“It is always beneficial to understand one’s place in the whole,” Lexi replies without missing a beat or even the slightest crack in her welcoming smile.

“Or one’s place outside it,” Taru adds quietly but with what might as well be the conversational force of breaking explosive wind.

The Ministry agents shift their feet uncomfortably, their black gauntleted hands tightening around the handles of their daggers.

Lexi’s smile remains unshakeable. “Well said, Taru,” she commends her retainer.

Then, with another pair of deep bows: “Again, I extend the most heartful appreciation of my Gen, agents. Good evening.”

They both return the bow without comment, visibly relieved as Lexi and Taru take their leave and make the long trek over the arched bridge to Lexi’s kith-kin tower.

“They are not even assassins,” Taru remarks in disgust halfway across the bridge.

Lexi isn’t precisely certain what Taru means by that, but it is clearly the retainer’s lowest form of classification.

Later, sitting at the drafting table in Brio’s law library, Lexi labors over a sheet of parchment with a heron quill.

Taru sits on the expansive rug in the middle of the room. The retainer has stripped off their armor pieces and arranged them with militant symmetry in front of them. Clad in a simple tunic and leggings, Taru is currently oiling and massaging the leather of a pauldron.

“Begging Te-Gen’s pardon,” Taru begins tentatively.

Frustration that is rapidly approaching irritation’s national border causes Lexi’s lips to purse. “I thought we’d dispensed with all that cloying formality and preamble, Taru.”

“Very well,” Taru says, although her retainer’s discomfort is obvious. That long-learned formality has become a second set of armor for Taru. “Seeking the aid of that Aegin, however necessary from your point of view—”

“Daian,” Lexi says patiently, still writing.

Taru grunts, dubious. “Even if he is trustworthy, how much can you truly expect of him? We are dealing with such large forces aligned against us.”

“I expect nothing from him,” Lexi says, her focus never leaving the parchment. “But I believe he will try. And any information benefits our cause greatly at this point.”

“But one Aegin alone—”

“He is not alone. We haven’t given up our own search, and we won’t.”

Taru slaps a gauntlet down upon the rug in frustration. “But how can we continue with those… oddities… from the Ministry ghosting our every step? And you know they will, the second we leave the cooperative. Where they have stationed themselves they can see everyone coming or going from the towers.”

Lexi waves her unburdened hand dismissively while her other hand continues to write. “Let them watch, let them follow.”

Taru stares up at her from the rug, trusting in Lexi’s confidence while questioning her logic.

“Then how—”