Chapter 523: 523. Talking About Evelyn And Her Bum Boyfriend (She’s Still Dangerous)

Diana, who had been listening to this exchange with the still, absorbing attention she gave to things she considered worth attending to, said, "We should know when things are close."

"We want to know it not after the fact, but before it... or during, if that’s possible." She was looking at Rex with the flat directness she used for positions she had already decided on. "I understand there are things you can’t tell us in advance, and of course... I’m not asking for operational details."

"Alright, what are you asking for?" Rex said.

"I’m asking for the honest version when the honest version is available," Diana said. "The way you just gave to Lily, for me... that’s sufficient."

Rex looked at her. Diana’s version of devotion was not demonstrative.

It was precise, like Diana herself, and it showed up in the specific things she chose to ask for rather than in the volume of what she said.

"Alright," Rex said.

Diana held his gaze for a moment, the brief confirmation that the exchange had landed the way she intended it to, and then she looked back at the window.

Elizabeth had been watching the three of them with the expression that had become more common over the past week, the one where her professional assessment and the other thing were both present simultaneously, and she had stopped trying to separate them.

"Does Elliot know about the canyon’s current state?" Rex said. "The Legion activity—"

"The Legion activity has been resolved," Elizabeth said. "The operation is effectively terminated in that region."

"There’s no tactical reason the canyon is unsafe for a supervised exploration."

"Elliot will insist on the unsupervised kind," Rex said. "I remember that well enough since the Goblin King incident."

"Elliot will insist on the kind that produces the best story to tell afterward," Elizabeth said. "Which will probably involve at least one moment where someone nearly falls, and Evelyn will have to demonstrate the same patience she demonstrates for all his decisions."

"You know your nephew well enough..."

"He’s stubborn while his girlfriend is there to fix that."

"She is very patient," Lily said. "I also heard that she was patient about the ring question. and that took a long time."

"The ring question took three weeks," Diana said. "I know because Lily told me about it at approximately forty-eight-hour intervals."

"I was monitoring the situation," Lily said. "It was a situation that warranted monitoring."

"Every situation warrants monitoring, in your assessment," Diana said.

"Most of them do," Lily said. "This one specifically because I had a strong feeling about the outcome and I wanted to be right in real time rather than retroactively."

Rex ate his bread and watched the table and thought about Drevash and Elliot navigating the canyon system with Evelyn’s practical competence keeping him from whatever the local equivalent of falling into a gorge was.

"She’ll be fine," he said. "Her system’s power is no joke..."

"Yep, Evelyn handles everything fine," Lily agreed. "It’s the main thing about her."

"Even better! It’s one of the main things," Diana said.

"She also notices everything," Lily said, with the tone of someone who had been on the receiving end of Evelyn’s noticing and had opinions about the experience.

"That’s relevant," Rex said.

Lily looked at him. "How relevant?"

"She noticed things during the debrief that other people didn’t notice," Rex said. "And she asked the right questions in the wrong moments."

"Evelyn always asks the right questions," Diana said. "It’s a specific skill set."

’Yeah... that’s why I still can’t trust that bitch at all because she could stab me in the back at anytime.’ Rex thought. ’For once... she’s a smart one; I had to give her points for that.’

"In the wrong moments," Rex said. "Is the part worth remembering."

Elizabeth looked at him with the expression of someone connecting a line of reasoning that had been developing separately and was now joining the conversation through a different entrance.

"You’re thinking about what she’ll notice when she gets back," Elizabeth said.

"I’m thinking about what she’s going to ask Elliot," Rex said. "And what Elliot is going to ask me about that."

"Elliot won’t ask you anything complicated," Lily said. "He probably shook your hand and bragged that you’re his best student."

’Oh... just fucking kill me with that.’

"He shook my hand in a specific context," Rex said. "New information sometimes changes the context."

Diana had turned from the window and was looking at him now with the steady attention she gave to things she considered worth attending to. "What new information?"

"Evelyn is perceptive, and she was watching the morning we ran into them outside the academy," Rex said. "She saw what Diana and Lily said about the arrangement."

"She saw Elizabeth suggest the household."

"And she saw how Elizabeth behaved," Lily said slowly.

"True," Rex said.

"She’s going to think about it in Drevash," Elizabeth said. "Which is a week of thinking."

"She’s going to ask Elliot, and Elliot is going to ask Diana and Lily because that’s his process for things he doesn’t know how to interpret on his own," Rex said. "And the question of what Diana and Lily say at that moment is worth considering in advance."

The table was quiet for a moment.

"We tell him the truth," Diana said. "In the version we’ve been telling."

"This version includes that we love Rex, that Elizabeth is aware and has no objections, and that the household is suitable for the analysis work," Lily said.

"All of these points are accurate," Diana said.

"And Evelyn," Rex said. "What do you say to Evelyn?"

Diana looked at him for a moment.

"I tell Evelyn the same thing," she said. "But I tell her in a way that makes it clear the conversation is complete."

"Evelyn respects clear signals," Diana said. "She doesn’t push past a door that’s been closed, even when she suspects what’s behind it."

"Because she’s building a relationship with this family," Rex said.

"Yep, she is building a relationship with this family," Diana responded. "And pushing past closed doors damages relationships she values."

Rex looked at Diana with the attention he gave to assessments he found accurate and useful.

"Good," he said.

"Maybe we should tell Evelyn that Elizabeth loved Rex too." Lily giggle.

Elizabeth almost spilled her tea. "No! Don’t do that, Lily!" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Hehehe~! I’m just joking."

Lily was looking between them with the expression she used when a conversation had moved into registers she was tracking without quite having full context for.

"Is Evelyn a problem?" she asked.

"Evelyn is a perceptive person who is going to be one with the starlight family," Rex said. "That’s not a problem, but... It’s a structural consideration."

"She already knows she doesn’t know everything," Diana said. "She’s made peace with that as a condition of being close to people who have complicated lives."

"She made peace with it when she was getting close to Elliot," Diana said. "He’s not complicated in the same way, but he moves at the pace of his instincts without slowing down to explain them, and she had to decide whether to accept that or not."

"She accepted it," Lily said.

"She did," Diana said. "Which tells you something about what she’s capable of accepting."

The table settled into the specific quiet of a conversation that had resolved itself and left people with their own thoughts. Rex refilled his tea, and Lily had her chin in one hand and was watching him in the way she watched him when she was not particularly trying to conceal it, which was most of the time at breakfast because she had decided that breakfast was not a context that required concealment.

"You know what I noticed," Lily said, to no one in particular.

"Several things, most likely," Diana said.

"I noticed that when Rex describes a situation," Lily said, "he doesn’t describe it in a way that makes himself the center of it."

"He describes it in a way that makes the situation the center of it and himself a factor inside it." She was still looking at Rex. "Most people who are good at things describe themselves doing the things."

"Rex describes the things and happens to be in the description."

Diana looked at Rex. "That’s accurate."

"I know it’s accurate," Lily said. "I’m saying it out loud because Elizabeth hasn’t been watching long enough to have noticed it herself."