Kofuku locked the door of the meeting room behind her, and sat down at the head of the table, watching the feed being projected against the wall. Two of their men were removing Falano from his cell, strapped to a gurney with both of his robot legs removed, but at her request, his mask had been placed back on, albeit after it was disarmed of its weaponised features. His face, she surmised, would do little to help identify him to Richard.

“Is the sound working?” Colburn asked from the middle of the table, holding down a button on the device built into it.

One of the soldiers on the feed lightly clapped near Falano’s gurney, transmitting it through the microphone.

“Oh, you’ve bugged me. Very old school,” Falano said, craning his neck to try and see the soldiers. “I can hear the feedback in my head, you know. Don’t you have any concept of decency or privacy, princess?”

Kofuku scrunched up her nose, and reached over to press the button. “I’ve seen you two in the same place so don’t play coy with me: I’m going to reintroduce you to a new friend. Don’t talk about the mic, it’ll just complicate things.”

Falano turned to the camera in the corner and blew her a raspberry. “What do I even get for this?”

“Depending on what we get out of this, I might consider letting you walk again. Unless of course you like being paraded around like a trussed up hog at a barbecue. Your choice, Mr. Duran.”

“I do like it when you call me that. So formal.” He smirked. “Alright, fine. Who’s this fellow?”

Kofuku elected not to answer that, taking her hand off the button and leaning back in her chair. On the screen the soldiers adjusted his gurney so it was almost vertical, before wheeling off off-camera.

Colburn tapped at her controller to switch to a different camera, one that was pointed towards the window of Richard’s cell from one of the corners of the brig. Falano came wheeled in from behind, and was set up directly in front of the viewing pane, the soldiers locking the wheels of his cart before taking their leave.

“Yo,” Falano said. “Damn, your hair looks kinda nice. Did they have a barber down in the shithole they threw you in?”

“What the fuck are you supposed to be?” Richard growled, clearly disinterested.

“Wow, rude. They told me you’re an old friend of mine or something. I killed most of those, so who are you?”

Richard stood up and walked over to the window to stare at Falano. They held there, just looking at each other with the glass between them.

“Doesn’t seem like they recognise each other,” Colburn said.

“Just give it a second.” Kofuku shifted in her seat.

Richard slammed the side of his fist into the glass. “You.”

“You know I almost didn’t recognise you with the hair. Thought you’d cut it shorter, Dick.” Falano leaned in as much as he could with his movement restricted.

“I’m in here because of you, dickless.” He hit the glass again, but given how strong it was, it was unlikely to take any damage whatsoever. “How’d they catch you anyway? Thought you got infinite work in fairyland.”

“Can’t tell if I got careless or if the merchants sold me out. They were real quick with handing me over to the princess.”

“Princess. Huh.” He stepped away from the glass and began pacing inside the cell. “That’s legit? Boss’ daughter or something? Or is this like when you left me for dead on Desolation?”

“Okay one, that wasn’t personal. You were just so conveniently placed that I couldn’t get you out. Two, yes, that’s serious. It’s about the sword.”

Richard slumped back down against the floor. “Sword this, sword that. It’s a fucking sword, just make a new one.”

“I think it’s more about the thing inside the sword.”

“Big deal. You’re telling me they have that giant dead thing and they can’t make a new one from it? Don’t they like, make swords all the damn time, like that’s their whole thing?”

In the other room, Kofuku massaged her temples. “These two are going to give me an aneurysm.” When she looked at the screen again, Falano had gone quiet, as if he had also realised that it was pointless explaining any of the nuance to Richard.

“I know there’s parts I helped with and I know there’s parts he entrusted to you. A pardon could be on the table for both of us,” Falano said.

“A pardon? For giving information?” Richard snorted. “Dude, even I’m not stupid enough to fall for that.”

“So you admit you are a dumbass.”

“Fuck you.”

Colburn shook her head. “This is going nowhere. I’ll tell the warden to prepare for another transfer.” She stood up and left the room, leaving the information folder on the table not too far away from Kofuku.

Kofuku scooped it up, and she alternated between reading some parts of Richard’s description and watching the feed. There had to be something, anything at all to push him to talk, even…her eyes went to the device at the centre of the table. Her hand hovered over the talk button, and then pushed it down. “Both of you.”

