Page 129

"Better?" Corian asked.

Jade swallowed against the collar. "Quieter."

He gathered the empty pouch and nothing else. No approval, no relief that she'd made the choice he might have preferred. It stayed hers even after she'd made it.

Alex picked the parcels back up.

"Good. Now I need food before Halver decides the bread I stole this morning counts as a full meal."

We found a tavern near the edge, warm with firelight and quiet enough after the market that my shields could finally rest. The owner gave us the corner table and brought out plates of roasted potatoes, spiced meat, and bread still warm from the oven.

Jade came back from the washroom wearing the green jacket, the collar visible above its open neck. She sat between Halver and me.

"Do you like it?" Halver asked.

"It's an acceptable jacket."

"You're very pleased," Alex corrected, stealing a potato off her plate.

Jade moved the plate out of his reach. He stole one from mine instead.

For a while the day turned ordinary again. Corian helped Jade record the day's purchases against her balance, Alex argued that tavern food should count as a squad expense, and Halver disagreed on principle. Jade relaxed by degrees inside the familiar noise of our table, shoulders dropping a little further with every round of nonsense.

Then Silvaria stopped beside us.

She wore a pale traveling coat over her Peace Keeper uniform, every fastening straight. Two of her squad waited near the bar, giving her approach the appearance of coincidence it wasn't. Silvaria had always known how to offer attention until the person receiving it felt selected, and she'd clearly decided today that person was me.

"Nykos."

Her face warmed when she looked at me, carrying just enough familiarity to remind me that warmth had once belonged there. Three years, long enough that some part of me still remembered how that look used to feel before I learned she could put it on and take it off like jewelry. She turned the same polished attention on Corian next.

"Lord Favaris. I didn't know Nephrite had been released into the city."

Alex raised his cup. "We have supervised outings now."

Silvaria barely glanced at him.

"How reassuring."

Her attention passed over Halver like he was part of the furniture, paused on Jade's collar a beat too long, and returned to Corian.

"I heard your deployment was productive."

She'd always done that to Alex, reducing him to noise until he got loud enough that she could call him the problem instead. Halver had gotten even less. During the last year of our relationship, Alex had stopped joining us for meals, Halver had found reasons to stay out at the forest until after she'd left, and Corian had spoken to me through schedules and field orders because every honest conversation ended with me accusing him of trying to interfere. She'd nearly taken apart everything we'd built, and I hadn't noticed any of it happening, my own principle against reading people's private thoughts turning into the perfect blind spot for someone who'd learned exactly how to use it. A bitter lesson. One I still carried more than I let on.

"The report's filed," Corian said. "If you're here to ask again, the answer hasn't changed."

Her smile tightened. "I haven't asked anything."

"You're still furious that every request you've made to transfer into Nephrite's been denied."

Corian leaned back, his voice staying level, which told me exactly how far his patience had already gone.

"You don't need to ruin lunch pretending this is a chance meeting."

Silvaria rested one hand on the empty chair.

"Persistence used to be something you respected. My ability would have strengthened your field options, and you know it."