Crimson Vital Sect Headquarters, Sanguis Prime.
Caldris had barely taken the seat opposite Hestia's dark-crimson desk before she asked, "You left this chamber less than one day ago. What happened that made you request another audience so urgently?"
The bitterness he had carried into their previous audience was absent. Caldris sat with his back straight and his expression controlled, but the strain beneath that control was visible in the rigid placement of his hands and the seconds he spent gathering his answer. Hestia already knew why he had returned. She had stood within the conflict he was about to describe, but she could not let him know about it.
"Too much has happened since I left," Caldris said. "One of our descendants rebelled, killed an Imperial Commissioner, and Ebon Meridian has lost several Astral cultivators above Nerath."
He gave her the rest without attempting to defend or interpret any portion of it. When Caldris mentioned the unknown Astral cultivators and the Chime, Hestia kept her newly refined willforce tightly gathered around the golden dot within her consciousness. Any visible change from their previous meeting would give him another reason to compare her with the disguised woman upon Nerath.
Hestia stayed silent and spoke after he explained everything, "Has Ebon Meridian issued a judgment against the clan?"
"No judgment has reached Nerath yet," Caldris replied. "That is not the same as saying no decision has been made. Our descendant rebelled, and the sect has lost elders while answering that incident. For now, every route around Nerath is being watched, but no one has told the clan what will happen next."
"Has the delegation's authorization been withdrawn?"
"No. The last update still places it upon the original route toward Andromeda, although I have not been told whether the recent incident changed anything."
The absence of an immediate response gave Hestia less reassurance than an open threat might have done. A threat could be measured and answered. Silence only meant that Orveth and those around him were deciding how much of the confrontation should be blamed upon the strangers, how much should be placed upon Narev, and how much could be used against the entire clan.
"So now, you have activated the planetary disaster protocols and presented as a response to the damage around Avaris rather than preparation for an organized departure?" she asked.
"Yes," Caldris replied.
"Have any of them begun leaving the planet?"
"No. I ordered them to prepare for departure. I did not order millions of people to flee without a path."
Hestia studied him for several moments. Caldris had come to this chamber during their first audience carrying the conviction that the clan's survival proved the wisdom of remaining beneath Ebon Meridian. That conviction had not disappeared completely, but something inside it had fractured. He no longer spoke about the sect's protection as though it were a foundation that could not be taken away.
Caldris's fingers tightened against one another before he continued. "I spent the journey here deciding what I expected you to do once I told you. At first, I thought I would ask you to open a route into Andromeda and help us remove everyone from Nerath before Ebon Meridian decided to punish them. I even told the Clan Leader that I would ask for your help."
His gaze lowered briefly toward his hands. "For more than a million years, I believed I could secure our descendants by making the clan too useful to discard. That belief was not empty, Hestia. The people who remained survived. They built cities, raised generations of alchemists, expanded our inheritances, and gained opportunities our clan never possessed when you and I were young. I used every position I earned to direct resources toward them and soften whatever demands I could. I will not pretend all of that became meaningless because one crisis exposed its limits."
Hestia remained silent, and Caldris continued. "But I understand those limits now. My title can soften an order only while Ebon Meridian wants it softened, and my relationships can delay a demand only while those favors still matter. If Sect Leader Orveth decides the Solvaren Clan has become a liability, I cannot stop him. My Astral cultivation, my Chime, my title, none of them will protect Nerath from the sect that granted them."
The controlled formality of his voice weakened as the fear beneath it finally surfaced. "This time, Narev killed an Imperial Commissioner. But what happens in another generation if an alchemist refuses compulsory service, if one of our young cultivators attempts to carry protected knowledge beyond Keldovan, or if a frightened elder makes another decision that those above us call rebellion? I cannot guarantee that millions of descendants will obey perfectly for every generation that follows. If the choice of one person can become sufficient reason to condemn all of them, then the protection I created was never something the clan controlled."
Caldris raised his gaze toward her again. "I still would not have entered those vessels with you then. If every Solvaren had followed you, there would be no Nerath and no millions of descendants for either of us to protect today. But I can no longer look at what they built and tell myself that remaining useful will always keep them safe."
The admission offered Hestia no satisfaction. She still remembered the damaged vessels, the graves left across the intergalactic road, and the followers who never lived to see Andromeda, while Caldris could point toward Nerath's cities and the millions born because their ancestors remained. The people living now were not a verdict proving either ancient choice correct.
