She sat down at the table in the chair that Alexander was not occupying—the one next to Rex.
She moved with the composed efficiency of soone who had processed the outside conversation to its conclusion and was now choosing to be present in the room rather than absent from it. Her expression was the professional one, which Rex had learned conveyed sothing different from the personal one, even when the two appeared similar.
She glanced at the food, then surveyed the table as a whole before placing so on her plate and starting to eat with the deliberate focus of soone who has determined that eating is the next task at hand and is executing it.
Alexander did not co back inside.
Mireya glanced at his empty chair, then shifted her gaze to Elizabeth before focusing on her own plate.
"So... I want to be clear about sothing," Mireya said. "This has to be a long-term discussion."
’Ah shit... here we go again.’ Rex thought.
The table oriented toward her with varying degrees of attention. Rex kept eating without having to care if she starts it again.
"What I described this afternoon is accurate," Mireya said. "Rex killed people who had surrendered and given him everything he asked for!"
"That is the truth, and I didn’t try to make it into a story because that’s really what happened in the canyon."
"Mireya," Talyra said, and her voice had the specific directness of soone who had prepared what she was going to say and was saying it. "I want you to hear sothing and actually take it in rather than waiting for to finish so you can answer."
"I’m listening," Mireya said.
"You watched the last few minutes of a situation that started before you got there," Talyra said. "You took an electrical discharge and you were on the ground, and you watched the end of sothing."
"Rex went into that canyon alone. Not the group, one person, because the group would have been slower and because Apollo and Veylor would have been moved before we reached them."
"And now look at the situation! He ca out with all three." She t Mireya’s gaze directly. "The people who are dead in that canyon are the people who spent fourteen years running extraction operations!"
"The individuals who captured Apollo and inflicted stone spurs on Iris’s back were not re bystanders; they were integral to the operation."
"I know who they were," Mireya said. "That doesn’t change what was done to them after they stopped fighting."
"Did they stop fighting?" Talyra said. "Kregg took Apollo."
"He had ten people in that canyon and possessed a ring that suppressed divine designations."
"He inford everyone in the chamber that five additional Legion mbers were already upstairs collecting the others." She paused. "At what point in that sequence did they actually stop?"
"They gave him information," Mireya said. "Kregg gave him the na, the location, the docunt, and the ring."
He cooperated fully!"
"He cooperated because Rex had Virella’s throat as leverage to intimidate him; I heard the story from him," Talyra said. "That’s not the sa as stopping."
Mireya looked at her. "That distinction is doing a lot of work in your argunt."
"Well yeah! It’s doing accurate work," Talyra said. "There’s a difference between soone who has stopped because they’ve changed their position and soone who has stopped because they have no other option in that mont."
"Kregg had no other option in that mont. The mont the situation changed, so would he."
"You can’t know that," Mireya said.
"Neither can you," Talyra said. "And Rex was the one standing in the canyon making the call, not either of us."
"The imdiate threat was not resolved," Aisella said.
She said it quietly, the way she said most things, but with a firmness that was unusual for her. "Kregg had spent fourteen years removing reincarnators from this world."
"Virella was a senior commander of an organization that had killed forty-three people in the sa category as Apollo."
"They were in the sa category as , Talyra, and Rex." She paused. "Allowing them to remain functional ant that the threat also remained functional."
"That is not a complicated calculation when you are the category they remove."
"There are processes," Mireya said. "There are systems."
"The Apostle network exists for exactly this kind of situation, and what Rex did was take those processes and decide unilaterally they didn’t apply to him."
"The Apostle network," Aisella said, "did not prevent Apollo from being captured today."
"The ring that Kregg used was specifically designed to suppress Apollo’s designation."
"The Legion spent fourteen years learning the network’s processes well enough to build tools that bypass them." She looked at Mireya steadily. "The processes you’re describing are the ones the Legion has already accounted for."
"They planned around them."
"But that doesn’t an we abandon the processes entirely!" Mireya said.
