The Weaving Force: Chapter 25 (Patreon)

Chapter 25:

Taylor:

“Hey girl.”

My eyes cracked open, the pounding headache beating a steady song of pain across my temples.

Vicky sat across from me, apparently having been sitting by my bedside on the Jedi’s beanbag but not-beanbag chair.

The sharp pain in my head grew as I suddenly became aware of the movements in the Temple around us: Padawans talking, people’s footsteps, droids cleaning, the humm of the air conditioning.

I groaned miserably, turning my face and pressing it down into the pillow.

Is this what a hangover feels like?

Vicky giggled. I cracked open one eye, casting a baleful glare at her that she was utterly immune to.

Bitch.

“So,” she began, the smile still there but more subdued. “Mind telling me what happened?”

It actually took me a moment to recognize what she was asking before my own memory kicked in and provided the answer as to what exactly I’d done before passing out.

The Force.

I…

I had felt it.

I tried in that second to reach for that feeling again, tried to move that limb I’d never known existed and felt it again.

Thin, fragile. Like a string pulled taut.

I considered answering her with my swarm, but with the pounding in my head thought better of it.

My hand moved, vaguely making the gesture of writing on the mattress before Vicky reached over, grabbing a pad and pen by the night stand.

She slid the pad under my hand and the pen between my fingers, so I didn’t have to move much, and I tossed her a grateful look at the consideration.

Now… how to phrase what happened in a concise enough way.

The Force is a helluva drug.

Vicky chortled, the startled laugh snorting out of her nose before she covered her mouth and nostrils with her hand. “No shit, huh?” she laughed. “Kinda figured the Force had something to do with it since it took like three Masters to help pull you from… whatever was going on and the rest of 'em were freaking the hell out.”

Three Masters?

The memory came, like looking at it through fogged glass; gentle voices, hands holding mine, tugging me through the deep waters.

The pain in my head throbbed.

The miserable groan clawed its way out of my throat again.

What happened?

She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t remember.”

“Not all. And nothing after I passed out. What are the Jedi saying?”

“They were freaked out that you knew how to use the force at all. By the way, how did you do that?”

I’ve been listening.

“Yeah.” She nodded, features scrunching up. “You did that with the wookies too but-” The pieces clicked together, I saw recognition enter her eyes. She was fast on the uptake, I could give her that. “You’ve been listening to their teachers?!” It wasn’t really a question. More a demand for confirmation.

I nodded.

“How freakin far is your range!?” She demanded.

Far enough.

Vicky sighed, shaking her head as she stuffed her face in her palms. “Tay… that’s kinda like stealing.” She bemoaned, her voice muffled by her palms. “They have every right to be pissed at us, maybe even throw us out. I don’t know if you remember but we’re kinda short on options here!”

There was a despairing note in her voice, like someone realizing all her problems were stacking up and she didn’t know how to quite solve them before they crushed her.

I felt the familiar, sharp knife of guilt in my chest.

I hadn’t thought I’d get caught. Especially not so early- if the Jedi threw us out because of this…

“I am sorry”

I made my swarm enunciate the words clearly, using the soft flaps of their wings to turn the statement into a whisper on the wind as opposed to a chittering hiss.

It wasn’t my voice. But I hoped she recognized the effort, and the sincerity.

I heard Vicky sigh, and barely felt her move before the mattress dipped by my legs.

Surprising, but not very.

What was very surprising was when I felt Vicky lay down; the spot under her ribs smushing my hand, pen and pad between her and the bed.

I pulled my hand and the writing utensils free, opening my eyes to look at Vicky but she just kept staring at the ceiling.

“Why’d ya do it?” She asked quietly.

I stared at her. I already knew my answer, but something about the way Vicky was asking was strange, and not just because she was laying on my bed for some reason.

Even so, I didn’t have the voice or the desire to really get into the nitty gritty, so I just plopped the pad down on her midriff and wrote.

Needed to be safe.

She frowned when she read it, brows scrunching together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

My hand scribbled some more, I could feel the give of her flesh beneath the point of the pen and pad as I wrote over her stomach.

From the Jedi… I have to know if they try something.

She seemed to read the line several times before she snorted, a suppressed amusement making her shake as she shut her eyes and smiled at the ceiling.

“You’re so fucking paranoid.” She hissed between her teeth, apparently struggling not to laugh.

