My dad is slumped in his chair back in his office, looking exhausted. Tara is pacing around the room with a grim expression; she relaxes a little as she sees me – and sees that I'm alone.

"Where is she?"

"I left her outside the building. I don't know if she's still there."

"Stars, Tallulah," my dad says. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I feel a stab of anger at those words, but I suppress it. I still don't dignify the question with a response, though.

"And she's helped us so much as well…" My dad sounds confused.

"I thought she had good intentions," Tara says. "She's given me a lot of advice about Malaina law, and she did everything she could to help Tallulah when – well – "

When I was isolated, under suspicion of being a danger. "She did," I agree. "I… I've struggled with this a lot. There's two sides to her. And it feels like one of them should be fake, or a mask, but… they're both real. She's both of those people at once."

"So because she has the knowledge we need, and because she's doing good for her Malaina students… we're supposed to tolerate that she's also a monster?"

I'm starting to hate the word monster. "She's not – " I pause to search for the right words. "She's cruel, yes, but… not in the ways she could be. She hasn't really, deeply hurt me, or anyone else that I know of."

"Because she's not that bad after all, or because she knows she couldn't get away with causing that sort of damage?" Tara asks.

"…have you seen the law we're trying to fight? She could, quite literally, get away with murder if she wanted to."

Tara grimaces.

"It might just be me," my dad says, "but I'm not all that comfortable with giving someone credit for not murdering people."

"It's not just you," I say. "But… what I'm trying to say is that where she is, she's doing a lot of good and not that much harm."

"And how much harm are you prepared to tolerate?" my dad asks. "Let's say she does something worse. Do you put up with that as well?"

I sigh. "It depends exactly what that something is."

"Tallulah…"

I let the silence linger.

"She's right," my dad admits. "I can't get her fired or arrested. I can't even keep her away from you."

Not least, I think grimly, because I might not want Electra kept away from me.

"But I can at least not work with her."

"What does that actually solve?" I ask.

Silence.

"It means the project fails. We don't get justice for John, or the precedent we want to set. And does it actually make anything worse for Electra?"

"I can't just accept – "

"How is the alternative any better?"

My dad sighs and says nothing.

"Stars," Tara mutters. "I did not sign up for this." Today is the first time I've seen her normally friendly but professional manner ruffled. She seems almost more human this way. "What Electra did was wrong. I don't think anyone here is going to argue otherwise."

She pauses for us to argue otherwise if she's wrong. Neither of us do.

"But, as she took great pains to point out, we have no ability to enforce consequences on her. And the one thing we can do in refusing to work with her, as Tallulah points out, sacrifices what we're trying to do for a point of principle."

"I'm quite prepared to sacrifice for the principle of it being unacceptable to hold a knife to my daughter's throat in front of me, thank you very much."

"I think your daughter disagrees with that."

I can't work out to be grateful to Tara for emphasising that I have a role in deciding what happens next or frustrated with her for making it sound like I'm unreasonable for disagreeing with my dad's statement.

"If it were a personal sacrifice, I wouldn't. But this is about more than just us."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"And you agree with that, Tara?"

"Stars, this is above my pay grade."

"Tara, you know your thoughts are important to me."

The way that's phrased… I shut down that thought before it can go anywhere. I hope I'm imagining the faint reddening of Tara's cheeks in response.

"I, personally, am prepared to continue working with Electra on this project. But… Tallulah isn't my daughter. So I completely understand why you're not, and I'll respect that decision if it's the one you're going to make."

My dad glances at me.

I want to say no, you can't throw my project away for a principle. But I know that's the wrong thing to say. "I – yes. Likewise." I can't force him to work with Electra after what she just did. I understand exactly why he no longer wants to. But.

"Thank you. I – I need to go for a walk. Clear my head. I'll be back shortly."

He stands abruptly and marches to the door. I consider following him – there's a good chance that Electra is still outside the office, and another encounter with her is the last thing he needs right now – but Tara gives me a subtle shake of her head. Fine. I'm not sure another encounter with Electra is something I particularly want either. And I don't want to end up handling her on his behalf.

"I think," Tara says, a minute or so after he's gone, "he's missing the point."

"Oh?"

"Focusing on the knife. It's the obvious thing, and his judgement is clouded by feeling at the moment. But the important part is that she's the sort of person who's prepared to do that just to make a point. That is what makes her dangerous."

I nod thoughtfully.

"You know her better than I do. What do you think she was trying to achieve?"

