ROLEPLAY

Baboc is sitting at Dyron's bar. It's not his favorite bar, but it's still a bar. And there's less chance of him running into homins he knows. Well, less than in Pyr or Thesos, let's say. In any case, he hopes so, because he needs to think hard, and it's harder to think when you're remaking the world over a shooki with other old soldiers. The proof is that Baboc has been here for five minutes, and he hasn't touched his glass yet. Or hardly at all.

The subject that's making Baboc's brain heat up in his Fyros skull is the other day's jaunt to the Renegades. ney, ney, he knows, we probably don't say jaunt. We probably say something like diplomatic tour, courtesy visit, or appeasement embassy. But that's all just palace-speak. As for Baboc, he knows it was a tour: sharükos goes to see the Renegades, they say polite things to each other, and he returns to Pyr. And that's it. Well done, everyone's happy, and it ends with a round of drinks at Lydix to reward all the brave patriots in the escort. And a bunch of non-patriots too, but there's nothing we can do about that.

Except, as it happens, there was a shalah in the shooki.
Oh, up until the greetings and salutations part, everything went as smoothly as expected. But then, on the way back, everyone was ambushed on the Col de la Solitude side. A nice ambush, I must say. Screes of bark to block the way, mages on top of the cliffs to burn everyone down. And that other fyrakist, Pimokos Lyion, at the head of it all. ney, quite an ambush.
In which everyone rushed headlong after Lyren. And that's what's got Baboc thinking.

Going straight ahead is an excellent and proven Fyros tactic. There's nothing wrong with that.
But Baboc is an old hand, and he doesn't take it lying down: by now, he's cracked the officers' secret. He knows that they always look far ahead to see where they're heading. And sometimes, as if nothing had happened, they go ahead, but not quite ahead. A little to the side of the front. To avoid a ravine, for example. Or to get through the canyon next door, which isn't blocked. Stuff like that. And the kid's still the leader of the Fyros Legions. And young enough to have good eyesight, even with her weird haircut. So there's something fishy going on. Baboc knows it. Baboc senses it. And he intends to find out for sure.

So he replayed all the events in his memory. Everything he remembers. And even what he doesn't remember: that's what shooki is for. All the details he didn't notice right away because, well, it's not his job, and he had something else to think about at the time. It's not every day you get to see sharükos up close, is it?
But now he has time to think. He may be a little out of practice, but he's a Fyros, a real one, and he's not going to let a little thought stop him.

Come to think of it, Lyren may well have had something wrong with her eyes all along. By the time Lykos and Pephoan Krilix arrived, her eyes were blinking. And several times, they were pretty damn bright. Not to mention the times when she just wasn't looking at what she was doing. It's no good spending so much time watching the fight between Krilix and Lyion, and not her own opponent.
Then there was when she said "Pephoan pyréküd". Now she must have been really out of sorts. Confusing Pephoan and sharükos. They look nothing alike.

Baboc broods over it all. And, just like that, he understands! It's not so hard to think, really! In fact, it's super-easy.
Lyren is allergic to Krilix! Allergic is a complicated word that Baboc learned from a passing Zoraï, and it means that you start crying, blowing your nose and saying weird things, because of something that doesn't go down well. The Zoraï was allergic to sawdust that was too dry. It was quite disgusting.
But Lyren's smart, and she manages to stay as far away as she can. But sometimes she can't, and it does weird things to her. That's just it.
And soon she'll have to accompany General Kridix against the Fyrakists, with all those strange sensations to confuse her.

Baboc thinks he might not want to join the fight under these conditions. But in the meantime, he's so pleased with his deduction that he swallows his shooki in one go. And he doesn't even choke. This is what it means to be a true Fyros.