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‘If your desire was to catch up, then all you had to do was gimme a call,’ said Morgunov. ‘No need to risk your life in a battle with a feldeath.’

Frankly, when it came to him, she’d choose the feldeath every time. ‘That would be far too dull,’ she said. ‘Can’t have you growing bored of me, now can I?’

‘Ooh! In a flirty mood, are we?! You must want something from me!’

Well, he wasn’t wrong. ‘From a man who has so much to offer, how could I not?’

‘Eheh. No matter how many times you play me, it never seems to bother me very much.’ A beat passed. ‘Apart from that one time, during the Clog.’

She could practically hear him frowning, even though she knew his physical expression could not possibly be shifting at all in this space. ‘Ancient history, darling. You can’t keep holding that against me. We weren’t even emperors back then.’

‘So you keep reminding me.’

Irritating. Morgunov didn’t often get one over on her, but it wasn’t an impossibility here, either. There were certainly times in the past when she’d gotten too confident in her dealings with him, when she’d thought she had him quite thoroughly wrapped around her finger, only for him to demonstrate otherwise at the last minute.

She shouldn’t get too comfortable, she knew. There was a reason everyone called him mad, after all. And in recent decades, the game that he liked to play with her seemed to be one of stroking her ego, pretending to be her obedient little puppy.

And here, he seemed to be mixing it up yet again: being playful with her, yet still reminding her of past grievances. That was more straightforward than usual.

‘Have you come to parley for these Vangaurdians’ lives?’ said Dozer.

Okay, now that was truly straightforward. As expected of the Living Void. ‘No,’ she said, ‘but it does seem a waste to let them all die here. I suppose I’m still mulling it over.’

‘A waste in what sense?’ said Morgunov. ‘Far as we’re concerned, it’d only be balancing the books. They’ve been bringing the fight to us for a while now, murkin’ our boys left and right. Wasn’t so long ago that we lost both Gunther and Dunhouser, y’know. Lamont and Sanko seem like a fair exchange to me.’

‘Oh, it’s a matter of fairness, is it?’ She allowed a hint of severity in her tone.