The next day, I had Narg, Flogga, Dribb, Gobbo, Thok, Zonk, Gork, Bundi, Talia, Nira, and Zivra gather in the meeting room. By the time everyone was present, the air already carried a quiet seriousness, the kind that came when people knew this wasn't a routine briefing.
I went over the plan from the beginning, making sure those who hadn't been fully in the loop understood exactly what we were about to do and why. I reestablished our priorities clearly, stripped of unnecessary bravado, and then began assigning roles one by one.
Zarah, meanwhile, was visibly irritated during all this.
She had spent most of the previous night trying to convince me to let her accompany me, pressing the issue with an insistence that bordered on stubbornness. But I had refused then, and I refused again now.
This wasn't a situation where raw aggression or overwhelming force would solve everything.
I wasn't just going to face any foe.
