Chapter 815: Room

Mingyue stopped at Thepes’s room on her way to the freight ground. He laughed when she finished reading the demand.

He shifted against the ice at his shoulder, then looked at her again.

"They want all of us," he said. "You should have let them keep shooting at me."

"They were shooting at the people behind you too."

"And now those people are your problem."

He watched her face as though waiting for irritation. Mingyue placed the communication device on a broken section of the wall where he could see the order without reaching it.

His restraints had been checked before she entered. The blood held outside his body remained isolated. Beneath the ice, his pulse was steady. Mingyue watched him test the limit of his movement before she spoke.

"The envoys are coming," she said. "I intend to ask what they will give in exchange for a pause."

"Nothing worth what they’ll take."

"Then they can say so."

Thepes looked back at the recorded image of himself among the dead.

His expression changed when the recording moved to Arachne’s web.

"They put me beside her as though I brought her."

"They want a reason people will accept."

"She tried to drain me."

"I remember."

The recording left out a great deal, but Thepes had still attacked them before Arachne arrived. Mingyue would not present him as innocent merely because the Empire found his image useful.

He stopped watching the display.

"If I went with them, would they leave?"

She studied him.

"Are you offering?"

"I’m asking whether their own accusation is worth anything. They name the dead I raised. They name the force I made. If they take me, what are they still entitled to take from the rest?"

"You know what the order says."

"I know what they wrote before anyone made them answer."

Mingyue studied him again. He was watching the order now, not her reaction to his taunts.

"I won’t promise them your body," she said. "I can ask whether accepting one surrender changes the demands on everyone else."

"Ask it with my name."

"Then listen when they answer."

He looked toward Vesa, who waited near the doorway.

"Will she let me hear the part you dislike?"

"All of it," Vesa said.

Thepes leaned back as far as the restraints allowed.

Mingyue left him watching the recording. She told the guards that the meeting changed none of their orders and went to the freight ground.

***

The Imperial transport descended with its lower guns uncovered. Nine hours and forty-five minutes remained on the original order.

Dorian’s fighters stood beyond the landing boundary, weapons in hand. The transport’s ramp faced them, while one turret turned toward the line of buildings behind their position.

Mingyue walked into the open before its landing supports touched the ground.

The turret followed her.

"Turn that away from the city," she said over the agreed channel.

A voice from the transport answered.

"Our security systems must remain active."

"Then keep them pointed at the ground you agreed to land on."

The ramp stopped halfway down.

Dorian moved beside a broken freight pillar, blood wings spreading behind him. She held one hand out without looking back. He stopped, but did not fold his wings.

The gun above her threatened more than retaliation if she attacked the delegation. From that angle, its first shots could hit the workers farther down the receiving road.

She drew her sword.

The turret stopped turning.

"I am standing here," she said. "You can see where my weapon is. Turn yours."

For several seconds, nothing moved.

Then the barrel lowered toward an empty stretch of the landing ground. The ramp finished opening, and the envoy from the transmission stepped out with an older officer and two guards.

The officer looked at her sword.

"You asked us to attend a discussion."

"You brought guns to it."

He glanced back at the transport, then walked toward the table placed beneath an intact loading shelter.

Mingyue kept her sword at her side. The guards kept their hands near their weapons. Neither side asked the other to pretend the meeting had become friendly.

The city officer sat beside her with the shelter requests. Vesa landed on the edge of the communication device, her four wings folding against her pink body. She opened the connection to Alex and a separate one to the room where Thepes was held.

Mingyue waited until the older Imperial officer placed his authorization on the table.

"Can you order your forces to stay outside the inhabited district?"

"Once disarmament begins, I can arrange the inspection sequence to minimize disturbance."

"Before disarmament."

"Not while an armed hostile force controls Imperial residents."

"The residents who want to leave have a checked route. Your people can meet their transport beyond our checkpoint."

The officer checked with the envoy. A short confirmation appeared on his device.

"We have notice of the escort arrangement."

"One of our officers has family on that transport," Mingyue said. "He is sitting beside me."

The city officer raised his eyes.

"My sister is going to relatives. She is waiting for the driver, not anyone’s permission."

The Imperial officer looked at the insignia on his uniform.

"You remain under an oath to the Empire."

"I remained at my post when the city fell apart."

"That will be considered."

Mingyue put the first shelter request between them before the older man could turn the officer’s decision into the subject of the meeting.

"We can mark the buildings with patients. We can keep armed groups outside them. Will you agree not to strike those buildings while the wounded move?"

"Will your Progenitors remain away from them?"

"Will your guns?"

The envoy shifted beside the officer.

The older man read the request. Unlike the first transmission, he took time over the description of patients who could not survive being carried across a damaged road without support.

Mingyue watched him. He might understand exactly what they were asking and still refuse. She wanted to hear his answer.

"I can receive the locations for medical assessment," he said at last. "I cannot exempt areas that may contain hostile personnel from the enforcement order."

"You can inspect an empty treatment room before patients enter. You can speak to the healers. You do not need our weapons on the floor to agree that beds are beds."

"Those measures can follow compliance."