“She was restless but we can’t figure out what she was actually doing. It was scary but it was easy, as you put it. You can’t keep going like this. Why don’t you go back to the city and relax? Sit around in your comfortable clothes and watch movies. Go hang out with friends—I know you have a standing invitation from an old friend of mine.”

I’ve never watched movies, that I can remember.

I’ve never ‘hung out’ with friends.

And the city…

“I’ll think about relaxing,” she said. “But I’m fairly certain I’ll come to the same conclusion I have before. That I need to do this.”

“Valkyrie,” he said, voice stern.

“I’m fairly sure I’m older than you, Chevalier. Don’t talk down to me. I need to do this. To help, to make up for past acts, and to gather the resources and contacts to attend to my flock.”

“Your flock. I thought you had to stop.”

She looked back in the direction of Milk, who was talking to Edgeless.

“I did. I want to find a way forward, regardless.” She seized on the word like it had a deeper meaning, a power to it she could draw on. “Regardless! If I were to put my needs aside, I believe the rest of the world needs me to do this. Too many of these incidents are ones only I have the ability to handle.”

“I could refuse to give you any information.”

“You could. You won’t. You and Legend work through injury and sickness, exhaustion and mild insanity. You’ll let me do the same, because you recognize the need.”

He was silent on the other end of the phone.

“Is there something you need for me to handle, Chevalier?”

“There was a prison breakout in the city. Frankly, we could use some eyes on that situation until things settle down for sure. Shin is… stuff’s happening, Valkyrie.”

“I halfway suspect that you’re telling me that out of connivance, Chevalier. Has the job corrupted you so quickly?”

“I am many things, but I’m not conniving.”

“To get me into the city, for a task where there is nothing meaningful to do, leaving me nothing to do but rest?”

“I have a very hard time imagining that there would be nothing to do there.”

“Something else, Chevalier. Send me somewhere else.”

“They’re going to forget what you look like. I think they’re already talking about you like you’re a myth or a memory.”

“Something else. Please.”

“The battlefront, then. The Tyrant Kings.”

Africa, Bet.

“I’ll go. Cote D’Ivoire for headquarters?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll contact you when I’m there.”

“Good luck. I may see you and your ‘flock’ there.”

He hung up. She put the phone away.

Her ‘flock’ was waiting for instructions.