The student body was abuzz with rumors for the rest of the week. The four chosen attendants had been spirited off to the palace for further preparations and instructions; everyone else was left to speculate eagerly about the closely guarded secrets of the new year's rites. There were some, too, who suspected that the selection had not been overseen by the gods as claimed, but rather had been rigged by meddling courtiers. No one could say for sure, as only the teachers were old enough to remember the last time attendants had been selected for the rites, and they discouraged such blasphemous speculation.

Intan herself wondered if it were not merely a case of sour grapes. There had been many who had been eager to be chosen, though Intan didn't really understand why. Most of them no longer believed in the old ways, after all.

She was, in fact, puzzling over this instead of listening to her professor's lecture one afternoon when a soldier arrived, interrupting the class. Intan and her classmates watched with interest as the soldier conferred with the professor.

"Aghavni," said the professor after some time. "You've been summoned by the Headmistress."

"Oooh, in trouble again?" snickered the boy next to her.

Intan grinned and shrugged. (She was glad, in truth, to have an excuse to skip class!)

This time when she arrived at the Headmistress's office, the door was cracked open by a wedge. Like the last time she had come, she could hear raised voices from within.

" -- waited all week --"

Eguzki! So he was back -- that probably meant the other attendants were back as well. Perhaps that was the reason for the summons this time.

The second voice -- a woman's, probably the Headmistress's -- was muffled.

Eguzki's voice rose. " -- didn't ask for this!"

"This is neither the time nor place for this."

"Then what the fuck do you want me to do? I can't just --"

The Headmistress's response was once more low and difficult to make out. " -- for your own good."

"Fine! I'll do it! I'll fucking do it --"

Silence.

Intan was a bit surprised that Eguzki did not come storming out this time around. Instead, the door opened slowly to reveal both a sullen Eguzki and a rather tired-looking Headmistress.

"Ah, Aghavni," said the Headmistress. "You're early."

The elevator dinged. Eguzki shoved past Intan, heading toward it. The doors slid open, and out walked Tuyet, who seemed a bit surprised to see Eguzki there, but quickly recovered and greeted him with a cool nod. For Intan, she offered a bright grin and a wave.

The Headmistress sighed. "Dugu, Aghavni. Come in."

* * *

Intan and Tuyet both took a seat. Headmistress Liow lit up and took a puff on her cigar.

Without missing a beat, she began. "Our contacts have informed us that the dissidents have begun to gather at the capital."

"The capital!" said Tuyet. "But what are they planning? They can't possibly mean to --"

"They would be quite foolish to think they could pull off the same thing they did at Sunset Village."

"Then..."

"It is your job to find out what they do intend."

"... Ah." Tuyet hesitated. "Just me and Intan?"

"Rusli, Sunagawa, and Gushiken are out of the question, you know that. Aragaki would be too conspicuous."

Tuyet rolled her eyes, but smiled.

The Headmistress did not. "And you are quite familiar with the capital."

For a moment, Tuyet's smile faltered. Intan blinked, wondering if she had just imagined it.

"And Marius?"

"I have assigned him other duties with Aragaki."

"Oh." Tuyet laughed. "Oh dear."

"You and Aghavni shall be more than sufficient for the task at hand," the Headmistress replied, and proceeded to outline the details of their mission to them.

* * *

 It was another week and a half before they actually set off for the capital. It seemed the Headmistress had been waiting on one final contact; but as soon as she received that last report, Intan and Tuyet were immediately summoned once more and bundled together onto the train in several layers of civilian clothing.

After the long haze of summer, the cold had set in rather abruptly, and more sharply than in previous years. Intan hadn't seen another tree sprite since the night of the Moon Festival (that one, perhaps, had simply been playing a prank on her), and suspected they were all hibernating. She wasn't quite sure whether she was disappointed or relieved by that.

Tuyet was oddly quiet throughout their trip, but she began to cheer up as soon as they disembarked at the station.

"Let's go to the theater! I know one that puts on talkies. Or do you prefer Lifex the Cat?"

"What about the mission?" asked Intan, who had no idea what Tuyet was talking about.

