“Every resource we’ve mustered is poured into the war effort. Every scrap of steel, every crop we grow, every scrawny piece of game we hunt, every arm experienced with a hammer. Siccluna is the army we field. We have nothing else. The people beyond the line to the east wear rags and sleep on mats. They eat rice with a swig of milk to keep their strength, twice on a good day. All we fight for is existence. Nothing more.”

Evie suddenly feels as weak as the people Sirach is describing. The strength seems to be flooding from her knees. Nothing Sirach is saying describes the world Evie knows.

“I… I can’t believe it.”

Sirach shrugs again. “I have no reason to deceive you. Especially since it seems I’ll have to kill you in a moment. But you’re not Crache, even if you’re Crachian-born. I can see that. I can at least offer you the truth.”

The greatest threat in Crache’s history, nothing more than a rabble of desperate people hunted to the edge of extinction. The lies every good citizen of Crache has been told. Though Evie knows now the true breadth of Crache’s madness, and the goal of their war-waging, this knowledge, that their opposition isn’t another nation, it’s a collection of the sole survivors of entire peoples Crache has decimated and destroyed, is the most harrowing revelation of all. So many kingdoms, so much history lost, and so many innocent people having everything taken from them.

It’s monstrous.

It’s evil.

All of it.

Evie realizes there are tears in her eyes. She tries to blink them away, but like the knowledge Sirach has just shared, they won’t stop plaguing her.

She’s nearly breathless when she speaks again. “If it is as you say… you can’t possibly win.”

Sirach chuckles, wryly. “The only reason we’ve held this long is because of how wide and thin Crache has spread itself. If they had more Skrain and Savages to commit to this front, we’d have been annihilated long ago. But there’s unrest in their many cities, no matter what they tell you or how clean they keep their streets. For all I know, they’re fighting wars across the sea, too. It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“I… I don’t know… I am truly sorry, Sirach,” Evie says. “I’m sorry for your people and all the others. My only cause was to protect those I hold close and dear.”

“I believe that. Did you find whatever or whoever it was you were looking for, by the way?” Sirach asks.

Evie nods. “For whatever’s that’s worth now.”

“I do apologize if I’ve had a hand in upsetting your mission.”

Evie swallows what feels like broken glass. “Likewise.”

“Well, then…”