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Later in the day, Cerise is standing in her personal chambers. This is as private a room as she's able to get considering she lives alone and even Ret wouldn't go so far as to bug her quarters, as to be caught doing so would mean immediate incarceration. She stands at part of her quarters that is reserved for private calls and stands in front of the machine. She has already set out three HAPI's to show up. Though most only go with at most one, she's had to deal with the Raeshael enough that it was justified in having three, and it helped she was able to write it off as a business expense since they needed it. Cerise sighs for a moment before activating the signal for the call to start. It's always somewhat annoying to deal with the Raeshael leaders. For starters she has to schedule any meeting well in advance and they all have to be there in equal proportions, which is usually done by just the leaders of each group. She's not allowed to talk until all three have shown up and can't use any one of them as an excuse as they may think she's playing favorites. But sometimes it's very necessary. She sits down in a chair and waits for them to show up. Theoretically, she could have gone to them, but they'd still need to have the others present there in case one said something condemning to the others. The Jilst is the first one of the three to arrive and she nods to him but doesn't say anything. He makes no response to her either, simply standing imperiously in the room. The Jilst representative almost always shows up a minute earlier than the others, just to lord it over the others that he arrived first. The other two show up fairly soon after each other and immediately go about putting on airs to try and seem as more important than the other two, despite all only being there in the form of HAPI's.

"Let me be up front and say that we are not accusing any of your three groups of any wrongdoing, but there is a serious concern that must be clarified. We have received reports of a potentially dangerous shipment coming to this station. We don't yet have information about what is in these shipments other than the fact they are coming from your space," she says, making sure to use the general term and not look at any one of them as she says so.

"Who is making these accusations?" the Reija representative asks, looking at the other two.

"The sources we have so far are Ret and someone from the Family," She says, having gotten the report that the Family did admit that there was a shipment of something they were told to not look into coming in from Raeshael space, but were not given any information about when or what it would be.

The three of them nod and the Falaa representative actually leaves the call for a moment. The Jilst representative also turns and shouts off into the distance, though they clearly muted themselves in the process. The Reija just looks down at their hands for a moment, moving their hands back and forth, probably having a screen to look at on his monitor. The two still in the call don't say anything until the third has reappeared.

"We do not have any freighters en route to the station at this time." the Falaa representative says as soon as he's back in, not even caring if the other two have overheard him or not. "We do have one freighter scheduled for fifty-six days from now, but I doubt we'd get a warning about something that far in advance. We do have a few passenger craft on their way to arrive in the next few days, but those are people only. Finally we have one of our warships en route to swap out with one of our fleet ships that needs to get some maintenance done."

Cerise nods. That would be one down. If the Falaa said it wasn't them it wasn't coming from them. Of the three groups the Falaa tend to play the part of the mediators. They aren't powerful enough to really dominate anyone on their own, but they do have enough of a military presence that if one acted out of line, they could threaten working with the other to act against them. And apparently that stalemate has kept them from annihilating themselves for hundreds of years.

"We have a few freighters making their way to the station, but none should be carrying anything of note to warrant a warning," The Reiji representative says after another moment.

"Well, I'm going to go ahead and say that we don't have anything scheduled coming from our own corporations," the Jilst representative responds. "But I'm also going to be the honest one and say that just because we don't have anything scheduled doesn't mean that it's not coming from us."

"What do you mean by that?" Cerise asks.

"Well did the warning say it was a Raeshael freighter or that it was coming from our space? There is a very distinct difference in those two states. There are different levels of customs from one race to another. There are some things that would be excluded or raise some flags from other empires that would not be flagged through our own systems. Many races will send a ship to one of our systems, do a bit of trading and get a mark saying it's gone through our customs, landing in our port, and then transporting it to other parts. It's unfortunate, but it happens from all three of us."

"Ret's message was extremely vague and so ultimately I do not know. The Family claim there is a human freighter coming from your space that they were paid to look the other way. But I can't exactly prove that the two are definitively linked."

