#that one exchange on Sanae’s route

[llamasyes]

Touhou 19

[inyri]

Equivalent Exchange (a SWTOR story): Chapter 41: Good Soldiers Follow Orders

Equivalent Exchange by inyri

Fandom: Star Wars: The Old Republic Characters: Female Imperial Agent (Cipher Nine)/Theron Shan Rating: E (this chapter: M. Trigger warning: graphic violence, depictions of torture, body horror.) Summary: If one wishes to gain something, one must offer something of equal value. In spycraft, it’s easy. Applying it to a relationship is another matter entirely. F!Agent/Theron Shan. (Spoilers for Shadow of Revan and Knights of the Fallen Empire/Knights of the Eternal Throne.)

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Author’s Note: Please note the trigger warnings. I had to step away from this for a little while (all right, more than a little while). Chapters are consecutive, of course, and as I posted the last one and moved to wrapping up this one I found life imitating art in a very, very uncomfortable way. I don’t talk a lot about my work for many reasons. Normally it’s not very exciting. And then there are the days that stay, the reminders that sometimes the world is deeply, viciously cruel in ways that are hard to process. As part of my work I met two men who were subjected to that cruelty, heard their stories, and helped care for them on their paths back home.

The first iterations of this series of scenes were very different from where we ended up. Nine and her team were far nastier at first, which wasn’t really true to her, and then I tried to make it funny which- well, obviously we can see the problem with that approach. So this is where we ended. It’s still an ugly chapter, but here we are.  

This chapter is dedicated to AD, AH, and all victims of torture. 

Good Soldiers Follow Orders

Theron follows her close as a shadow as they make their way from her ship across the base, dodging carefully around the first watch guards on their patrol routes. A month ago it would have been simple but a month ago they’d been sloppy; since then she’d ordered new watchposts set, new floodlights installed, locked down the turbolift platform to the valley below. There were so many other places to land a ship on Odessen, canyons and clearings and deep, dark forest far beyond the view of the towers, and it would have been far too easy for an infiltrator to sneak in.

Or one might simply use your landing bay. Valkorion’s armor gleams as an arc of light cuts across the path. In through the front door. All comers welcomed. Perhaps Arcann should-

The illusion shatters when she steps through it, the sentence left ominously unfinished. 

Second patrol. Third patrol. Through the external door on the heels of a pair of Sana-Rae’s adepts, weaving through the hall and crammed into the back corners of the lift with an absolutely massive Zabrak with a distinct half-ring of glitterstim around one nostril (she makes a mental note- the cantina’s more than necessary but if they’ve got a spice problem that’s another vulnerability they can’t afford), down the hallways into Science Wing and nearly to the lab- outside door’s open, good, but how’s she going to-

Shit.

She’s six steps ahead of herself in contingency plans as usual, mind racing, but that doesn’t matter worth a damn when she fucks up Step One. Stopping so abruptly he almost runs right into her, she grabs Theron by the wrist and pulls him into the darkest corner of an empty meeting room. His head tilts in silent confusion as she reaches toward the stealth generator clipped to his belt. I thought- he starts to sign, one hand raised. 

Switching, she replies, left-handed; pulling it free, she replaces it with hers. Backup has a shorter clock when the main’s off. If it overloads-

Theron nods. Bad. Right. Where should I stand?

Back- her fingers stutter as she considers (Void, she really isn’t thinking, is she? She needs to be. One mistake and the whole thing comes apart)- back left corner. You’ll have a five-count to get through the door before it closes, then don’t move and-

Don’t say anything. I know. He repeats the sign, an added emphasis. I promised. 

She rubs her forehead, trying and failing to settle the ache building between her eyes. I know. Come on. 

***

The inner laboratory door slides closed with a soft hiss, just muffling Theron’s last few footsteps as he settles carefully into the corner, and she lets her stealth field drop. 

“I got your message.” Nine forces the words out, forces strength into her voice as she sets the lock. She cannot falter, not now. “SCORPIO, give me the holo. Let’s get it opened up.”

“Commander.” Doctor Lokin looks up from across the room, setting a handful of instruments and an empty syringe- not all clean, she notes- neatly into place on a polished metal tray. Beside him, her would-be killer slumps forward against the treatment chair’s restraints, an intravenous catheter in his right arm and his lower body wrapped in a surgical dropcloth, head covered by black fabric and bound around the middle with thick strips of spacer’s tape. “We were just beginning.” 

[ sleepy already, cipher? but we’re only just beginning.

when hunter’s slap hits she startles bolt upright in the chair and then wishes she hadn’t, her ribs shifting beneath the straps like so many shattered potsherds as she grinds her teeth to keep from screaming. she’s screamed so much already and she won’t give him the satisfaction of another, won’t-

hunter gestures- toward the woman, she thinks, it’s getting hard to see now with her face so bruised. let’s wake her up, hm? ah, no- something cold and metallic tightening on her right index finger- the other hand, to start. now the left side, still the index finger, tighter and tighter and oh void it hurts it hurts it hurts she’s got to say something or it-

i’m telling you, she gasps, when those reinforcements get here from- and there’s a sharp snap and she can’t help it and she screams-

keep singing, little bird. I do so hate to have to break your pretty wings.]

Her hand throbs.

“I didn’t tell you to start without me.” Her stomach churns even as she curls her fingers into an easy fist, testing their movement; she couldn’t do that for a month after Corellia so it’s only the memory of pain, isn’t it? “And how long has that tape been on? We need his eyes open, not swollen shut. It’s too fucking tight.”

“If you’re referring to this-” Lokin lifts a pair of bloody-gripped forceps with one finger and a long-suffering look- “your knife tipped his saphenous, and I assumed you would prefer he not hemorrhage before you had the chance to work. I’ve only just run the amytal in, nothing more. But,” he squints at the rings of tape, flips a vibroscalpel from the tray into his palm and before she can even begin to move he slices through the binding neatly, once and then again, “you aren’t wrong. SCORPIO restrained him while I was busy with his leg, but I ought to have-”

SCORPIO turns from the console, shoulders lifting in what might have been a shrug. “My primary directive on Odessen remains operational security, Commander. He cannot share what he cannot see.”

“Yes, but-” 

One of the wall-mounted monitors beeps, shrill and insistent, until Lokin prods it with a gloved finger and it lapses into red-flashing silence. “He’s starting to wake. Shall we?”

Void, she hates interrogations. (She used to be good at them once, when she was younger and followed orders better. She used to be good at them because of course, why waste precious time on subtleties when you can simply pry and bend and break and it all comes out in the end either way- maybe in pieces, yes, but that was just another puzzle to solve if one was clever enough, even if it was messier-

Orders were orders. 

She used to be good at them once. Before Corellia.)

“Is Lana coming? She’s covering for me with Sana-Rae, I think, but-”

She turns too quickly as the door opens behind her and as she spins the room tips sideways and then it starts to spin, too; pausing midstep, she grabs at the nearer benchtop to steady herself, her left hand raised as a counterbalance. Lana clears the doorway in two steps, the worry lines across her forehead deepening. 

“I’ve got you,” Lana murmurs. “We’ve just finished, and I had a feeling you might-” she only wrinkles her nose a little as she glances toward the instrument table- “want my help with this.”

When she nods the world shifts unpleasantly anticlockwise. “Yes. Dialing out blind on his holo’s a losing proposition. With any luck he’ll talk, but I’m not counting on it and we haven’t got the time to wear him down.” Pressing her lips together against a wave of nausea, she inhales. Exhales. Inhales. The spinning slows. 

“Physical methods, then?”

She shakes her head- oh, Force, there it goes again- inhale. Exhale. “Just tell me what you see. I’ve been bled on enough today, and if we push too hard-”

“Does it matter? You can’t possibly intend to let him-” at her gesture Lana lowers her voice, just above a whisper- “walk away from this. An attack, here, on you- there have to be consequences.”

“Do I look like a Jedi to you? You know me better than that.” When she says it Lana snorts and rolls her eyes and to be fair she has a point- of course she has a point- but a misstep now could be the last strand of a rope to hang herself by, the final block knocked loose that brings the whole tower crashing down, and she can afford that far less than to give away a shred of undeserved mercy. “You’re a step ahead of me, that’s all. I need the who before I decide the what.”

Lana sighs. “I know. I only- I defer to you, Commander. It’s your decision.”

“Maybe, or maybe it’s Trant’s. But we won’t know until we know, and-” another warning chime from the monitors; another warning look from Lokin. “We’re running out of time. And when we’ve finished I’ve still got to talk to Koth and Senya, and-”

“Already postponed, and that can wait in any case. There’s nothing to discuss that won’t keep for a day. We’ll call them once we’re in transit,” Lana eyes her up and down, “after another round of kolto.”

“I’m fine.”

“Liar.” Lana’s hand comes to rest beneath her lifted arm; with the world still half-spinning she’d have missed the subtle pulse of energy if Lana hadn’t flinched when their fingertips meet. “Force help me, you’re not - I’ll take it over, Nine. I’ll… I can do it. You should rest.”

“No.” When she shakes her head the room stays level now, at least. It’s something. “No. This is my mess to sort out. Just lock the door.”

***

Five minutes later all she’s got out of him is a slurred sequence of names, ranks, and serial numbers (lying, Lana says each time from her perch behind the chair, though she knew that long before she said it) and the unwavering gut-punch certainty that the man is an SIS agent. With so little actual information to go on and their databases two years out of date- when Theron left he’d downloaded what he could but slicing back into the mainframe to sync them’s a risk none of them are willing to take right now- trying to find a name for her attacker’s useless, with dozens of dossiers a partial match to the same physical parameters: average height, average build, Underlevels accent, Republic emblems tattooed on biceps and back and another handful laser-faded to barely visible outlines. With half the Republic’s infantry dredged up from the Coruscant undercity’s gangs and prisons and half the SIS (and nearly all of SpecOps) poached from the army, she could have shot into the Dealer’s Den or the Red Rancor on a Primesday night and hit five clones of him in a straight line between the door and the bar.

She studies his face from every angle, waiting for a memory to trigger, and- no, still nothing, barely a nod in the corridor or a passing glance in the mess line. Three weeks on Odessen and the man’s practically a ghost, a traceless alias for a name and a ride hitched on a transport from Port Nowhere. Granted, both she and Theron had been off-planet most of that time, but stars, if this one got in so easily how many more could?

That’s a problem for another day. It has to be. 

But for now SCORPIO runs the serials, just for the sake of thoroughness, and- ah. Those faces she knows: Corellia, six years ago; a Coruscanti gala, bloodstains on a black dress; Dromund Kaas, only a month or two before Zakuul. 

She just hadn’t known their real names, then. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had. 

Orders were orders.

“So you’re ten dead men in a trenchcoat, then? And you’re wrong about that last one, by the way. That was probably Cipher Four. I’ve never been to Ord Mantell.” She pushes his commpad away with a scowl. The damned thing’s wiped clean- all the more likely he’d spoken to Trant within the last half-day, then; that was a lesson from Alderaan that only the Director ought to have learned. With enough time they could have recovered it, but they don’t have time. So she turns back to him instead, her thumb and index finger poised on closed eyelids gone puffy from the pressure of the binding. “Last chance to make this easier on yourself. When did you last hear from Marcus Trant?”

“More’n ten. Way more.” His words are less slurred now, the serum finally taking effect, and Lana sits up straighter. “‘nd hells take your easier. You’re gonna kill me anyway, so-” 

Void, why are they always so insistent on dying?

She doubts he can see her, so she just adds a twinge of melodrama to her sigh. “Not necessarily, agent. You tried to murder me. Naturally, I objected-” a little more pressure on his eye, just enough that he starts to shift against the restraining strap- “but if I really wanted you dead I’d have let you use your kill pill instead of wasting perfectly good antitoxin on you. I can be civil if you can.” 

Lana closes her eyes, focused and still.

“To be clear, you’re alive as a means to an end and it’s in your best interest to cooperate. But you and I know how it goes, don’t we?” When she lifts her open hand SCORPIO presses the holotransmitter into her palm. “Good soldiers follow orders. It’s not personal. You were only doing as you’re told.” She leans in closer, knee jostling against his mended leg just a little harder than necessary as the paper drape crinkles, voice lowered in a simulacrum of confidence. “Stars, I remember those days. He sits in his big office and sics you on a target, unclips your leash and you just- well. Ours not to reason why, hm?”

The cuff around his right wrist clinks against the arm of the chair as he makes an obscene gesture. 

Wrong tactic. Well, then.

Her sigh’s loud enough to make him flinch. “And it was all wrong, wasn’t it? All that planning, all that time pacing, writing a five-line message that he never even saw, all for nothing?” His breath stills, his heart rate spikes, and Lokin hooks another syringe to the IV port and slowly pushes the plunger down. “DId you think I wouldn’t see? I’d almost feel sorry for you if it wasn’t so utterly pathetic.”

His head lolls forward against the restraint, a counterpressure against her hand. 

“Oh, no, no.” Shifting, she pushes him back upright with two fingertips in the center of his forehead. “Not yet. Not until-”

“I almost got you.” His mouth contorts- it might have passed for a grin in a darker room, teeth bared, feral-  and something in his voice makes her hair stand on end. She recoils, pulling her hand away from his face even as he pauses. “So fucking close. Just a few more seconds and I’d’ve bled you dry, Cipher, and then I’d-”

(The words barely register; he’s not the first and certainly not the most creative person to threaten her with postmortem indecencies but somehow they always think it’s going to shock her into silence, as though it’s the single most awful thing that could ever happen when she’s lived through far worse horrors and more to the point she wouldn’t even know, she’d be dead).   

“-see enough and you know Shan’d come running- Force, that would’ve been even better, the look on his traitor face even if it was the wrong way round-”

wait. 

WAIT.

no, Trant wouldn’t have- 

When she blinks she sees it all in the span of a millisecond: half a hundred ways it could have gone, half a hundred indignities inflicted, half a hundred times it breaks Theron for just long enough for the blow to fall. Lana must see something else; she makes the smallest little sound, a muffled gasp of disgust covered over by knuckles cracking in clenched-fisted fury and then a snarled Sith curse she doesn’t understand (but Valkorion clearly does- she isn’t wrong, he murmurs) and it brings her back to herself. 

Her comm buzzes; her eyes flick down toward the screen. 

<ask him about belsavis>

Kicking him for breaking comm silence would be counterproductive, she supposes, but what does Belsavis have to do with anything? If Theron knows his name he ought to have just said so, not making her work harder than she already is.

< don’t know him but think I know the unit> <told Marcus it was a bad idea> <don’t think he listened>

That would explain the burned-off tattoos. Stars, has the SIS truly become that desperate? Or was this another Garza project- some experiment likely as not to fail just as Eclipse Squad had, so why waste frontline troops when the Republic had a whole planet full of froth-mouthed maniacs more than happy to keep killing as the cost of their freedom and if things did go bad, well, they were going to die one way or another so what did it matter?   

Then SCORPIO blinks once, head turning toward her comm and then, slower, toward the corner and oh, damn it all-

“Didn’t think the SIS went in for necrophilia,” she says conversationally, covering her mouth over a particularly exaggerated yawn as Lokin barely stifles a snort. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell the Jedi. I am curious, though- did you pick that up on Belsavis, or was that why they locked you up in the first place?”

His teeth clench. 

“Piracy? Hm, no. Some flavor of war crime, I’m sure- oh, I know. Fragged your CO, I’d bet. You’ve got that sort of look.”

“Onomatophobia. Go fuck yourself.”

(She’d come at it all wrong, hadn’t she? 

She’d thought this wasn’t personal because for her it wasn’t. Okay, fine, with Trant maybe it is, now, but this is no old enemy. She only hurt him to start with because he cut her first and deeper and even Theron doesn’t know his name- and stars know his memory’s brilliant, to judge by his stories he remembers everyone he ever worked with and it was far harder for him when they weren’t all just Minder Ten and Fixer Twelve and Watcher Three. The garotte alone might have been sheer bloody-mindedness in a way she wouldn’t have expected from the SIS, but even the Republic for all its supercilious moralizing had its fair share of sadists; Hunter hadn’t truly been one of them but they’d certainly all thought so at the time and still they’d all turned their heads, every single time, even when she’d screamed until her voice gave out.

Of course her control word was in her Republic file. He wasn’t the only one to try to use it, the first ones in earnest and then, when she’d shredded enough of them into bloody little pieces that they realized it didn’t didn’t hold her any more, as a vicious sort of mockery. That worked a bit, she supposes; maybe it always will. Not well enough to save them, of course.

She’d thought it wasn’t personal, that orders were orders and he’d come after Theron because he had to. But stars, she’d been out of the game for five fucking years and he’s practically got her dossier memorized, errors and all, and he’d called Theron a traitor and the first time she really pushes his buttons he-

Oh, this was very personal.)

“No,” she says, and breathes, trying to untie the panic-knot tightening in her chest, “I don’t think I will.” Snatching up a scalpel from the instrument tray as her voice wavers, she presses its tip, just so, beneath his chin. “You thought you were close? Close only counts in horseshoes and heavy ordnance, puppy, and that and a slip of my hand’ll buy you an unmarked grave. And-” he’s trying not to move, trying not to flinch. A single bead of blood wells up beneath the blade and stars, it’d be so easy, just one little movement and stay calm stay calm stay calm- “you still haven’t answered my question. When did you last hear from Marcus Trant?”

Lana exhales as her gaze comes back into focus, lip curling. Whatever she saw, she didn’t like it. “Today. It was today. But beyond that-”

“It’s good enough.” It was never going to be that easy. “SCORPIO, you don’t still have Belsavis census access, do you?” 

A yellow flash, and then- “I am no longer tethered to Ward 23, and what I retained is long out of date. Proximity would be required.”

“Never mind. We’ll move on to the holo, then. Doctor?”

“Ready.” Lokin nods approvingly as she sets the scalpel down. “Retractor?”

“Retractor, please. Left eye.”

One click. Two clicks. Three.  

The ‘pub squirms, fighting the restraining strap in earnest as he tries to blink against the cold metal instrument. “What are you-” his pupil constricts until she shifts the operating light away- “you gonna take my eyes now, Cipher? Keep ‘em in a jar somewhere, or-”

The holo’s scanner locks on as she holds it level with his forced-open eye. “No, thank you.  I never was much for souvenirs.” 

It chimes cheerfully as it comes to life in her hand; she flips idly through the settings. The user ID’s a string of alphanumeric gibberish, the message system’s not set up and the whole thing’s still on factory default but she’d expected all of that. It’s almost certainly a burner. The call log’s intact, though, with four time-stamped entries. One: incoming but barely five seconds long, likely a functionality test. Not useful. Two: outgoing, eighteen days old. Confirmation of arrival? That’s a Coruscanti subnet, but that could be a handler. Three: outgoing, one day old, to the same address as the second- they’d landed back from Nar Shaddaa by then. 

Four: incoming. Coruscant again, but a different address. One minute and six seconds duration. 

Two and a half hours ago. 

He said he’d call it off, Void damn him. If Trant kept his word and she’s wrong, if she burns the last thin strands of the bridge between Theron and everything he ever believed in to ashes and she’s wrong-

(He did say he would call them. Reflected in the freezer’s glass door, Valkorion tilts his head contemplatively. And tell them what?

He said- 

he said-

[-but those last few breaths last longer if you don’t struggle, don’t they? You’ll figure that out soon enough.]

For the first time she can remember there is something like approval in his smile. So you did hear it, he says. But oh, little Cipher, you didn’t listen.)     

She gestures to Lana and Lokin, pointing with two fingers at each one in turn and then the door with a snap of her wrist that sets it throbbing. “All of you but SCORPIO, clear the room. Now.”

Lana blinks but it’s Lokin who speaks first. “Commander, if I may? If you plan to proceed further, the subject may require additional stabilizing mea-”

“Wait outside until I call for you. That’s an order.”

He’s halfway to the door before Lana starts to move from the benchtop and even then she pauses beside her as she passes, one hand on her shoulder and her mouth lowered level with her ear. “You’re not getting Valkorion involved? I know you’d rather not dial out blind, but I thought I felt-”

“I’m not,” she murmurs in reply. “On either count. But if this goes bad I don’t want you in the room when it does.”  

“All right.” The sheer force of disapproval contained in Lana’s sigh might have leveled buildings; it isn’t all right and they both know it but it’s far too late to argue over it now. “Should I go and find Theron, then? I can think of some excuse to keep him with me until you’ve finished.”

They both startle at the sound of SCORPIO’s voice. “Unnecessary. He is-” her heart stops as the droid’s eyes flicker- “secure.”

“We can’t be certain of that. He still doesn’t know, does he? If there’s a second-”

“I see many things that you do not, Lord Beniko.” Five metallic fingers uncurl ceilingward (not toward the corner; her heart stutters, then resumes). “I am perfectly certain.”

Lips pressed together, nostrils flared, Lana grits her teeth against a retort before she simply continues toward the exit. “Then I will wait,” she says, a sparking halo of electricity coiling around her words as the door slides shut behind her, “until I am needed.” 

