Page 3895

“You said before that arranging a meeting with her would take quite a while,” said Zeff. “What has changed?”

Graves didn’t miss a beat. “Everything. The entire world has shifted thanks to the waves.”

A fair point, Zeff supposed, even if it was a little light on details for his liking. “But what, specifically, has changed with her? You said she was on a mission of some sort, did you not?”

“Yes. I cannot go into operational details, of course, but that mission has been thoroughly disrupted. I could easily arrange a transfer for her, temporarily or permanently. It would depend on her decision. You mentioned that you had a falling out with her, yes?”

“Y-yes...”

“Then I wish you the best of luck there. Children can be quite difficult. Especially if she inherited any amount of your stubbornness, eh?”

The man wasn’t wrong, but Zeff didn’t entirely appreciate him saying so.

“By the way,” Graves went on, “if it puts your mind at ease at all, I should mention that I have been sending support to Sair.”

Zeff’s brow lowered, more out of disbelief than anger. “If that is true, then why didn’t you mention it before?”

“I tried. You kept getting enraged so quickly that I never got around to it.”

Zeff’s mouth twisted--this time indeed with anger--but he didn’t say anything.

“And admittedly,” said Graves, raising both hands in front of him, “it is not much. I cannot spare any of my own men here in Vantalay, obviously, and the rest of the Vangaurd is still thoroughly tied up elsewhere. But here and there, I have found available agents to send. It has not been enough to free your lands from Abolish, of course--nor will it be, I expect. But it is something, at least. I thought you should know.”

Brownie points, at best. The man was just saying anything he could now to not sound like the bad guy here, wasn’t he? Perhaps he was trying to convince himself as much as Zeff.

There was still valuable information to be gained, though. Zeff tried to stay on task. “What else do you know of the current situation there?”

“Quite a bit, actually. Is there something in particular you wish to know?”

“Who is leading the defense?”

“That would be Jackson.”

Zeff returned a flat look. “If that were true, Bloodeye would have fled or been killed by now.”