Everything in Teo’s apartment seemed so normal compared to a few hours ago in the Hirai mansion: the table adorned with porcelain knickknacks, Ynes resting against a pile of sheepskin blankets, and Teo standing in front of a teakettle on the stove. The steam from the kettle rose into the air, its warmth reaching Aina where she stood at the windowsill.

A breeze brushed against her face from the open window, bringing with it the coolness of a late spring evening. The air was already humid, which was a welcome relief from the cold winds of the past few days.

Raised voices reached her ears from the street. An alley extended between Teo’s building and the one across from it, with the flickering orange light of candles in all the windows. Passing by the mouth of the alley, sometimes in groups and sometimes as stragglers, were factory workers off for the day and ready to let go of their stress at one of the nearby bars. Teo lived in the neighborhood called the Wings, which was made of roads shooting off from Lyra Avenue like the wings of a bird. It was mostly an area of cheap apartments where immigrants and factory employees lived.

A few minutes later, Teo handed a cup of mint tea to Ynes, who muttered thanks in Linasian, and then gave one to Aina.

“I’ll collect our pay from the Blood King in the morning,” she said.

“Thank you. She needs medicine.” He glanced over his shoulder to where Ynes sat wrapped in blankets on the floor, a cup of tea held in both hands.

She leaned forward, speaking low enough that Ynes couldn’t hear. “After this job, will you have enough?”

He nodded stiffly, wringing his hands together. “She’ll never have to work again. Or she could take a part-time job somewhere that won’t kill her just by breathing in the fumes. I won’t lose both my parents because of Steels.”

His voice caught, then, and he turned back to the stove to resume cooking. Aina glanced between him, Ynes, and the Linasian paintings hanging on the walls—some of the countryside and some of Terroq, the name of the falcon god that people from their country worshiped freely.

Like so many others, his parents had emigrated from Linash in search of work in one of the many factories here. They’d been falcon riders in Linash, but border skirmishes with Kaiyan had made the country dangerous to live in, so they left when Ynes was pregnant. Once the war began, his father had thought he’d be safe working on the rail tracks on the outskirts of the city. But since rail construction sites were some of the most important projects to the Steels, King Verrain had made sure to bring his fighters there. The rail workers tried to fight back, but most were killed. After his father had died, Teo left school to work and help his mother.

While Teo cooked, Aina walked to the bed and sat across from Ynes, who coughed and clutched the necklace she wore, its amber pendant decorated with the etching of a falcon. Worry lines pulled at the edges of her eyes and mouth. It was rare to see her here, since Ynes was always either working on the textile factory floor or being treated in the clinic for the illness in her lungs.