And then the room is quiet save the beeping monitors, the ‘pub’s ragged breathing and the sharp rattle of his restraints, and Nine glances sidelong at SCORPIO as she settles herself carefully in the blind spot on his right. “Be nice.”

“Error. Program file: nice not found.” 

She must have iterated again; the sarcasm’s new. Rolling her eyes, she glances down at her comm again. 

< Also, you are welcome.>

She flicks an ironic salute toward the droid and that too makes her wrist ache. More time in the tank, then, on the way to Voss. More time lost that she can’t afford and a favor owed that she probably can’t afford either- stars know SCORPIO’s kept secrets for her well enough through the years but she’s no particular fondness for Theron; the last time he’d cracked a joke about needing a processor update she’d signal-locked his implant to play That Slippery Little Hutt Of Mine on repeat for forty-three minutes straight until half his face was twitching and he’d finally apologized- but hopefully that can be negotiated. Ongoing access to the network, maybe. Lana will fuss and she’ll be right, but if that message had gone through unintercepted they all know what it might have meant. It’s a small enough price.

“If you’re done arguing-” the ‘pub’s slurring again. He’s burning through the serum faster than she’s ever seen- “either get this thing off me or-”

If he keeps that up she may as well not bother with the call. She ought to have known better than to think that he’d say much of anything useful but his ranting’s absolutely tedious; they’re going to need to gag him after all, aren’t they? It wasn’t supposed to be that sort of interrogation, but she also hadn’t particularly expected him to- oh, if he calls her that one more time she might just stab him after all. (Like he’s got any room to criticize- all her old sins could overfill an archive but at least she’s not a stars-damned corpsefucker.) “Shh.” When she tilts her head toward it SCORPIO picks up the spacer’s tape and tears a strip from the roll, pressing it firmly over his mouth until th+e noise quiets into muffled incomprehensibility. “That’s quite enough out of you, I think.“

Hm. That brings to mind a better idea, actually. 

“Do we have enough input for a voiceprint? Something like this?” Tapping a brief message into her commpad, she sends it through to SCORPIO. Only a few lines, but if it truly is Trant on the other end of the connection it should be enough to be certain.

It has to be enough.

She doesn’t look toward the corner. She mustn’t look toward the corner. 

“Way more than enough.” It’s near enough a perfect mimic. SCORPIO folds her arms smugly and the ‘pub goes grey. “Prepared for playback.”

“On my signal, then, but give me a twenty second delay on video.” Her fingers twitch despite themselves, tingling at the tips; she forces her breathing into rhythm. (Lana was right. She isn’t fine. 

Lana was always right. But she doesn’t have a choice.) 

Inhale. “And prep the package files for transmission on verbal command. No passcode.” Exhale.

A pause, a flash of scarlet. Inhale. “Yes, Commander.”

Exhale. 

Inhale. She smooths her hair back, adjusts her collar carefully under her chin, slaps both cheeks briskly with closed fingers to bring a little color into them and even that little jolt rattles her brain inside her skull. She considers, briefly, the backs of her eyelids. That seems to help. Exhale. 

The far corner remains quiet. 

She lifts the holo in line with the ‘pub’s eye once more as his pupil shimmers finely from side to side; they’d definitely pushed the dose too high but even so it’s far faster than it ought to be, chasing some other vice out of his system, and the camera struggles, beeping and chirping error after error until finally it locks on. 

Inhale. Exhale. 

She meets SCORPIO’s gaze, scrolls back to the end of the call log, and presses redial. 

Inhale.

“Connecting.” The tinny synthetic voice of the SIS operator sets her nerves on edge. “Connecting.” Come on, pick up-

The channel opens with a click and she nods, lets her breath out into the following silence before the voiceprint begins.

“It’s done. Shan and the Cipher. Wrong way ‘round, but-”

“Well-” the video delay goes both ways but she doesn’t need it, she’s heard Marcus Trant’s voice in so many briefings it’s burned into her brain; the last brittle shard of hope she’d clung to shatters and leaves her with nothing left but rage. How dare he- “it’s about fucking time.”

Oh, she is going to end him.

***

Nine’s body language shifts then, her spine rigid where she’d been starting to hunch forward in fatigue, her hands fisted, fingernails digging hard into her palms. Her stance settles, just a little wider, forward on her toes; her chin lifts. He can’t see her face, still angled toward the prisoner. 

“Send the photo confirmation, then execute extraction- and get your video on. Where are you?” Force, he’s going to throw up. Even when Jonas told him, even after hearing Marcus with his own ears he hadn’t wanted to believe it. He’d called it off. It had to be a mistake- or maybe Nine’s paranoia got the better of her (and he knows why and he doesn’t fault her, she can’t help Valkorion in her head and the poison he’s feeding her day after day after day) and this was just another shadow to peer into. Dragged into the light, it would have been nothing at all. A mistake. A mistake. 

She nods to the droid once again. “ Just a few more seconds. Bad connection but I’ve almost got it.” 

He shudders. The copywork’s uncanny and he knows for sure that’s not all readback. If SCORPIO gets it in her head to playact as one of them, starts giving orders in Lana’s voice or Koth’s or his own? He’s no reason to think she would, but whatever loyalty she seems to owe starts and ends with Nine. They’ve got to talk about it, at least.  

Nine angles away from their prisoner, raises the comm chest-high as the little hologram springs up in the hollow of her hand. He can see her better now, her face blank and beautiful and perfectly, utterly cold, and then she smiles and- 

(He has spent far more time than he’d ever admit to, from Rishi to Ziost to Zakuul to tonight, every hit and hurt and shattered bone and her bloody armor left in a pile again and again on the medbay floor, being scared for Nine. 

This might be the first time he’s honestly been scared of her.)

“Hello, Director,” she says. “We’ve really got to stop meeting like this.”

It’s only a little flinch, but it’s there. “Cipher. Still alive, I see.”

“Commander. You lied to me, Marcus. You know what happens now.”

“I think you’ll find that I didn’t.” 

Every syllable of her laughter’s a rifle shot, clear and piercing. “Yes, yes. You said you’d call, and you did.” By his posture he’s caught and he knows it, back straight, shoulders set. “But you know perfectly well that wasn’t our agreement. To go by the way Theron spoke of you I’d have thought you an honorable man, but-”

Marcus lifts one hand, a futile placation as Nine’s mocking smile fades back into hard-eyed silence. “I really am sorry about Theron, for what little it’s worth. He-”

“You’re sorry?” That wasn’t a laugh, not quite, halfway caught in her broken throat. “You’re certainly about to be, but Theron’s fine. This puppy was just as stupid as the last one- worse, actually, since he got himself caught in the bargain.” She turns her body, lets the camera capture the prisoner behind her straining against the chair straps in wide-eyed muffled fury. “He never got anywhere close to Theron.”

“He knows, then?” (He still can’t see Marcus’ face. He isn’t sure whether he wants to.)

She shrugs, noncommittal. “One thing at a time.” Her free hand gestures vaguely toward the instrument tray. “I’ve been a bit busy, I’m afraid, and now I’ve got all these dossiers to send off-”    

“I’d suggest some time in kolto first. You don’t look at all well, Cipher.”

“Commander.” When she blinks her eyes stay closed half a second too long and she sways back and forth and stars, she needs to sit down before she falls over but she’s too stubborn to let anyone see her hurting. He knows her tells now, though- her jaw clenches, her left hand curls and uncurls. “Five years in carbonite couldn’t kill me. You honestly thought a garotte would be enough?”

“No,” Marcus says softly. “Not really. But we make do with what we have, don’t we?”

“I suppose we do. SCORPIO, transmit file Eclipse . Full recipient list.”

One red flash, two green. “Transmission complete.”

(She really did it. Oh, fuck, she really, actually did it. 

He should never have gone home. He should never have gone-  

It isn’t home. Not any more.) 

Marcus sighs. “Where?”

“Everywhere.” Nine looks up abruptly as one of the monitors sounds yet again; she reaches up and simply shuts it off completely and at this angle he can finally see properly, both of their faces in profile. “Every reputable news service in the Core Worlds and about half of the disreputable ones, so you may want to warn your receptionist. I suspect your switchboard’s about to melt.”

“She’ll handle it, and Eclipse Squad was Elin’s mess. I’m afraid I can’t comment. Now, if we’re finished-”

“We are not. Transmit file Legate. Full list. Call it off. Now.”

One red flash, two green, and Marcus winces, his composure finally breaking. “Are you out of your fucking mind? No one came out of that clean, you least of all.”

“I might be.” A knock at the door- no, it’s there, not here, and a comm chiming. “But Legate died in a warehouse collapse on Quesh, poor thing, though with all those warheads going up at once confirming it was quite impossible. Pity.”

A single vein pulses across his forehead. 

“Call it off.”

Another knock. “Do you think Theron will believe that?”

“He doesn’t need to. He knows about the Castellan restraints- he’s known for years.” She glances, for the smallest fraction of a second, toward his corner. “I think he’ll understand if I blur the truth a little.” 

(He nods before he remembers she can’t see him. Of course he understands. He wishes she hadn’t done it, wishes she hadn’t needed to do any of this, but of course he understands.)

The room goes quiet, the stillness broken only by restraint buckles clinking against the chair frame. 

“Do you think he’ll believe this?” 

The angle of her head’s a wordless question. 

“What wouldn’t you do to bring down an enemy? The head of the SIS, no less.” The framing of the projection changes, the bottom edge of a screen coming into view as he stands up slowly from his desk. Marcus’d always lived at the office, one of so many bad habits he’d passed down to him over all the years they’d worked together (the work always comes first, he’d said. It always will. It will take everything you can give to it and then it will take more and you’ll swear and shout and threaten to quit. And then you won’t, because this is what we were made for. And that is how we win). “It’s everything you ever worked toward. So: a foiled assassination attempt in your own base- how terrible.” He clicks his tongue, a mocking little tsk. “You’d have to retaliate, and who would fault you?”

Nine’s eyes narrow. 

“But if it came out that you set it all up- a few intercepted messages, perhaps, shared by an old friend-”

Her lips draw back from her bared teeth. “Stay away from him.”

“I’m finished,” Marcus says. “I know that. But that doesn’t mean you get to win. Once a iiar, always a liar, Cipher Nine. Who do you think he’ll believe- you? Or me?”

No. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t . Not that it would have made a difference, but Marcus couldn’t have known that- Force, he really is going to throw up.

(When Theron joined the SIS he was seventeen years old and every adult he’d known for more than a galactic standard month had abandoned him, sold him out or simply sold him at the first sign he’d outgrown his usefulness. It took nearly a year on Coruscant, nearly a year of steady paychecks and a bed to sleep in every night, before he owned more clothes than he could fit into a go bag; it took almost two before he stopped apologizing for asking for equipment. But Marcus never gave up on him, even when he fucked up (which back then was more often than not), even when he bristled and snapped like a half-wild animal, even when he wanted to give up on himself. If Master Zho had been the nearest thing he’d known to a father- stars knows it wasn’t Jace, especially not now- Marcus had come close too, once.

Once.)

She takes a deep breath. She’s fading fast, now, hands tremulous even as she’s fighting to keep the holo steady. He can’t just sit here and watch this, he can’t, he can’t-    

“Her,” Theron says, letting the stealth field drop as he takes a step forward and she spins, startled, at the sound of his voice. It comes out as a gasp; he doesn’t even know how long he’s been holding his breath. ”Who do I believe? Her. Always.”

Marcus buckles like he’s been gut-shot, bracing himself against his desk. “You- you said you hadn’t told him yet. You said-”

“I think you’ll find that I didn’t.” Nine smiles, absolutely feral and absolutely beautiful, and he steadies her with one hand at the small of her back. “Though as you can see, I really have been busy.”

The last time he saw that look on his face was the day the blockade went up around Coruscant. “Hello, Theron.”

“Hello, Marcus.”

He sits back into his chair, heavy, elbows resting on the desktop. “This office would have been yours, you know. You were ready for it. But you’re on the wrong side of the war.”

“Which war?” Nine says it at the same time he does and then she dips her head, ever so slightly- you first. “We’re here fighting Zakuul. We’re here fighting Arcann,” he continues, “and we’re finally winning. I know you know that. I know Jace knows that, and I know you’re both still fighting the same fucking war against the Empire that you’ve been fighting since before I was born because for you that’s the only thing that matters. But I’m not.”

“You dare-”

“I made my choice,” he says softly.  “Now you make yours. Are you going to drag the whole SIS down with you?”

Marcus rests his head in his hands. For a moment it’s the day after the Ascendant Spear, the day after Ziost, the day after Tython, the weight of a thousand impossible choices and ten thousand lies pressing down on him, and then he looks up and shakes his head. “No.” He sighs. “No, I’m not. What happens now?”

“Resign,” Nine murmurs. “Retire. Disappear before the Senate comes for you, or let them scapegoat you: I don’t care what you do, but you will call this off. You will do it now, and if I ever have reason to doubt you- if anyone from the Republic so much as breathes harm in Theron’s direction- the Ralltiir file goes public.”

Someone’s pounding on his office door, a woman’s voice shouting something incomprehensible as he reaches out of frame, and then a few moments later a series of four tones in a cadence burned into his own memory- send message; subnet selected; confirm?-

Message sent. 

The holotransmitter in Nine’s hand chimes. 

“Done. Now, if there’s nothing else?”

Nine turns once more (and he turns with her, careful) to put their prisoner back into frame. “What do you want me to do with him? I’d put him back on Belsavis if I was you, but-”

Marcus stands up abruptly, even as he makes a face as she says Belsavis, at the unmistakable sound of a single round of blaster fire and the hiss of a door sliding open. “Elin,” he snaps, “not now -”

“Yes, now.” General Garza’s got a blaster pistol in one hand and a commpad in the other when she crosses into camera view. “I just got a fucking call from the fucking- oh.” She cranes her neck toward the projector. “Well, we can fix that problem, at least-”

The call disconnects abruptly.

Nine sags against him, exhausted. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, “I know I promised-” 

“Commander.” He’d nearly forgotten SCORPIO was still at the console until she speaks, and he’s never heard that tone from her before; he looks sharply up at her and follows her sightline. The prisoner’s sitting bolt-straight, back rigid, eyes wide, and a high-pitched whine like a drill through durasteel shrills warning from somewhere that isn’t his mouth- “Commander, get down!”

All Theron can do is drop where they’re standing, his body a shield over Nine’s, before there’s an awful wet noise and the smell of blood and something else familiar in his nose, hot and metallic and not his and not hers and even though he knows he shouldn’t he looks up again and oh, fuck-

The lab door slides open and Doctor Lokin comes running into the room, Lana just behind with her lightsaber blazing, and they both stop short at the sight of it, at the ‘pub still strapped into the chair with half his head just gone and at him and Nine on the blood-spattered floor.

“What- who-” Lana covers her mouth with her free hand. “What in the Void happened?”

Nine’s shaking so hard she can barely move; he curls her close against him to keep her upright. “Not me,” she whispers. “Not me.”

[love-sana]

I know it's been like, a superrrr long time since I've posted considering that I'm new to writing and all that but here's something simple for any Sahyo stans ‼️‼️

Seoul's bustling streets quieted as midnight approached. At the heart of the city, where neon signs flickered and taxis zipped by, stood a solitary bus stop. Sana had been coming here for weeks, her footsteps echoing against the pavement. She'd memorized the cracks in the sidewalk, the way the lamppost cast shadows on the bench.

And then there was Jihyo—the stranger who shared this nightly ritual. Jihyo arrived like clockwork, her presence as predictable as the bus schedule.

From anyone else's point of view, it was obvious that Sana might have had a small crush on the stranger. The way she adjusted her hair, the subtle glances she stole—those inches between them held a universe of longing. But Jihyo remained oblivious, lost in her own world.

Sana imagined conversations—simple exchanges that would bridge the gap between them. She'd ask about Jihyo's occupation, or ask why she chose to take this route each and every night. But the words stayed lodged in her throat, like unspoken wishes. They were both strangers, bound by the same routine yet worlds apart.

One rainy night, as the bus approached, Sana stood closer than usual. Drops of water clung to her lashes, blurring her vision. Jihyo, unfazed by the weather, stood beside her, their shoulders almost touching. Sana's heart raced. This was her chance—the moment to break the silence.

But the bus arrived, its doors opening with a mechanical sigh. Jihyo stepped inside, her gaze never lingering on Sana. The doors closed, and the bus pulled away, leaving her alone at the stop once more.

And so, the stranger who might have been more, remained the key point to the missed connections that fueled Sana's sleepless nights. She wondered if Jihyo ever noticed her, if their parallel lives intersected in some alternate universe.

But as the days turned into weeks, Sana accepted the truth: they were destined to remain strangers. The bus stop held their secrets—the unspoken crush, the stolen glances, the ache of what could have been.

And so, every night, she returned, hoping for a miracle.

[benefits1986]

say.yes.

When flashbacks turn to glimmers.

I hate parties like bridal showers. But there are exemptions, of course. It's my first time looking into the historicity of this thing called a bridal shower. And also, hello there, AI overview!!! Hahahaha. Badly put, the bride squad ensures that the bride will make it to her wedding by hook or crook. It may involved funds or even their own lives during a dark era in humanity.

For this upcoming wedding, I requested that I be taken out of the "entourage" in exchange for taking grainy snaps. And this super good friend of mine said yes. LOL. We've had a few travels together and one of the reasons why I'm one of her travel buddies is because she wants decent photos and videos taken.

Her love story flashbacked to me during her bridal shower. I was pretty much silent because I was trying to make sense of why the flashbacks came. "She did it well!" --That's the bottom line.

A few years back, she messaged me that she's gonna go all out on swiping right. Me: Push. Online dating is kinda frowned upon and I myself don't want to go there for my own reasons. She'd update me and syempre, she'd get spicy statements like: -While there are good men online, the truth is that there'd be a lot more women.

-Being ghosted is part of the game, sadly yet truly.

-If you'd like to go the Christian dating route, your chances of success will dramatically decrease. BUT, it can happen.

-Your game is your game. Your timeline is your timeline. So whatever others say, fuck them all.

-Kahit bobo ka minsan, kakampi mo ko. Period. So, slayyyyyy.

-If it doesn't work. It's always a two-way shit zone. Don't be too hard on yourself. Putting yourself out there is already a win on its own.

The wait was not pretty. Pota. But, since I'm this enabler of kabaliwan, sige lang. Goooooo. And whenever olats siya, I'd tell her, get back on track. Akala mo naman believer of love ako noh? Hahahaha. That's just me trying my best to take part in my good friend's journey even when it means na minsan kuhang-kuha niya talaga gigil ko. Looking back, that may be the part of me which lives through her kabaliwan vicariously.

I felt badly everytime she came empty-handed and rejected. Tangina. While she has her quirks, she knows she's dating to marry. Yun talaga. She has a decent background and has a really good career track pa. So, in a way, decent package. Sabi ko nga sa kanya, puwedeng bang date to have fun and explore na lang muna para mas feasible. Ayaw niya. Me: Okay pero sinasabi ko sa'yo, madugo 'yang trip mo a. There'd be times na naluluha na rin ako kasi naman, pota talaga. Ang hassle din talaga ng mga ganaps at times. Malimit, the malandi brings home the bacon talaga e. Ganun ang laban. Wala namang mali doon, honestly. Pero kasi nga, dating to marry is quite rare these days especially sa age group namin. 'Yung mga igop, alam mo na rin. Nasa kabilang ibayo a lot of them.

Funny as this may seem, isa siya sa talagang pinagdadasal ko na sana magkaroon na ng asawa among my other single XX friends na talaga naman pong masidhi ang longing forda one. Me: Lorddee, unahin mo na 'tong mga 'to. No pressure naman sa side ko e. Hahahahahahahahaha. Me to myself: Lorddeee, tamad na tamad na akong magka-pake ang maging a bit gentle and failing at it. Paki tawid na 'to. 'Yung gusto niya at gusto mo, paki align. Paki usap lang. Baka mauntog ko na talaga 'to e.

And then, the right swipe happened.

Eto na 'to. Syempre, I'm the devil's advocate. Since she's an expat, I can't dissect the XY she found. I don't ask details din that much. Kung ano lang kwento sa akin, okay. Let's build it from there. During our first meet and greet ni XY, engaged na sila. They spent years together na rin naman and alam mo na, aging millennials so habol sa pag-build ng family.

Una kong tanong: What made you say that she is the one? Follow-up q: What reservations did you have to come through when you proposed to her? The table went silent. Hahahahaha. Philo guy naman 'to, so, g.

Nasagot niya ng mainam and natawa ako kasi 'di pa raw natanong ni friend ko sa kanya 'yun ever. Syempre kinilig 'yung kaibigan ko. Ako naman to myself: Pasado. Plus points para sa pupils niya na can't lie, too. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

What I liked better sa sagot niya is that he thought about it and looked me and our small group in the eye while he's at it. I asked a few more questions and again, hindi BS sagot niya. Walang halo na "brainy ako a" vibe. Sabi nung isang kaibigan namin, mga tanong ko raw, wagas. E first meet up. Sabi ko, e ano naman? LOL.

