"No."
If Selene, Alexander and Pallas were gone, it meant the forty three had been apprised of the situation. They'd know about Elise and Elena. Not Jin though. He'd been very careful when he slipped into his lu-ong spawn. They probably wouldn't realize the significance of the J1N collapsing immediately after.
Kira didn't want to think her siblings would leak that information to the Tsavitee, but you never knew. She'd gotten this far by being paranoid.
"That's disappointing," Asanth said with a sigh, not sounding disappointed at all. "I was hoping for an opportunity to speak with them. You could arrange that, couldn't you?"
Asanth raised his eyebrows at Kira in expectation.
"No."
And not just because Alexander and the rest would kill her.
"Is that all you can say? No?" Asanth challenged.
Kira's primus washed away the irritation and anger she might have felt before it could fully manifest. Cold pragmatism replaced it.
It was dangerous to allow her primus to remain close enough to the surface to affect her emotions like this. Created for battle, the primus was Kira's alternate form. It was stronger, faster. More resilient than her current one. Very few Tuann had the power or lineage to awaken one. Probably a good thing. The primus was utterly conscienceless. A being without remorse or empathy. Whose only drive was killing.
It took years of training to control. Even then, Kira was reluctant to let it out of its cage, only using it as a weapon of last resort.
Normally, she would have stuffed it down by now, but she was in desperate need of the respite it could give. Without it's help, she might still be stuck in her own mind. A willing victim of her grief.
The Tuann were powerful, but they possessed one weakness. The bonds they formed with others. Cut those bonds, damage them in some way and their mental state was affected. Some went a little mad. Like Kira when she lost her Curs. Others let themselves wither. They faded away a little more each day until finally their hearts stopped.
The primus protected her from either of those outcomes. At least in the short term.
A reckoning was coming. But hopefully not before she'd saved Jin and Elena.
"Your children don't want a relationship with you. What part of that is hard to understand?" Kira asked, the words colder than they would have been without the primus's influence.
Asanth lifted his head off his hand as watchfulness replaced his lazy expression.
Interesting. Kira had expected anger.
The anticipated explosion came from a different direction as Kashori's Overlord slammed a hand on the table in front of her. "Watch yourself, Roake."
Oh, right. Kashori's Overlord had lost a child in the Sorrowing too.
"No," Kira whispered.
The woman standing behind Asanth's Overlord bristled, her gaze training on Kira as one hand went to the weapon concealed in her synth armor.
Harlow held a hand out between Kira and the woman. "Easy, child."
Kira's gaze flicked in his direction. "You don't get to call me that anymore. I passed my adva ka."
Even by Tuann standards, she was considered a full adult.
"You will always be a child to me," Harlow returned.
Kira kept her soft snort to herself as Harlow stared Kashori and Asanth's Overlords down.
"We're here to discuss the connection between the attack on the adva ka and the subsequent revolt during the soul bound's trial," Harlow rumbled. "Not to rehash the fate of our lost children."
Asanth leaned back in his chair, crossing a foot over his knee to signal agreement. Kashori's nod was stiff as she drew herself upright.
A beat passed before Harlow settled himself into the only other empty chair at the table. Kira took up position behind his left shoulder. A sign of fealty and support.
