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I imagine that you found this part of my story predictable and somewhat annoying, Elliot, but it’s necessary for you to understand what motivates me further along. Looking back on it now, I can say without a doubt that I was a whiny brat. We’ve all, however, ...

The events immediately after my House naming ceremony are a blur to me, even so many years later. I remember that I wasn’t given leave to say farewell to my family. Instead, the Lokke Vitras tersely informed me that Talira would tell them what had happened. A...

After a few weeks together, training and occasionally studying by myself on the estate, the Lokke Vitras took me on my first mission. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as he didn’t give me a briefing before we left, but when we headed toward the Eastern Reaches, I...

Time passed, and I approached my one-year anniversary as the Lokke Vitras to come. At the time, I still hadn’t adjusted my priorities about what was important in life. I still found milestones significant, even if I knew not to expect any sort of gift for them...

Despite how it might seem from other stories, Korix was not the primary focus of my life, nor was he my only source of happiness in the years after my House naming. Sure, he played a large part in it, but I had many other things to occupy me. Most of that incl...

The face of the man shouting at me had been red for a solid five minutes now, and I was beginning to worry about his blood pressure. Should I get him to a hospital? Also, why wasn’t he regulating his hormones? I’d heard House Kolb members were good at that. ...

My footfalls spun the conspiracy’s remaining members to me, and I held my hands to either side, spreading my fingers to show that I was unarmed. “Ladies, gentlemen, and others!” I called. “This is highly inappropriate behavior!” Ugh. Clarx was lingering. Wit...

Well. This had been a travesty. For the love of all that might be holy, say I was wrong. Say he hadn’t been watching. If he hadn’t been, I might have time to retrieve the feeds from any nearby recorders and doctor them a bit- A direct connection established ...

In the Terminal, people popped into being around me with the same rattled look on their faces, but then again, most found molecular dispersion unpleasant. Who liked having every atom of their being pulled apart? I’d done it often enough that my need to shudde...

The Southern Fells Travel Center was smaller than the one in Ibis, and although its layout was similar—if stacked rather than aligned—the aesthetic here was much different. The facility in Ibis had mostly concrete walls and slabbed tiles for its floor. It had...

For a while, I didn’t move, simply considering how lucky I was that evushk had let me off easy this time. While at the Travel Center, he could have revealed much more embarrassing secrets from my last mission than he had. I couldn’t tell if he’d done that out ...

The skycruiser set down, and I sat, motionless, in it. I hadn’t announced my arrival yet, uncertain how I should phrase the message. My family hadn’t seen me since my House naming ceremony. What would they do when I walked through the apartment’s door? Rather...

I wondered what my parents wanted. Would they ask me to leave, taking the danger that I represented elsewhere? Or perhaps they planned to beg for their children’s lives. They gave me plenty of space, whether to gain an advantage on me or to give me an avenue ...

The tower that we siblings were standing in front of had a much shorter profile on the horizon than the one Feena had told me to climb years ago, and rather than flat panes of glass for walls, this one had stone accents and balconies, among other things, to se...

Clicking her tongue, Feena whacked the back of my head. “Inspiring speech?” she snapped. “He’ll get it on the ground,” I said. “Same park as before?” “Yep.” Together, we vaulted into the open air, pushing our P.I.G.s so we could close the distance to Pheni...

Xygek’s ground level was reserved for the middle Strata: Sixth through Eighth. Most people in those Strata weren’t afforded the luxury of a skycruiser, and while walking and taking shuttles were easy modes of transit in the city, they weren’t the fastest. On ...

I hurried us toward the closest public lift, half-hoping that Fyester would slip away while my back was turned. With so many sensitive topics to avoid, our coming conversation would be like walking through a minefield, and I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it...

Bucking Fyester to the side, I scrambled away from him until a headboard and wall stopped me, setting my array to work. I observed him at the foot of the bed with an empty hypo on the quilt between us, and everything—room, heart and mind—went dead quiet. “Wha...

Considering what had happened the last time I’d been here, arriving at the Crescent early felt strange, like an off-key note in a song. Other families had had the same idea, trickling in hours before the beginning of the ceremony. They’d socialize in the build...

Evushk held something out to me, ignoring the hysterical giggling bouncing around us, and dazedly, I took it. Shaped into a thin, rectangular stick, one end of the device had gold squares embedded in its body while the other had a glowing, blue circle painted...