The next knock at their door is lighter and less insistent than that of Taru’s hammerlike fist. They cross the room to unlatch and open the doors. Taru’s towering height and wide frame obscure Lexi’s view of the petitioner, but she hears them exchanging words before Taru permits him admittance.

The Aegin is tall, though not quite as tall as Taru, and perhaps a few years Lexi’s senior. Short, dark curls crown his head. His face is clean-shaven and hard-lined with several thin scars permanently slashed across his right cheek, but something in his expression softens what would otherwise be a severe visage. There’s an openness about him, an approachability that all Aegins should practice, yet very few manage.

He does in fact appear to be, at least on the surface, the exact opposite of the two Aegins she and Taru encountered beside the sky carriage berth.

“Te-Gen,” he greets her formally. “My name is Daian. Aegin, third-class.”

“Lexi. My name is Lexi. I get enough of that from this one, thank you.”

She flicks her chin in Taru’s direction.

The Aegin grins, though it’s fleeting. His eyes have moved from Lexi to the stiffening corpse on the table behind her, then to the one steeped in its own blood on the rug by the window.

“I hope these weren’t… servants of yours, Te-Gen.”

“No, they were not,” Lexi firmly states.

Daian looks back at her. His expression is genuinely disturbed. There’s remorse in his eyes, for her and for the dead.

“I’m sorry. Are you all right? Did they harm you?”

Lexi shakes her head.

“I’m assigned to Old City. I’m told you requested an Aegin not assigned to the Gen Circus.”

Lexi nods.

“May I ask why?”

“Those men… they were sent here to kill me. One of them told me so. He did not say who sent them or why, but that much he made clear.”

Daian looks over his shoulders at the Aegins assigned to patrol the Gen Circus and guard the cooperative housing Gen Stalbraid. It’s a brief glance, and he drops it quickly.

What he says next he says quietly. “Your request was not… unwise… under the circumstances.”

She can see it’s difficult for him to admit, but the admission is enough to convince Lexi he’s both trustworthy and at least of above average intelligence.

“Te-Gen,” Daian begins, then corrects himself. “Lexi… if what you’re saying is true, we have to contact the Gen Franchise Council and the Protectorate Ministry. An assassination attempt on a Gen member is… beyond my grasp of words to describe. It’s also beyond my authority to investigate or even… confirm.”

“I understand that.”