We had a good conversation and what I like best about this guy is that he balances my friend. They're opposites but their goals align. And I saw talaga that my maarte friend has been making reasonable and admirable compromises which is integral in building relationships and nurturing them. EMMMEMMMEEEEE.

If there's one thing I like a looootttt, 'di ko na need bumili ng flowers para sa friend ko na 'to, finally. Ayoko ng flowers pero since 'yun ang gusto niya, jusko. May suki na ako na sakto sa budget at mukhang 'di tinipid na naggagawa mga Pinterest-inspired arrangements 'pag may paganaps. Thank uuuuu, Lorrrdddeeee.

Kidding aside, cheers to another sapak sa fez na love is true. SHEMAY. LUL. Kadire. Pero sige, sige. Pakshet malala. And that love is a work in progress and a process of choosing to go beyond yourself. While I still have so many doubts, NASA podcast era na rin tayo na sige, tignan natin ang kabilang banda ng mga bagay-bagay for a change. Hayyyyy. 'Yung Lordeee, no pressure ko nasa Lorddeee, 'di naman ako nape-pressure pero ang weird lang talaga kasi I'm so used to shutting love-related things down.

Baka naman kasi marami lang weddings and ganaps lately kaya baka naman mood swing lang 'to. Hahahahahahaha. Hayaan muna nating mag-marinate 'tong paganaps na 'to because I don't want to rush this chapter. Whoa. Chapter? Hahahahahahaha. Siguro, in the name of being a recovering avoidant, let this be a reminder that 'di naman masamang sumubok ulit. SHETTTTTT. Totoo ba 'yan? Ako ba talaga 'yan? Sakit ng tiyan ko bigla pero ayun na nga.

Medyo nage-evolve na rin 'yung prayer ko ngayon. LUH. Natatawa pa nga ako madalas kasi kadire talaga. As in. Abangan. :p Tapos, ending mood swing lang pala noh? Abangan din.

Kabado lang ako sa ilaw sa araw ng wedding neto friend ko. May peg kasi siya na gusto sa photos. And since 'yun ang gift ko sa kanila, sana talaga maging oks ang ilaw. More importantly, sana ma-capture ng mainam 'yung mga moments na syempre, wala ng take two. Shemayyyyyuyyy. Ang mahal lalo ng films ngayon. Potaaaa. May camera akong gusto kaso iniisip ko baka panget exposure kasi nga 'di natin alam ang lagay ng panahon, pero gagawaan natin ng paraan 'yan by hook or by crook. Lels. Dapat pala 'yung drip ko ay I can freely move around so ekis na 'yung isang option kahit super cutie niya. EMEEEMMMEEE. Baka pantsuit na lang or parang daster vibe pero 'di halata. :p

Speaking of snaps, the other day, I had to shoot a room full of people. Siguro mga hundred madlang people 'yun easily. Namiss ko rin mag-shoot, honestly. And as introvert na wala namang choice, natuwa akong may command pa rin pala ako kahit super big group. Happy naman sila sa photos. LOL. Dami ko rin nakilalang bago. Small talk galore kahit ayoko talagang lumabas at makipag-interact.

PS: Flashbacks din sa mga lahat ng mga kabobohan ko na sana naman, matuto na ako this time. Para naman 'di naman maging epic fail na naman ang mga okay talaga. Shemayyyy.

[ayellowcurtain]

I worry about Wtfock’s (in)ability to create intimacy without physical touch. While I love zoenne and Sobbe, there’s no denying that the physical aspects of their relationship play a large part. What are some intimate moments/conversations you would WANT to see Yasmina/Younes have in a perfect world?

I do think WTFock can be very physical with their couples. I have nothing against it, I don’t see as much problem as some would because sex seems like something mundane to me that people tend to blow out of proportion. But I disagree about WTFock’s inability to translate the same intimacy in other ways.

During the beach trip, there was literally no touch between Robbe and Sander and we could feel them falling in love with each other. In the first 21:21 clip, they go around the city exchanging looks, sharing drinks, racing. It was nothing physical and we could still feel what they were feeling. When Robbe goes to apologize, we also see how Sander’s eyes change when Robbe makes the mind blowing thing with his hands, when Robbe is searching for Sander and we see his touch lingering when he holds Sander’s shirt that he left behind, the way they talk during OHN, when they’re looking at each other at the last party, when Robbe touches Sander when Milan is talking about a cute boy. I could go on and on.

The same goes for Zoenne. I haven’t watched the whole season but I remember Senne walking with Zoe to the police station, the way he helps her calm down and lies down with her just to keep her company, the way he helps her with her homework, the way Zoe smiles when she’s eating and he shows her the homework done, even the fight when Zoe is trying to convince him to stay.

I would say WTFock`s couples and relationships are often a 50/50 with physical and other types of intimacy that, to me, have the same weight and fits the characters.

I never miss the physical part with Sana x Yousef. And they’re easily my second favorite couple in most of the remakes (and OG). They have some AMAZING scenes, with amazing dialogues, intimate exchange of opinions. I value so much every scene of them because I feel like it’s so big and important and meaningful the conversations they have, with no fear of being judged or misinterpreted and I think that’s even harder to find. Someone that’ll listen everything you have to say carefully and take into consideration because they value your thoughts that much. And Sana and Yousef have that in each other. Their faith and religion is important to them, especially to Sana, and so I love the conversation they have about faith, about why Yousef doesn’t consider himself muslim anymore. That’s one of my favorite clips of all times. In Druck too, if WTFock decides to go with the angry route like Druck did. Amira and Mohammed’s fight is so powerful and so intimate and so them.

So I’m more anxious to see that clip between Yasmina and Younes too. That whole afternoon actually. Their conversation is the one I’m more anxious about. Second goes to their walk while Sana is mad at Yousef, them playing basketball. That whole afternoon - if I remember correctly it’s all in the same day - it’s what I can barely contain myself to wait.

I also love their first “real” kind of private moment when they’re on the bus and Yousef says Sana hates hanging out with them.

I have a feeling we’ll have more moments between them and I really hope we do. It feels - and I hope - this season will have a lot more of the balloon squad and Yasmina. So I’ll take any extra clips we might get between them.

[iffeelscouldkill]

say what we wanna do, make it all come true (chapter 1)

A/N: It is! My fic for the Fiction Podcast Big Bang @podcastbigbang! I am a bit terrified to be posting this after working on it for so long! Also this is in the running for the Longest TSCOSI Fic I’ve Written So Far (not sure if it’s the longest because I don’t remember where my wordcount is up to for Adjusting, but like... it’s long, guys). This is Chapter 1 of 3, and the remaining chapters will be posted weekly!

You can read this on AO3 where the formatting is honestly much better, but here it is on Tumblr anyway. Also, please check out the FANTASTIC artwork made for this fic by the wonderful @bluereadingdolphin and @demonic-kitkats, who are my artists for this fic and their artwork is so good, you guys, I’m in love and they did such a phenomenal job with the honestly pretty vague info they got from me 😂 

bluereadingdolphin’s piece

demonic-kitkat’s piece (from Chapter 2!)

Please give them all the love!

Content warnings: There is a relatively brief physical altercation described in this chapter, but it isn’t graphic or bloody.

Also, I play a little fast and loose with POV in this; the first section is told from Sana’s perspective, the rest from Arkady’s.

---

“Hello and welcome back to Radio Indie, Folk and Techno, also known as RIFT, where we play all the bands that matter outside of the mainstream! I’m Piper Tanaka, and I’m your co-host for this programme! I’m joined as usual by the lovely Kestrel Colvin, with Reina Sakamachi in the booth! Now – where were we?”

“You were introducing our guests for this next section,” Kestrel replied in a slightly despairing tone.

“Right! Indie fans, I am joined today by two members of the fabulous up-and-coming indie band Rumor! With me in the studio are frontwoman and lead guitarist Sana Tripathi—”

“Hey! It’s a pleasure to be here.”

“—and bad girl bassist Arkady Patel.”

“Bad girl?” Arkady repeated, sounding halfway between taken aback and annoyed. Kestrel just shook her head.

“Ignore her. She’s got a thing for a certain… aesthetic.”

Next to Arkady, Sana was doing an incredibly poor job of hiding her laughter. “It’s the combat boots,” she whispered to Arkady.

“These are practical,” Arkady told her in a tone that suggested they’d had this conversation a few times. Sana said nothing, but straightened back up with a smirk.

“Sana — or should I call you ‘Captain’?” Piper began playfully. Sana grimaced.

“In hindsight, it was a poor choice to share that nickname in an interview.”

“You know, I think it suits you,” said Piper. “There’s something commanding about your aura. Sana, you and the band — which I understand you and Arkady originally started as a duo a few years ago—”

“That’s right,” Sana confirmed.

“You’ve always had a dedicated and loyal following, even from your early days — and we’re proud to have been playing your music here on this station for almost as long — but I think it’s fair to say the past few months have seen that rocket to a whole new level,” Piper said. “You got signed to a record label belonging to the mysterious but notoriously discerning Red Gregor, are working on your second album, and played a major gig at the CUI stadium just a few weeks ago. And we are definitely going to talk later about what went down at that gig, which is already the stuff of online legend — but first I want to backtrack a little, because I think the moment that everything started happening for you was when you added a new member to your band. In the middle of a gig, if the rumours are true. Can you tell us how that happened?”

Sana and Arkady exchanged a sidelong glance, and Arkady gave Sana a tiny nod. Sana took a deep breath, and began to tell the story.

---

“Jeeter, for the last time, put the keytar away,” Arkady said irritably as she and Sana entered the draughty, abandoned warehouse that the band was using as their current rehearsal space. The acoustics were pretty weird, probably due to all the broken windows, but it was otherwise hard to beat a free place to rehearse — especially a free place with no asshole neighbours who would yell at them to turn it down and threaten to call the cops.

Admittedly, it was in kind of a rough area, but Arkady had only needed to knock someone unconscious with her bass once.

In retaliation, Brian played another bright riff on his beloved instrument, accompanied by some jazzy keyboard chords from Krejjh. The two had been jamming together before Arkady and Sana arrived. “Dude, c’mon, can’t you hear how good this sounds?” Brian wheedled. “How many other indie bands do you know that have a keytar?”

“None. For good reason,” Arkady said, unzipping her case and slinging her bass around her neck. Sana, unpacking the sound equipment, smiled in fond amusement at their well-worn argument.

“It would give us such a great edge! Totally unique. And Krejjh and I have so many ideas that would sound great with both instruments—”

“Okay, Jeeter,” Arkady interrupted him, twiddling one of her tuning pegs. “You can play the keytar. Just as soon as you find us someone else who can play the drums.” She stooped to plug her bass into the portable amplifier that Sana had just unpacked. “Or are you planning to grow an extra pair of hands so you can play both at once?”

“Oooh! No, I should have an extra pair of hands!” Krejjh immediately (and predictably) enthused. “Then I’d sound four times as awesome! Four hands, all rockin’ out!”

“I think you mean ‘twice as awesome’,” Sana told them, as Brian reluctantly put away his keytar and picked up his neglected drumsticks.

“With me, twice the hands equals four times the awesome,” Krejjh replied with irrefutable logic. Brian laughed and held up a hand.

“Dude, high five.”

Sana waited for the two of them to finish their congratulatory high-five before she called the band to order. “Okay, guys — remember that we’re only a few days out from our gig at the IGR Corp function, so we need to have our crowd-pleasers up to standard.”

Arkady immediately wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, corporates. Why are we taking money from them again?”

“Because we need to pay for rent and food,” Sana said, bluntly. “And they’re giving us a lot for it. I know none of us love playing corporate gigs—”

“Understatement.”

“—but we are living a hand to mouth existence at this point, and if I can guarantee our survival as a band by relieving some corporates of their excess funds, then I’m going to do just that,” Sana continued. She waited a beat, and then added, “Also, we’re gonna let them get really drunk and then start playing our best anti-capitalist anthems, and see how long it takes for them to notice.”

Arkady broke into a shit-eating grin. “That’s more like it.” Krejjh cheered, and Brian did a little run-down on his drumkit, hitting each of the drums in turn.

“All right, let’s start with ‘Fear for the Storm’? One, two, three, four…” Sana started strumming the intro on her guitar, joined after a few beats by Krejjh’s melody on the keyboard.

“So long, can’t dodge the dawn, red light shines on and on and on and on and on…”

---

Arkady had been on edge ever since the band set foot in the agonisingly hipster office complex — excuse me, ‘headquarters’ — belonging to IGR Corp.

It wasn’t just the fact that these guys were extremely corporate corporates, or that the whole place radiated an almost aggressively minimalist aesthetic, or that the walls were covered in bullshit, chipper slogans that were all fancy ways of saying, ‘Work should be your existence – if isn’t, you’re dead to us’ — although those things sure as hell didn’t help, reminding her of the absolute worst parts of every soul-sucking corporate job she’d worked before Sana mercifully re-entered her life and suggested they form a band.

No, there was just this weird vibe, like everyone was super on edge and trying to hide it — the higher-ups were stone-faced, muttering into earpieces or barking orders at underlings, who scurried, terrified, to carry out their wishes. And everyone else, from the tech types in plain white T-shirts and jeans to the smartly-dressed sales reps in suits, looked like they were there on pain of death. Wasn’t this supposed to be a party?

The atmosphere didn’t go unnoticed by the other band members. “Kind of a weird feel to this place,” Jeeter remarked as he unpacked his drumkit on the raised platform at the front of the ‘rec center’ where they would be performing. Normally, setting up was a noisy, clumsy affair, with the band elbowing each other, tripping over wires, and getting in each other’s way in the tiny space they were afforded in bars and nightclubs. Here, the platform that would be their makeshift stage was huge and extremely visible — but everyone was completely ignoring them. There was also very little background noise for a room packed with people, and the band found themselves speaking in hushed murmurs, almost tiptoeing around. “You’d think there would be a bit more… chatter?”

“Maybe the alcohol just isn’t flowing yet,” Sana speculated, but she sounded uneasy as she looked out over the tense crowd. Even Krejjh, with their signature hot pink, heart-shaped sunglasses perched on top of their dyed-lavender hair, dressed in a clashing, flamboyant jumble of clothes and accessories, seemed subdued.

Arkady plugged in her bass with a burst of static, and deliberately played a loud riff. Brian startled and dropped his drumstick, but not a single member of the sea of blandly-dressed IGR Corp employees flinched.

Weird.

The sound equipment was all set up, sound check performed and instruments tuned by half past, but the set wasn’t due to start until o’clock. Normally, Arkady would be making a beeline for the bar, but she didn’t really feel like rubbing shoulders with any of these weird drones. She found herself reflexively checking the exits, mentally charting their fastest route out of there in case something really fucked up started going down. Sana half-jokingly called it paranoia; Arkady called it long, hard experience.

It was on one of her scans of the room that she noticed the woman with the septum piercing. Arkady chalked it up to professional interest — as a kid, she’d picked up some extra money working as an assistant in a tattoo and piercing shop, The Landing. She’d first met Sana there when the other woman came in on several occasions to have work done on an amazingly intricate floral sleeve tattoo — her own design. Later, Sana had led a campaign to save The Landing from being shut down over a bunch of bullshit health code violations so that the billionaire Cresswin family — who owned the property — could sell it off to a shitty corporation.

The campaign hadn’t worked, and there was now a high rise office block where Arkady’s home from home had once stood. But Arkady had never forgotten Sana.

Anyway, it was definitely the woman’s piercing and not anything else about her appearance that caught Arkady’s attention first. But then she noticed that there was something off about her body language and the way she was moving — something that Arkady recognised. She wasn’t scurrying about in a panic or affecting bored disinterest; her eyes were flickering around the room, carefully monitoring the comings and goings of the other employees while seeming not to do so. There were little devices studded around the room that Arkady had clocked as security cameras the moment they entered (it was the kind of thing she made a habit of noticing), and she saw the woman glancing up at them.

She was dressed like an employee – white blouse, dark rinse blue jeans – so why was she acting like she was casing the joint? Of course, Arkady reasoned, the outfit could easily have been chosen to blend in. It didn’t necessarily mean she worked there.

“Seen something interesting, ‘Kady?” Sana asked playfully. Arkady didn’t startle, but it was a near thing; she’d been so focused on watching this woman.

Unfortunately, Sana saw where she’d been looking. “You know, we’ve still got close to half an hour before we start our first set,” she said. “You can go and mingle.”

“I’m not here to socialise,” Arkady said witheringly. “Least of all with corporate drones.” She tore her eyes away from the woman to meet Sana’s amused look.

“I’m just saying, you seemed pretty absorbed there…” Sana said, and Arkady rolled her eyes, determined not to respond to her best friend’s teasing. She glanced back at the spot where the woman had been standing and found it empty.

A second later, Arkady had found her again, weaving through the crowd with her head ducked down. She was taking an odd route across the room that Arkady realised must have been calculated to avoid the security cameras. Occasionally she disappeared, behind people or objects (like a huge, obviously fake ficus plant), but it wasn’t hard for Arkady to spot her again. Clearly there was some kind of purpose to what she was doing, but the woman wasn’t a professional.

There was an elevator against the far wall, and as Arkady watched, the doors opened and a small group of people in suits – latecomers to the party – walked out of it. The woman mingled with them briefly, and then disappeared inside the elevator. The doors closed.

Well, that had been a way to kill five minutes, but now Arkady was stuck with nothing to do again. Krejjh and Jeeter had pulled out a pack of cards, and were playing one of their weird games on top of Krejjh’s keyboard. Arkady turned to Sana, about to make another comment about how much this place creeped her out, when she caught sight of the other person moving across the room.

Judging by the expensive suit, they were a higher-up, and were taking none of the precautions the woman had when making their way across the room, which suggested that they were confident about being allowed to do whatever it was they were doing. And to Arkady, it looked an awful lot like they were following the woman she’d seen. Based on the way the suit jacket fell, she’d also bet even money that they were armed.

Sure enough, the suit called the elevator, and disappeared into it a second later. Arkady swore under her breath.

It was none of her goddamn business whether a person she didn’t even know might be in danger, Arkady told herself. She was here to play music, not to get in the middle of whatever might be going down at this godawful corporation. Which again, was none of her business anyway.

Her resolve lasted all of ten seconds.

“I’m going to get a drink,” she told Sana, and placed her bass onto its stand.

“Oooh! Bring me a cocktail – no, a mocktail!” Krejjh said. Sana just looked at her quizzically.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Arkady nodded briefly. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and jumped down off the platform.

She wasn’t under any illusions that Sana wouldn’t notice where she was going, and just hoped that her best friend would trust her to be back in time for the set. She slipped through the crowd, following the same path that the woman had taken to avoid the watchful eyes of the security cameras.

This worked right up until she entered the elevator, where sure enough, a security camera was embedded into the top corner. How had this woman planned to avoid getting caught?

Arkady pulled out her smartphone, and began to quickly and expertly worm her way into the closed network that IGR Corp was using for its security systems. After just a few moments, she’d managed to identify the IP address that the lift camera was using, and wow, whoever had set up this system was either incredibly lazy or was trying to lay out a welcome mat for hackers. They hadn’t bothered to change the default access password.

Arkady wound back the last few minutes of recorded video, and watched as the woman with the septum piercing pressed the button for the top floor. Arkady did the same, and as the elevator moved upwards, she introduced a glitch that would cause the security camera to loop footage of an empty elevator instead of showing who was actually inside. Then she worked to edit out the archive footage of the woman riding up in the elevator, and of herself getting in.

If it turned out that there was nothing weird going on here after all, well, she’d had some fun exploiting the corporates’ shitty security system.

But Arkady was pretty sure there was something weird going on.

The elevator came to a silent stop, and Arkady silently thanked the deities she didn’t really believe in for the fact that this place was too hipster to have an elevator that made a noise when it arrived at the right floor. The doors slid open, and Arkady immediately spotted another security camera on exiting the elevator. God, these corporates were paranoid. But apparently not paranoid enough to pay their security person to do their job properly.

Annoyingly, the security cameras for this floor seemed to be on a separate network, and Arkady started another hack as she crept down the corridor, straining her ears for the sounds of a confrontation. Further down, she saw an office door swinging open, as if someone had gone through it in a hurry. Arkady approached it, being careful to stay out of sight of the doorway. Closer to, she could hear a voice coming from inside – the suit’s, if she had to guess.

“…sure CEO Golding-Frederick will be very interested to hear just what you’re doing in her office, Ms. Liu.”

“Seiders, I can explain,” the woman – Liu – replied, her voice high with tension. “Project ADVANCE – it’s not what we’ve been told. The company is using it to-”

“What the company may or may not be doing with Project ADVANCE is not your concern,” Seiders said smoothly, over her, “and is a long way above your pay grade. But I’d be very interested to learn where you got your information from.”

