The aftermath was quieter than I expected.
Not simple — the logistics of containing three Ashborne intermediaries were significantly more complex than the seven scouts, and Nessa spent two hours walking Rook through the specific protocols for securing someone whose gift had been suppressed but who would begin recovering once I wasn't in proximity. The suppression wasn't permanent — not from that kind of controlled application. Maren estimated six to eight hours before their gifts began returning to function.
Six to eight hours to decide what to do with them.
I sat in the herb garden while that decision was being made and I breathed and I let the physical cost of what I'd done settle through me. It had not been the explosive exhaustion of the training yard surge — the controlled channel
