“You don’t have to whisper, Riko. And no one is going to ‘let’ me do anything, not anymore. I’m going to do what needs to be done, regardless of what they want. They need us. Really, there is no ‘they’ anymore. They are gone. We are the new ‘they.’ Do you understand?”

Riko stares at her in awe, and with something skittish underlying that awe, fear for her friend, perhaps.

“I need to ask you something,” Dyeawan says.

“Of course.”

Dyeawan turns and raises her hand, looking like a tentative child in the back of a classroom requesting permission to speak.

Quan strides forward, his usual broad and warm smile on his face as he bears forth the same gray tunic he once presented to Dyeawan.

Riko watches him approach, her mouth agape and her eyes wide and rapidly blinking.

“What… what’s this?”

“I need someone I absolutely trust to sit here as a planner,” Dyeawan explains. “You deserve to be here, anyway. You have the best mind and the most capable hands in the entire Cadre.”

“What about… I mean, what about Tahei? He—”

“I still like Tahei. I believe he has a good heart, but he lets what he doesn’t have and others do poison him. He acts on his emotions too often.”

Riko clearly doesn’t understand the implications of that statement, but she’s more overcome by Dyeawan’s request.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Riko protests. “Everything is happening so fast.”

“This is overdue,” Dyeawan reminds her.

“I just don’t think—”

“If this isn’t something you want, I won’t force it on you. I wouldn’t do that to a friend. But I think you do want this. You just thought it could never happen, so you let yourself believe it shouldn’t happen.”

Riko’s eyes soften on her, the doubt and shock beginning to melt from her features.

“Tell me if I’m wrong,” Dyeawan bids her.

Riko shakes her head. “You’re not wrong. You’re never wrong, it seems like.”

“Then please accept, Riko. You’re my best friend. I need you.”

Riko hesitates a moment longer, then she nods several times in quick succession, a genuine smile spreading across her lips.

Dyeawan smiles. “Thank you.”

Riko slides down from the tabletop and throws her arms around Dyeawan’s shoulders, rocking her from side to side atop the litter. “Thank you!”

Dyeawan can’t help laughing as she gratefully returns the embrace. “I told you, it’s overdue.”

Riko releases her and turns to Quan, staring at the tunic with hands cupped against her chest as if she is afraid to touch it, lest the back of her palms be rebuked by a switch.

Quan bows to her, deeply, extending the tunic between his arms.