I kept an eye on her up until I caught up with Weld, who had retreated to a far corner of the room, mostly out of earshot of others. He seemed mindful of the other people in the room, his mouth shut.

Relay was already gone, teleporting out. Aleph Wolf was just leaving. The moment Aleph Wolf was out of the room, Weld finally spoke.

“What do you think?”

“I think if Alabaster is potentially a part of this, it’s worth reaching out to the Shepherds. Victor and Rune from the Empire are in the Shepherds now, under new names. They knew Alabaster and they might know something about Jotun. He was small-time.”

“Okay.”

“Can you handle that?” I asked. “The Wardens are neutral, so you can talk to the other group without issues, right?”

Weld nodded.

“I hope the division between the heroes isn’t straining things with Sveta.”

“With different bosses it might,” he said. “We’ve been together for about three years, depending on how you define ‘together’. You were a big part in that.”

I smiled.

“I think we’re okay there. Nobody’s demanding that I make any hard decisions yet.”

“Good,” I said.

“I did want to ask something though,” he said. “I don’t—”

He stopped himself there. He stood with his back to the wall, the window beside him, and the texture and material of his ‘skin’ made for a striking image.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t have a lot of friends that I can talk to about certain things,” he said. “I have teammates, but few who have spent any amount of time around Case Fifty-Threes.”

“Is it about the Fifty-Threes who were doing mercenary work?”

“No. No—it’s not that. It’s more awkward.”

With that, I knew just what he was talking about.

“Ah. I get it now,” I said.

He didn’t reply, and I didn’t press. More of the heroes filtered out. Jeanne was talking to Foil, with Precipice standing beside Foil, not really joining in.

“She welcomed me home from my mission away with… affection. I’m assuming she talked to you about it.”

“Yeah.”

“She brought it up after?”

“She seemed really happy. I didn’t get details.”

“Can I—” he started. “I don’t want to put you in an awkward position, but I don’t know who to bring it up with.”

“Ask, or share,” I said. “I get the feeling it’ll do more harm if you don’t.”

“It wasn’t good,” Weld said.

My heart sank.

“I love her, don’t get me wrong. I was game to experiment and find something that worked. But none of it worked. None of it.”

“Fuck,” I said, under my breath. My fingers dug into my arms. “Damn it.”

“Well put,” Weld told me, sounding just as miserable.

“Can you communicate? Find a way…?”

I saw Weld already shaking his head.