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[wolflord_andain]

There is a great deal of debriefing to be done, particularly in methods of contact, transport, financial arrangements, and the details of the task at hand.

Galadan pays careful attention to all of this, biding his time.

Confessing one's evil, past or not, often requires delicate handling.

Galadan himself has only done it the once, and circumstances then were far, far different from this.

Given that Mary Lennox is a young girl, perhaps that is not much of a surprise.

Comments

[gabriel_tam]

"... and that's it, I think," Gabriel concludes.

"Any questions?"

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan does not quite hesitate, though it is a near thing.

"I would not go so far as that, mayhap. But there are, I believe, a few things it might be better for you to know before we--irrevocably commit ourselves to our business arrangements."

There are reasons Galadan waited until now to talk.

One of them is to provide Gabriel with home ground, as it happens. In case that comfort may promote less haste in his reactions.

[gabriel_tam]

"Oh?"

This is unexpected, to say the least. He folds his hands before him, the very picture of polite attention.

"I'm interested to hear, of course."

[wolflord_andain]

"Are you, indeed."

Galadan only appears a little amused.

"I did tell you, did I not, that my world was at war?"

[gabriel_tam]

"You did."

Gabriel sobers abruptly.

"I thought you'd also mentioned that your business there was complete, though."

A pause.

"Is the war not over?"

[wolflord_andain]

"No. That war is over and done."

He sounds very final about that.

"Though I think you may be operating under some misconceptions as to my role in it, and that of my compatriots."

To a point at least.

Primarily the side Galadan was working for.

[gabriel_tam]

"Misconceptions," he says. Gabriel's tone is neutral.

"Why don't we clear that up, then?"

[wolflord_andain]

"That would be what I'm attempting, yes."

Galadan's voice is dry, if only for a moment. His expression never shifts, though the lines about his eyes and mouth are just slightly deeper than they were.

"I served Rakoth Maugrim, the Unraveller, enemy to all things living--most especially to creatures of the Light."

[gabriel_tam]

He goes very, very still.

"Shénme?"

[wolflord_andain]

"I was very angry, about--so many things."

There is nothing like apology in his tone.

"And vengeful, too. Pride has always been my besetting vice."

[gabriel_tam]

"And so you..."

Distantly, he notes that the sensation he's feeling is not unlike that he's felt before. Gabriel classifies it as shock and moves past it.

"You did it deliberately, didn't you? With full knowledge of what you were doing."

[wolflord_andain]

"Of course."

Galadan does not sound offended.

"I am not much given to impulse."

Even in this, even to the end of the world.

[gabriel_tam]

"No, you've never seemed to be."

A pause.

"Why tell me now, Galadan?"

[wolflord_andain]

"As I said, that war is done. My efforts for destruction--for annihilation, I suppose is the better term--were all for naught."

One corner of his mouth quirks in something that is not quite a smile.

"I heard the Horn, and my father came for me. I see, now, what I might have been."

He takes a breath. Just one.

"I am not what I was. What I will be--I have not yet found that, I suspect. The search--it is a series of slow steps, I imagine."

This is the second. Or perhaps the third.

[gabriel_tam]

Silence, for rather longer than is comfortable.

Finally,

"... what do you want to be?"

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan's smile is small, wry, and a little self-mocking.

"I don't know that, yet, either."

These last months are such a small time when set against the thousand years prior.

Such a small, small time.

[gabriel_tam]

He gets up, abruptly, and crosses to the window. Gabriel stands there, both hands braced against the sill, and looks out over the land behind the New Mayfair estate.

(There's a wall around it, of course, and more security patrolling outside to create security within. Such things are part of his and Regan's lives these days in ways that they never were before.)

It's hard to breathe here at the moment, here in this suddenly two-close room. He can feel the weight of what the other man has just told him bearing down on his shoulders with almost tangible pressure.

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan waits, winter-grey eyes frozen and cold.

He has had a long time to learn to be patient.

A very long time, indeed.

[gabriel_tam]

"You ...."

He's still looking out the window. A pause, and then he clears his throat.

"You know a lot about what I do. About how things work here, that sort of thing."

A pause.

"How much do you know about the reason why?"

[wolflord_andain]

"Aside from what I've gleaned from the news reports, from your dossiers, and from integrating that with what I know of politics--"

Galadan's expression is somber, though his eyes burn with suddenly aroused interest.

Curiosity has always been strong in him.

"--Very little."

[gabriel_tam]

"You're acquainted with my daughter, I believe?"

[wolflord_andain]

"River?"

He smiles faintly, though he's watching Gabriel intently now.

"We've managed to find some degree of common ground, yes."

[gabriel_tam]

"Common ground."

There's something almost acidic in the dryness of his tone, but overall it's distant.

"I wish you could have known her before."

[wolflord_andain]

"Before."

Galadan repeats that.

It isn't quite a question.

[gabriel_tam]

"Before."

He turns away from the window.

"I want to show you something."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan spreads his hands before him, meeting Gabriel's eyes.

"I am at your disposal."

[gabriel_tam]

"Wait here for a moment."

Gabriel crosses the room again and walks out the office door.

