“Okay,” I said. “Point conceded. I still think a lot of what the Wardens were doing in the situation room with Eric in charge was counter-productive and outright dangerous. Benching me, okay, I can see it. Denying me the ability to call my team, throwing road blocks in the way? Cinereal’s point man in the situation room didn’t say it right out, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to pass on even critical messages. They gave me the excuse of paperwork, qualifiers, all things that would tie me up until the situation was over.”

“He made choices I wouldn’t have, but I don’t think it matters.”

“Doesn’t it? When those choices are that against what we’re trying to do?”

“For organizations like ours to work, sometimes we have to accept that we’ll get orders we don’t agree with, and then we follow those orders. God knows I did that enough times when I worked for the PRT.”

“I’m okay with following orders, provided there’s some indication the person knows what they’re doing.”

Miss Militia raised her eyebrows. I saw her take in a deep breath, like she was figuring out how to even begin with her massive rebuttal.

“The mishap with the dream camera excepted. Defiant himself said that tapping on the glass or investigating was safe. We took a look into pretty unexplored territory one of our team members had spent a lot of time in, that unexplored territory ended being bigger and more dangerous than we anticipated. That was a fuck-up.”

“He said no and you went and did it anyway. I think his feelings were hurt.”

“I—” I started, stopped. Defiant was a massive cyborg, dressed up in green and gold dragon aesthetic. Before that, he’d been as much a grizzled and live-for-the-job a cape as any I knew. I really had no idea how to process the idea that I might have hurt him in any way, feelings included.

“Victoria, as I said, time is short. I’ll be blunt here. Eric did more harm than good. Sometimes that’s the way it is in times of crisis. He just lost his mentor, he’ll be starting from square one working under me. It’s possible he’ll rise in the ranks quickly, if Cinereal’s assessment of him is correct. She always had a great eye for nascent talent.”

I don’t envy you, Miss Militia.

“As for you, you’ve broken many of the rules we set. You’ve been using your power in small ways, reportedly in one blatant, dangerous manner—”

“Touching Eric?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Flinch reflex. Automatic.”

“The same kind that gave your mother massive cerebral hemmorhaging?”

I winced. “No. I have control, now. He reached out to touch me all of a sudden, I was jumpy, it was a soft touch. He did it again later and I used my hand to push his away.”