On the screen, Richard and Falano both turned to look at the camera.

“Clearly you two know about the sword. It’s just me here, right now, so before they come back, I just wanted to ask you one thing.”

“She speaks,” Richard said. “You answer this one, Duran.”

“Why did my father hire you? And I mean the two of you. I sit here and all I can see is two people with no direction in life. You just go around doing whatever you please with no care for how it affects everyone else. What the hell could he possibly want with you?”

“You wanna judge us, daddy’s girl?” Falano shot back. “Must be nice to be a bloody princess and have your own planet right? Never had to fight for anything or get your hands dirty to get where you are. Why should we tell you anything?”

Kofuku leaned into the built-in microphone. “You keep calling me that but you don’t understand my experiences either. In fact, I don’t think you understood my father at all. Both of you are the epitome of the worst choices he’s had to make, and you’re barely worth that. See, he understood what good work meant. Maybe not honest work, and maybe he’s had to compromise with people like you, but that was his choice. He let you go even before he died. I want to give you that choice now.”

The two of them didn’t reply.

“I can promise you as his heir this: I don’t care what you’ve done. I don’t think it really matters at this point. But you have something that I want, and if you give it to me, there’s no reason for me to double-cross you. Maybe there is something about you and I just don’t see it. I just ask that if you trusted my father, then let me give you the same chance he did. Give me the same chance.” She gasped as she removed her hand. An impulse, or just plain stupid? At that moment, she had no answer, but it was done.

“Let me get this straight,” Richard said. “The boss worked with us, we didn't work for him. Can you even wrap your little entitled pea brain around that idea?”

“Even if you really wanted, they’d never let us go. That’s the institution you represent, princess,“ Falano said. “No matter how we go about it, we’re fucked!”

“Like I said, give me a chance. Tell me what you want to see,” Kofuku said.

“Why…you know what?” Richard said. “Why don’t you start by coming in here? Getting real sick of talking to a disembodied voice.”

“Yeah,” Falano continued. “Come in. I’m crippled and rigged to blow himself up. What the hell are you afraid of?”

Kofuku was about the hit the button again to reply but at that moment the door opened and Colburn froze, watching her reaching out to the middle of the table.

“...what are you doing?”

“They weren’t getting anywhere. I was nudging them.”

“What have you said?”

“I’ve barely-”

“What have you said!?” Colburn’s glare burrowed into the front of her skull. “Were you even going to discuss this with me?”

“They’re not a threat, okay? I’m just trying to understand what we can give them in return. What my father gave them. That’s the only way we’re going to get anything out of them.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. Are you okay?”

“I told you I’m…” She trailed off as Colburn’s icy gaze continued. “Are you trying to say I’m not thinking clearly?”

“Ever since you found that diary it’s always been about this sword.”

“Because I can finally do something about it! Do you understand what the sword represents?”

Colburn took a seat next to her. “Enlighten me.”

Kofuku took a deep breath. “My father was next in line to be shogun. He was more competent, maybe the most competent retainer in that court. That’s why they gave him a shithole of a planet to die on. But he didn’t. If he hadn’t gone to Rissmont I wouldn't have-” Kofuku practically covered her own mouth at that. “Oh my god. Moira, I didn’t mean…I didn’t mean it in that way. I’m sorry, I wasn’t-”

“Thinking?” Colburn exhaled sharply. “Are we seeing things clearly yet? Your father is the only reason some of us survived that day.”

Kofuku slumped in her chair. “I really didn’t mean it.”

“Take a breather. Like, right now.”

She shut her eyes, feeling the beat of her own heart in her chest, the cool air conditioning blowing all over her. The phase came back to her, rising out of the turbulent blood pumping into her head:

Kawa wa nagare, ishi wa nokoru.

Kawa wa nagare, ishi wa nokoru.

The river flows, but the stone remains.

Kofuku sat there in the dark of her mind, the phrase repeating over and over. With the flow of the words she inhaled deeply, then exhaled, over and over. Her heartbeat slowed, and so did the pressure under her scalp. The migraine she didn’t realise was building into a full on headache slipped away.

