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The sun might have been rising on their side of Mercury, but if it was, Mistral was not aware. She slouched at the console which served as the interface with her little chunk of the Code, trying--without success--to decipher the symbols. They looked like... uh, well, she'd seen the lettering on the side of synagogues in Destiny City... or she'd seen something like it. It made less than no sense to her. Maybe Finn would have had more luck. Well, she'd get a chance to ask; he and Hvergelmir were coming down to visit. Why Hvergelmir, Mistral wasn't sure.

Behind her, Mendel let out a low wuff at some dog-level sound. Probably the knight's elevator coming online for Babylon and his guest, since it was long established that he could hear it when she could not. Mistral wondered if Babylon had gotten the little passes she'd made for him and Hvergelmir, the small glowing chips of crystal that would let her operate the elevator as well as he did--but obviously he had. She had no perimeter security alerts.

It wasn't Babylon's visit that made her nervous. He didn't blame her for what had happened, but Hvergelmir might... Mistral had only seen Hver once, after the tragedy, at that purification. There had been no rancor in the Squire's voice then... but there could be now, especially with that horrible future hanging over all of them. There had been time to think about it. Almost a year, in fact.

The door slid open, and she straightened up, trying to look too industrious to greet them. Mendel bounded over to investigate the two new arrivals, the tip of his tail zipping back and forth.

There were plenty of things worth wondering about, visiting Mercury. The difference between her last visit and now -- the dark, biting snow, compared to the cheerful vividness of daffodils popping up toward the coming sun -- was astounding, and she felt a bit jealous. Her wonder was quietly eternal, weatherless, the stars shimmering ever the same. It yielded up few new secrets, these days.

She wondered, with Babylon bringing food and snacks, how often Mistral left her wonder. Did she linger there, working away endlessly? But that couldn't be -- Finn had said she had a job, that she helped people like Jenna get settled into their new lives. Surely the DMV didn't take part-time employees on an 'occasional' basis.

It was strange to be back here after so much time. The last time was burned into her memory, into all of theirs: a horrible accident, so many lives lost. Cove and Degrasse . . . and everyone on Level Six. Lost lives were unbearable. Hvergelmir wondered how Mistral was bearing up through it all -- having to come back here, always having to remember it hadn't been her fault.

She looked a little withdrawn, sitting at her computer.

Her dog -- Mendel -- was less so. He padded over, cheerful, and after Babylon had finished ruffing his furry head, Hvergelmir knelt to grab his happy snout between her hands. "Hello, puppyface!" she cooed, nuzzling her nose against the dog's wet, black one. "Who's a good puppy? Who is?"

She waited, communing with this big, friendly animal while Babylon greeted his friend -- then, when it seemed polite to do so, got back to her feet and regarded the mistress of this strange, brilliant laboratory.

"Thanks for letting me visit," she said, careful not to touch anything that might break the delicate-looking machinery. "And for all your help with Jenna recently -- it's really helped her settle in." She unwound her cloak, which she'd been huddled in, and let it hang loosely over her forearms. The climate control within the laboratory wasn't lacking. "How've you been?"

"Anomalies," repeated Babylon, pulling a pair of stools across the lab for him and Hvergelmir to sit on. "Yeah, I think it's just normal weather. Not saying you have to go look? But it might be kinda interesting to see. I mean. The sun doesn't rise every day here." (He was a little bit concerned about what the weather would be like in high summer - would it even be possible to walk to Mistral then? His uniform wasn't suited to heat at all.)

Passing out food, he said with a shrug, "We figured it would be best if we didn't inconvenience you. I can get to Babylon about every three days, so it made more sense to head there and walk down than make you waste a trip. Besides, I like owing people food. It makes me feel like I have a purpose."

He would owe Princess Iris tacos for the rest of his life. He liked that. It was part of his identity. That guy who owes Iris tacos.

"Looks like you made a friend," he said, leaning a bit towards Hvergelmir. Not that it was hard to get Mendel to like you, in his experience? But like, without treats, now that was impressive. "Do you want to explain what we're trying to do? It was your idea. I'm just the connections dude."

