Kayla Starr stepped into the barracks' mess hall as if she were walking onto a battlefield. The unfriendly gazes boring into her back were neither new nor rare, tamed as they were by the quiet lassitude of the late afternoon.

The midday meal had long passed. Kayla's eyes scanned through the thin crowd, stopping at a familiar head of tousled gold. She changed course at a clipped step.

Rin had chosen her seat well. Hunched into a corner at the very back of the hall, her table half-hidden behind a support column, she would be easy to miss if not for her bright hair. Once seen, however, the girl stuck out like a crooked nail. Every other soldier present was easily twice her size. The way she held herself – head down, body slouched – drew rather than discouraged attention.

Soldiers were trained to exploit weakness. Rin's sorry state would not go unremarked, were it not for the girl's apparent youth.

Kayla slid onto the bench across from the sullen girl. Rin looked up, jaw tense. Her expression softened when she realized who had intruded onto her solitude.

"What happened?" Kayla asked before the girl could speak, voice sharp.

Rin's lips stretched into a sardonic smile, misshapen by the bruise swelling her right cheek. "A bit of a friendly disagreement," she said.

"I see," Kayla said darkly.

Fights were not uncommon in the barracks. Fresh cadets were particularly susceptible to the pressures of their new environment, their discontent heightened by the unruliness of youth. Nonetheless, Kayla could not envision Rin involved in some pubescent display of anger. The girl was not of a temper. She was even less likely to provoke a classmate into a physical altercation.

"Did teacher send you? Well, you can tell him that I am not sorry. I'm not writing a stupid apology letter, either. Kyle started it. Not my fault he can't take a punch."

Rin stabbed at a tomato, punctuating her angry ramble. Kayla watched her in bewildered amusement.

"What did this Kyle do?" she asked.

"He was making fun of Zero. They all were! But Kyle was the worst. He was saying all these awful things, and no one told him to stop. They were all laughing!" Rin said. Her voice shook, so upset she looked near crying.

Kayla felt a hot stab of shame. Whatever Rin had heard from her fellow cadets could not be any worse than the sentiments expressed freely by soldiers of higher rank. Kayla held little love for Zero herself. Faced with Rin's scowling little face, she wondered about the root of her dislike for the very first time.

"Then he started in on Sparks," Rin continued darkly. Kayla hid a wince; the irony of being disparaged alongside Zero did not escape her. "I asked him if he planned to carry on covering his lack of talent with crass remarks about others. He's dead last in class."

"I dare guess Kyle was not too happy to be reminded of the fact," Kayla said.

Rin laughed. "Oh, he was angry alright."

"He acted first?" Kayla confirmed.

Rin nodded. "I got him better. His footwork is sloppy. But, um – I might've gotten him too well."

"Musser did mention the boy's in the infirmary. Broke his nose?" Kayla guessed.

"His jaw," Rin said, wincing slightly.

Kayla was impressed. "A fitting punishment for a loose mouth," she said in approval.

"Teacher still sent me in for discipline," Rin muttered.

The mention of Musser reminded Kayla of her purpose in seeking Rin. She tapped her fingers on the table, catching the girl's attention. Kayla laid out her hand between them.

"May I?" she asked.

Rin placed her own hand atop of Kayla's, overlapping their fingers. Anyone watching would know the two were speaking silently – Kayla's Spark was too well-known in the Capital to allow for subterfuge. That was however hardly a concern. Soldiers carried secrets like scars; to guard a private conversation was not at all strange, in their company.

"Have you been meeting with your friend?" Kayla asked.

Rin watched her warily. She did not respond, but her reaction left no question as to her answer.

"Zero have been absent as of late," Kayla told her, drawing the subject away from Rin's friend toward more neutral topics of interest.

The girl's expression softened, but not by much. "They were called away. Ian doesn't know the reason," she said.

"Where did they go?" Kayla asked.

