Day 72 Post-Impact - Morning
Sarnav woke to Ishani's fingers tracing the scratch marks she'd left on his chest the night before.
"I marked you," she said, not sounding sorry at all. Her voice was husky with sleep, her body still warm and loose from the night's exertions.
"You always do."
She smiled, that predator's smile that made his heart race even after everything they'd shared. "I want everyone to know you're mine. That someone claims you so completely she leaves evidence." Her fingers trailed lower, and he felt himself responding despite the exhaustion. "Maybe I should mark you somewhere more visible. Your neck. Your forearms."
"The council meeting might get awkward."
"Let them see." She pressed a kiss to one of the welts. "Let them know exactly what kind of women love you."
He pulled her close, feeling the warmth of her athletic body against his, the familiar curves and hard muscle that had driven him to the edge so many times the night before. Through the network, he sensed the other wives stirring awake. Nisha's gentle morning thoughts. Jade's immediate alertness. Minji's reluctant consciousness. Sana's quiet prayers. Ananya humming softly as she stretched. Jiyeon already planning her day.
"We need to get up. War council."
"I know." She didn't move, her leg hooked possessively over his. "Just let me have this moment. Before everything changes. Before we march into battle and risk losing all of this."
They lay together for another few minutes, breathing in sync, the network humming with shared awareness. His wives knew he was with Ishani. Felt echoes of the contentment, the lingering satisfaction. None of them minded. That was the beauty of what they'd built.
Then duty called, and they rose to face the day.
The war room was crowded.
Every key personnel member had assembled: Chen Wei, the military advisors, logistics coordinators, and all seven wives. Serena stood near Jade's workstation, her probability sense already reaching out to assess the room, the people, the countless variables that would determine their fate.
"We have a window," Sarnav began without preamble. "Forty-eight hours, maybe less. After that, The Herald reaches striking distance of the sealed rift."
Jade's displays showed the tactical picture: enemy position, movement vectors, terrain analysis. Red markers indicated the main Ascendancy force, still moving steadily north.
"Four days at their current pace puts them at the rift site," Jade reported. "But if we strike in the next twenty-four hours, we can intercept them here." She highlighted a valley sixty kilometers south. "Natural chokepoint. Forces them into a confined engagement area."
"And The Herald?" Jiyeon asked. "Where will she be positioned?"
"Center of formation, surrounded by her most loyal converts. She doesn't fight directly. She speaks, and her words do the fighting for her." Jade pulled up intercepted communications. "Based on the patterns I've tracked, she addresses her forces every few hours. Morale speeches. Reinforcement of conversion. She's the heart of their army."
"Cut out the heart," Ishani said, "and the body dies."
"Theoretically. But getting to her through three hundred converts and four B-rank commanders won't be easy."
Serena stepped forward. "May I?"
Sarnav nodded, and she moved to the display, her fingers dancing over the interface with surprising familiarity. Jade raised an eyebrow but didn't object.
"I've been running probability calculations since last night." Serena pulled up a new overlay, showing likelihood percentages for various approach vectors. "A direct assault has a seventeen percent success rate. Too many variables working against us. The Herald's conversion ability, the B-rank commanders, terrain that favors defensive positions. Everything stacks against a frontal approach."
She manipulated the display, showing alternative scenarios.
"A coordinated strike with a small insertion team while the main force creates a diversion?" The numbers shifted. "Sixty-three percent."
"Still not great odds," Chen Wei observed. "We're betting everything on a coin flip weighted slightly in our favor."
"That's why we stack the deck further." Serena highlighted a path through the terrain, a winding route that followed natural cover. "Here. A ravine that runs parallel to their march route. Carved by monsoon floods, deep enough to hide a small team. Four people could use it to approach within fifty meters of their formation without detection."
"And then?"
"Then we exploit the moment of maximum chaos." Her probability sense was actively working, Sarnav could tell from the slight unfocused quality to her gaze. "When the main assault hits, their formation will shift. Guards will turn outward. Attention will scatter. There will be exactly one window, lasting approximately three minutes, when The Herald is more vulnerable than at any other time."
"Three minutes," Ishani repeated. "To fight through her personal guard, silence her, and extract before the whole army turns on us."
"Two minutes forty-seven seconds, to be precise. Give or take eleven seconds for variable factors." Serena met her eyes steadily. "I can bend the probability of events within my immediate vicinity. Create circumstances that favor us. Equipment failure. Environmental factors. Sudden injuries to key targets. But I need to be there, close enough to affect the outcome."
"You said you'd need to be within fifty meters," Jiyeon said. "That puts you in the middle of an army."
"Yes. Which is why I'll be on the insertion team."
The room fell silent. Serena wasn't bonded. Wasn't part of the network. She was offering to put herself at the heart of the most dangerous part of the operation.
"You don't have to," Sarnav said quietly.
"No. But I want to." Her expression remained cool, analytical, but something shifted in her eyes. "You came for me when you didn't have to. Risked your people for strangers. This is how I repay that debt."
"It's not a debt."
