“Pfft.” Spider flicks his fingers dismissively. “Some of us had to work fourteen-hour days in a tech suit six days a week. Vods is where it’s at. Plus, you know, sometimes people are blind? Sometimes?”

“Fair enough.”

Two weeks ago this would have devolved into an argument. Spider spots Misery and opens space between Tank and himself. She slides into position, posture-perfect and casual, and waits to be caught up, which Spider does. “We were betting how badly the princess is going to fare later.”

Tank leans forward, bright-eyed and glittering. “I think she’s going to make it. I think today we’ll be seeing a miracle.”

Spider laughs. “I love that backhanded compliment. I’m taking notes.”

Misery places her hands on the table. “The miracle is all of us here, together, at this time. We were chosen by an unseen hand and placed upon this path. No matter how it seems on the surface, I believe that the princess is meant to be here.”

Spider scoffs. “Well, somebody’s got to fill out the bottom of the list, and it’s not going to be me.”

“I’ll put a vote in against the princess,” Ghost says. “That will make it even, won’t it?”

“Ghost, you don’t have to pick a side,” Tank says. “I know you have no opinion on this.”

“I’d like to have one. I think the Lady Alodia Lightning and I have more in common than not.”

“So you’re voting against her?”

“I don’t think we should vote. So if I even it out, then the votes mean nothing, don’t they?”

Diamond shows up, fresh from the showers. Scans the group, notes the glaring absence, and sits among them. “We haven’t got much time. Let’s eat.” Businesslike as ever. A surface of polished stone, hiding an ocean of anxiety underneath. It’s the first time since the incident that she’s mounting her own soldiers in units. There’s no combat here. No risk. But she’s still afraid.

Misery lets their captain lead them in prayer. Her invocations are more sincere, and she never seems to tire of it. Sunyata Diamond is disappointed by the Lady Alodia Lightning’s no-show. The princess doesn’t need to eat, and abuses that fact to skip out of every communal feeding with Ono Red-2, but Diamond had hoped she’d show up for the final meal before their debut. She wanted that solidarity. They have to stand together under the banner of the Forge.