“Do you know what’s going on at this company?” Liu demanded, outraged. “And that’s – you have no problems with what they’re doing?”

The closed network for the top floor of the building was much less of a pushover than the elevator, and Arkady kept half of her attention on the conversation inside the room as she worked to find a flaw in the system. Finally, she made it in, and began trying different password combinations for the camera in the hallway.

“It’s not my job to ask questions, Ms. Liu,” Seiders had been saying. “Neither is it yours. And if you value your job – not to mention the safety and security of your loved ones – you’ll step away from that computer, and go back downstairs to the party.”

“Are you threatening me? Are you threatening my family?” Liu demanded. “No, I’m not going to stay silent about this. Someone has to take a stand against what this company is doing. And if anything happens to me, that’ll only raise more questions.”

“We’re very good at making those questions go away,” said Seiders, and Arkady heard Liu suck in a breath. She moved so that she could see inside the room and shit, that was a gun. Arkady rapidly began calculating her angle of attack. “Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to Connors from Engineering?”

“That’s not – you can’t just make a person disappear,” Liu said, desperately. “I – I have insurance! Documents that I’ve sent to a friend of mine. If I don’t check in with them in two hours, they’re going to send them to a journalist contact, and it’ll be all over the press in the morning.”

Arkady could hear the lie in her voice so clearly, and she knew Seiders could, too. “If you had enough evidence to be worth a damn, you wouldn’t have broken into this office,” they replied. “I’m going to ask you one last time. Step away from the-”

Arkady slammed into the room, deliberately making as much noise as she could to draw Seiders’ attention. She took two, three steps towards them and grabbed their gun hand, forcing it down and towards the floor. She managed to hook one arm around their throat, pulling back and applying pressure. Seiders choked, struggling and jerking against Arkady’s grip. With the hand that was holding their gun hand, Arkady twisted and pulled their fingers open, causing the weapon to drop to the floor.

“Liu, grab the gun!” Arkady ordered. She saw the other woman yank something out of the computer that looked like a flash drive, stowing it inside her blouse. She dove for the gun at the same time that Seiders managed to thrust an elbow back, driving it into Arkady’s midsection.

All the air left Arkady’s lungs and as she struggled to draw a breath in, Seiders took advantage of her loosened grip to twist free. They grappled with Liu for the gun, but Liu succeeded in kicking it away, where it spun underneath a nearby cabinet. Then Arkady was on Seiders again, jumping onto their back and choking them.

She heard the sound of running footsteps, and someone else burst into the room. Arkady didn’t get a chance to see who it was before Seiders slammed their head back, knocking into Arkady’s and making bright white lights explode across her vision. She dropped to the floor and staggered, trying to clear her head.

She heard an oof and a thud, and blinked rapidly, sure that she would open her eyes to see Seiders bearing down on Liu – or worse, standing over her unconscious body.

Instead, she was greeted with the sight of Seiders crumpling like a sack of potatoes as Sana flexed her fist, having delivered a powerful uppercut that knocked them out cold.

Silence reigned for a few seconds, broken only by Liu’s sharp, panicked breaths. Rubbing her head, Arkady said, “Hey, Sana.”

“The next time you decide to go off on a rescue mission,” Sana said, wryly, “you could at least tell me where you’re going.” She frowned as she took in Arkady’s dishevelled state. “Is your head all right?”

“I’ll be fine,” said Arkady. She was more concerned with Liu, who looked like she might be on the verge of a panic attack. “Hey, uh, it’s okay. We took care of them.”

“Who-” Liu managed, taking deep breaths in and out, clearly trying to steady her breathing. “Who are you?”

Sana smiled at her, warm and reassuring. “My name is Sana Tripathi, and this is Arkady Patel. We’re-”

There was a noise that sounded not unlike a herd of elephants storming down the corridor, and Arkady closed her eyes. She had a bad feeling she knew what was about to happen. Sure enough, in the next second Krejjh and Jeeter clattered through the door in all their clashing multicoloured glory: Jeeter in his signature loud paid shirt and those stupid khakis, and Krejjh with their… everything. Most of the clattering was coming from Krejjh’s many bangles.

“Cap’n Tripathi!” Krejjh said. “We’re here to assist you with – oh my god, are they dead?” They stared at the unconscious form of Seiders on the floor.

“They’re not dead, they’re just unconscious,” Arkady said, irritated. “Did you two really take off without anyone to watch the equipment?”

Sana turned back to Liu like nothing had happened. “We’re the band,” she finished succinctly. “I’m the guitarist and lead singer, Arkady here plays the bass, and Krejjh and Brian are our keyboardist and drummer.” She indicated each of them in turn. Jeeter waved, and Krejjh saluted for some reason. “And who are you?”

Liu blinked at her. “You… you just saved my life, and you don’t even know who I am?” she said. “Why would you do that?”

“For one thing, because you’d probably be dead if we hadn’t,” Arkady said. “You’re welcome for that, by the way.” She pulled out the phone to finish the hack on the security cameras that she’d started before she entered the room.

“I – no, I know that. I’m not ungrateful,” Liu said, sounding a little stung. “I’m just a little… in shock. My name is Violet Liu,” she added to Sana. “I, uh, work in IGR Corp’s neuroresearch division.”

“Good to meet you, Violet Liu,” Sana said, sounding like they were old friends catching up at the bar instead of total strangers talking to each other over an unconscious body. “’Kady, are you erasing the security footage?”

Arkady nodded.

“Good; Brian and I will carry our friend here,” Sana indicated Seiders with her foot, “into the hallway. I think I noticed a closet there we can hide them in.”

“Uh… are you guys really the band?” Liu asked, as Sana and Jeeter – who was much stronger than he looked – bent down to pick up Seiders. “You seem very…” She struggled to find the right words. “…good at this.”

“We have some unorthodox skillsets,” Sana said, beaming and dimpling at her. “We don’t normally make a habit of rescuing people in the middle of a gig, but Arkady has a soft spot for damsels in distress.”

Arkady fumbled her phone, and nearly dropped it. “Sana,” she hissed, mortified. Sana, who was already partway out of the door, winked and disappeared into the hallway.

After a moment, Arkady realised that she and Liu were the only ones in the room, Krejjh evidently having decided to go along and supervise, or something. She refocused her attention on the hack she was carrying out; she’d managed to hack the hallway security camera, and was erasing the footage from that, but she still needed to do the one in the office.

“Uh…” Liu awkwardly broke the silence. “Is there anything that you need me to…”

“Is anyone likely to be monitoring the security cameras in real-time?” Arkady asked her. The question came out sounding a little harsher than she’d intended, but it was hard to be diplomatic when she was focused on trying to break into a security system. Also, it was a little annoying that Liu apparently hadn’t thought about security cameras beyond the ones on the ground floor.

“N-no, the system is all automated,” Liu replied. Well, that was something, at least. “I, uh, I do have a virus that I was planning to use on the security system that would corrupt the footage. I just needed to find an access point.”

Fine, so there had been a plan of sorts. “This is quicker,” Arkady told her. “And the way I’m doing it, it won’t be so obvious that someone has tampered with the footage.”

“Thank you for that,” Liu said, quietly. “And thank you for – I mean, you don’t even know me, but you came up here to help me. Why?”

Arkady shrugged, keeping her shoulders hunched and avoiding Liu’s gaze. “You looked like you were in trouble,” she said shortly. And that was the office camera done. Arkady resisted the urge to change the password to something rude, and withdrew from the network. “And I don’t like corporations. What were you trying to do, blow the whistle on them or something?”

“Um, I-”

Before she could explain, Sana poked her head back into the room. “Arkady, are you done? Because I don’t think we should be hanging around up here.”

“I’m done,” Arkady said with a nod, pocketing her phone. The two of them joined Sana, Krejjh and Jeeter in the hallway.

“We need a plan to get Violet back downstairs and out of the building without her being seen,” Sana said quickly. “’Kady, do you think you two can make it out in fifteen minutes?”

Arkady huffed. “I can hack the security cams, but I can’t actually make us invisible,” she pointed out. “People are gonna notice us. If we waited until you guys started the set, then we might have a better chance, while everyone’s attention is on the band.”

“Listen – it’s not that I don’t really appreciate the help,” Liu cut in. Her face was set, like she was preparing to go to the gallows. “But none of this needs to be your problem. It’s my mess, and I can get myself out of it. You guys should go and start your set.”

“Oh, pshaw!” said Krejjh. “We’re not just gonna leave you to the bears!”

Jeeter smiled. “To the wolves,” he corrected Krejjh.

“Are y’sure? Because bears can be pretty terrifying.”

“We’re not about to abandon you now,” Sana said to Liu, gently. “Between the five of us, I’m sure we can figure out a pretty good plan.”

“Can’t we just pretend to be loading something into the truck?” Jeeter suggested. “And Violet can help us? We could give her a band jacket – make her look like she’s with us-”

“It’s too bad you don’t play!” Krejjh said to Violet. “We could add you into the set. The ultimate entourage!”

“Uh…” Violet said (at the same time as Arkady said, “Camouflage.”) “I mean, I do play something? But you guys already have a drummer.”

“Wait, you’re a drummer?” Jeeter said delightedly, as Krejjh straightened up so fast that Arkady thought they’d pull a muscle. Even Sana looked interested. “Are you good?”

“Have you ever played with a band before?” added Sana.

Liu smiled and shrugged awkwardly. “Well, drums aren’t really a solo instrument, so yeah. I used to jam with some friends in high school, and played some underground rock concerts in college. I was never really with a band – we just sort of used to form collectives based on who was around and wanted to play. It was fun, though.”

She’d avoided answering the question about how good she was, Arkady noticed, which probably meant she was good and was being modest about it. Goddamn it.

“So if, hypothetically speaking,” Sana said, “you joined a set without having rehearsed any of the music beforehand, would you be able to figure out a drum part?”

“Okay, hold on,” said Arkady, before Violet could respond. “Don’t you think IGR Corp is going to notice that one of their employees has just… joined the band?”

“We’ll swear up and down that it isn’t her,” Jeeter said. “And even if someone figures it out, what are they gonna do about it in front of everyone?”

“But wait, what about you?” Liu asked Jeeter. “Wouldn’t I be putting you out of a role in the band?”

“Nah,” Jeeter said happily. “I brought my keytar!”

“Oh my god,” Arkady groaned. She could tell when she was fighting a losing battle, but it didn’t stop her from making one last, token protest. “This is going to sound really goddamn weird.”

Sana grinned at her. “Well, you wanted to annoy some corporates,” she pointed out. “What better way to do it?”

---

The problem was, the new line-up didn’t sound weird at all.

It sounded good.

Liu, hastily disguised with an old band jacket and a spare pare of Krejjh’s sunglasses, fitted in with their set like she’d been rehearsing with them for weeks – months even. They did a quick sound check, Jeeter looking far too delighted as he amped up his keytar. Sana gave her usual cheerful introduction into the microphone, introducing the band as Renegade, the name they adopted for corporate gigs (Arkady was even more glad of it now, since it would make them harder to track down later). After a lukewarm reception from the assembled employees (none of whom seemed to notice, or care, that the band had grown an extra member), they launched into their first number, a reimagined cover of ‘What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor’.

It started off with Sana singing alone, before Krejjh joined in, their voices singing in close harmony, and then Arkady and finally Jeeter, the harmonies becoming increasingly layered as they went. The addition of the keytar made the song sound futuristic, almost the kind of thing you could imagine crews of space explorers singing together as they made their way into the unknown.

Liu picked up the beat easily, and as the song unfolded Arkady suddenly realised she could hear a fifth strand to the harmony, weaving in and out of the other voices, soft but distinctive: Liu was singing.

They moved on from the conventional crowd-pleasing openers to a more eclectic mix of songs, including some punk and anarchist numbers. Each time, Arkady was sure that the choice was going to throw Liu off, but she adapted smoothly to each one, altering her style to fit the vibe of the song. In one of the louder, heavier songs she even threw in an impromptu drum solo that had Krejjh whooping at the keyboard and Sana laughing as she riffed on her guitar.

Sana threw Arkady a look as the song ended, and there was a light in her eyes that Arkady knew far, far too well. It was the same light that Arkady had seen when Sana tracked her down at her latest deadbeat job and persuaded her to quit and start playing music with her; the same light that she’d had when they met Brian and Krejjh a year later and Sana had decided to turn their duo into a band.

Sana wanted Liu to join Rumor. And Arkady couldn’t even think of a good argument against it, apart from the fact that they barely knew anything about the woman other than that she could play the drums. And that she was a corporate, which Arkady thought was important not to lose sight of, even if Liu wasn’t on the greatest terms with her employer any more.

Speaking of which. Arkady was on high alert throughout the whole set, constantly scanning the crowd for signs of trouble, anyone who might be looking too closely at Liu or showed signs of moving towards the elevator. As they’d been setting up, Liu had told them that Seiders was middle management: someone who outranked her, but not someone who held a position of particular influence within the company or had the ear of the CEO. Someone who had ambitions above their station. It didn’t mean no-one would notice them missing, of course; but it meant that they might be someone who, for instance, would go after a rogue employee without notifying their superior, hoping to reap all of the credit.

The band moved into their final number, ‘Landers Never Stand Down’ – one of Sana and Arkady’s early compositions, whose lyrics Sana had written as a tribute to The Landing, and her and Arkady’s shared history. Normally, Arkady would object to wasting it on a corporate audience, but tonight, it felt like the right kind of ‘fuck you’.

“Landers never stand down,

Landers never bow,

Landers never stand down,

We don’t know how…”

They wound up the song in their usual fashion, repeating the chorus and getting fiercer and more defiant with each repetition, before ending in a final blaze of guitar chords.

“Thank you, everyone, you’ve been a wonder to perform for!” Sana said into the microphone as the chords faded away. She said the same thing at the end of every gig, but it had never felt more like a colossal understatement. “We’ve been Renegade, and we hope you have a great night!”

There was a small scattering of applause. Sana beamed out into the audience again, and then turned away from the microphone, sliding the power to ‘off’. “Well, that was-”

“Attention, all IGR Corp employees,” came a voice over the loudspeaker system. Sana froze, and Liu, who’d been leaning over to say something to Krejjh, paled visibly. “Please stay where you are. We will be carrying out a routine attendance check. Please do not exit the building.”

“Attendance check?” Arkady repeated.

“It’s a standard employee procedure,” Liu explained. “To make sure everyone’s… accounted for at corporate functions. Supposedly they’re optional, but it looks really bad if you’re not there and you don’t have a reason.”

“Do we think there’s a chance this is linked to…” Sana gestured towards the elevator. Liu shrugged helplessly.

“It could be, but even if it’s not, they’re gonna discover that Seiders is missing pretty quickly. And that I’m… unaccounted for.”

“Don’t worry,” said Jeeter, reassuringly. “We’ll figure out a way to get you out before that happens.”

“Dashing escapes are our speciality!” Krejjh contributed. This was true; the band hadn’t always played at the most above-the-board venues, and there’d been more than a few times they’d needed to get the hell out of Dodge before things got ugly. Well, uglier.

Sana nodded. “For now, just keep packing down, like nothing’s wrong,” she said.

As Krejjh packed down their keyboard and Jeeter helped Liu to disassemble the drumkit, Arkady said to Sana, “I’ll go with Liu, and we can sneak out a back entrance-”

Sana shook her head. “It’ll be more suspicious if we’re not seen leaving as a group.”

“We’ll just say we’re going to the bathroom,” Arkady said. “We’re allowed to do that, aren’t we?”

Sana started to reply, but then stopped, squinting at something on the other side of the room. Arkady tried to follow her gaze, but couldn’t see what she was looking at. “What is it?”

“I thought I saw…” Sana shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s try the front way first, and if they won’t let us leave, we’ll get creative.”

Unsurprisingly, when they carried the first load of equipment over to the rec room entrance, two stoic-looking IGR employees blocked their path, bouncer-style. Arkady eyed one of them, pretty sure she could take her in a one-to-one fight.

“Sorry, we can’t let you leave while an attendance check is ongoing,” said the employee, with a bland detachment. “Company policy.”

“It should only take about an hour,” the other added. “You can enjoy the free refreshments while you wait.”

An hour? Even if they hadn’t had a very pressing reason to get the hell out of there, Arkady would have been looking for the nearest fire escape to break out of. They were just supposed to cool their heels at IGR headquarters for an hour?

“Can we not at least load our equipment into the van in the meantime?” Sana asked reasonably. “This is a very heavy amplifier…” She made a show of struggling with the amp she’d been lifting with ease a few seconds ago, and Arkady suppressed a snort.

One of the corporates had opened their mouth, looking like they were about to object, when a friendly voice spoke from behind them. “Is there a problem here?”

They all turned to look at the person who’d spoken, and Arkady carefully masked her surprise: the tall, dark-skinned man dressed in an expensive-looking suit jacket, T-shirt and jeans combination was none other than Red Gregor, a close friend of Campbell’s. They’d met him once or twice, but what was he doing here?

“Who are you?” asked Corporate One, audibly unimpressed.

“Theodore Gregor; I’m the band’s executive producer,” Gregor introduced himself smoothly, handing Corporate Two a business card. Their eyes widened at whatever was written on it. “My clients have another engagement to get to tonight, so you can understand why it’s very important they be allowed to leave promptly. Additionally, their contract stipulates that they’re only obliged to perform for your company until-” he made a show of checking a gold watch, “-nine-thirty P.M., after which time we’ll need to bill you for every additional half-hour. Will your supervisors be signing off on the additional expenses?”

Corporates One and Two were visibly thrown by the torrent of information. Krejjh made a noise that was hastily stifled, while Arkady did her best to look bored and important.

“I… no, let me just contact my superior to get you the all-clear,” said Corporate One, reluctantly. “Johnson will help you to load your equipment into your…” She eyed the band’s battered van, visibly out of place in the parking lot full of sleek cars. “…vehicle.”

“Great!” Sana said brightly, handing the amplifier to Corporate Two, who took it and staggered slightly. As Corporate One spoke into a walkie-talkie, Sana and Red Gregor strode quickly ahead, the rest of the band trailing behind. Arkady lengthened her steps to catch up with them so that she could hear their quiet exchange.

“…doing here? Did Campbell send you?” Sana was asking Red Gregor.

“In a manner of speaking,” Red Gregor said. “He talks about you so much, I wanted to come and hear what all the fuss was about. Love the new line-up – you guys sound completely different to when I last heard you play.”

“It’s kind of a new thing,” Sana admitted. “New as of… today. I can fill you in, it’s just a long story.”

“I can’t wait to hear it,” Red Gregor said, and Arkady remembered that she’d liked him, the couple of times that they’d met. She could see why he and Campbell were good friends. “But let’s focus on getting you out of here. I’m guessing you need an exit?”

“And fast,” Sana agreed.

“Well, fast’s your speciality,” Red Gregor said with a grin. Sana smiled back at him, and Arkady wondered if Red was basing this off stories from Campbell, or if he and Sana knew each other better than Arkady had realised. It was a strange thought to have in the middle of everything.

Sana unlocked the van and slid open the back door. While Krejjh, Jeeter and Liu loaded their items into the trunk, overseen by Corporate Two, Red Gregor pretended to help Arkady and Sana with their instruments.

“So what now?” Arkady asked Sana. “I think I can probably take Johnson.”

“Arkady, you’ve already been in one fight today,” Sana said, disapproving.

“What’s your point?”

“I have a more bloodless suggestion,” Red Gregor said. “You’ve got a few pieces of equipment left in the venue, right? I’ll go back inside with Johnson to ‘collect’ them, say we’re going to check their supervisor has given you the go-ahead, and you guys make a break for it. I’ll bring the equipment in my car and meet you at the dive bar, half a mile down the road.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to get away? What happens when they realise we’re gone?” Sana asked.

“I’ll come up with something,” Red Gregor assured her. “Just focus on getting yourselves out of here.”

He walked over to Johnson, who was slightly bemusedly watching Jeeter and Liu (who were clearly stalling for time) rearrange pieces of the drumkit in the trunk, and took him by the arm, steering him back towards the building and talking rapidly all the while.

“As soon as they’re out of sight, everyone needs to get in the van quickly,” Sana instructed. “And hang onto something. Okay? Now!”

Krejjh slammed the trunk of the van shut and everyone piled into the back without a word of protest. Arkady jumped into the front as Sana slid into the driver’s seat, reversing out of the parking space like a shot and executing an alarming hairpin turn to get them onto the road. Liu cried out in alarm, not used to Sana’s driving, and Arkady hung grimly onto the handle on the inside of her door.

“Everyone okay back there?” Sana asked, peering into the rearview mirror.

Arkady looked back to see Jeeter and Krejjh scrambling to put on their seatbelts, each of them having thrown an arm over Liu to keep her in place. “Oops, sorry, I forgot we don’t have a seatbelt for the middle!” Sana said cheerfully as they thudded over a speedbump. Liu closed her eyes. “There’s normally only four of us.”