"Then call it an investment in my future." A ghost of a smile crossed her features. "I'm considering staying. This is me proving I'm worth the risk."
Jade cleared her throat, pulling attention back to the tactical discussion. But Sarnav noticed something in her posture, a tension that went beyond mission planning. Her fingers moved across her keyboard with unusual deliberation.
"There's something else," she said. "Intelligence I've been gathering independently."
"Independently?" Jiyeon's tone sharpened slightly. "Define independently."
"I monitor communications. All communications. Inside and outside the compound." Jade's voice was flat, matter-of-fact, the tone of someone reporting weather data rather than admitting to mass surveillance. "It's security protocol."
"We knew you did external monitoring," Chen Wei said slowly, his expression shifting as implications sank in. "Are you saying you monitor internal communications as well?"
"Everyone's. All the time." She didn't flinch from the uncomfortable looks being directed her way. The other wives shifted, processing. Even Ishani looked surprised. "Every message, every conversation within range of electronic devices, every data packet that moves through our systems. How do you think I knew about the Ascendancy scout who was feeding information back to his handlers?"
"The one who died in the attack on the extraction team?"
"He didn't die in the attack. He died three days before it." Jade pulled up a log file, scrolling through entries with clinical detachment. "I traced his communications, identified his dead drops, determined the full scope of his intelligence network. He'd been passing information for weeks. Routes, schedules, guard rotations. Everything the Ascendancy needed to plan their intercept."
She paused, letting that sink in.
"He had an accident. Fell from a guard tower during his patrol shift. Very tragic. Very convenient timing."
The room went very still. Sarnav felt the network pulse with his wives' reactions. Shock from Nisha. Calculation from Jiyeon. Unease from Sana. Something that felt almost like admiration from Ishani.
"You killed him," Councilman Razak said. The same man Ishani had threatened the day before. His voice was carefully neutral, but his face had gone pale. "Without trial. Without evidence presented. Without—"
"Without warning him so he could destroy evidence and alert his handlers? Yes." Jade's eyes were cold. "I removed a threat to our security. He would have betrayed our extraction route. Would have gotten our people killed. Would have handed Serena and forty-seven civilians to the Ascendancy. So I made sure he couldn't."
"Without telling anyone? Without authorization?"
"Authorization takes time. Time we didn't have. And telling people means information leaking, means the target getting warned, means the opportunity disappearing." She turned back to her displays, dismissing Razak entirely. "There was also a refugee who arrived last week. Mei Lin."
Sarnav felt ice form in his stomach. He remembered the woman. Grateful smile. Warm thanks. Ishani's cold reaction to her.
"She was asking very specific questions about the wives," Jade continued. "Bond dynamics. Sarnav's abilities. Network capabilities. Questions that went far beyond normal curiosity. Questions that suggested she was gathering intelligence for someone."
"What did you do?" His voice came out steadier than he felt.
"Nothing permanent. Yet." Jade's voice remained steady, clinical, utterly without remorse. "She's being monitored. Every conversation, every movement, every communication attempt. If she tries to transmit what she's learned, I'll know. And if she proves to be a genuine threat rather than merely suspicious, I'll handle it."
"Handle it how?"
"However is necessary." She finally looked at him directly, and he saw something fierce beneath the tsundere mask. Something possessive. Protective. Utterly ruthless. "I see everything. I know everything. And I will end anything that threatens this family. That's not jealousy, idiot. That's just being thorough."
The other wives exchanged glances. Nisha looked uncomfortable. Ishani looked approving. Minji seemed uncertain. Sana's expression was carefully neutral. Jiyeon was calculating, assessing.
Sarnav considered his response carefully. Jade had acted without authorization. Had killed a man based solely on her own judgment. Was monitoring everyone in the compound including the wives themselves.
But she'd also been right. The scout would have compromised them. And her vigilance had likely prevented other threats he didn't even know about.
"Next time," he said slowly, "tell me first. We make these decisions together."
"And if there isn't time?"
"Then I trust your judgment." He held her gaze. "But I want to know. Afterward, at least."
Something flickered in Jade's expression. Relief? Gratitude? It was hard to tell with her. "Fine. I can do that."
"Good." He turned back to the tactical display. "Now. The insertion team. Who's going?"
The next two hours were spent in detailed planning.
The insertion team would be small: Sarnav, Ishani, Minji, and Serena. Ishani for close combat if things went wrong. Minji for illusions to mask their approach. Serena for probability manipulation at the critical moment.
The main force would engage the Ascendancy army from the front, drawing attention while the insertion team moved through the ravine. Jade would coordinate from the command center, feeding real-time intelligence through the network. Nisha, Ananya, Sana, and Jiyeon would lead different elements of the main assault.
"Timing is everything," Serena emphasized. "We need to reach The Herald at exactly the moment the main assault draws maximum attention. Too early, and she'll be protected. Too late, and she'll have already started converting our people."
"Can you calculate the exact window?" Jade asked.
"Within a margin of error, yes. Probability suggests the optimal strike moment will be approximately eighteen minutes after initial engagement. That's when chaos peaks and her guards are most likely to be looking outward rather than inward."
