on_her_korhal | Kerrigan's Office, Wednesday (Reply)

Examining the bigger picture again hadn't seemed to stop whatever human part of Sarah Kerrigan's mind was still questing. It had been nearly a week since the last time she gave in, and now she was sitting there again, staring at a website on her screen.

Years ago, she and Harriet had gone down to London to find a solution to the angels problem. They'd spoken to a lot of government officials at the time, and... Well.

She closed her eyes, brushed her fingertips over her eyelids, and gave in to human weakness. Touched the numbers of the first familiar name she found into the phone, and called.

The voice that answered was crisp, professional, and possessed of a strong Welsh accent. "Office of the Welsh Assembly Government, how may I direct your call?"

"I'm Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan," Kerrigan replied, her voice crisp and authoritative, nowhere near the distant Ghost she had once been. She had a feeling this might leave more of an impression. "I'm looking for miss Myfawny Price."

There was a longish silence, then the voice said, "Please hold." Irritating hold music was a universal constant, but at least this hold music was in Welsh.

It went on for quite a few minutes, long enough for the song to loop back around to the beginning before it was replaced with a human voice, albeit a wary one.

"This is Myfawny Price." Myfawny wasn't used to anyone outside certain organisations knowing who she was; her name was not common knowledge, so she was understandably suspicious when someone called through the general switch asking for her.

"My name is Sarah Kerrigan," she said. Her dark look was reserved for the wall on the other end of the room. "Harriet Jones and I spoke to you a few years ago about a... problem we were facing. Actually, if I recall correctly, you were fairly eager to poke and prod at me... if that sparks your memory."

There was a long silence. "I remember," Myfawny finally said, voice neutral. "And why are you calling me?"

"I don't want to waste your time or mine, so I'll get right to the point," Kerrigan replied. "I seem to have misplaced Harriet Jones. Where is she?"

This silence stretched even longer, as Myfawny weighed up her next move. The temptation to claim ignorance was tempting but felt...wrong. It had been a long time since she'd let herself think in terms of right and wrong. "Harriet died." Myfawny, with her position in the Welsh government and knowledge of the Welsh rift, was one of the few in the world who knew exactly how it had happened. And this was Harriet's friend, and Harriet had once been Myfawny's friend, and so she added quietly, "But she died saving the world." Saying it felt right. "That's all I can tell you."

"I see." Kerrigan sounded detached: the Queen of Blades once more. "That's unfortunate." Unfortunate: a very clear, neutral word. "Thanks for the intel."

The inclination to simply shut down the connection was very strong.

Hearing that voice, Myfawny found it easy to picture the young woman who'd accompanied Harriet into her office. "I'm sorry," she said to that memory. "Harriet was..."' She floundered, not knowing how to finish or what she wanted to say, finding she didn't have the words to encompass who Harriet Jones had been. "She was a good woman."

"She was," Kerrigan agreed - you couldn't not say that about Harriet. "And now she isn't any more. I'm hoping your government is a little less of a mess, miss Price... but I have work to do."

"As do I." Myfawny's tone was cool now, professional. "Goodbye, Ms Kerrigan," she said and put the phone down gently on the cradle.

Something tiny and human curled up in Sarah Kerrigan's body, then dissolved. She sighed, tension seeping out of her body, and shut her eyes. She slumped back.

It only lasted a minute.

Then her body language straightened itself out, and she sat up. Right. That-- issue was out of the way.

[[ co-written with the awesome