And Tain Hu. Poor Tain Hu. Svir had thought her so magnetic and so fiercely principled that no one, not even Itinerant, could want to be rid of her. Baru had executed her so coldly that Svir’s protests had peeled off his tongue like frozen steel.

And without any control over Baru, Svir and dear Lindon were doomed.

•

• •

• • •

Consider this—Svir always thought best in pictures—consider this pyramid, each dot a cryptarch. Renascent at the apex. Where else could she go? Itinerant (fuck him) and Hesychast (fuck him too) stood below her, contending for her favor, balanced against each other by the threat of mutual annihilation. They held influence over the bottom tier, Stargazer and Baru (Agonist, what a gruesome name) and he, Svir. All brilliant little exemplars of what Lindon called the Cult of Youth, Falcrest’s obsession with bright-eyed savants.

If only he could have secured a hostage over Baru. If only he’d taken her into his control. With that power he could become this happy little X:

•

• •

X

• • (•)

The newcomer (•) being Xate Yawa.

Then he’d be able to prod Baru onto the center of the political stage as a dazzling distraction. Present her to Parliament and the navy, fill her up with money and power: shining, doomed Baru, burning brightly. Do this for me and you’ll see Tain Hu again.

He’d thought she must love Tain Hu as wholly as he loved Lindon—

But she hadn’t. And with no way to control Baru, Svir had no mask to hide behind while he and Lindon made the final preparations for their endgame: the money, the charts, the ships required to get the fuck out, eastward and forever, before it all came crashing down.

Svir thought of the words Iraji had whispered to him, in the deepest darkness of the ocean night, as thousands of glowing jellyfish rose up below the ship:

A ut li-en.

And he shuddered. And the mirror was broken. And Baru knew where Svir had come from, she knew how to burn him, he was very nearly under her control.

“Oh, Lindon,” Svir groaned. “I hope you’re happy out there. And the wife. And the kids. And your stupid little dog.”