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“More likely several days Maybe longer”
The officers glower This will ruin it all Ajax watches er That this secret should be kept from House Grimmus bespeaks suspicion, as if Octavia and the Lunes believed even they could not be trusted I seeat him The pressure of Atalantia’s immense expectations The pressure of Gold society and his own fantasies the child and then the ht, until they rese short of destiny
This was to be his lory
Now he looks total annihilation in the eye
“We were tasked with taking Heliopolis,” he says “I will not disappointa Storm God, then he did it to freeze our or”
“Surely you do notoff the wall “That storround Sweep away the infantry I’ve seen it before You will die So will your men”
“She’s a Moonie, isn’t she?” Seneca growls “Knew her eyes were too big”
“I am Seraphina au Raa,” she snaps at the Core officers For once it is not entirely unwelcome news “I’ve trained for Io’s storms And if you attack Heliopolis in this wind, you’ll all be corpses You must wait for it to pass, or find a way to kill it”
“I concur with the Rim on this one,” Kalindora says “StarShells can’t fly in this It’ll be chaos And Heliopolis’s storm wall is no mere palisade”
“Do you think I’lorious dullard?” Ajax snaps at the women “They knohere we landed The Reaper would not let sand stop hirids in the desert by which to navigate But he will expect the storm to stop us He has the initiative We must take it back So when the sand’s veil falls, ill not be here We will be at the walls of Heliopolis We will land whatever transports remain en masse, and then assault the city when the storm dies” He looks around “I will need a commander to lead a cohort to destroy the Storm God while the rest of us push south with the titans”
His eyes settle on ency behind them Hostility has been replaced by desperate faith Here is the chance to prove myself to Ajax and Atalantia “Lysander, will you and your Praetorians do this for me? For our family?”
Kalindora shakes her head at me
“It would be our honor,” I say
“I will go with hi Gahja et lost”
“Two children leading the Praetorians?” Kalindora laughs “Of all the juance I’ll lead the party”