[attr="class","staffheadimg"]

[attr="class","staffpara"]

The iced americano clatters to the table top, the brimful of ice placed opposite to Maddox's half-finished second cup. Farah takes a sip, swallows, and asks "How are you?—" just as Maddox asks a strange question with slanted eyebrows ("Did something happen?") and her eyebrows, too, slant in response. Mirrored images, a few frames apart. [break][break]

"...Not that I know of," she says. It's delivered without emphasis or audible sarcasm, so it takes a minute for the teasing to register. Yes, it's a blatant lie to suggest she doesn't know of any happenings, but the joke is elsewhere: Isn't he the one, carrying the news? Really, Farah should be the one complaining—the suspense is adding up, and she's worried now for the little storyteller at the lyre, too small for his stage, and too meek for the audience. [break][break]


"I suppose—" [break][break]

Here, her gaze follows along with the flicker of Maddox's eyes. She's too sharp to miss a detail like that, and the languid glance she gives with her head over her shoulders makes his own peek look at much more obvious. [break][break]

She returns to him with a shrug, as though innocent. [break][break]

"—we could wait."


[break][break]
maddox ruchbah
[break][break]
farah is currently: not hostile[break]
farah is currently using no spells. amelie is napping tbh

[attr="class","staffheadimg"]

[attr="class","staffpara"]
Maddox never answers her question of how he is, and returns it instead to her, which she takes with a second of blinking blankness, as though mildly surprised. [break][break]

Her eyes float to the window, and her answer is as vague as you would expect: [break][break]

"I've always liked the fall in Delphi. Things are very busy though, this year..." Her eyes travel back to Maddox, as though looking for a reaction, or maybe just out of boredom.[break][break]

And then there is noise behind them, the familiar sound of Ezekiel's voice, and Farah smiles and moves her eyes without moving her head. She acts as though she's shooting him a glance even though she can't see him and he certainly cant see her over the tall booth.
[break][break]
"Some of us like busy, though," she says, smiling, looking at Maddox. A pause, several seconds. "And Zeke, well..."[break][break]

She knows him too well to think that he's in that some. But she wonders if Maddox still does, wonders what side of the illusion he's on.



[break][break]
maddox ruchbah
[break][break]
farah is currently: not hostile[break]
farah is currently using no spells. amelie is napping tbh

[attr="class","staffheadimg"]

[attr="class","staffpara"]


Ezekiel knows, more or less, the unabridged history.
[break][break]

The truth of it—the war, why it ended the way it did, the secrets hidden within the woman sitting next to him. He knows about the Floaters, the end game strategy, Lord Lorraine, and yes, even about Charon. [break][break]

So when he sees the letter, there is a moment of genuine alarm, where his eyes unthinkingly seem to turn to Farah before he decides to finish reading first. He understands, then, what it is speaking of—the cowardice, the metaphor, the daring to defy the unquestionable, the Leviathan. He is soon scanning faster and with more urgency, then a once-over, before turning to her—
[break][break]

—she is, by and large, still staring out the window.
[break][break]

"Farah—"
[break][break]

"Erin sent me a report. Ahead of time," she says. A neutral tone, no further elaboration.
[break][break]

Zeke seems bewildered by this, but he huffs after a pause. Sometimes, he forgets how much of an absolute wildcard the Leviathan can be. And if she hadn't told him or Maddox, but Erin knew, then...
[break][break]

Hah. Is he the one in trouble?
[break][break]

He exhales, fingers going to his temples, before eventually he is massaging his head with both hands, the most visibly stressed Maddox has seen him in...well. Maybe that one night at the bar when someone completely forgot to reschedule the supply run, and they had next to nothing to serve on a Friday night.
[break][break]

Then, though, he had put on a terse smile and valiantly taken the blame on himself when no one would confess, which prompted someone else on staff to quickly reveal themselves. [break][break]

Today, Farah points the knife more directly.
[break][break]

She says: "I thought you handled this? In the 90s?"
[break][break]

"Must have missed a spot," he says. Which would sound cheeky, if not for the genuine frustration that escapes the half-grit teeth, the way he thumbs Electra's ring, the way his yellow eyes have narrowed on the letter. He's angry with himself, that much is obvious.
[break][break]

Farah gives him the benefit of the doubt, and of a half-smile, rolling her head over to look at him, asking without kindness or cruelty:
[break][break]

"How come?"
[break][break]

She speaks with a plain curiosity. But the question unfolds as the most awful task to pin on a witch of Hydra—to ask an explanation for a failure. In that position, giving a reason is humiliating, too much like giving an excuse. But to avoid the question is worse—it's disobedient. The dilemma is evident in the way Zeke's eyes seem to shut involuntarily, as he seems to flinch from an imagined pain, before he exhales, calm.[break][break]


He knows Farah too well—he knows that the question is, in part, genuine: she wants him to assess why this problem still exists, and she'll only twist the knife further at any hesitance. He thinks a bit before answering.[break][break]


