As usual, everyone but the twins clusters in the middle once the creaky descent begins. Pol leans as far over the edge as he can without falling off, dangling the light stick, while Drom grins and jumps in place. The movement shakes the whole platform, making Pol grab onto the railing and Lyre squeak. I stay where I am, stomach queasy with the remembrance of the last time we were here, and the image of Corvus staring down at the city, quiet and stern, while the rest of us goofed off around him.

Drom jumps again, making the elevator sway hard enough to shatter my memory and nearly send me onto my ass. Pol laughs around the light stick in his mouth, and Lyre grabs Momma’s arm.

“Cut that shit out,” Momma says. Drom shrugs and stops, grinning nonetheless, and Lyre steps away from Momma and folds her arms over her chest. I study the lights of the swiftly approaching city. Somewhere in there, my brother awaits.

At the bottom, Pol ditches the light stick, and we follow a path marked with fluorescent lights. The city of Drev Dravaask is carved into the earth beneath the surface of Titan, dark and damp caves forming homes and businesses and more. The surface of the planet is too cold, too stormy; water freezes up there, and plants won’t grow, and people die slowly and numbly without realizing that they’re dying. Down here, close to the hot springs that run beneath the surface, it’s a handful of degrees warmer.

It would be easy to be miserable in a city like this, but the people of Drev Dravaask find pockets of happiness in their cold underground world. As we head inward, a trio of soldiers sways past us arm in arm, belting a severely out-of-tune version of Titan’s planetary anthem. A cluster of children giggle in an alleyway, finger-painting dirty words on the walls. A hunched street vendor with a face full of battle scars hands a carefully wrapped meal to a gaunt teenager on the street corner.

All things considered, the place is kinder than Levian and safer than any of Deva’s gilded cities. It doesn’t hurt that it has the cheapest booze in the system, either. If not for the cold and the war, I might be able to enjoy myself here.