"I was asleep."
"You missed breakfast."
"Apparently breakfast follows me."
"It was told to."
"By you?"
I sat across from her and reached for a bone first.
Amari watched my hand.
"What?" I asked.
"Dessert first?"
"It was closest."
"It was not."
"It was emotionally closest."
"That means nothing."
"It means I wanted it."
She looked like she wanted to argue, then decided I was not worth the effort. That was probably healthy.
I took a bite.
Amari's eyes moved to my wrists, then my shoulders, then my face.
"Stop checking me like a report."
"I haven't asked anything."
"You looked loudly."
She poured tea into the second cup and pushed it toward me. "How are your veins?"
"Fine."
"After yesterday?"
"That is the suspicious part."
"Did Sirone heal you or something?"
"No. The water in the mountain has better healing properties than my own self-healing," I explained, making her nod, a little confused, but she did not ask further.
"That is not comforting."
"I wasn't trying to comfort you."
"Right. You never do anyway."
"You never needed it before."
That answer seemed to annoy her less than expected. Maybe she had prepared for a fight and did not know what to do when I handed her the boring answer.
"She has not returned yet," Amari said.
The words hit before I had time to pretend I did not know who she meant.
I looked toward the pond. "Kayda?"
"Yes. She messaged me last night. She is alive. Mission is still active. No injury reported. No return time."
"That's not much."
"No."
"She would come back if she could."
"I know."
"That doesn't make it better."
"I know that too."
Amari looked at me for a moment, but I picked up a piece of meat before she could start digging. Food was useful like that. Hard to talk around it without looking rude.
Well, harder.
"So," I said after swallowing. "Council?"
Amari's face changed.
She looked down at the papers beside her cup like they had personally insulted her.
"The council believes the Draig territories have suffered a great injustice."
"Did someone steal their houses?"
"That is roughly how they acted."
I smiled. "What happened?"
"Black Ops happened. The recovered people, mostly. Food, beds, healers, clothing, transport, records, gear. Every single thing needed to bring them back into something close to normal became a complaint."
I stopped eating. "They complained about rescued soldiers needing food?"
"They called it emergency resource strain."
"That means food with better shoes."
"Yes."
"Who said it?"
"No."
"Names are useful."
"Giving you a name will make that name disappear."
I clicked my tongue and grabbed more meat.
Amari continued, "Some houses want the recovered gear logged by territory contribution. Others want the Black Ops personnel reassigned after medical clearance to help stabilize border defenses. Then there are others who want their personal Black Ops soldiers back in their mansions for security reasons."
I stared at her.
She stared back.
"They want to take Stacy's people?"
"They called it redistribution."
"That is kidnapping wearing different words."
"I said it was inappropriate military overreach."
"That is the boring version."
"It was a council room."
"So?"
"So I was not allowed to bite anyone either."
I paused with the meat halfway to my mouth.
"Either?"
"I assumed you would ask."
"Look at you, learning."
Amari rubbed the side of her forehead.
I leaned back in the chair. "I hate nobles."
"You are a noble."
"I hate mirrors too."
"That explains a lot."
She reached for her tea, but her fingers tightened around the cup before she lifted it. Not shaking. Not enough to call out. Enough to notice.
I noticed.
Amari drank and set the cup down.
"Dean and Stacy have kept me busy since you went missing," she said. "At first it was messages, relay records, prisoner lists, supply requests, anything they could throw at me. Then the council started demanding updates. Then the recovered Black Ops people became everyone's favorite excuse to complain."
"Sounds like Dean and Stacy dumped the boring war on you."
"They call it responsibility."
"Same thing with nicer ink."
Her mouth moved like she wanted to smile but did not have enough energy left for it.
"I know why they did it," she said. "Stacy could not attend that council meeting without turning it into a threat. Dean had command issues to handle. You were asleep. Kayda is gone. So they sent me."
"And the council survived."
"Barely."
"Then you did better than half this family would."
She looked at me. "That is a low standard."
"For this family? That is a high standard."
Amari looked down at her papers again. "It does not feel like enough."
I ate another piece of meat and gave myself time to not say something stupid.
"You were busy," I said.
"Busy is not the same as useful."
"It is when everything is trying to fall apart."
Her eyes narrowed. "That sounds like something Stacy would say."
"Take that back."
"No."
"Rude."
She leaned back. "Stacy kept command standing. Dean kept the bigger map from burning. Sirone had medical. Olivia had supplies. Even Apricot had something to do, even if that something was mostly panic with legs."
"Pfft. That's such a her thing to do."
"And me?" Amari looked at the pond. "I had papers. Messages. Nobles asking me questions I could not answer. People looking at me because I was a Draig, but not the one they wanted."
I looked at her properly then.
Amari was tired. The kind that came from standing in rooms full of people who smiled while trying to cut pieces off someone else's work.
I understood swords better.
Still, a cut was a cut.
"You kept the ugly parts moving," I said.
"That is not leading."
"No. It is what lets leading work."
She looked at me.
"Stacy kept the front from collapsing," I said. "Dean kept the kingdom from eating itself. You helped keep the house, the council, and all the ugly little pieces between them from snapping."
"The house did try."
"I believe that."
"You're making it sound bigger than it was."
"You're making it sound smaller because no one shot at you."