"Aw, come on," said Tuyet, grinning. "It's so rare that we get any time to ourselves. Might as well enjoy this outing for what it's worth!"

Intan trudged along without further comment, already feeling rather miserable due to the cold. There were no hearth gods here in the new capital, where the sacred fires had long ago been doused, replaced by skinny smokestacks.

"How have you been doing with your coursework? I remember you did quite well on your first term, didn't you?"

"I guess so," said Intan, teeth chattering. She hadn't actually paid attention when their grades for the first term were posted on their return from summer break.

"Exams are coming up again real fast, huh?" remarked Tuyet as they slipped into the crowded streets. A passing car honked at crossing passersby; on the opposite end of the street, a pair of young siblings tugged at their goat's lead, trying to pull the stubborn animal out of the way of a clattering bicycle rickshaw. "And after that, I've got just one more term before graduation..."

The slightly downcast timbre of her tone caught Intan's attention. "What will you do after that?"

Most people were formally inducted into the military upon graduation. But there were a few students who chose to return home instead, or settle down in one of the big cities.

"I don't know," admitted Tuyet. "We Dragons have a pretty good deal, y'know? No matter what our background may be, as soon as we take on this mantle, we become one of the elite. And it's not like I dislike the military... But what about you, Intan? I've been curious about why you applied to the Academy. When I heard that you managed to snag the patronage of one of the Great Clans, I assumed you had to be one hell of an ambitious kid. But..." She laughed.

Intan cocked her head, confused. "I just wanted to fly. And..." She hesitated. "There's somebody I have to find."

"Somebody?"

"The goddess of the hot springs," replied Intan.

Tuyet peered at her, considering her answer in solemn silence. Suddenly, she looked up at the sky. Laughed out loud.

"Look!" said Tuyet, voice filled with giddy awe. "It's snowing!"

Intan looked up as well, stunned. Sure enough, pale flakes drifted down from the gray sky, melting as they brushed against her cheeks.

* * *

Snow was rare on the island, even at higher altitude towns like the capital. Intan, who had never been so cold in her life, kept twisting and turning her head to watch as it continued to fall. Meanwhile, she allowed let Tuyet drag and prod her through the crowds of people who had gathered outside in even greater numbers now to stare and run around.

"I was named for the snow, you know," said Tuyet.

Intan looked at her, surprised. "Really?"

Tuyet laughed yet again. "I was born in the summer, see. But my mom died giving birth to me, and I guess I must have been a sickly kid, so they didn't name me just yet. Wanted to make sure I'd live through the winter. What with the plague and all, and the war having just ended the year before... I guess my chances weren't too great, all things considered. And then winter came along and all of a sudden it just started snowing one day. Nobody'd ever seen anything like it before, not even the elders. So I guess they took it as a sign. Though whether they named me to appease or honor the spirits, I've never known!"

The novelty was beginning to wear out, though, by the time they reached the theater (which, as it turned out, was barely a block away from the meeting point they had established with one of the Headmistress's contacts). Tuyet was insisting that they were early yet and still had enough time to catch a quick show when a nearby man looked up, startled, and approached them.

"Tuyet! Is that really you?"

Tuyet froze. "Zeke," she managed to say. "It's been a while."

The man's hair was white as the falling snow, yet upon closer examination Intan realized he was really quite young.

"Two years... No, almost three," he said.

"Yeah..."

"What are you doing here? And who is your friend?"

"This is Intan," said Tuyet. "A junior of mine at school." She hesitated. "How's the old gang?"

"Fine. Great. We're all doing well." Zeke hesitated as well. "You sure picked an interesting time to come back. First snow in years, eh?"

"Mm," replied Tuyet.

Intan looked back and forth between the two as they stood there, awkwardly avoiding each other's gaze. Intan wondered if she ought to interrupt. (It seemed both of them had completely forgotten she was still there.)

But Tuyet spoke at last. "I'd better go."

"So soon?" said Zeke. Come, now. Is that any way to treat an old friend? Why don't we catch a show together, take some time to catch up?"

"We're over, Zeke. We were over three years ago." Tuyet turned.

