“I wish to apologize for the brutal circumstances under which you have come to be our guest here,” Burr continues. “I had hoped to speak with you in my own time about pressing matters of state, and apply the… appropriate context to the situation. And while the Ministry moving against you as they did accelerated our timeline, Daian here could have been more… discreet. I fear he has given you a false impression of us.”

Burr looks up at Daian briefly, a flash of genuine annoyance revealed in her gaze.

Or a perfectly accurate impression? Lexi wonders.

“What timeline?” she asks instead. “What are you talking about? Where are we? We cannot be in the Capitol.”

“Oh no, we’re quite a ways southeast, well-hidden in the lowlands. My family spent centuries cultivating the vegetation that conceals this keep from prying eyes. There are a few others like it, but not half as many as there should be.”

“If this is the land and keep that belonged to your family before the Renewal, when they were a noble house, it was to have been remitted to the nation for repurposing.”

“Oh yes,” Burr admits bitterly. “So the newly born nation of Crache could fill it with lowly rabble, or turn it into a fish hatchery or some such abomination. My family turned over their holdings, just not all of them. They knew a base of operations would be needed for the fight to come, regardless of how long it might take to rebuild ourselves in preparation for that fight.”

“That was hundreds of years ago,” Lexi marvels.

Burr smiles haughtily. “Nobility has a long memory, My Lady.”

“Obviously. What am I doing here?”

“Long ago, a great crime was committed, Lady Xia, and a great many lies were told to conceal that crime.”

“You are speaking of the Renewal.”

“I’m speaking of the truth behind the Renewal. You are here to help those of us descendants of noble houses finally, at long last, put things right. You’re here to help restore this nation to its rightful wards.”

Lexi stares at her as if the woman is speaking gibberish. “Nobility is an absurd and arcane notion,” she insists. “The idea you’re fit to rule simply because of your blood is insane.”

“Blood, the right blood, built empires. It dragged people from caves and rallied them to construct a society, taught them how to live their lives within that society.”

“Taught them to know their place, you mean.”

“I do. Have Gens done any better? Are they any less corrupt? They merely allowed peasants to connive and scheme and plot to amass wealth and power.”

Lexi’s eyes narrow. “That is not my Gen.”

“You are a rare exception, and I congratulate you. I’m afraid you’re in poor company.”

“What do you want?” Lexi demands.