Page 39 of Thexan

“This is already responding differently,” she said. “Whatever that did, it didn’t just stabilize you—it gave your system the ability to repair properly.”

“Yes.”

She secured a fresh bandage, reinforcing it with additional support before stepping back.

“All right,” she said. “Then we work with what we’ve got.”

I rose from the cot slowly, testing the motion rather than forcing it, expecting the familiar pull along the wound, the instability that had followed every shift in position since I had regained awareness.

It did not come.

The movement completed cleanly, the strain localized and contained, no longer threatening to cascade into loss of control. The difference was immediate, measurable, and absolute.

Brynn’s attention sharpened as I straightened, her body angling toward me as though she expected to have to intervene. I felt the readiness in her before she moved, the instinct to steady, to correct.

I did not require it.

“I am functional,” I said.

Her gaze moved over me, not accepting the statement at face value, assessing it the same way she had assessed every change since I had arrived.

“That doesn’t make you invincible.”

“No.”

I crossed to the table, the motion deliberate, controlled, each step confirming what the initial movement had suggested. The map remained where we had left it, the terrain unchanged, the variables waiting.

Only my capacity to engage with them had shifted.

“We proceed as outlined,” I said, my attention settling on the ridgeline. “With adjustments.”

“Such as?”

“We accelerate engagement.”

She stilled beside me, her focus tightening.

“Define accelerate.”

“We intercept before they reach the inner perimeter.”

“That puts you closer than we planned.”

“It does,” I said. “But if they reach the inner perimeter, the settlement becomes part of the battlefield. Structures create concealment. Civilians create hesitation. I will not allow them to use your people as cover.”

“And it gives you less room to recover if something goes wrong.”

My gaze remained on the map. “Recovery is not the priority. Preventing contact with the settlement is.”

“That sounds like a good way to get yourself killed.”

“It is a risk,” I said. “But waiting increases the risk to everyone else. If we engage them farther out, the variables remain limited. If we wait until they choose the ground, they control the first strike.”

She held there for a moment, weighing it, not arguing, not resisting—calculating.

Then she nodded once.

“All right,” she said. “Then we don’t make mistakes.”