There are twelve levels in the Planning Cadre, each one constructed with the same concentric corridors winding to a central point, and rooms and stairs branching off from doors and breaks in the circular walls. In addition to the lamps throughout the Cadre, all the corridors are fashioned with an intricate bell system whose song can be heard on every level. Dyeawan has been given her own unique signal. When she hears three bells, she’s being summoned. Those are followed by a number of bells indicating the level on which she’s needed, and finally a number of bells corresponding to a specific room on that level.

Acting as messenger has allowed her to meet an extraordinary amount of people in just a week, and to Dyeawan’s surprise they’ve all been generally kind and genuinely decent.

All except the one she’s come to think of as the Man in Black.

There are no Skrain stationed in the Planning Cadre, nor has she seen any on the rare occasion she’d had to venture outside. There doesn’t seem to be a military presence here at all, or even anyone assigned to security, which is odd considering the speech Edger gave her about their “sensitive” projects. Yet she hasn’t seen a single blade carried by a single person all week.

In fact, she’s only seen one weapon here thus far, and it’s sheathed on the hip of the Man in Black.

He’s not a physically imposing man, but the stark way he stands out among the thoroughly unimposing people who populate the Planning Cadre gives him an aura of menace. He’s the only one Dyeawan has seen clad all in black from head-to-toe, and she’s yet to see him outside it. Though the garment is designed to appear ordinary, his black shoulder cape is obviously reinforced with steel thread to armor it, as if he anticipates an attack at all times.

The dagger he wears on his hip is long, curved, and bone-handled, and the way he compulsively grips it with a black-gloved hand as he walks says nothing pleasant about the man. The only other distinguishing flourish on his person is the breast pendant he wears in the shape of an eagle’s eye. It’s a symbol she’s never seen worn officially before.

Dyeawan has yet to exchange a word with him, not the least of which is because whenever they pass he looks straight through her as if she doesn’t exist. She’s glad for that.

When she asked Edger about him, he told Dyeawan that the Man in Black is from something called the Protectorate Ministry. He said they’re in charge of keeping Crache safe, even if it’s from something invented in the Cadre.

He didn’t seem to want to say more than that.