I offered a flat glare in response, she just kept on laughing.

When she finally calmed down she turned her head, looking at me as her hand reached up to pat the one I was using to write. “I thought it was my fault.”

I blinked, confused, and the question was either obvious on my face or Vicky felt the need to elaborate because she did.

“You knew why I was going down to talk to Yoda,” she said. “I thought… that may have made you desperate or something…”

Ah.

I shook my head, writing on my pad.

I didn’t approve. But no. The Jedi being idiots worry me,” I allowed myself a barely there smirk. “If I was worried about you being an idiot I’d never get any sleep.”

She smacked my shoulder. “Oh, ha-ha!” She gave me an ‘unamused’ look, even as the corner of her mouth was struggling to not drift upwards.

I was surprised by how calm she was. Vicky wasn’t like me. She was… expressive. Emotive. Anger I’d expected; not this calm. It was almost worrying if not for the fact that I was somewhat grateful I didn’t have to wake up to an argument.

A moment of silence. I let my eyes close, if only to block out the brightness of the sun filtering through the windows.

“So…” she ventured. “We’re ok? I didn’t push your buttons or mess things up? Make you do something stupid?”

Was it stupid? What I’d felt hadn’t felt that way at the time…

Oh you pushed my buttons. But we’re ok. I wrote. Pretty sure you won’t hurt me.

She huffed out a breath and I saw her roll her eyes. “Ringing endorsement there, Tay-Tay,” she joked, then swiveled up to her feet, offering me a hand. “So you wanna go meet our guards?”

I blinked, confused.

“We have guards?”

(X)(X)(X)

We did, in fact, have guards.

Padawan Keto and Padawan Secura. Human and alien girls.

They were supposed to be waiting outside our door, but within a handful of minutes they were swept into the living room to share cookies, ice cream and ‘girl talk’ by Hurricane Victoria. Both looked a little confused and bewildered on how exactly they got here.

I was confused on where the hell the cookies and ice cream came from.

(X)(X)(X)

Plo Koon

Insects.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious. She used the insects to speak, after all. But they hadn’t thought to ask anything further. They’d never even suspected she could hear through them, let alone queried as to her range of control.

They’d simply been… insects.

Irrelevant.

She’d used that. Their arrogance

In fact, he suspected she used that innate underestimation of her capabilities often.

Hours, days of being ceaselessly beneath her eyes and ears. None had ever suspected.

It was remarkable… and frightening.

“This is unacceptable!”

Master Tiin growled out the words for what must’ve been, by Plo’s count, the fourth time since the meeting began.

Granted, it had been a rather lengthy meeting. Since the sun rose; a sun which was now beginning its slow descent beneath the horizon.

“She was never told she could not learn.” It was Master Dooku who drolly replied, present as a guest of Master Yoda’s, who felt a ‘non-Council view’ might perhaps be useful.

It was. At least in between the subtle and not so subtle goading. The Count’s clear amusement at the Council’s general discomfort with this turn of events was otherwise rather disconcerting.

They had been humbled, and Dooku, much to many members' increased irritation, was enjoying their sudden dosage of humility.

Plo Koon hadn’t realized the depth of the rift that had formed between Dooku and his former colleagues. It was… dismaying – and worrying.

“Masters-” Depa Billaba cut in, brows pinched together, looking very much like she was struggling not to bring her fingers up to rub at her temples. “We’ve discussed the justification, or lack of justification, for her actions ad-nauseum. We’ve discussed the acceptability of her actions in every context ad-nauseum as well. What’s done is done,” she almost spat the word. “What we need to decide now is how we act moving forward!”

“It’s clear she must be barred from the Temple grounds,” Master Tiin growled. “Whatever her range is, she must be held beyond it, at least until we know more of what she can do and what her goals are. Perhaps an outlying base in the system.”

“Held as a prisoner? For what crime exactly?” Dooku cut in, leaning back in his seat to cross one leg over the other, hands interlacing over his stomach. “When last I looked, any guest can access our temple archives, including the introductory treatise on Force usage. This doesn't seem much different.”

“You know well enough how this is different!” Tiin barked, reaching the end of his frayed patience.

“Jedi do not hoard knowledge,” Master Koth muttered, his hand rubbing at his forehead as he listed to the right in his seat. “While… of course we wish for those who use the Force to learn properly under us… nothing strictly states they have to. There are multiple other Force sects, after all.”