He isn't gone long. It doesn't take long to find what he's looking for, after all. He and Regan don't talk about it, but they both know exactly where certain things are kept, certain things that were brought from Osiris to Londinium without question or discussion.

It's one of these that Gabriel's carrying when he returns-- a thin, flat rectangle. He moves to Galadan's side and flips out the stand on the back, setting the vid capture up on the desk with the screen faced so that they can both see.

"Simon took this when River was fourteen."

The capture was filmed with a steady hand, as steady as Gabriel's tone. The distinction between how he sounds now and how he sounded then, however, is telling.

Gabriel's voice, offscreen at first until the capture focuses in. He's relaxed, teasing. 'I don't know, River. Are you sure you're ready for tonight? It's quite a role you're performing.'

'Daaaaad!' Focus on River, laughing and exasperated. 'I've practiced and practiced-- Simon, tell him!'

'Of course you have, dear.' Regan is smiling too, composed, even as the voice of a younger Simon echoes from behind the camera.

'You'll do fine, meimei. You're lìngrén jingyì--'

'We're going to be late,' Gabriel breaks in, and the scene goes dark for a few seconds as the capture is paused.

"This was the night of her last dance recital," Gabriel says now, watching. "Did you know that she loves to dance?"

[wolflord_andain]

"No," Galadan says quietly, "I hadn't known that."

But as the capture reopens again, on a slim brown-haired girl moving with unparalleled grace, he can very well see why she loves it.

And it is so very different from the girl she is now that they are almost, almost not the same girl at all.

"I had no idea at all."

[gabriel_tam]

His eyes are dry and burning, but Gabriel doesn't look away.

"She still does, I'm told, but it's... things are different now."

A pause.

"She ... went away to school shortly after this. The place was called 'The Academy' -- a new institution, government-sponsored, for the best of the best. Extraordinarily prestigious, you must understand; it was quite an honor to be accepted."

On the vid screen, River spins and leaps, soaring into the finale of her solo recital piece, and her smile is bright and shining.

"What we didn't know at the time was that it was intended to -- they -- "

Gabriel has to clear his throat.

"They operated on her, and on the rest of the children. Stripped part of her brain, administered drugs, experimented on them as if they were things."

[wolflord_andain]

"Ah."

Galadan's voice is quiet as before.

"Such is the folly of men. And not men only, I fear."

It explains much about River, in some ways, and he begins to see, too, how this fits into the larger issues.

There are still pieces missing, however. It remains to see which ones Gabriel is willing to fill.

[gabriel_tam]

"No."

His tone is very flat.

"The folly, as you put it, was mine."

He pauses, and in the silence left as River's dance ends, the vid capture flickers and goes dark.

"Something happened that caused me to wonder; to suspect. When I investigated, I was warned away in the strongest possible terms. They threatened Simon; they told me that River would be ruined if the educational process was interrupted."

A beat. Gabriel's gaze is fixed on the blank screen.

"I chose to believe them. To trust the system. Of all the mistakes I have made in my life, none will ever be worse than that."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan's eyes are fixed on Gabriel, level and curious.

"And do you find her ruined, then?"

[gabriel_tam]

"No."

That's sharp. His glance swings back to Galadan, and his gaze meets the other man's winter-grey one and holds steady.

"She's my daughter still. She always will be, and I don't love her any less now than I did before. The point is, this wasn't an accident or an illness that effected the change in her. It was done to her, and I failed to act."

A beat.

"Which brings me to the reason I told you this in the first place."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan does not smile.

"Such is the province of fathers."

He knows this more than well enough, now.

"Does it, then?"

[gabriel_tam]

"It does."

A pause. He picks up the vid capture and looks down at it, then sets it face-down on the desk.

"When the time came that I realized what I had done -- and what I had failed to do -- it happened that one of the wisest men I have ever had the privilege of knowing gave me invaluable advice."

Gabriel's tone is one of calm acceptance, and as steady as his gaze as he meets Galadan's eyes once more.

"He pointed out that it was fruitless to dwell on the past, and upon the bad decisions I had made, even the inexcusable ones. What's happened can't be changed, you see."

"What matters now is what you do next."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan does not look away, even as he listens to what Gabriel has to say.

"I am beginning as I mean to go on, insofar as I may. That is, at the moment, all I truly know for certain."

He does inclince his head just slightly, however.

"But I do take your point. It is well-made."

[gabriel_tam]

He nods in return, and there's a beat of silence.

It feels longer than it is-- somewhere inside, Gabriel's quite aware of that, just as he's aware that if this is another mistake, it may be the last one he ever makes. There's no reason, aside from his own instincts, that he should trust this man; in fact, given what he's been told, there are many reasons he shouldn't.

And yet....

(Are you a man of faith?)

After a moment, Gabriel offers his hand.

"I'm looking forward to working with you, Galadan."

[wolflord_andain]

There is a fractional pause as Galadan studies Gabriel intently, looking for an indication of--something.

He reaches out, then, and takes Gabriel's hand in turn, grip steady and callused.

"I find that I feel much the same, Gabriel Tam."

It's true.

Galadan finds that thought odd but welcome.

Many things seem to be, of late--a fact that he does not much mind.