One hundred and twelve stories of corporate intelligence. Grace Tower is a Wyvern-controlled establishment that houses pretty much all of the information traffic in Julen. If it doesn't start here, it's monitored here. Most of the data archives are on the seventy-seventh floor, though, which is only accessible from a network of elevators beginning on the eightieth. It's rumored that the Three Graces all live here, but then, they occupy a number of rumors that aren't true.

---

Julen City
Tarantella
Grace Tower Archive I
Grace Tower Archive II
Grace Tower Archive III

---

Olivier is in the most secure kind of lockdown that Grace Tower can muster...not unlike Yin's first extended stay in the place, overall. But she has a couple of stops first. The first is her husband...whom she hugs tightly before she says anything. She needs it in the most enormous way.

And she gets one in return, of course. A long, quiet hug, a patient hug, until she's ready to speak.

Which she feels freer to do than almost any other way this could have turned out...her moves had actually led directly to Olivier's quick capture and detainment. She's grateful for this not only to prevent a conflict, but also for the sakes of her subordinates.

Yin sighs, and lays her head on his shoulder. "...Yeah. So," she notes softly, "Serene came to me on the matter. She suspected that Petrovic may have tried to hide Olivier. I suspected the same thing...because I'm positive that he would have done the same for me if it ever came to it."

She leans back not enough to pull away completely, but enough to look him in the face, eyes quietly earnest. Her weight is largely trusted to his hands. "She asked for permission to look for him. I hesitantly granted it. When Petrovic came clean about sending Olivier to the United States...you know how that ended. You were absolutely crushed looking for Olivier and I needed someone to talk to, so I went to go see Alou. He was already monitoring Olivier. It's how I found out he was still here. Serene, bless her heart, was already disguised and on scene. She was injured, I still don't know exactly what led to that, and I immediately scrambled all surrounding units with 'takedown, kill if prudent' orders. And you know the rest."

"I'm... hm. Proud of you, I think." Revilier nods. "You handled this well, love. Though I'm more than a little perturbed that my orders weren't followed, I think this turned out as well as it could have. Do you want to help me interrogate them?" He's referring to Petrovic and Olivier, of course. Marchosias Rasputin, sitting bored but patient in his cell, is rather aware he's been forgotten.

She almost smiles a little, though it ultimately fades. Yin's more relieved than she cares to admit that he's not angry. Even though she doesn't always agree with his actions, she loves her husband dearly and is relieved to avoid a conflict. Actually, a good deal of her annoyance at decisions she doesn't agree probably stems from a fear she'll have to challenge him on it...when she'd rather just snuggle.

Yin nods, relieved...pauses. "I'm...not sure. Petrovic...he's not going to be tortured, is he?"

Revilier could not agree more with that last bit.

"It depends. I know he didn't do what he did out of any kind of deep plot. Petrovic went with his gut, so there's no information to get from him. Except perhaps how they planned to kill me." He's silent a second. "I can't just let him walk, Yin."

"I know...I know. I do." Yin closes her eyes again, weight not leaving Revilier's arms. "I'm just...having trouble. Except for you, he's the only wyvern who's stood by me through hell and high water from the beginning. And it was such a goddamned blindside...I can't even imagine someone else in his place yet, let alone the process of picking them. It's going to take [i]years[/i] to buid another working relationship like that and be hell to pick someone else I can trust in terms of both honor and competency. Not to mention that he's one of my best friends here..."

She huffs shakily and leans forward to hug Revilier. "Everything was just...fallen into place so well. I wasn't ready to see it broken apart again..."

Revilier is growling inside.

"Then it won't," he assures her, softly. "I'll give him his job back as soon as I'm convinced he's safe. For you."

Yin smiles a little...or starts to. It stops about halfway, before her eyes trail down and aside. "Thank you, Revilier. But I'm...not sure. I need to talk to Serene to see what happened. I need to find out exactly what just went down. And then I need to talk to Petrovic. I don't honestly...know, if we can go back to the way things were, even after a window of awkwardness. The thing is..."

A pause. Then she looks up to her husband.

"We're the Throne of Julen. You and I, together. Either you're loyal to it or...you're not."

The general nods, but slowly so as not to sound too eager to agree. He knows it's true, this is the core of his belief. But still, it's Petrovic. The right choice is seldom easy, but rarely this exasperating.

"Do you want me to come with you when you talk to them?"

She thinks for a moment. "No. I think...it needs to be clear that it's really me speaking, and that I'm not thinking differently because you're here." Yin's quiet a few moments, then looks up again. "There are some things we need to know, I think. Even if Olivier wanted him to kill me, Petrovic could have talked him out of it. They could have staged a coup, killed you, and either imprisoned or exiled me. But instead, He sent Olivier away. We need to know why. Was it to give him time to get away and prepare an operation...or was it just to get him safe and away?"

Yin sighs.