"Wait --" Zeke grabbed her sleeve. "Can't we at least talk? I've been thinking, all this time. You were right, Tuyet. You were right all along, I shouldn't have --"

There was something wrong with the look in his eyes. He did not look like a man who was apologizing, Intan realized. She realized too, suddenly, that the crowd around them had stopped moving.

"Tuyet --" she began, growing fearful, but closed her mouth again.

Too many people. Intan had forgotten, how easy it was to lose oneself in the teeming masses of the city. Things were different here, than they were in the mountains, in the forests, by the sea.

"It's too late," Tuyet was saying. "I'm sorry, but..." She broke off, evidently seeing now what Intan had been trying to warn her about. She whirled back around.

There Zeke stood, holding a gun pointed straight at her.

"You!" growled Tuyet through clenched teeth.

"Sorry, Tuyet," he said, and this time Intan thought she heard genuine regret in his voice. "No hard feelings."

Around them, the crowd pressed closer.

* * *

She hadn't changed at all.

One of the older men clapped Zeke's back as they picked their way through the abandoned warehouse that served as their base. "You didn't tell us your girlfriend was so pretty."

Zeke shrugged off the hand. "Ex-girlfriend."

"Oh? Pity, dumping a nice girl like that. Or let me guess: she was the one who did the dumping?"

It's none of your business, he thought, but did not say.

The man guffawed. "Well, here's your chance for revenge now, isn't it?"

"This isn't about vengeance," said Zeke at last, turning to look the other man in the eye. "Or have you forgotten the Captain's orders already?"

Stupid of him, really. He should have known three years couldn't change a person so drastically. Tuyet wasn't so weak. He knew that, had known it ever since the day they first met.

He swallowed the surge of anger that arose in him with the memory. Captain Mok would be questioning the two girls any moment now. The Captain had asked Zeke to be present for the interrogation. It was a great honor, one Zeke had eagerly accepted. But that had been before. Before he'd arrived on location and seen her -- standing there in the snow, chatting away with her friend as if they were regular schoolgirls on an outing -- and only then, in that moment, realized the identity of the spy's contact. Now he wondered if it wouldn't be better to ask to be excused, no matter how cowardly the others would think him. He had no confidence in his ability to control his emotions, and he knew very well what that might cost them. The Captain trusted him; he was determined not to betray that trust.

And yet how many times had he relived that day in his dreams? Too many, perhaps. So many times that the details were beginning to fade into a blur of stills, like the faltering, colorless reels they showed at the theaters.

Rain. Hunger: gnawing, relentless.

A pale, outstretched hand. That brilliant, fearless smile.

Zeke shook his head, shoving past the man accompanying him. In the end they'd just been a bunch of dumb kids, really. Perhaps it was meant to be this way after all. He would go. Face his past once and for all. Move on.

He would become stronger, just as he'd sworn he would, over the bodies of their dead friends.

* * *

Captain Mok was already waiting for him in the walled off area towards the back that doubled as cell and makeshift meeting room. The girls were there too, sitting bound and blindfolded on the floor.

"You're late, kid," said the Captain, but without rancor in his tone.

"Sorry, sir."

The Captain acknowledged his apology with a wave. As Zeke took a seat, the Captain ordered two other men to remove the girls' blindfolds. Tuyet glared straight ahead. The white-haired girl shook her head a bit and looked around, oddly unfrightened and at ease.

"Your contact is dead," said the Captain, in an easy, conversational tone.

Tuyet said nothing. The other girl seemed to be staring curiously at an old photograph on the wall. Zeke knew instantly which photograph it was, for he had seen it countless times himself. It was a picture of the Captain and his old war buddies: two women and a grizzled older man in the front, and in the back, three younger men including the Captain himself. Zeke had asked some of the others about it once, but no one knew much about it. The Captain didn't like to talk about much about his experiences in the war. Who knew what Tuyet's little companion found so fascinating about it.

Zeke turned his focus to the Captain.

"I suppose your Headmistress will be disappointed."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Tuyet at last. "My friend and I just decided to come to the capital on a little shopping trip."

Zeke glanced at her then. He couldn't help it. A chill ran down his back.

Sure enough, there it was again: that fierce, shit-eating grin he knew all too well.

The Captain leaned back in his chair. "You're not a very convincing actor, are you?"

