I MADE IT she wanted to scream, red-lipped, broken-toothed, marrow spattering off her tongue, as certain and lethal in her arrival as a shark breaching with the broken body of a seal in its mouth. I made it. No living thing may call itself my ruler.

“I am Agonist,” she told them. “Let it be known.”

Agonist. It meant one who struggles.

The Emperor began to laugh.

An instant of horror and shame from the crowd, even a few giggles, as if a child had run out bare-assed and squalling to interrupt the ceremony: everyone thought the lobotomite had misbehaved.

But there was something in that laugh which Baru recognized. Her first stupid thought was that this simply wasn’t fair: the memory would be tainted, now. He had infiltrated this moment. He always would.

Apparitor leapt out of the crowd. “Baru!” he shouted, into the mortified silence. “Baru, unmask it!”

“Yes,” she said, and she reached out to the man bound to the Throne, gripped his smiling white mask, and lifted it off his head.

Deep folded eyes, laughingly sad, and skin almost as dark as Baru’s. The finely kept beard, which she had always thought must itch. Gods, he had tears in his eyes, tears of pride. Who else in the world could say they were genuinely proud of everything Baru had ever done? Only him. Only him.

“Surprise!” Cairdine Farrier beamed.

And then, his voice stopping up, “Oh, Baru, thank you, thank you. You’ve done it. You’ve saved us, you’ve saved us,” now thick-throated joy, “Baru, we’ve won. Falcrest is saved.”

Interlude: The War Paper

INTERLUDE

THE WAR PAPER

For the edification of the Parliament of the Imperial Republic,

At the request of Parliamin Miss Truesmith Elmin, Egalitarian Whip, Chair of the Committee for the Maintenance of the Peace,

The Morrow Ministry presents

A PROJECTION OF DEATHS IN A SECOND ARMADA WAR

With the cooperation of the polymaths of the Metademe, we have prepared two assessments of the human cost of a second Armada War between the Imperial Republic of Falcrest and the Federations of Oriati Mbo.

The first assessment describes an easy victory.

The second assessment describes a strategic catastrophe.

A HOPEFUL SCENARIO

In the best case, our naval attacks against the Mbo swiftly close their harbors. Rocket barrages threaten the destruction of Yama, New Kutulbha, and Devimandi. We block the Tide Column, severing Oriati trade between the Ashen Sea coast and the Devi-naga Mothercoast.

The three coastal Mbo federations surrender immediately.

In protest of their surrender, landlocked Mzilimake declares war on Lonjaro, Segu, and Devi-naga. Civil war erupts. The governments of the coastal federations call on Falcrest for help.