"Sounds worth trying, at least."

She nods. "Good meeting. Let's definitely talk more soon."

Liath nods back. "Good meeting. We'll keep in touch."

The formalities after that — retaining Ancile on a contracting basis for the trial period, and so on — come as a welcome relief. 

Vault returns once the paperwork is squared away, and Liath is restored to her silo. 

She breathes a sigh of relief, at first. 

But now that she understands that she has the chance to truly earth all her backlash... she can't sit still. The thoughts of fire and knives sit lighter on her, but they seem to have been replaced with pure nervous energy. She doesn't know how this will work out, and so much is in the balance, and she can't do anything about it for hours and hours — 

She builds card houses and knocks them down like she's probing at a loose tooth that's starting to wiggle. The sudden nerves are bad enough, but she'd gotten used to a certain kind of backlash load and now that it's shifting it doesn't sit in the same way anymore. Her thoughts keep drifting back to Ancile, to the things she could do to her with a knife and a few hours together. The electric potential of that single touch — 

She finds herself wandering towards bed. 

Which, of course, is when the phone rings.

For a moment pure hatred goes through Liath's mind — 

— before being ruthleasly smothered. It's not Daniel's fault she was about to, ah, occupy herself. 

She goes and picks up the phone.

"We worked out the scheduling. You'll be clearing your first B-Rank together in two hours, followed by a second one in the morning; then there'll be a sushi lunch in Asgard because Nirvana was already booked by Vault."

Liath rolls her eyes where Daniel can't see. The afterlife names her people give the private luncheon rooms never stop making her groan internally. 

"Asgard tomorrow at noon works for me, and I agree on the tight scheduling for the first B-rank. I could use a little more load to balance closer to where I'm accustomed."

"Thought so. Do you need anything between then and now?"

"A lack of interruptions, ideally, but of course you can never predict when an emergency will come up. Mostly I just need to do backlash management right now."

"Reasonable. I'll get out of your hair. Remember to get more calories into you, you could stand to gain some weight."

That's Daniel for you. Always with the tough love. 

"On it. See you in two hours for the briefing. And thank you."

"See you in two hours. Have fun with whatever you were doing." There's a small note of amusement in Daniel's voice. 

Then he hangs up.

Daniel, Daniel. She suppresses a chuckle. Of course she can't get anything past him. 

Well, then. Time for more milkshake and the personal time she was planning on.

Immediately after the introductory meeting.

Hailey collapses into a chair in a private office with Valerie. "I hate meetings."

"But you like her." Valerie's smile is far too knowing.

"I might like her. My backlash wants me to like her. Hell, my backlash wants me to throw myself in her lap and beg her to fuck me with a knife, but we both know how doing that kind of thing before paying the toll of my trauma goes."

She shakes her head. "I can't trust her yet."

"Yet, she says."

"You are far too smug." She shoots Valerie a glare, then flops her head back onto the chair. "Ugh, why do I like you?"

"Because I got you out from under that horrible corporation that was raising you, and I understand your trauma better than any bureaucrat has a right to?"

Hailey sighs. "Yes. That." She looks up at the ceiling. "Okay. You've got the scheduling handled?"

"Yes," Valerie nods. "You're free to escape."

With no visible action from Valerie, Hailey is teleported back to her silo, arriving quick enough to see the flickers of light fading around a freshly-arrived, piping hot plate of the spiciest noodles in town, sitting innocently on her coffee table.

Hailey can't help but laugh. "Damn it, Valerie."

She digs in with a smile.

Just as she's finishing off the meal, a message comes in from Valerie.

B-rank together in two hours?