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Mistral was feeling fairly well tonight. At the very least, she'd recovered from the nonsense on the subway (she was very glad she'd decided to leave Mendel at home that day) and had her strength back, negligible as it might be. As long as she didn't think about how fast and how hard that lieutenant had fallen, about the crack of the fire extinguisher against her skull... well, it wasn't as though Mistral could be held accountable for that. She'd been boxed in. There had been things said about her starseed and its relative relation to her chest.

It was self-defense. And she'd seen worse.

She felt the other squire's approach - anyone moving towards her that fast with no one else around was likely on an intercept course on purpose. Mistral paused and tapped her thigh, Mendel falling into step beside her, and she turned towards the approaching girl.

"You can join me," she answered, although she wasn't sure why she wanted to. Mistral had never been particularly popular, and like the perennial bridesmaid she was, it was always a surprise when people wanted to sit at her lunch table.

"Mistral," she said, watching Hyperborea's expression carefully. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

Mistral gave Hyperborea a sidelong glance. The squire was likely trustworthy, but letting Mendel's name get around had always struck her as a bad idea. "Dog," she said. "It's a secret identity. We're working on the disguise."

She cracked a smile - it was rare for gratitude for her inventions to make its way back to her, and she was always pleased when it did. "You're welcome. I'll assume Babylon gave it to you, if he's been singing my praises."

His mouth was going to get her into trouble one of these days - not that Mistral wasn't great. Mistral was a fledgling master of all things magitechnical, and no one rivaled her skill. Of course she was great.

"If you're a squire," she said, cutting to the chase, "then you've been around the block a few times. I'm sure you've heard some less-than-good stuff about me, too."

Did her dog help her in battles? Oh. That was cute. Mistral giggled at the thought. "No, he doesn't help me in battles at all. I try to stay out of fights... I have a delicate composition." Perhaps that had made it into all the stories people told about her, the knight too weak to do her own dirty work, so she got other people killed doing it for her. She was basically the boogeyman to some people, wasn't she?

Might as well own it. At least Hyperborea seemed like the reasonable sort.

"Sarras has every reason to be wary of me," she said. It was entirely possible that she'd misrepresented the safety of her labyrinth - she didn't exactly remember what she'd said in order to get them all to come. "Hate me, even. But everyone who uses my inventions is just as culpable in my actions as I was. You use the ring upgrade, you accept that it was paid for in blood."

She smiled wryly. "Which is to say, I'm trying to avoid a repeat performance. I'd rather have a reputation as a mad scientist than an evil genius, and yes, there's a difference."

Mistral shrugged - she did not need Hyperborea's pity for her condition. Perhaps she would improve a bit more with time, but she wasn't holding her breath. "Some are skilled with combat," she said. "Others with diplomacy. My talents lie elsewhere. We all have our roles to play."

She could not fight. She was rubbish at talking to people. But she could invent her way out of a paper bag.

"The rings, of course," she said with a nod, "Some improvements and repairs to my Wonder. There was a neat bit of tech for Babylon - he's calling it an alethiometer, because he's a total nerd, but it's the wrong color if you ever see it. It can tell what kind of knight a Negaverser would be if they purified, because I guess there's a market for that? Maybe he's shown it to you."

She smiled - it was very hard to keep from bragging about her own achievements and projects. "Right now," she said, "I'm working on an interface that will allow all knights and senshi to share information across a shared database. Someone did something like it before, but it's fallen into disrepair, so I'm aiming to improve upon it. It's nearly done."

She paused. "Hopefully, this time, it will take fewer dead bodies to make it work."

Mistral chuckled. "Once I'm ready to move into testing, I'll let you know," she said, leaning down to scratch her dog behind the ears. He was clearly a very well-trained dog, from the way he stuck by her side and didn't go wandering off. "I'll need to make sure the user interface makes sense. At least I've already got the rings set up for holograms..."

If she'd had to reverse engineer that again, well, she'd be even further behind schedule than she was.

"I'm certain you're perfectly capable," she said. "It's just that I'm in a position uniquely suited to being good with magitech. Mercury is a hotbed for the stuff, as I'm sure you've noticed. My past self was the squire of Mistral - the ring upgrade was meant to be her -my- knighthood project. All I've done is pick up where I left off."

She tapped her temple gently. "I knew it once, and I can know it all again."

Mistral tilted her head to the side, trying to place the name. Mimisbrunnr had been at her labyrinth, she realized - she'd stuck close to Babylon, and Mistral had not exactly been in the most talkative mood afterwards. "Briefly," she answered. "Not long enough to claim I know her well." Or at all, honestly.

She flashed Hyperborea a confident smile. "I will achieve it," she said. Mistral didn't believe that anything was impossible - not after everything she'd been through.

Her dog took the hem of her tunic lightly between his teeth and tugged. Looking down, Mistral chuckled. "I have an early class tomorrow," she said apologetically. "As Dog has been so kind to remind me. I hope you won't be too put-out if I cut this conversation short. I tend to turn into a pumpkin after midnight."