Vanaka insisted on paying, as well as parking. Turning the offer down would have been equal parts impolite and impractical, and so Saketa got to enjoy a late-night meal of breads and soy without feeling her wallet get even lighter.

The place was almost empty, with a single tired employee in view, apparently reading something behind the counter, and two other patrons, each alone on opposite ends of the main room.

“Your suit…” Vanaka said once she was halfway through her own meal. “Didn’t you say something about it being practical? I think you said it helped you use your abilities.”

“It does,” Saketa said, and looked down into her meal. “The suit amplifies a Warden’s connection with the energies of the universe, and makes drawing on them easier. But my connection is… is all but severed, anyway. And I cannot travel the lanes calling myself a Warden if I cannot wield the power of one.”

Vanaka looked at the sword. It rested against the outside of their booth.

“And your sword? Your other one, I mean?”

The snapping sound was never far away, and now she heard it yet again.

“Broke,” she said, then had to admit to herself that it was too curt. “It broke.”

“I’m sorry,” Vanaka said, and Saketa could tell that she was sincere. The girl couldn’t know the depth of the red blade’s significance, but clearly she could tell that it was important to her. “I… I’ve always heard that they are indestructible. The stories say so, anyway.”

“They usually are,” Saketa said. “Usually.”

The three of them seemed to get the unspoken message that the subject wasn’t welcome, and dropped it. Ayna and Fredrak arrived just in time for them to not have to sit too long over empty plates. There was a round of vague introductions. Everyone knew better than to bring up the matter of the downed Alliance ship in a public eatery, and Saketa was in the slightly uncomfortable spot of being the one to know each side’s secrets.

For the immediate present everyone was in agreement to focus on the issue of 26 Sajakan.

“Nothing about it on official channels,” Fredrak said. He’d put his scrambling gismo on the table again, but nevertheless spoke softly. “It’s just another address. So if there is some sinister history there, then neither the police nor the news agencies have had anything to say about it.”

Saketa examined the digital map the agent had drawn up of the place. It was indeed just an address, a bit to the north of the centre of The Circle. It was at the end of a relatively short row, right at the edge of a hanha.

“If it is some kind of stronghold, then it is big enough to house a decent force,” Losan commented.

“I have done my research on the local Purists,” Fredrak said. “They don’t just gather in their hundreds in a single location like a garrisoned force: It draws attention, and makes them easy targets. But they do maintain… mustering spots, or clubs, or whatever one should call it. And yes, those are manned.”

“I could poke around,” Ayna said. “Although this map isn’t kind enough to show how good the lighting is in that area. I could even sneak inside, if I like the way things look.”

“You shouldn’t,” Saketa said, and bored her eyes into the girl’s. “Not if he is there.”

The Dwyyk tried to look nonchalant, but Saketa thought she might have caught a hint of underlying nervousness. As it should be.

Fredrak folded his hands gracefully on top of the table, as deliberately collected as ever.

“I have learned, throughout my career, to value expert advice,” he said in that smooth voice of his. “And your repeated warnings of extreme danger have an air of being well-founded. I have also learned to make use of local resources. And just like the local Purists are home-grown, they also have home-grown enemies.”

“The Tanga warriors,” Saketa said. “A common enemy can certainly make for a common cause, but it is far from a sure thing. Especially on a very short notice.”

“There is a Tanga in The Circle,” Erine said from her seat.

The woman had been absorbed in a pad ever since finishing her meal, and Saketa had assumed she was isolating herself from a conversation she had nothing to add to.

“A headquarters,” the ansoti clarified. “And it seems a sure thing that the warriors are familiar with the local branch of the Purists. And it is a fact that they receive visitors, between noon and sunset. Apparently it is an old tradition, and it is taken quite seriously. I think even in times like these they will see strangers with a serious matter to bring up.”

Vanaka touched her arm affectionately, and Erine smiled at those gathered at the table.

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“I want to make a suggestion, if I may?”

She cleared her throat.

“Whatever happens at that Purist compound, or hideout, or whatever it is… I will not be taking part in it. I am neither a fighter nor a sneak. I have no place in these kinds of things. But it seems that everyone else here does. So, with the night being quite advanced now, I want to suggest you all get rest, to be at your full strength when you go visit that Tanga tomorrow. I can use that time to ask around, so you’ll go in prepared.”

“Prepared?” Ayna repeated.

“With talking points, and the general lay of the land. I think you might all get further with the warriors if you seem informed.”

“I have had to fake it a few times,” Fredrak said. “And, I mean, I do it well, but having the actual facts is of course better.”

