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“Dancer, reatest syive up on Luna Then Luna falls to Atalantia Atalantia takes Earth Mars stands alone And, eventually, Mars falls Give us an alternative A compromise I’ll send my own ships, Kavax’s, Arcos’s, but I need a hundred ships-of-the-line froainst Atalantia That’s less than a third of Luna’s fleet”
“And if you lose?”
“We won’t”
He sits in silence, rubbing his outsized hands together Thebefore he looks up I missed my opportunity, or perhaps it never really existed “I cannot risk those ato here,” he says “I may hate this human swamp, but it’s filled to capacity”
“Then I wish you good health and ill fortune”
“Wait, Virginia” My hand hovers over the datapad as he leans forward, voice barely above a whisper “You know this will escalate If I somehow fall off a balcony or eat an unruly fishbone—”
He hits the nerve
“Pity I never confuse you and Harmony Yet after all this time, you still think I am my father Or is it my brother?”
“It’s not you It’s your people”
“Daxo, you mean”
“And Theodora, the Seventh, the Arcoses”
“I have them under control”
If he knew Sevro was here and out of control, he’d be shitting himself
“That’s either a big fat lie or you’re drinking your oill You and I both know Darrow and the Reaper are two different things entirely And the Reaper didn’t gnaw through the Society because he was a bettero mad You’ve seen it”
I have Fighter pilots going “Polyphees of enemy torchShips so much the Golds put the their tattered bodies to weigh down armored Golds so their fellows can finish the my husband’s name