"I don't think a brothel of all places is the best place to start learning meditation, do you?"

Ulsper sighed at Suthe's objection, and not for the first time, regretted agreeing to Seoulosu's determined meeting location.

"Promise me you won't do any sudden disappearing acts, then," he said. The druith seemed to have only gotten more nervous since they had arrived at the courtesans' establishment, and he had brought up the topic of meditation in an attempt to distract her from their surroundings.

There was a line of leering men, mostly drunk, standing in the alley behind the brothel and watching as the women paraded in and out of the building. Ulsper and Suthe had settled down on the back steps of the building next door, partially hidden by two wooden crates of dried fish and a half-filled rain barrel that shaded them from the late afternoon sun.

"I'll try not to," Suthe replied. "That's the best I can do."

That kind of answer wouldn't have passed in the Imperial Guard, but Ulsper let it slide. Once Suthe had realized that he wasn't going to push the matter, she gave a small grin and opened up her bag.

"That other spy packed all sort of random things in here," she commented, rummaging through the contents and pulling out a string of buttons on a thread. "What am I supposed to do with all of this?"

Among some of the more common items, the bag also happened to contain a wrench, an unmarked bottle, two small gears, and a spool of thin copper wire.

"Cal will be wanting that wrench back," Ulsper commented. "And the bottle." No doubt Marrene had taken a few of the inventor's belongings without asking. It was typical of his former apprentice to...borrow things like that.

"Ugh." Suthe tossed the items back into the back and tied it shut. "So, how much longer do we have to wait?"

"A while. Are you sure you don't want to practice meditation?"

"No, I...there are too many other people," she protested, casting an anxious glance first at him and then across to the men outside the brothel before hugging her knees to her chest more tightly. "I'd rather we talk about something else instead."

"Such as?" Ulsper stretched in a move meant to appear lazy and at ease, but took the opportunity to check the rooftops, and then the mouth of the alley. They were still safe, for now.

Suthe looked back up at him. "Have you heard about the Sinderflynnen?"

"The Firebird?"

"Yes, it's a flying ship. Alaera told me about it."

Ulsper checked the dagger in his boot. "I'm Esper, not Ellerian," he replied. "I don't have time for another tribe's fairytales."

"Oh." At her disappointed tone, Ulsper almost regretted being so matter-of-fact about it. But she persisted. "Well, are there any good Esper stories?"

"They tend to be a bit morbid." Next door, the group of four men roared in drunken laughter as they staggered out of the brothel, each attached to the arm of an attractive young woman with a painted smile and powdery, pale skin. Ulsper looked the men over carefully, but only one had a knife strapped to his belt, and it didn't look like it had been used in several years. "I'm more familiar with the ones that contain a lot of fighting and people killing one another."

Suthe let out a breath, short and irritated. "Well, there must be something we can talk about," she said. "How did you become a spy?"

"This is not the time or place to discuss that," Ulsper warned. It would be foolish to tell this girl he barely knew about his past, especially while the Imperial Guard was looking for them.

"Then what should we discuss?" A blast from one of the mines split the air, and she jumped.

"Meditation?" Ulsper suggested. It would help her nerves once she was familiar with it, but from the way she kept avoiding the topic, it seemed she was afraid of failure, especially under the eyes of others. She wouldn't accept his offer just now. He would need to wait for a more peaceful time when she would be more open to facing her vulnerabilities.

"How about the Rebel King?" Suthe said, ignoring his suggestion as he had thought she would. "You mentioned him earlier."

Ulsper twitched an eyebrow. "What about him?"

"With the general...arrows and stuff," Suthe elaborated.

"And stuff," Ulsper echoed flatly. He was rewarded with an exasperated sigh.

"You know what I mean. You said something about an uprising, and that they used arrows?" Suthe's tone was hopeful. "And anyway, you said you were more familiar with stories about fighting, right?"

Ulsper did one more survey of the alleyway before facing the young woman beside him. A dark curl had slipped from beneath her hood and now rested against her cheek as she waited for him to respond.

