Chapter 771: The Offer

Lolth’s light woman lowered her hand toward it.

Mingyue brought her sword across the gap.

"You heard the offer."

The woman’s fingers stopped outside the ice.

"You have almost nothing left," she said.

Mingyue did not lower her blade.

"You came for your daughter. We’ve kept her whole."

Through their bond, Alex could feel the strain she was hiding. She had enough strength to hold this space for a short time, and she was spending it while Lolth decided whether another attack was worth the risk.

He shifted his support closer to the center of the slab so she no longer had to bear its sideways movement.

The light woman watched that change too.

An Imperial shot passed above the broken wall.

Lolth raised her free hand. The beam bent away from the yard and cut across an empty warehouse roof. Fragments fell into the street, sending Dorian’s fighters back behind the next corner.

Alex waited until the falling stone stopped.

"Every strand you’ve put down here since arriving," he said. "The ones on the ground and the ones holding the ships. Release the living people caught in them. You take the organ and the power inside it, then leave."

"The ships are still attacking me."

"They’re attacking us too."

Mingyue glanced toward the vessel above the yard. Its damaged guns were turning again, though a pale line held its bow too low to aim cleanly.

Their offer would free troops who had fired into their army and forced wounded people through streets full of falling debris. Alex looked toward Mingyue before committing both of them to it.

She looked back at Lolth.

"Those strands cross the roads we need," she said. "We won’t leave them hanging over our people."

Alex looked toward the Imperial soldier struggling on the wall. His chest was still attached to the same web that crossed their road. Freeing only the people he liked would leave that man there for Lolth to finish.

"All the living people caught by the new strands," he said. "No one left attached when you withdraw."

The light woman looked past them toward the street.

The Imperial cultivator on the broken ledge moved one hand. He had braced himself there while Mingyue held the street, but the pale thread was still attached to his chest. As Alex watched, one foot slipped off the stone and the strand took his weight again.

Dorian had two fighters beneath him. One raised a weapon toward the thread, then lowered it when the soldier’s body jerked.

Alex had seen what a careless cut could do while Lolth was pulling through someone.

"He comes down alive," Alex said.

"If he is alive when the exchange begins."

Mingyue’s gaze hardened.

"Don’t drain him while you consider it."

The light woman turned toward her.

The pressure against their boundary increased, forcing Mingyue’s injured arm lower. Alex raised a fresh rune beside her blade before the gap could open.

Alex looked at the organ between them.

"You can finish this now," he said. "The remains are separated. You won’t have to pull them through the apparatus or fight us beside them. Withdraw what you brought here, and they’re yours."

The light woman rested her fingers against the pale thread.

The flesh rose a little. Alex raised the slab with it, keeping its remaining marks beneath the organ.

He let her see that it moved freely now.

Beyond the boundary, another Imperial weapon gathered light. Lolth had to turn her head toward it before the beam reached the yard.

This time she pulled the firing ship sideways. Its shot crossed the smoke at an angle and disappeared beyond the buildings.

When she faced Alex again, her gaze stayed on the flesh.

"There is little left here worth the trouble," she said.

Her fingers passed above the exposed crossing. The red light bent toward them, and Alex felt the whole slab tug against his support. She let it settle again.

"I could take this with the stone. You have made a less troublesome offer."

Alex kept his answer to himself. She was weighing the remains against more work among damaged ships and half-drained people. If that calculation freed the ones behind the wall, he could bear hearing what she thought they were worth.

"The remains and everything stored within them," she said. "You will not remove a part or leave anything attached that follows me."

"I’ll release the support beneath them once your strands are clear. The marks left on the slab won’t connect to me."

"And you will not follow the threads farther than this place."

Alex looked at the pale line rising from her fingers.

Whatever remained in the older cocoons was beyond his reach. He could feel Mingyue waiting beside him, leaving that answer to him while her sword held the space they needed.

"I’m asking for the people you’ve caught at Proxima," he said. "That’s the exchange."

The light woman held his gaze, then nodded once. Mingyue kept her grip on both swords.

"Together," she said. "You withdraw while he releases it."

Lolth moved her hand beneath the organ, with Alex’s barrier and the slab still between them.

"Then show me."

Alex spoke through his connection to Vesa.

"Tell Dorian and Selene to get beneath the people who will fall. Watch the streets and the ships. We release this as the strands come away."

"Thepes hasn’t opened a join," Vesa said. "I’m watching his hands. I can see the nearest threads from here too. Selene will check the people behind the buildings."

"Tell me if one stays attached. I can’t see the whole field from this yard."

Alex looked toward Dorian. The commander could not hear the conversation, but Vesa’s message reached him a moment later. He looked up at the trapped human and bared his teeth.

"Drop the sword. Unless you want to land on it."

The man let his weapon fall. Dorian pointed the two fighters beneath him toward the clearer side of the wall, then called another pair forward to cover them.

Dorian kept his injured arm close to his body. The two fighters would have to catch the man while he directed the others against the remaining attackers.

Mingyue shifted her right sword toward the edge of the slab, ready to keep that short space steady. Alex held his left hand beneath the stone and watched the soldier hanging over the broken wall.

He would lower the support when the thread on that man’s chest began to lift.