She rolls her eyes. "Whatever."

Eliese disentangles herself from Hex.

"Was your own conversation productive?"

Shrug.

"What Zero means to say is that it was. We're not going to kill each other, we agree that evil parasitic flowers shouldn't eat the planet, I'm going to help her, she's going to try not to kill my other sisters, and she's going to try to get me a non-evil magic source but understandably prioritizes killing the evil parasitic flower."

"A happy ending for all parties."

"The ones that matter."

"Just so. I assume you will want some time to be sure your territory remains secure before we begin making plans for Four?"

"I can multitask. And you'll want to move fast to keep ahead of One. She's not gonna trust Zero with this."

"Yes, better to keep momentum while we have it."

"I can keep the place from burning to the ground."

"Then are we aiming for a more diplomatic approach to begin with?" Eliese directs the question to Zero.

"Four is the least reasonable Intoner."

Five makes a face. "Yeeeaaaahhhhh. And she's been getting worse."

"It may not be a good idea to bring Five along, then."

"She'll be calmer if I'm there, at least once Zero's driven the flower out. She's... Touchy about her life choices. She's been kinda low key fighting with One and Two, is only really friendly with me and Three. And Three's... Probably  too high energy and too far into the 'doesn't give a shit' side of things, 'specially since I think Four's depressed."

"I will defer to your knowledge of the psychology in question. We will need to shape the battlefield with care, or have you wait a distance away."

"How fast are you?"

"Enough to comfortably keep up with your Intoner modes."

"If she's unconscious for as long as I was, you should be able to leave me out of the battle zone."

"So since I cannot teach you magic, I am to be your taxi service?"

"It's only fair."

"I suppose it is."

"So that's settled."

"How far is it to Four's base?"

"About... Six hundred miles? I can get you a map, though also she's on the tallest peak in a really big mountain range, so not exactly easy to miss."