"Human territories are too far from our own territories for them to ever really make an effort to come through us," the Falaa representative shrugs. "We might occasionally get Fringe or Jhereshii shipments coming out of our systems first, but those are thoroughly screened and then reported. There are no ships other than the ones I already specified that are coming from our systems."

"My guess is that it's coming from the Jilst side," the Reiji representative says quickly. "They would be the ones to work with a foreign power in order to try and stage such a ridiculous attack on the station and its people."

"Oh, like you're one to talk!" The Jilst representative shouts back, making Cerise somewhat glad that they aren't able to actually touch each other over the HAPI's. The Falaa representative just shakes his head and rolls his eyes.

"Hey!" Cerise shouts in order to break them out of their bickering. "I didn't call you all here to bicker. Personally, I don't care who it's coming from. You know our bylaws. We will not take action against an entire planet or race based on the actions of an individual. Unless it is coming as a direct response from one of your governments I really don't care. What I do care about is if the information being provided by a few ambiguous sources is legitimate or if we're looking into something that was never meant to real the command staff."

The Falaa representative looks somewhat impassive about her shouting, though the other two are somewhat mollified from the admonishment.

"Well if that is all that's going to be mentioned in this call, I've already given you everything I know about our ships coming into the station in the near future. So I'm going to go ahead and leave the call. Call again if you have anything else you need from us," the Falaa representative says before just turning around and stepping out of the call, causing the other two to actually stop their infighting for the moment. Cerise nods as he leaves, knowing full well their points were valid and that they were very unlikely to ever have anything to do with the potential attack.

"We will put in a request for the list of all ships coming from our systems if that'll help things, and if They don't, then we'll know who your culprit likely is."

And after a bit more grumbling and finger pointing between the other two Cerise just terminates the call. There is only so much that one can really handle the Raeshael bickering. But they don't really have any new information one way or another, which is the most frustrating part to the entire call. The only one she has a definitive answer were the Falaa, but they'd be the least likely culprits anyway. Though it is interesting that they did say that the Jhereshii would use them to smuggle things into the station. That the Habenceun would is understandable. Those are way too opportunistic to not try and find a way around restrictions, though what a Habenceun would feel would get through Raeshael customs but not their own she is curious about. But that's for a different matter. The other two did not give any indication one way or another, only really saying that it is possible for a human ship to come from their space. Cerise goes to file her report of what they have found out thus far, particularly to Riu, Anon and Toreselia as they will be the ones most necessary to coordinate the efforts from this point on. And as she looks at the space where her three HAPI's are still lying on the ground waiting to be put up she can't help but be a bit annoyed at Ret for not giving them a clue that would lead to far more conclusive evidence.

That evening, Riu steps into the training room and waits for Anon to enter. He goes about stretching as much as possible and has a few bands designed to try and keep his tails all together, which can be somewhat annoying but is far less prone to causing issues when sparring. As she enters he bows. She bows back and puts the data plate into the corner. Her own tails are also tied together, though instead of just a training garb like Riu, Anon is still just using her normal Guardian uniform. Once she has positioned herself into the opposite starting position they bow to each other once again and then encase themselves in a barrier of magic. Anon then launches herself at Riu. He does his best to try and deflect her attacks and get in a few of his own, but he knows he's fully outclassed by the younger female. She has mastered entire styles revolving around low-G and zero-G environments, which Riu never did. Though they grew up together they went about somewhat different routes. Riu was always striving for more of the command structure, trying to learn how to lead others into combat and control forces on a grander scale while she was always about just trying to learn the flow of a fight, to be up in the middle of it and work things out from the inside. Anon has always insisted that if it is her job to protect the station that she will make sure that there is no situation where she is incapable of defending herself properly. Knowing her, Riu supposes that she'd be able to even be able to hold her own on the high gravity of the habenceun homeworld. This time he lucks out in that they're only going to be fighting in the normal gravity levels of the station.

