He tries to lean forward, to rise from his sickbed, but the first inch of movement sees him grimacing in pain and falling back against the sheets.

“Stop that!” Lexi commands. “You are in no condition. This is my house. Just rest.”

“Go carefully” is the best he can manage through the haze of pain and exhaustion.

Lexi nods. Leaving the room, she gathers the hem of her wrap and descends the tower steps quickly.

The first thing she sees is a mass of black boots awaiting her. She takes the last flight of stairs at an even faster pace. The lamps of the entrance hall make their uniforms look like oil slicks. The three Protectorate Ministry agents with their gaping eagle eye pendants have shut the doors behind them.

Their leader is the bone-white woman with the close-cropped hair to match who interrogated Lexi.

Ginnix bows formally. “Good evening, Te-Gen.”

“What are you doing in my home?” she demands. “No one granted you permission to enter here as you please.”

The two absurdly contrasting agents who’ve been surveying Lexi’s every move since after the attempt on her life are flanking the pale woman.

“You are by now familiar with my colleagues, Agents Jindo and Nils.”

Ginnix waves a black-gloved hand at each man as she says his name. The bald scarecrow is Jindo and the one as round as a wheel of cheese is Nils, it seems. Jindo remains a skeletal monument during the brief introduction, but Nils bows to her, his slick of dark hair flopping forward like a fish on a dry dock.

“Stalking my door doesn’t give them the right to enter it unwelcome, either,” Lexi maintains.

“I’m afraid we’ve finally reached the end of civil pretense in this… situation.”

“I do not take your meaning.”

“Of course you do,” Ginnix casually insists. “Your Undeclared retainer left your side for the first time since the disappearance of your husband. I can only imagine that the reason must be dire. We know you are colluding with an Aegin and that he was asking a great many questions in the Bottoms about your husband’s activities. That same Aegin murdered two of his comrades in an alley shortly thereafter. We discovered their bodies, but of him we found only a great deal of blood. He’s here now, isn’t he? Did he survive? Perhaps long enough to inform you of the location of certain articles?”

“I have not the slightest notion about anything to which you are referring.”

Ginnix waves a hand dismissively. “It’s of no consequence,” she says. “We will soon have your retainer and whatever they’ve unearthed in our custody.”

Lexi feels the acid edge of panic rising from her guts. She subtly balls her fists and forces a quenching calm over it.

We are not flowers. We do not wilt.