The sky carriage is drawn into the berth of its final destination. By now the only passengers left are those wearing Gen broaches or attending to individuals who do, most of them dressed like Lexi. The carriage tower is only a brief walk from the cooperative that hosts Gen Stalbraid. Outside the cooperatives, the Circus resembles a serene park, pockmarked by the odd shop or supper stand. Lush green grass surrounds paths laid with glassy pebbles, a subtle memorial to the Circus beginning its life as a pre-Renewal stone quarry. At night, stone sconces planted close to the ground light the surface of each path.

Lexi doesn’t bother acknowledging the men and women of the Gen they pass in the Circus. Stalbraid was too small for most of them to pay attention to before Brio’s disappearance, and with this new revelation (the news of which Lexi would be thoroughly unsurprised to learn beat her and Taru back to the Circus) she and her Gen might as well not even exist to them. Besides, her mind is still with Shaheen and Char back in the Bottoms.

They pass the Aegins stationed outside Gen Stalbraid’s keep and enter the cooperative itself. The fragrance of the hanging garden greets them. Constructed as a reception area for visitors to the Circus, it is without question Lexi’s favorite place that is not part of her own home. Each Gen adds a plant to the garden when taking up residence, and is responsible for maintaining and refreshing it. Lexi still tends to the lilies floating atop bowls of water that were her kith-kin’s contribution. Beyond that, the cooperative market is bustling before the onset of evening, the cooks of a dozen Gens picking up ingredients for dinner, all of it provided by the state the Gens serve and paid for by the citizens who purchase the goods and use the services the Gens oversee.

Lexi and Taru skirt the market altogether. A collection of ascendancies awaits them on the far side of the keep, each one tethered to a golden cable rising through the height of the cooperative itself. Taru pulls open the gate and follows Lexi inside the cage. Lexi reaches up and rings the hanging bell four times, its reverberations signifying to the pullers high above the number of levels Lexi and Taru wish to ascend. Several moments later the cage shifts and begins to rise through the air.

When they reach the fourth level, attendants stabilize the cage in its berth and open the gate. The sun is beginning to set as Lexi and Taru exit the keep through a tall arch leading to a parapet walk. The Stalbraid towers await them on the other side.