Savage Legion

PART ONE

THREE SIDES OF A COIN

THE MOURNING AFTER

AHEAD OF EVIE, DOORS OF rotting wood are flung open. The sun is a curse shouted into her eyes, and she is prodded by the impatient end of a club up the mucky membrane of the darkened tunnel and out into the light of day. She feels soft, mostly even terrain under her moccasin-covered feet. She holds up a dirty hand, saluting the void of sharp gold filling her vision, and blinking until the motion snaps the world around her into something akin to focus.

The space is vast and walled and forgotten. It must have been a training field for soldiers once, no doubt covered by green grass that is now just a memory made of yellow bladed husks. Broken wooden men slouch from their buried tree trunk bases, as if the hapless vague bipedal shapes are supplicating in defeat. Practice weapons dangle from rusty, loosened nails at the end of sticks mimicking an enemy’s sword arm.

There are stubby little men and women armed with blunt sticks prodding them along, Evie and the rest of the drunks and dregs and bandits from the Capitol’s dungeon, herding them like feed into the center of the field.

Form a line! a voice shouts with all the power and rage of a minor god burdened by their peers with mortal concerns. "Shoulder to shoulder and an arm’s span apart! I don’t care how you stand, but stand! Stand, I said, you miserable pickled jars of skin!"

The voice continues to boom and command. Evie steps between two equally ragged, unwashed bodies and plants her feet in the neglected earth. She hopes the fabled line of which the angered god speaks will form around her so she’ll be required to move no more. Her head feels like a melon pressed between two scorching boulders.

The demigod’s raging commands cease, and for a moment there is only blissful silence on the field, save for the steady, gentle rasping of hurried drunks.

Then he steps before their assemblage.

It’s him, the giant from the cells. He’s the one who took them all from the dungeon, loaded them onto a wagon, bagged their heads, and rattled them what felt like halfway across the countryside. He’s the tallest man she’s ever seen. His torso is like a hundred-pound sack of taro, bulging rolls of flesh pushing through the impossibly small vest he’s somehow managed to toggle together around them.

I am your wrangler, he announces. My name is Laython. You will call me ‘Tasker’ or you will call me ‘Freemaster.’ And from now till your bloody deaths on the field of battle in service of Crache… your name… is Savage.

Savage. Evie turns the word over in her mind, finding it offensive even by her standards.

Look to the spires of this field, Laython instructs them.

Evie tilts her head and squints through the harsh sunlight at the towers crowning the walls of the training field. They are each crewed by Skrain, the elite soldiers of Crache, resplendent in breastplates embossed with the ant, the nation’s symbol. Rich folds of leather extend from each shielded chest to cover their arms all the way to their wrists. They carry master-crafted Ancestor Hafts, long weapons crowned with horse-cutter blades. The faces of the Skrain aren’t visible to the rabble on the field, which seems appropriate.

What you see are soldiers. What you see is the exact opposite of what you are. There will be no shining armor, oiled leather, or fine steel for the lot of you. Oh no, my friends. You’re Savages. The rags you’ve come here in and any rusted pieces of scrap you can scrounge from the armory wagon is all you’ll need on the battlefield.

What in the Fire Star’s light are you going on about? Evie asks him.

Laython scowls. Calling out the name of outlawed gods is exactly what landed your raggedy ass here, girl! Now shut it!

Evie finds it easy enough to obey that command, as speaking hurts just as much as everything else right now.

You will not loot, Laython informs them, casually returning to his public address. You will not pillage, you will not rape, and you will not take battlefield trophies of any kind.

He walks up and down the first row of them, and by now Evie’s stomach has settled into the same perpetual numb state as her head.

You will not desert your regiment. You will not quarrel with, nor kill your fellow Savage. These commands are sacred, and the violation of any of them will result in your immediate execution.

You expect us to fight? another prisoner, older and portlier, asks.

I expect you to cause the same chaos and mayhem on the field of battle that you so dearly love to cause in city taverns. You’re not soldiers, he reiterates. You, each of you, are weapons. You’ll be hurled at the front lines of Crache’s enemies in waves thick enough to smash them. And in that chaos our Skrain will wipe away what remains. That is how we win. That is how Crache prevails, by the blood of Savages. Your blood.

Why don’t you just kill us now? the same portly old man asks, more meekly than defiantly.

