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Makita is sitting at a table. Without her coat. The lack of the oversized garment makes her seem somehow smaller. It's much easier to tell that she spent much of her life without enough food.

On the table in front of her lies an impressive pile of weapons. Grenades, a number of pistols, a stack of magazines. And her room key. She's looking at them, trying to figure out how she's going to carry them all around now.

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She nods. "No one else has heard of it either. Which is good, I suppose, since it means that there aren't any Reds here. I don't know if I could follow the 'no business' rule if one showed up."

If Seymour knows anything, it's that he'll never have an enemy he hates so much that he'll violate the rules of Milliways.

"Yeah, I guess not. Especially if it was someone really important to the Reds." Hmmm. If Hitler came here, would someone try to assassinate him?

"So...uh, how are things...going? In the war? If you wanna talk about it. Which! You don't have to. Uh, at all. If you don't want to."

Makita doesn't mind talking about it, but most people don't find it to be a very comfortable topic. "We kill a bunch of Reds, they just send more. For the most part we fight, and we die."

People like Seymour!

He was hoping for something more general and less blunt.

"No hope for peace?" he asks tentatively.

"Well, I suppose the Reds could always choose to give up. But I don't think that's going to happen. They've only done it once that I know of."

"Oh, when was that?"

"Al'istaan. About ten years ago. Kar Dathra... All reports say that he wiped out the invasion fleet with a single Protokol." Her eyes are wide, she can't imagine someone having that much power.

"Wow," Seymour murmurs, suitably impressed.

Then, "Uh, Protokol's a gun, right?"

He wants to know what exactly he's being impressed about.

Makita eyes Seymour. Everyone knows what a Protokol is... Back home.

"Oh. Um, Kasting? I think I've heard it called 'magic' around here?"

"Um!"

Magic. Right.

"Okay. Uh. Magic. ...Like, chant a few words and something happens?"

"Well, it's something like that. I'm not a sorceress myself, so I don't know how it works. The Reds use it for all sorts of stuff. Like Gates. It lets them send reinforcements wherever they want."

"Can your side do stuff like that?"

She shakes her head, "The Reds can detect Kastings too, and they'll turn any area where we try to use on into an inferno. Their Skyfurnaces control the skies, so there's nothing we can do to stop that."

Seymour looks over at her weaponry. "Maybe, uh, you could sneak onto a Skyfurnace and blow it--" Wait, if Skyfurnace = jet airplane? No.

"Nevermind," he adds quickly. "I'm just a florist."

Makita gives Seymour a sad smile, "We tried a couple of times, but they're too hard to get to. And there are a lot of them."

"There'd...probably be people here who knew how to deal with stuff like that," Seymour says after a moment.

People who ~~don't suck~~ aren't florists.

Maybe they'd give you some tips.

That gets a considering look. "Any idea who?"

Seymour shakes his head apologetically. "Um, look for other people with weapons?" he suggests.

"That's not a bad idea, Seymour. Thanks."

He's surprised - not a bad idea, really - when he says, "Oh, uh, sure. No problem."

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