Yes, Silver Mercant was head of EmNet, the largest humanitarian network in the world, but Silver Mercant was also mated to a changeling bear. She couldn’t be taken as an exemplar of the proto-Mercant.

He’d given her food. He’d remembered her.

Her fingers curled into her palms, her nails digging into her flesh.

“That isolated hub will crash and burn in weeks if not days.” Hands shoved into his pockets, Arran glared at no one and everyone. “How can they not know that we zone shift? It’s been getting harder and harder, but we can still do it.”

Payal had realized the latter, too. While the zones no longer overlapped in the vast majority of the world, one A could extend while another shrank back for a few days, and vice versa. Taking the pressure off in turns, to give all of them a chance to rest and recharge.

Canto’s scowl was dark enough that Arran focused all his attention on him, belatedly realizing what Payal already had: that Canto Mercant was the apex predator in this space. “They don’t know because there’s no A on the Ruling Coalition—and nobody on the Coalition is old enough to remember how As worked before Silence.”

“Probably didn’t even know back then,” Ager croaked out, waving a hand. “I don’t know if any political leadership has ever understood the mechanics of the A network, probably because our predecessors were less than generous with the information. A bit of mystery intended to protect us—no one can chain us if they don’t know how we work.”

“I can see the sense in that,” Bjorn muttered. “We all saw what Pure Psy did with the limited knowledge that is available.”

“Be that as it may,” Payal said, conscious her voice sounded flat and hard, “staying enigmatic is no longer viable or wise. Canto is correct: we need a voice on the Ruling Coalition.”

“What makes you the best choice?” Arran’s “smile” was nothing like Lalit’s, but neither was it anything akin to warmth. No, it was a thing of razors.

“You can volunteer, but your anger issues would cause you to strike out at the first meeting. As Kaleb Krychek is stronger and deadlier than you, you’d then be dead and we’d have one less anchor.”

Suriana sucked in a breath, Bjorn winced, Ager cackled.

Arran stared at her before inclining his head. “Point.”

“Canto is the only other viable candidate,” she added. “It’s not only about brute power, but associated power.” Because no matter if Psy thought themselves more advanced than changelings, they weren’t; power mattered, the sense of authority mattered. “I have the Rao group; he has his family.”

Canto’s eyes seemed to burn when he looked at her. “I’m not much better than Arran when it comes to patience,” he said, and she knew he was repeating the point for the benefit of the others. “I’ll be far better as your backup.”

“As long as you remember you’re backup,” she said, driven by her weakness where he was concerned. “Don’t attempt to manipulate me.”

Everyone else went quiet, while darkness eclipsed the stars in his eyes. She knew he understood what she was saying, understood what she was asking of him. Their past could not color this interaction, not if they were going to do this right.

“IF I’d wanted a doll to manipulate,” Canto all but growled, furious with her for taking one step into trust, then two steps back, “I’d have picked anyone but you. I picked a gladiator for a reason. Anchors need a leader who’ll stand and fight against the biggest predators in the Net.” The Ruling Coalition might not think of themselves that way, but they were all—each and every one—huge powers.

Kaleb was a rumored dual cardinal with fingers in every pie in the Net. Payal and Canto might hold two cardinal designations, but they weren’t dual cardinals. The term was one of art and did not include anchors—because a cardinal A could only access and use their anchor powers within the Substrate.

Outside that, they were reliant on their secondary abilities. The same applied in reverse—their secondary powers were effectively useless to them when they acted as anchors. The two different abilities simply did not interact. There was also the fact that many, many As were so mentally wiped by their anchor duties that they barely utilized their secondary abilities.

During his research into the designation, Canto had run across a very old—and cruel—joke made at the expense of Designation A: What do you call a group of anchors? A waste of cardinals. If he had to guess, he’d say it was an A behind the joke, a person who understood the price they paid to stand as the iron foundation of the Net.

Kaleb, however, if the rumors were true, had no restrictions on his abilities. He could access both cardinal-level telekinetic and telepathic powers at the same time—and at any point he wanted. The man could level cities and erase minds with the ease of a wave crashing to shore and wiping the sand clean.

Aden Kai was a huge psychic power in his own right, but he also had the might of the entire Arrow Squad behind him. The specialist black-ops squad was composed of soldiers deadly and relentless.

Ivy Jane Zen was the softest of the group, but she brought with her the Empathic Collective—who were backed by the Arrow Squad.

Nikita Duncan was a former Councilor with knowledge of more secrets than almost anyone else in the Net; she was also a massive financial powerhouse.

Anthony Kyriakus hadn’t been a Councilor for long prior to the Council’s collapse, but his power came from another source altogether—he headed the strongest clan of foreseers in the world. PsyClan NightStar knew more about the future than was wise or sane.

Canto’s anchors needed a person of equal weight and steel to stand against that wall of power. To be a fighter who would not flinch, would not back away, would not stop until they listened to her.

Payal gave him a measuring glance that betrayed nothing of what they were to each other before she looked around at the group. “You all feel emotion.”

“So do you,” Suriana whispered back, this anchor who’d been terrified of Canto’s approach yet had stepped up. “You’re an anchor. You can’t be immune to everything that’s happened, all the emotions the Es are pumping into the Net. It was powerful even when they were in a forced sleep. Now that they’re awake, there’s no way to avoid their colors in the river that is the Net.”