"After Pretia separated into the separate countries of Montmyth and Andilir, the Lanfu family rose to power in the new capital of Sang Bur," Ulsper began. "They had ruled ever since...until Yun Sao Guixi led a rebellion and overthrew them."

"Why?" Intrigued, Suthe turned her head to face him more fully, and in doing so, the hood of her cloak began to slip back. Ulsper reached out and yanked it back down for her, and was met with a scowl from beneath the shadow of the hood. "There's no one looking."

He met her gaze and let his hand drop. "You never know."

She wrapped her cloak tighter around her shoulders. "Why did Yun...the Rebel King revolt? Was the current ruler not adequate enough?"

Ulsper felt a wry smile slip onto his face. "No, his reason was not that pure-hearted. Yun Sao merely wanted the throne for himself, and promised his followers fame and riches if they supported him. And he carried through on his promise. Now, the members of the court bask in luxury while making it increasingly more difficult for the country's citizens to get by."

He noticed Suthe's left hand tighten its grip on her canvas bag. "Why don't they do something? Can't they take back the throne?"

"It's complicated," Ulsper said, scanning the crowd waiting outside the brothel once more. But there were only eleven men in various states of drunkenness, and one passed out against the wall. Four were foreigners from Montmyth, perhaps Isendorn, judging by their loose-sleeved shirts and the sashes that belted their trousers.

"What do you mean?"

Ulsper turned back to Suthe. "For one, many of the common people are uneducated and illiterate. They aren't well-learned in history, and don't understand how the previous ruler had had prioritized their well-being. Yun Sao silenced the concerns after his uprising in part through empty promises of making things better than they had ever been before."

Suthe's brows pulled together in a frown. "How?"

"Well," Ulsper leaned back against the steps behind him, and took the opportunity to check the rooftops again. "He pointed out problems that had never existed before, and twisted the people's memory of their old king. He promised better roads, better health, better food...the list goes on. Suddenly, no one was satisfied with what they had anymore. They felt as though the previous king had been neglecting them, and this new one would bring them what they hadn't realized they had been missing."

"But he hasn't," Suthe said. "Can't they see that?"

"They still hope. Hope can be a useless thing."

"Does General Seolosu support the new king?" Her stomach rumbled after her question, and she hugged her waist and curled forward, embarrassed. Ulsper spared another glance towards the mouth of the alley. It was well past lunchtime, and Seolosu's trainee had yet to show up.

"No," Ulsper said. "But she pretends to, for the sake of her position in the military. Disloyalty is rewarded with imprisonment, or even death."

Suthe uncurled and looked over at him. "How can you be so sure she's pretending? I thought you weren't certain that she wouldn't betray us."

"Desperation can drive a person to do something they ordinarily wouldn't," Ulsper answered. "I know her because I saved her from imprisonment two years ago. But her husband still sits in the royal dungeons, if he's even still living. She could trade us both in for his freedom."

At his words, Suthe scrambled to her feet, reaching for her canvas bag. Ulsper grabbed her sleeve and yanked her back down to the step beside him.

"What are you doing?" he hissed.

"Isn't it obvious?" Suthe whispered back, worry coating her tone and sending it several octaves higher than normal. "Of course she's going to trade us in. We're strangers, and he's her husband! We've got to get out of here! This was a bad idea—"

Ulsper clamped a firm hand on her shoulder and forced her to face him. They were beginning to draw stares from the men next door, but it would be even worse if Suthe suddenly vanished.

"Listen to me," he said, willing his voice to come out steady and even. "That will not happen. I won't let it. You won't get captured and sent back to Montmyth."

"There's no way you can be so sure." She was glancing around wildly, her body tense and shaking with nervous energy.

"I've done this kind of work for almost twenty years," Ulsper reasoned with her, trying to catch her gaze. "I'll know when we need to leave, if someone comes who we need to avoid."

Suthe stilled, and slowly, turned to face him. Her eyes were fearful, searching for a hint of reassurance that she was doing the right thing by staying with him. With a small smile, Ulsper gave her shoulder an encouraging squeeze and let his arm drop back to his side.