“It’s not far to where we’re going, right, Captain?” asked Jeeter.

“Just a half mile down the road,” said Sana. “Red Gregor’s going to meet us there with the rest of the equipment, as soon as he can get away.”

“What was he doing at the gig? Did Campbell tell him where we were?”

“I think so. He said that he wanted to come and hear us play,” Arkady said, watching buildings blur past on either side of them. “I guess it was lucky he did.”

“We would’ve figured something out,” Krejjh said confidently.

“Uh, who’s Campbell?” Liu asked, cautiously opening her eyes again.

“He’s our… manager? Kinda?” Krejjh replied. “He doesn’t tell us what to do or anything, but he has a lot of contacts, so he gets us most of our gigs.”

“Contacts in the music industry? Or contacts in like… events venues, bars and clubs?”

“Yes,” Krejjh said helpfully.

“He just has a lot of contacts,” Jeeter said with a smile. Arkady smirked at Liu’s look of consternation.

“Tonight’s gig did not come through Campbell,” said Sana, spotting the dive bar Red Gregor had specified and indicating to turn off the road. “We got it through an agency, Fowleys. I guess that’ll teach us not to go outside Campbell’s network.”

“Hey, it worked out!” Krejjh said. “We got a new drummer out of the deal.”

“Well, for tonight, at least,” Sana said, now reversing into a parking space. “I gotta say, Violet, the way you fitted in with our sound? That was amazing. Our set sounded better than I could’ve imagined.”

Liu blushed. “They were great songs,” she demurred, as the van came to a stop.

“Too bad it was wasted on IGR Corp,” Arkady remarked, undoing her seat belt as they all climbed out of the van.

They got a table in the corner of the dive bar, which was pretty full and made it easy to blend in. As Sana went to get them all drinks, Krejjh and Jeeter started up some kind of nonsensical word game. Arkady and Liu glanced at each other occasionally, but otherwise sat in awkward silence.

Finally, Arkady asked something that had been on her mind since she intervened in the confrontation between Liu and Seiders, though it had taken a back seat to more pressing concerns. “What was it you were trying to get from that computer, anyway?”

“Sorry?” Liu asked, looking away from Krejjh and Jeeter, where she’d been listening in on the game with a slightly baffled expression.

“In the CEO’s office,” Arkady clarified. “I saw you take a flash drive out of the computer. What were you trying to get?”

“Oh,” Liu said, drawing out the little drive from inside her blouse. “Yeah, I was… trying to copy some files onto it. I’m not sure how much I got, though – I had to pull it out before the transfer was complete, and I think they’re encrypted.”

“What kind of files are they?” Arkady asked, thinking that she could probably break the encryption in an afternoon. Maybe less.

Liu hesitated, and Arkady narrowed her eyes. “You’re not still trying to protect your company, are you? In case you don’t remember-”

“No, no,” Liu said quickly. “I just – I’m not sure if it would be safe to tell you. Safe for you,” she added. “Right now, you have plausible deniability if anyone questions you. You genuinely don’t know what’s on this flash drive. So maybe it would be better to keep it that way.”

Arkady was a little bit pacified by that, but still – “Considering I’ve already aided and abetted you, I think that ship has sailed,” she pointed out. “No-one is going to believe I did it without having any idea what you were up to. Which I’m fine with,” she added, as a guilt-stricken look crossed Liu’s face. “I made a choice to help you, and so did the others. But I may as well know what the stakes are.”

“Yeah, that’s… fair,” admitted Liu. Next to her, Krejjh was doing a fairly poor job of pretending not to listen in. “They’re blueprints. My company – the company – has been developing… do you know what IGR Corp does? What kind of a company it is?”

“Some kind of a tech company?” Arkady said. She vaguely remembered Sana saying something about that when they got the gig. She hadn’t really been paying attention to the details.

Liu nodded. “Smart technology – specifically, smart home technology. We produce – I mean, they produce things like smart security systems, smart doorbells, systems that can detect when someone has a medical emergency. Systems that are designed to help keep people safe.”

Arkady had to work to keep from grimacing. She wasn’t sure that being monitored by a computer 24/7 fitted everyone’s definition of ‘safety’, but maybe Liu had never had cause to doubt that the people with power had her best interests at heart. Lucky her.

“But then,” Liu went on, her voice bitter, “I found out that the latest product we were developing – the one that was supposed to make everyone’s lives so much easier, so much better – is being created as a surveillance device. To eavesdrop on people and send their data back to the company. And I know that a lot of smart devices have audio capabilities, but – this was hardwired in. Impossible to disable. And this weird, secretive new division of the company has been set up to process the data.”

“What are they gonna do with it?” Arkady asked.

“Who knows,” Liu said. “They could be collecting it for the government, but – I think it’s more likely they’re just planning to sell it on to the highest bidder.”

Arkady’s eyes narrowed, and she wished that Sana had brought the drinks already so that she’d have something to down.

“You know,” Liu said, her voice suddenly much softer. “I, uh. I still haven’t thanked you properly for, uh, well-”

“O-kay!” came Sana’s voice, loudly, as she finally arrived at their table carrying a small tray laden with glasses. “Sorry for the delay, guys, there was a heck of a crowd up at the bar. Also, the bartender was really interested in talking to me while he pulled these drinks.” She made a wry expression, her dimple deepening in one cheek. “Cheer up, ‘Kady, I’ve got your favourite-” She slid a pint glass of raspberry ale in front of Arkady.

“Thanks,” Arkady mumbled, not looking at Liu.

Red Gregor arrived not long after, having apparently evaded IGR Corp by pretending that he was going outside to look for the band, and then driving off with the equipment before anyone realised what was happening. Sana passed him a drink from the tray; no-one asked how she already knew his preferred drink order.

“So look,” said Arkady, after they’d done some small talk and toasted to a successful getaway (Sana’s idea, of course). “Not that we didn’t appreciate the save earlier – you had pretty good timing – but why’d you go to all the trouble of coming to an IGR Corp function just to hear us play? How did you even get in?”

“I know a lot of people,” Red Gregor said mysteriously, with a fluid shrug. “As for why I came – you probably don’t know this, but I’ve been getting into the music biz lately.”

Arkady tried to remember what ‘biz’ Red Gregor had been in before, and couldn’t. He was one of those people who seemed to do a bit of everything.

“That’s awesome!” said Krejjh, looking delighted. “Are you going to start a band? Or manage one?”

Red Gregor smiled. “Actually, neither. I’m starting a record label,” he said. “And I want to sign you guys to it.”

Liu choked on her drink; Jeeter said, “Wow, really?” and even Sana looked taken aback. Clearly this hadn’t been the answer she was expecting.

“Us?” she said, as if Gregor could have meant anyone else. “As in…” She gestured around the table, including Liu.

Red Gregor nodded. “Look, your new sound is like nothing I’ve ever heard from a band before,” he said. “Campbell has always spoken highly of you guys, and I really liked your originals the last time I heard you perform. But with this new line-up? I think you could become really big. If that’s something that you want, of course.”

Sana sat back in her chair, looking thoughtful, while Krejjh looked practically ready to vibrate out of theirs with excitement. “That would be a pretty big step for us,” she said. “Not that we wouldn’t love – more exposure, better opportunities-”

“Gigs in legal venues?” put in Jeeter.

“More above-the-board performances,” agreed Sana. “But we’ve only played once with this new line-up. We don’t know for sure if we can replicate that – and I mean, we’d be asking Violet to just drop everything and join us full-time-”

Red Gregor held up his hands. “Like I said, it’s completely up to you,” he said. “I’m not here to pressure you into something you’re not ready for. But don’t underestimate yourselves. I wouldn’t be offering if I didn’t have faith in you guys.”

Sana looked around the table, taking in the mixture of expressions, ranging from Krejjh’s eagerness to Liu’s uncertainty to Arkady’s… Arkady didn’t know what her face was doing. “We’ll have to put it to a vote,” she said, predictably. “And if any of you need more time to think this over-”

“I’m in!” Krejjh said instantly. “We rocked tonight! I want to keep on rocking that hard. And we should totally record an album.”

Jeeter smiled fondly. “I’m on board with anything that will let me keep playing the keytar,” he admitted. “And I thought we sounded pretty awesome, as well.”

Sana looked at Liu. “Violet, you’re the one who this would be the biggest change for,” she said. “The rest of us are already playing in a band full-time. Well, with the odd side gig,” she added, because yeah, they did not yet make enough money from performing to cover the bills. “You barely know us, and you’re not under any obligation to stick around – or to switch careers.”

Liu gave a slightly broken laugh. “Well, I don’t really think I can go back to my old one,” she said. “That option evaporated as soon as one of my colleagues pulled a gun on me. Not… sure I’ve really had time to process that yet.”

Sana nodded. “If it’s too soon-”

“But no amount of processing is going to make my situation any different,” Liu went on. “I could try to get another job in my field, but… IGR Corp is a pretty well-known company. Word’s going to get around that I’m untrustworthy, especially if they put it about that I tried to steal corporate secrets.”

“They can’t do that,” Sana said immediately. “I used to do some union work; whistleblowing is a protected activity, and it’s against the law for them to blacklist you – to make it more difficult for you to obtain future employment.”

Liu smiled slightly. “I don’t think IGR Corp are too concerned with breaking the law,” she pointed out. “I appreciate it, but… this isn’t my first experience with a hostile work environment.”

Okay, so maybe Arkady should take back her earlier thought about Liu never having had cause to distrust the people in power.

“Besides, I haven’t even blown the whistle on them yet – I’m not sure if the information I have is worth anything,” Liu said, a little grimly. “And anyway… I think it’s time for a clean slate. So, if you’ll have me… I’m in.”

Which just left Arkady. She could see how pleased Sana was that Liu was willing to join the band full-time, even though she was trying to hide it. Krejjh and Jeeter, too, were excited – and not just at the prospect of getting better gigs and earning more money (though that was a very appealing prospect).

The fact was, Red Gregor was right – they’d sounded like a completely new band during their performance. Arkady had always liked their stuff (of course she did; she’d even co-written some of it) but the new sound gave it a flair she hadn’t even realised it had been missing. As much as she couldn’t help thinking of the dozens of ways this could go wrong, she wanted them to keep sounding like that. She wanted to see what else they could do.

“‘Kady?” asked Sana.

Arkady took a deep breath. “Sure. Let’s do this.”

[coruscantexpat]

Bonds Unbroken - Chapter 1: Then

Jazala Paldos' initial impression of Belsavis was... less than positive.

She quickened her pace to keep her fellow petty officers in sight. The thick snow slowed their steps, but visibility was low enough that losing track of her squad was a reality. Jazala trudged forward, squinting through the faceplate of her helmet. Lieutenant Sallon had ensured the squad their target, one of the rare temperate zones dotting the ice planet, was less than fifty klicks from the shuttle's landing zone, but Jazala hadn't seen any signs of the weather changing. If anything, it had worsened, the snowfall slowly becoming a snowstorm. If they didn't reach the temperate zone soon, there was a chance they could be forced to turn back to the shuttle and wait for conditions to improve, or worse, find themselves trapped in a blizzard with little cover besides their winter gear.

The winter camouflage-clad figure to her right staggered, tripping over something beneath the snow or the shin-high drifts themselves, and fell to one knee with a grunt. Jazala swung out of formation long enough to put a hand under the officer's arm and help him to his feet, returning to her position as smoothly as the snow allowed. Her comrade hurried to catch up and turned his dark-tinted faceplate toward her, wrapped head-tails swinging as he nodded. His thickly accented Basic was tinny through the microphone in his helmet. "Thanks, Jaz."

She gave him a playful two-fingered salute with the hand not holding a blaster rifle. "Remind me never to take you dancing, Deek. Two left feet so bad you can't even walk straight." Though she was unable to see through his faceplate, Jezala could imagine the Twi'lek's golden face and lopsided smile, an expression he wore often. Dekar Sana was her first and closest friend since being assigned aboard the Harbinger a year ago. Perpetually cheerful, aggressively friendly, and seemingly laconic to a fault off duty, Dekar was also one of the squad's most proficient marksmen and the most talented hand-to-hand combatant among them, likely due to a rough childhood on Ryloth. A kind heart housed in a deadly machine.

Dekar returned the salute, flicking a lekku in her direction to further mock her. "You know you'd never be able to handle these moves." He kicked out at the nearest snowdrift. "It's all this white druk. We don't have it on Ryloth." Jazala had grown up on Coruscant where it did snow and she still had to agree with him. The snow on Belsavis made winter on her home planet look like a mildly chilly afternoon. Dekar continued to grouse at the snow, as if he could clear his path forward with the hot air accompanying his complaints. "This VIP had better be worth it. We could have been in the cantina by now, a pint of juma juice in each hand." He mimed holding a glass in his free hand and raised his arm above his head with a flourish.

Jazala chuckled, but, again, it was hard to disagree with her friend. The Harbinger had been bound for Telos and its orbiting Citadel Station, where the crew had expected to spend a week on leave while the ship was refueled and repaired, but Captain Donshe had announced the diversion to Belsavis two solar days ago, citing orders from on high. There was scuttlebutt among the enlisted crew that the order came from an admiral, but the commissioned officers had been tight-lipped about the details. Sallon had only mentioned the squad was here to pick up an "informant" for the Republic on the shuttle ride down.

As if her thoughts were a summons, Sallon's voice cut in over the communicator, his gruff Alderaanian-accented Basic commanding the squad's attention. "Target's in sight. Tighten up formation and pick up the pace, but no aggressive moves. These are our people here." Dekar turned his head toward Jazala and she could almost see the raised eyebrow through the tinted faceplate. Sallon had mentioned that there was a Republic scientific outpost here, but nothing more than that. She shrugged and squinted ahead, barely making out Sallon's back at the head of the formation. Past him, trees loomed in the distance; dark indistinct shapes against the increasingly heavy snowfall - the first sign of life Jazala had seen since the shuttle landed. She even thought it felt a little warmer now - marginally, but still noticeable. She gestured at Dekar and the two quickened their pace to match the other officers.

Twenty minutes of sluggish sprinting later, the squad arrived at the temperate zone and Jazala realized how any part of Belsavis' frozen surface could be hospitable. Several geothermal vents marred the ground, spewing enough hot air to raise the temperature substantially. Snow continued to fall, but melted on contact with the short scrub covering the ground. Several temporary plast-cast structures were scattered around a small clearing formed by the trees and two vents; a handful of people in light winter gear milled around between the buildings, freezing as they noticed the squad approaching. One of the figures, a human, caught a shorter duros and leaned toward her, then the duros darted into the largest structure. Sallon gestured for the squad to halt and slung his blaster rifle across his shoulders, reaching up to release the clamps of his helmet and remove it. The other officers followed suit. Jazala attached her helmet to her belt and fished a tie out of one of her vest pockets, finger-combing her dark curls into a bun and securing it in place. Next to her, Dekar pulled his helmet free, but left his lekku covered, and turned in a circle, taking in their surroundings. His movements were unhurried, but his green eyes analyzed everything. "Well, I guess I can see why someone would want to set up out here." He crouched next to one of the vents and put a hand out toward it, immediately snatching it back with a hiss.

Jazala laughed, reaching out to inspect his hand. "What did you expect, dummy?" Dekar had the sense to look sheepish, giving one of his lekku a self-conscious scratch. His glove was still warm to the touch, but appeared to be undamaged. Jazala released him and wagged a finger. "No touching." He rolled his eyes and bumped her with his shoulder, an action she copied with just a hint more force. Before Dekar could retaliate, the duros reappeared from the large structure, another human man following her. His eyes widened as he took in the armed soldiers, but he took Sallon's hand with little hesitation when the former held it out.

Sallon, ever the diplomat, kickstarted the exchange. "I apologize for the intrusion, Dr...?"

"Sotaris, Kyne Sotaris." Jazala's ears pricked at the familiar Coruscant accent. He glanced over the rest of the squad again before returning focus to Sallon. "I'm sorry, but we weren't expecting the Republic to send troops for..." He trailed off into a tense silence. Jazala felt for him; having a group of Republic soldiers descend unannounced probably wasn't the way Sotaris had expected his day to go.

Sallon resumed control over the conversation. "We're not here to disrupt your work, Dr. Sotaris. Republic Command is seeking an individual associated with an ongoing investigation, and there have been reports that she has taken shelter here at your project." Sotaris blinked owlishly at him, causing Jazala to chuckle inwardly. Sallon never was good with civilians. The lieutenant cleared his throat, seeming to realize the awkward approach, and started again. "Sorry. I'm Lieutenant Carrus Sallon, of the Harbinger. We've been sent to retrieve a witness for questioning, a woman, and we believe she may be here."

Realization dawned on Sotaris' face, though he quickly suppressed it, and he exchanged a glance with the duros. She muttered something under her breath, too quick for Jazala to catch, and Sotaris turned back to the lieutenant. "Is she... in any kind of trouble?" Jazala tensed, sensing rather than seeing Dekar do the same at her side. An inter-Republic fight would do nothing for either side, but if the scuttlebutt was accurate, there was no backing out of this until the squad had retrieved their target.

None of this was lost on Sallon, and, for once, he went for the more tactful route. "Not to my knowledge. However, the Republic believes she has invaluable, and time-sensitive, information." When Sotaris continued to hesitate, the lieutenant changed tack. "Dr. Sotaris... Kyne. I can't tell you why the Republic wants to question her, but I can promise that she won't be harmed."

The duros chattered at Sotaris, but he cut her off gently by putting a hand on her shoulder. He eyed Sallon for a long moment, then leaned down to the duros and murmured something, squeezing her shoulder gently. The duros protested, but Sotaris shook his head and patted her once before releasing her. "Retrieve our guest, please." She hesitated, but ducked back into the plast-cast building. He glanced back at Sotaris, arms crossed and mouth a tense line. "She showed up a week ago - apparently, she rode in on the last supply ship - and offered to help out with the project. She's a drifter, Lieutenant Sallon. I don't think she'll have the information you're looking for."

"That'll be for Command to decide," Sallon replied, his stiff formality returning. Sotaris' mouth thinned even further at the lieutenant's tone. Jazala fidgeted with a loose coil of hair and glanced sideways at Dekar. The twi'lek's eyes were hard and his stance was fluid, ready to move. She flashed a quick hand signal at him and he nodded, forcing himself to relax a little. The duros reemerged, looking as irritated as her boss, with a slender woman following her. Chin-length brown hair, bangs parted to the right; blue-gray eyes; fair-skinned; indeterminate age anywhere from mid-twenties to late thirties: in appearance, the woman was conventionally pretty, but no more so than many others in the Republic. Though she dressed in the same light outerwear the research crew wore, Jazala immediately noticed the difference between them and their guest. The way she carried herself, the way she moved, was too fluid, too controlled; the woman had been trained to fight, though she was somewhat out of practice. A bit too much weight behind her steps, a slight stiffness in her shoulders. Regardless, Jazala recognized the woman's walk from her childhood.

As Sallon moved forward to greet the woman, Jazala leaned toward Dekar. "I think she's a Jedi."

Full chapter on AO3 and FFN.

