Noticing my absence from the table, his eyes swept the room until they locked with mine. With a curt nod toward an empty chair, he silently beckoned me. Reluctantly, I moved to take the seat, aware of the room’s collective gaze now on me.
Caden cleared his throat, the subtle sound cutting through the air and commanding immediate attention. “All right, everyone, it’s time to get up to speed on Petru’s involvement in the Resistance.”
“Or, more accurately, his lack thereof,” he added.
A murmur of confusion rippled through the team. “Huh?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you saying he won’t stand with us?”
Caden raised his hand to quell the rising tide of questions. “I approached him with what we know: the Radicals, their Amplifier, the future war against the humans—told him almost everything.”
“But he flat out refused to stand with us,” Caden continued, shaking his head as if he still couldn’t believe it.
A murmur of discontent spread through the team. I could feel my own frustration simmering beneath the surface, but I forced myself to maintain a neutral expression, trying to gauge the reactions of those around me.
Caden’s shoulders tensed as he spoke, “It’s a tricky situation. We want him to retract his consensus, but we also don’t want the Radicals to gain power while he does. Explaining to him to fight with us and to withdraw his consensus, without it seeming like a direct response to the assholes holding a nuclear weapon—who want the same thing—made me sound like a fucking lunatic.”
“Remind me again, why don’t we simply join the Radicals in their fight?” someone asked. “We want the same thing! We don’t want the Great Exposure, and we don’t want to hand over the LiaPrisms. So why are we even fighting them?”
“Because we’re not fucking animals,” Caden snapped. “They’re using a nuclear weapon to achieve their goals!”
“So basically, we’ve joined the Resistance, but as—what—cowards?” another member interjected.
Silence fell heavily over the room. Caden rose from his chair, his posture threatening. “If you?—”
But I interrupted, cutting him off. “Do you understand what an Amplifier does?”
Everyone turned their attention to me, a mix of curiosity and apprehension in their eyes.
“Have you seen its devastation? Its destruction?” I swallowed hard, pushing back the memories of Jack and every other kid I could not save. “Because I have. Think about everyone in here, translating all the time. About your children, their translations happening at random. Now picture someone activating an Amplifier. Every maga and magus, every kid translating in that moment, would implode. Just like that. They would cease to exist. They woulddie. Do you really want to fight other magi and humans at that cost?”
The room fell into a heavy silence, the gravity of my words sinking in.
Caden nodded at me, encouragingly.
I continued, my voice steady but intense. “You guys want to save us from the future. If they keep using the Amplifier, there won’t be a future to save us from.”
The team absorbed my words reluctantly, a shared sense of grim understanding settling over them.
“So, what did Petru say?” Enya asked.
Caden sank back into his chair, and I followed suit, leaning back with a heavy sigh. “For now, he’s upholding the consensus. But he’s made it clear if the Radicals come knocking on his doorstep, he’s prepared to revoke it. Which is the worst outcome we could have hoped for. To him, it means he wouldn’t have to deal with the hostiles, effectively keeping his Collective out of war.”
A murmur of frustration spread through the team. “Can we at least search his grounds for their camps? To find the Amplifier?” someone else asked.
Caden shook his head, still looking grim. “No, I’m afraid I’ve failed on that front as well. Petru didn’t seem to want to antagonize them.”
I frowned, feeling a bit confused. “I thought Petru was the most feared Leader among all the Eastern Collectives?”
Caden’s shoulders slumped a bit. “Yeah, I’m as baffled as you are. I don’t know what made him turn coward since the last time I met him.”
“Which was when?” I asked.
Caden shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe a year ago?”
I mulled it over, trying to piece together the changes in Petru’s stance.
