Given it's often difficult to get in any dialogue not directly driven by the plot, I've found a few minutes to write this to fill in some of Alyx's now slightly less mysterious past. The venue is, of course, the back of our escaping boat.
~~~~~
"Janathan.", Alyx addressed the expensively dressed man leaning over the back of the boat. Whether because of the engine noise, roar of the ocean wind or sheer shock, he didn't respond.
"Janathan.", she stepped closer, speaking louder. This time he turned his attentions away from the sea below, turning his head to look behind.
"I think you've thrown up anything you might have eaten by now. A lot of what you drank too." , she extended the ornately patterned glass clutched in her hand.
"Poison?"
"Water. I hope. The boat is a bit disorganised."
"Frak."
He took it anyway, rinsing out his mouth and spitting the mouthful into the waves.
Alyx, joining him leaning on the handrail, watched up at him as he did, genuinely intrigued by the emotions laced through his expressions.
"I know that look." she commented after a few moments of this, "It's about how I felt when I heard about Castor. But I'd prefer it if you didn't reward the efforts to save you by trying to drown yourself."
"What's the bloody point? WHAT'S THE BLOODY POINT?", he roared it again, hurling his glass into the ocean. This bold attempt at movement wasn't taken well by either his still inebriated state and the pitching deck, and they conspired to bring him crashing to the deck.
"I should make fun of you for that.", Alyx glanced back over her shoulder, "But I'll save childhood vendettas for another day."
"Give me your knife.", he groaned, "It's not fair."
"No."
"Bitch."
He slurred the line somewhat, rolling over onto his back.
"You're drunk, I'll let that one slide - once.", she added.
"Why not?"
"Because, Janathan Brannon Darius Pirgo, I know you better than you think. You're more confident and committed than this. Case in point - you knew it was me in the ballroom, and you weren't going to take no for an answer."
"Confident? You... I was terrified when you threatened me."
"That... that is because you don't know me. Why do you think I ran from Iracadia in the first place?"
The nobleman started to form an answer, but Alyx cut him off.
"Don't answer that. I don't want to hear the lewd suggestions the Pasquet would have the other families believe. It's nothing like their lies. I'd known him three years - we met at the Geneval Spire High Ball in Oh Eight. I couldn't kill him - I knew him."
Twisting around, she sank slowly down the rails until she was sat next to Janathan's head. She pushed his cheek towards her, looking into his eyes.
"I'm still not sure what I'll do if I see him again."
There was a long pause, emotions twitching behind the eyes set into her pensive face; until she blinked, allowing some fragment of another thought to stab out to the sea air.
"Sorry about the psyker's questions. Castor stretched my ability to trust people to the limit. Beyond the limit."
"You'd trust a witch?"
"That one specifically? To do the job? Yes, I would. To be subtle about it... no. He's a bit like a grox in an archaeotech vault. But he's beside the point. You... you. I think the Emperor had you here for a reason."
"Then he hates me."
"Easy on the heresy! No, I can't imagine anyone better suited than you and... well, that bureaucracy over there...", she gestured at the cluster of grey robed Adepts. "I may not have been part of the family's business, but I know a very little of the basics of intra Imperial trade."
"What the hell has that to do with me?", confusion fluttered across his expression yet again.
"The head of the biggest trade syndicate on the planet and most of his conspirators are very dead. The planet won't make tithe unless someone is willing to step into the breach. So, Mr Pirgo - are you willing to do the Emperor's work?"
