Lila walked the last of the hostages out through the coordination hall's main doors, her arm under the elbow of the woman whose hands had been faintly glowing the whole time Lila stood near her, the field still humming low and quiet around them both as the open air finally hit the settlement.
Outside, the street had filled with Eclipse members in the time since Diana and Seraleth had gone looking for Mercer. Voss sat on the curb with his hands restrained, his eleven remaining people in a loose line beside him, and none of them said much as the hostages filed past, Teo Maren on a stretcher with Dara walking alongside him, talking him through the next steps in a voice that had gone steady again now that the worst of it was over.
The street had the particular energy of an operation winding down rather than an operation ending, the slow exhale that came after, people checking on each other instead of checking weapons.
