“If you come, Damsel, I can’t promise there won’t be consequences, but I’ll testify about circumstances. It’s a chaotic situation with Valefor as a factor, and everything else. They’re mitigating factors. Protect the amnesty, here.”

I saw her start to lift her foot from the ground. Her power flared, and she bent over at the waist, catching one knee with her good hand. It wouldn’t have been enough to catch her balance entirely, but Nailbiter had draped fingers along the one side.

Damsel put a hand on Nailbiter’s finger to steady herself as she straightened.

“You have people to help,” she said. She pushed at Nailbiter’s finger. “And I’m done with this. I’m going to get my arm fixed before I start killing everyone I see out of pure frustration.”

“Good plan,” Disjoint said.

Will you confess? I wanted to ask. Will you tell someone?

I couldn’t ask it out loud, because there was no answer she could give that would suffice for all parties involved.

Leaving wasn’t as good as her staying in our sight, but it was better than staying with this bunch.

Sveta and Capricorn were making their careful way toward Valefor, moving slowly for my sake, and to keep an eye on my exchange with Damsel. I flew to them, and they started moving faster as I joined the group again.

There was still the situation further into the settlement proper.

“She’s walking away,” I said. “Best we can get.”

“I didn’t know it would be that hair-trigger,” Capricorn said.

“I figured it was,” another voice said.

We stopped. Tristan summoned some orange motes around his hand. Sveta brought up one hand, holding her forearm.

The terrain moved. It was the camouflage blur that was Chris, except the effect I’d seen was patchy and inconsistent, and Chris was almost seamlessly fitting into the environment. The form was mostly faded, but I could see the spikes and ridges that were feathers.

“I must be the only person who wasn’t surprised by that,” Chris added.

“How the hell did you get that good with the camouflage?” Tristan asked.

“Staying still helps. Being a genius helps too,” he said. He made a dry cackling noise. “Not that I’m a genius, exactly. I’m good at getting into the mindset and physical form that makes me good at doing something.”

“And being a weird spiral bird helps with camouflage how?” Capricorn asked. He edged closer to the corner of a building, trying to get a peek of the situation.”

“The introspection-self-reflection-reflection-grief wing of things? Great for self awareness, which is great for knowing just how I’m positioned and how I look. Don’t spend too long looking, Capricorn. They’ve got a fucky—”

I saw the camouflage distort as he brought his hands to his head.

“—power,” he said.