"Petrovic directly frustrated your orders, no doubt. It's just a matter of degree now. Wanting to kill you isn't treasonous. Hell, I could have said the same for a lot of my superior officers as a dragoon. Even being willing to, 'in different circumstances,' isn't necessarily. The question is whether they were going to. Even if they weren't...we may not be able to trust him in service again." She closes her eyes. "But we need to know when it comes to deciding punishment. I should be able to get that between talking to the two of them. There's just...one other thing I want to know, I guess."

She looks up to meet Revilier's eyes.

"I know that you haven't liked or trusted Petrovic for quite awhile. So, why not a sniper? Why not Serene? Why not one of our dozen other elite agents to kill him after Petrovic had gotten the right information? Did you set this up as a trial by fire of his loyalty, to see if he was worth the irritation of keeping around?"

The general's jaw tightens a little bit. "Would you have ever forgiven me for having him taken out? And Serene wouldn't harm him without proof of wrong doing. He's like her big brother. And she would have found out, too. Serene would have started to doubt, and you know how much pressure spies are under to betray their governments anyway." His lips are tight, utterly serious. "Keeping him alive wasn't purely political, but having him killed would'e been completely personal."

Yin swallows hard, her jaw tight as well. Revilier is a powerful man, for sure, and a ruthless one...but it's rare that she has to deal with it being turned upon her inner circle, let alone the julen-loyal version. She thinks. Weighs...No. She doesn't need to react now, she needs to wait until her head's cooled for that.

"I need to talk to all three of them," she finally notes, softly and evenly. Serene, Petrovic, and Olivier, individually, before anyone's turned interrogation onto any of them."

"Then you should go quickly," the general notes. "I don't think anything I've said is making you happy with me, and I don't want to make it worse." His eyes, far from cold now, glimmer a soft sadness; he knows who and what he is, and how lucky he's been that his ruthlessness hasn't turned her against him already.

Yin is quiet, just a moment. Finally, she sets a hand gently to the side of his face, kisses his cheek...and then heads for the door, bound first for the infirmary to talk to Serene.

He lets her go, content to let her work things out in her own mind, and deal with her problems herself until she asks him for help.

***

The infirmary is busy; Serene being there is a cause for exceptional work ethic. She's conscious, but unresponsive. Her eyes are waxy, dead, and there are tear stains on her cheek. 

One of the nurses meets Yin in the door. "My Queen," he begins, of course, "she only asked for you a minute ago. You work quick."

Yin nods...the gesture has the faint echo of a regally bowed head. She's slowly getting the hang of this. "It's my job. Is she stable?"

"She is. You can talk to her, we're just finishing. There should have been serious damage to her left lung, but there wasn't. Only entrance and exit wounds." The nurse steps aside.

Yin nods. "Alright. Good to hear. Thank you." She breathes out slowly once she's past the nurse, steeling herself for what promises to be an arduous and wracking series of questions. Not of Serene...it starts there. But it's Petrovic and especially Olivier she's not looking forward to. Serene she's more concerned about than anything, despite the information she needs.

Once in the room....Yin sits by the bed, quietly, leaning her chin on a delicately-placed elbow, a look of quiet, infinitely intent patience about her countenance. She just sits, and waits for the medical staff to clear--the Queen wants to talk to a Special Agent, she knows it will be assumed by their more senior members and that they'll already be finishing up to leave as quickly as possible without making mistakes--silent, a faintly glowing hand resting lightly on Serene's shoulder.

It may take a minute before Serene feels ready to speak, too, and she can wait. Rough day.

It's not long. Once the room clears, the spymaster turns her eyes to Yin, full on.

"I tried to shoot him. I was going to bring him in," she laments, "he got away."

"Olivier? No. We took him down a block and a half from the cafe." Yin doesn't smile at this. She's disturbed by the whole thing, and Serene is one of the few people she doesn't usually fake authoritarian surety for. "He's in custody."

Once she feels the injuries knit, mostly, Yin leans back in her chair. "Now I'm more concerned about whether you're all right, about deystifying this whole, insane situation, and...what exactly happened back there. A hidden gun, and suddenly a bullet that matches it through you? He appeared to be healing you, but then, you aren't exactly the sort who would make a mistake like flinching on a trigger while the muzzle's headed your way. And Olivier certainly had some...power, that I've never seen before, going."

"I'm fine. I'll be fine." Serene sounds a little less sure the second time she says so. "I fired at him. I pulled the trigger, and then I was hit and he wasn't. I don't remember much after that, except a bright light." She's quiet, just a moment. "How did you find us that fast?"

"It turns out I'm still well connected enough to run across things like that accidentally. I came across a visual of Olivier...actually, just about twenty seconds before you served him coffee. Fantastic disguise. Saw blood, and immediately scrambled the three nearest Peacekeeping units to retrieve you and contain him."

Yin is not in the habit of keeping too close an eye on the operations of trusted spies, lest they're outed by the surveillance...but it isn't unusual for her to react so suddenly to confirmed danger to them. The covert and special operatives...those are Yin's babies.

