“Yes. The Verya.” I kept my voice steady—not bright, not forced. Just honest. “They’re the ones who took Ryzen’s brother, Xenak, along with the others who were left at that asteroid base I’d returned from. They’ve been hurting a lot of people for a very long time, in a lot of places, and now they’re pushing into our galaxy, hunting for more people to hurt. They’re the reason your father is at the frontlines, protecting our empire from both the Quaww and the threat that the Verya brings. They’re the reasons why our family is scattered.”
“Are they coming here?” Nocrez’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Our family is going to make sure they don’t,” I said. “That’s what all of this is—all the training, all the planning, all the people who’ve been coming and going for the last two days. We’re building the walls.” I felt him ease slightly and pressed on before he could tighten again. “But to do that, different members of our family need to be in different places. So I need to tell you where everyone is going and why.”
A nod from Nocrez.Neazzos watching me with those sharp bright eyes.
“Your father is at the front—you know that. He’s commanding forces against the Quaww fleet, protecting the Empire’s borders.”
“He said he’d come back,” Nocrez said.
“He will.” I meant it. I had to mean it. “Clanfathers V’dim and Z’fir are going to stay close to Destima. They’re positioning in the surrounding area—watching the space around us, running patrols, making sure nothing comes our way while the rest of us are gone. They’re our first line of warning. Our shield right here, close to home.”
Something in Nocrez’s face shifted at that—a small softening. V’dim and Z’fir staying near Destima was the best news in this conversation and he knew it.
“Clanfathers Xylo and Odelm are staying here,” I continued. “In the villa. With you.”
“They’re still healing,” Meti said. Quiet. Certain.
I paused. Looked down at her. She hadn’t turned around. “Yes. They are. They need time to recover fully, which is part of why they’re here rather than coming with me.
“And you?” Neazzos pressed. “Where are you going?”
“A meeting.” I held his gaze when he shifted to look at me. “A very important one, at a place called the CEG Space Station. It’s where powerful people gather—leaders, diplomats, people with fleets and resources and influence. The Quaww will have representatives there. And we’re going to be there too.”
“To fight them?” Neazzos’s tail had started moving again.
“To talk.” I kept the response simple, because the complexity of it would take hours to unpack. “To tell other leaders what the Verya are doing. To make alliances—find people who’ll stand with us instead of waiting to see which way the galaxy goes. And yes, potentially to face the Quaww directly. But talking first.Always talking first, because a war you can prevent with the right words is worth more than one you win with weapons.”
He absorbed that. I could see the slight disappointment at the talking-first part, and the grudging acknowledgment of its logic underneath it.
“Clanfather Kaede, Clanfather Zyxel, and Ryzen are going with me,” I said. “They’re my protection at the Chamber. They’ve been training today so they can move as a unit—so that if anything goes wrong, they can cover each other and cover me.”
“And then you come back,” Nocrez said. Still barely above a whisper.
“And then I come back.”
The yard below was quieter now—the drill paused while Kaede said something, Ryzen listening with his daggers resting in their slow orbit, Zyxel studying them both with his scholar’s attention. The amber thread in my web pulsed with the particular warmth that meant Kaede had found something that satisfied him. A small victory in the larger work.
“It’s because you’re a Beacon, isn’t it, Mama.”
Meti.
Still in my lap. Still watching the yard. Voice carrying the same flat certainty she used for settled facts.
Not a question.
I looked down at her. She turned her head to look back up at me—those dark amethyst eyes patient, deep, already past the question and waiting only for confirmation. Silver fur catching the amber light. Something in that gaze that had never belonged to a young cub her age, that sat in her face like it had always been there, like the title she’d inherited was already shaping her from the inside.
Lying to Meti hadn’t worked once in three tries. She waited you out with perfect, unruffled patience and then asked again,more precisely, because she’d already known the answer and had only been giving you the courtesy of saying it yourself.
“Yes,” I said. “They want me. That’s what this is about, at its core—they want me, and the people who love me are arranging themselves around that fact to make sure they can’t have me.”
Nocrez made a small, distressed sound against my arm.
“They’ve been trying for a while,” I said, before either of the boys could run too far down that road. “And they don’t have me. I’m here. I’m sitting on this terrace with the three of you, and everything our family has built—every bond, every connection, every person training in that yard right now—exists to make sure it stays that way.” I looked at Neazzos, who had gone very still. At Nocrez, blinking hard. At Meti, still holding my gaze. “They’re not going to get what they want. We won’t let them.”
Meti turned back to the yard. “Good,” she said, simple and complete, and that was that.
