“Because, Balminder,” Kurt said, “you were plausible deniability and a scapegoat, if we needed one, and you were one of a dozen pieces we kept in play, as people who could be arranged to rescue Cauldron if it was ever lost, if we gave someone a power that gave them absolute control over us. It was good to have some vials out there that would take concerted effort to find.”

“It was a small supply,” Balminder said.

“I know for a fact this ‘small supply’ was not exhausted. You have some left over. It should be a hundred and thirty to a hundred and forty vials.”

“The number is zero,” Balminder said. “They’ve been claimed. I thought they were you.”

“Zero is my least favorite number,” Kurt said, in an uncharacteristically dangerous voice.

“Don’t kill him,” Jeanne said. “We can get answers out of him.”

“We know what those answers will be.”

“We’ll ask,” she said.

Kurt deferred, stepping back.

“Claimed,” Jeanne said the word. “Explain.”

“By a man. A month or two ago. He called himself Teacher. I didn’t even slip up, he just—he appeared. And he had a small army of people with powers with him.”

“A small army,” Jeanne said. “It’s good to know.”

“It is. Thinkers and tinkers, Balminder? Negligible powers?” Kurt asked.

“Not just those. Not negligible. I know my powers, Number Man. I know my shit. This wasn’t trifling.”

“Maybe not an Ingenue tweak,” Jeanne observed.

“He has other avenues of access, then,” Kurt said. “He has the old base, and what was empty is now fully staffed. Now he has an army.”

“We might have to revisit the truce we made,” Jeanne said. “We thought the Undersiders knocked him down enough pegs that he wouldn’t recoup fast. It seems he’s more resourceful than that.”

“Teacher’s Cauldron,” one of the two boys said.

“The Cauldron is fractured,” Kurt said. “Like so many things. We can’t afford the resources to mend the divide or deal with this army, small or otherwise. The city would fall while our backs are turned.”

It might fall nonetheless, Jeanne thought. It was possible to do everything perfectly and to still fail, and try as they might, they wouldn’t get everything right.

“We’ll take the city,” she said. “No use delaying now. If he has Cauldron, we’ll take everything else. If we take the city, we can control the Wardens. If the Fallen come out ahead, we’ll control them.”

“Um,” Balminder said.

“You can come with us or you can go and keep your mouth shut,” she said. “We’re a splinter of Cauldron, but we could count it as you coming back into the fold.”

“We were never upset,” Kurt said. “Not really.”

Balminder frowned.

“Think on it,” Jeanne said.

She and Kurt walked a short distance away and let Balminder do his thinking.