“And she has been learning properly, in a sense,” Dooku shrugged. “From what the report described, she has learned from the instructors here at the Temple.”

“By eavesdropping on the various lessons she was not privy to,” Master Piell  grumbled. “It could almost be considered theft, in a sense.”

They were going in circles, Plo Koon realized. While nothing strictly speaking condemned the manner in which Ms. Hebert had learned of the Force, Masters Piell, Tiin, Mundi, and Rancisis were still too irate over it to let it go. Koth, Galia, Yaddle, Poof and himself were mediators. And so far Dooku was Ms. Hebert’s only “advocate”, one that seemed more driven by a desire to needle the irate Masters.

He could understand, perhaps, why they were so… angry. It was primarily because none could have ever conceived that such a methodology was even possible. The Jedi temple had surveillance countermeasures. But that was for droids, hidden cameras and spy gear. Infiltrators and saboteurs. Not… insects.

Now that it had happened, they were off balance and facing the very real dilemma of how to proceed. What Ms. Hebert had done, the level of Force power they’d sensed, was staggering.

More disquieting was another possibility.

“Master Nu,” he called suddenly, drawing the chief Librarian’s – and everyone else’s – attention to him. “The medical examination we took of Ms. Hebert… can you compare it to the one we initially took, before the incident?”

The old Master raised an eyebrow but dutifully pulled out her data slate. “I can. What specifically am I comparing.”

“Her midi-chlorian count.”

That got a few curious looks but some, like Master Windu and Yoda, recognized the query and its nature. Master Windu stiffened, while Yoda leaned forward with interest in his seat.

By his eye, it seemed like they were bracing themselves.

Master Nu’s lips pursed. “Four days before the incident, both Ms. Hebert and Ms. Dallon’s midi-chlorian counts were measured. Ms. Hebert’s were within marginally acceptable parameters for the possibility of some Force sensitivity. Though nothing remarkable, Ms. Dallon’s scores were much higher overall.”

“And now?” he pressed.

“Ms. Dallon’s is unchanged… but Ms. Hebert’s midi-chlorian count increased by little over four hundred percent.”

That sent many voices murmuring.

Midi-chlorians were not the source of the Force, but they were a somewhat accurate measurement of one’s potential. The tiny, microscopic organisms converged on focal points that could be found across the galaxy, including people.

And they didn’t simply “increase” by four hundred percent in a matter of days.

“I believe,” he ventured to speak, his words measured and slow, trying to convey a calm he didn’t wholly feel himself. “That the Force-sensitive here, may not have entirely been Ms. Hebert.”

He let the implications sink in; Master Koth was perhaps the first besides Windu and Yoda to realize, his eyes going wide as he sat up straight.

“You mean… the entities?” The Zabrak gasped. “They can use the Force?”

“Impossible to the Force, nothing is. All living things, touched by the Force they are. Size, to the Force, irrelevant it is. Different, this is not,” Yoda said, trying to head off the rapidly mounting distress building in various members.

“With all due respect, Master Yoda, this is very different, and to not acknowledge such is harmful in its own way,” Ki-Adi-Mundi argued firmly. “This creature, with merely its presence, nearly brought physical harm onto four Masters. That is not a power we can contend with easily should we need to. Dare I say, it’s not a power we may be capable of contending with at all.”

“View things by how we might have to contend with them, do we now?” Master Yaddle put forward, tossing a leery eye in Master Mundi’s direction.

“These entities are vastly alien to anything we’ve ever seen,” Mundi protested. “To not prepare for that possible eventuality, unwanted as it surely is, would be irresponsible.”

“While I do believe that Ms. Hebert meant no distress and that her intentions were not malevolent in any way, this entity that is tied to her is another story, as are its motives. We also do not know what its plans are regarding Ms. Hebert,” Master Rancicis chimed in, raising his concerns.

“There is no reason to believe it is hostile,” Plo Koon cut in.

“Isn’t there?” Master Piell contested. “Master Galia, what were your impressions?”

The youngest Master stiffened in her seat, and Plo Koon could sense her sharp, thorny fear. He tried to send waves of calm her way…

But he remembered her reaction when they’d first felt the presence of this ‘Queen Administrator’. Its full unbridled power crashing over them like an ocean crashing upon a rock.