Because that would waste good, solid material. And Crache does not waste any of its resources.

We’re not the condemned, Evie insists. This isn’t right.

It’s service, he says with finality. "It’s a service to which you’ve all been called. That call cannot be refused. If you choose death then you’ll choose it meeting our nation’s enemies.

Welcome to the Savage Legion.

THE KNIGHT BEFORE

YOU’VE HAD HALF A GALLON of wine, the bartender warned her as gently as a man missing half his face from an apparent mauling warns anyone. I wouldn’t go mixing that with Voxic’s sting. This last batch I got’ll take the paint off a wagon.

Evie saluted him with her cup and a half smile while completely forgetting what he had just said. She retreated to a lone table in the middle of the dingy little establishment tucked into a secluded corner of the Bottoms. She was indeed drinking even more than usual, but that was entirely intentional.

She’d just finished burning most of her throat away with half the cup’s contents when the apotheosis of all drunken, horrid bit players in sad tavern scenes straddled a chair beside her.

Have we fucked before? he asked her, quite sincerely.

Evie squinted, attempting to bring him into focus and immediately regretting the decision.

I can honestly say I’ve never felt worse about myself over anything in my life as I feel about the fact I can’t definitively answer ‘no’ to that question.

That was apparently far too many words for her potential suitor. Eh?

Just go away, Evie said wearily.

Look here, he began anew, "I didn’t mean to give offense. I just thought if we hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing each other—"

And Evie had already had enough of the pathetic, predictable exchange. She already knew he’d keep talking. She already knew she’d keep rebuking him. She already knew he’d get angry and belligerent. She already knew when she finally crossed some irrational verbal line he drew, somehow offending this clod who had invaded her sacred space, he’d progress to physical violence. She had no patience for such a tired back-and-forth. She chose instead to skip straight to the end of the story.

Evie moved faster than anyone that drunk is generally capable of moving. She stood up like a shot, her legs straightening so violently they knocked over her chair. One hand grabbed the man by his greasy hair and jerked his head back while the other took up the nearest bottle and smashed it against his cheek and jaw. The force and momentum were twin demons dragging him over the back of his chair to the stained floor of the bar.

Evie’s mind left the flow of normal time then, although her body proceeded to kick the man on the floor as around her the rest of the drunken assemblage took their cue to descend into a full-on riotous brawl. She was only vaguely aware when other bodies assaulted her own, and even less aware when the city Aegins arrived to break things up and cart the chief offenders, mainly her, off to the dungeons.

The cell was the next thing to cling to her awareness. It stank of shit and earth and unwashed bodies, as dungeon cells are wont to do, but it also smelled strongly of anise. In fact, it smelled mostly of anise. It may very well have been the sweetest smelling dungeon in which Evie was ever flung.

They feed it to us, one of the other drunks explained after several minutes of Evie’s befuddled sniffing at the air.

Howzzat? she managed, such as she was.

Anise, said the drunk. It riots wild out the back there. They feed it to us. It’s in everything, even the water. Makes your shit and piss smell like soap. Easier’n cheaper than washing us, or the damned cell. Starts to taste like poison after a few days, though.

Evie just nodded solemnly.

Everything, absolutely everything, makes sense to a drunk when they’re deep down the well of their bender.

It’s not the taste that’s bad for you, a much smaller voice assured them from the shadows. Too much is bad for your insides. You can tell by how it changes the color of your water.

Evie squinted into the corner of the small cell at a slight girl propped there against the rough-hewn walls. Her legs were impossibly withered.

Did the Aegins do that to you? Evie asked her.

The girl shook her head. A cart ran over them.

How do you move yourself around?

I have sheet tin under me most days, the girl explained. I grease the bottom with renderings from the bins behind the eating houses.

Evie nodded, just enough as not to upset her already throbbing skull. Smart girl. What’s your name?

Dyeawan.

That’s not a Crachian name.

Dyeawan shook her head, but offered no more than that on the subject.

All right, then. I’m Evie. What did they arrest a little thing like you for?

Begging.

Is that right? I thought no one begged for food here.

Well, I didn’t have the chance to do it for long, did I?

There was no trace of bitterness in her voice. In fact, there was playfulness, the kind that only a child can keep in such a dark place.

