“Out of your four-day plan, but any and all explanatory, high-level pieces about Corpus Sun and the Western Territories' atrium need to be added to my work folder,” Olivia said, furiously writing something that looked like a section of a speech, 'If I choose to end this world, I can. and you won't be able to st—'
Constantine leaned back. “Life on Io. Might be better than here. You could build a new world somewhere else.”
I frowned. “I think my instincts only know how to work with the life-giving compounds it knows. All life I know runs on current Earth parameters. I wouldn't have the first clue how to make a moon of Jupiter capable of sustaining life when the working components of life there would be completely upside down from Earth.”
“You could learn.”
“We can always learn,” I agreed.
And after having all my people in one spot, I could see the allure of it. The hoarding aspect. I could understand Constantine’s previous desire to hide away.
He raised a brow at me, reading the thought. “I’m always right. I thought you knew that.”
I patted his arm. “I do.”
“Despite the allure, you wouldn’t survive that type of life.” He flipped a page, far more languidly than Olivia's precise economy. “You are too vibrant to hide.”
“Surrounded by friends?” I said wistfully.
“Closeted away without the scientific possibilities you can learn from others. Where’s the next Mbozi? Stevens? Where are the Third Layer engineers that you’ve been trading information with?”
“But for safety's sake—”
“You won’t truly be safe until Stavros is gone.” He looked away. “I recognized that. I just didn’t want to confront it.” He pulled a string through his fingers. “I had thought we could be happy, just the two of us hidden away. But you’d wither. Your connections to the others… And I...well, maybe I can see my way to having others near.”
I squeezed his arm.
A huge tome was opened in front of him, but instead of the way Olivia was hunched in battle mode in the middle of her eagerly chattering books, Constantine was lazily flicking search and copy spells to a paper stack that was growing larger at Olivia's right hand. I read the spine of the book in front of Constantine—Be First and Master the Dialogue.
I frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Price has all of us working on the side on a resolution to your reintroduction to campus, society, and the political landscape,” he said drolly.
I blinked. “What?”
“We aren’t going to get much of a window,” Olivia said from her pit of jostling books. “After we win, we have to move quickly. Whoever gets there first and controls the political landscape will win the Origin Mage war. We don’t want the dialogue controlled by others.”
“Win?” I echoed.
“After we depose Stavros, then get you back on campus,” she said impatiently. “Keep up, Ren. You aren’t usually this slow.”
“Right.” I cleared my throat. “So...we are working on contingency plans?”
“Actual plans. You don’t think we are going to fail, do you?” She looked down her nose at me, glasses sliding down to unshield her eyes. “We aren’t.” We won't.
“Er, of course. What do you want me to do?”
“You? Finish the Kinsky glasses.” She shooed me away.
“Don’t you want me to resear—”
“No. Your innocence works best in our favor. We will handle this.” She pointed between Constantine, her, and six of the books. “It will be brilliant and decisive, and you will speak it and believe it without having crafted it with deception in mind. You keep to your ‘Aw shucks, anything to help the world’ attitude, and we’ll take care of the rest.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it abruptly. I thumbed to the workspace I had claimed as mine. “I’ll be over there.”
“Excellent.”
I paused and looked back at Constantine, then Olivia. “Are you making plans for Constantine and Axer, too? And all of you?”
“Senator Leandred has this one covered.” Olivia pointed at Constantine. “Not including Dare, the rest of us will be combined under the 'saved the world, free pass' clause I'm drafting. The combat mages are working Dare's angle, which is just as tricky as yours, and needs to include might and bite. He already has an overwhelming plethora of goodwill in the combat community, where those qualities—might and bite—render respect. The victory tour across layers, combined with not seeking anyone's aid in this whole debacle, has shown him not only as resilient and self-sufficient, but strong as a partner. That he doesn't need aid, even when hunted by all, but still offers his own aid when needed, gives him a very strong bargaining position. Military power. If Dare survives intact, he will slide out on top on that wave. Might makes right, and if the young military leaders side with him, the rest will follow. They are just waiting to see if he survives.”
She shook her head, grimly. “In twenty years, the Dares are going to rule this layer and more.”
“Well, thankfully they are on the side of good.”
Olivia looked down her nose at me again. “I love you. Get out.”
“Right. Leaving.” I slowly backed away.
I worked for a few more hours on the glasses and dolls we needed for the first part of the plan. I leaned back to stretch all the knots and kinks out and noticed the combat mages were walking through the room, observing everything—shifting battlescapes and planning boards—in the air as they walked.
“We can use the Crelussa mages,” Ramirez said to Axer. The pieces in the air moved with his question.
I rubbed at my chest. “Will it put them in jeopardy?”
They looked over at me.
“They didn't ask to be involved,” I said.
The Awakening mages had given their power and connections to us—they’d been part of their own rescue. And though the Department tech who I’d left their safety in the hands of had turned over the site ward keys to the countries themselves, there was always a chance the Department would talk their way into having the countries turn over the charge of the mages to them before the end.
Camille shook her head. “There were too many magicist children involved—they can't just make them disappear. They made a large gamble with that play—well, not such a large gamble if they are going to start killing people on a mass scale, but they still need public sentiment to be in their favor for as long as possible. They needed for you to take the blame. They may try and distort the children's memories to make you three the villains—it will feed nicely into the conspiracists' theories, but the children will stay physically safe. Not like what would have happened if you hadn’t intervened. Or what still might.”
She looked at me, and any lingering trace of animosity was gone. “It's in your connections that you will win.”
I rubbed my arms. “Stavros can take them away.”
“And you will get them back,” she said, secured in her own opinion as she always was.
We've got this, Axer said gently, mentally. Finish your glasses and get some sleep.
I nodded and checked the time. It was closing in on the time we had set up for our second night time.