Movement flickered in the corner of his vision, and Ulsper turned. Three men were heading down the alleyway, presumably to the brothel. Just a few feet from the establishment, however, their expressions changed. Ulsper recognized the glint in in their eyes as they assessed Suthe, and then the dismissive flick of their gaze in Ulsper's direction. The largest of the three, a dark-haired Sylterran foreigner, began to approach them, while the other two trailed behind.

"Hey, there's a pretty lady..." the man began to say. Suthe, who couldn't understand the Noth language, had yet to realize that the man was speaking to them. It wasn't until Ulsper flashed the blade hidden in his sleeve that she looked up in alarm.

"And would this be someone we need to avoid?" she whispered. He noticed how she unconsciously hunched her shoulders and shrunk away from the intimidating strangers. The weather probably didn't help with Suthe's fear. The afternoon shadows were lengthening, and dark clouds were beginning to roll in from the west. It darkened the men's expressions and added to the unsavoriness of their characters.

"They're nothing we can't handle," he reassured her. Turning his gaze to the men, he said, in Noth, "The place you're looking for is next door."

The men laughed.

"But they don't have any dark-skinned beauties like this one," the large man said, drawing closer. "Why doesn't she take off her hood and give us a better look?"

The man reached out a hand to do just that, but Ulsper was quicker. He grabbed the man's hand and pulled the fingers back until he heard a pop. The man cried out in surprise and pain.

"She's not for sale," Ulsper growled, pulling the man in and bringing the dagger up to his neck. "If you want entertainment, you'll find it next door." With a shove, he let the man go to stagger several steps back.

The stranger glowered at him, but after a long moment signaled to the two men with him. With a few more glares sent Ulsper's way, the trio slunk off to the brothel.

Another explosion sounded, this time from the direction of the base. It was followed by several more in quick succession—the final day's training must have just begun.

Still jittery from the encounter with the men, Suthe sucked in a startled breath at the noise. Ulsper glanced her way to check that she was okay before scanning the rooftops again. They were running short on time. Evening was fast approaching, and with it, the clockwork hour that Seolosu had warned about.

Suthe crossed her arms and leaned forward, as though trying to sink into the steps they sat on. "How much longer?"

He raised a brow. "You look like your stomach is eating itself."

That got her to straighten up. "I'm just a bit hungry, is all," she defended. "I'm not used to skipping lunch."

Though her face was half-hidden by the hood, Ulsper could still see the way her gaze darted in the direction of the brothel beside them. He shoved a hand in the right pocket of his coat and fished around until he found what he was looking for.

"Here." He held out the item to Suthe; a small cloth pouch with unsavory grease stains. She immediately recoiled. "Protein," he clarified. "Or did you not want any food?" The almonds inside would stave off her hunger for a little longer, at least.

Suthe bit her lip and shot him another glare, obviously fighting down her pride. "Thanks," she grumbled, quickly snatching the pouch from him.

Just above the rooftops, the sunlight flickered and then hid from view behind a mass of clouds. They would have to move soon. Beside him, Suthe munched on the snack. She ate slowly, but all too soon, her eyes went wide when her hand next went into the pouch, and she quickly closed it and handed it back to him.

"Here. Sorry." She avoided his gaze as she held it out.

Ulsper shrugged. "You can finish them. I don't mind."

She looked up. "Oh. Thanks."

Before she could continue eating, however, shadows shifted on the steps at their feet, and hinges squeaked as the door behind them opened. Ulsper took Suthe's wrist and drew her closer to him while drawing a knife from beneath his cloak. He heard the druith's breath hitch at the sight of the blade, and the muscles in her arm tensed beneath his touch.

"You have no idea what I had to go through to get here," a disgruntled voice announced.

Slowly, Ulsper turned to look over his shoulder, careful to keep the knife hidden in front of him. The door of the shop whose steps they had borrowed as a bench was now open just a crack, and only a sliver of the speaker was visible from within the building.

"You were followed?" Ulsper asked.