Evie couldn’t help but smile.

Dyeawan smiled back, and even through the grime streaking her face, through the shadows banished to the corner there with her, that smile shined.

Why did they put you here? Dyeawan asked her as they both dozed upon the bare and stained cell floor.

I don’t think it was the drinking, Evie mused. I drink every night. It might’ve been the fight I maintain I did not start in the tavern, although that happens just as often. Of course, this was the first time I was still there when the Aegins arrived.

So they arrested you for fighting?

Evie thought about it sincerely for a moment. No. They let most of the folk in the brawl go.

Then what did you do?

I… vaguely recall squatting and relieving myself on the boot of one of the Aegins.

Dyeawan laughed.

While singing, Evie added.

The girl laughed harder.

That would do it, then, she said.

No, Evie said seriously, and something in her tone put an end to Dyeawan’s laughter. No… it wasn’t until they asked me if I had a home to go to and I told them I didn’t. That’s when they arrested me. When they found out I was a vagrant.

For the first time sadness crept into Dyeawan’s small voice. They didn’t even bother to ask me.

Evie reached up and stroked the stringy tendrils of the girl’s hair.

You’ll be all right, little slider, she assured the younger woman, trying to make her voice motherly without really knowing what that sounded like.

You don’t look like you belong here, the girl said, surprising Evie. Not really. And it almost sounds like… like you wanted the Aegins to come.

Evie stared at Dyeawan oddly in the half dark.

What an odd thing to say.

The younger girl shrugged. I notice things other people don’t see sometimes. That’s all.

Evie nodded thoughtfully. It appears you do.

Before the dawn, Laython came, wrapped in a heavy furred coat, and surveyed them in the cells. He barely said two words to the jailor, but they were enough. The cells were emptied, and all of them were loaded onto Laython’s wagon behind the dungeon. He left Dyeawan behind; he only took the able-bodied.

Dyeawan never awoke to find Evie and the others missing from the unusually sweet-smelling cells. She did, however, awaken to a face mostly hidden beneath a black hood. A cloud of acrid dust, dancing in the light of the morning pouring through the window’s bars, dredged her face and lips, filling her nostrils. Somehow she knew the unnatural sleep would overtake her before she felt it begin to spread icy numbness through her arms and torso. She also knew she would indeed wake up again, but it would be someplace else, far from here.

As she’d told Evie, Dyeawan had a way of seeing things, mostly subtle truths, that wouldn’t otherwise occur to most people.

WHERE ONLY STONE STEPS ASCEND

WE ARE NOT FLOWERS. WE do not wilt.

Lexi hears her mother speak those words in her memory as she sits outside the chambers of the Gen Franchise Council. It’s here her grandparents and Brio’s grandparents came to petition to form Gen Stalbraid. They named their franchise after the steel woven together to push and pull the city’s first sky carriage.

The bench beneath Lexi is carved from the translucent white-and-blue stone of the chamber wall itself. The entire Spectrum, including most of its fixtures and even furnishings, are carved from a single mountainous piece of stone, a marvel of engineering whose secrets are lost even to the best masonry Gens in Crache. The Spectrum is the physical, intellectual, and bureaucratic center of the Capitol, making it the center of Crache itself. No structure in all the nation’s sterling ten cities rivals the scale or beauty of the Spectrum’s massive domes, sky-piecing spires, and corridors so tall and expansive they feel more like mountain halls than the arteries of a city edifice. The sculpture of the national ant in the Spectrum lobby is said to be the largest ever crafted.

Oval lamps are ensconced up and down the towering walls of every one of those corridors; the same lamps that hang from stakes curved like shepherds’ staffs along every city street and on every corner. The lamps were one of the first major innovations of the Post-Renewal Age. Each lantern houses two insects, a male and a female. They’re nocturnal creatures, hibernating in the bottom of the lanterns during the day and rising at the edge of dusk, precisely when darkness spreads through the streets. Upon rising, the two insects couple, consummating their nightly union. As they do, their small and bulbous bodies are filled with a bright luminescence that streams through the panes of their glass cage and radiates in every direction.

They make love all night, lighting the entire city with a preternatural passion that is the sole engine of their brief existence, never with the slightest awareness of the gift they’re giving to the citizenry. After a month they wither to ash, from which their offspring rise and begin the cycle anew. With very little maintaining, each lamp and its inhabitants can light the night for years.