It had been… overwhelming.

He hoped the young Master could master herself, remember now that, for all that power, it had been fumbling, inexperienced.

Plo Koon had sensed many things, but outright hostility had not been one of them. Whatever harm it had caused had been through ignorance and carelessness. Not Malice.

Master Galia shuddered. “I… I don’t believe I’m… objective enough to answer with certainty at this time, Masters.”

It was a diplomatic answer, but the detractors took it to prove their point; he could see it in Piell’s face as the diminutive Council member panned his gaze around the room.

It was… disheartening. The Jedi were meant to judge things evenly, calmly, but he could see here and now that they themselves weren’t immune to fear.

No one was.

They’d been the premier power within those who feel the Force for so long, and now that something had shaken that conviction; it had unsettled them all deeply.

He decided to change tracks.

“Let us assume,” he began, “that certain things proposed so far are true. If it is hostile,” he nodded towards Masters Tiin and Mundi, “how do we contend with it if we’ve already established it might very well be beyond our power to contest?”

He saw many of the Masters shift uncomfortably, Windu’s eyes closed as though the thought pained him.

“We must stifle her continuing to learn,” Master Tiin put forward. “Which is why I suggested she be removed from the Temple grounds.”

“That may not stop her from experimenting on her own,” Master Billaba countered calmly. “Instruction is important but with that much power and time to examine and test things on her own…” she shrugged. “Throughout galactic history many Force sects formed outside of the Order for a reason.”

“That is true,” Master Poof added. “And Jedi have always encouraged learning and self-discovery. At least at the Temple we could oversee her, to make sure she won’t accidentally hurt herself.”

Tiin’s lips were thin, his frown severe, but he didn’t refute their words.

“...We might Sunder her.”

Plo Koon, or rather every Master in the room, seemed to still for a moment; as though they were certain they’d misheard.

When they realized they hadn’t, he could swear the Council Chamber became cold, with a palpable dread and fear that was as biting as the winds on Hoth.

“What did you say?” Master Billaba was the one who asked, breaking the silence; the horror in her voice was shared by all members of the Council as their eyes turned towards Ki-Adi-Mundi.

The Cerean Jedi Master kept his gaze firmly fixed forward, not meeting the condemning eyes of his peers. Even Master Tiin looked discomfited and uneasy. Master Piell quickly looked away, unable to even stomach the suggestion.

“You surprise me, Master Mundi,” Dooku’s voice was a low, deep baritone, utterly frosty in its inflection.

Plo Koon didn’t like that voice.

“Masters,” Mundi began slowly, ”this is an extreme situation. I do not make this suggestion lightly, and wish I did not see the situation requiring me to bring it up, but extreme options are options,” he enunciated each word precisely to drive his point home. “Consider what we’ve deduced: that Miss Hebert is not, in fact, the Force-sensitive one… but rather, it is her entity.”

“Sundering Ms. Hebert from the Force would be useless, if that’s the case,” Master Nu’s lips were pinched together. “Needlessly cruel. The entity –  this “Queen Administrator” – would still be able to utilize it as it did before.”

“We’ve all sensed Ms. Hebert,” Ki-Adi’s eyes were closed in frustration, pushing the words through the various mounting protests. “She radiates pain and fear. How long before her influence on her entity corrupts it onto the thrall of the Dark Side? Where will we be then?”

Plo Koon tried to imagine. That power, that overwhelming, quintessence of raw energy and mind bending presence corrupted and twisted by fury and hatred. Bent to the will of the Dark Side.

It was all at once a sobering and terrifying contemplation.

“At least through Sundering we might deaden her influence over the creature. Keep it as a force of neutrality, if not a servant to the Light,” Mundi argued.

But Master Yaddle, the Master Plo Koon found easily to be the kindest and most empathetic of all those present stood, even as Yoda’s wizened features had grown ashen at the discussion around him.

She rose up on her seat and glowered  at Master Mundi, breaking the decorum of the Council Chamber as her indignation, sharp and whip-like, crackled across their senses.

“An undeserved fate you would force upon her. Needless and reckless.Unworthy of your station this is! Better than this, we should be.”

It was the harshest condemnation any of them had ever heard from the petite Councilor, and Master Windu finally moved to speak, seeing the meeting rapidly spiraling out of control due to everyone’s high strung emotions.

