“You wanted me to be a housewife, and I am,” she said, to the void, her voice rising. “I maintain my home. You wanted me to be meek, never heard, and I am. You wanted me to be nothing and no one and I am!”

She liked to think the choir carried that voice higher, rather than drown it out. It didn’t matter. She had come to terms with her silent voice long ago. To accept was one of the first things she had learned.

“I am a creator of my own kingdom. I am free. I’m a woman more powerful than any of you. I’m everything you wanted yet everything you feared, and I can be both because…”

She filled the space, sweeping past people on either side of the street, people on the stairs, people on the dais.

“…I am everything everywhere.”

She moved amid the masses, searching for assassins and familiarizing herself with everyone present.

“I was bartered away for power. You’ll find now that you get what you pay for.”

The show was done, and the students were dissolving ranks. The crowd closed in, filling the street. There was food, drink, and cheering. She knew, from dim childhood memories, that it would continue into the night, and then there would be fireworks, colors matched to the saint.

She swept close to Teacher, and she touched her lips to his, while the world that had cast her away unwittingly watched. A thank you, a message. She saw his eyes move slightly, his eyebrows twitch.

Teacher smiled.

“Enjoying yourself?” one of the theocrats asked.

“I am,” Teacher said.

“I’m glad. I’ve been to Gimel. I’ve seen how thinly it is stretched. I thought you would enjoy something more… substantial.”

“The insubstantial has its appeal, but I thank you, Caleb.”

“All that we have is yours, if you’ll elevate us, give us more worlds, more fertile ground. Every soldier, every weapon, every pen, every facility.”

Teacher smiled. He took the man’s hand, shaking it firmly. “You won’t be disappointed.”

“The appearance of the Titan so close to home has people worried,” another man said.

“Rest assured,” Teacher said. “Have faith.”

“Faith,” was the answer.

Teacher had his army, now. More people than he could hope to use. He had his stranglehold.

A few hundred steps away, past that shining portal, he had the fates of everyone in Gimel. A different kind of stranglehold.

People came and went, saying their hellos, getting their introductions. It was an hour before Teacher was alone with the man he wanted to talk to. Not a face most citizens would recognize, but he had visited once when The Horseman had first arrived. A dangerous man who always wore black. Ian.

“The Horseman told us of your information gathering apparatus. Spreading false word.”

“Something like that,” Teacher said.

“You can do this?”

“You, Ian my friend, I can assure, I can do this.”