“Tristan couldn’t switch to me, I don’t think,” Byron said. “When we were talking about capes we might run into last night, we theorized it was a thing we could do, that if he switched to me I might not be compelled, but he didn’t switch.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “We knew there were a half-dozen things we could maybe do, and some worked, some didn’t.”

“I hate—I hate losing control. I only have control over half my life to begin with,” Byron said.

“Yeah,” Sveta said. Her face peered up through the neckhole of her suit. “There’s— Careful, Victoria. Or, Byron, can you put your gauntlets over this gap, fasten it when I say so?”

“Sure,” Byron said.

“Be careful,” Sveta said.

She’d undone a clasp at the shoulder. She brought her head out, twisting it around in a way a neck couldn’t. Her tendrils were bound with metal rings into a loose column that disappeared into her suit. She began working her way into a comfortable position. “Not having control, it sucks. Fuck that guy.”

“Agreed on both counts, but the lack of control helped us,” I said. “It’s how I used my aura. It’s what Damsel did.”

Sveta pursed her lips.

Damsel was stalking. Sidepiece and Nailbiter were sticking with her. Disjoint hung back, talking to Beast of Burden. Etna, Love Lost, and Cleat seemed to be a sub-clique in that group.

Byron blurred. His armor shifted tints from blue to red.

“It’s what Dark Introspection here did,” Tristan said. “Mind-body disconnect, right? Looking inward, elective connection.”

Chris curled up tighter.

“Yeah,” Tristan said. He bent down to give Chris a pat. “You’re so weird.”

“You did good,” I said.

I could see the looks on faces throughout our small group, or what I could see of faces. Chris being wound together, Sveta looking so deeply unhappy, Tristan’s eyes being narrower.

It wasn’t just us. The violent capes were more agitated.

I felt that way. The panic that had let me tap into the aura and Wretch wasn’t going all the way away. I wore armor and a costume that made me feel like standing tall and I felt very small.

Fuck that guy was right.

“What did he tell you?” Tristan asked me. “Orders, compulsions?”

“To serve, to help. I helped by removing him from a dangerous situation. I’m not all the way resolved, there. I don’t want to run into him again.”

“Did he tell you to lie?”

“Stop that,” Sveta said. “She would have to say no if he did, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Not always,” Tristan said. “Sometimes you get loopholes. It’s worth asking.”