Rin hesitated. Kayla waited patiently, keeping her mind firmly on their conversation and the warmth of contact between them. She would not break the girl's trust by peeking into the shards of memories that flashed in the space they shared, like falling stars.

"The Tower," Rin said at last.

Kayla wondered if this would be the answer Musser expected, or if the man would be just as caught off guard.

"They are guarding something," Rin spoke before Kayla could ask, "Captain Hale is there, as well."

"Captain?" Kayla repeated. The form of address was no stranger than the rest of what Rin had shared, yet it struck Kayla as particularly out of place. Rin had not known Ira Hale as a Captain within the Amith Capil. Where did the girl hear the traitor called so?

"That's what Ian calls her. Guess it stuck," Rin said.

"Your friend has had dealings with Hale," Kayla said, less of a question and more of a realization. Hale's unannounced visit had thrown the Capital into upheaval. Over the past few weeks, every bit of the compound had been overturned in search of the weakness the woman had exploited to breach their defenses.

Who would guess that she had simply strolled in, under the wing of a Zero soldier at that?

"Well, yes. Captain – um, Miss Hale came for her friend, the one we, erm, laid to rest. She met Ian at the halfway safehouse. Was that not part of the plan?"

"I do not know," Kayla said. If Hale had figured in Musser's plan, the man had not shared as much with her.

Dimitri had refused to betray Hale's confidence under heavy torture. Kayla had mocked the man for his misplaced loyalty; she did not know what to feel at present, having been proved the fool.

Relief was probably not the healthiest response.

"Your friend – he is not like other Zero soldiers. Have you realized that?" Kayla asked.

Rin nodded hesitantly.

"Has he?" Kayla said.

"Ian says that they scare him," Rin said. The words came in a rush, weighed by worry and grief and not a little anger, "He is also not always...himself. Not fully."

"Does he know why?" Kayla asked.

Rin shook her head. "I've asked. His face goes empty when I do, so I don't ask anymore. Only..."

"I will not speak of this to anyone," Kayla told her.

Rin watched her. The girl's bruised, open expression was at odds with her turbulent mind. Kayla tried to smile, to offer a word of reassurance. In the end, she could barely manage to hold the girl's eyes.

"Why are you here, Miss Starr?" Rin asked.

Kayla wondered at the question. Was it a test? Surely, the girl remembered that Kayla had come to her on Musser's orders – Kayla had shared as much when she had arrived.

"Your teacher," she began hesitantly.

"Oh no, not that. Why are you here?" Rin asked and Kayla knew, with a sick certainty, what she meant.

Why the Capital?

Why, after everything, the Amith Capil?

Kayla had no answer – not for Rin, and not for herself. She could say that she had no choice in the matter. It would hardly be a lie; the Court had never officially dismissed her and as such she was still considered in active service. The penalty for desertion was steep, not to mention that there was simply nowhere for Kayla to hide.

The truth, however, was far simpler. Kayla remained, because it was the easiest thing to do short of a bullet through the head. At least here, there was work for her to do and memories of Mika to keep her company in the dead of night, when the world was as quiet as a grave.

"I am loyal to the Queen," Kayla said.

"I am not," Rin told her simply. "I have never seen the Queen. To me, she is an idea, a story. But Ian is real. My parents, my friends back home, the troupe of performers who visited our village when I was a child and brought us so much joy – they are real. I am loyal to them and to those who would keep them safe.

If I share what Ian told me, would you keep it safe, Miss Starr? Or would you sacrifice my friend on the altar of your absent Queen?"

Kayla did not speak. Her mouth was dry. Her heart beat at a stuttered pace, each beat as sharp as if it were thrumming against naked bone.

Rin's eyes were red. She opened her mouth; Kayla stood, breaking the contact between them.

"Do not tell me," she said. "Not yet."

Rin nodded sadly.

The murmur of voices bled through the quiet. Kayla was reminded of their location and the many curious eyes and ears in the vicinity.