Lexi often reflects upon how it’s all quite beautiful, if one chooses not to focus on the whole incest aspect of it.

We are not flowers. We do not wilt.

Those are her mother’s words, spoken to her from a room in Lexi’s mind where she keeps the memory of the woman as she was.

It’s very different from the final room in which Lexi saw her. It’s a room in which the air doesn’t smell like death. Her mother sits there with her head raised high and proud, not pressed into a pillow, its slip stained brown by the poison expelled from her lungs. In that room in Lexi’s mind, her mother’s hair shines three different fiery colors in the light of the midday sun, hues for which they made up names when Lexi was a child. The day Lexi’s mother died, what remained of that hair was a few wisps gone gray that moved against her scalp like lonely spirits in bone-white graveyard.

On that day, her last words to her only daughter were the same ones she’d spoken to the girl whenever strife crashed in heavy slate waves over their lives.

The great stone doors to the Gen Franchise Council chambers open, somehow without the slightest scraping sound, and an elderly Aegin pokes his graying head through.

Lexi Xia! he calls out.

Lexi rises from the building’s translucent appendage and smooths the colorful material of the formal wrap she wears. The Aegin steps aside, bowing mechanically and with the disinterest of many years spent opening and closing a door, as Lexi moves past him.

The Council chamber is essentially one long ascending staircase with several spacious plateaus, the first and lowest of which is assigned to petitioners. Brio always told Lexi the chambers were built this way to achieve two effects. The first, giving petitioners the illusion they are rising in status, but only so far. That illusion is central to the second effect; looking up at the next plateau, seeded high above them, they accept that the state officials are their superiors in every way.

Brio also told her the most dangerous people in Crache, according to the Spectrum, are the ones who look to that handmade horizon and see a beginning rather than an ending. Lexi once asked him if he was one of those people. Her husband had only smiled and shrugged and professed that he was a simple pleader, and for the poorest people in the Capitol.

It pains Lexi to think of him then, remembering his words and his easy, reassuring smile. She longs for both every moment of every day. It pains her to force those images and the feelings they cause into the farthest corners of her mind so that she may focus on the business at hand.

The petitioners’ plateau levels off a dozen steps from the chamber entrance. Its surface shines like glass reflecting some invisible jade pool, a natural feature of the stone when it is polished deep and rigorously enough. There are no seats or other furnishings for petitioners, only perfect painted blue circles in the center of the space, perfect prompts for petitioners to stand.

Order and deliberation in all things, that is the Crachian way.

The three members of the Gen Franchise Council, on the other hand, are seated on the next plateau; a good two dozen steps up from those blue circles. The thin oval backs of their naturally carved and shaped chairs rise high above their heads. They each wear Spectrum tunics, the cuffs of their sleeves draped in crisp triangles. The runic pin representing their individual kith-kinship is worn in the corner of the right cuff, the pin representing their Gen attached to the left.

Senior Councilman Stru is a hairless, ancient thing. Every inch of his flesh seems to be straining toward the floor. He sags in the center of the trio. To his right is Councilwoman Burr, the youngest of the three by a good two decades, a sharp-eyed, ambitious upstart with close-cropped dark hair and impatient fingers that quietly punish the armrests of her seat. To Stru’s left is Councilman Jochi, a short, cherubic man with a thin mustache and a perpetually welcoming expression on his impossibly round face.

The fourth occupant of the Council’s plateau is a state scribe, a young scholar standing behind a lectern upon which rests a tome thicker than three battle shields. The scribe attends it dutifully and intently with quill in hand.

Gens are the foundation of Crache. They began with a simple, revolutionary idea: that any group of people, regardless of birth or social standing, could come together to serve a function for the greater good of the nation. It began with humble kith-kins joining together and pooling what resources they had to create something larger than the sum of their parts in order to produce a good or a service that would be useful to the community. In recognition and as reward for this, all of that Gen’s needs, be it food or clothing or shelter, were provided for from the coffers and larders of Crache itself, coffers filled by heavily taxing non-Gen merchants and collecting from Gens who produced hard revenue, and by the spoils of war efforts that seemed to press ever forward without end.

