“I had a poor first impression of your former king, and now I find him possessed by a burning need to outdo his own foolishness.” Vasilia remarked to Galnius. ”If they’re so bored that the only way they can entertain themselves is wasting ammunition, perhaps they ought to save us all the trouble and blast each other to smithereens. It’d be a more worthwhile target.” She sniffed indignantly; a touch so subtle, everyone in the room could hear it.

“They’re not trying to hit anything.” Beside her, Dolce cut through the quiet like an icy scalpel. “They’re shooting just to shoot.” 

With every blast, he drew a little calmer. Stood a little more still. Beneath his snow-white coat[1] she could see the tension building. How each mark on this miraculous land tore at his heart. How his gaze pierced the shuttles ahead, straining to see how they could do such a thing? How could they be so cruel? How could they not see the wonder of this place? How? How? How?!

She rested a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed. Carefully, quietly, that no one but he and Aphrodite could tell, she pressed into his wrinkled vest and massaged gently. Soothing the aches of his heart. Pulling him back to the moment. Back to her. Do not fall into that abyss, my love. You will find only grief there. “And we will make them pay for their indiscretion,” she affirmed, and gave him one last, loving squeeze. “Now then; we have little time, and high odds. Galnius, if you have any insight into King Jas’o, now would be the time to share it.”

[Rolling to Look Closely: 5 + 4 + 1 = [b]10[/b] 
-Tell me about the shuttles. How could they hurt me? How could they help me?
-Tell me about Jas’o. What are they doing? What will they do next? 
-What will happen if we separate Jas’o from his soldiers? (Clarification: I know that Jas’o can’t be harmed or distracted when he’s surrounded by his soldiers, so I’m mainly looking at this from the other angle, getting the soldiers distracted, harmed, or otherwise out of the picture.)]

***

[1] How Dolce found the time and opportunity to clean his wool between the engine room and the hangar is a mystery best left to the scholars.