The eastern conference room smelled of people who had traveled fast.

Not unpleasantly — the specific quality of men who had received urgent word and had come without taking the time they would normally take, who were wearing the clothes of people who had prioritized arrival over presentation. Sarpedon had come from Lycia in four days. Adrastos had come from Caria in five. Both of them were at the table when Lysander arrived, with the controlled exhaustion of people who had been moving and had not yet allowed themselves to stop.

Ampelos was already seated. He had the eastern correspondence files in front of him and the expression of a man who had been reading them since before the meeting began and had found things in them that needed to be discussed.

Lysander sat.

He said: "Tell me what you know before I tell you what we know. Sarpedon."

Sarpedon looked at him.

’He is not surprised by the directness,’ Lysander thought. ’He expected it. He came expecting to say something he should have said a month ago and he is ready to say it.’

"Lycia has been receiving coastal arrivals for six weeks," Sarpedon said. "Not the scale of what Troy experienced three days ago. Smaller — individual communities, two to five boats at a time, arriving at the southern ports. We handled them through existing harbor protocols."

"You did not report it."

"No."

"Why."

"Because we assessed each arrival as isolated. Each one appeared to be a single displaced community rather than a pattern. By the time we had enough arrivals to question whether it was a pattern—"

"It was undeniably a pattern," Lysander said.

"Yes."

The room was quiet for a moment.

’Six weeks,’ Lysander thought. ’Lycia has been receiving arrivals for six weeks and we built a shared intelligence protocol specifically so that this information would reach us and the protocol did not work because people still defaulted to managing their own situation before reporting it.’

’Which is exactly what humans do. Which I should have designed for. Which I did not design for sufficiently.’

’The protocol worked for dramatic events. It did not work for gradual ones. Classic.’

He looked at Adrastos.

"Caria," he said.

Adrastos set his hands flat on the table. The gesture Lysander had come to recognize as his signal that he was about to say something prepared. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Three months," he said.

Sarpedon looked at him.

"Three months of coastal arrivals. Smaller than Lycia’s. The southern ports — the three intermediate ports where the inland routes used to deliver. They have been receiving displaced families at irregular intervals since the beginning of summer. We integrated them through the administrative consolidation framework — the one built from my king’s relocation methodology."

"And you did not report it," Lysander said.

"We reported it in the supply summaries. Not in the intelligence channel."

"The supply summaries go to the trade administrators. They do not reach the coastal warning network."

"No," Adrastos said. "They do not."

Another silence.

’Three months,’ Lysander thought. ’Caria has been absorbing displaced populations for three months using the methodology from the relocation document. They built a functioning response and did not tell us they were using it, which means they were treating it as a local supply management problem rather than as the regional intelligence event it was.’

’We built a shared intelligence protocol. Everyone then proceeded to share the information they thought was relevant through the channels they already used, which were not the protocol channels.’

’This is the most expensive miscommunication I have been part of since I arrived in this body.’

’And entirely my fault for not defining "reportable event" with more specificity.’

He said, to all three of them: "The protocol failed."

Nobody disagreed.

"Not because the information was withheld deliberately. Because we defined the reporting threshold too high — dramatic events, not gradual ones. Six weeks of small arrivals in Lycia does not feel like an intelligence event. Three months of supply integration in Caria does not feel like coastal displacement data. But it is. Both of them are."

"Yes," Ampelos said. "What is the correction."

"We lower the threshold. Any coastal arrival of displaced populations, regardless of size or apparent significance, goes through the intelligence channel within one week of the first arrival. Not when it becomes undeniable — when it begins."

"That will generate a significant volume of reports," Sarpedon said.

"Yes. That is the point. I would rather have too much information and learn to filter it than have too little and be surprised by what was happening for six weeks before we knew."

Sarpedon looked at Adrastos. Something passed between them — the specific communication of two men who had independently decided the same thing and were now confirming it.

"Agreed," Sarpedon said.

"Agreed," Adrastos said.

________________________________________

They spent the next hour on the numbers.

Lysander laid out what had happened on Troy’s coast — the scale, the registration, the buffer zone expansion, the operational picture as of this morning. He did not soften it. He also did not dramatize it. The numbers were sufficient.

Sarpedon laid out the Lycian picture. Six weeks, approximately four hundred arrivals total, all at the southern coastal ports. The harbor infrastructure had absorbed them without significant strain. The capacity question was beginning to appear — two more weeks at the current rate and the absorption would require formal planning rather than operational flexibility.

Adrastos laid out the Carian picture. Three months, approximately twelve hundred arrivals total, integrated through the administrative consolidation framework. His king’s methodology had worked — the communities were intact, the social networks were functioning, the inland placement had been organized. But twelve hundred people over three months at the sustainable rate of integration meant that the methodology had been operating at its upper limit for the past month.

’Twelve hundred,’ Lysander thought. ’In three months. They have been managing this in silence for three months and they are already at their upper limit.’

’And the wave we received three days ago was larger than anything any of us has received before.’

’And the elder on the beach said there are more coming.’

’And Cassandra said this season, not the next one.’

He said: "The four commitments. Let us evaluate them against what we have just described."

Ampelos said: "The shared maritime intelligence protocol failed on the gradual threshold. We corrected the definition. The failure was design, not intention."

