Edger is silent. It only lasts a few moments, but it feels much longer to Dyeawan in her excited state.

Eventually, he holds up a new mask to his dead face. It’s a smile, but not the cordial one with which he first greeted her. This smile is deeper, more joyous and profound.

“You… are a very fine pupil, Slider. Thank you for listening.”

“You’ll teach me more, then?”

Edger nods. “It would be my pleasure.”

Dyeawan smiles, doing everything she can to make it match the one painted on silk in front of his face.

She’s made a decision there in what she now understands is a tomb: Beginning today, her life is no longer an accident.

And whether or not it expires will be up to her.

HOME STUDIES

ENTERING THE GEN CIRCUS BY sky carriage is one of the most magnificent sights in Crache, second only to surveying the Spectrum itself from the air. The Circus is an awesome circle whose structures are unlike anywhere else in the city. It is also the grandest collection of architecture to be found this far from the center of the Capitol.

The members of every Gen reside in colossal cooperatives within the Circus. Each cooperative is like a castle-size tree carved from stone, utilized as a communal keep, with each branch serving a different Gen as their home. Some branches rise high above the others with various steps, columns, holdfasts, and towers added onto them by the more successful Gens. Most consist of more than a dozen kith-kins, families dedicated to a single purpose, function, or enterprise that furthers the interests of Crache.

Gen Stalbraid keeps the most modest home in the Circus, but to Lexi it’s the whole world. Their two families have shared the two spindly towers connected by several catwalks for four generations. Brio and Lexi first chased each other across those catwalks when they were children, and it was there she first realized she wanted to marry Brio and dedicate herself to furthering Gen Stalbraid. At that time and for long after, Lexi’s devotion was based on her love for Brio, her kith-kin, and their Gen. She was proud of the work Brio did, work she helped enable in her role, but that pride was always focused around Brio, his efforts and his passion.

In truth, as shameful as it felt now, Lexi had rarely considered the people in the Bottoms. She had thought of them as a cause, something abstract and singular to be saved, like a crumbling ruin or a poisoned forest. She had never conjured their faces to mind, or considered their lives or their feelings.

Now, Lexi can think of nothing else except the few faces she’s seen. Rather than being repulsed or disturbed by them, she only wants to see more, to know them and their stories and bring them hope if she can.