I shrug. "I suppose she wants my dad to understand my situation better. So he doesn't do something foolhardy if I'm in real danger."

"But surely there are ways of making that point without, well…"

I shrug. "Electra's teaching methods are… intense."

"Teaching," repeats Tara thoughtfully. "I suppose I can understand it with you, but your father is not her student. And yet she still sees fit to teach him."

I'll have to choose my words very carefully if I don't want Tara realising Electra's intentions here. What are the consequences of that, actually? She'd tell my dad, and then my dad would realise Electra was trying to manipulate him into becoming someone else, and then… and then he'd definitely not go ahead with the project. And there's no telling what else he'd do.

If I can just persuade Electra to leave him alone…

"Apparently. I suppose she thinks it'll help me, or him."

"And of course she's not the sort of person who'd think to ask before doing something like that."

"Of course," I agree. "Why would she ever bother with that?"

The more I think about it, the worse Electra's actions seem. And yet I've tolerated her doing worse to me. I should probably be concerned.

But that doesn't make my earlier arguments wrong. I can't do anything meaningful against her, and even if I could I'm not sure it would be a good idea. I'll just have to be watchful, I suppose, always remember that she wants something from me. And that I can't take it for granted that that's something that would be good for me.

"Stars. My instincts are telling me to stay as far away from that woman as possible. But… if we're serious about changing the way people see Malaina, we're going to need her help."

I blink. The casual way she says that. We. Tara and I. Changing the way people see Malaina. "Are you? Serious?"

"I'd like to be," Tara says, speaking slowly. "But… it's not going to be easy. And the consequences of mistakes…"

"Mala sia, you mean?"

"Yes. Letting even one slip could cost so many lives. In a way, it's just an extension of the Paradox."

"…what's the Paradox?"

"Oh. I forget you haven't been to law school. It's an idea in legal scholarship. I'm not sure if I agree with it, but the parallels are obvious in this case. Only a tiny minority of people are criminals, but to deal with them we have to enforce harsh laws on the entire population."

Only a tiny minority of Malaina become mala sia, but to prevent that…

I study Tara for a moment, considering, and then decide to take a chance. "I wrote an essay last term," I say, "that discusses Malaina law. And I found a few ideas. Perhaps you'd like to see it?"

Tara smiles. "I would. And I look forward to it."

"I'll bring it to you when I next visit the office, then."

"Thank you. But as I was saying: any serious plan of this nature needs Electra. I don't think there's anyone else with her knowledge and experience who sees Malaina as… well. Humans, not episodes waiting to happen."

I grimace. "So we either sabotage our own efforts by not including her, or we include her and let her keep doing things like what she did today."

Tara sighs. "Neither approach particularly appeals."

I have to agree with her.

We wait for my dad for another twenty minutes or so, largely each lost in our own thoughts. He seems a little calmer than when he left, at least, but still not entirely at ease. Then again, I'm not sure when I last saw him completely relaxed.

"She apologised," he says.

"She what?" Tara says incredulously. I'm surprised, too. And it was my idea.

"While she stands by the point she made," my dad says, clearly copying her wording, "the way she made it was not acceptable, and she hopes I can forgive her. She'll look over the case and write to the office with her thoughts, and she's still willing to work with us if we are with her."

Tara starts the inevitable interrogation: were those her exact words? Did she appear remorseful, or like she was saying it to appease him?

I'm only half-listening to his responses. I can't help seeing it as an apology to me. An admission that she made things harder for me, even if she doesn't regret her action or even see it as a mistake, and that she's prepared to try and put things right.

So I know now that Electra will listen to me and do what I want, at least sometimes.

Is it because I convinced her she'd mis-stepped? Or just because she values my not hating her?

The idea that she cares what I think of her is terrifying.

Eventually we've mined as much information as we can from the apology. It's Tara who asks the inevitable question: "What do we do now?"

"I don't know if I can work with her and remain professional," my dad says. "Stars, I can't even think of her without seeing – " he stops talking abruptly, and then resumes: "But… if you two are really prepared to do that… I won't stop you."

"I am if you are, Tallulah," Tara says. "Though… it'll be harder, with only one of me. And Ben is a better lawyer than I am. But if you think it's worth trying, I'll do everything I can."

I glance at my dad, not quite looking for permission. I know he doesn't like this. I'm pretty sure that if he thought he could forbid me without destroying whatever fragile relationship we've built over the last week, he would.

But he can't. And this, I've decided, is worth fighting for.

"Let's do it."

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