The giant table in the council room was empty as Kingston lounged across from Ayna. She was surprised to find Kingston alone—it seems the rest of the council had no desire to get the news from the front as soon as it came in. They probably all assumed there would not be any. Kingston sat across from her; the only hopeful one. Their conversation turned to the Blight project, so Ayna placed her Tab into protected mode and reviewed plans for expanding the U Labs with him. He might not be someone she trusted with all the details of the project, but he had built a town from a field, so his input was helpful for the mundane tasks in the project.
After an hour or so reviewing the blueprints Jo had put together for her, Ayna’s aide slid into the room. She was trembling with more sweat than usual. Ayna resisted the urge to send her away. Kingston looked over at the girl. Instead, Ayna spoke as if to one of her children, “What is it?”
The girl nodded to Ayna, “I’m sorry to interrupt—I am not sure what is going on, ma’am, but General Hafi reached out and seemed distraught that you had not yet responded to his urgent message.”
Ayna gave her an encouraging smile, “It’s fine, Erde. I was showing Kingston some project data. I’ll check on it immediately.” Ayna turned and pushed down the smile that threatened to take over her. That Hafi was sending the outcome of the battle was a good sign. If he had lived, then there was a good chance that plenty of others had as well. Maybe even Shara. For all his asking about what had happened, Kingston was remarkably calm.
Ayna waited until Erde closed the door to the council room, then she flipped her tablet out of Protected Mode to receive new messages and notifications. Immediately, an urgent message from Hafi popped up. Then a second urgent message. She clicked on the most recent one. Hafi’s face showed, making Ayna frown. Hafi despised sending video messages. He viewed them as a waste of everyone’s time, unless something was both important and personal. She flicked the display to show it on the screen in the wall.
Hafi’s face filled the room, the display zooming in on his face to fit it from the floor to the ceiling, “It looks like we have an answer—Shara went with a small troop to the nearby SatNet tower. Sergeant Coilsen said it was to transmit some Blight crystal data, but they were ambushed by Xenai. He was the only one who made it back from the tower. I’ve sent another team to investigate, but the scouts have done a preliminary confirmation. I’m so, so sorry.”
Ayna didn’t know why this was so important to her, but the nausea was rising. Her finger trembled as she clicked on the first message.
“I’ve sent out scouts to investigate why the Xenai have not attacked again this morning.” Hafi sighed and looked at things off screen.
He’s stalling.
Hafi glanced away from the camera on the Tab, “Something isn’t right. They have never hesitated to throw their soldiers at us, even if it means a massive slaughter. Something has happened but I can’t figure out what.”
Just like that, it had happened. The Xenai had gotten what they wanted. Ayna watched each message several times before a third came in. Kingston stayed quiet, observing the story playing out and Ayna’s reaction to it, but he offered no comfort or advice. Ayna tapped to open the third message. The video download felt like it took ages, even though the States House connected to a tower for quick transfers.
Hafi’s face floated on the wall again and his voice was hesitant and—what is that? Hafi wasn’t looking into the camera, “The troop sent to investigate the tower found the five soldiers dead outside as expected. Sergeant Coilsen said Shara had gone in while the six of them remained outside. The investigative team found lights on in the tower, but nothing else. He said they saw her with something around her neck, like it was subduing her. They took her west from the tower. We have some light tracks we can follow.” Hafi paused again.
It’s fear. Thats what it is.
Hafi gave a direct look into the LightTab camera, the fear and hesitation fading, “Once we confirm that they have retreated fully, I am sending the army home. I intend to go after Shara, unless you have other orders.”
Ayna could hear the defiance in his voice and see it in the slight tilt of his head at the end. No matter what she told him, he would go after Shara. And she would have to sit here, doing nothing. She tossed the Tab onto the giant table and the projection onto the screen flickered and went dark. She wanted to throw the LightTab—to hear the satisfying shatter echo with the tones of her failure. She had been too slow to figure out the Blight crystal and bring Shara home. She shouldn’t have sent her in the first place. Why did she think the crystals were more dangerous?
It didn’t matter what she did now. For her, it was over.
She looked across the table, Kingston offered a consolatory partial smile. She nodded to him, “I need to put together some instructions for my aide and other council members. We need to figure out what they—”
Kingston reached out and placed his hand on top of hers, squeezing it, “Ayna—you need time to grieve. The war is over, so there is nothing so important that it cannot wait for you.”