But as ruthless as she is in combat and how he'd never be able to beat her unless she's having an off day there is two very simple reasons he chooses to spar with her. The first is that as they speak the same language they can actually talk without having to risk breaking their translation orbs as training facilities like this are definitely not places authorized for the Language of Intent. And more importantly, she's the only one he knows that will actually fight him fairly. Cerise is more or less out of shape and wouldn't put up much of a fight. But she's never been a soldier and almost never spends any more time in her pods than normal unless she was planning on going out to a world that has stronger gravity than the station. He could spar with his Prime, but she usually has other things to do and even then fighting all-out against her often complicates matters. Not to mention he's easily a better fighter than his Prime. She also pushed for the command structure and though she can definitely fight, she didn't really put all that much effort into learning close quarters combat, instead relying on ranged or magic fighting instead. Anyone else in the station would see his station and go easy on him and let him win. But with Anon, she's never cared. So long as it is a fair fight and she's not trying to teach something she'll go all out. Rank, species, fur color, none of that has ever bothered her. All that mattered to her was that if you were her opponent, you were her opponent. Which meant she was the only one that he could actually ever improve against, though he had no illusions of ever actually beating her.

The kind of sparring they preferred had one very particular rule that also meant most humans were uninterested. In fact other than other kitsune and the Raeshael, none of the other races ever really showed much of an interest. Though as part of his training he did make sure that Ackrin knows how to do it, though naturally he's not going to push that hard against a child. It didn't matter if you scored a hit on your opponent. A point only counts if you can land a hit against them without hitting the barrier. At lower levels of skill and early on in the sparring match it's a matter of can one overwhelm the other's shields. Eventually, though, it becomes a matter of endurance. With the shields constantly draining energy from the air the room would get colder and colder until it eventually ends up a matter of which can still fight while practically freezing and can keep their shield up with the available energy so low. When it does get to this point it is often broken up a bit with both combatants using Dis magic to try and heat the room back up again. Well that and to prevent errant discharges from there being too much phasic energy in the area.

One advantage of things getting colder as the fight progresses is that it meant they didn't have to worry about overheating, assuming it ever got to that point. But unless she was specifically practicing for that particular thing which she'd be more prone to doing on her own it never got that far in their sparring matches. Even against other Guardians she strove to take out an opponent as quickly as she can. And granted, that didn't mean that Riu wouldn't be able to get some hits in himself. It's just a matter of how long before she gets through his shield. Her Sym magic was stronger than his and her skill in combat is superior. So though he can manage to get some hits in, eventually she'll still win because her shield can stand more hits and she'll hit him more often. Once their current sparring match is over and the two are at least breathing heavily he feels like bringing up what his Prime was talking about the other day.

"Am I too soft?" he asks.

"Is this about letting your familiar go on a field trip?" Anon asks.

"You know about that already?"

"I know you. I was aware of the field trip as the clearance would have gone through me to help set up with Toreselia if anything was needed. And I also know that if you had chosen to forbid him from going you'd be instead asking if you were being too harsh. But to answer your question, I would have to say sort of?" Anon shrugs while going about reheating the room a bit more, Mia having snuck in and is running around the room, helping in the straight forward manner she does by creating flames to propel herself around the room like a rocket.

"Gee, thanks."

"Well, in some regards it's perfectly fine. We're in an era of peace. You are effectively in command of a battle station that likely will never see any real combat while you are stationed here. With the exception of the Corewards the fleet is simply too large to really be a target for any real military engagement. There's no need for you to really be on high alert and no real reason why you would be expected to really keep your abilities sharpened like a knife. In some regards your position is more similar to Cerise than myself. Me I'm not in the same situation. I have to deal with all the criminals on the station and against them I'm only one person. Or when needed a small group of Guardians against a small group of criminals. There is no point where the number of Guardians is so large that it will completely deter idiots from doing something stupid. And so that'll always keep me on my toes. If Ackrin wants to go on a field trip then that's perfectly fine. I would very much prefer that a full-sent familiar will go through the entirety of their service in the role without having to know much of any hardship. It would most definitely be a sight to behold if in fifty years or so you end up getting his kid sent to you to be your next familiar. So feel free to allow yourself to become as soft as a pastry for all it'll really mean. Your fleet, your Guardians and your Shadows will make sure that everything that we are enjoying now we'll be able to keep enjoying for some time."