Mistral didn't object, although she dearly wanted to. Causing foes to jump into the vastness of space was miles different from having a Wonder that actively attempted to kill all comers who weren't its knight. Heaven only knew what would have happened if she hadn't found her ring so easily; it would have been terrible to lose Babylon to her own Wonder, for so many reasons. She focused instead on the assurance that she had done some good--a nameless knight, somewhere, was alive because Mistral had reached out and asked for help in the creation of the rings. "Thank you," she said. "Seven more lives to make up for, I suppose."

She turned on her stool. "All you have to do to contact the Code is ask politely," she said, pulling off her gloves by the index finger. "If you know where your piece of the Code is, it's fairly simple. If you don't, erm. Well. Mine's here. I don't know where anyone else's is." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the screens, still covered in unrecognizable glyphs. "As for the rings, I don't know how easy it would be to create a mass-messaging function--is that what you want?--it'd be like creating a listserv, but in reverse."

This probably sounded like a refusal. "Not that I think it's a bad idea," she edited. "It's probably the best idea I've heard since I got dragged into all this. And I will do what I can to help. I... I don't know. I'm not really the best programmer, and this is high-end magitech junk. I only managed Babylon's alethiometer because I already knew how to code for allegiance. It'd... take time? I can't exactly read the code to tell what's what, it's a lot of trial and error."

Hvergelmir nodded. "We understand the limitations of what you've got to work with," she acknowledged. "If you can do your best with it, we'll be grateful. Until then, we can always make do with word-of-mouth of asking each person to pass on the information to any knights they know. Not a perfect science, but it'll tide us over until you're able to put something together, if you can." She cocked her head sympathetically. "I wouldn't even know where to begin with something like magical programming language -- I had a heck of a time just trying to figure out how to operate an ancient loom, and that has, like, three moving parts."

Well, a bit more than three moving parts, but the point was there. It wasn't rocket science, whereas what Mistral did very nearly was.

"I can talk to the Code, though," she said. "Or at least ask. I know where my piece is -- it's showed me things before. So I mean, at least it's a start." Hvergelmir paused. "Would you also mind maybe giving something like a demo at the meetings of ring basics? How to use them, how to upgrade them, maybe? Knight tech basics."

"You're my favorite cousin," said Babylon, grinning crookedly at her. He probably owed her grocery deliveries until the end of time for this favor, and he was okay with that. "I mean, my serious fave. No other cousins stand before you in excellence."

He turned towards Hver, still smiling, as if to say tell her how great she is. Come on. Let's shower her in compliments. "I think people would definitely come to that. I mean. I definitely want to know more about how this stuff works?"

He was pretty sure that was the whole reasoning behind asking her to do a demo. That and trying to look like they had a lesson plan. Anyway, he was just going to be aggressively optimistic about all this and hope that everyone else followed his lead.

"I... should really start looking for my piece of Code," Babylon said, after a moment's pause. "s**t. I'm in no position to be telling other people How To Knight if I don't even have the basics down myself!"

She wasn't his only cousin. Only space cousin. So that joke was right out, since space cousins didn't really count as a specific category, if you thought about it. They were still cousins. Just fancier, with more magitech. "You hit a bunch of buttons, cross your fingers, and pray," she said, smiling back at Babylon and Hvergelmir.

"I don't think the Code is necessary if it's not, like, integral to your Wonder," said Mistral thoughtfully. "I could probably get the magitech going without the Code, to be honest. But. Whatever. I have the Code, it's easier, and there'll be no weird starseed business here. Mine's in my chest already."

She leaned back in her chair. "Is there anything else?"

Hvergelmir shook her head. "No, I think that's it," she agreed. "I mean, we can't exactly claim we have a detailed plan yet. We just came up with this idea recently, and we thought we'd talk to you before digging our fingers in too far."

This could be good for Mistral, too, she hoped. Hvergelmir wondered if the Mercury squire had gotten much chance to meet other knights that didn't see her as the woman with the death-trap wonder. She deserved a fresh start with people who'd be able to appreciate what she had to offer.