Rareth turned her head slightly towards Andersen. “All is well. I just wanted to speak to the Sacred Band. I will be leaving shortly. Vreta’Sori, I would like for you to join me. In light of recent events, a few questions have come to mind that I would like to ask about your previous experiences in the Cradle.”

“Of course, Datius.” Vreta answered with a small not. Naturally, he expected she was lying about her reasons, but he would not deny a Datius regardless.

Moving her focus back to Thebes, Rareth continued to show her sympathy, as least as much as it could be conveyed across species. “If you think that is the path he would prefer, then I respect your choice. I can understand if your people do not prefer to engage in ceremony. Though, if I may ask the favor, would you consider allowing me to at least add his name to the list of honored? Given the secrecy of our work, it may be beyond your lifetimes before the details of his deeds can be told, but I do feel he at least deserves to be remembered among those who were lost before they could see eternity. You need not answer now; just think on it. If you make a decision, you can tell…well, any of our people, really. The answer will find its way to me.”

[hr]

After they parted ways with the Sacred Band, Vreta ended up joining Rareth when she left the ship. He originally intended to speak with Freyr when he could, but events in the simulation changed those plans considerably. Rareth waited until they were the only two passengers aboard a Rothian transport bound for the surface before she finally spoke up openly to Vreta. “The hacking attempt, was your implant able to recover any logs from the event?”

Vreta nodded. “Even better. I was able to create a write-once partition and direct a copy of all changes to be saved into it. Any code she injected into my head, any transmissions, any changes that anything made or attempted to make, are all saved within the partition.”

While not going as far as smiling, it was easy to see from her tone and demeanor that Rareth was pleased with the result. “Excellent work, Agent. We will get you down to the medical center right away to deal with it. Meanwhile, I will go speak with the Director. This may change aspects of our approach going forward.”