[visions-skam]

CHAPTER 4

friday, october 28 who dat boy-tyler, the creator (ft. a$ap rocky) The three teenagers piled into Yousef’s rickety Jeep and sped off. It was still fairly early, only eleven o’clock, but they were all tired and ready to go home. Elias flicked the radio to a hip-hop station. They talked and laughed for about fifteen minutes until the car started making a ticking noise and then sputtered to a stop. They groaned in unison. By now, they were used to Yousef’s perpetual car troubles. Elias instinctively fished a roll of silver duct tape from the glove compartment and he and Yousef got out. When they lifted the hood of the car, thick smoke erupted into their faces. Their lungs constricted as they coughed and fanned the air in front of them. After they’d been working for a minute or so, Sana joined them outside. “What’s the problem this time?” she asked. Yousef shook his head. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like duct tape is gonna fix this one.” They stood quietly. Moonlight filtered through the trees, towering evergreens that dwarfed the group. The autumn wind whistled loudly, and they pulled their jackets tighter. Crickets chirped. A howl sounded in the distance. Sana looked around at the unfamiliar dirt road. The landscape seemed eerily familiar, but she knew she’d never been there before. “Yousef, where are we?” “I-I took a shortcut,” Yousef stuttered. “We’re near Chino Hills. I think.” “Should we call our parents?” Elias asked. “No,” Sana replied. “They left for that wedding in Fresno tonight, remember? They’re probably asleep in a hotel.” She turned to Yousef. “My parents went to the same one,” Yousef said defeatedly. “They’re probably a hundred miles away by now.” Elias tapped on his phone. “Well, there’s a gas station about a mile from here. We should start walking.” They agreed that Sana would stay and guard the car (as if anyone would steal that piece of junk anyway). She climbed back inside, locked the doors, and blasted music, trying to distract herself from the creepy landscape (and the fact that her brother and his best friend were walking alone in it). Slowly, thoughts of her dream lurked back into her brain. She hadn’t thought about it for the whole night, and it had been satisfying to temporarily forget about it. As the minutes passed, paranoia subjugated her consciousness. Sana realized where she had seen this forest before. The dream had taken place in a forest like this one. What if this was the place where… she couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought. She scrolled through social media absent-mindedly, glancing out the window every few seconds to watch for danger. The rhythm oscillating through the car submerged her pessimism. Her kohl-streaked eyelids fluttered shut. _

Yousef and Elias trudged forward on the hard-packed dirt. They were chatting animatedly about something that had happened in the locker room before lacrosse practice the previous day. “Man, did you see how Julian fucking decked him? Right in the face over some crazy shit,” Elias said, laughing. “Probably over who gets more girls or whose parents donated more money to Donald Trump’s campaign,” Yousef joked. Their buoyant laughter ascended to the heavens. The boys were about a quarter of a mile from the car when they noticed a figure in the trees. They saw only its silhouette, lit from behind by the silver rays of the moon, and two icy eyes. The boys exchanged an alarmed glance but kept walking. The creature followed them along the perimeter of the road. After a few moments, it stepped into the starlight filtering through the trees. Now it was fully visible. It was about waist height. The animal had thick, slate-colored fur, with white patches under its eyes. It stood confidently and stared at them. “You see that too, right?” Yousef started. “Either that weed from the party is getting in my system or that’s…” “... a wolf,” Elias breathed. His speech made clouds in the air. At that, the wolf snarled, displaying sharp canine teeth. The boys began to turn around and walk back in the direction of the car. The wolf growled again, louder this time. “I don’t think it likes us,” Elias whispered, eyes trained anxiously on the wolf. A sense of urgency sped up their strides. This seemed to anger the wolf even more, and it followed them. Their feet were pounding the ground now. The wolf broke into a run. “I knew we should’ve just taken the normal route home,” Yousef panted. Elias rolled his eyes. “Then why didn’t you?” he responded. The animal was gaining on them rapidly. While both boys were in shape, their speed was no match for that of the wolf. _

Sana had just dozed off when frenetic knocking on the car window roused her. She rubbed her eyes and turned on the overhead light. She peered out the window and saw Yousef. Sana opened the door. “Unlock the doors, Sana! Open them, quick!” Yousef was yelling, and his eyes were bright with fear. Sana reached to the driver’s seat door and unlocked the car. “What? What’s going on?” she asked in a panicky voice. Her brow creased with worry. Yousef didn’t answer and hoisted himself into the seat next to Sana. “We were almost to the gas station,” he said, breathing heavily, “and then-and then a wolf came out of nowhere and it-it started chasing us.” “What?” Sana was scared now. “You’re telling me that we’re stranded in the woods with a car that won’t start in a part of Beacon Hills we’ve neverbeen in with parents who are in another city and a wolf is after you and Elias?” Yousef paused. "Well, when you put it that way, it seems kind of grim." Sana sighed exasperatedly. "Great," she muttered. Her eyes darted around the car, as if noticing for the first time that Elias wasn’t in it. “Where’s-” A piercing howl interrupted her. The two looked up in unison, and what they saw on the road ahead congealed the blood in their veins. The wolf stood unflinchingly, paws planted firmly on Elias. Its head was inclined to the star-spangled sky. Elias was clawing at the ground in a futile attempt to crawl from under the weight of the wolf. Tears pricked at Sana’s eyes for the second time in a week. She buried her head in Yousef’s chest, unable to watch her brother get ripped to shreds. Yousef flinched in surprise. She was so close that he could feel her pounding heartbeat through their clothes. I'm sure she doesn't realize that she's this close to me, he thought. Hmm, she smells so good. What is that, roses? Focus! Your best friend is being attacked by a wolf! Yousef tentatively placed a hand on Sana's shoulder to comfort her. “I can’t do this,” Sana said. Her words were garbled. “I can’t watch Elias die. God, this is all my fault. I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so, so sorry.” Yousef thought to ask her why she felt like she was to blame, but the wolf howled again and relinquished its triumphant mount atop Elias’ abdomen. Elias scrambled to his feet and began walking slowly to the car. The wolf circled him. Elias and the wolf were engaged in a bizarre dance. Elias learned the steps quickly. The wolf would allow him to take a few steps forward and then would catch up with him. Elias figured that he could do this until he got to the car. After a while, the creature stopped following him. Sana and Yousef breathed a sigh of relief. Elias reached the car and crept cautiously toward the side door. He was so close. Just a few more steps, he thought, and then I’m safe. Then we can all go home. In a split second, the wolf lunged for him. It curled nimble claws around Elias’ leg and yanked him to the ground. Unmitigated terror contorted Yousef’s smile into a grimace. Sana was frozen, unable to look away. Alabaster moonlight illuminated the gruesome scene. Time progressed at a snail’s pace. Before Elias could even process what was happening, pain exploded in his left arm. A scream emitted from his lips like a siren. Sana and Yousef observed in shock. They expected the wolf to devour him on the spot. Instead, it howled again at the stars, revealing bloody incisors. It took a last look at its victim and then slunk away, as if ashamed of harming him. When Sana and Yousef were certain that it wasn’t coming back for more, they sprung out of the car and ran to Elias. By the time they were there, Elias was standing in a small pool of his own blood with a baffled expression on his face. His left arm, the arm the wolf had just sunk its teeth into, was barely bruised. He turned away from his sister and friend. The wolf was still plodding down the road. He faced the others again. Sana’s jaw dropped. “Didn’t that wolf just-” “Yeah,” Elias interrupted. “Yeah, it did.” He shook his head in disbelief. The three of them peered down the lane again. The wolf turned back to them. Right before their eyes, it began to transform. The thick fur blanketing its body was replaced with skin. Its bone structure contorted. Fangs and claws retracted into fingernails, toenails, teeth. It stood upright. Blonde hair curled gently around a masculine face. It was a man. The wolf had become a man.

notes: thank you for reading! please comment, like, and reblog if you enjoyed this chapter!

[crystalelemental]

I think it's been long enough to make some final judgment calls on HSiFS.

I really like it.  I kinda came into this one getting vibes of MoF just in terms of concept and all, and it does feel fairly similar between the simplistic resource collection method, and the season release being reminiscent of the "bomb to survive but lose power" mechanic.  I actually love how the game plays, even though the release mechanic has spoiled me terribly.

Music has been really good this game.  I like a lot of the boss themes, most notably Eternity, Okina (final, not extra), and especially Narumi's themes. They're really good.  I think Narumi's is a strong contender for one of my favorites in the series.  Every time I get to her boss fight the theme is stuck in my head the rest of the day.

As for cast...let's start protagonists.  Reimu is Reimu.  I have little to really update on her so far.  Cirno...okay, fine, she's an endearing protagonist.  She's so simple and goofy, and I did wind up loving most of her dialogue exchanges. I'm still grumpy there's no Sanae, or any other character with a blatant seasonal affiliation as a playable option, but Cirno did good work.  Aya I have gotten the least amount of progress with.  Her shot type, I think, is straight-up the worst one.  Weaker than Marisa, barely much spread, and her bomb covers less distance than Reimu or Cirno; just not a great option overall.  Still really like her, though. Her investigation into things is fun, and her interactions with Nemuno are particularly great.

That said, Marisa is the standout victor of protagonists this time.  I'm talking "jumped probably 20 places in my own popularity rankings" winner.  Within the core story, she's solving the incident, comes across Okina who wants to recruit her as a Mai/Satono replacement, and Marisa rejects the offer and the fight begins.  However, at the end of the fight, Marisa's the one who ran off and effectively lost.  But she comes back with understanding of how Okina's power works (after knowing about it for, what, 10 minutes?), and had enough comprehension of it to duplicate the power but with an added variation that represents the border of seasons associated with the world losing vitality, and challenges Okina again solely because Okina's power is magic-based and she doesn't want to lose to anyone in magic.  If there's any establishing moment for Marisa's character in this game, that's it right there, and it's wonderful.  It's such a good showing of her abilities and how she is as a person.  She acknowledges her first match against Okina as a loss, but aims to override that loss with her new countermeasures.  It kinda reminds me of that one occurrence in the manga, where she declares proudly that she's the #2 in Gensokyo.  There's a nice mix of humility and pride in the whole exchange, where Marisa is able to acknowledge the first round as her loss, but is still confident in her abilities and aims to win now.   It's a really great scenario.

And now, the important part: the new cast.  How do I rank everyone?  Well, let's go reverse order and find out.

Nemuno - look, I have nothing against Nemuno.  She's just not my type of character.  On the positive end, I, too, just wish to be left alone, and want everyone else to just get the hell off my lawn.  She's an interesting character in that regard, being completely isolated socially and wanting it that way.  That's a great basis.  She's also the type of character with a gruff exterior but a sweet interior, being willing to let people leave with a warning rather than killing them in most cases, and apparently will adopt lost kids and raise them.  As far as positives go, she's pretty fun.  I just don't have much attachment to her.  She's the kind of person that I'd love as a neighbor, but that's because we'd never have to interact.  There's nothing particularly interesting going on with her for me, so while I have no strong downsides, I don't have strong positive feelings either.

Okina - Surprise!   Yes, Okina is not a particularly high-ranked character for me yet.   Let's start positive.  Her power, while complicated and hard to understand, does have relation to the seasons.  It seems the powers she opens up are related to seasonal powers, and that this draws out the magical potency of people for her to absorb and take control of.   Somehow.  The mechanics of it all are unclear, but seasonal control is cool, so that's nice.  She's also one of the sages that helped build Gensokyo, putting her in a pretty exclusive category alongside Yukari and probably Kasen.  She's also very direct in her approach to things despite staying mostly hidden from the world, serving as a pretty nice contrast to Yukari, who tends to be well-known but hard to understand.   She has excellent lore significance, is a fascinating character...but I just can't really like her.  While Nemuno is a character I like who just misses the mark, Okina is one that hits the mark but is kinda hard for me to like.  A lot of it has to do with Marisa's route.  She chooses her subordinates on her own whims, ignores their consent or rejection of the role, and is willing to toss away said subordinates whenever she's done with them.  I know there's implication that she's aiming to release Satono and Mai back to being just ordinary humans to live out their lives, but I don't get the sense that she's the type of character who would give a shit. If she still had use for them, I doubt she'd consider replacing them.  Her description says that, as a god, she bestows blessings on those who show faith, but we really only have Satono and Mai to go off of right now.  Given their current situation, it seems like the "blessings" are granting power to further serve her, without really giving the subordinate a whole lot of choice.  None of her actions sit particularly well with me.  She does what she wants, and doesn't seem to have a ton of regard for others' agency.  There's a very real possibility that, when she inevitably shows up again, aspects of her character will be explored that will make me like her more. But right now, she's a character I find fascinating, but don't particularly like.

Aunn - Double suprise!  Yes, the good pupper is bottom half.  She's precious and adorable, and I do like her a lot.   She's generally just a swell, positive character.   But I also don't feel as much attachment as everyone else does?  It's weird.  Like, she's great.  Anyone telling me that she was their favorite is not someone I would argue with, because they're making a good choice.  I am just not as invested in her.  Maybe it’s her design not being that interesting.  Maybe it’s that I don’t really like dogs that much.  Maybe it's because her non-spells are the biggest source of irritation for me because I wind up using bombs out of a panicked sense of needing to avoid deaths until stage 4, only to reach stage 4 without enough resources to avoid dying for long.  Who knows.

Mai then Satono - I feel like this list is going to be just full of surprises, and this might be the most surprising of all for people.   Yes, Mai and Satono are pretty high up there for me right now.  For anyone wondering why Satono is ranked a bit above Mai, it's entirely based on design.  I like her color scheme better.  As for why the two are higher ranked than most, it...really comes down to the fact that they actually exuded a personality.  They're very clearly just an extension of Okina, and Okina is likely how they even have power in the first place, so they're not independent at all.  But thankfully, they still function as characters.  They don't feel like they're just extensions of another character, you know?  Mai is, as Satono expresses, a scatterbrain, who is quick to act and seems to enjoy herself, but not particularly thorough or careful in her actions. Satono, by comparison, is a bit more composed and cautious.  We don't even see her until we're already in the hidden world, despite both of them being active in the incident.  She also seems to be the one getting direct information from Okina, so whether that implies she's the more trustworthy of the two or not, I don't know, but that's how I choose to interpret it.  Their personalities shine through, and they're clearly extensions of Okina overall, but it makes me wonder about them as people.  I think that, of the cast, they're actually the characters I want to see more of the most.  I'm curious how they came to work for Okina; whether they're her first subordinates, whether it was voluntary or coerced, what their whole take on this is. Their character descriptions mention that, even if they knew Okina was seeking replacements, they'd probably still go through with the search.  Is that because they can't go against Okina, want to make their god pleased even if it means stepping down from their role, or would they be happy to leave the service?  There's a lot of speculation, and just enough to catch my interest, so they get particularly high marks.  Also, just as the added confound: I really like their boss fight.  There are some things that are bullshit, but I think their fights are fun.

Narumi - God I love Narumi.  First off, anyone classified as a magician is automatically great in my book.  Second, she's a living statue that is, quite literally, just the statue.  She's described as more like a golem, and that's awesome.  Third, she's just precious.  Both in her simple design and her actions, she is precious.  She gets so worked up from Mai's influence that she's ready to test her full power, but at the same time she's very passive as a person.  I think my favorite interaction with her is in Marisa's 1CC ending.  Marisa expresses that the culprit escaped, and Narumi's response is just "Wow, you let them get away?   Laaaame."  Not to mention her reaction to finding the door on her back is "Huh.  Talk about creepy."  Narumi is super chill, super cute, and just great all-around.  That being said...

Eternity Larva - Behold, the first time in this series that the stage 1 boss wound up being my favorite, and what a favorite she is.  I'll be frank: I generally love the fairies.  They're a fun group of characters, and their associations with different aspects of nature is the exact kind of thing I tend to gravitate toward.  I'm also generally a big fan of their designs.  Even ones that I don't rank particularly high I think have fantastic designs, and Eternity is no exception.  I love the butterfly theme she's got going on.  Eternity is also a big helper.  She gets worked up with the incident, sure, but her reaction to it for Reimu is, at first, an offer to help. She's just a friendly fairy, who can still be a bit of a troublemaker.  Her reaction to Cirno is to fight her for who gets dominion over summer.  Her banter is fantastic there, and as stage 1 bosses go, she's just very charming, if not very involved. But then we get Cirno's extra stage, where it turns out that Eternity's door is associated with doyou, that border between seasons, and that she's implied to be (unknowingly) a god that's specifically opposed to Okina.  Her designation is apparently also translated to a god of perpetual darkness, likely because of that association with doyou.  I think that qualifies as, bar none, the most history and involvement a stage 1 boss has ever received.  Hell, that's more than some late-game bosses get.  She's just the right combination of things I wanted: great design, fun character, and surprising lore development.  I love this butterfly fairy, and I hope very strongly to see her pop up in Visionary Fairies in Shrine.

[reviewsandrecaps]

Recap: An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes #1)

Synopsis:  Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Characters: Laia Scholar. Her mom was the leader of the Resistance. Someone inside the Resistance betrayed her parents. They were captured by Keris, the Commandant, and taken to Kauf with their oldest daughter. There they were killed by the Commandant. Laia was raised by her grandparents along with her brother, Darin. After a Mask takes Darin and kills their grandparents, Laia joins the Resistance and infiltrates Blackcliff in exchange for help freeing her brother. Laia later learns that Mazen, the leader of the Resistance, never planned to help her save Darin. Laia rescues Elias from execution on the condition that he help her rescue Darin. He agrees and they escape Blackcliff together. Elias Mask. Son of the Commandant. He was raised by Tribesmen until he was selected for training at Blackcliff. His grandfather took him in when his mother wouldn't. Elias hates Blackcliff, and planned to desert after graduation, but Cain told him he'd never be truly free if he deserted. Elias was selected for the Trials. He failed the last Trial and was supposed to be executed, but Laia saved him. Together, they escape Blackcliff. Helene Aquilla The only female student at Blackcliff. Elias' best friend. She comes in second place in the Trials, making her Blood Shrike. She's in love with Elias and terrified of Marcus. After swearing fealty to Marcus as Emperor at the end of the Trials, Helene tells Elias they can no longer be friends. They're enemies. Darin Scholar. Laia's brother. Darin was spying on the smith Spiro Teluman. He wanted to learn to create weapons that Scholars could use to fight the Empire. Spiro caught him, and instead of turning him over to the Empire, he made him his apprentice. He helped Darin forge weapons for Scholars. Darin had a sketchbook where he kept notes about making scims. The Empire somehow found out about it and a Mask came to take Elias away. He's taken to prison, and eventually moved to Kauf – the worst prison in the Empire. Laia is determined to break him out. Izzi A slave in the Commandant's house. She was there since she was five. Her first punishment was the Commandant taking her eye. She was punished after Cook tried to poison the Commandant. Izzi is Laia's friend. When Keenan gives Laia a way to escape, but says she can't bring anyone else, Laia decides to find her own way with Elias. She gives Keenan's escape route to Laia. Cook Infiltrated the Commandant's home for the Resistance. She tried to poison the Commandant's tea, and the Commandant caught her. The Commandant destroyed her face and took Izzi's eye as punishment. Cook hates the Resistance, warns Laia not to trust them. She knew Laia's parents. Laia never found out her real name or who she was in the Resistance. Spiro Teluman A Martial swordsmith. He makes scims. His family is known for having the most talented smiths. He used to make swords for the Empire, but he now secretly crafts weapons for the Resistance. The reason the Empire overtook the Scholars in the first place was because they had superior weapons, made of Serric steel. Spiro is trying to level the playing field by removing that advantage. Sana Resistance. Leader of an older faction of Resistance fighters, mostly people who were around when Laia's mother was in charge. She wants to do things differently than Mazen. Mazen imprisons her because he thought she was getting in the way of his Revolution. Keenan wants to free her so she can warn other Resistance faction leaders that the Revolution is doomed to fail. Keenan Resistance. He's originally in Mazen's faction, but meets Laia and sees Mazen's true nature when he uses her and orders him to kill her. He has feelings for Laia, but also feels indebted to her father for saving his life when he was a child. He feels like he has to protect her. Mazen Leader of the Resistance. Total dick. Promised to get Darin out of prison in exchange for Laia's help. He sent her on what he thought would be a suicide mission and never planned on helping Laia free Darin. Cain The Augur who selected Elias for training at Blackcliff. Seems to be the main Augur. Marcus Emperor. Zak's twin. Has a weird, creepy obsession with Helene. He thinks she belongs to him because he saw it in a dream. He's sadistic and not fit to be Emperor. Zak Marcus' twin. He calmed Marcus down, made Marcus more bearable. Marcus killed him in the Third Trial. Commandant In charge of Blackcliff. The only living female Mask. Elias' mother. Sadistic AF. Disfigures or kills most of her slaves. Hates Elias' father, but Elias doesn't know why or who he is. Afya Ara-Nur The only female chieftain among the Tribes. Her tribe carries weapons to the Marinn branch of the Scholars' Resistance. She gave Elias a token and promised that her tribe would help him when he needs it. Nightbringer The leader of the jinn. The Nightbringer allied himself with the Martials with the intent of destroying the Scholars. The Nightbringer infiltrated the Resistance – took human form and posed as a fighter. It manipulated and used Laia's mother. The Nightbringer had help – a traitor. Together they sold Laia's parent's to the Commandant.

Terms: Aspirant The four Masks chosen for the Trials. Augur Martial holy-men. There are fourteen. Immortals who can see the future and read minds. Blackcliff The Mask training school. Black Guard They ensure loyalty from the military. Blood Shrike Leader of the Black Guard, right hand of the Emperor, second most powerful man in the Empire. Illustrians Martial upper class. Kauf The worst Martial prison. Marinners People from the free country Marinn. Martials The Empire. Have superior weapons.  Mask Superior Martial warriors. Trained at Blackcliff. Mercators Martial merchant class. old creatures Jinns, efrits, ghuls, and wraiths. Creatures that were believed to be myths. Scholar The Scholar Empire was once home of the best libraries and universities in the world until the Martials conquered Scholar lands five hundred years ago. Since then, they've oppressed and enslaved the Scholars. scim A Martial weapon.  Trials The Augurs select Aspirants from Blackcliff to compete in the Trials. The Trials are used to select a new Emperor and Blood Shrike. Tribesmen Their desert-territory is an Empire protectorate.

Recap:  Laia's brother, Darin, comes home late again. Laia has seen what's in his sketchbook: Martial weapons, forges,  formulas, instructions. He says she can't tell anyone. She asks if he's working for the Empire. The Empire killed their parents and sister. He hears a raid coming, promises her he doesn't work for the Empire. He says to hide the sketchbook; that's what they're looking for. She hides it. They see the soldiers have brought a Mask.