"I’m not suggesting we abandon them entirely," Aisella said. "I’m saying that in that specific canyon, with that specific group, the processes had already failed at the point where Apollo was on two knees and Rex was the only one standing."
She paused to exhale her breath. "The process resud when Rex brought them back. But there was a gap in the middle where it wasn’t available."
"And in that gap," Mireya said, "Rex decided he was the process."
"In that gap," Aisella said, "Rex was the only thing between the Legion and three people who wouldn’t have co back otherwise."
"Yes... That’s accurate."
Mireya pressed her lips together. "I’m not saying he should have done nothing!"
"I’m saying what he did after the imdiate situation was resolved went beyond what the situation required."
"Rex went into that canyon alone," Nerith said.
She spoke in a neutral tone, characteristic of her precise communication style rather than a persuasive one. "Nobody asked him to."
"The calculation he was making in that room was done independently, without any support, and was made in opposition to ten people whose main role was to eliminate individuals like him."
"Whatever he decides in that calculation is his to account for." She paused. "But he ca back for the group... including ..."
"I was not his priority by any reasonable asure. He ca back anyway."
Mireya looked at her with the expression of soone who had expected this argunt and had a response prepared. She was revising the response slightly because the person making the argunt was Nerith rather than soone else.
"I know he ca back for the group," Mireya said. "I know he ca back for you!"
"I’m not arguing against that, but all I’m asking is whether the people he ca back for have decided that ans he gets to operate without any accountability for anything."
"That’s not what anyone said," Talyra said.
"It’s what my own eyes see," Mireya replied. "I raised my voice because I was there seeing him do it, but nobody else did see it."
"Because your voice was asking whether further inquiry was needed," Talyra said. "I’m not sure whether what happened was perfect."
"Those are different questions. What he did in that canyon is sothing I think about."
"What I don’t think is that a formal inquiry three days after a Legion engagent is going to produce anything useful except damage to the trust we’ve built in this group over three days of difficult work."
"Trust built on what?" Mireya said. "On not knowing what he actually did?!"
"Trust built on observing his actions," Talyra said. "In the gorge. In the chamber. In every instance during this expedition when sothing went awry, he was the one who set it right."
She set her cup down with the deliberate care of soone who is keeping their physical movents controlled because the conversation is pushing in a direction they have decided not to follow. "I’ve watched him work in real conditions under real pressure for three days."
"That’s what the trust is built on."
"I’m not defending the decision," Aisella said. "I’m saying I understand why it was made."
"I am not willing to treat Rex as a threat to the people in this group because he has not acted that way." He’s been consistent in protecting everyone here."
"That includes people who weren’t originally his to protect," Nerith said again, this ti looking at Mireya rather than the table, while the amber leaves moved in the direct, forward motion that Rex had noted as her way of emphasizing a point.
Mireya looked at her. "I know he saved us," she said. "I’ve said that...!"
"I’ve said it multiple tis, and that’s not the argunt."
"Then what is the argunt?" Talyra said. "Specifically..."
"What outco do you want from this conversation?"
"I want soone in this group to acknowledge that what happened in that canyon was not standard operating procedure," Mireya said. "I want soone to say that the system exists for a reason and that one person deciding he’s above it is worth noting."
"I’ll note it," Talyra said. "And... Noted."
"Now, I’ll also note that the system you’re describing would have held Kregg for three weeks in Aethelgard while his relay network adapted and the Balance Keeper relocated, and by the ti the network’s process concluded, there would have been nothing to follow." She picked up her cup. "The system is useful in the situations it’s built for."
"This wasn’t one of them."
"You sound like him," Mireya said.
Talyra looked at her. "I sound like soone who thought about it," she said. "Those aren’t always different things."
"Mireya," Aisella said, and her voice had the careful quality she used when she was trying to reach sothing rather than argue sothing. "I want to ask you sothing honestly."
User Comments
0 comments from readers