He laughs. “I suspected as much. You know, the two of them are old enough to fight in our revolution. More than old enough. What else did you see?”

My stomach turns again, but Daddy is waiting for an answer. I take my time with the details. I talk about the father and his three sons. Daddy points out that they’re too young, but the father wasn’t too old. I describe a few of the vendors moving through the grandstands. The crowd of university students who were off to our right, laughing and drinking loudly enough to annoy everyone but each other. He nods and listens. I know he saw those details, too.

“We start this war,” he says, “and they march with you. I wanted you to see the cost, Adrian. Sons will lose fathers. Husbands will lose wives. Friends will watch their comrades take their final breaths. I took you to that game so that you never forget the cost of what we’re about to do. But you needed to see this, too. There’s another side to every coin.”

There’s no fence to mark the area. Just stones rising up unnaturally from the sand. Some are wreathed in flowers, others long cracked and faded. An attendant patrols the opposite side, hunting rifle settled against his shoulder. Daddy lifts a hand in greeting and the man nods back.

“Our ancestors came north after the Dividian were defeated. That was the first division. Our people didn’t like the sudden reliance on the gods. We valued freedom too much. And while the Ashlord gods offer many things, freedom is not one of them. It is a relationship of bondage. It always has been. That’s why we separated from the Ashlords. That’s how the Reach was born.”

It’s not hard to see where he’s heading. The truth of this story is in my bones. I keep walking at his side, thinking about our history. I’ve heard him tell the story he’s about to tell hundreds of times, but I’ve always felt like there was more. Truths he kept quiet because I was only a child. I have a feeling this time will be different.

“Early treaties failed. The Ashlords—and their gods—didn’t like the idea of a group of people unwilling to bow. They tried to take all that from us. The Rebellion happened. It’s been forty-eight years since our war with them ended.” Daddy starts down the familiar graveyard rows. “As you know, we failed. We lost. Most of the Purge happened in the years that followed. Every first son and first daughter from the Reach was rounded up and executed. Some escaped. Sailed north and never came back. Others took new names and went back to new villages. But the Ashlords had our inscription lists. They knew who fought. How many children they had. Where they lived.