"The warehouses...they're talking about the one Sabine and Ha-Yoonn set fire to a while back. Unrelated. And some weeks later I heard of it through Cerberus, which wasn't a problem..."[break][break]


It wasn't an unusual report at the time at all. But the timing is coincidental, and the connection more obvious now that they have this letter.[break][break]

"Which meant that the traitors were using the Wolves, like we did, in 86...Then, I didn't think twice. But now..."[break][break]


He's thinking aloud, putting the pieces together, moving, as historians do, in reverse. This other Hydra mistook a warehouse brawl for an actual attack, and Maddox and Erin's message as well. But using Cerberus as cover... [break][break]


"In the 90s...there was only one rule. Internal enforcement only. Don't touch the wolves, the snakes, or even Pegasus."[break][break]

It was an intentional blindspot. Lord Lorraine was still devising their rules of enagement. This was all before the Leviathan's revival. [break][break]

"Someone was making use of that. Someone who knew."
[break][break]

Farah nods, accepting the explanation. Her pinning gaze, which Zeke had been avoiding, relaxes and turns elsewhere—to Maddox, to the coffeeshop, to nowhere in particular. The elbow on the counter relents, and she prods much more lightly:[break][break]


"So...?"
[break][break]

Zeke doesn't look happy witht he conclusion that have both reached, but he says it dutifully:
[break][break]

"Yes. There's a rat. Well-positioned. Had to be a controller in the 90s. At the very least, was involved high-level in Op. Convergeance."






[break][break]
maddox ruchbah
[break][break]
zeke is currently: not hostile[break]
zeke is currently using no spells, ajax has disappeard[break][break]

farah is currently: ? vaguely hostile[break]
farah is currently using no spells.

[attr="class","staffheadimg"]

[attr="class","staffpara"]


farah considers zeke's words. she frowns. her eyes are on the table, they are seeing elsewhere. [break][break]

the pause extends enough that maddox thinks it is his turn to speak. at his question, farah turns to him with raised eyebrows. she softens, though with no apparent reason, and there is a flicker of uncertainty that passes by her. [break][break]

she opens her mouth, but zeke turns to her, wrinkled nose, dismissive of his own apprentice. [break][break]

"you really don't owe an explanation, you know," he says.

[break][break]

it sounds like he is being...kind to her, and farah gives him a questioning look. it's amused, but not quite annoyed. she knows what he is talking about, but they're not quite there yet, are they? she, at least, thinks maddox's question is a valid one. [break][break]

"—convergence," she says, looking at maddox. it's said like a complete sentence. but for once, she elaborates:[break][break]

"the reason, maddox, that hydra witches change from apprentices to handlers, from enforces to liches, and from pappsukkal to active agents—is because that flexibility serves a greater interest." [break][break]

"in the 50s, the majority of hydra witches were enforcers, to carry out operation convergence." [break][break]

the lie is hidden in the sentence, in plain sight: the word "majority"—if the majority were enforcers, what was there left to enforce? when farah says the word "hydra" she is referring, then, to the ones that were loyal to the leviathan, the ones that never wavered. their victims, the ones that diverged, then, are even not given the honor of the name. their lives are deaths are unclaimed by the dragon they pretended to serve—and lay by the wayside, on the wrong end of history. [break][break]

"it was important to make sure we were all on the same page." [break][break]

the name of operation convergence is self-explanatory. in the wake of the war, hydra, like any hammered beast, was a fractured thing—and it takes a loving, unforgiving hand to reforge a blade like theirs. [break][break]

isn't it strange, though, how farah speaks with continuity of a time when the leviathan had not yet been revived? [break][break]

"these traitors..." farah looks with distaste to the letter. "...must have been well-organized since then. we have to assume as early as the fifties."[break][break]

she's careful, that much is clear. but there is a degree of disdain, a degree of self-assuredness. she's at the helm of this operation, and even from its wheel, this threat seems less than blip in the water. [break][break]


[break][break]
maddox ruchbah
[break][break]
farah is currently: not hostile[break]
farah is currently using no spells. amelie is napping tbh

[attr="class","staffheadimg"]

[attr="class","staffpara"]

farah studies zeke's face. she blinks slowly.[break][break]

"maddox," she says, still looking at zeke.[break][break]

"ezekiel speaks very highly of you." finally her eyes trail back to the apprentice, still lagging behind the framing of her face. she's only really interacted with the lyremaker's son in specific circumstances, but you learn a lot about someone, standing with them at the altar of a god that they believe in. [break][break]

"your handler is not at fault." she's talking to maddox now. "and neither is your initiative."[break][break]

if anything, farah is mildly impressed by all of this. she seems to put her weight into her fingers by the tilting of her head, but her cheeks barely brush her palms. there is a small smile.
[break][break]
"thank you, for bringing this to my attention."[break][break]

the smile disappears.
[break][break]
"i'd like you to take care it."

[break][break]
maddox ruchbah
[break][break]
farah is currently: not hostile[break]
farah is currently using no spells. amelie is napping tbh