She opened her eyes  and was still at the meeting table. On the feed, both men were silent, with Richard lying down in his cell and waiting for her reply. “I’m here “ she whispered. “I’m back.”

Colburn’s hands clasped her own. It was warm, and her expression had softened. “We have all the time in the world. Now what did they want?”

“For me to go in there. I doubt it’s to talk to them, they’ve been doing that just fine.”

“Falano’s completely disarmed so it’s got to be the Venator.”

“They know something we don’t. If I go in they’ll spring it.”

“If you don’t, they might try it anyway.” Colburn flipped Richard’s folder closed and tore the plastic bag off the front, offering the thin metal bangle to Kofuku. “If you want to show them who’s boss, apparently this reacts as an emergency measure. The warden didn’t pull any punches. Probably the same for every Ven in that prison.”

Kofuku grit her teeth, and locked the bangle around her arm. “Gotta hurt, right?”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“It’s only right. No risk, no reward.”

“Akiraka,” Colburn said. “The sword.”

“Yes?”

“What does it mean? To you.”

Kofuku tented her hands together. “When he lost it, our whole empire fractured. It’s still a mess out there, and i-” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “-it was his fault. If I can get it back, it doesn’t matter what it can actually do. It just means that maybe I can start fixing everything it broke in the first place.” She got up, paused for a moment behind Colburn’s chair, and then continued out the door.

“I’m here!” she called as she strode into the brig, the cell at the opposite end of it for her. “This better be good!”

“Took you long enough,“ Falano said. “Dick here was about to die of sheer boredom.”

She came around the side of the cell, her gaze switching between them. “Had to use the bathroom. I’m here, what now? Or are you just wasting my time?”

“We were just racking our brains, right, and there might be something,” Falano said. “Basically, your dad assigned us different tasks. At first we didn’t know what the hell this shit was for, until we saw the sword he was making. Difference is I was offworld a lot, but Richard’s jobs were on the planet itself.”

“Yeah.” Richard pressed himself against the glass. “Dai-go…shin-kami or whatever. Gave me a little hut out in the mountains. Kept asking me to zap rocks and caves and crystals and stuff. And sometimes those talking animals, that part was fun.”

“If you were on Daizo-Shikigami, where were you?” She leaned against the side of the cell and nodded at Falano.

“Gefnia,” Falano said. “Rikter 8, Turpentine, Hebros…anywhere with a black market. Back then, with the Stateship in control of everything, actual good magical conduits were real hard to find. Not like today when you just walk into a guitar shop and start making demands. The sword’s gotta contain a god, right?”

“What’s left of one.” Kofuku nodded.

“So it’s really high grade stuff. Restricted in most places. Now I’m genuinely struggling to remember what’s where  but if you give me time to arrange my files I’m sure I can come up with-”

Kofuku held up a hand to silence him, and leaned in. “Your lens keeps looking at…him.” She turned around to see Richard now pressed against one side of the cell, moving his hands slowly along the wall. “...what are you doing?”

“Looking for…this!” He placed both hands over to one spot, and the vents in the top and flanks of the chamber began to buzz. Air was being cycled between the interior and exterior, which meant-

Kofuku stepped out of the way as Richard slammed his hands into the glass, and there was a blinding flash and a muffled thunderclap that followed, the force of the lightning strike obliterating turning the windows into large, jagged chunks that exploded outwards, several of which battered Falano in his gurney.

Kofuku stepped back as Richard came around the side, the electricity arcing under the skin of his arms making silhouettes of his muscles and bones from underneath.

“A little warning would have been nice, dipshit!” Falano cried.

Richard only growled, raising an arm to point at her. “C’mere.”

“Hey, alive  Ritchie! If she’s dead they’ll kill us!”

With a grunt Richard lowered his arm, and took a menacing long stride in her direction. “Don’t worry, I’ll just zap her a bit.” He rubbed his hands together, and as he got closer, Kofuku felt the hairs on the arms and legs as well as the top of her head stand right up. He reached towards her arm, intent on grabbing.

Knowing full well what was coming, she relaxed her posture as much as she could, and closed her eyes.