Tom himself had only reached Ascender rank not so long ago. In Ascender terms, that made him fresh.
The youngest in the group, and the weakest of the four. He was completely at peace with that fact. Being the weakest Ascender in a group of four Ascenders was still, functionally, being an Ascender. He would take that trade any day of the week.
Tom fell in beside Farid and Sierra as the three of them moved into positions behind Samuel. None of them spoke about what had just happened. The exchange between Samuel and Alaric had been quite intense, but it wasn't any of their business.
They had all been alive long enough to know when family politics were being aired in public. You didn't touch that conversation.
There was a bubble to worry about.
There was an entire operation that had turned out to be far worse than any of them had estimated, and the drained corpses of the elites were still floating dark red streams of stolen energy into the containment.
Everything else could wait.