"Agreed."

"The coordinated coastal warning. This functioned correctly — we received Lycia’s and Caria’s reports within twenty-four hours of the wave reaching our coast. The warning came after, not before, which is the timing problem the protocol is designed to address. But the channel itself worked."

"Agreed."

"The supply buffer coordination. Caria has been drawing on its buffer for three months. Lycia is approaching buffer engagement. Troy—"

"Troy’s buffer is adequate for approximately four more months at current consumption," Lysander said. "If the wave continues at the scale of three days ago, that estimate becomes two months."

Silence.

"Two months," Sarpedon said.

"Yes."

"And the fourth commitment. The Carian relocation knowledge — you have been using it."

"Yes. The buffer zone expansion uses the community-intact principle from the relocation document. It has been the most operationally useful element of the entire framework."

Adrastos said: "My king will be glad to hear that."

"Tell him," Lysander said. "He deserves to know his document is working in practice and not just in principle."

________________________________________

The conversation shifted.

Not the commitments — what came after the commitments. The four original agreements had been designed for the pressure that was arriving. The pressure that was arriving was larger than designed for. What did that mean for the structure?

Sarpedon said: "The maritime network. The coastal freight vessels. The arrangement with Troy and Caria — it was designed for commercial purposes. It is also the fastest way to move people and supplies between the three coastlines if one of us reaches capacity before the others."

"Yes," Lysander said. "I have been thinking the same thing."

"The vessels were not designed for passenger transport at displacement scale."

"Daidalos’s third design iteration can carry forty people with full cargo. At displacement scale — no cargo, basic supplies — the capacity is higher. Sixty, possibly seventy."

"How many vessels."

"Currently twelve operational. Six more under construction." He paused. "The construction timeline has been affected by a supply issue. I will know more within the week about how significantly."

’The timber,’ he thought. ’I did not say the timber. But the timber is what I meant.’

’One day too late.’

’I am not going to think about that right now. I am thinking about it right now.’

Adrastos said: "If the maritime network becomes a trilateral emergency transport system — not just commercial, also humanitarian — the operational protocols need to be clear. Who requests, who provides, how quickly."

"Yes. Ampelos."

"I can draft the protocol," Ampelos said. "Two days."

"Good."

"The food buffer coordination," Adrastos said. "My king’s buffer is at sixty percent. He would like to know Troy’s and Lycia’s current positions."

"Troy is at seventy percent," Lysander said. "Lycia?"

Sarpedon said: "Sixty-five."

They looked at each other across the table. Three kingdoms with depleted buffers, facing a wave that had not finished arriving, with a maritime transport network that might be about to lose its timber supply.

’We are three careful men who built careful things,’ Lysander thought, ’sitting in a room discovering that the careful things we built are going to be tested harder than we built them for.’

’And we are still here. At the table. Nobody has left.’

’That is something.’

’That is actually a significant something.’

He said: "The commitments hold. We expand them. The maritime network becomes a trilateral emergency capacity — not just commercial. The buffer coordination becomes active, not passive — we share current position monthly rather than annually. The intelligence threshold is lowered. And we establish a rapid communication protocol: if any of the three coastlines reaches ninety percent of their absorption capacity, the other two are notified within forty-eight hours."

"Ninety percent," Sarpedon said.

"Before the crisis, not during it."

"Yes." He looked at Adrastos. "Agreed."

"Agreed," Adrastos said.

Ampelos was already writing.

________________________________________

The meeting ended at the seventh hour.

Sarpedon and Adrastos went to their respective guest quarters — they would stay one night and depart in the morning. Ampelos went to draft the emergency maritime protocol. Lysander walked toward the supply office.

He passed Arsini in the corridor outside the administrative wing.

She was moving fast — the pace she had when the day had more things in it than hours — with a tablet under her arm and the look of someone who had three problems and had ranked them.

She saw him and slowed slightly.

"The buffer zone expansion," she said. "The northern section. I have the allocation done. The first families can move in tomorrow morning."

"Good."

"The cluster leaders want to be involved in the placement decisions. Not told where to go — involved in deciding."

"Let them."

"I thought so. I already asked Miros to facilitate." She paused. "The registration backlog from three days ago. We are still processing approximately four hundred people."

"How long."

"Two more days if we add the settlement volunteers to the process. They have been asking to help."

"Use them."

"Yes." She started moving again. Then stopped — her stop. "Sarpedon and Adrastos. The meeting went well?"

He looked at her.

"It went honestly," he said.

She held that for a moment.

"That is usually better than well," she said.

She went.

’Usually better than well,’ he thought. ’Yes. That is exactly right.’

He walked to the supply office and sat down.

Fylon had left the evening’s coastal watch report on the table. He picked it up and started to read.

Three lines from the watch: horizon clear at sundown. No new movement visible.

’Clear at sundown,’ he thought. ’Three days ago the horizon had shapes on it that had not stopped arriving for eight hours. Tonight it is clear.’

’The wave has paused. Or it has finished. Or it is gathering.’

’I do not know which.’

He set the report down and picked up the timber supply analysis he had been working on when Fylon had come to tell him the Thracian intermediary had accepted the Mycenaean offer.

One day too late.

He needed a solution before Daidalos ran out of what he had.