The eldest of the trio shook his head. “No. I’m a builder, remember? All my tests were smithing metals.”

That gave Dyeawan pause. “So… neither of you had to save the duck?”

Riko laughed. “No! My hands stayed one color too.”

She reached across the table and pinched Dyeawan’s forefinger, shaking it. There were still faint traces of the colored potions seeped into her skin.

Dyeawan smiled, but she couldn’t help puzzling over what appeared to be an oddity among Planning Cadre recruits. “Then… why me? Why so many different tests?”

Tahei shrugged. “Maybe they don’t really know what you’re good at and they’re trying to find out. They did bring you to clean and make deliveries, after all.”

“Anybody can see you’re capable of more than that, Slider,” Riko assured her with a reprimanding look at Tahei.

His eyes widened. “That isn’t what I meant! I know how smart you are, Slider.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t… I didn’t expect any of this. I’m happy just to be here. I’m more than happy. I’m… lucky. Fortunate.”

She annunciated the word carefully. It was obviously the first time she’d said it aloud.

“Well, all that reading is certainly showing,” Riko said, sounding genuinely proud of her.

On the seventh morning the tasks stop appearing at her bedside. Dyeawan wakes to an otherwise empty bed and an equally empty room. By her reckoning she has been tested in almost every basic skill used by members of the Planning Cadre, and on virtually every floor, save the builders. She expected a building test today, something they would’ve given Tahei. Dyeawan wonders briefly and with a sinking in her chest if she hasn’t done as well on the previous tasks as she thought.

Then she remembers the lamp she built, the one she presented to Edger that made him act so oddly with her.

THIRTY TONGUES AND NOT A WORD SPOKEN

LEXI AND TARU DISEMBARK THE sky carriage three blocks from the Capitol’s Aegin Kodo. The only even slightly satisfying aspect of the events of the past week, at least for Taru, is that they’ve provided proof of an existing imminent threat to Lexi; as such, she’s finally agreed to use the ascendancy reserved for Gen members rather than the public staircase.

“Accepting that it’s not my place to question Te-Gen’s stratagems or decisions—”

“I really do wish you’d stop that,” Lexi urges them, exasperated, as the two take to the narrow streets together. “Gen Stalbraid currently consists of just the two of us. I can scarcely afford to feed or shelter you. It’s almost laughable to keep referring to you as my ‘retainer’ when I’m offering nothing in retention.”

“Then what are you saying, Te-Gen?”

“At this point you’re either my partner or my former employee. Choose.”