Of course, not all Gens received the same allotment of resources or access to them. From the beginning, the amount was supposed to be determined by a Gen’s size and particular requirements. However, it was well known that priority and special consideration were given to Gens whose work the state deemed the most valuable, or whose leaders were savvy enough to curry favor with the right state officials. Better and bigger food allotments, finer clothing, and larger estates were all common rewards for Gens who excelled at playing the political game.

The system grew to become what it is now: the great engine at the heart of the Crachian machine. Once the Franchise Council approved a proposed Gen to attend to one of the state’s vital needs, that Gen could then form to oversee that vital need. There is a Gen behind every facet, service, and trade in Crache, from maintaining city sewers and sweeping streets to milling flour and farming rice to forging weapons and capturing stray animals. Their labors guarantee each member of a Gen a place in society and all their needs sponsored by the nation itself.

That was, as Brio used to put it, the gleaming side of the coin, anyway. Like any system composed of and controlled by people, Gens were susceptible to corruption and greed. There were always rumors of graft and favoritism, contracts being taken away or passed to Gens who showed the Council favor, larger Gens absorbing weaker or rival ones to eliminate competition, or any number of other unsavory practices no one spoke of in polite company. The ultimate irony, however, is that the Gen system was created to replace and prevent inherited wealth and power, at least by arbitrary bloodlines. Yet Gens that solidified their control over a city trust are rarely supplanted or replaced, and the formation of new Gens has become equally rare.

In many ways, Brio had often mused ruefully, Gens became the thing they sought so hard to kill.

For all those reasons, Lexi knew enough not to trust wholly to the goodness in these people or the fabled fairness of their process, however well-meaning some of them seemed.

De-Gens, Lexi greets the male Councilmembers, and then, to Councilwoman Burr, Te-Gen.

It’s good to see you again, Lexi, Stru says, each word seeming to be dragged over burning sand as it exits his mouth. I do so wish the circumstances had changed.

Lexi nods, tightly. As do I.

Stru sighs. It’s an ugly, sickly wheezing that causes Lexi to feel pity for the decrepit old man even as the irritation she felt in the corridor outside refuses to fade.

I have nothing well to deliver to you today, Lexi, he finally pronounces. Nothing. And for that I am truly sorry.

He can’t be dead, Lexi immediately and frantically assures her own mind. They wouldn’t summon you here to tell you that he’s dead. You would have been notified at home. He’s not dead.

Well has been in scarce supply for longer than I wish to detail, she says evenly, maintaining her composure.

Stru nods, the gesture jostling every sagging inch of skin protecting his skull. He seems hesitant to speak his next words. The tension between his seat and Councilwoman Burr stretches thinner and thinner with every passing moment of silence.

We have no choice but to revoke your Gen’s franchise, she finally says, bluntly, almost impatiently.

There’s no remorse in her voice.

Stru’s face sags impossibly, lower than she’s ever seen it, as he looks to his right.

It’s as if Lexi has lost any ability to discern her native tongue. She looks between the varied faces of the Council. Lexi blinks several times, the motion serving the same effect as toggling a great switch. It allows her to brush away the din of emotion and focus on the practical staked to the road before her.

My husband has been missing for less than a month, she begins. Surely this is… to say the very least, premature—

New evidence has come to light, I fear, Stru informs her, sounding genuinely sympathetic.

Councilwoman Burr remains unmoved. This Council has received a dispatch from the Protectorate Ministry. They have sufficient evidence to support that Brio Alania was neither abducted nor the victim of an ill fate. This evidence suggests he has fled beyond Crachian borders with the intention of defecting to our enemies. Such is their conclusion.

Please. Councilmembers. I should very much like to examine this ‘evidence’ for myself.

That’s quite impossible, Burr informs her, and Lexi is certain now there’s something akin to actual pleasure behind her words. The Protectorate Ministry will not allow such sensitive material to be examined in an open Council session. To do so would expose the agents who risked their lives in service to the nation to obtain it.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for the agents of the Protectorate Ministry and the perilous work they do across our borders. I would never risk our nation’s security for personal benefit. For the very survival of my Gen, however, I must insist I be granted the basic right to defend my husband against such charges.

Councilwoman Burr begins to respond, but Stru raises a spotted hand to silence her, drawing a look from the younger woman as sharp and ill-intentioned as a dagger striking from the shadows.

