationship with Aegesander as a crutch, Tritogenes.”
Now, Enyalios frowned. Eurybia broke the veneer of politeness over their conversation, and he fell right in line. “But you will come to me asking for increased space aboard Hermes's ships for a paltry increase in price.”
“Exactly.”
Enyalios's eyes narrowed. “Why?”
She leaned forward, fixing him with an intense stare for a moment before dropping back into her seat. “Gods between, Enyalios, you're never this easy. I feel like I'm arguing with Tritogenes!”
“Hey!”
“Do you really want to know why I came here?”
“Did I ask?”
She nodded. “Aegesander has both raised costs for space aboard his ships and decreased their availability. He says he's re-arming as many as he can before the Titans depart for the mastigas battleship.”
Enyalios crossed his arms and nodded, both annoyed and pleased in the same paradoxical moment. Doing that meant Aegesander was taking his commitment to the assault seriously, more seriously than he had at the start of the Project, anyway. On the short term, however, it put his own ships into a tight spot when it came to shipping cargo.
“So can you do it?”
Despite his attempt to conceal it, Tritogenes's face twisted into an open-mouth look of shock for a moment. Asking directly like that was a serious breach of social convention that leveled a rather substantial insult at Enyalios. In effect, by asking rather than simply stating what she needed and offering a trade or payment, she called into question his ability to do it at all.
The insult did not go unnoticed, either. Enyalios's face pinched in and darkened as he mulled over the sudden shift in the conversation.
To his own surprise, Tritogenes put a rein on his emotions first. He raised his espresso cup to his lips and sipped in deliberate mimicry of the gesture Eurybia made earlier. “Have your own efforts proved a strain on your own finances, First Lord Eurybia?”
She turned slightly in her chair, a movement given away more by the rustle of her robes and the leather of the chair than any real change in her position. Her face showed an impassive mask that suddenly blossomed into a wide, and very fake, smile. “On the contrary, my dear Tritogenes. Thanks to the Project, every one of my industries are doing quite well. Raw materials and metals are in demand more now than they ever have been and my vineyards, well,” she laughed, “last night's festivities should tell you how that business is going!”
“Of course,” he replied, nodding agreement.
“And people always want entertainment, don't they?” Enyalios saluted Tritogenes with a forkful of crepe.
He laughed,
raising his espresso cup in a return salute. “That they do.”
Eurybia smiled, predatory and hawkish. Tritogenes had a sudden feeling that, whatever game she was playing, she was about to spring the final part of it. “The Project has been difficult for us all. Most of all you, I imagine.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
Eurybia took that as a sign to continue. “We are worried about you, Tritogenes. Your clothes are old, reflecting old accomplishments. Have you stumbled upon hardship, perhaps?”
“We have all stumbled upon hardship,” he replied. His smile was thin and never touched his eyes. “I have made many sacrifices for Project Titan, as have you, I trust. Tell me, what has come out of that facility on Kokkinos's second moon?”
Eurybia's face twitched with surprise, confirming Tritogenes's suspicions that she thought no one knew about the little building sitting in the shadow of a volcano. Thanks to Philip, he knew it existed, but nothing more.
“You will meet Second Lord Panatakis on the Council floor,” she said simply. “Other information is, as our dear Katarraktean Hexarch said earlier, publicly available. Until then, let us say my research into cybernetics has been...” She paused, smiled. “Fruitful.”
“Cybernetics?” Tritogenes asked, not bothering to conceal his surprise. Philip's information had mentioned that her Titan had some sort of sensory tech, but little else. Her secrecy, it seemed, was almost as good as his.
Growing up, he read stories about humans enhanced with implanted technology. They would crop up here and there in the histories, or what remained of them at any rate. Sometimes the stories were good, but Technocrat science had so far been unable to unravel the process in any meaningful way.
After a moment, he nodded in open appreciation. “That explains the secrecy.”
“Speaking of secrecy, what are you bringing to the Project? You have withheld much from previous Council sessions. I trust you will not continue that trend now that we approach zero hour?”
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