“What choice do we have!?” Master Mundi protested, having the decency to look shamed by Master Yaddle’s words, if not accepting her judgment.

“To help her.”

He wondered for a moment who it was that spoke.

Then he realized all eyes had turned to him.

Plo Koon sat still in his seat for a moment, the words registering in his mind as he contemplated them.

Help her.

He listened and felt the currents and eddies of the Force. Searching for a sign, and heard only… the faintest ring of approval, chiming like a distant bell.

“You’re right, Master Mundi,” he conceded, if only to soften the blow the Cerean must have taken to his pride at Master Yaddle’s reprimanding words. “Ms. Hebert is in pain. She is afraid. As she is now, she would be a conduit for the Dark Side, which could corrupt the entity Queen Administrator.”

He turned his head, looking at Master Yaddle. She still looked angry, indignant and hurt by what had been proposed by their colleague. “But the Jedi way would not be to cause needless suffering for… expedience. Or a sense of over-caution…” he shook his head. “We must help her,” he emphasized. “Help heal her mind. Calm her fears. That is how we serve the Light.”

As he spoke, the faint chiming bell of approval resonated within the Force and he grew more convinced of his own proposed actions as he progressed.

Yes. This is right. This is how the Jedi should respond.

He pushed himself off of his own seat, standing to his full height as he turned towards Windu and Yoda.

“Masters…” he began slowly. “I would formally request to take Ms. Hebert and Ms. Dallon as my Jedi Padawans.”

The uproar from the surrounding Masters drowned the room.

“At their age!?”

“Even if this were to be done it is one Padawan to one Master”

“The rules of the order are clear-

“-Not done for centurie-”

“Enough!”

Master Windu’s sharp voice silenced those in the room. The Harrun Jedi Master stared at Plo Koon, meeting his gaze.

“Why Miss Dallon?”

That was not an immediate dismissal. That was good.

“We know only that the Queen Administrator is Force-sensitive,” he explained. “We cannot rule out the possibility that the Fragile One is, as well. Even if it is not, by the midi-chlorian count, we know that Miss Dallon is Force-sensitive, or at least has a higher potential to be than Miss Hebert.”

“Would it not be more prudent to test The Fragile One first?” Master Galia asked.

“Queen Administrator, linked to Ms. Hebert, likely discovered how to use the Force through the same methodology Ms. Hebert used to spy on us. That means it would need instruction to manifest abilities as we’ve seen Queen Administrator do. That would easily take months of training, already.” he explained. “And… unless someone’s developed a very unique needle, I don’t believe we can simply extract a midi-chlorian count from the Fragile One for an easy answer.”

“Even so,” Master Nu cut in, “the procedures for the Jedi Order are clear: one Master, one Padawan.” Her features scrunched up in thought. “Technically you would be taking on not two, but four Padawans.”

Ahh… that… was a good point.

“Are we lacking for Masters in the Temple now?” Count Dooku questioned drolly. “I believe several within this venerated body are… ‘free’ as it were.”

“If both or… all cannot be trained by me, I understand, but I do believe this to be important.”

“What of their age?” Master Koth darted his eyes around the room, his head on a swivel as he looked to his fellow Masters. “We’ve already made a notable exception with young Skywalker, will we simply open the doors to any age now? The dangers of older inductees falling to the Dark Side-”

“Nomi Sunrider,” Plo-Koon answered. “Their age does not… preclude them from any destiny. They may be champions of the Light as she was.”

“An exception in every regard.” Master Piel protested, his beady eyes glaring at Master Plo Koon.

“An exception that has popped up more than once in the history of the Order,” Master Poof countered.

“Enough,” Mace Windu called again, the room falling silent at the Master of the Order’s call. “Clearly, this Council has much to consider. Let us adjourn for…” The man seemed to struggle to determine a decent length of time. Plo Koon got the impression he very much wanted to reconvene tomorrow. Or in a week. Or a year.

He looked to Yoda, and perhaps through some subtle signal he determined an adequate time. “...an hour,” he finally declared. “Then we may decide.”

As several of the Masters stood, Plo Koon noticed the various groups of thought and opinion gathering together. No doubt the hour would have very little ‘silent’ contemplation before they reconvened.

