“I do not spend bullets lightly,” she said. “And I do not take anyone who does not consent to fight for me. But before you can consent, you must purge the Silt from your blood.”

Even as she spoke, she could see the first signs of withdrawal in Cepheus. Her skin blanched white around her lips and eyes and sweat beaded along her brow and temples. Soon, she would succumb to the full effects of Silt withdrawal and she would need care. They all would.

“No.” Cepheus shook her head sharply, a threat building in her eyes. She stepped forward, closing the three Bullets out of their conversation. “From Silt comes strength. Tassos was right: if we don’t find whatever Silt is left in this town, then it won’t matter that you killed Tassos. His Bullets will defect to Lir. We need Silt.”

Caledonia nodded, thinking of all the times she’d sent Bullets back to Lir rather than force them through their sweats. Then, it had been a question of resources. Cloudbreak simply couldn’t support the process of weaning several hundred Bullets from Silt, and she couldn’t assume the risks that followed. She could do the same thing now. Send these Silt-deprived Bullets to join Lir’s ranks and drain his resources. But this wasn’t Cloudbreak, and she was tired of releasing Bullets just to fight them again another day.

“This is not a negotiation. Every Bullet in this city will be relocated to the prison hold. They will be fed and cared for while they recover, and after that, they can make their own choices.”

“That’s not a choice,” Cepheus said through bared teeth. “That’s coercion.”

“Cepheus, please,” Pisces urged, stepping forward. “Let us help you.”

Cepheus seemed to soften under Pisces’s concern, and she bit down on whatever it was she’d been prepared to say.

“I won’t make you fight,” Caledonia continued. “But that drug doesn’t make you strong. It makes you weak. It makes you dependent on whoever controls it.”

“You’d rather we were dependent on you.”

Caledonia leaned in. Cepheus was imposing, but Caledonia was no longer the same girl she’d been a turn ago, and as she closed the distance between them, she caught a quiver of uncertainty on the woman’s lips.

“I don’t want anything from you. You are all but useless to me,” Caledonia said, not unkindly. Where once this conversation would have frustrated Caledonia, now she understood it. To Cepheus, there had never been life without Silt. She didn’t yet trust that its absence was anything more than a punishment.

“If we’re so useless, why should we let you imprison us?” Cepheus asked.