"I was trying to understand her," Valentina countered, her eyes snapping up, flashing with a momentary, defensive fire. "I was trying to understand what she was doing, why she was doing it, and why the Legion was built upon the foundation of a secret my own blood had discarded."
"Those are related objectives, Apollo, but they are not identical."
"One is a search for a sister; the other is a search for the truth of our existence."
"And the network?" Morwenna's voice cut through the tension, sharp and jagged as a broken blade. "You held this truth in your hands, and you did not bring it to us."
"You kept us in the dark while we fought in the light."
"Because I did not have enough to bring!" Valentina's voice finally broke, a sudden, violent crack like a whip that made several council members flinch.
The sudden outburst was a release of years of suppressed tension, a momentary lapse in the commander's iron mask. "What I had were fraying threads, Morwenna!"
