“Escape,” she interrupted me, turning to me. “Any of you, if it comes to it, escape. If it gets that bad, if they’re willing to go that far, trade may not be possible, the situation wouldn’t be salvageable. At least like this, it was superficially a charade, a heavy-handed moving of segments of the political machine. We can recover from it. But we can’t sacrifice people to that machine.”

“Got it,” Vista said.

“For the love of God, be good,” Miss Militia said. She said it to Vista and Golem, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t intended for them. It would have been crass to say it to us, and she wasn’t crass.

“What are you guys going to do in the meantime?” I asked. I shifted my footing, signaling I was asking about Teacher.

“Just focus on yourselves. We’ll work something out. This should only be a few days at most before we work it out. In the meantime, I think they want you to give them an excuse, they can punish you, and use the film of act and punishment for their political enrollments or even televising it for the public.”

“Political enroll—nevermind,” Tristan said, changing his tune as Marquis and the others drew closer. He looked at Vista, who had her chin set. She didn’t look anywhere near happy about this. “This is screwed up.”

“It’s theater. We’re capes, theater is part of it,” Ashley said.

“Well said,” Miss Militia told her.

Behind Chris, Spruce, and Marquis, I could see my parents and Amy. Amy hesitated, then approached until she stood beside Marquis. A diplomat from Aian’s contingent accompanied them. No doubt to show them where the hell they were going.

“Would it be tactless for us to use weapons?” Marquis asked.

“It might be best,” Miss Militia said.

“Would it, now?”

“You’re effectively their parahumans. Your weapons and clout are theirs. Show off a bit if you must.”

Marquis made a hand motion like he was snapping a finger in reverse, and the snap produced a rapier-thin blade from his middle finger. He waved it in the air before settling on Tristan, Golem, and Rain, bidding them to move. Spruce joined him.

“Come on,” Chris said. He pushed Ashley’s shoulder blade hard enough she had to take a step and as part of that, had to manage Kenzie, who was standing just in front of her. “Let’s go. I want to get back to my own stuff.”

When she didn’t move fast enough, he gave her another push. She shot him a look over her shoulder, her neck and jaw tense enough that lines and muscles stood out.

“It’s only going to get worse when you’re in there. Suck it up.”

“Theatrics,” my mother said, as she walked into the midst of our group. She smiled at Natalie. “Earning your pay, hm?”

Natalie’s responding smile was weak.