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Iryana let him leave with Vaneshta first before she went to find her uncle. With the panic managed, she felt ready for battle. Energy surged through her limbs as she entered the meeting room. Her uncle nodded at her, holding out her chair and squeezing her shoulder supportively.

Iryana waited with false patience as everyone gathered around the table. Her fingers rapidly tapped against her knee, and her Uncle Dinhal kept glancing at them, but he remained silent.

They sat at the middle of a long banquet table, the rest of the clan representatives on either side of her, aside from the First of the Vyukovold Clan, who sat at the end. The brigade representatives were spread out on the other side of the table, Pyetar directly across from her.

He was watching everyone carefully, but when Pyetar’s eyes met hers, he offered her a small, secret smile. Then he was looking over the clans again.

The brigade representatives wore a mix of formal shirts and dresses and parade armor. They proudly displayed green captains’ belts and gold majors’ belts, decorated with assortments of pins announcing their accomplishments and military prowess. The clans were more unified in their formal guardian wear, clothing fit for the ketsan but styled like their armor. Iryana was using her formal dress more than she ever expected.

Now that everyone was almost settled, Iryana felt she should say something. Yet the air seemed thin and she couldn’t force her mouth to open. She had plans for what to say, she really did. Keep it simple and straightforward to start, gauge where everyone was coming into this summit. And still… she just kept tapping her fingers.

Dinhal stilled her hand and leaned close to her ear, whispering, “You belong at this table.”

Her eyes darted to him as she swallowed. She didn’t see anything false in his serious gaze, just determination and confidence.

She had called this meeting. Her clan had invited them all. She needed to start his meeting.

“Is everyone ready?” she asked, voice thankfully firm.

A few around the table nodded, but Tagahn, First of the Vyukovolds stood and addressed them all. “The Vyukovold Clan welcomes you all to the Cavta Post, and we look forward to building closer relationships.”

Iryana studied him, trying to gauge his intentions. Was that an attempt to gain control of the meeting? She didn’t know what his intentions were, but she couldn’t afford for her meeting to be hijacked within the first few moments.

She stood, straightening her skirts, and the rows of black ribbons stitched there. “My clan is grateful for your willingness to host.” She smiled at the First of the Vyukovolds and then turned to everyone else, clearing her throat.

“In the Lasharye Highlands, we have to rely on each other. Without the brigades, we clans would have no way to trade outside our walls and would lack important protection. Without our clans, the brigades can’t support their strongholds and have nowhere to trade for supplies. It is in all of our interests to put aside the difficulties of the past and move forward together, and become stronger for it.

“The Kleesold Clan and the 18th Brigade have already seen improvements from our closer relationship. The brigade escorted a party to their metal well, helped move supplies, and tracked dakii movements so we could plan accordingly.”

Pyetar stood across from her, leaning his hands on the table to meet everyone’s eyes. “And the Kleesolds have helped us snuff out Beast’s Poppy patches and put a stop to the late general who was intent on starting a war in the region. This peace is due to them.” His winter blue eyes met hers then, an unmeasurable depth of gratitude in them.

Iryana nodded, slightly flustered. “With the increasing threat of the dakii and the last fifteen years of making no ground against them, it’s time we think about how we want to move forward as a people. A society. Do we move forward alone, barely hanging on?” She made sure to meet everyone’s eyes as she looked around the table. Majors Nenad and Jesha nodded encouragingly. “Or do we find a way to build something stronger? Work together so that we all might thrive?”

She let that sink in for a moment. The brigades seemed to mostly agree with her, faces earnest and heads nodding, as did the Omisold clan representatives. Only the First of the Vyukovold Clan seemed unmoved. She wished he had brought his Second at least; she had seemed more reasonable, but the First had come alone. Only a couple guards around the room from his clan were present.

“Obviously the biggest barrier for us being able to thrive is the dakii. I learned much from my summer outside the settlement, so I thought it made sense to start with the brigades offering us a look into their approach to living among the dakii.”

She had told Pyetar before this was how she planned to start the meeting, and he seamlessly took over, pulling Jesha and Nenad into the spotlight almost immediately.

Unlike the times she had met Jesha before, she wasn’t dressed in fine ketsan clothes, but in the dark clothes of a military commander, just like her husband Nenad. Her strawberry blonde hair was more elaborately braided than most soldiers though.

While they may have been the ones to demand Pyetar take over as general, Iryana liked them. They were reasonable and truly wanted peace.

Pyetar and the River Brigades’ majors launched into a detailed accounting of their strategies, what was working, and what could be further aided or taken advantage of by the clans. A few of the much smaller brigade or regiment leaders occasionally chimed in.

Iryana listened, in awe of how good the majors were at their jobs. The River Brigades may seem small and nonthreatening to most, but those two would turn that view around.

Jesha detailed a few options for how they might work together, ending with her recommendation. “We would start with the clans taking on some of the patrolling paths so we can be sure to keep the dakii farther out, and then for the clans to provide additional resources from the settlement so that we can support more—”

The Vyukovold First stood abruptly. “We’re paying you to handle this. If we’re helping, then why should we pay even more tribute?”

Jesha paused, looking sharply at the First. “The brigades have very little safe land to produce food, and our access to other resources is almost limited to trading and thus having things to offer for those supplies.”

Nenad added, “It is like it was before when the crown took taxes to pay for the military.”

Iryana nodded, though she couldn’t help the impulse to argue against the comparison.

“Our job here at the border isn’t to live in comfort and safety,” the First said with a patronizing tone. “But to guard the settlement. We continue to hold our wall, and I don’t see how giving more of our supplies and looking beyond it is the way to improve lives here. Why do we need this deal?”