Lexi, the old man begins, I must speak frankly with you now, and it is my hope you’ll know what I have to say is unaccompanied by malice of any kind.

She only nods.

Lexi, you are now the senior member of Gen Stalbraid, and you are no pleader. Nor is there a suitable replacement within your Gen. Without a pleader, Gen Stalbraid cannot serve its function. Your likelihood of recruiting a competent replacement willing to plead for Division Nine is minimal, to put it mildly. Your Gen chose an inglorious role to fulfill, however necessary, and it has always relegated Stalbraid to the two small kith-kins who founded it. Even if this… unfortunate turn had not occurred, within a generation I can reasonably say a review of your franchise would have been mandated.

A Gen is not about family, it is about function, Burr insists to Stru, with the earnestness of one who has been deeply and successfully indoctrinated. Gen franchises are approved and folded based solely on the needs of Crache and the value provided by a Gen. We do not stand on sentiment here. Gens are not affectations of ‘legacy’ or a false sense of ‘nobility.’ We have risen above the notion that blood or lineage should determine some aristocratic ruling class. Function is the only determining factor. Your Gen is no longer functional, Lexi. It can no longer serve Crache.

Thank you, Councilwoman Burr, for that rousing reaffirmation of Crachian ideology and the Gen Franchise Council’s role within it, Jochi says, speaking for the first time, and making no effort to mask the sarcasm in his voice.

Stru ignores them as the old often ignore bickering children. His sunken eyes are filled with Lexi, and they hold her with regret.

You’re a strong woman, Lexi. You’ve shown that strength in Brio’s absence. I believe you will find prosperity in life as a private citizen. To that end, and in recognition of your Gen’s service to Crache, this Council will approve a generous stipend to help you transition into that new life.

New life…

Her mind reels, threatening to unspool entirely.

We are not flowers. We do not wilt.

Lexi draws in a breath that might be made of fire, it so twists the features of her face, but when she exhales her expression flattens into a hard mask.

With respect, she addresses the entire Council, the words made hard and tight by her clenched jaw, there is no more extreme measure than folding a Gen, however humble that Gen may be by the standards of most. In the case of Gen Stalbraid, this action would leave the people of the Bottoms with no pleaders, and I sincerely doubt any other Gen will be clamoring for the contract. I’ve had no preparation… no time to ingest what you’ve handed down today, or the reasons for it. I accept I cannot examine whatever evidence against Brio you’ve reviewed, but if for nothing else than the basic standard of courtesy, and to prevent the residents of the Bottoms to be left without basic advocacy, I ask that this session be continued that I might have time to prepare, if not a defense, then a formal response.

Councilman Stru sighs. It is within our purview to continue this session. However, barring some truly illuminating new evidence… the return of Brio himself and an explanation that would exonerate him… I simply do not foresee an adjustment to this Council’s decision, regardless of the formality of your response.

"But you will grant me that continuation, Lexi says, adding quickly, As I request."

The ancient figure turns his head, stretching the flesh of his neck in such a way that makes Lexi want to avert her eyes. Stru looks to Councilman Jochi, who only shrugs. Stru looks to Councilwoman Burr, who shakes her head.

Finally, the senior councilman looks to Lexi. Those eyes hooded by the overgrown hollows of his face are unreadable in that moment, a moment in which Lexi feels an intangible part of herself leave her body. She can almost see it, corporeal and faceless, wearing the halo of some great ethereal guillotine in front of her whose blade is tethered to the next words that will be emitted from those withered lips.

One week, Stru declares, and Lexi exhales a small piece of her soul. We’ll continue this session one week from today, out of respect for what remains of Gen Stalbraid.

Thank you, Councilman, Lexi says, almost automatically.

This is a final courtesy, Lexi, the senior councilman insists, his tone harsher than it has yet been. I advise you attach no more meaning or weight to it than that, and use the time to accept what comes next.

Thank you, Lexi repeats, just as mechanically as before.

She’s already forgotten whatever words he spoke beyond granting her request.

The next few moments are the same detached haze; Stru dismissing her and the Council adjourning, Lexi shuffling from the chamber past the disinterested Aegin, moving among the sea of bodies filling the cavernous corridors of the Spectrum, and finally arriving at the great receiving hall where she began the day what seems now like a short lifetime ago.