Elias is hiding supplies in the catacombs. He has one day until he graduates from Blackcliff. Helene, his best friend, finds him. He's supposed to be looking for a deserter. He feels guilty for not telling her he's planning to desert.

The Mask is going to hurt Laia's grandmother, so she tells them where the sketchbook is to stop him. The Mask questions Darin about the sketchbook, about the Resistance. They're going to take Darin to prison. Their grandfather tries to stop them, and the Mask kills him and their grandmother. The Mask tells the soldiers to take Darin and burn down the house. Darin lunges at the Mask and tells Laia to run. Laia knows he needs her help, but she runs.

Laia doesn't know where to go. Darin told the Mask he'd been in the catacombs. Laia wonders if the Resistance is there. She thinks they might help her rescue Darin. She goes into the catacombs.

At Blackcliff, the Commandant – Elias' mother – executes the captured deserter. This is why Elias wants to leave – he doesn't want to be a part of this.

A group of Resistance fighters finds Laia in the catacombs. They hear a Martial patrol in the tunnels. One of the group, Sana, doesn't want to leave Laia.

Elias and Helene meet up with the rest of their friends in the mess hall. Zak and Marcus, twins who dislike Elias, hear Elias talking about the deserter. Marcus has noticed Elias spending time in the catacombs. He thinks Elias is going to run. He accuses Elias of not really being one of them. Elias goes out into the courtyard. An Augur finds him there.

The Resistance group takes Laia to their hideout. Sana asks why Laia was in the tunnels. Laia says she was looking for them. She needs their help. One of the fighters, Keenan, goes to get their leader, Mazen. Laia tells Mazen about Darin. Mazen says they can't help.

The Augur, Cain, knows Elias wants to desert. Cain asks Elias if he knows about the origin of Blackcliff. Elias does. Five centuries ago, a warrior named Taius destroyed the Scholar Empire and took over most of the continent. He became Emperor. The Augurs had visions that Taius' line would fail. They created Blackcliff to select a new Emperor through the Trials: a series of physical and mental tests. Cain says he won't stop Elias from deserting. Cain says if he deserts, he'll escape, but his enemies will hunt him forever. He'll become evil. If he stays, he'll have the opportunity to break his bond with the Empire forever, he'll have a chance at freedom.

Laia tells Mazen who she is. Mazen knew her parents. Her mother was leader of the Resistance before him. Her parents left the Resistance because they wanted a normal life for their children. Laia and Darin were born after they left. They decided to rejoin the Resistance, but Laia and Darin were too young to go with them, so they were left with their grandparents. Their parents died a year later, betrayed by someone inside the Resistance. Sana wants to help. Mazen says they'll help her if she helps them. He wants her to spy on the Commandant.

It's graduation day. Elias doesn't know if he should trust Cain. After the graduation, the Augurs arrive. Cain says the current Emperor will die without a male heir and a new Emperor will be chosen. The time for the Trials has come. Elias, Helene, Marcus, and Zak have been selected for the Trials. Elias wonders if this is what Cain meant about his destiny, if he's supposed to become Emperor. He doesn't understand how that destiny could lead to freedom. 

Laia is hesitant to accept Mazen's offer. The Commandant lost her personal slave and needs a new one. Mazen says they'll break Darin out after her mission is complete, then come for her. Once they're both free, they can join the Resistance or go to Marinn, the free lands. Laia agrees to do it.

Laia goes with Keenan to prepare. He tells her about the Aspirants and the Trials. They need to know what each Trial is, where it's taking place, and when before each Trial begins.Then Laia is taken to Blackcliff.

Elias' grandfather tells him the Emperor has heard about the Trials and will arrive at Blackcliff within weeks; he isn't going down without a fight. His grandfather gives him Teluman scims, scims produced by the most talented smiths in the Empire. Elias tracks down Helene. She makes him promise to give the Trials everything he's got. She's hiding something, but won't tell Elias what.

Laia is taken to the Commandant. The Commandant shows Laia a wall with pictures of Resistance fighters she hunted down and executed. She says if Laia is working with the Resistance, she'll find out and kill her. Laia parents are on the wall. She never knew who killed her parents; now she does. Another of the Commandant's slaves, a one-eyed girl named Izzi, comes for Laia. Izzi takes Laia to Cook, whose face is a ruin of scars. Laia is late bringing the Commandant her tea, and the Commandant whips her.

Elias' grandfather warns him his mother will try to prevent Elias from winning. Later, Elias is talking to Helene when a slave – Laia – approaches him. The Commandant wants to see him and Helene. They get to the Commandant's office. Marcus and Zak are already there. The Commandant gives them a foretelling from the Augurs. The Augurs will plan and judge four Trials, which will take place at Blackcliff. The Commandant says if they win a Trial, they'll receive a token from the Augurs. If they fail a Trial, they'll be executed. The first Aspirant to win two Trials will be Emperor. The Aspirant who comes in second will be named Blood Shrike. The others will die.

That night, Elias dreams he's in a desert. He realizes it isn't a dream. It's a Trial.

The Commandant gives Laia two letters to deliver. Laia sees that one is addressed to the Emperor. When Laia goes to deliver the letters, she sees Keenan and Sana. They lead her to Mazen. Laia tells them what she's learned about the Trials, but it's old information. She gives them the Commandant's letter to the Emperor and they open it, but it doesn't have any valuable information. She admits she hasn't learned anything. Mazen says they're done and they'll see about getting her out. She begs and Mazen agrees to gives her one more chance.

Elias has six days to reach the belltower at Blackcliff. He starts moving. He hears a voice saying his name. He follows it to a battlefield filled with hundreds of people – all dead. He hears his name again. It's coming from a boy. Elias recognizes him – his first kill. The boy says the battlefield is filled with his kills – past and future. He sees his friends, Demetrius and Leander, and his grandfather. He sees Laia. Elias keeps walking, but the battlefield follows him. He sees Helene and she speaks to him. She's real.

Helene tells him they only have two days left to get back. They keep moving. They don't have much time left when Zak and Marcus attack them. Elias stabs Zak, and he and Marcus run. Elias follows them. He hears them say the Commandant told them to kill them. Elias goes back to Helene. She's hurt. He's scared she's going to die. Helene passes out and Elias carries her the rest of the way. He barely gets to the belltower with Helene in time. His grandfather is there along with Augurs. Elias orders someone to get a physician.

Keenan leads Laia back. He tells her Darin's in Serra and that he isn't well. He still thinks the mission is a terrible idea, but he understands why she's doing it. He doesn't want her to fail. 

Laia delivers the Commandant's letters. The second letter is for the smith Spiro Teluman. The Commandant wanted a response, so Laia goes looking for him. She recognizes the smith's forge and weapons from Darin's drawings. She finds Spiro and delivers the Commandant's letter. He tells her to tell the Commandant he isn't interested. Laia sees shapes in the shadows of the workshop. She thinks they're a hallucination. The darkness, a ghul, turns into Darin. Spiro stabs it with a scim and it falls apart. Laia didn't think ghuls were real. Spiro says not everyone can see them. He says he's changed his mind. He'll consider the Commandant's request. He tells Laia to come back with the Commandant's specs.

When the Commandant comes home, Laia gives her Spiro's message. The Commandant asks why Laia opened the letter to the Emperor. Laia claims it was an accident. The Commandant says she would normally take an eye or a hand for what Laia did, but she doesn't want to disfigure her because Spiro's interested in her. The Commandant cuts Laia with a burning-hot knife.

Helene is alive, but barely. Cain is there and Elias tells him to heal her. Elias says the Farrar twins cheated; the Commandant helped them. Cain admits they can't read the Commandant the way they can most others. Cain says if what Elias claims is true, the balance has been upset and they need to restore it.

Laia passed out, but wakes up in her quarters. There's a K carved into her chest – K for Keris, the Commandant's name. The Commandant wants Laia to get sand for a scrub then take a file to Spiro. When Laia gets to the dunes she starts to cry. Ghuls emerge from the sand. She runs from them, but she runs into someone. Elias.

Blackcliff's physician is taking care of Helene. Marcus was declared winner of the first Trial. Zak tells Cain the Augurs should heal Helene. Cain reads him and says he's seen enough to convince him to heal Helene, but not enough to convince him the Farrar twins cheated. When they leave, Zak warns Elias that jinns, efrits, ghuls, and wraiths – things believed to be myths – are real and coming for them. Elias goes to the dunes. He sees Laia sobbing and batting at empty air. He goes to help her.

Elias asks what the Commandant did to her. She shows him. The wound needs to be treated. She feels dizzy so he carries her back to the Commandant's house. He takes her to Cook and gives her instructions to take care of Laia. He says he'll bring her medicine the next day then leaves. Cook asks Laia about Darin. She says she was calling for him in the night. She asks if he was in the Resistance too. Cook says she was with the Resistance when she came here. The Commandant caught her and disfigured her. Cook asks why Laia joined. Laia tells her everything. Cook knew her parents. Cook says her mother is the reason she's here. She tells Laia not to trust the Resistance.

When Elias gets back to the barracks the lights go out and smoke comes in under the doors. Helene is there. Wraiths appear and disappear in the smoke. Helene says they need to get out of the open. They're forced to climb a cliff. Helene kills a soldier, takes his rappelling gear. Efrits attack them. The rope holding Elias breaks and he falls.

Laia takes the Commandant's specs to Teluman. He asks who she saw when the ghuls came. She tells him. He knew Darin. He caught Darin spying on him and made him his apprentice after he saw his sketchbook, the weapons he'd designed. He taught Darin to make weapons, exceptional Teluman weapons, for the Scholars to use against the Empire. He can't help Darin now. If the Empire learns he took Darin as his apprentice, they'd kill them both. Darin was never working for the Resistance. He didn't trust them. Spiro says as long as he stays in Serra and out of Kauf, he should be fine.

Laia eavesdrops on a conversation between the Commandant and the Nightbringer, a ghul. The Commandant says the Augurs suspect her interference in the Trials. They taught the Farrars to shield their minds. The Nightbringer says Marcus must win, and he has to be able to control him. They talk about when the last two Trials. They'll have a new Emperor in two weeks.

Izzi overheard Laia's conversation with Cook. She knows everything. She offers to help Laia. Laia refuses. She doesn't want her to get hurt.

A few days later, Keenan finds Laia. She tells him she has information and asks about Darin. He says Darin's going to be executed after the new Emperor is named. They agree to meet later that night. 

Elias wakes up in the infirmary. Helene is there and tells him what happened. She protected him until the Second Trial ended. Helene won the Trial. She was rewarded with a vest of Serric steel. The physician removes Elias' bandages. Elias is surprised to see his wounds have healed. The physician says Helene sang while he was unconscious. He thinks her voice healed him. Helene doesn't like the idea of having supernatural abilities, but Elias thinks she saved his life. He promises to keep it a secret.

Elias remembers he told Laia he would bring her medicine for her wound. He asks Helene what happened while he was out. The Emperor is planning his attack on Blackcliff. The Blood Shrike tried to resign, so the Emperor had him executed. Elias thought Blood Shrikes had to serve for life, but Helene says a Blood Shrike can resign if the Emperor agrees to release him from service. Elias wonders if this is what Cain meant by freedom. If Helene wins and becomes Emperor, he could become Blood Shrike and she could release him.

Laia is trying to figure out how to sneak out of the Commandant's house to meet Keenan and the others. Izzi offers to show her a way out of Blackcliff. Laia accepts because she has no other choice.

Elias goes to the Commandant's house to give Laia her medicine. He hears Laia talking to Izzi about sneaking out. Helene followed Elias; she heard the conversation too. Helene wants to report Laia and Izzi to the Commandant. She thinks Laia is nothing, just a slave, but Elias disagrees. Elias knows the Commandant will kill Laia and Izzi if Helene turns them in. He threatens to tell the Commandant about her healing ability. She backs down and leaves. Elias follows Izzi and Laia.

Outside of Blackcliff, there's a festival in Serra. Izzi and Laia decide to enjoy the festival until Keenan finds them. Izzi spots a man watching them. Laia thinks he looks familiar. Keenan finds Laia and takes her to Mazen. She tells him everything she's learned. Mazen doesn't think two weeks will be enough time to get Darin out, unless she can find a secret way into Blackcliff. She agrees to do it, but doesn't understand how a path into Blackcliff will help Darin.

Keenan takes Laia back to the festival. They dance. He tells her he didn't want her to go to Blackcliff because he didn't want to lose her. He owes her father. He saved him after his family died and he was starving and freezing in the streets. 

Elias follows them to the festival. He thinks Laia looks beautiful. He wants to dance with her. While he's watching, Keenan comes and takes Laia away. He's jealous of Keenan. A Tribal woman, Afya Ara-Nur, comes to Elias and they dance and talk. Show knows who he really is. She gives him a token, and tells him that if he ever needs a favor her tribe would be honored to help. When Laia comes back, he goes to her.

Laia doesn't recognize Elias. They dance. He flirts and she laughs. He hears a Martial raid coming. He warns everyone there, then starts guiding Izzi and Laia out. Laia's confused until Izzi recognizes him. He leads them back to Blackcliff through the catacombs and walks them back to the Commandant's house. Izzi goes inside and Elias gives Laia the medicine he promised her. He hears someone coming – the Commandant. He tells Laia to fight him then he grabs her. The Commandant tells him to leave her. The Commandant recognizes Elias. She doesn't believe their display because he's never touched a slave before. 

Helene's avoiding Elias. Cain tells Elias the next Trial will take place in a week, and that he will face a foe. He asks Elias to pass the message along to Helene. He tells her about the Trial then she leaves. Elias runs into Marcus. Marcus he's going to find Helene when Elias isn't around and rape her. Later, Elias asks his other friends to keep an eye on Helene. They agree and one of them, Tristas, tells Elias Helene is in love with him.

Laia takes the Commandant's specs to Spiro. She sees him talking with a woman. Laia recognizes her as the girl Elias was dancing with at the festival – Afya Ara-Nur. She gives Spiro money and leaves. Spiro says Afya is the only female chieftain among the Tribes. Her tribe carries weapons to the Marinn branch of the Scholars' Resistance. Darin made the weapons she's taking. Laia mentions that Darin's going to be executed soon. Spiro is confused. Darin was moved from Central Prison, and that wouldn't have happened if he was going to be executed. Laia doesn't know if she should trust him.

Keenan stops Laia on her way back to Blackcliff. She tells him what Spiro said about Darin. Keenan says Mazen has been secretive lately. He thinks Mazen is planning something big that doesn't involve Darin. He doesn't understand how they're going to break Darin out and take on another mission; they don't have the resources.

Laia goes to the barracks to spy on the students. She wants to find out how they sneak out. She sees Marcus and Zak and follows them. They disappear inside the training building. She and Izzi take turns looking for the entrance. Izzi finds it.

Elias isn't doing well in training. He's distracted by what Tristas told him about Helene. Helene notices he's been struggling. She tells him to tell their friends to stop watching her. He refuses. She challenges him for it. They spar. They hear a scream.

Izzi takes Laia to the barracks. They see Elias and Helene sparring. Izzi shows Laia the entrance. They hear voices in the tunnels – Marcus and Zak. They try to close the entrance but they can't. Marcus grabs Laia and Izzi runs. Zak leaves. Laia tries to fight him off and he beats her until she's almost unconscious.

Izzi tells Elias what happened and he and Helene go to help. Elias pulls Marcus off Laia. Laia is badly hurt. They take her to the Commandant's house. The Commandant says Cook will take care of Laia; she doesn't care if she dies. Helene makes Elias leave. He wants to help Laia. Helene doesn't understand why he's so worried; Laia is just a slave and slaves die all the time. He asks Helene to heal Laia. She refuses. He's sure Laia will die without help.

Laia is in pain. She knows she's going to die. Helene comes and sings to her. She heals her.

Helene is worried about Elias. He isn't doing well in training and the Third Trial is coming. She thinks he's  worried about Laia, but he says he's upset about Blackcliff and the things they do and about her. He knows she's in love with him and he says he could never love her because she's just like every other Mask. She says she saved Laia and that he doesn't know what she's given up for him, the deal she made. 

Izzi tells Laia the Commandant sealed the tunnel they found. Laia doesn't know what she's going to tell Mazen.

Cook sends Laia into the city to run errands. Keenan finds her. He leads her to the meeting place. When Mazen comes, she tells him she needs more time. She starts questioning him about Darin. She asks why he needs a way into Blackcliff. He says Darin was moved to a prison that provides backup guards to Blackcliff, so when they attack Blackcliff soldiers will leave the prison and allowing them to save Darin. Mazen agrees to give Laia more time. When they're alone, Keenan says something isn't right. He wants to find out what it is.

Cain takes Elias to the Third Trial – to the amphitheater. Elias' platoon is there, including Dex and Faris. Cain says Elias will engage in a battle to the death. His platoon will back him up. They have to kill as many of the enemy as possible. There will be consequences if they show mercy. They go out and Elias sees who they're fighting – Helene and her platoon. Elias has friends in her platoon too. When he orders his platoon not to kill the others, his men start dropping dead. Elias changes his orders. He kills his friends – Ennis, Leander, Demetrius. When he faces Helene, he doesn't want to kill her, but one of them has to die for the Trial to end. He stabs her.

Cook tells Laia and Izzi the story of the old creatures, the story of the leader of the jinn, the Nightbringer. The Nightbringer allied himself with the Martials with the intent of destroying the Scholars. Laia knows this isn't just a story. Cook says Laia needs to open her eyes to the truth or she'll end up like her mother. The Nightbringer infiltrated the Resistance – took human form and posed as a fighter. It manipulated and used her mother. The Nightbringer had help – a traitor. They sold Laia's parent's to the Commandant. 

The Commandant comes with soldiers and an Augur. The soldiers tie Laia up and take her away.

Elias' dagger shatters. Helene is wearing the armor she won during the last Trial. They weren't supposed to wear armor, so she's disqualified. Elias wins the Third Trial. 

Elias is taken to the infirmary. Marcus is there. He had to kill Zak. Cain comes to talk to Elias. Cain says they knew Helene was wearing armor. He wasn't supposed to kill her; they just wanted to know if he would. Cain says a war is coming. A great wrong needs to be righted. 

Elias goes to his room. Laia is there. She's his prize for winning the Third Trial. He promises not to hurt her. He asks about her family. She says her family is dead except for her brother. She tells him what prison he's in and he says it isn't possible. Blackcliff doesn't need backup guards. Mazen lied to her. She asks why he helped her. He couldn't let her die. He tells her he was going to desert. He says he dug a tunnel under the hearth in his room. He tells her about his mother, about being raised by Tribesmen, about being taken to Blackcliff. He tells her about the Third Trial. She tells him about the night Darin was taken. He says she did the right thing. She kisses him. They talk until the sun comes up.

Elias apologizes to Helene. She says they didn't have a choice. She thinks he should've expected what happened in the Trial. He's repulsed by her. He asks if she feels any remorse about their friends being killed. She thinks they died with honor. She doesn't regret what she did; she did it for the Empire. He says he was going to desert. He says he wants her to win the Trials. He wants to be named Blood Shrike so she can set him free. She says being a Mask is freedom. He thinks she's delusional. Cain comes to them. The Fourth Trial is beginning. 

Laia tells Cook and Izzi she was given to Elias as a prize for winning the Third Trial, but he didn't hurt her. Nothing happened. The Commandant hears. She asks if he raped her. Laia says he didn't. The Commandant asks if he's working with her. She knows Laia is a spy. She has her own spies in the Resistance. An Augur comes for Laia.

Helene tells Elias to do whatever he has to to win. She's warning him about something, but he doesn't know what. They're taken to the amphitheater. Marcus is there. Laia is brought in. Cain says the Empire has decreed that Laia is to die. The Aspirant who executes her will be victor. If they defy the order they fail the Trial. Elias protects Laia. Helene knocks Marcus out. Helene tells Elias to kill Laia. He won't do it. He feels Laia move beside him. She's on the ground. There's a dagger on the ground and blood. He realizes Marcus is no longer unconscious. He threw a dagger at her. A soldier comes into the amphitheater, says the Emperor is dead, killed by the Resistance. Cain announces the results of the Trial. Elias will be beheaded the following morning for defying orders. He names Marcus victor and Helene Blood Shrike.

The Augur tells Laia to let everyone think she's dead if she wants to live. She stays still as the Augur is stabbed by the dagger Marcus threw, as Elias receives his death sentence, as Cain announces the coronation. Laia is carried out of the amphitheater. Cain comes to her. He tells her she has to leave the school, and that if she doesn't follow him, her brother will die. She follows him. He knows everything about her – about her brother, about her parents. He knows she's a spy. If she wants to save her brother she has to speak with the Resistance. He tells her where to find them. She goes. Keenan is there. Mazen hears them talking and comes. Mazen says he killed the Emperor. Laia tells them Marcus will be the next Emperor and that the coronation will be the next day, and that she found an entrance into Blackcliff. Mazen doesn't care. He says he wouldn't try to infiltrate a school full of Masks. He never planned to save her brother. He gave her an impossible mission to appease Sana, because Sana threatened to pull her faction from the Resistance over her. He needed Sana's men to assassinate the Emperor. Laia realizes the Resistance has played into the Commandant's hands. She wanted the Emperor dead. He says it will be impossible to save her brother. He's in Kauf – where her parents and sister were tortured and killed. He tells Keenan to get rid of her. Keenan knocks her out. 

