Nyx took her minute.
Then she took several more.
No one hurried her.
She sat with her back against a stone that was not quite grey and not quite any other color Vane could name, watching a sky whose light fell from an angle none of them could locate. By the time she finally spoke, her voice had recovered its familiar edge—dry, measured, entirely her own.
"The doctrine is real," she said. "Extraction only. Rotational deployment. No permanent holdings."
She glanced at Vane.
"I told you that much at Ryuken's estate. Everything we found afterward only confirmed it. What I didn't tell you was why I was so certain."
"Why?" Vane asked.
"Because I didn't find it while investigating military policy."
Her fingers moved through the grass beside her. The blades bent away from her touch and remained that way, as though they had forgotten they were supposed to rise again.
"I found it while looking for something else."
No one interrupted.