Taru refuses to sit the way a tree refuses to bend, and they loom with the same height and unyielding poise. They await Lexi just beyond the point at which weapons are permitted to be carried inside the Spectrum. Taru refused to be parted from the short sword sheathed in a scabbard made from the same thick leather as the rest of their armor, or the unusually crooked blade hanging from their opposite hip.

It’s not only their height or plain armor or the weapons that cause Taru to stand out among the soft colorful tunics and wraps of the Capitol citizenry. It’s not strictly the shorn sides of Taru’s head or the sun-bleached shock of hair worn in a topknot, a style not typically seen in Crachian cities that draws the wary eye of everyone who passes. Taru’s features and the color of their skin are just slightly off for a Crachian, but more than enough to be noticed in the Capitol of a nation whose borders are closed to foreigners.

You may rest yourself in my absence, you know, Lexi reminds her Gen’s towering retainer.

"That is precisely what I may not do, Te-Gen, Taru replies, adding quickly, With respect."

Lexi has little reason to smile these days, but Taru is her last lingering source of inspiration for the expression.

Do you find the Spectrum to be such a threatening place? she asks her retainer, the question meant as no more than a joke.

Taru doesn’t answer at first.

Not the Spectrum itself, Te-Gen. No.

Some subtle force seems to drag Taru’s eyes away from their usual singular focus on guarding Lexi’s space. It’s only for a moment, but Lexi notices, looking for the source of the distraction. Upon the wall at the center of the reception hall fork is a wayfinding tablet, also carved from the Spectrum’s own stone. Its purpose is to direct visitors to the various chambers and authorities and their respective corridors. One word leaps immediately at Lexi from the stone’s surface.

It reads SELECTION, with an arrow indicating the corridor branching off to the right.

Lexi’s brief, rare smile slowly dies. It never occurred to her that being Undeclared Taru might feel uncomfortable in close proximity to the place where children like them are often forced to choose a gender assignment.

I’m sorry, Taru, Lexi says. I didn’t realize—

"There is no need for you to apologize, Te-Gen," they assure their mistress, with the clear implication that those actually responsible for the selection process did, in fact, have much to answer for.

Still, I should have thought. It was a careless thing to say to you. You didn’t have to accompany me at all.

Taru stares down at her then, the tundra contained in their eyes as fierce and unrelenting as a real ice storm. Taru doesn’t respond, but their gaze spells out well enough where the retainer feels they belong.

Lexi says no more about it, but she can’t shake loose the feeling of guilt.

Thankfully, Taru asks, What did the Council have for you, Te-Gen? News, or more platitudes?

Lexi’s sympathetic demeanor turns hard. They’re using Brio’s disappearance against the entire Gen. They want to fold our franchise. They want to end us.

On what basis? Taru all but demands.

They say the Protectorate Ministry has evidence Brio defected to Siccluna. They want to name him a traitor.

It’s a lie!

Of course it’s a lie, Lexi says without hesitation, a sweeping dismissal in her tone. It’s a very pointed lie, aimed at wiping away anything and everything Brio leaves behind in his absence. He spent his life upholding the ideals of Gen Stalbraid and speaking for the citizens of the Capitol Crache refuses to claim. For decades we’ve been the only thing stopping the Protectorate Ministry from razing the Bottoms altogether. Discrediting him and dismantling our Gen is to their ultimate advantage.

But why would the Council do this? Are they the Ministry’s puppets, as well?

It’s not the whole Council, at least I do not believe so. This was spearheaded by that fanatical Burr woman. She’s either in league with the Protectorate Ministry or so eager to curry favor and advance her position she’ll do anything they say.

Does she know what Brio was investigating before we lost… before his disappearance?

Lexi feels a swarm of sharp hooks take root in her chest and pull in what feels like a dozen different directions. She sees the same denial being plated over in Taru’s expression, the same suppression of loss and longing and fear in the face of meeting the challenges facing them now. Lexi knows no one in the world can possible miss Brio and burn for the knowledge of his fate more than her. However, Taru comes the closest to matching her feelings. They may not love Brio in the same way as Lexi, but Taru is no less loyal to him, no less attached.

Whether Burr knows or not, the Protectorate Ministry surely does, Lexi answers stiffly. He disappeared less than a week after he told us of his suspicions. I do not believe in coincidence, not of that import.

