“I want to organize,” he started. “I’m not the person to lead it, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a power play. I’m not a power player. But I think, right now, while we’re still at peace, while there aren’t so many people who have beefs with one another, or the beefs have had two years to go quiet, this would be the chance to do it.”

“You wouldn’t be the first person to think about doing this,” Biter said.

“No?”

“No, some other groups, some small, some large. They’re banding together, a mutual peace. Forming a set of rules and expectations that aren’t unwritten, that we actually discuss and work out.”

“With the little guys?” Prancer asked. “B-listers? Those of us who aren’t being focused on while the big guys are laying out tracts of territory and settlements?”

“Some of them. Those groups are smaller than you’d be talking, if you’re talking about everyone here.”

Prancer nodded.

He glanced at Velvet, and he saw the way she was looking at him, and he felt like a proper man for the first time. She reached for his hand and squeezed it, hard.

Then, more alive and excited than he’d seen her in a long, long time, Velvet spoke, “You think they’d be open to talking?”

“I think they might,” Biter said.

Flare 2.1

“The Wardens are cooperating with seven major cape teams and, last I checked, ten minor teams. We are not a monolithic entity. We are not an authority. We are not the bad guys, Julia.”

I rummaged through a cabinet. My life was in boxes, from my clothes to my hair and skin stuff to my files. If it were that alone, it would have been tolerable. I’d tried using logic and going to the most common sense places. Not in or among the dirty dishes, not in the various jars and vases of spoons and spatulas on the counter, not behind or under something. I’d checked the other rooms in the apartment.

“People are worried. You have Legend as a second in command, and memories aren’t so short that we don’t remember the Alexandria fiasco.”

I moved methodically through the kitchen, left to right, while the television played on a low volume.

“I can tell you this: all we want to do is help. We want to find the right capes for the major crises and we want to equip the teams out there with information and resources.”

“That’s admirable, but—”

“No, wait, hold on, Julia. You told me when you asked me to have a chat with you on camera that you wanted to have a conversation. Let me say this.”

I looked at the little TV in the corner of the kitchen.