Clearly he liked the idea, and Ayna looked positive as well, but Saketa could see concern on Vanaka’s face.

“The hour is late, as you said,” the Vylak said. “What would you do right now, all by yourself?”

“There are open eateries, as you can see. There will be other establishments. Police stations. Patrolling Tanga warriors. It is simple enough to play the worried citizen, asking about the state of things. And that’s only until dawn arrives. Then I can engage with the morning rush.”

“This still worries me a bit.”

“You know I am smart enough to be careful.”

Saketa wondered if Fredrak or Ayna caught any hint of the subtle dynamic between the two. She thought about Losan’s words about managing the leash. It seemed to her that both of the women were treading carefully in the conversation. Erine’s submission was plain to see, although perhaps mostly because Saketa knew it was there, but she still held her ground in a strange, non-confrontational way. And in the end it was the Vylak that relented.

“Fine,” she said. “If…”

She looked around the table.

“... we are in agreement on this plan?”

“Well, what do you think?” Fredrak asked Saketa.

“Oh, she’s enthusiastic,” Ayna said through a grin, and Saketa almost managed an airless chuckle at the blatant wrongness of that.

She wanted to strike now. Now, before the Exile gave her the slip yet again, or unleashed some new catastrophe.

“If you are going to argue,” Fredrak said, in a carefully affable tone, “Then I would like to hear proper, logic-based arguments. We all want success, and we will all be safer by going in wise, and maybe with some help.”

She put her elbows up on the table and clasped her hands. Her tension needed to go somewhere.

Safer. They would be safer if they did as Erine suggested. It was a potent argument. It was the proper one, for a Warden to consider. Of course, a proper Warden would be able to storm that hideout alone.

“I suppose-”

One of the other patrons let out an exclamation. Saketa couldn’t tell if it was in a language or just noise, but it certainly caught attention. He was looking at an arm-mounted pad, and what came out of him as he rose from his booth was definitely language, though Saketa couldn’t understand any of it.

“Oh,” Fredrak said, as the employee and the other solo patron both reacted with emotion that defied their late-night lethargy. The employee hurried in activating a far wall. It came to life with news footage.

The fleet had arrived. For a moment Saketa feared the Authority had come to stake its claim, but then she recognised the outline of Alliance ships. They were descending through Yvenna’s atmosphere and descending on the docking yards like a swarm of flying insects to a meal.

There were hundreds upon hundreds of them, at the very least. If this truly was the Alliance Sixth Fleet, then it surely numbered in the thousands.

“Ah,” Ayna said flatly. “Wow.”

The Dwyyk got up and hurried to the door. Erine followed, followed by Vanaka, and with that the rest of them went too.

As with seemingly almost every spot in the capital, they could see the docking yards from the street, over rows and rows and rows of rooftops. It was too dark to see the ships themselves, but their lights formed a second city up in the sky, almost like a reflection in a pond.

It was a disciplined and orderly process. Saketa had never studied fleet movements or strategy, but she’d witnessed both in action. This was all planned and under control, and almost certainly done in cooperation with the local government.

“So it’s true,” Losan commented idly, as the mirrored city of lights continued growing before their eyes. “They are going for Ciinto Res.”

“This… wow…” Ayna said, and scratched her white head. “Whoa.”

She rapidly alternated her weight between her legs.

“Does anyone else feel small?” she then asked with a nervous smile on her face. “I mean… I know I am on the small side, but…”

“We are witnessing history,” Vanaka said. There was awe in her voice, and she pointed up at the spectacle. “If… if they take Ciinto Res and turn the war around, then we got to witness the last big stop before they went for it.”

“We are not alone in that,” Erine commented.

Indeed not. Saketa looked around. People were stepping out of doors, peeking out through windows and emerging on rooftops to get a look at it all for themselves. Groups of neighbours and families were already forming, accompanied by a din of conversation.

“The government is releasing a formal statement,” Fredrak said from the doorway. He was looking at the big wall-screen. “It’s all reassurances and calls for calm. All the usual.”

“They do not sound calm…” Saketa commented, as the chorus of conversation grew in strength.

“Let’s hope that this many guns up above keeps the Pure Blood bastards well-behaved,” Losan said, with a certain grimness to his voice.

“Yes,” Saketa replied, though her thoughts were elsewhere.

Here it was, glimmering in the sky above her: The Alliance’s big bet to win the war. The kind of full planetary invasion fleet that was rarely assembled. Soon it would be fighting for the skies over Ciinto Res. And somehow mixed into all of this was a Vartana Exile.

She didn’t like it.