[b]Redana![/b]

There are glorious last stands, and there are glorious last stands in defiance of an Empress - and the Order of Hermes seems to have no interest in the latter. Immediately their weapons are on the ground and the chief Magos is begging you for the opportunity to serve as your humble vassal and without thinking you accept his oath - and whoops. That's that. Now you're responsible for an entire Coherent phalanx with their full support staff, over two hundred new servants with their own pride and agenda. You can positively feel the tension burn between them and the Alcedi - not to mention between them and Iskarot, as both the Apothecary Magos - who introduces himself as Komninos - and the Evoker Magos start jostling for the honorary position two steps to your left protocol demands your chief Hermetic should occupy. 

In fact, you're in that most familiar of positions - surrounded by hundreds of powerful figures with private armies who have all accepted you as the supreme authority and seek to derive their own positions from proximity to you. Tell us how you navigate the intricacies of this new political situation as you arrange for the shuttles to take you and the Alcedi clan back to the [i]Plousios[/i]. 

[b]Alexa![/b]

"Oh, if it were up to me I'd let you go," said the Master of Assassins. "But a woman's got to have a code. Logic to one's being. A truth you can hold high before the gods. Live that truth hard enough and it becomes your [i]destiny[/i] - and when that happens it doesn't just bind you, it binds the whole world. That's why I'll get as many chances to strike as I want and why none of you - poor, confused, conflicted little babies - will ever lay a hand on me."

She smiled and flicked her hair with smug contentment, fading back down the corridor, smoke seeping from her like a ghost.

"So call me Cerberus," she said, blowing a kiss - and then she was gone. 

[b]Vasilia and Dolce![/b]

Shuttles begin arriving from the surface. And they contain your crew.

You sent Redana to find people and she [i]delivered[/i]. Over two thousand Alcedi of all ages - a complete society - and two hundred and fifty members of the Order of Hermes, complete with clattering war machines and battlefield artifacts. Not quite enough to fill your ship to capacity - a fully restored and functional ship of the Plousios' size could easily host three thousand - but enough to overwhelm those few areas of the ship that aren't damaged, soaking wet, or filled with battle crabs. 

Good thing you've got the time and manpower to fill your hold with the supplies left on the [i]Anemoi[/i]'s loading dock. In a stroke you're richer, more powerful and better armed than you have been in years. When Zeus' blessings come they don't come by halves.

[b]Bella![/b]

"Bella..." she can't let the silence be, can she? She starts talking before she knows what she's going to say because she hopes she'll figure out the sentence before the end of it. "You're okay. It's me. The Magos, Demeter, the Master, the Coherent, everything here was messing with your head. I get it, but it's over now - we made it. Just... take a breath, come back to me? Please?"