Chapter 789: Is that them

Mingyue listened beside Alex as the crew described a locked cabin and a man shouting inside it.

He was still speaking. He had stopped striking the ceiling after they moved the passengers away from the door, but every attempt to draw the blood back made another spike rise along his arm.

Alex passed on the distinction Mara had managed to feel.

"Don’t make him force it all inward," he said. "Ask whether he can leave the part near his hand alone."

The caller repeated it through the cabin door.

They waited for the man’s answer. This time, he described what moved instead of striking at it. The next sound was a small impact against the floor, followed by the crew member saying the ceiling had stopped taking hits.

They still needed someone watching him. Alex left Vesa listening while Dorian sent an attendant to replace the soldier beside Mara.

Mingyue turned to Alex.

"Come to Edonia," she said. "Selene has people receiving the beds. We need to see what they’re dealing with."

Alex looked toward the room holding Thepes.

Vesa followed his gaze.

"I’ll keep his connection here. You don’t need to stand beside him to hear the reports."

Thepes had stopped contributing new blood. The useful sample remained within its boundary while Vesa watched the changing joins of his restraint. The guards were to stay outside and call at the first failing mark; they could not hold him themselves.

Once Alex lowered his hand, Mingyue crossed the existing opening with him.

The air on the other side smelled of clean cloth and heated water instead of smoke. Beds filled the receiving room. Some of the patients had already been moved farther inside, leaving attendants room to work around those who had just arrived.

Mingyue recognized the woman who had been carried from the shelter on the bed beside Beatrice’s father. An attendant was washing dust from her face while another checked a bandage around her chest.

A carrier tried to lower the next bed across the entrance. Selene caught the frame and shoved it past the threshold.

"Against that wall. You can argue about whose turn it is after he’s out of the doorway."

The men moved. Mingyue had intended to check the entrance herself; she went instead to the beds Selene had already brought through.

Alex spoke with the attendant nearest the entrance. Mingyue moved along the beds, checking that the patients could be reached from both sides.

A small voice called her from the adjoining passage.

"Mom!"

Luna came around the corner with Petricia behind her.

Mingyue sheathed her sword before their daughter reached her. Luna caught her around the waist. As Mingyue bent to hold her, their daughter’s hand brushed the stiff bandage around her left forearm. Luna pulled back to look at it.

"You’re hurt."

"It will heal."

Luna reached toward the bandage, but Mingyue caught her hand with her uninjured one.

"Leave it. Sit with me."

"Dad too?"

Mingyue looked over her head.

Alex had turned at the sound of Luna’s voice. He finished telling the attendant about the approaching ship, then came across the room.

Luna took his hand before he could say anything.

Petricia watched the three of them for a moment.

"She heard people saying you were here," she said. "We were going back when the beds started arriving."

Mingyue could hear the tiredness in her voice. There was no accusation in the words, but Luna’s fingers had tightened around Alex’s hand as though someone might call him away before they reached a chair.

"Is there somewhere quieter?" Mingyue asked.

Petricia led them into a side room used by attendants between shifts. A basin stood on the table, beside folded towels and an empty cup. Through the open doorway, they could still hear people calling for cloth.

Luna climbed onto the chair beside Mingyue and kept Alex’s fingers in her lap.

"Why are they all coming here?" she asked.

"They were hurt where we were fighting," Alex said. "Some others are coming because they heard us call."

"You called them?"

"Our people were scattered. We wanted them to know they could answer."

Luna frowned at his hand.

Mingyue felt a quiet pulse through their bond. Vesa was passing on a report from Proxima, asking whether the men checking the freight ground should prepare a second receiving route.

Alex answered without standing up. Luna was still studying his hand when he turned his palm to check another response. He had sat down with them, yet half his attention remained on the other side of the opening.

Luna tilted her head.

"Is that them?"

"Vesa," he said.

"I can feel something else."

Mingyue turned toward her. Luna had released Alex’s fingers and was watching the faint red light above his palm. He was checking a response Vesa was having difficulty separating from the others.

It was one of the weaker calls. A woman had begun describing where she was before her words broke apart. Alex held only that trace, giving Vesa time to compare it with the directions already heard.

"Someone trying to speak," he told Luna.

"Why can’t she?"

"We don’t know yet."

Mingyue put a hand against Luna’s shoulder as she leaned closer, stopping her from reaching across the table.

"Stay beside me."

Luna sat back, but the ends of her fingers had become clear. A thin strand of water rose from her hand toward the light above Alex’s palm.

"Luna."

The strand touched the edge of the response before Mingyue finished saying her name.

Their daughter’s eyes widened.

"It’s cold."

Alex closed his fingers, shutting off the power he had been feeding into the trace. The thin red light faded, but the water around Luna’s hand began moving faster.

Mingyue caught her wrist. It felt soft beneath her fingers, the shape shifting like water trying to run around her grip.

"Look at me."

Luna did not turn.

"There’s a door. They can’t lift it."

Alex stood so quickly that his chair struck the wall. He placed a rune between Luna and the last of the fading response while Mingyue kept their daughter against her side.

The strand of water broke.

Luna’s fingers remained clear.

"Red steps," she said. "The water went past the shelf. She told him to stay up there."

Mingyue looked at Alex.

He had gone still, watching the movement beneath Luna’s skin. They had seen her absorb different forms of energy before. She had learned words and knowledge they had never taught her after taking in power during their breakthroughs.

Back then, they had been delighted when she knew a new word. Mingyue hadn’t imagined her clutching her ears because she couldn’t stop hearing it.

"Vesa. Close that response completely," Mingyue said.

"It is closed."

Luna pressed both hands over her ears.

"They keep talking."