He couldn't sneak out of bed anymore, either. His boys always heard him coughing soon after he rose, then rose themselves. Most of them understood, however, when he finally admitted that he was on classified work.
Today was one such day. Faustite had gotten up, had his coughing episode, was given tea and asked how he was feeling. If there was anything they could do to help. Faustite felt his reluctance to leave, but he had to after assuring them he would be fine. The next step of his mission wasn't dangerous, but he could not assure them of that, either.
Tama had finished his part of the mission and stayed silent about it, which was an absolute wonder and ******** marvel. The cat hated him so much that he expected Tama to blurt out his business at every turn. In addition, after their spat following their mission into the Rift? Faustite suspected that Tama was the leak. Tama hadn't done much of anything to exonerate himself either, so that sword still hung over his head. Faustite supposed that, if they heard via Nectaris that someone fired a rocket full of concentrated chaos at Ida's planet and poisoned her, then they would know that leak belonged to Tama. No one else knew, after all.
When Faustite teleported into the city, he appeared at Almadel's favorite hill. As he looked skyward, he noted the many brilliant constellations of his enemies looking back at him, so lambent and vibrant that they dared him to do something about it. Scoffing, Faustite shook his head and started setting up the rigging.
It was short work, normally. The rigging and launchpad were made to be collapsed and minimally invasive when not set up, but Faustite frequently had to stop and cough. Most of the weapon reassembly was entirely straightforward, but if ever he was uncertain, the mangy white cat supplied him with an instruction manual (and a few insults). Once Faustite had put the weapon together in the order he thought was correct, he double-checked himself with the Mauvian's instructions.
Then came the more difficult part — aiming at the correct planetary body of the millions that hung glittering in the night sky. There was no way for him to tell Ida apart from Praxidike. For all he knew, he'd be launching it at his own boy's planet by mistake. For this, Faustite consulted the guide again, and discovered that Tama had helpfully supplied the coordinates. He breathed a sigh of relief, which sputtered into coughing.
Once the coordinates were set, Faustite touched 'launch', and stood back as the rocket had begun to glow with its dark energy. A few wisps of smoke escaped it before it took off into the air, the darkest shadow in the sky, and sought out wherever Ida's planet lingered. Faustite hoped he did that right as he looked up after it, mapping it until it was no longer visible to the human (or half-youma) eye.
"That's for the cat youma, you arrogant b***h," he muttered to himself. "I liked that one."
whimsical blue
