Sable was held in the same secure chamber that had once contained Jeanne and Gianna, her captured fighters similarly restrained, and Jasmine found herself, in the exhausted aftermath of the battle, feeling something closer to weary pity than triumph as she studied the woman who had nearly succeeded in tearing her family apart.

"You'll be returned to your council," Jasmine told her, "along with a full account of what happened here tonight. Let them decide what your unauthorized strike cost the argument you were trying to win." She delivered the sentence without cruelty, simply the plain, exhausted finality of someone who had already spent more energy on this conflict than...