The first half of the week passed quickly enough, the few days until the next challenge a shield, keeping the full weight of the danger from looming too large. I spent my time reading the few historical books Niva and Elian would loan to me, and did my best to share the information I learnt to the other Relegates at our dinners. The idea was knowing more about the past might help us in the remaining trials, but it was a tedious affair.

  Learning about history was painful. The stories always the same. Cycles of power and injustice, followed by promises of justice that lasted for a while but were broken soon after. Any progress made in any society eventually fell back to its same old patterns, just in different disguises. It was almost enough to make a person lose hope and it did cross my mind that that might’ve been what the authors intended. To show everyone that fighting was useless. Better to let the powers that be take their rightful place and if you lived in such awful times then oh well, sucks to be you. Nothing could be done that would ultimately matter.

  I was surviving as I always did, by doing my best. Ramya always taught me that as long as I held onto myself, that was all that mattered, but she never knew there was nothing inside of me to hold on to. It had been taken by Galton. Now, the only thing of myself I held onto was spite, which was an incredibly small feeling in such a big world. A pinprick on an open field. These books only highlighted how much.

  Ganymede entered the room as I lay on my bed reading. Niva tinkered with some time travelling prototype device no bigger than an apple on the floor.

  She’d tried to explain it to me but my inability to grasp words like ‘electromagnetic temporal field’ and ‘quantum shift’ soon had her rolling her eyes and giving up. Still, it was nice to have her company, and I was sure she felt the same. Or, if not, she preferred the nice, cozy rooms of the guest wing to the subterranean laboratories down below.

  “The Chancellor’s wife has requested your presence for tea immediately,” he announced.

  We both bolted upright.

  Had she found out about Elian and I going to Vocafeum?

  It made more sense that she’d keep it to herself and punish me privately, wait a few days to ease suspicion.

  Fear and dread moulded together to create a weighty emotion that worked effectively in making me want to throw up.

  “Did she say what for?” Niva asked the question for me. Ganymede shook his head.

  “Only that the meeting was non-negotiable.”

  That didn’t exactly help.

  Somehow, one of my feet stepped in front of the other all the way to the tearoom, my stomach working overtime to keep my breakfast where it belonged.

  “Just tell me, did she look angry, like I was in trouble?” I asked as we approached a dead end with a single door, presumably the entrance to the tearoom.

  “Emotions are hard for me to recognise,” he answered.

  I gritted my teeth.

  “Thanks Ganymede, that’s really helpful.”

  He opened the door, waving me inside, then shut it behind me, blocking my one escape.

  Columns engraved with grapevines supported the high ceiling, while the polished marble floor reflected the sun’s light streaming through the ceiling length windows that surrounded the room.

  Shirley sat in the middle of the room at a large circular table adorned with a baby pink tablecloth.

  “Hello, my dear,” her singsong voice rang out as she slathered a scone with cream. “Please sit.”

  I pulled up the white metal chair closest to me, watching every single one of her movements for signs of the take down I feared was coming.

  “How are you finding your time at the Estate so far?” she asked, before taking a bite.

  I looked down at the plate she’d set, a scone of my own waiting to be slathered. We were starting off with small talk. Ok. I could do that. “I’ve got no complaints,” I replied, “And the food’s incredible.”

  “Hm.” She swallowed. “Do eat. I admit, I never had much of a sweet tooth but the traditions of this country have me coming around. You’ll get used to it too now you’re out of that stinking hole on the moors.”

  “Yeah, not a lot of sugar going around Vocafeum.”

  “Yes.” She moved onto pouring her tea into a dainty floral teacup, sipping it without a single slurp. “It’s a dreadful place.”

  “It could do with some improvements,” I agreed.

  But then she was meant to be in charge of that.

  I held the cup to my lips, trying to copy her movements with shaky hands. As Shirley warned, it was overwhelmingly sweet, but the warmth of the tea did calm my stomach so it wasn’t so bad.

  “I am aware, you realise, of your little excursion there last night,” she crooned.

  The room got colder.

  “Wh-What do you mean?”

  The Chancellor’s wife laughed.

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  “Evading our security team takes a lot more effort than you think, dear. If I actually wanted to catch you, you would have been caught before you got out of the guest wing. The only reason you weren’t stopped is because I allowed it.”

  “But why? What do you want from me?”

  Everything she’d done for me couldn’t be for nothing, yet that’s exactly what she said.

  “Nothing,” she answered, “Nothing that you’re not doing already.”

  She leaned her elbows forward on the table. “There’s a reason I saved you that day. I could’ve chosen anyone to enlist on this project, but your psychological profile was exactly what I needed. So by all means, keep helping my son with his new little campaign, it’s proving incredibly useful.”

  “So I’m your puppet?”

  “If you like.”

  “I’d like to not be, if it’s all the same to you.”

  “That won’t be possible. And if you try, I’ll make you wish they’d executed you. But I’ll make it very clear if you start going… off-script, so I wouldn’t fret over it.”

  I placed the tea down.

  “You know Elian’s planning to take down the Relegate system, I take it he has your support if you haven’t stopped him yet.”

  She sighed, appearing bored with the conversation already. “Yes.”

  “That’s not because you actually care about what’s being done to us is it?”

  “No, I’m afraid my motives are rather different.”

  “And I thought mothers were supposed to support their sons,” I murmured.

  “I beg your pardon? Speak up.”

  “Isn’t it beneath you to beg, Mrs Alvidrez?” The words were out of my mouth before I could think. Too far, I’d gone too far. “I mean… um… well only because you’re… forgive me.”

  What the blazes was I thinking?