Ayna jerked her hand away from his, looking over at him. It won’t take long for them all to start trying to take over now that the immediate crisis is over.
Kingston looked back at her, “Ayna—I mean it. Every other issue can be put on hold.” He arched an eyebrow at her, “I am assuming there is no major tragedy awaiting us in the next few weeks that I don’t know about—am I correct?”
Ayna reluctantly nodded. “Nothing in the next two weeks, no. We have at least three weeks until the next world ending cataclysm.” she said, then paused, “I could use the time.” She looked over at him one more time. He seemed concerned—whatever happiness he had over James still living was carefully hidden from her. Ayna took a slow breath, “There is one issue—with the Blight project—I think continuing work with someone overseeing it is important. Not to mention the ongoing rationing of supplies and supporting the refugees.”
“Between Vitalus and I, we can take care of whatever small pressing matters there are. Just delegate what you want to who you want.”
Ayna nodded, standing from the table. Kingston took the cue and stood. He offered a half bow and walked to the double doors. He paused at them, turning back to her, “If anyone can survive the Xenai, you know it is Shara.”
Ayna bit her lower lip to hold back a sob. Kingston gave her another sad smile and left.
Ayna sent a message to Erde, copying Kingston Cross and Vitalus on it, delegating the lab work to Kingston and directing Vitalus to take over the Artificer and BloodSmith conflict. Her aide would have to pull in a team to handle the refugees and supplies. She packed up her satchel and stood. She had no idea if Hafi had even sent anything to Jo.
A fresh bout of sorrow overcame her. She threw her satchel against the wall, relishing the second of release that accompanied the tinkling of glass shards and metal inside the bag as it hit the wall then the floor. She targeted a feral scream at the satchel and then left the room, leaving the pile of fabric and glass behind as she ignored the concerned look from her aide.
The next several days were like a blur of delegations and awaiting messages from Hafi. He didn’t send much—Coilsen had felt guilty about Shara being taken on his watch and had offered to accompany Hafi out west. Ayna stayed in Jo’s library, grateful for Kingston’s willingness to coordinate the scientists. He had suggested coordinating with Praha, who had also started to discover Blight deposits near them—Ayna hadn’t even known they had found any. She felt a sliver of gratitude that Kingston was competent and quickly picked up directing the project. Despite her misgivings, Hunt was willing to step forward and wear the public face of the effort, quoting words carefully crafted by Kingston—enough to let the public know they were making progress without revealing that a new Sundering was hanging over them.
“How are you, Ayna? You know we don’t need to keep these calls going. Everything is smooth.” Kingston reassured her a few times each day. She still took each report on a live call with Kingston and Hunt, then would send individual inquiries to Praha to make sure that they agreed with her team’s assessments. She had always been in the middle of everything because no one else wanted to be, but now that the Underground had inexplicably stopped fighting and the Xenai army had retreated to the west side of the mountains, everyone was willing to run Prin for her.
Part of her willed herself to accept it at face value and be grateful for the help. Another part assumed that if everything was still going badly, that no one would allow her to take time to grieve for her daughter being taken by the Xenai; they’d expect her to work just as hard at all hours to come up with solutions.
Ayna stood up from Jo’s desk. She could hear him out in his shed building something. He’d been spending most of his time there when she was working. When she wasn’t working, he was cleaning something or just generally around her, even though they found little to say to each other. Jo’s two girls had returned to the U and the Academy, respectively. The silence of the house was as comfortable as it had always been, despite each of them one noticing how the other filled their time with habits they had when they were worried. Ayna had started reading a dozen books from her backlog, putting each one down a few chapters in, once she realized that the material built too much on earlier information she hadn’t really been paying attention to.
She checked her messages, then tried a new book.
Two weeks seemed like an eternity to Ayna and Jo. Ayna stepped back from her communication, leaving the work to Praha and Kingston alone. In that time, a whirlwind of progress was made with the Blight project—but their success was overshadowed by the latest news from Tani.
Not long after her latest feed on curing some forms of cancer with the Blight implants, the army was officially recalled. Jo took Ayna’s LightTab away after watching her stare at the two headlines side by side.
“Tani, gifted Prin scientist cures Leukemia.”
“Shara Shae, The Peace of Prin, brings the troops home.”
The time for sorrow had to end. She had to prepare Prin for what was next.