What are you running away from?
    What are you running toward?
    Damn him. There was something about that sky pirate that sticks in her mind, irritating and unignorable as if it were a bit of bone in her throat. Rusalka didn't admit to anything that day, and threw back her own thoughts on the matter - it wasn't as if she'd never considered such things herself. What was she running toward?
    A life behind the wheel, she'd once hoped. Or at least, within that society of speed, building and maintaining such things. Her father had been a great voice in that regard, always there when her mother was not. The Air Force had claimed her, for the most part; while present Irja was always...distracted, it seemed. The distant, aloof style of command may have worked for an airfield filled with the dregs of the military, but it could be so painfully infuriating as a parent.
    It had certainly made the desire to follow her own dream an easier thing to decide, even without the embarassing and traditional name. And what she'd seen since starting out into the World Tree...
    -----
    Still-delicate fingers knock at a wooden door, the sound echoing in the quiet hallway. The Stojespal family holding was a mix of old fortress and slightly-less-old chateau, spread out enough that there was almost always privacy despite the number of family members and servants around. //How convenient, that. Always plenty of room for secret deals and agreements.// Rusalka sighs. //Which of course is what I'm about to do! Damn everything for making it so...predictable.//
    "Come." This the cold voice of the room's other occupant, her own mother. Irja Stojespal, standing baroness of Polyuchyn. Blue eyes match her daughter, as she looks up from the book spread out on the carved wooden desk. "A visit this late at night." Eyebrow raise. "Quite unexpected, I say. Come, sit down. What brings you, my daughter?" It's as warm as Irja manages, in fairness.
    The seat offered is taken, Sally slouching into the overstuffed upholstery. "So the World Tree...all those connections to other places. You know that-"
    "That you've been exploring them? Especially in your more recent excursions, not all of which I am pleased to read about."
    "That wasn't my fault! I was-"
    "In deep and immediate danger to your life. Alexei managed to escape, just barely. As did you."
    "Fine, so I did. It's not like anything serious happened." //She// was well, at least. Instead of a reply, however, her mother's eyebrows rise slightly. The gesture was somewhere between calling out her words as a lie, and calling out her words to continue - and it was so very hard to tell which was which sometimes. "To //me.//"
    "If you are going to become Baroness, you need to consider-"
    "I KNOW, I get it...that's why I'm //here// d-" -ammit managed to not follow, if only by a tremendous act of will. "-iscussing this with you. I've been thinking, you know. I //do// do that," Sally adds with a flare. Like the proverbial race car driver, she's seen an opening to take and pass her competition.
    "There's things out there, so much more than we have here. The kinds of technology alone, like...a floating car that could keep pace with your jets, and yet maneuver well enough to keep up with //me.// Ancient, huge machines that still work. People on other planets, like...not just Earth, but other worlds. All of that out there. I've seen it, and you haven't, and we're just...letting it go by."
    Sally can't help the look of desperation that slowly begins to take over her face. "There's so much to learn, so much to find out there, we should be taking advantage of it! I've learned all the ways to the worlds," she exaggerates...slightly. "I've seen some of them, more than just..." Handwave. She can't even remember the name of the city she'd barely managed to escape. "It's not just those, there's people and places and so much out there, I could show you if you just-"
    *CRACK*
    Her words come to a sudden halt with the sharp sound of a pencil against the desk sounding like a whip in the office. How Irja does it, Sally's never learned, but she //has// learned it has the authority and finality of a judge's gavel.
    "Did you ever think to ask what Alexei was doing for me?" Or did you only think he was there to watch you as a babysitter? "You live in a world of youth, flags, and light, daughter. You do not see the shadows those flags cast, and you have not seen my hands there."
    A small, cold smile. "Perhaps I will credit that to my own efforts. However, to your point. Made in indelicate and difficult ways, yet still legitimate." //I am pleased to see that the apple has not fallen so far as I feared.// "Since you have brought it up, and since you have at least a little experience with other worlds, I suppose I will give you an assignment."
    Rusalka blinks, silent as the grave as her mother continues. And praying that the boom about to be lowered wasn't one she expected.
    "Find what we can use. Find what can sustain House Stojespal amongst the others. If we are to survive the transformations that history suggests are coming, we need allies and advantages. Not just other Families, but of all kinds. I select you. Your late-night excursions will not have been in vain as mere joyrides."
    There's a slow nod from Rusalka as the offer - the orders - settle in. The initial flash of annoyance at being roped into yet another thing is there, smoldering slightly as she considers the rest. But the rest of it finally hits, and she chews on the idea for a moment before her eyes widen in surprise. "Y-you want- me?!" Her only reply is a slow nod. "I..." Names, people, places rush to her mind. Not just families, Irja had said, but everything else as well. An unexpected gift, she realizes, even for all the chains that rope her back into the family's plans.
    And yet. The freedom to explore, to learn, to do what she truly wanted? And have backing? Rusalka practically springs out of the seat, nodding. "Yes! Absolutely yes, I know...this I can do. Thank you!" Excitement, combined with determination. And in some ways, a stay of execution - she'd half-expected to be shut down completely, and stuck in her home town as just a puppet of some kind.
    Irja merely nods, bidding her daughter a good night - and cringing slightly as the solid-wood door closes harder than intended. Well. A productive night, the baroness supposes. The feeling of darkness on her hands lingers, as she looks at closed door for a moment longer. "Whether you do not see the manipulation, my daughter, or do not care about it at the moment...someday, I hope you may forgive me for it. But it will be a long time coming, I fear."