She elected to change clothes herself, because his way of doing it would take too long. Her second nicest dress hung in the closet, and she was careful as she put it on. She left the zipper alone.

He emerged from the bathroom, face freshly washed, hair fixed, and did the zipper up for her.

“I’m going to get the paperwork in case we end up doing any business.”

“Good.”

She was ready before he was. When she stepped into the hallway of the hotel, the others were there. Angel leaned against the wall, smiling.

“Stop being so happy,” Ashley told her. “There’s only so much to go around.”

“There’s more going around than there was a week ago,” Angel said. Bar elbowed her.

“Yeah. Maybe there is,” Ashley said.

The door of the hotel room was open, and she could see J at the other end, gathering papers and putting them into a messenger bag. He approached.

“Sorry for the wait.”

“Then be faster next time,” Ashley said.

J smiled.

They walked as a group to the parking lot, and loaded up into cars. There was bickering about who sat where, but she ignored it.

“We should take another car,” J said.

The handle on the passenger side door was broken. She stared at it for a moment, then nodded.

The drive was quiet, but quiet was good.

The giant was still in the water. Over the day since its arrival, the giant had moved some, letting people know it was still a potential threat, but it hadn’t attacked anyone or done anything, and nobody had picked a fight with it. She imagined it would be a topic tonight.

Numbers had swelled and changed over the past several moots. As they reached the crest of the hill that looked over the beach, there were multiple fires visible. The bonfire remained as its own construction, bigger than any of the others.

They stopped on the road overlooking the beach, and then they began their walk.

Ashley had been content to stick to the shadows over the past several moots, but the shadows had shrunk over the past few visits, with the individual fires.

Her heart raced, and she felt the kernel of—of a tentative feeling that she pushed out of mind before it could trip her up. Composure mattered. Image was everything, as she had her people behind her and her enemies in front of her.

There was no room for error.

She approached, and she took her spot at the inner ring by the fire for the first time.

Eclipse x.7

“It’s drawing attention to the city.”

“Everyone here was doing that already,” Rotten Apple said. “They sent everyone they could spare, you think they’re going to send more.”

“There’s more nuance than that,” Detente said. “It’s taller than any of the Endbringers. People will stop what they’re doing to respond.”