Kira

The message from Caius came on the tenth day.

Not about the coalition or the Allied Council documentation or any of the seventeen moving pieces that Marcus was managing with the focused patience of a man who had made his peace with complexity. It was two sentences, handwritten, delivered by a rider who had clearly been pushing hard.

*She's asking to come. I think she's ready if you are.*

I read it twice and went to find Mira.

She was in her quarters, which were not a cell and not quite ...