Chapter 373: The Delegation
Rias stopped Mireva before the meeting could dissolve completely.
"One more thing. What evidence are we actually taking?"
Mireva looked toward the route-keeper.
Rias continued. "Forest Hidden’s elders need enough to understand the threat. They do not need a complete map of the Belfry or access to the surviving resonance network."
The elderly Sairren woman answered immediately. "They get neither."
Martin looked at her. "Nobody asked for them."
"They also do not get them because nobody asked."
"Fair."
The route-keeper moved beside Rias and began reviewing the records she had collected during the fighting. There was more hidden inside them than Martin had realized. Some captured battlefield positions, partial views of old passages, and pieces of the Belfry’s own route displays.
The Sairren removed those. They kept the dark market request demanding one living route-keeper under ancestral right. They kept the capture seals, the copied tuning devices, and the recordings showing false route-song interfering with their network.
The child-route call stayed, and so did the private domestic gathering pattern.
The distinction mattered. They were asking Forest Hidden for help without turning desperation into permission to expose everything the Sairren had protected for generations.
Rias accepted each removal without argument.
Mireva noticed. "You expected me to give you more?"
"No."
"You are not going to tell us something might be useful later?"
"Almost everything might be useful later. That does not make it mine."
Mireva stared at her for a moment before nodding. "Good."
Cassandra remained near the end of the table. "If the elders ask for more?"
"Then we decide whether the question deserves an answer," Mireva said.
"No problem there."
The younger Sairren with the bandaged wing raised his hand.
Mireva looked at him. "You are still not coming."
"I wasn’t asking that."
"Good."
"I was asking who is."
That was a much better question.
Mireva looked around the room. "I go."
The elderly woman immediately said, "So do I."
"You do not have to."
"That was not a request."
Mireva stared at her for several seconds before accepting defeat with a small movement of one ear.
The route-keeper lifted his hand next.
Mireva sighed. "You too?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Someone who understands the resonance network should inspect the academy. If their protections interfere with ours, or if we later need temporary routes there, you need someone who understands what we would be changing."
Rias added, "He can also tell the elders what the network does without exposing how every private route works."
The route-keeper looked at her. "I could already do that."
"I was supporting your argument."
"Oh."
Martin smiled.
Mireva eventually nodded. "Fine. You come."
The younger Sairren raised his hand again.
"No."
He lowered it with a sigh.
Martin looked toward his party. "I’ll go. Rias should come because she has the evidence."
Alexandra folded her arms. "And me?"
Martin glanced toward Kumoe. The curious head immediately perked up, the middle remained half asleep, and the right head watched him as though waiting to grade his answer.
"You and Kumoe should come."
Alexandra smiled. "Good answer."
"Kumoe is relevant," Rias said. "The attackers used the same category of capture equipment on her."
The right head barked once, while the curious head looked pleased by being included despite clearly having no idea what evidence value meant.
Katherine nodded toward the wounded outside the hall. "I’m staying here."
"So am I," Elisebeth said quickly. "I volunteer to remain somewhere nobody can ask me to sing."
"You’re helping Katherine," Martin said.
"Excellent leadership."
Mireva looked between them. "Do all of you communicate like this during emergencies?"
"Yes," Cassandra said.
"No," Martin answered at the same time.
Cassandra looked at him.
Martin sighed. "Fine. Yes."
Mireva’s expression almost softened before she turned toward Cassandra.
"You are coming to Forest Hidden too?"
"To the boundary."
"You could remain here."
"I could."
"Why come?"
Cassandra considered the question. "Because part of what the elders will be asked about is me. Because I can answer questions before you cross the boundary if you decide you have any. And because stopping at the boundary myself is better than having Martin explain that I would."
Martin opened his mouth.
Cassandra looked at him.
He closed it again.
"Learning," Alexandra said.
"Quiet."
Mireva accepted Cassandra’s answer. "You do not cross."
"No."
"And Martin does not use us to argue that you should."
"No."
Martin pointed at himself. "Why am I agreeing to rules everyone else makes about me?"
"Because this one is good," Cassandra said.
He could not argue with that.
Once the delegation was settled, Mireva moved to the harder part.
What happened while they were gone.
The upper resonance network would remain silent. Nobody would reactivate a relay because it seemed convenient, and no route-keeper would answer an incoming pattern without physical verification.
Two wardens would verify every movement between the crowded upper sections, and nobody would enter the lower residential ring alone.
"If there is another attack?" the route-keeper asked.
Mireva answered immediately. "We defend people before infrastructure. If a bridge or relay cannot be held without exposing another route, we abandon it."
That rule would have sounded impossible before tonight.
Nobody objected now.
"Katherine stays with the wounded," Mireva continued. "Elisebeth stays in the upper district."
Elisebeth blinked. "I was hoping my assignment would simply be looking beautiful somewhere safe."
Mireva looked at her. "Can you do that while helping?"
Elisebeth considered it seriously. "Yes."
Katherine laughed.
Mireva looked toward Martin. "If something happens while you are gone, we do not wait for you to return and save us."
His smile disappeared. "I wasn’t going to ask you to."
"I know."
That made the statement matter more, not less.
The Sairren were not organizing themselves around when Emperoar would be available. Mireva would make the decisions here while Martin handled the job he had actually been given.
The meeting finally broke apart. Katherine returned to the wounded with Elisebeth following after her. The younger Sairren went to help reinforce the physical checkpoints, though he managed to look personally offended that being injured had disqualified him from the delegation.
Alexandra stayed behind long enough to nudge Martin’s arm.
"You’re getting better."
"At what?"
"Not deciding things for everyone."
Martin stared at her. "That sounded insulting."
"It was mostly a compliment."
"Mostly?"
Alexandra smiled and followed Kumoe out.
Martin watched Mireva, the elderly Sairren, and the route-keeper make one final check of the evidence they would carry.
They were not going to Forest Hidden as refugees already committed to leaving home. They were not going as Martin’s guests waiting for him to negotiate on their behalf.
They were going as a delegation with information they had chosen to reveal and questions they expected Forest Hidden to answer.
Martin’s job was much smaller.
Get them to the right people.
Once the Belfry’s immediate defenses were organized and everyone had rested, they would leave.
For once, he was perfectly happy not to be the person making the important decision.