"He was shot several times non-fatally and rendered unconscious after the cuffs were on. I wasn't sure what sort of power he had used against you, and all. So.."

She crosses her legs, face softening. "I'm not as worried about your physical health now. Because...well. That sucked."

"After this long, I'm not surprised he isn't right. I'm not. I just had to know. And now I do." Her mouth is a thin line; Yin should recognize this face well, the face of a spy whose lifestyle has cost her another relationship. "I'd like to go on assignment, as soon as I'm out of bed, if you have something for me to do."

Yin nods. She understands. "I'll find something." She sighs softly, and squeezes Serene's wrist. "So, is there anything you have to report about him? You were our only dedicated eyes on him, I believe, up until the moment I described."

"He was lucid. He seemed to know much more than he should have. He was beautiful, and charming, and he smelled wonderful." She's smiling a little again. "And whatever he did, he tried to help me afterward."

"Yeah...I did notice that." Yin smiles a bit. "I do wish I knew what was going on in his head. And I'm going to do my best to find out.

She nods. Serene closes her eyes. "I've learned what I needed to learn. Just... I think I need to sleep."

"Yeah..." Yin breathes out, stands, and sets a gentle hand to Serene's forehead. "Sleep well. I'll see about finding you a suitable assignment as soon as I can." And, she turns to go, aiming to collect her thoughts a minute and then go to see Petrovic.

"I'll try. But I feel okay, so call me if I, I mean, call me if you need help, or just someone to talk to, or something." Serene lays back, quiet again, to sleep.

Petrovic is quiet as well, sitting against the wall in his cell, eyes closed, jaw tight.

Yin can be heard speaking quietly outside the cell to the guards before she ever sets foot inside. She's ordering them off. Once the cell clicks open and the guard, bowing his head, takes his leave...in is quiet a few moments, forehead leaned against the wall out of sight. This one's the tough one. This one she's really, really not looking forward to...afraid of how it will work out.

Finally, she breathes out, and steps into the cell. Before saying a word, she sets a a small device against the wall beneath the camera. It adheres, and she presses one of the two buttons in the front. It leaves the camera's picture, but has jammed the sound. This is a private conversation, and...she knows that Revilier trusts here near-absolutely. Hopefully that's still the case right now, after her actions today. Her hand hesitates there.

Petrovic could hear her coming, and so doesn't move when she enters. He's sitting on the cot, his legs drawn under him in the lotus position, eyes closed. He has nothing to offer voluntarily.

Yin's quiet. Finally, soft enough that her voice shouldn't give her emotion away much without her turning around... "Olivier didn't leave. I...thought you should know.

"I'm not surprised," he answers, just as softly, without opening his eyes. "I have no right to ask, but I would greatly appreciate it if you said whatever you need to say and leave me alone."

She closes hers.

"He's in custody, alive. I had him apprehended after seeing blood on one of our agents. I don't know what's in store for him. Revilier offered to reinstate you if you wanted it and he became convinced you weren't a threat to us. I don't have any other updates on your status here. I guess that's it."

"Revilier can burn in hell. I'm not interested in reinstatement. Just let me know when I'm free or to be executed." His words are sharp, but not angrily so. He speaks quickly, but pauses heavily between sentences so it doesn't sound like he's ranting.

Yin sighs, turning her back to the wall and leaning back against it. Her eyes remain on the ground. "You're not going to be executed, Petrovic. I wouldn't allow it. I don't know what is going to happen, though."

"You have something wonderful. Truly, truly wonderful. And because I felt something for you, regardless of whether I would have said that tonight or not, my years of perfect loyalty to Revilier went away. I never would have agreed to go through with Olivier's plot if the general hadn't set me up. I would have found another way to make things right." He opens his eyes, and they're bloodshot, dry. "When I leave here, I'll seek employment elsewhere. We'll almost certainly be enemies. Revilier will try to kill me eventually, and he'll justify it to you, but he won't get another chance."


in's expression finally faults, just a bit, at the 'we'll almost certainly be enemies' part. She's quiet, just...processing all of that. "Petrovic...you were wronged. Grievously, and...I've already said that, emphatically, to REviliers. Others see it too, they've said as much. I understand, you know I do..." she'd been betrayed and cast aside by a country she'd given her life to, too, "how angry you are at Revilier. Me...everything. And how much you'd like to push back. Against him. Maybe even against the country. But I..."

She trails off a moment. What follows isn't pretense. Not manipulation by guilt. Not maneuvering. Just...shock, and hurt.

"You'd really...make yourself my enemy?"

He's quiet at that. "I don't want that. I'm just... realistic. Anywhere I go, they'll want my knowledge. I can't stay; you know my loyalty to you wouldn't waver, and if I stayed next to you knowing you would never have me I would eventually lose my mind. Having to look at Revilier's smug face, knowing he hates me for feeling something for you, having to tiptoe around you. I'm a soldier, Yin. I'm not a spy, I'm not a politician. I fight, I protect, or I die."