Myfanwy Thomas—Shantay Petoskey

Myfanwy Thomas and Shantay Petoskey’s friendship gives Myfanwy a source of frank, personal companionship within the demands of Checquy and Croatoan service. Shantay’s easy familiarity lets her ask about Myfanwy’s family and challenge her decisions, while the Bath crisis turns that intimacy into reciprocal care: Shantay looks after Myfanwy when she is incapacitated, and Myfanwy later protects and revives Shantay.

An informal friendship across rank

Shantay arrives early at Apex House and playfully presents herself to Myfanwy as Bishop Petoskey, prompting Myfanwy to conceal a smile until they are alone. Once the door closes, Myfanwy laughs and asks what Shantay is doing there so early, including whether she is trying to break her secretary. The exchange establishes a relaxed ease that cuts across their formal positions: Myfanwy is Rook Thomas, while Shantay is a Croatoan Bishop, but their private manner is teasing and familiar rather than ceremonious.

Shantay explains that she was bored, that Bishop Morales was still asleep, and that there was nothing worth watching on the hotel television. More importantly, she remembers that Myfanwy gets in early and has come to hear how things went with Myfanwy’s sister. Her visit therefore joins casual companionship to attentive interest in a difficult personal transition; she makes time for Myfanwy beyond the immediate business of their organizations.

Family confidences and candor

The two women discuss Myfanwy’s reunion with her siblings while sitting among reports from the United States. Myfanwy is pleased but nervous that her brother and sister might not like her. Shantay answers with uncomplicated reassurance, insisting that family has to like her. Her confidence contrasts with Myfanwy’s uncertainty about entering relationships that memory loss has made unfamiliar.

Myfanwy distinguishes the two reunions she faces. Bronwyn was three when Myfanwy left and may not remember her, whereas Jonathan was eleven and, Myfanwy thinks, they had been close. Myfanwy does not know what to tell him because she remembers little of her pre-Checquy life. Shantay responds with several deliberately absurd possible explanations, from years of addictive medication to brainwashing or a cricket-bat injury. The joking does not resolve Myfanwy’s problem, but it shows that their conversations can hold anxiety and humor together without pretending that her lost memories are easily explained.

Loyalty under operational pressure

During a dangerous operation, Myfanwy concludes that an escort may be of little use after the local troops have been liquefied, but decides that even a small chance of helping her people is reason enough to enter. Mahesh Poppat warns that this is not her field and says he cannot let her go alone. Shantay steps into the argument already zipping up a Pawn combat uniform: she will go with Myfanwy.

Myfanwy objects that Shantay’s presence could have serious repercussions if a Croatoan Bishop were harmed on a Checquy operation. Shantay refuses to be dissuaded. She argues that she can handle herself and that Myfanwy needs someone to cover her back; she also points out that the two organizations’ dossiers on one another are extensive enough for her to know this kind of operation is not Myfanwy’s forte. Myfanwy has private doubts about going in alone, despite believing she has her own abilities, and finally agrees to let Shantay accompany her. The decision makes the friendship operational: Shantay’s loyalty becomes direct support in a situation where Myfanwy is exposed to danger.

Care and reciprocity in Bath

The crisis later tests that loyalty in an immediate emergency. While Myfanwy is in a trance, Shantay notices that she has begun to bleed and tremble. When Myfanwy does not respond, Shantay drops beside her, tries to get her to wake, and attempts to clear the growths appearing on her. She continues calling to her and supporting her even as the situation becomes more dangerous. Shantay’s attention is practical and sustained: she notices the change, responds, and remains with her friend rather than turning away.

Myfanwy eventually understands how to disrupt the fungus’s connections and clear it from her own skin. She then touches the back of Shantay’s hand and uses her ability to turn Shantay’s skin and hair metallic, removing the mold that had covered her. Myfanwy sends a further signal through the metal to Shantay’s system, and Shantay shudders before sitting up and opening her eyes. The sequence reverses their positions: Shantay has just tried to care for the incapacitated Myfanwy, and Myfanwy is now able to protect and revive Shantay through her unusual bodily-control ability.

After they leave the house, the friends wait together in a youth-hostel lobby while arrangements are made to collect them. They have both insisted on showers, but the Checquy headquarters in Bath is crowded with Pawns, soldiers, and doctors, and no hotel room is available because of a convention. The modest, improvised setting follows the intensity of the operation with an unceremonious return to conversation. Shantay asks what Myfanwy did; Myfanwy explains that she disrupted the instructions passing from the fungus to its hosts, causing the chanting to stop and the pods holding Checquy troops to open.

A friendship made visible through action

The relationship is defined less by formal declarations than by what each woman notices and does. Shantay remembers Myfanwy’s family concerns, offers her blunt reassurance and humor, and refuses to leave her to enter a dangerous site alone. In Bath, that readiness becomes care during Myfanwy’s collapse. Myfanwy’s response is not simply gratitude: she uses her ability to shield Shantay from the spreading mold and bring her back to consciousness. Together, these scenes present their closeness as reciprocal, expressed through confidences, argument, practical courage, and help given when the other cannot manage alone.