Chapter 106: No Other Idea

"Which means either what they're carrying is very valuable, or they're expecting serious opposition." He pulled up his mental map of the region, overlaying it with everything he'd learned from Greta's journal and Reeve's terrified confession. "If we leave tomorrow morning and push hard, we might be able to intercept them before they reach the complex."

Sera's expression sharpened, the Grand General resurfacing beneath the exhausted woman. "Intercept them how?"

"The pass narrows about a day's travel north of here. Natural chokepoint, difficult terrain. If we position ourselves correctly, we can hit them hard and fast, disable the wagons, and disappear before they can organize a response."

"That's a lot of ifs. A lot of things that could go wrong."

"Everything about this situation is things that could go wrong. At least this way, we control some of the variables."

Vael had moved to stand beside Sera, her hand finding the other woman's without conscious thought. "What's in the shipment?"

"Weapons. Armor. Supplies for something big." Nacho met their eyes, letting them see the seriousness beneath his casual tone. "Whatever the Consortium is planning for the Convergence, they're gearing up for war. And this might be our only chance to slow them down."

The room fell silent as the weight of his words settled over them. Three people against an organization that spanned continents, that had been building toward something catastrophic for years, that had resources and manpower and connections they could only guess at.

Not great odds.

But then again, Nacho had never been one to bet on the favorites.

"We should rest," Sera said finally. "Get what sleep we can before tomorrow."

"I'll take first watch," Nacho offered. "Don't need much sleep anyway."

She nodded, then paused at the door to the smaller bedroom, Vael already disappearing inside.

"Nacho."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For not killing Reeve. For thinking about something other than just power." She hesitated, then added: "I wasn't sure you were capable of that. I'm glad I was wrong."

She closed the door before he could respond, leaving him alone with his thoughts and the fading afternoon light.

He settled into the chair by the window, extending his senses outward to monitor the village below. People going about their lives. Children playing in the muddy street. A dog barking somewhere in the distance.

Normal. Ordinary. The kind of peaceful existence that everyone took for granted until someone came along and ripped it away.

Two months, he thought. Sixty days until the Convergence.

Sixty days to figure out how to stop whatever the Consortium had been building.

Sixty days to decide what kind of person, what kind of monster, he actually wanted to be.

The sun sank toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and red that reminded him of blood on water. Somewhere in the mountains to the north, an army was gathering. Somewhere in the darkness, Lady Vex was waiting.

And somewhere between the person he'd been and the person he was becoming, Nacho finally let himself admit that he cared about what happened next.

Not just for himself.

For all of them.

***

Dawn crept over Thornbury like a thief, grey light seeping through gaps in the shutters. Nacho hadn't moved from his post by the window all night, his senses stretched across the village like invisible tripwires. Nothing had triggered them. No Consortium agents slinking through shadows, no assassins scaling walls, no mysterious figures asking questions at the tavern below.

Just a village sleeping through its last peaceful night before everything changed.

The door to the bedroom creaked open, and Sera emerged looking like she'd aged five years in her sleep. Dark circles had carved themselves beneath her pale eyes, and her navy hair hung loose around her shoulders instead of pulled back in its usual severe style. She moved to the window without speaking, standing beside him to watch the first merchants begin setting up their stalls in the street below.

"You didn't sleep."

"Didn't need to." He stretched, joints popping in sequence down his spine. "Monster metabolism. One of the perks."

"There are perks?"

"A few. Infinite inventory. Tentacles that make women scream in the good way. Never having to worry about getting tired." He paused, considering. "Though I do miss dreaming sometimes."

Sera turned to look at him, something unreadable moving behind her eyes. "You dream?"

"Used to. Before the lightning." He shrugged, keeping his voice light even as the memory scratched at something raw inside him. "Now it's just darkness when I close my eyes. Like the space between thoughts, except it goes on forever."

She was quiet for a long moment, processing this. Then she reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, a gesture so unexpected that he almost flinched.

"Thank you. For keeping watch."

"Someone had to."

"Someone did." Her hand dropped away, but the warmth of it lingered. "Vael's getting dressed. We should eat before we leave."

The tavern's common room smelled like bacon and desperation, the kind of place where people came to forget their troubles and usually found new ones instead. The innkeeper served them without comment, thick slices of bread and some kind of smoked fish that tasted better than it looked. Vael picked at her food with the careful movements of someone still learning to trust their own body again.

"The pass," she said between bites. "I've been thinking about it."

Nacho looked up from his plate. "What about it?"

"The Consortium uses it regularly. They'll have scouts positioned along the route, watching for anything unusual." She pushed a piece of fish around with her fork, not eating it. "Three strangers traveling north the same day as a major shipment? That's unusual."

"So we don't travel as three strangers." Sera's voice had gone hard, the Grand General reasserting herself. "We split up. Approach from different angles. Reconvene at the chokepoint."

"That's risky."

"Everything's risky. At least this way, if one of us gets spotted, the others can still complete the mission."

Nacho considered this, running scenarios through his Combat Precognition. The Talent fed him possibilities like cards from a deck, each one more dangerous than the last. Sera captured and interrogated. Vael recaptured, returned to the Hollows. Himself overwhelmed by numbers, his tentacles not fast enough to save him from a dozen swords.

"I don't like it," he said finally. "But I don't have a better idea."

"Neither do I." Vael set down her fork, her appetite apparently gone. "Which means we do it Sera's way."