“I answered some. If I didn’t answer any, I wouldn’t be here.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“I’m glad you were willing to meet,” my dad said. “Hi Sveta. It’s so good to see you again.”

“I love the coat,” my mom said.

“It’s borrowed, actually,” Sveta said. Her coat was one of my spares, for when I’d had to spend long durations outside during my stint at the Patrol, during the winter that I’d lost fifteen pounds and had suddenly found the cold very much affected me. Bulky and nondescript—not a coat that one would ‘love’. Moms.

“Do you want to go somewhere private to talk?” I asked.

“This way,” my mom said.

She led us outside, then down the street. “This is the cafe we visit when we have to have more private meetings. The board rooms at the office were converted into more offices. It’s quiet here.”

Quiet was one way of putting it. Typically in the late morning, delis like this could be counted on to be transitioning from breakfast to lunch, with a few people having extended brunches. There was one other couple in the place.

We found a booth and sat.

“I know you probably have questions,” I said.

“We’ve heard a lot about what happened,” my mom said. “The bullet points. That includes your sister, though, she isn’t mentioned much.”

“She wasn’t there much,” I said. Why was this so hard? “The Lady in Blue had a danger sense, and my sister was so nonthreatening that she didn’t trip it. She didn’t do anything until it was ninety-five percent over. Then she was the final five percent.”

“We heard about that,” my dad said. “She sent us a message before disappearing to Earth Shin.”

“And?” I asked.

“She says she can do more good there. You wanted her to leave and to give you space and she’s doing that,” he said.

My mom leaned forward over the table. “She was optimistic she could play a part in repairing human-cape relationships and use her power as a bargaining chip to broker peace and better relationships between Shin and Gimel.”

“Ah,” I said.

My dad chimed in, “Being as objective as I can, she’s doing something good. She knows we’re in for a hard winter, and if she can promise peace and stability in exchange for some surplus food being sent our way? It could save an incredible number of lives. Millions. And she’s doing it while giving you your space.”

“Space? Two nights ago she tried to catch me by surprise and touch me. It was a meeting she requested that set off all of the worst events of that night. I’m supposed to smile and accept all of that?”

“It’s not an all-in-one package, Vicky,” my dad said. “We can celebrate the good things while working on the bad.”