"Musser would like to see you. You still have a broken jaw to account for," she said.

Rin groaned, playing along. She returned her plate and utensils to the kitchen, then obediently trotted after Kayla. No one would believe the small, timid girl capable of saying what she had. A dangerous misconception - and a foolish one, given what Kayla already knew about the girl. Joining the Amith Capil at such a young age was no small matter. Whatever her motives, however naïve they appeared, she had achieved her objective. With enough training, Rin would make an exemplary soldier.

Provided, of course, that such a thing aligned with the girl's own plans. A hook to the jaw seemed otherwise likely.

Musser had called them to his quarters, which doubled as the man's office. This arrangement was already as private as could be hoped – space was severely limited in the Capital, even for soldiers of rank. It had taken Kayla and Mika years to earn a room all of their own.

Kayla rapped her knuckles against the door in a set pattern. It did not take Musser long to answer, the man's scarred face wrinkling in a brief grin once his gaze fell on Rin. The girl ducked her head under the attention.

"Come inside. Miss Barlowe, do not slouch! Hardly becoming of a champion, is it?" he boomed.

Kayla rolled her eyes. She ushered Rin in first, scanning the hallway for anything or anyone out of place. When she entered at last, she almost ran into Rin's back.

"What is the matter," Kayla began.

Her words died in her throat.

The door opened into a small study. It was poorly furnished, the desk and chairs as scuffed as those found in any classroom. Another doorway spoke of an adjacent room, likely Musser's living quarters. There was little to warrant any sort of interest, except perhaps the paperweight in the shape of a nesting hen.

That, and Richard Greoff, Lord of the Queen's Court. Kayla stepped in front of Rin without quite making the decision to move.

The pleasant smile on Lord Greoff's lips deepened, gaining a bit of true weight. "Please excuse my poor manners. I would not dream of imposing my presence without good reason."

"Lord Greoff is welcomed wherever he goes," Kayla said. She could not think of anything but the cold seeping into her flesh as she knelt for this man – for all of them, the Lords of the Court – and awaited punishment, the Queen's throne an empty backdrop for her misery.

"Much obliged," Lord Greoff said.

His manner struck Kayla as unfamiliar. The man was not warm by any stretch of the word, nor had he lost his inherent arrogance. However, the heavy sense of oppression that marked every other encounter with the proud Lord was noticeably absent.

Kayla angled her body so she could see Musser while keeping Lord Greoff in her line of sight. She had a few choice words for the soldier, most of them unsuitable for present company. Rin gripped the back of her shirt. The girl's hand shook. Kayla straightened her shoulders, spine steeled.

"No need for that, now," Musser exclaimed. He motioned toward Lord Greoff as one would an old buddy rather than the head of state. "Richard's on our side, Starr. How'd you think I got your boy out of the city?"

Kayla's eyes swung from one man to the other. She had suspected Musser had a powerful backer, but a Lord of the Queen's Court? Was that not tantamount to mutiny?

"A friend of a friend?" Kayla said.

Musser laughed. "Just so."

"How may we be of help?" Kayla asked carefully.

Lord Greoff smiled, mustache puffing. "It is a small matter, I am sure. You see, I have misplaced one of my dear colleagues. Something tells me that your young charge may know of his whereabouts. It is imperative that we find him soon – he does so hate it when he is ignored."

Kayla parsed through the winding words. "Your Lordship will excuse my bluntness, but how are we to locate a colleague of yours? Surely, your resources far outweigh ours. If you cannot find your man, then I am afraid we do not stand a chance."

"Do not disparage yourself unduly, Miss Starr. A single trustworthy source is all we need, and I have it on good authority that young Miss Barlowe has precisely that."

Lord Greoff tilted his head, his cold eyes slipping to Rin's shadow at Kayla's back.

"Tell me, Miss Barlowe, where has Zero hidden their tail?"