Order Only: Quiet day
May. 30th, 2012 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_kingsleyFrank apparated back this morning, armed with a platter of Victor's pancakes. We'd hoped to do some debriefing this morning, but Scott soon fell asleep again, practically with his face in his plate, and when we half-carried him back to bed, he slept most of the day away. Guess he was really exhausted.
Molly came around eleven to entertain Rory. Arthur, the woman's a wonder. She always knows what's the right thing to do. After three days of sleep the boy was up bright and early this morning, as lively as a sackful of pixies, but she was up to the challenge. She sat right down on the floor and conjured toys for him that marched around the room and glittering balls that spun in the air, and she helped him build towers of blocks and knock them down. After a break for sandwiches, she pulled a miniaturized rocking chair out of her pocket, tapped it with her wand to expand it to useable size, and then took him into her lap. He cried for his mother then, the poor kid, but she just hushed him and rocked him and sang to him softly. Scott lay on the cot to one side with his back toward us, and I wondered that she didn't take the boy into another room, but then I saw the man's shoulders shaking. Molly saw it too. She looked at me over Rory's head and then raised her voice a little as she crooned, there now, there now. All will be well and all will be well. And I understood why she stayed.
Scott got up again later to have tea and then he was finally ready to talk a bit. He had half-wondered if we were part of a different Dogstar cell, and was quite surprised to learn that we weren't. He fenced with Molly, Frank and me for a good half hour, obviously mulling over whether he could trust us. But his wife's death seems to have broken something loose in him, and perhaps in the end he reasoned he had no choice. As I had sensed, he was ready to talk.
He was never a member. But he knew what the risks were, as he and Norma had made the decision together that she should join. She had to swear her vow before Procyon, the legilimens protecting the Alpha, who tested all potential members for deception. The vow was serious; they didn't mess around. It included a promise to keep their secrets, and to commit suicide--or to kill other members of the cell, if necessary--to keep their information secure.
They wanted Norma for her 'in' with her department at the Ministry, of course. Her cell was specifically camp-related. Dogstar's long-range goal for cells like hers was to prepare for a day when there could be coordinated camp uprisings timed to coincide with civil rebellion or a coup.
Frank and I talked a bit about it afterwards. You know, whereas we've been working on extracting people out of the camps and into the Sherwood operation, it seems to us that Dogstar may have a relatively extensive network inside the camps. Sure, the Sherwood Band does have ties inside the camps, too, but developing an organisation on the inside hasn't been their primary goal. But maybe, if there are any vestiges of these intracamp networks that weren't uncovered in the arrests, it might be possible for us to hook up with them now. Especially if they've been cut off from their leadership?
Frank and I didn't press Scott about future plans today. It's too soon, and he's just not ready. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I hope at least he can give us a better picture of how the various layers of the conspiracy worked. More information than the bits the Prophet has been grudgingly doling out.
Molly came around eleven to entertain Rory. Arthur, the woman's a wonder. She always knows what's the right thing to do. After three days of sleep the boy was up bright and early this morning, as lively as a sackful of pixies, but she was up to the challenge. She sat right down on the floor and conjured toys for him that marched around the room and glittering balls that spun in the air, and she helped him build towers of blocks and knock them down. After a break for sandwiches, she pulled a miniaturized rocking chair out of her pocket, tapped it with her wand to expand it to useable size, and then took him into her lap. He cried for his mother then, the poor kid, but she just hushed him and rocked him and sang to him softly. Scott lay on the cot to one side with his back toward us, and I wondered that she didn't take the boy into another room, but then I saw the man's shoulders shaking. Molly saw it too. She looked at me over Rory's head and then raised her voice a little as she crooned, there now, there now. All will be well and all will be well. And I understood why she stayed.
Scott got up again later to have tea and then he was finally ready to talk a bit. He had half-wondered if we were part of a different Dogstar cell, and was quite surprised to learn that we weren't. He fenced with Molly, Frank and me for a good half hour, obviously mulling over whether he could trust us. But his wife's death seems to have broken something loose in him, and perhaps in the end he reasoned he had no choice. As I had sensed, he was ready to talk.
He was never a member. But he knew what the risks were, as he and Norma had made the decision together that she should join. She had to swear her vow before Procyon, the legilimens protecting the Alpha, who tested all potential members for deception. The vow was serious; they didn't mess around. It included a promise to keep their secrets, and to commit suicide--or to kill other members of the cell, if necessary--to keep their information secure.
They wanted Norma for her 'in' with her department at the Ministry, of course. Her cell was specifically camp-related. Dogstar's long-range goal for cells like hers was to prepare for a day when there could be coordinated camp uprisings timed to coincide with civil rebellion or a coup.
Frank and I talked a bit about it afterwards. You know, whereas we've been working on extracting people out of the camps and into the Sherwood operation, it seems to us that Dogstar may have a relatively extensive network inside the camps. Sure, the Sherwood Band does have ties inside the camps, too, but developing an organisation on the inside hasn't been their primary goal. But maybe, if there are any vestiges of these intracamp networks that weren't uncovered in the arrests, it might be possible for us to hook up with them now. Especially if they've been cut off from their leadership?
Frank and I didn't press Scott about future plans today. It's too soon, and he's just not ready. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I hope at least he can give us a better picture of how the various layers of the conspiracy worked. More information than the bits the Prophet has been grudgingly doling out.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-31 03:32 am (UTC)At any rate, your report on the boy pleases me, especially the way he played with Molly. It does not sound as if there is anything to worry about in the way of residual effects of his extended period under cognition-altering spells.
As for the father, I don't suppose you have any of Mrs Merriweather's Moodlifter? Or even any Pepper Up, which, while not designed for what ails him, might help with the most draining, dragging of his symptoms.
I think you've done well by him so far, allowing him to sleep and then soothing him with tea and sufficient meals. Tomorrow, however, your strategy should be different. Assuming he sleeps soundly tonight, you oughtn't allow him to sleep for long portions of the day from here on. He will undoubtedly still feel very low and tired, but you mustn't let him sink into using sleep as a way to hide from the world.
I trust it doesn't need saying, but do resist the temptation to share anything alcoholic with him. Tea is just the thing, really. Stick with that.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-01 02:28 am (UTC)Molly was over again today, too, taking care of Rory as Scott and I talked. The boy did have a restless night--some nightmares. A bit too much upheaval in his world, poor kid.
Scott's trying to remember and write down everything he can think of that he gleaned from Norma. It's not much. She took that vow of secrecy seriously. But he might come up with some thread, some detail that we can use to hook up with the remnant of the network.
If there's anybody left.
One of the things troubling him the most is the gnawing question about how she died. Was it quick, a suicide? Or a mercy stroke by a co-conspirator?
Or did she die in pain, even under torture?
I can't give him any answers, and of course I wouldn't insult him by pretending that I can.