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Ret waits patiently to get back on the station. He was somewhat confused at how things had turned out. All of his models had predicted that with two Corewards coming at the station that things were not going to go well. And so he had fled the station and even had his personal ship fly out of the solar system to wait for the report. And then the all-clear was sounded and not a single person from the station was killed. It just made absolutely no sense for that to happen. He'll have to study the veracity of his data, see if maybe he's been missing something in his data. But even if nothing came of it he still agreed with the course of action to vacate the station. His people have always given the Consortium a wide berth. It was one of the reasons why his people helped fund the station. Knowing their locations definitely helps avoid them and prevents problems. They have even gone to the extent of making it publicly known that any ship entering their area that even only might have Consortium Tech will be destroyed. And so far the Corewards have not have any problem with them having this policy and it discourages other races from trying to bring them that Tech.

An advantage of his position and status is that he's able to get back onto the station far quicker than many others would. At least when it came to his side. He has to follow the rules just like everyone else and so even though he isn't allowed to depart from the main station itself, he does have enough influence to have his own port of entry onto the outer ring closest to where his own people would come in. He steps off his ship and heads to the platform. As it is he'll still have to go through customs as he still have to abide by the rules. But he would be able to cut in front of most others in line. But thankfully this part of the station is set up for his people to breathe freely, which also allows for more space to be opened up to get in. The other races don't really get this consideration, but when paying a good portion of the bill to construct the station, certain accommodations were to be expected. And they were happy enough to fill one sixth of the ring with the liquid solution his kind needs to breathe.

Once he has passed through customs he finds a very surprising sight. There's that fox that he had encountered staring back at him through a HAPI. That they'd communicate via HAPI wasn't too surprising. It'd be unrealistic to expect them to go through the effort of getting an environmental suit to get into their area and swim all the way to this part of the outer ring. It's simply far less hassle to communicate via HAPI. His own kind just got used to almost always wearing them anyway. But he had forgone his suit for the moment, confident that he would have been one of the first and wanted some time to be able to move much more freely.

But what surprised him is that the fox was able to get a HAPI here in the amount of time it took for him to get into the station. The only way he could get that HAPI here in time is if not only did he never leave the station but knew that Ret had evacuated and came to snub it in. But as far as his models would have said, that fox would have also fled. Either way, he hides his impression at seeing the fox hidden.

"Why hello, there. Enjoy your trip?" Mige asks.

"You stayed?" Ret asks, choosing to confirm the only logical possibility.

"Of course," Mige says, standing on top of the HAPI unlike what they normally seemed to do which was hover. It's not required they stand on them to use them, meaning he must have some other purpose to not be hovering over it. "There was no threat to the station."

"Be that as it may, it was still the prudent course of action to leave just in case."

"If you say so," Mige responds, looking off to the side, whether staring at something on their side or something around him Ret can't tell. "I cannot fault someone who can't see the bigger picture from taking the safest course of action. If that's what you felt was best for the circumstances, then by all means. To be perfectly honest, I actually rather enjoyed the reprieve from your presence on the station. There was just so much that I could learn completely unhindered by having to check to see if your spies were watching. And for that I thank you."

"Glad that I could be of assistance," Ret says in response, knowing full well that the fox was trying to bait him. And he'd have to be a rank amateur to the craft if he let something like that phase him. "Anything in particular that you'd be willing to share?"

"Sure," he tilts his head to the side as he thinks about things for a few seconds. "One thing I found most interesting that isn't giving anything too pertinent away is the fact that the Family stayed. Not a single one left the area. In fact, if it wasn't for extreme pressure from their subordinates the leaders of the Family would not have even left the station at all. So instead they just hung around near it. And to top it off when the Corewards started taking action many of the Family's less influential ships moved slightly to also try and block and protect the station itself, joining in with the fleet. Definitely shows that they have far more faith and loyalty in what the station is doing than your kind do."

"That is certainly fairly useful information, Prince," Ret says, ignoring the jab.

"Please, I am only a prince as much as your real name is Retired, or your given name, all things considered."

"Still, regardless of the reasoning for having a title, a title owned is still a title worth mentioning when in matters of respect."

The fox looks somewhat annoyed at that, probably the first sign of any genuine emotion from this particular exchange the fox has given. Definitely something looking into why the fox insists on calling themselves a prince and yet get defensive when actually saying they should be called it. Still, knowing the Family's response to the situation is at least interesting and something to help his models in the future.

"Though I can't help but wonder as to your motivations for being here when considering the fact that previously you seemed to have absolutely no interest in having anything to do with me and now you're seeking me out?"