"Eighteen minutes of heavy combat," Ishani said. "Our people can hold that long."
"They'll have to."
The plan was set. The pieces were in place. All that remained was execution.
Sarnav found Jade on the communications deck afterward, alone among her screens and data streams.
"You're not angry," she said without turning. "I expected you to be angry."
"I'm concerned. There's a difference."
"About what I did? Or about what I might do?"
"Both." He moved to stand beside her, watching the flow of information across her displays. "You killed a man without telling anyone."
"He was a traitor. He would have killed us."
"Probably. But that's not the point." He turned to face her. "You made that call alone. Carried it alone. That's weight you shouldn't have to bear by yourself."
Her fingers paused on the keyboard. For a moment, the mask slipped, and he saw something vulnerable underneath.
"I do what needs to be done. What no one else wants to do." Her voice was quieter than usual. "I watch, and I wait, and when threats emerge, I eliminate them. It's not pleasant. But someone has to."
"Not alone. Never alone." He reached out, tilting her chin so she met his eyes. "We're a family, Jade. That means sharing the burden. The ugly parts as well as the good."
"The others wouldn't understand."
"Ishani would. Jiyeon too, probably." He smiled slightly. "You're not the only one capable of doing hard things for the people you love."
She stared at him for a long moment, her sharp features softened by something she rarely showed anyone. Then the mask slipped back into place, and she scoffed.
"Don't get sentimental on me, idiot. We have a war to win." But her hand briefly covered his before pulling away. "I'll keep you informed. Next time."
"That's all I ask."
Day 72 - Evening
The strike team assembled at the main gate as the sun began to set, painting the sky in shades of orange and red that looked disturbingly like fire. Like blood.
Sarnav looked at his people. Ishani, checking her weapons with practiced efficiency, light already beginning to gather around her hands as she prepared her abilities. Minji, unusually serious, her illusion abilities shimmering faintly around her form as she tested concealment patterns. Serena, calm and calculating, her probability sense actively working as she assessed variables and contingencies.
Behind them, the main force was preparing for departure. Hundreds of soldiers, awakened and ordinary alike, loading supplies and checking equipment. They would march through the night, positioning themselves for the dawn assault that would determine everything.
Nisha approached, her Nature Magic causing flowers to bloom briefly in her wake. A nervous habit. She embraced Sarnav tightly, not caring who watched.
"Come back," she whispered. "Promise me."
"I promise."
"I mean all of you." She pulled back, looking at Ishani and Minji as well. "You're my sisters. My family. I need you all to come home."
Ishani's expression softened slightly. "We'll come back. And we'll bring that S-rank bitch's head as a trophy."
"Ishani!"
"What? It's motivational."
Jade approached next, tablet in hand, already coordinating the dozen information feeds that would guide the operation. "Communications check. I'll be in your ear the entire time. Don't do anything stupid."
"Would we?" Minji asked innocently.
"Yes. Constantly. That's why I'll be watching." But her eyes lingered on Sarnav, and for a moment the mask slipped. "Be careful. Idiot."
"I will."
Sana blessed them each in turn, her Holy Light washing over them with warmth and peace. Ananya hugged Minji fiercely, extracting promises of safety. Jiyeon pulled Sarnav aside for a private moment.
"The probability calculations Serena provided are good," she said quietly. "But there's always margin for error. Unexpected variables."
"I know."
"So don't be a hero. Accomplish the objective and get out. We need you alive more than we need a glorious death." Her voice caught slightly. "I need you alive, jagiya."
He kissed her forehead. "I'll come back. I have too many wives waiting for me to die here."
"Damn right you do."
Via the network, he felt his wives. Their determination. Their fear. Their love, fierce and unwavering, wrapping around him like armor.
Come back to us, Nisha sent. All of you. Whatever happens, come back.
We will, he promised.
He didn't know if it was a promise he could keep. The Herald was S-rank, surrounded by an army, heading toward something that might end the world. The odds were terrible even with Serena's manipulation.
But he had no choice. They had no choice. Stop The Herald here, or watch everything they'd built be consumed.
"Move out," he ordered.
They disappeared into the gathering darkness, four figures against an army, carrying the hopes of everyone they left behind.
Behind them, Jade's voice crackled through the communication links, cool and professional despite the fear Sarnav could feel bleeding through the network.
"I have eyes on you. All of you. I'll guide you home."
It was, perhaps, the most she'd ever admitted to caring.
[DAY 72 COMPLETE]
[WIFE COUNT: 7/32]
[ESSENCE: 711,300 / 1,000,000]
[POPULATION: 878]
[ASCENDANCY MAIN FORCE: 4 DAYS]
[STRIKE WINDOW: 24 HOURS]
[OPERATION: UNDERWAY]
[HARMONY SAFE ZONE STATUS][WESTERN EXPANSION: 98% COMPLETE][MYTHILI: CIVILIAN LOCKDOWN PROTOCOLS]
[NEXT: ENGAGEMENT]