The door opened another two inches, and a young girl with short, dark hair stuck her head through the resulting gap. "Emphasis on was," she answered. "I've lost them now. Come on, follow me."

"How do I know you're the person we're waiting for?" Ulsper asked.

The girl, who had been about to disappear back inside the building, stuck her head back out the door again.

"General Yenh sent me. Said there were two foreigners hanging around by the Hero's Rest who needed a place to stay." She nodded her head in the direction of the brothel next door. "Didn't she tell you about me? I'm Nem Koel Ohn, her best trainee." She sounded a bit let down at the end of her explanation, Ulsper thought.

"How old are you, Nem Koel?" he asked.

A smile flickered around the girl's mouth. "Seventeen winters, though I look younger."

Ulsper subtly slipped the knife back in its sheath and stood up, then helped Suthe to her feet. "You do." Marrene was only a year older.

The girl's smile vanished as quickly as it came. "Doesn't mean I'm inexperienced, though. I know how to lose someone who's tailing me." She opened the door further for them to join her inside the building.

Ulsper entered first, acutely aware of the comparative darkness of the interior that dimmed his sight until his eyes adjusted. If Nem Koel wanted to attack him, this would be the perfect time. But she was more focused on fiddling with the lids of the jars on the shelves in the room they stood in, and occasionally sniffing the contents.

A soft scuff of leather on wood behind him marked Suthe's entrance into the building as well.

"What is this place?" she whispered to Ulsper.

Across the room, Nem Koel replaced a ceramic lid with a soft plink. "Just a small medicine shop," she answered in lightly-accented Montese. "The owner is an old man who usually just drinks upstairs and doesn't come down unless you really make a racket. He only sells things in the mornings." Ulsper felt Suthe stiffen beside him at the realization that she had been overheard and understood.

"How do you..." Suthe began.

"I grew up on the border between Andilir and Montmyth," Nem Koel explained, smoothing out the wrinkles in her black pants. "My parents often traded with travelers from Isendorn, and I picked up the language. That's probably why General Yenh sent me—so I could talk with both of you."

"We're losing time," Ulsper said. "It's nearly—"

Nem Koel's eyes widened "Right! This way." She headed for the front door of the establishment.

"Nearly what?" Suthe pressed. "Why do we have to hurry?"

"Nearly the clockwork hour," Nem Koel said, tossing the explanation over her shoulder. "If you're still out then, you'll definitely be recognized and arrested."

"How?" Suthe asked as they followed Nem Koel through the empty shop. "Why?"

In front of them, Nem Koel paused with her hand on the handle of the front door. "The clockwork soldiers run on runes," she said. "There will be no hiding the truth of what you are from them."

"Clockwork soldiers?" Suthe echoed. Ulsper could hear the fear wavering in her voice. "What are those?"

Nem Koel turned and raised an eyebrow. "Just what they sound like," she said. "They keep our cities safe at night. But for people like you, they're bad news. You'll want to be inside within the next hour."

"What happens then?" Suthe asked.

Nem Koel gave a grim smile.

"The clockses come out of their boxes."

~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm baaaaaaack!!  I'm so sorry for the delay.  Life is crazy, writer's block is the plague, and then I procrastinated and made a trailer for the series.  It is ridiculously difficult to find black actors for a fantasy trailer.  That is terrible and just another reason why we need more diversity in the fantasy genre.  On another note, some of the characters I featured won't be introduced for a few books yet...spoilery?  Maybe.  Overly ambitious that I'm going to finish writing these books?  Definitely.  

Some clips got messed up in the export process so there are a few blips, and the clips were taken from all over so definitely vary in quality (sorry), but otherwise I hope you enjoy!

As promised in the last chapter (when it was posted four score and seven months ago), the above is sort of my idea of Suthe, only her hair's a bit short and the lighting's not great, so eh.

Thanks for reading--please let me know what you think!  I originally had Suthe and Ulsper talking for much longer, but it seemed to drag on so I cut some things short and added in a pack of creeps to fight off for a bit of excitement.  Sorry if it still ended up slow.  >.<