Roh had not gotten a good look at the sanisi back in the foyer. Now that he was up close, he realized he had made a false assumption. The sanisi was tall, far taller than any Dhai, and dark, with twisted rings of black hair knotted close to his head, though it looked like it had been shorn short not many months back. The ends were ragged. It was the sanisi’s face, though, that made Roh pause. The hair that graced the sanisi’s upper lip and the sides of the cheeks was soft and downy. Roh had seen pictures of Saiduan men, and they all had short but noticeable beards.

“Are you a woman?” Roh asked. He used the Saiduan word for “woman”, worried he might be using the wrong pronoun.

The sanisi narrowed her eyes. “I am a good many things, depending on the day.”

“I didn’t think women could become sanisi. I’ve never seen a picture of one.”

“And I’ve never seen a picture of a fool Dhai boy. Yet here you are.”

Roh squared his shoulders. “I know things.”

“What does a petty pacifist know of the empire?”

“I know enough,” Roh said. “I know that’s not an infused weapon. It’s just metal. Sanisi carry infused willowthorn and bonsa and everpine branches, like ours. If I can see that, Ora Dasai will, too.”

“Perhaps I was not always thus,” the sanisi said. “And your elders see less than you suppose.”

Roh pulled at Para. His skin prickled. But Para rebelled. The power of its breath surged through his body, then sputtered out.

The sanisi laughed, a bitter bark. “You try to bowl me over with your little training exercises and you will know the power of the dark star. I have no qualm with incinerating you, mouth-breather.”

“The dark star? No one can draw on Oma. It hasn’t been in the sky in two thousand years.”

“About due then, isn’t it?”

“Why are you here?”

“You’re not the only one who can see things, boy. If your masters learn of your indiscretion, it could be bad for you.”

“I’d like to be a sanisi,” Roh said. “They don’t teach us how to fight here the way you fight. Para will be descendent soon. I won’t have an advantage unless I can fight. Really fight.”

“Advantage against what? Wandering trees and pitcher plants?”

“I need to change my fate,” Roh said.

The sanisi murmured something in Saiduan about foolish boys and bait for wolves. “Your fate?” she said. “That is easy to see. But I’m not here for you.”

“Who are you here for?”

“The Kai.”

“But I could go with you! Are you taking novices or–”

“Your speech is exhausting.”

“I just–”

The sanisi half turned away, then reconsidered. “You’re the boy who was with that scullery girl,” she said.

“Who?”

“That crippled girl.”

“Lilia?”