"That does change the feeling."
"Doesn't change the work."
She was quiet for a few seconds.
Then she sighed through her nose. "You are weirdly helpful when you are not trying to be."
"I try very hard not to be."
"It shows."
I pointed at her with the sweet roll. "You keep trying to be the table, the map, and the knife. Pick one before your head cracks."
Her face went flat. "That was almost advice."
"It was advice."
"It sounded more like an insult."
"That's how you know it's my advice."
She looked away, but this time the corner of her mouth moved.
For a while we ate without trying to fix anything. That was better. Fixing things before noon should be illegal.
Then Amari moved one of the papers aside. Under it was a folded note with Zagan's seal.
Not open. Already read, probably, from the crease.
I looked at it.
She saw me look.
Her hand moved over it.
"Don't," she said.
"I didn't say anything."
"You were going to."
"I was deciding."
"Kitsuna."
I looked at her hand on the note. "That because of Zagan?"
Her face shut down a little.
Not fully. Amari was better trained than that. But I saw the door close.
"We ended it," she said.
I did not joke.
That alone seemed to surprise her.
"No big fight?" I asked.
"No."
"No betrayal?"
"No."
"Someone stupid?"
"I am not sure."
"That sucks."
She blinked.
"That is your advice?"
"No. That is me not pretending it doesn't."
She looked back down at the note. "We just stopped fitting. He has his duties. I have mine. That's what he said, but... that battlefield in the capital broke him."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"Do you hate him?"
"No."
"Does he hate you?"
"Not sure."
"Worse then."
Her mouth tightened. "A little."
I let that sit.
She did not need me to dig through it like a dog with a bone. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Then she said, "I have been spending time with Nekro."
I kept my face still.
"Not like that," she added quickly.
"I didn't say anything."
"You thought something."
"I think many things. Most are rude."
"And Apricot too. Separately," she said, and looked at me like she expected me to misunderstand on purpose. "Not together."
"Good."
"That sounded judgmental."
"It was practical. Those two in the same room still feel like someone left knives under a cushion."
Amari rubbed her thumb over the edge of the note. "Nekro is easy to sit with. She does not push. Apricot pushes too much, but sometimes that helps. They both make the house feel less… loud."
I looked at her.
That was probably the closest she would come to saying lonely.
"Just promise me you will be careful."
Her eyes came up. "With them?"
"With yourself too."
That made her frown.
I picked up my tea, then set it back down because it tasted too proper. "Nekro has her own mess. Apricot has attachment issues big enough to need furniture. You just cut something off with Zagan, and you're pretending clean bandages mean it stopped bleeding."
Amari stared at me.
"That was a disgusting reference."
"It was supposed to be."
"I am not using them."
"I didn't say you were."
"You implied it."
"I said be careful. Talk to them if it helps. Just don't use broken people as cushions. They bite weird when they panic."
Amari looked offended, then thoughtful, then annoyed that she was thoughtful.
"You make everything sound ugly," she said.
"Ugly things are easier to hold if you don't polish them first."
"That almost sounded wise."
The garden settled for a while after that. Not peaceful. Not heavy either. Just quiet enough for food and the faint sound of servants moving inside the mansion.
Amari folded Zagan's note and tucked it under the papers again.
Done for now.
A servant came down the path before either of us could start another topic. Young man, nervous hands, careful steps. He bowed to Amari first, then to me.
"Lady Amari. Captain Kitsuna. Lady Stacy asked me to inform you that Captain Brenda has finished her report. The squad will gather in the side briefing room near the training hall after midday."
"Thank you," Amari said.
The servant bowed again and left faster than he arrived.
I watched him go.
"Side briefing room," I said.
"Yes."
"Brenda survived Stacy?"
"Of course. She's tougher than she looks."
"She looks very tough."
Amari gathered the papers. "Do you know what you want to say to them?"
I leaned back and looked toward the mansion. "Reports first. Then I listen."
"You?"
"I have ears for a reason."
"Ones you don't use when you should."
"That hurts."
"As if you are taking that as a compliment."
"Touché."
Amari stacked the last of the council papers, but her eyes stayed on me. "And after you listen?"
"Then I ruin everyone's afternoon."
"That sounds more like you."
"They came back alive," I said. "That does not mean they came back clean."
Amari did not answer right away.
She knew what I meant.
Couples. Exes. People leaning too hard on the same people. People trusting one person more than the squad. People acting fine because missions had not broken them yet.
The problem had been there before. It was louder now.
We started back toward the mansion. The sun was higher now, and the garden had turned too bright again. I hated how normal it all looked. Ruin artifacts should have had the decency to make the sky ugly or something. At least then people would stop pretending the world had manners.
At the terrace, Nekro waited near the door.
She was not standing guard.
She was absolutely standing guard.
"Sirone wants to check on you first."
"Sure. Let's see what she has to say."
Nekro turned toward the hall. "I'll warn Sirone."
"Warn lunch."
Amari sighed. "That is not how lunch works."
"It is in this house."
We went inside.
Behind us, the garden stayed bright and quiet, like it had not just hosted politics, breakfast, and several bad decisions waiting for their turn.
The meeting was next.
Brenda, the squad, the couples, the awkward exes, the people pretending they were fine.