(X)(X)(X)

Vicky:

“And then Tay-girl here totally confused the Wookiee cub for male when she was female,” Vicky smirked at Tay’s deadpan expression, her quiet friend holding up a sign that read:

That was also you.

“Lies and slander!” Vicky gasped as Serra tried and failed to hold in her giggles and Aayla turned her head to hide her own amusement.

“The Jedi do offer lessons in diplomacy,” the blue twi'lek said demurely, nibbling on her cookie. “I do believe openly speculating on the Wookiee Chieftain’s desire to eat you was on the list of things not to do.”

Sign Vicky up for lessons. Pretty sure she’s just a five “successful” meets away from causing a galaxy spanning war.

“Hey!” she protested, pointing at Tay with a perfectly manicured finger. “I’m insulted! I only need three more successful meetings at most!”

Serra’s cheeks were red, struggling as she was to not bust a gut laughing. Honestly, these Jedi tried way too hard to keep the whole ‘stoic monk’ thing going. They had to live a little.

Like Yoda. He was fun.

‘Cept when he had the Stick.

Fuck that Stick.

She turned her attention over to Aayla. “So, why lessons in diplomacy?” she asked. “Like, seriously, I know the Jedi are kind of a knight order that fights people, but what’s the official job description?”

She’d gotten versions of this answer from Plo Koon and Yoda, but sometimes it helped to hear what the lower rank people thought their job was rather than the bosses.

Aayla looked somewhat startled. “O-oh. Well, Jedi fill many functions, generally whatever the Senate of the Galactic Republic needs at the time. We are peacekeepers. That means we must be diplomats, investigators, arbiters, and occasionally warriors.”

Vicky frowned. “Sooo… you guys go mediating problems across the galaxy?”

“In a sense.” Aaya nodded.

It kinda sounded like the Protectorate.

“So how many other temples are across the galaxy?” she asked.

“Oh, no.” Aayla shook her head. “The Jedi have many outposts and waystations, but there is only one Jedi Temple.”

“Really?” she asked. “But like… it’s a really big galaxy.”

She tried to equate it to the previous comparison, the Protectorate.

Trying to manage all fifty states through just one base out of DC?

There’d be no way.

Nevermind the problem of arriving on time. Boston was way different from California, just as California was different from Miami, and Miami from Texas.

And that was just one big chunk of continent. Nevermind the whole planet. Let alone the galaxy!

“And how many Jedi are there?” she asked.

“We have exactly eleven thousand three hundred and forty-seven members as of the last census taken,” Aayla recited from memory.

Eleven thousand.

Not eleven million, which would still be a drop in the bucket for even a planet’s population, let alone a galaxy.

But eleven thousand.

No way those numbers could do ‘peacekeeping’.

Hell, the Protectorate had, maybe, around or a little less than a thousand capes and affiliates total between all the branches, but they had boots on the ground through the PRT troopers. HUNDREDS of thousands.

She opened her mouth, ready to ask if the Jedi had any equivalent to that, troops that could give ‘em a logistics boost, when Serra’s holo chimed.

The Padawan was startled, pulling free the device before Master Galia’s visage appeared in a blue hologram.

“Padawan Keto, please inform- Ahh, Ms. Hebert, Ms. Dallon. Good. Please come to the Council Chambers. The Council has reached a decision.”

Vicky felt her stomach drop a bit, the lines on Taylor’s face going hard and stone like. “You mean about Taylor?” she asked.

“Yes,” Master Galia nodded. Then she frowned. “Were you not stationed outside their door?”

“Ahh, we’ll escort them immediately Master, bye-”

*Click*

…

“Did you just hang up on Master Galia?” The horror on Aayla’s face almost made Vicky laugh.

Serra cringed. “I’m sorry… I panicked!”

Taylor slid the remaining cookies towards Keto, who guiltily – or perhaps anxiously – stuffed  two of them into her maw.

(X)(X)(X)

Minutes later, standing just outside the Council door, Vicky took a deep breath. “You ready?”

Nominally, she was asking Taylor.

Honestly, though, it felt like she was bracing herself.

She really hoped they didn’t get kicked out or something.

Tay offered her a pat on the shoulder, a gentle squeeze finishing the motion, even as Vicky looked and found the girl remained as utterly stone-faced and unreadable as she usually was.

Another deep breath. “Ok… Let's see what they say…”