"Oh, I'm not exactly here for you. Like I said, you being gone made my work a lot easier. And there was quite a bit of work that needed to be done in this sector of the outer ring. I could have waited and gotten to it quite a bit later but it simply was too good an opportunity to not pass up. Just seeing you here was just an added bonus. Personally, I wasn't sure if you were going to try and arrive first to pretend you didn't leave, or show up late at night when no one is paying attention. I guess I got my answer and know a fair bit more about how you operate. Though to that end, I bid thee farewell. I finished my work in this area already and there are other matters that will be needing my attention."

And with that the HAPI left. The hologram disengaged leaving just the device that was preprogrammed to return to its own storage location, having sufficiently advanced programming to not be stepped on or have some other issue in the process. This leaves Ret by himself once again until more of the Jhereshii will be return to the station. And he's left trying to piece together what that fox actually was doing here and what all was said. It definitely confirmed his opinion on the fox being worth keeping track of. But he would have definitely wanted to have had something to record the conversation, but that might have been why they did things the way they did. By confronting him here right after he got off his personal craft, he was not prepared for the encounter. As Ret turns and looks around he also notices something that is also extremely telling. He's currently standing in a dead-spot. Having been here a long time he knows where all the security cameras are in the station. In the interest of transparency, they don't try to hide any of them as there is the issue of privacy. Besides the fact the eye-chips would make hiding cameras less required, let alone that telepath of theirs. But looking around, there is only one camera currently looking at his current location, and that one is one that is panning around. Meaning that it is entirely possible that during the entire conversation there was not a single camera to observe them and HAPI's do not carry over eye-chip data. This all means that the fox now has complete deniability that this conversation ever happened. No camera saw the conversation and even Ret doesn't have any recording. This means the fox is not only aware of the cameras but is able to act on them without even calling out that they are doing so.

In spite of himself, Ret finds himself smiling. For the first time in a long while he's actually found someone to actually match wits against. Understandably enough, duty and the mission came first and would still come first. It was far more important to keep in mind what was truly important. And even matching his wits against the fox wouldn't change that. But that didn't mean he couldn't find opportunities to interact and test himself. There was still the issue of determining why his models were being so inaccurate. He hadn't even predicted the Family would behave in that manner, either. His next course of action then would be to go and check his calculations. See what factors and variables are missing that is causing all these inaccuracies.

He moves over to one of the shuttles to take him back into the station proper, making a slight detour in order to go and pick up his environmental suit. He also spends a few minutes making sure that there haven't been any alterations made to it. That fox was using a HAPI and who knows how long they were in the area before their conversation. It didn't look like it had any limbs attached, but it had left too quickly and some of them have little slots for a rudimentary grabbing surface. It is entirely possible for that fox to find and tamper with his suit, which wouldn't be obvious that something was wrong without checking until he tried to go into an area that he actually needed it. That said, he's never really gotten the impression of malice from the fox, only annoyance. Though he's clearly managed to get completely side-tracked. If it wasn't for this fox he would have been trying to work out how to figure out what all the Corewards had done, what all they had said to the kitsune Riu. What sort of action was taken by the station. And yet, that fox very quickly and easily derailed his entire conversation.

In any event, it's high time he got a hold of his network, see what all they could find out about the situation. It's definitely necessary to start adjusting his plans to account for the plot currently unfolding around them. That plan is something he was able to predict, though they are moving a bit faster than normal. He'll have to send a message back home to adjust their fleets accordingly to compensate for that accelerated action.

After the rest of his training Richard just felt like wandering the station for a while. He had brought the orb that was given to him but at the same time he didn't really feel like wanting to talk to anyone. He only really brought it because his roommate would be concerned about him if he didn't. They were fine and all, but Richard just wanted time to come to grips with everything that had happened. Apparently the big bad of the galaxy had shown up and everyone was all terrified of it but he didn't even really feel like it affected him. He was still so unused to everything that he had no idea what to make of anything going on. He sees someone familiar walking up to him. They look just like the person from that seminar he had gone to. Eric stops at a reasonable distance at first and makes a miming motion between his mouth and Richards. Guessing that Eric is asking permission to talk Richard just shrugs. He's not really in any mood for it but does not feel like being particularly rude, especially when he has no real reason for it.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're a TD14," Eric says after having counted to ten and calibrated Richard's orb to his language.

"How did you know?" Richard asks.

