“What does it mean?” Damsel asked. “Repeat it?”

“Aut viam inveniam aut faciam,” Imp said, with no fluidity, each syllable punctuated with a nod.

“Aut viam, inveniam aut faciam,” Damsel said.

“Hey, that was actually good!”

“Of course it was,” Damsel said, looking too pleased with herself. Maybe it was only because I knew how Ashleys worked that I saw it.

“Holy fuck, it took me forever to learn these things.”

“This is the point you’ll tell me it’s something obscene. You’re the prankster type, I can tell.”

I saw Caryatid move to cover Finale’s ears.

“No, no, nothing obscene, um…”

“Need a hint?” Chastity asked.

“No!”

“You don’t get villain cred for Latin if you forget the meaning,” Tattletale cut in.

“Stop talking! I’m trying to remember and you’re distracting me. I get some villain cred. Right, Damsel? You’re a villain and you said it sounded like an incantation.”

“It did. It counts for cred.”

“So there. It means something like ‘We’re gonna find a way or we’re going to force one’.”

“Make one,” Chastity said.

“I like it,” Damsel said.

“Of course you like it,” Trophy Wife said, leaning forward. She’d set her rack down on the ground behind her. A little macabre. “It’s very you.”

I walked around the group, watching, being careful. I saw Cassie with Yips and Rachel with three more dogs walking without leashes. Yips raised his right leg to pee, then picked up his other right paw off the ground because it was in snow or something. He fell over, still peeing, making Rachel jump back and making one of the other dogs bounce around playfully.

Cassie just laughed.

Foil put her hand up as I passed by. I gave her a small high five.

“You good?” she asked.

“Good enough,” I said. “You?”

She hugged Parian, huddling in with her for warmth, nodding.

“Just taking five,” Tattletale said, craning her head back to look at me upside-down. “We’ve been driving all over the place for the last while, in cars that stink of birds and dogs.”

“My birds don’t stink!”

“The dogs are fine!” Cassie protested, as she took her seat beside Chastity. Rachel, in the background, was silent, the dogs milling around her.

“Of course, the thing you want to do after driving all around the place is sit, right? Makes sense?” Tattletale asked.

“I wouldn’t know,” I said. “Most of the time I fly.”

“Boooo,” Candy jeered. “Privilege.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Two in our vicinity. We’re positioned to go help with one or the other, depending on what happens. They’re a few miles out and they aren’t coming our way,” Tattletale said. “Like I told the Wardens. They’re figuring their own shit out as much as we’re trying to figure them out.”

I nodded.

“Three other teams in our general area. One in the shattered little town to the south. One east, one west. We’ll have backup.”

“Alright, good to know, thanks.”

“S’what I do.”