“And they may test it.”
“Yes.”
He studies me for a moment.
“You are prepared to fight them as well?”
“If necessary,” I say.
Elara glances toward me.
“Not today,” she says quietly.
“No,” I agree.
Not today.
I look again at the new border lines glowing across the projection.
Five territories.
Reduced trade.
Buffer zones slicing through what used to be contested pride.
I feel the ache in my ribs where the wound has not fully closed. The cost of this moment is not abstract. It pulses with each breath.
“You secured survival,” Elara repeats softly.
“Yes.”
“And that matters.”
“Yes.”
Rethan lets out a slow breath. “Dominance would have felt better.”
“Yes,” I admit.
“But dominance would have invited annihilation,” he says.
“Yes.”
Silence stretches between us, not empty but heavy with recalibrated expectation.
The junior officer glances back at the interference signal display.
“It’s still there,” she says quietly.
“Let it be,” I reply.
We do not chase every shadow.
We do not overextend into unknown dark.
Not now.
The war is paused.