"Well, that," Eric points at the symbol on Richard's uniform, the one that he was told to use so that people would recognize what he is and be more understanding regarding him missing out on key basic facts. Seeing Richard's reaction, he laughs slightly and moves in a bit closer so they aren't at such an awkward distance for casual conversation. "You should relax more. It'll do you a lot of good, I promise. No, I can tell you're a TD14 because you seem more confused at us surviving the Consortium than either ambivalent or pleased. You're new to this world, I know. Everything is just so shiny and strange and you have no idea how to make sense of this brand new universe you haven't even thought was possible before." Eric stands beside Richard and gestures outwards with his hands. "Everything you see here is a marvel. To us, it's just the mundane. The trick to living your life is to simply live it. Don't sweat the complicated stuff. Leave that to us intellectuals. If I might make a suggestion. As self-serving as it may seem, I would suggest you keep attending my classes. There are a lot of things that go bump in the night. You may not be skilled with any of the other forms of magic and even if you have the potential you are years behind in your training at them. But Con magic is different. Congruent magic can be picked up by anyone of any age and the only limitation is your own imagination and resourcefulness. I'm sure if you attend my classes you'll learn far more than you would just standing out in the market listening to a bunch of people who all talk in languages you cannot understand. I cannot offer peace of mind. I cannot even really offer power. But I can offer a sense of understanding of the world around us, an understanding of the forces at work and how one may move around them to accomplish a goal. And potentially a way to protect yourself."

"And what do you get out of it?" Richard asks.

"Oh, that's simple. Anyone who attends my classes after that first introductory seminar will be paying me with each visit. Like I said, a selfish act to suggest for you. But I do genuinely mean what I had said. There are many things that Congruent magic can do to help people and if there's one thing I teach people from my classes is that Congruent magic is not just for thieves and criminals. Now it's not a helpful as Sympathetic magic nor as flashy as Dissonant magic, but it does have a place in society and people can use it to do great things."

"Is that your business model, just walk around trying to find people you can get to attend your classes and give you money?"

"Not really. To be perfectly honest I don't actually even need to charge people. But people get suspicious if I do something regarding Con magic for free. They think I'm trying to trick them for something. I've made enough from my career helping celebrities and movie sets that I could hold the classes for a few years without going bankrupt. But by charging, I can break even and sure, maybe even make a bit of a profit, but it'll allow me to stay open indefinitely. And when people think you're ripping them off financially, they're more okay with seeing what you have to say if you actually are curious. And I'm a good example of that. I'm not actually here. This is my clay doll. I'm currently in the process of setting things up in my side-lab. Need to have the tools to make things for private requests as well as work on a few of my own projects."

"You know, in all my time on this station, you're the second person to actively try and seek me out," Richard says.

"Oh? Who's the other one? One of the Guardians or a representative to help smooth your transition?"

"No, it's a fox," Richard starts to say and then remembers Zera's lecture about calling people by their accepted race names rather than simply by description. "A kitsune. He was the first one to greet me when I woke up. He seems to like to just find me at some point once a day, check up on me and then just float off again like nothing was out of the ordinary. He's actually the person who talked me into going into your first class, though he never actually showed up in it himself, claimed that something came up and delayed him for longer than he was anticipating. The weird thing is that I have no idea what it is he does for a living. He finds me, has a quick conversation and leaves. I don't know why he does it or what he gets out of it."

"If you're okay with me giving a bit of advice on the matter? You're overthinking it. Some people are terrible when it comes to social interactions. But it is clear he's trying to involve himself into your life, even if he is reluctant to involve you into his life. And that's perfectly fine," he stops for a moment, letting the orb translate for him up to that point. Richard wonders if he's being expected to make some sort of response. "Look, I feel I would be rather amiss if I just said to trust anyone trying to be your friend. I don't know what it was like in your time but the reality is that that would be a very dangerous mentality to have, especially on this station. Everyone wants something from everyone they interact with. It is entirely possible he just considers you his good deed for the day and is an otherwise terrible person. He could be trying to manipulate you into doing something or to feel like you owe him for something or other. I like puzzles and can probably think of over a dozen self-serving reasons why this kitsune might be giving you so much attention. And without knowing more about them I can't say what their motives might be. But honestly, I'd still accept his attention for what it is. Don't trust anyone completely, not until they've done enough to prove themselves worthy of such trust. Doesn't mean you can't still be his friend, though. Just as it means you can't be my friend too. Just be smart about anything they want you to do and always be on the lookout for them doing something you would really rather not have to do."

He lets that all sink in for a moment before sighing and continuing. "You don't need to listen to what I have to say. It is entirely your life and thus your choice in how you live it. I'm just an old man that's extremely observant and quite skilled at puzzles. I am not particularly powerful, not all that strong and quite a few would consider me to be completely useless in a fight. But I have made up for all that with just how much experience I have in the universe. I may not be able to hear the words but I know how people think, what goes through their mind. If you ever have any problems with others, I can be a very useful source of insight into stuff like that. Though I think that saying any more would not do you any particular good. I would suggest you go and try out the core root. It's a bit spicy and can be a bit chewy if you get a bad one, but it'll definitely make you feel more at home and clear your mind," Eric says before moving off back into the crowd, waving at Richard as he does so.