"You were not wrong to prepare them," Hestia said. "If an attack begins while millions of people are still deciding what they can carry, no path will remain open long enough to matter. But preparing for departure and attempting one are not the same decision. Do not order them to leave Nerath."
Caldris's expression tightened. "You want them to remain beneath Ebon Meridian after what I just told you?"
"I want them to remain alive," Hestia replied. "You have no secured route or destination prepared to receive millions, and no force capable of protecting every vessel while they cross out of Valtheris. The moment a mass departure begins, Ebon Meridian can call it proof that the entire clan supported Narev. Placing our descendants aboard whatever ships happen to be available and sending them into monitored space would not be an escape. It would be another disaster."
Caldris could understand the logistical danger without knowing everything behind her answer. Hestia had heard the Clan Leader and Narev reject the idea that freedom should require abandoning Nerath, while the battle beyond the planet had proven how easily Orveth and his allies could interfere with any attempt to move either the population or the world itself.
"Keep the disaster protocols active," Hestia continued. "Leave the transports close enough to respond, secure the archives and reserves, and keep the vulnerable populations within the districts the clan can defend most effectively. Any Solvaren currently outside Nerath who can return through an ordinary rotation without drawing attention should be recalled gradually. Do not issue a general summons, and do not call back anyone whose movement would be stopped or interpreted as flight."
"You are asking me to leave them prepared for an escape while continuing to serve the power they may need to escape from," Caldris said.
"For now, yes," Hestia replied. "You said your title can delay orders and soften demands. Use it for exactly that. Learn what Ebon Meridian intends, prevent rumor from becoming a judgment against the entire clan, and make certain I hear about any directive concerning Nerath before someone begins carrying it out."
Caldris considered the answer, but the pressure within him did not ease. "Delay will not matter if Sect Leader Orveth has already decided that the clan must be punished."
"That is why the delegation matters," Hestia said. "Ebon Meridian's path into Andromeda depends upon the covenant remaining useful, and that claim is stronger while the Solvaren Clan remains stable. They are coming because they expect something from me. Until I give them an answer, that expectation gives us room to prevent immediate retaliation."
She leaned forward slightly behind the desk. "My first conditions will concern Nerath. I will require a guarantee against collective punishment for the actions of two unidentified strangers. The governing council's attempt to restrain Narev cannot be rewritten as proof that they supported him, no civilian can be seized to answer for the elders who died above the planet, and no irreversible judgment can be carried out against the council while the negotiation remains open. Narev's decision can be addressed separately, but I will not allow Ebon Meridian to use one man's crime to condemn millions."
Caldris stared at her, surprise breaking through the strain that had controlled his expression since entering the chamber. He had clearly expected help to come with boundaries, especially after their previous conversation, but not this.
"You would genuinely go that far for them?" he asked. "Ebon Meridian may use the situation to demand things from Andromeda. You told me you would not allow the people here to bear the cost of the covenant."
"I already told you this yesterday, Caldris," Hestia replied. "The people here in Andromeda and the descendants living on Nerath are both my people. I will do everything I can to protect both of them."
"For now, what we need first is time," Hestia continued. "Keep Nerath alive and ready while I keep Ebon Meridian talking. Once we understand what they intend and what can actually be changed without killing the people we are trying to protect, we will decide what comes after."
Caldris studied her for another moment. "You meant what you told me yesterday. You truly still consider them your people."
"They are," Hestia replied.
Caldris rose from the seat. "I will maintain the preparations and send you every report I receive. If I learn of any order concerning Nerath, I will transmit it to you immediately."
"That is enough for now."
He inclined his head before turning toward the doors. It was not submission or recognition of her ancient authority, but Hestia accepted the restrained acknowledgment for what it was before he departed.
The doors sealed behind Caldris, leaving Hestia alone at the dark-crimson desk once again.
The first time he left this chamber, Hestia had understood that she could not answer Ebon Meridian's threat blindly. She had now walked beneath Nerath's sky, learned what the descendants wanted, and witnessed how quickly three hostile Anchors could place every possible solution beyond her reach. Yet seeing the entire problem had still not given her a permanent answer.
The delegation and Caldris's influence could create time, but time alone could not free the clan without taking away the home they wanted to keep.
While Hestia intended to hold the crisis in place until she found the right answer, Adrian had already decided that only overwhelming strength would solve their problems, and he had begun taking the first steps toward acquiring it.