We were waved over to one of the shaded tables by fox-faced red elf with ink-stained hands. She wore the same uniform as the peacekeepers—a set of official Qin robes, which were slightly out of date compared to those in the Empire—though she lacked a crossbow. “You all speak Qin?” she asked. She spoke perfect High Qin. She had the ease of a native speaker with it. I found it disorienting, hearing that language come out of her face.

“Yes,” said Dirva. He slid his papers across the table to her, and Abira and I followed suit. She flipped through our papers. She smiled and glanced up at Abira. “Welcome home.” She said this in City Lothic.

“Glad to be back,” Abira said.

The red elvish border guard raised her eyebrow. “No love for the Empire?”

“Not a bit.”

The improbable border guard laughed. “Well, it’s got no love for us either, eh? You traveling with Imperials?”

Abira shrugged. “They’re elves, right? Long story anyway.”

“Fair enough.” The border guard picked up a large, well-worn stamp, smashed it onto a pad of black ink, and stamped Abira’s papers. She turned to me and Dirva. When she spoke to us, it was in Qin again. “Reasons for entry?”

“Personal,” Dirva said. “Ariah is my student.”

She stamped out papers and handed them back. “Enjoy your visit.” As I started to stand, the border guard caught my eye. “Don’t you and yours have a saying? Something about keeping your gifts secret?” she asked in Semadran.

I blinked at her. “I’m sorry, what?”

Dirva leaned across the table. “I know a man.” She waved us off and beckoned over a new immigrant.

“Dirva, what was that? Was she an official?” I asked as we stepped into the crowd.

“She is, yes. This is not the Empire. The Qin control the government, but there aren’t that many Qin here. They need bodies to fill the positions. They’ll take anyone who is not nahsiyya as long as they are either Qin or they were born here in the City.” He pulled me out of the path of a fruit cart. “She was trying to tell you to get your papers forged. She was trying to tell you to keep your shaping undeclared.”

“It’s illegal.”

“Perhaps, but if you’d done it, Abira would not have lost her drums,” he said. He left it at that.