  I withheld my breath, waiting for her to send me to the dungeon, or demand to have me shot for treason, but instead she set down her tea and leaned forward.

  “Do you know how I got my name?” she asked.

  I shook my head, careful about where this was going.

  “My father crossed one of the biggest oceans in the world to flee his country. The State Kingdom ravaged it until there was nothing left for the people to do but fight each other. It was before both of our times and impacted Saxanglain very little, so I wouldn’t expect you to have been taught about it, a civil war across the ocean. He came to Saxanglain with my mother as a poor, desperate man, but he was smart, and lucky enough to build a name for himself. Shirley was the first town he came across as he disembarked the ship that brought him here, so when I was born, he decided that would be my name, and he gave me all the things he never had, so that I’d never have to suffer like he did. He worked hard to make enough money for me to become a Custom and I’ve lived my life in a way I knew would make him proud.”

  She sniffed the air.

  “Everything I’ve done for Elian was to continue that legacy, to make him strong so he can thrive in this cruel world. He will learn the ways of our leaders, gain allies, and become more powerful, and I will have succeeded as a mother. So I don’t need a lecture from you, who will never have children nor understand the politics of the Triumvirate, telling me to believe in a losing cause.”

  She took a deep breath, pretending she hadn’t said anything of importance, and started stirring her cup.

  “You mistook my drawing a line for an invitation to cross it, dear. Don’t make that mistake again.”

  “Of course not.” I almost bowed my head, and that was the end of the subject.

  “You’ve been given a wonderful opportunity. I suggest you enjoy it. Not many in your position get the chance to.”

  She checked her watch.

  “You don’t mind if I cut this short, do you? Today is my one day off and I have so much I’d like to do before my husband gets back later tonight.”

  I stood up to leave.

  “I understand, Mrs Alvidrez. Thank you.”

  “Oh, one last thing before you leave, Elian seems very interested in you, and I know that must be very exciting, but it’s important you understand you’re not the first person he’s taken an interest in, and when this phase of his is over, you won’t be the last. I don’t mind indulging his little adventures because they’re harmless, in the grand scheme of things. However, if they start affecting his day-to-day life, the life I have planned for him, for example his promised marriage to Ariadne, then I will be forced to intervene. Is that clear?”

  I nodded, afraid to say or even think the wrong thing again.

  “Good.”

  She clicked her fingers, signalling to her android to open the door for me. I stepped out, keeping my back turned as it closed again, then leaned against it, releasing a sigh.

  “Hello.”

  I jumped at the sound and turned to see Elian standing tall with his hands clasped behind his back, every inch a Custom.

  “Do you enjoy picking the worst moments to show up?” I jabbed, “Your mother is terrifying.”

  He looked mildly amused as we walked out of earshot, as Ganymede passed the corner to meet us and immediately turned around, covering his ears.

  “I see nothing, hear nothing and I’m saying nothing.”

  We both smirked before Elian cleared his throat.

  “My mother talks a lot but she’s not dangerous.”

  “You’re wrong. She’s nothing but dangerous,” I answered back.

  “Then thank goodness my father kept our meeting short so I could come to your rescue.”

  If he’d been speaking to his father, no wonder he looked so uptight. Beneath his teasing, however, I was taken aback by the hint of genuine concern.

  “You wanted to check up on me?” I asked.

  Back in Vocafeum, if you disappeared for too long, you never existed in the first place. No one would come looking for you. I was lucky that Ramya and Niles decided to break that tradition, but I never would’ve expected a Custom to follow suite.

  “I thought you might be getting punished for last night. I’m glad you weren’t, it’s my fault we went you-know-where, after all.”

  I smirked again. It wasn’t like I’d taken much convincing.

  “I’ve thought about what you’re trying to do,” I said, “And I had an idea. Your mother mentioned psychological profiles, records for all the participants enlisted on the project.”

  He gave a curt nod.

  “That’s right.”

  “Then let’s find them. Any evidence you need will be in those.”

  I paused for a second. He’d made the risk to me clear, but I wasn’t sure how far Elian’s freedom extended despite his powerful status, and just how much he’d be risking himself if he was caught. “I mean, I’m willing if you still are. I know what happens to us isn’t any of your business, or your fight.”

  But it was mine, and I was determined to get those files and win this damn thing so I could shove it in Shirley’s face. Puppet. I was nobody’s puppet.

  “It might not be mine,” he answered, standing taller, “But you asked me what I expected of myself, and I thought hard about it. Perhaps I don’t have a satisfying answer quite yet, but I do know I’m not going to be the kind of man who stands by and lets Relegates get treated the way they are.”

  He lost his steadfast manner as he took a step forward.

  “Niva’s busy tonight but I’ll find today’s patrol schedule so we can locate those files. Let’s meet under the rose arch again.”

  I almost agreed, but Shirley’s words rang like a bell tied around my neck, inescapable.

  “Not the rose arch,” I said.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Alright, if you feel that strongly about it. I’ll think of something else.”

  His lips twitched slightly upwards.

  “You’ve already thought of something, haven’t you?” I narrowed my eyes in playful suspicion.

  “Perhaps.”

  “Can I know what it is?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Just as well,” I said, taking a step towards him, “Whenever I plan things, they usually end in disaster.”

  “From what I heard…” He took another step, his nose almost touching mine, his breath cool on my neck. “…They still end in disaster when you don’t.”

  His gaze drifted to the entrance of the tearoom where his mother would be waiting.

  “You should probably go,” I told him.

  “Yes, I probably should.”

  Neither of us moved for a second until Ganymede came back to reality, turning around with a huff.

  “For goodness’ sake, you both have places to be.”