[ Gray takes her bowl of soup, though her appetite is close to nil as she listens to Eustace and Gen's answers. She stirs her stew around but doesn't yet give it a taste. She sees and feels both of their points; she doesn't mind roughing it in the woods, actually much prefers it to getting embroiled in city drama, and she's under no delusion that they're worth anything to Yima or Cyrus except as firepower. She adds an absent correction: ]

We camped together before.

[ Thus casually bringing up shit Gen has no memory of. She continues more seriously. ]

I don't know if Mr. Cyrus is any better than Miss Yima. He's friendly, but he's the head of his people too... and when people are in his position, being friendly doesn't really mean anything.

[ The Clock Tower didn't teach her how to do magecraft, but it at least taught her about politics — namely, that chasing power means becoming inhuman. And she takes a breath, a nervous bubble in her chest threatening to burst. ]

Still... I think I'm going to join Meridian.