Chapter 98: Needy Much

"I need food. And water. And probably a bath." Vael’s nose wrinkled. "Definitely a bath. I smell like a dungeon."

"I’ll arrange something," Nacho said. "There’s a bathhouse across the street. I noticed it when we came in."

He left before either of them could argue, descending the narrow stairs to the tavern’s common room. The innkeeper was a heavyset woman with arms like tree trunks and a face that suggested she’d seen everything twice and stopped being surprised by any of it.

"Need a bath drawn for my companions. Hot water. Whatever soap you’ve got. And breakfast for three."

She named a price that was probably twice what it should have been. He paid without haggling. They didn’t have time for negotiations, and the coins in his inventory meant nothing if they couldn’t use them to keep moving.

By the time he returned to the room, Vael had managed to sit up on her own, though she was leaning heavily against Sera’s shoulder. Her color was better now, less grey and more of what he assumed was her natural complexion.

"Bath’s being prepared. Food should be up in fifteen minutes."

"Thank you." Vael met his eyes directly this time, and he saw something in their depths that he recognized. The calculating assessment of someone who’d spent too long in dangerous situations, always measuring threats and resources and escape routes.

She was evaluating him. Trying to figure out where he fit in her understanding of the world.

Fair enough. He was doing the same thing to her.

"What’s the plan?" he asked, directing the question at both of them. "We can’t stay here forever. The Consortium will be looking for us."

"Lumen," Sera said without hesitation. "We need to get back. I have to report to the Elders about what we found, coordinate rescue operations for the other prisoners, and start building a case against the noble houses that were collaborating with the trafficking operation."

"The Elders who’ve been trying to strip your rank for months? Those Elders?"

"The same ones." Her jaw tightened. "But this is bigger than politics. We found evidence of systematic enslavement of Siren citizens. Of torture. Of sale to foreign buyers. Even Korith’s faction can’t ignore that without destroying their own credibility."

"You’re assuming they care about credibility more than they care about maintaining power."

"I’m assuming they care about not being lynched by an angry mob when this information becomes public." Sera’s smile was cold. "Which it will. Whether they want it to or not."

Vael shifted beside her, wincing as the movement pulled at muscles that had gone too long without proper use.

"There’s something else." Her voice had gone quiet, her eyes distant. "While I was in the facility, I heard things. Conversations between guards, reports being delivered to the wardens. They were talking about a bigger operation. Something happening soon."

Nacho felt his attention sharpen. "What kind of operation?"

"I don’t know the details. But they mentioned a name. Lady Vex." She paused, gauging their reactions. "And they said the Hollows was just the beginning. That the real prize was something called the Convergence."

The name hung in the air like smoke. Lady Vex. The same woman Meredith Cole had mentioned on the ship. The one who’d been looking for Nacho specifically.

"Did they say anything else? Anything about what the Convergence actually is?"

Vael shook her head. "Only that it would change everything. That by the time it happened, no one would be able to stop them." Her hands clenched in her lap. "They were so confident. Like they’d already won and were just waiting for everyone else to figure it out."

A knock at the door interrupted them. Nacho’s tentacles coiled defensively before his Mind Fortress registered the surface thoughts of the person on the other side. Just a serving girl, carrying breakfast and the news that the bath was ready.

He opened the door and accepted the tray, tipping the girl with a coin that made her eyes widen. Better to be remembered as generous strangers than as suspicious fugitives.

The food was simple but filling. Fresh bread, cheese, some kind of smoked fish, and a pot of tea that smelled like it had been brewed from actual leaves rather than whatever the innkeeper swept off the floor. Vael ate like someone who’d forgotten what real food tasted like, which she probably had.

"The Convergence," Sera said slowly, turning the word over in her mouth. "I’ve heard that term before. In old texts, during my training. It’s supposed to be some kind of magical event. Something that happens once every few centuries when the barriers between the planes thin enough to allow passage without using the Pillars."

"That sounds bad."

"It could be very bad. Or very good, depending on who’s controlling it." She met Nacho’s eyes. "If Lady Vex and the Consortium have found a way to predict or manipulate the Convergence, they could theoretically move people and goods between planes without Imperial oversight. No checkpoints. No inspections. No limits on what they can traffic."

Vael set down her cup with a clatter. Her hands were shaking again, but this time it wasn’t from trauma.

"That’s why they were so focused on breaking Siren officers. We know things. About the Ocean’s defenses. About the locations of settlements and military installations. If they’re planning an invasion during the Convergence..."

"Then everything we’ve done so far has been building toward something much bigger than a trafficking operation."

Silence settled over the room. The implications were too vast to process all at once, too terrifying to examine directly. If the Consortium had been planning this for years, building networks and gathering intelligence and positioning their pieces across the board, then the rescue from the Hollows wasn’t a victory. It was just the opening move in a game they hadn’t even known they were playing.

"We need to warn Lumen," Sera said finally. "The Elders, the military, everyone. If there’s even a chance this is real..."