Tavin and Sera came to the base the next morning, through the northern approach Frument used for formal dispatches, only this time they came in person.

Tavin wore his administrative coat, the grey one with the small symbols at the cuffs. Sera was in her usual traveling clothes, which was its own form of statement, since Sera wearing traveling clothes to a formal meeting meant she had already decided the meeting was formal enough without her having to perform it.

They sat down at the table.

Due had tea ready. Tavin accepted a cup, but Sera did not.

"Frument would like to formalize its alliance with Sun Harvest at the Echelon level," said Tavin.

He spoke, every word chosen, no visible energy in the delivery.

Alistair had learned, during the two months Sun Harvest had been sharing a border with Frument, that Tavin’s lack of visible energy was not a lack of care. It was the discipline of a man running a settlement’s survival for two generations.

Due nodded. "Terms?"

"I’ve drafted them." Tavin pulled a document from his coat. "Twelve clauses, and I’d like you to read each one in order before we discuss any of them. The order matters."

Due took the document and started reading.

However, Alistair watched Sera during the reading. She was looking at the ceiling, her jaw doing the small clenching motion she used when she was trying not to say something. After about forty seconds, her patience ran out.

"This is going to take three hours," she said, still looking up.

Tavin didn’t look at her. "It’s going to take three hours because the clauses need to be read in order."

"I know, Tavin."

"Then you know it’s going to take three hours."

"I’m informing Alistair it’s going to take three hours, so he can prepare himself accordingly." Sera turned to Alistair. "You’ll want to get comfortable. My grandfather wrote alliance agreements the same way. It’s how Frument survives."

Alistair’s lips twitched.

"I’m comfortable," he replied.

"You say that now."

Due was already on clause four. He read methodically, enjoying the document, refusing to admit it. Alistair could see it in the relaxation of Due’s shoulders. Due liked careful paperwork, although he was never going to say so.

Around clause seven, Sera stood up.

"I’m going outside," she said.

Tavin didn’t look up from his own copy. "No."

"Tavin."

"Sit down, Sera."

She sat. Crossed her arms. She had been having this argument with her brother for years, and had learned some weren’t worth winning.

Eventually, on clause ten, the records came up.

"Frument’s administrative records go back to the disputed territory’s pre-factional history," Tavin said. "Crop rotations, water right agreements, territorial language used before the factional period began. They aren’t intelligence, just historical. Regardless, they may be useful to whatever civic work Sun Harvest is doing in the settlements, and I would like to make them available."

Due looked up.

"Without conditions?"

"Without conditions."

Due was quiet a moment.

At that same moment, Silas was standing in the doorway. Alistair hadn’t heard him enter, but Sera’s eyes flicked to him a half-beat after he registered, and Tavin’s followed.

Silas nodded at Tavin once, slightly. The kind of acknowledgement a person gives when an offer has been correctly made and they want the offerer to know it.

Tavin’s shoulders shifted slightly, his eyes returning to the document a beat slower than usual. Seeing this, Alistair was honestly amused. Tavin had not yet decided how he felt about Silas existing in rooms before his arrival was announced.

"...Thank you," Tavin said, carefully.

Silas didn’t reply. He moved into the room without making any noise about it, and stood at the wall near Elara.

"I want to add one clause," Due said when he finished the twelfth.

Tavin’s expression sharpened. "What clause?"

"A reciprocal civic mediation agreement. If Frument requires mediation in a settlement under its administration, Sun Harvest provides it under the same framework we’re developing for the Oasis of Grain. In exchange, the records are entered formally into the agreement rather than offered as a separate gesture."

"You want them in the document."

"I want them in the document."

"Why?"

"Because a gesture can be withdrawn, but an agreement cannot." Due adjusted his collar. "Also, it honors what you’re giving us. A gesture suggests the gift is casual. It is not."

Tavin looked at the document for a long moment.

"I was going to offer the records anyway," he said eventually. "I hadn’t decided whether to include them in the alliance or mention them afterward."

"Include them."

Tavin nodded once. Following that, he signed the new clause without reading it twice, which was the most significant gesture he made all morning, since Tavin had not signed a document without reading it twice in fifteen years.

Due signed second. Alistair signed third.

When the signatures were finished, Sera spoke.

"I want to say something before we finish."

Tavin looked at her. "Now?"

"Now."

She stood up, hands folded in front of her in the way of someone who had decided in advance not to use them.

She looked at all four of them, Alistair, Due, Elara, Silas. Her eyes stopped on Alistair.

"My father’s faction was absorbed by a larger power fifteen years ago because it was useful enough to use and small enough to take. I watched it happen. I watched him try to stop it for eight years, and I watched him fail. After it happened, I watched the people who absorbed his faction treat him like a specialist they’d hired instead of a leader they’d inherited."

The room was quiet.

"I’m telling you this because I want you to understand what I’m doing here isn’t loyalty. I don’t feel loyal to you, since I don’t know you well enough for that yet." A pause. "It’s an assessment."

She looked directly at Alistair.

"You’re what I assessed."

She turned and walked to the door without waiting for anyone to respond. The door closed behind her.

Tavin didn’t look up from his document.

"She’s been rehearsing that for three days," he said. "I’m impressed she got through it. She usually cuts the last sentence."

Alistair raised his brows. "Is that a compliment?"

Tavin considered it.

"From Sera, yes."

Alistair was reluctantly impressed.

He looked at the door, then at the four signatures, then at the wall where Silas had moved without being noticed. His Equalizer ran its circuit, adjusted for the offset, and returned the flat grey it always returned.

’She didn’t say loyalty,’ Alistair thought. ’She said assessment. Loyalty doesn’t change. An assessment can.’

Tavin gathered his coat.

"Then we understand each other."

The door closed, then Due exhaled slowly.

"That woman is going to be exhausting to keep aligned with."

"She’s already aligned," said Alistair.

"I know." Due muttered. "That’s the exhausting part."

Elara was still looking at the closed door, although not quite at it. Past it, somehow.

"What?" Alistair asked her.

She didn’t answer right away. Eventually: 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"She’s the first person I’ve met who spoke to me before seeing my father’s name." A pause. "I don’t know what to do with that yet."

Silas, from the wall: "Sit with it."

Elara nodded slowly.

A few minutes later, Tavin came back without Sera.

"She said to tell you she’s walking the perimeter once and then going home with her brother. She also said to tell Alistair specifically that she meant what she said, and that he shouldn’t make her say it again."

Alistair shook his head slightly.

"Tell her I won’t."

"I will."

Tavin left, and the door closed behind him for the last time that morning.

’Assessment, not loyalty,’ Alistair thought. ’It’s the only kind that holds.’

Behind him, Elara was gathering a small bag from the table, the one she carried when she went out among the settlements. She had not been wearing it ten minutes ago.

Alistair turned.

"Where are you going?"

Elara fastened the strap.

"Out, and alone." A pause. "I want to see... what a day looks like when nobody’s watching me wear my father’s name. It must be nice."

She opened the door before anyone could answer.