Nor I, Taru affirms.

I will not allow them to tear us apart, Lexi insists. I will not allow them to use whatever they’ve done to Brio as their excuse. I’ve done all I can to find him. If it comes to nothing, the least I can do is hold us together until he—

Lexi breaks off in midsentence as the sudden, stony change of expression on Taru’s face halts her next words. They’re staring past Lexi, down the length of the berth.

Lexi follows her retainer’s gaze. Two Aegins are approaching them, one of them almost as tall as Taru and the other short and squat. Both are young, male, and the faded threadbare state of their green and black tunics speaks of years wearing them. Like all Aegins they don’t carry swords; the city was designed to negate the efficacy of long blades in its purposefully narrow streets. The daggers sheathed in scabbards resting against their chests on draped baldrics are long with curved handles.

Te-Gen, the taller one greets Lexi with mock respect, although it’s clear neither of them is interested in her.

Aegins, she responds in her best hostess manner.

Fine day.

It’s further clear he’s not interested in the weather.

Lexi only nods.

Who is this here? the Aegin asks, his eyes locking on Taru’s.

Lexi answers in the same dutiful tone. This is my personal retainer, Taru.

You don’t look Crachian, the taller of them observes. You’ve got a bit of the Isle of Rok in you. Never seen one in the city proper before.

That’s because they’re not allowed beyond the docks, his stubby fellow reminds the Aegin.

Taru was born in the Capitol, I assure you, Lexi says stiffly.

The tall one grunts. You’re one of them Undeclared, too, aren’t you?

I don’t see as that is any of your business, Aegin, Lexi answers for her retainer.

Two blades, is it? the squat Aegins accuses more than asks Taru.

Taru is fully bonded through my Gen, Lexi informs them evenly. Bonded retainers are permitted to openly carry arms in the Capitol, as I’m sure you’re aware, Aegin.

The tall one nods, smiling pleasantly. Hai. And we’re permitted to inspect those weapons for the proper proofs, especially here in the Spectrum.

Let’s have ’em, ya great tree, the squat one orders, gesturing with his pudgy fingers.

I only relinquish my weapons at Te-Gen’s request, Taru answers them stonily.

Present your arms for inspection, the taller Aegin demands, his tone no longer light or playful. Or we’ll be detaining the retainer.

Taru’s forearms cross in front of their abdomen, each hand closing around the hilt of a blade. They draw the weapons so fast and with such force that both Aegins involuntarily back away a step.

Lexi couldn’t swear to it, but she thinks she sees Taru grin in that moment.

Taru lets the point of each weapon linger just a second longer, then sweeps the blades of each weapon back and extends their hilts to the Aegins.

Before watching Taru unsheathe them, the tall one might’ve taken the weapons from Taru’s hands. He seems hesitant now, resigned to leaning over them to inspect the steel of each.

The Capitol proofs look genuine enough, the taller one admits, squinting at the small impression of the Spectrum hammered into the thickest quarter of each blade.

I don’t know about that, the squat one says. Off-side smiths are doing marvelous things with counterfeit proofs these days. And that’s an interesting blade.

He extends a chubby digit at the crooked blade Taru carries in addition to their short sword.

This looks like a fancied rendering of a hook-end. Spent some time in the Bottoms, have we?

My Gen has long served as pleaders for the Division you call the ‘Bottoms,’ Lexi interjects quickly.

I was born there, Taru says, their lips tight.

I knew it! You may be the biggest port rat I’ve ever seen, but your kind can never get rid of the smell. How many Aegins did you bloody with your first hook-end before your mistress had her Gen’s smith forge you a prettier one?

Lexi steps between them before Taru can even begin to formulate a response.

Taru is a bonded retainer of Gen Stalbraid, she says, addressing the two Aegins with an edge in her voice that causes them both to really look at her for the first time. "My retainer. You’ve exercised your authority to inspect my retainer’s weapons, which, as you’ve seen, bear the required proofs. By my reckoning you’ve now exhausted your authority, and I bid you both good day."

The squat one seems ready to press the issue, but the tall one’s gaze trails down to Lexi’s broach, tracing the lines of the official insignia there.

Good day to you, Te-Gen, he says, his eyes returning to hers. "And to