"My Prime was talking to me that I need to figure out what my relationship is with Ackrin," Riu says after another moment of just waiting. "She says I think of him as a son and I need to figure out whether I'd be willing to potentially pull him from what he wants to do and put him into danger if needed."

"Eh," Anon shrugs. "Like I said, it's not something you need to really concern yourself with."

"What are you going to do if Mia ever dies?"

"If?" Anon half laughs. "You do realize she's already fairly old by her species' standards, right? At best I probably only have another five to ten years before her body's fallen apart too badly that I have to put her down. And sure it'll suck and I'll have a good cry about it. But I'm not going to feel too badly about it. She's enjoyed her life, you could ask her yourself if you wanted. When she dies, I'll mourn for a bit then take some time off to go find a new familiar. Mia isn't my first and though I love her dearly, she most definitely won't be the last."

"How mean of you," Riu says, half joking. "You know she is here in the room right now and can hear you say it."

"Eh," Anon shrugs, looking at her hands and deciding if she wants to have another round or if she's done for the day and will instead go out on a patrol or something. "She's a dear, but she's also only a part sent. She probably understands that I am talking about her, but would be unable to abstract what I'm talking about. Her species are very well known for having very little temporal permanence. They can't really conceptualize things like the past or the future. I've asked her a few times to test this. As far as she is concerned she's always lived on this station. She understands that there is such a thing as death, but is unable to conceptualize the notion that she may die herself. And that is fine."

Mia flies around the room for a bit longer but grows bored and lands and slithers back over to Anon and Riu. "Hungry," she says simply.

"Okay then," Anon says, leaning down and offering her arm for Mia to jump onto and climb up onto her shoulder. "Well I guess Mia has decided we're done here. Your Prime is trying to help you, but she's not saying that one is good or bad. I think the most important thing she's trying to convey is you need to decide if Ackrin is to be considered a tool," Anon stops and puts a hand up to her mouth for a bit while reaching with her other arm to remove the binding around her tails with a bit of Sym magic. "Okay, bad choice of words. Okay, this one is better. What you need to figure out is whether or not your relationship with Ackrin is closer to the ally in combat like I have with Mia, or that of a companion like Cerise has with Fana. That unicorn cannot be used in combat and it would absolutely devastate her to put Fana into such a situation. That is what your Prime wants you to figure out. Is Ackrin to you more like Mia is to me, or Fana is to Cerise? Not going to tell you that either is the answer you need to take. Neither one is necessarily the right answer. If you want him to be a combat familiar then start considering Ackrin as familiar first, person second. If you want him to be someone to complement your abilities and more of a companion you can rely on, then think of him as a person first, familiar second."

And with that she waves in his direction and then leaves their little sparring room. He actually feels the sudden rush of extra heat from the outside area, reminding him of just how much colder their little room had gotten, even with Mia haven't gone through warming it up. Riu sighs and reaches back and removes the bindings on his tails to let them spread out to a more comfortable degree. Unfortunately, Anon didn't really help him have any sort of clarity to the issue running through his mind. If anything it somewhat complicated matters because it brought into focus that the question isn't even so much a matter of what he personally wants but what should he be expecting of his familiar. Would it be a dereliction of duty to be soft on his familiar? Riu sighs and takes one last look at the room and leaves, shielding his emotions quite a bit lately from his familiar and instead chooses to focus on the potential threat at hand.

His prime is correct in that it would be irresponsible for him to give the dragonling conditions on which to be granted special privileges and then to change his mind when those conditions were met. So for the time being he has until Ackrin has gone off to his field trip and comes back to decide whether or not his duty requires him to treat his familiar much more strictly or if a much more casual approach is fine. But he leaves the room to go back to his quarters for the rest of the night. Probably get into his pod and watch something with his Prime if she's interested enough in that, assuming she isn't interested in some other activity in mind.