When she comes around, Keenan tells her he didn't know what Mazen planned. Mazen locked up everyone he thought was against him, including Sana. Laia tells him the Commandant knew she was a spy all along. She knew the Resistance was going to attack the Emperor. She has a spy within the Resistance. The Commandant will be ready for Mazen's revolution. Keenan needs to get Sana out so she can warn the leaders in her faction before it's too late. He wants Laia to meet him in Silas in a few weeks. They'll figure out how to rescue Darin from there. She asks about Izzi. He says he can only get her out. He kisses her, then leaves. She can't leave Elias and Izzi behind. She goes to Spiro. 

Elias is in Blackcliff's dungeon. His mother comes to see him. She tells him she always hated him. She tried to have an abortion, but nothing worked. She was sent on a solo mission hunting Tribal rebels. She watched a Tribe and picked a woman she liked – Elias' foster mother, Mamie Rila. She left Elias in her tent, then left. After he was brought to Blackcliff, Elias's grandfather took pride in Elias in a way he never did with her. He named Elias his heir. She says his death will give her peace. He thinks when Cain promised him freedom, he meant death. He tells her he doesn't know who his father was or why she hates him, but he knows his death won't free her. He chose to die instead of becoming someone like her. 

Laia tells Spiro Darin is in Kauf  and that she's going after him. He gives her the first sword he made with Darin. He asks her to take it to him and tell him he'll be waiting in the Free Lands. 

She goes to the Commandant's house. She finds Izzi and Cook and tells them her plan. They agree to help, but Cook won't escape with them. 

Marcus escorts Elias to the gallows. Helene will be his executioner. He's taken to the belltower courtyard, to a platform erected for the event. He kneels before Helene. The Commandant reads the charges against him and pronounces his punishment. Helene brings the ax down. 

Laia is in the platform. She hopes Izzi made it out. She gave Izzi the freedom Keenan promised her. She wonders how he'll react. Cook signals Laia and she lights a fuse. The stage explodes. There are explosions all around the courtyard. It's filled with clouds of dust. She goes to Elias. 

Laia tells Elias she's setting him free on the condition that he take her to Kauf and help her break out Darin. He agrees. They run. Elias leads Laia to his room. He grabs a few things, including the token for a favor from Afya Ara-Nur. Helene comes to his room. She gives him his Teluman scims and tells him she smuggled his grandfather out of the city. Elias tells her to come with them. She can't. She says she made a vow with Cain. He told her death was coming for Elias and that she could make sure he lived by swearing fealty to whoever won the Trials. Helene says she'll cover them, but after this, they'll be enemies. Elias and Laia drop into the tunnels. Bottom

[tigerstrikesasteroidnetwork]

Past Exhibitions

[2021-present] [2016-2020] [2009-2015]

2023

PHILADELPHIA Seeing the Anthropocene / Oct 28 - Dec 2 Martin’s End / Sep 14 - Oct 21 Pieced / Aug 5 - Sep 9 Kara Mshinda: Instant Artifacts / Jun 24 - Jul 29 A/Bound / May 20 - Jun 17 Where You Left Off / Apr 10 - May 6 Here After / Feb 18 - Apr 1 Sublime / Jan 7 - Feb 11

NEW YORK Artist-in-Residence: GOODW.Y.N. /Nov 27 – Dec 27 Eusung Lee: Epitaphs / Oct 21 - Nov 19 Henri Paul Broyard: Carousel / Sep 16 - Oct 15 Ryan Patrick Krueger: Documents from the Closet / Aug 5 - Sep 10 Gathering / Jun 24 - Jul 30 Support Structures / May 13 - Jun 18 Ragini Bhow: 444 / Apr 7 - May 7  Schmaltz kills! / Feb 18 - Mar 26 if you surrender / Jan 7 - Feb 11

LOS ANGELES Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo: That Which We Fear, That Which We Love / Dec 2 - 17 Embody / Oct 21 - Nov 12 Cynthia Luján & Jorge Mujica - Life Affirming Moments: En Route / Sep 16 - Oct 8 Stephanie Deumer: A Diamond is Forever / Aug 12 - Sep 3 Växa / Jul 8 - 30 As Yet and Still to Come, curated by Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle / Jun 3 - 25 Theories & Prayers on Concrete / Apr 29 - May 21 The Most Winning Lottery Store / Mar 24 - Apr 16 The End of Living: carrick bell and Rocco Ruglio-Misurell / Feb 18 - Mar 12 Strange Worlds, Gardens of Earthly Delight / QiPO Art Fair / Feb 9 - 12 Cindy Rehm: Double-body / Jan 14 - Feb 5

CHICAGO Bryana Bibbs: Places (Edition I) / Oct 14 - Nov 18 Ideas on Landscape / Aug 19 - Sep 30 Elnaz Javani: Dwelling Places / Jun 24 - Aug 5 Olive Stefanski: Becoming One Who Holds Many / May 7 – Jun 10 Make sure I’m there when you open your eyes / Mar 4 - Apr 15 Artist in Residence: Latham Zearfoss / Dec 17 - Feb 18

GREENVILLE Artifacts of Experience / Sep 23 - Nov 11 Outerscape / Jul 15 - Sep 9 Holding Pattern / Mar 3 - Apr 9 (at KMAC Museum) / Apr 21 - May 20 (at TSA GVL) Kelley O’Brien: Residence Time / Feb 24 - Apr 8 There Just Isn’t / Jan 6 - Feb 11

2022

PHILADELPHIA Vitche-Boul Ra: CRIB / Oct 29 - Dec 4 An Exchange of Shifting Atmospheres / Sep 8 - Oct 22 Katie Murken: Re-source / Aug 6 - Sep 3 A Place to Live / Jun 25 - Jul 30 An-arborescent / May 21 - Jun 18 Clyde Henry: Tigers Blue Jays Trees / Jungles Branches / Green Leaves / Apr 2 - May 14 Seeing Your Green / Feb 19 - Mar 26 Free For All / Jan 15 - Feb 12

NEW YORK Artist-in-Residence: Armando Guadalupe Cortés / Nov 19 - Dec 18 Sana Musasama: I Never Played with Dolls / Sep 17 - Oct 30 Mis-Shapes / Aug 5 - Sep 11 Marley Trigg Stewart: The Hills Keep Burning in California / Jul 8 - 31  infinite dynamic horizons / May 14 - Jun 19 Allison Jae Evans: The Vessel / Apr 2 – May 8 (Be)Longing / Feb 19 - Mar 27 Sholeh Asgary: By The Mouth of a Wadi / Jan 8 - Feb 13

LOS ANGELES Carlie Trosclair: a semblance of b r e a t h … / Nov 19 - Dec 18 Keeping Score: Hong Hong & Johnathan Payne / Oct 15 - Nov 6 Dan S. Wang: Too Early To Tell / Sep 10 - Oct 2 Plant-Based / Aug 6 - 28 CRACK UP /July 9 - 24 / part of B-LA Connect In-Between / May 28 - Jun 19 By Ear / Apr 14 - May 7 Celebrity / Mar 19 - Apr 9 Cosmic Trace / Feb 12 - Mar 5 Zachary Fabri and Jordie Oetken: In Tandem / Jan 8 - Feb 5

CHICAGO Circularities / Oct 15 - Dec 3 Breanna Robinson: Asking for the Moon / Aug 13 - Oct 1 Sharon and Guy: Remnants: Recombined, Reconsidered / Jun 25 - Aug 6 Rachel de Cuba & Hale Ekinci: When or if I was there / Apr 30 - Jun 11 Juan Molina Hernández: regresa, regresa, regresa / Feb 25 - Apr 16 Artist-in-Residence: Erol Scott Harris / Jan 8 - Feb 19

GREENVILLE Potluck Dec 2 - 17 Between States of Being / Oct 7 - Nov 19 Yardwork 2022 / Jul 22 - Sep 2 Subjective Objects / Jun 3 - Jul 15 Eyes Can Only See So Much / Apr 16 - May 28 Worlds Apart: Jacolby Satterwhite / Mar 4 - Apr 8 Barbara Owen: I Need A Guru @ Gallery Boxes in Asheville, NC / Jan 21 - Mar 26 An Archive of Loose Leaves @ Lee Gallery / Jan 24 - Mar 9 alter - object / Jan 15 - Feb 19

2021

PHILADELPHIA Nichola Kinch: Reclaim / Nov 6 - Dec 11 Ditta Baron Hoeber: Inscapes / Sep 25 — Oct 30 The Artists of Color Collective: Digital Entanglements / Aug 14 - Sep 18 Leroy Johnson: Crossroads / Jul 3 - Aug 7 David Dempewolf: suncatchers / May 22 - Jun 26 Where Are You Now? / Mar 20 - May 15 Tiger Beats / Feb 6 - 27 Artist-in-Residence: Anna Bockrath and Jacob Weinberg / Jan 13 - 27

NEW YORK Artist in Residence: Katya Grokhovsky / Dec 10 - Jan 3 Hernease Davis: And when you come back… / Oct 30 - Dec 5 Night Scenes / Sep 24 – Oct 24 Rose Tint / Aug 14 - Sep 19 Characters, All  / July 10 - August 8 Kemar Keanu Wynter: Portions / May 15 – Jun 27 Paper Trails / Apr 10 - May 9 This Point is Exactly Midway Between Two Other Points / Feb 20 - Mar 28 After Our Bodies Meet, curated by Daniel Johnson / Jan 9 - Feb 14

LOS ANGELES Technicolor Skies: Kindred / Nov 13 - Dec 11 David Gutierrez: Ancestral Projection / Oct 9 - 31 Hybrid / Sep 11 - 26 Artist in Residence: Jane Margarette / Jul 11 - Aug 22 Artist in Residence: Andrés Janacua / June 1 - July 10 Artist-in-Residence: Alisa Ochoa / May 1 - 31 Artist-in-Residence: Cara Chan / Apr 5 - 30 Artist-in-Residence: Serena JV Elston / Feb 6 - Apr 4

CHICAGO Both And / Oct 30 - Dec 11  Unyimeabasi Udoh: Title Case / Sep 4 – Oct 16 Victoria Martinez: Next Chapter / Jul 10 – Aug 21 Jaclyn Jacunski: Burning Oneself Out / May 15 - Jun 26 Cydney Lewis: Suspended in the Realm of Possibility / Mar 20 - May 1 Artist-in-Residence: Wen Liu / Jan 23 - Mar 6

GREENVILLE Generously Entangled / Nov 5 - Dec 11 Stormie Burns & Nadia Stieglitz: vessel | lessev / Oct 1 - Nov 12 back like the wound, and you are the stitch / Oct 1 - 30 Hannah Barnes & Gyun Hur: Maintenance of Way @ Redux / Sep 17 - Oct 30 Devin Harclerode: Soft Body, No Limbs / Sep 3 - 25 H. Mitsu Shimabukuro: five, four / yours forever more / Aug 6 - 28 Suzanne Schireson: Inside Room @ The Art Gallery Boxes (Asheville, NC) / Jul 9 – Sep 3, 2021 Placement in Process, curated by Rachel de Cuba / Jul 2 - 25 Big Body Play @ The Fine Arts Center / Jun 7 - Sep 10 Liz Clayton Scofield: A Practical Guide for Everyday Be-Coming (Tutorials) / Mar 5  – Apr 9

[inyri]

Bloodline (an SWTOR story)

In honor of Valentine’s Day, a story about Nine and Theron. This takes place about three years after the capture of the Eternal Throne, in the continuity of Equivalent Exchange- a little glimpse of their future.  

Bloodline

One more week.

Give or take a few days, of course- there’s no predicting these things, though Senya looked her up and down at breakfast this morning and murmured something about early, I think, carrying that low under her breath- but it can’t come soon enough. She hasn’t had more than one cup of caf a day and not a single drop of whiskey in seven months, her stomach turns if she so much as looks at cheese, and she can’t fit into any of her boots. She can’t fit into any of her anything, especially in the last weeks, relegated to roomy tunics and low slippers.

This is intolerable. She blames Theron.

(Only in jest- they’d agreed, after long nights of discussion, that it was now or never.  Neither of them’s getting any younger and the worst of the war had passed, and so when it came time to switch out her implant she’d simply had it removed for the first time in twenty years. She wasn’t sure it’d ever happen, anyway, after the belly wound she’d taken and the scar tissue left behind, but Theron only shrugged.

“It’ll be fun to practice, at least,” he grinned, and pulled her onto his lap, and she laughed and kissed him-

So, of course, she was pregnant two months later. The Shans, apparently, were ferociously fertile; according to Satele, she’s lucky it isn’t twins.)

She can barely fit onto the throne, for that matter. It’s been a quiet year, mercifully, the Eternal Fleet on patrol at the boundaries of their territory and only a few small squabbles to resolve, not like the first few years when there seemed to be a new uprising every week. But still, the fleet needs orders, so after breakfast she walks across the compound and takes the turbolift down to the command room.

Force, it feels good to sit.

The controls snake around her wrists, holding them fast, a slow tingle of energy crawling its way up her spine; the sensation’s as familiar after three years as breathing, and her mind wanders from ship to ship to ship. A change in patrol route here, the Sixth Fleet due for shore leave and the Ninth for resupply, three commanders due for promotions. All is well. Her orders issued, she disconnects.

It takes a moment to come back to herself. It always does. She stretches, goes to push herself to her feet-

-and sits back down, a sharp kick launched upward into her rib cage and taking her breath away.

“Yes, yes.” Cupping her belly with one hand, she manages to stand up properly this time. “I know. We’ve got a full morning of reports, then a nap promptly at two o’clock. It will last forty-seven minutes, at which time I will need to use the ‘fresher, and then-” she winces again, this kick aimed outward; when she follows its trajectory Lana’s there, standing in the doorway with her arms folded, watching.

“You know we can call in orders to the fleets individually.” Lana shakes her head. “We can’t be sure what effect using the throne might have. Theron-”

“Theron needs to stop fussing over me. Contacting the fleet manually takes an age. Everything’s been fine so far, the scans have been perfectly normal, and the rest of you’ll have to do enough of my work in a week or two in any case.” A third kick, in Lana’s direction again, makes her look downward. “I think she’s saying hello. Or dancing. It’s hard to tell sometimes.”

“Hello to you, too, little one.”

Yet another kick. “She’s definitely saying hello. Ouch.”

“May I?” Lana reaches out with one hand as she nods, brushing her fingertips across the width of her stomach. “Ah, there you are. I- oh.” She blinks, hand steady. “Oh.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Interesting conversation?”

“She-” Lana pauses. “Theron’s not Force-sensitive at all, is he?”

“Not even a little bit, but you know that.”

“And there were never any Sith in your family?”

She does not like where this conversation is going. “Not as far as I’m aware. Why?”

“Well,” Lana says, “sometimes these things do miss a generation.”

She sits back down, heavy, on the throne. “Are you telling me-”

A nod, a shrug, and when Lana pulls her hand away she can- ah, stars, she can almost feel the connection sever, in the same way it does when she reads her: more distant, hazier, but two-sided in a way that theirs could never be.

She hasn’t moved so fast in ages, still waddling, still mostly graceless, but in only a moment she’s back on the lift and half-running through the corridor with Lana at her heels. He should be- where? It’s half past ten, which means the quartermasters’ meeting, which means the small conference room; she rounds the corner, panting, and punches in the access code to override the door lock. They all look up, Theron and Hylo and Aygo and Sana-Rae and Oggurobb, and as she leans against the doorframe Theron’s out of his chair and reaching for her, his face a study in anxiousness.

“Are you-” his hands are on her shoulders- “What’s wrong? Is it time?”

She takes a deep breath. “No. No, not yet, I don’t think.”

“Then what-”

“Your mother was right. It skipped.”

(He knows exactly what she means. They’d talked about that, too).

Theron just stares for a moment, eyes on hers, his mouth half-open in head-shaking disbelief, before he starts to laugh and then she’s laughing, too, their foreheads together in peals of helpless giggles because of course Satele had been right, Force knows she’d been right about everything else all along and-

-and then her water breaks.

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

Syria war: Shelling and strikes despite Eastern Ghouta ‘pause’

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Russian media said not a single civilian left the besieged Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday

Fighting continued in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area of Syria during the first daily five-hour “pause” ordered by the government’s ally Russia.

Activists said there were government air and artillery strikes, while Russia said rebels had shelled a “humanitarian corridor” meant to let civilians leave.

As a result, there were no UN aid deliveries or medical evacuations.

Some 393,000 people are trapped in the enclave near Damascus, which has been besieged by the government since 2013.

Medics say more than 500 people have been killed since the government intensified its bombardment nine days ago in an attempt to retake the enclave.

Meanwhile, France has urged Russia to use its influence over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to secure a 30-day truce covering the whole country.

The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding a nationwide cessation of hostilities on Saturday, but it did not specify a start date.

“Russia is one of the only actors that can get the regime to implement the resolution,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

What is happening on the ground?

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it had received reports that fighting had continued after the Russian-ordered pause began at 09:00 (07:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

“Clearly, the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out,” spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

The World Health Organization said it had a list of more than 1,000 critically sick and wounded people who urgently needed to be evacuated.

The situation in the Eastern Ghouta was comparatively calm early on Tuesday. However, one civilian was killed by shellfire in the rebel-held town of Douma before the pause started, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based monitoring group also reported a number of violations in the five hours that followed, including air strikes by government planes and helicopters, and artillery shelling in the town of Jisrin that killed a child and injured seven people.

The Syrian state news agency, Sana, reported that “terrorists” had shelled the route of the humanitarian corridor leading to the government-controlled al-Wafideen checkpoint, which is north-east of Douma, and were using “human shields”.

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Media caption“At least in heaven there’s food”: The children caught up in Eastern Ghouta air strikes

Russian media said not a single civilian had left the besieged area as a result.

The accusations of firing mortars was denied by the two Islamist rebel groups that dominate the Eastern Ghouta, Jaysh al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman, while the Syrian military said it had not carried out air strikes.

Rebel factions also reiterated that jihadists from the al-Qaeda-linked alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who have a small presence in the Eastern Ghouta, had to be evacuated in exchange for a truce. The government and Russia say their bombing campaign is targeting HTS members in the enclave.

What was supposed to happen?

The Russian defence ministry announced that government forces would “cease strikes on terrorists” from 09:00 until 14:00 local time (07:00-12:00 GMT) daily from Tuesday “with the aim of immediately saving the peaceful population”.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Ambulances were seen waiting at the government-controlled al-Wafideen checkpoint

One “humanitarian corridor” to al-Wafideen had been prepared, with help from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, to allow civilians to leave and the sick and wounded to be evacuated, it said.

Residents would be informed via leaflets, text messages and videos, it added.

Will the pauses allow aid to be brought in?

France’s foreign minister said it was vital that humanitarian aid was delivered.

A tightening of the government’s siege since November has led to the exhaustion of food supplies and extremely inflated prices inside the Eastern Ghouta. Almost 12% of children under five years old are acutely malnourished – a level the UN says is unprecedented in Syria.

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Media captionRawaa has been living in a basement with around 75 others for months

There are also severe shortages of medical supplies, with doctors forced to treat severely injured patients without general anaesthetic drugs, intravenous antibiotics, blood bags and clean bandages.

Humanitarian organisations say they need to be sure any truces are taking effect on the ground before sending in aid workers and vehicles.

Dr Mohamad Katoub, a Turkey-based doctor with the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which supports hospitals in the Eastern Ghouta and other rebel-held areas, told the BBC: “We don’t believe that this truce will bring any benefits for the civilians inside Eastern Ghouta. Five hours is not enough to do anything.”

Will people be able to get out during the pauses?

Firas Abdullah, a journalist for the pro-opposition Ghouta Media Center who lives in Douma, told the BBC on Tuesday that it was far too dangerous to venture outside, let alone try to reach the al-Wafideen checkpoint.

“I went outside but only for a while,” Firas Abdullah said. “After half a minute of this ceasefire, shells were dropped. Even if anyone tries to leave, he will be shot by the snipers of the regime checkpoint.”

Al-Wafideen has long been the formal point for people to enter and exit Eastern Ghouta.

However, only a small proportion of the population – public sector employees and males over 40 – were permitted to leave before the government siege was tightened, according to Reach Initiative, which is monitoring the humanitarian situation there. Women and children were reportedly forbidden by rebel groups from leaving for security reasons.

Reach said risks included sniper fire, landmines, shelling, verbal and physical harassment, detention and, in the case of women, sexual harassment, humiliating inspections and beatings.

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