Move 2.7b Recap

The hallway outside Jedao's room: Reshad and Sasha; messages from Sulen

When Sasha steps outside, Sulen says in her earpiece, "Well, that's not how I intended this to go, but it seems to have been productive." Sasha responds, "I hope so. I think I had to, but I don't think Reshad saw it." She takes her scarf out of her pocket and covers her hair again.

As Reshad emerges, Sasha asks her, "Are we having this conversation in my office? Or over tea, with everyone?" Reshad says, "Let's debrief with everyone." Stepping close to Sasha and speaking quietly but sharply, she adds, "But first--Do not assume you know anything about Temuy culture." She then steps back, saying for all to hear, "I'll be there in five." Sasha tenses as Reshad steps closer, anticipating an attack, then says, "Understood. In return, do not pretend you comprehend a binding, when you do not. What you just said to him was cruel, even if you cannot feel it." Flat, Reshad responds, "Would you care to explain, then. How offering hope that things are different in the rebellion than the Heptarchate is cruel; how undercutting it is not."

Holding to her promise to assume Reshad acts in good faith, Sasha says, "You understood, I think, that the way the Shuos heptarch bound him was not clean. She used his strength against him, and she hurt him. I cannot guess the method, but that much was very clear, from how he spoke. You think, if you tell him it should not have happened, it will be a comfort. But it was his strength. He is the person that she aimed at, and he is the gun she aimed, both together. When you say this should not be, you tell him he should not exist. I cannot stand by and let you do that. Not to anyone, but particularly not to him."

notes

Reshad: "She has a brief, spinning moment of wondering if this is what it takes. If aggression in response to aggression is the answer. Distasteful, but - this is not home. This is no assignment, where she can afford to assume and shuck identities like an out-of-fashion robe. " Sasha: "Reshad has a perfect diagram, now: she has seen every knot in the net of Sasha's current loyalties, and she knows the shape, if not the details, of the ways Sasha has been hurt before. Of course, if Reshad uses this to bind her, it proves Sasha was right all along. She smiles a bitter half-smile: that's a stupid way to win."