No, she wasn't. She never had been. That idiot. What the hell was she thinking?

But of course. She must have realized that they couldn't afford to hurt her. Not with their plans so close to fruition.

"Now, I'm not a cruel man," the Captain was saying. "And you're just children. If you're willing to cooperate, I am willing to treat you fairly. Otherwise..."

Tuyet's smirk grew wider. Beside her, the other girl simply looked confused, as if she still wasn't quite sure what she was doing here. "Well, as you said, we're just mere children. And your men have already treated us most unkindly."

Zeke stiffened, but the Captain continued without batting an eye.

"I know who you are. The Nine Dragons, the Headmistress's dogs. So tell me. Did she find out about Gushiken and the king?"

Tuyet didn't miss a beat either. "So what if we are, and so what if she did? We're not the only ones she sent, you know. In fact, I'd say you're the ones who ought to be cooperating here. The military doesn't take kindly to insurgents. Especially deserters."

Had she known? Or had she simply guessed? How much had the spy told them before the Captain caught him?

"You're fools if you think it'll actually work," she continued, voice dripping with scorn. "But I guess you'd have to be fools, to even think of defying the heavens like this. You might as well just surrender now, before you get yourselves into even deeper shit."

Zeke stood. "Cut it out already, Tuyet!" he snapped, though the Captain had warned him to watch and listen only, but not interfere. "Don't you see, that woman's just been using you!"

She turned her head to him then, for the first time since he'd entered the room. "Oh, I see. And I suppose your dear leader here isn't 'just using you'?"

He held her gaze, but in the end he looked away.

"A traitor like you wouldn't understand," he said through gritted teeth, and if she said anything in response, he did not hear.

What he remembered most, in the end, was the warmth.

Despite the bitter wind streaming through her hair, despite the rags they all wore. She had still been a girl then; he himself barely out of boyhood -- indeed, none of them yet men or women. But they'd watched out for each other's backs, Tuyet and him and the others. Laughed together, wept together. Together, they could have taken on the world. And they damn well might have, had it not been for --

"Sit down," said the Captain.

He did, and realized he was trembling.

The Captain continued his questioning. Zeke sat there, stiff and silent, and found his thoughts drifting again, no longer to the day of their first meeting -- but the day she left.

* * *

"I'm sorry," said Zeke once the interrogation ended and the girls had been taken away.

Captain Mok shook his head. "I wouldn't have asked you to stay if I thought you couldn't handle it." Then he turned, watching him, hawklike. "So, what do you think?"

"It seems they really don't know anything," Zeke replied hesitantly. Despite the questioning, neither girl had given away much. The white-haired girl had seemed genuinely clueless, while Tuyet remained defiant to the end. "You were right, Captain. I guess we're going to have to use them as hostages."

"I wonder," said the Captain. "Liow's a tricky woman. Always has been."

"Tuyet's bluffing, at least. If she really knew what our plans were, she wouldn't have boasted about it like that."

"Hm, perhaps." The Captain stroked his stubbled chin, evidently deep in thought.

Zeke hesitated again. "How's the situation now? Is the Gushiken head still here?"

The head of Clan Gushiken had arrived in secret that morning to seek audience with the king -- just as the Captain's spies had predicted some weeks ago. Zeke had never seen the man; of all the clan heads, Gushiken was the most reclusive by far. That he of all people was making a move at last meant that things were truly being set into motion.

It was exciting to contemplate, but also frightening.

"Yes. The men we sent to the airship docking just got back. It's all going according to plan so far, but with Gushiken's travel plans pushed back now..."

"What are we gonna do? Do you think the military's on to us?"

"They will be soon enough. As soon as they examine the airship, they'll know."

"But they should have finished inspections already, right? Maybe they won't do another one," Zeke began, but he sounded doubtful even to himself.

"We can't count on that," the Captain replied grimly. "Gushiken's a paranoid bastard." He sighed. "Well, I suppose it's no use worrying. If worst comes to worst..."

"The Dolls," said Zeke, startled. "But it's too dangerous to employ them in the city!"

The Captain said nothing for some time. At last, he muttered, more to himself than to Zeke, "That damned snow..."