The elevator is the kind with two sets of doors opposite each other, and the doors they didn't come through open to reveal an enormous room where a bunch of people are hanging out. The floor is the same old metal as the corridor above but the walls are wood and lined with bookshelves, weapon racks, and armour mannequins.

There's an area that could be described as a living room, with a large rug and big sofas surrounding it and facing a fake hearth. Another bit could be described as a tea room without the walls, a couple of armchairs and a small couch around a low center table with a teapot and some teacups. Another area is basically a small library, with more bookshelves and long tables with tiny reading lamps. And yet another looks to be a training area, covered by a soft mat where two people in body suits are circling each other and waiting for an opening. And to her left there are stairs leading up to a landing that surrounds and overlooks the whole room. The walls on both levels have several doors, most of them shut, suggesting an even more expansive compound.

Okay her brain has entirely shut down, now. She has been overwhelmed by the cool.

"...Gonie?" asks a woman who'd been reading a book and having some tea by herself, getting up from her chair and walking over to him. Her hair is long and shockingly orange, and her eyes are a bright, crystalline green. She's dressed like the kind of person who'd live in a mansion, and the surroundings kind of are mansionlike, but it still feels somewhat incongruous.

...waaaait, she recognises that woman. "Ms. Ridsh?"

"You're... Jon's apprentice? You brought her here?" she says, looking at Gonie for the second question.

He nods.

"Wait, wait, wait, is this the secret base of the Rebellion?"

Her gaze turns sharp. "How do you know about the Rebellion?"

"Oh. Um. I. Kind of overheard" (eavesdropped on) "a conversation between my master and someone else."

The woman covers her face with a hand. "When?"

"Um, a few months ago?"

"Right. Alright. Gonie, what were you thinking?"

He shrugs.

"Oh, don't give me that, mister. If your parents were here—" But she realises she said the wrong thing because Gonie stiffens like an angry cat and his face goes cold and hard. "Well. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore, does it?" She looks at Lucky. "There isn't a Rebellion anymore, girl. We lost. The government won. Rekenber won."

"Rekenber... The corporation?"

"Who else?" She looks at Gonie again. "You realise she can't leave this place, now, right? Honestly it was a terrible idea to ever let you leave in the first place, and now this—"

"Wait, hang on, why can't I leave?"

Gonie chews on his lip and doesn't say anything.

"If Rekenber knew about this place, we'd be done for. They'd come after all of us."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Ridsh," says another woman climbing down the stairs to see what the ruckus is about. She's older, and her hair and eyes are the same colour as Gonie's. "Do you really think Rekenber doesn't know about us? They let us stick around because we're not a threat anymore and we serve as a good object lesson to anyone else who'd have the same ideas."

(Is that Gonie's mum? Wait, no, Ms. Ridsh said that his parents weren't around. Aunt? Grandma? Could be grandma but she looks kind of too young to be a grandma? Lucky doesn't know how old grandmas usually are.)

"Who would've? Everyone who did joined us, and now they're either here or gone, Dien. There's no one else on our side."

"Still dramatic as ever. Come on, dear, it's tea time anyway, why don't you join us?" she asks Lucky, walking over to the tearoom and sitting in one of the armchairs.

"—okay!"

Gonie is obviously coming with her, so he pushes her next to the couch and then stands there behind her.