The Tower still bore signs of the fighting that had happened there, especially in the entrance hall. The Diamond Guard leading Aina and Tannis to a meeting with the Sentinel showed them up the staircase near the ballroom. Peering inside, she noted that most of it was roped off. Broken glass and blood still covered the floor. People hired to clean and repair the Tower were busy fixing the floor, but not in the way Aina had expected.
“Look,” Tannis whispered, pointing at one of the men who hauled out diamonds from the floor in a large crate.
“What are they planning to do?” Aina asked the Diamond Guard escorting them as they reached the landing to the next floor.
“Putting a new floor in,” he said over his shoulder. “Marble, I heard. A little pretentious, don’t you think? They’re going to renovate the whole Tower.”
She and Tannis rolled their eyes at the same time. If he thought marble was pretentious but a floor of diamonds wasn’t, Aina didn’t really know what to say to him. But as long as he wasn’t a traitor like all the others, she wouldn’t judge him too harshly. There were plenty of open jobs among the Diamond Guards to take the place of the old and support the new Sentinel.
“I’m surprised she invited us to a meeting today,” Aina said, frowning as they continued to ascend flights of stairs. “You’d think they’d be busy rebuilding.”
“I’m not,” Tannis said in a low voice, one hand going to a throwing star—a move Aina recognized as one she did out of habit when she sensed a threat. “She was around after the first war, so she saw what happened. They made sure enough Steels were alive to keep the factories going and give jobs to everyone else, but they didn’t pay attention to the rest of the country, and well … we both know what happens when people are given free rein in a place that’s falling apart.”
The Diamond Guard leading them looked back with an uneasy grimace, but said nothing as he showed them into a meeting room. A circular oak table sat in the center, with three people gathered there: Mariya, June, and Sofía. Aina nodded at them all as they sat down, feeling a slight hint of trepidation. All of them knew her, and with two Sacoren in the government, she had hoped the country really was moving into a new future. But Tannis’s words spun in her head now, and she had a suspicion of what today’s meeting was about.
“Good afternoon, Aina and Tannis,” Mariya said with a terse smile. “This is the first chance we’ve gotten to talk after Bautix’s death, so I didn’t have a chance to thank you. Without you and everyone on your side, the country would be in Bautix’s hands now. I trust you’ve been busy managing the tradehouses since things have calmed down.”
“We have,” Aina said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat at the idea of discussing her criminal activities with the highest position of government in the country. But they all knew who she and Tannis were.
“That’s actually what we would like to talk to you about,” Mariya continued, clasping her hands together atop the table. “We have to decide what is best for the country. The tradehouses began after the civil war, didn’t they?”
“It’s easy to build profit off instability,” Tannis said shortly.
“That’s true. However, if we want Sumerand to rise into a new future, and prove to the world that we are advancing as a nation, we need to make an effort to reduce crime and disorder. I hope an agreement will be possible instead of having to act by force.”
Her words were soft, but Aina sensed the threat in the air. Aina couldn’t blame her; as Tannis had said, Mariya had seen the failures of the Sentinel after the last war, and likely didn’t want to repeat them. The photograph of Mariya’s daughter on her desk came back to Aina then, and she couldn’t help feeling a pang of sympathy for the woman in front of her. She knew Mariya didn’t expect any of this to be easy, but her hope was clear in the glint in her eyes as she waited patiently for Aina and Tannis to reply.
“No matter how you try to close the tradehouses—especially if you tried by force—they’ll spring up again,” Aina said slowly. “Whether we manage them or not. And right now, we are managing them. Crime will never really go away, and we only control a small part of it.”
Mariya let out a heavy sigh, and next to her, June and Sofía exchanged a knowing look, as if they could have expected this answer.
Aina turned to Tannis, who nodded at her to let her know they were on the same page.
“I should have known you would be difficult about this,” Mariya said, but a small smile twitched at the corners of her lips.
“We won’t actually,” Aina said. “We think the tradehouses should end too.”
It was almost comical how all their eyes widened at once, as if they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
“Not immediately, though,” Aina continued, the words coming slow and steady, as if she could hardly believe them herself, but she knew this was the right thing to do. “And not by anything the Sentinel does to try to close them. Whatever you try, it won’t work. Like you said, the tradehouses began after the civil war. They thrived in instability and chaos. But it’s more than that. They give jobs to people who don’t have other options. I want to believe that Sumerand is heading in a new direction and that everything will be happy and prosperous for everyone, but the poor can’t survive on hopes and promises. And change in the way that you see it won’t happen overnight, not if it’s going to last. We want to keep running the tradehouses for a few more years, then we’ll transition them slowly into something else; something that might benefit the city. But the Sentinel will not be involved in it.”
Mariya nodded at Aina. “You would know best. I think that you, and other young people like you, are exactly what Kosín needs to become a better version of itself.” She took a deep breath before adding, “Which is exactly why I’ll be stepping down.”
Aina’s eyes widened, and she looked to June and Sofía for confirmation.
“The new Sentinel will be larger,” June explained, “with people from all backgrounds in the country, not just a few.”
“I’m here to facilitate a transition,” Mariya explained, “while June and Sofía are here to oversee the repeal of any laws and systems that currently disenfranchise the Inosen. We plan to have a new Sentinel put together within a few months, but I won’t be a part of it. I am a part of the old order—and I should have done a lot more to fix our country’s problems than I did. I tried my best, but we need something new for the future. Me stepping down, peacefully and publicly, will be a sign of that.”
After a brief pause, Aina said, “That’s probably the best decision.” She looked toward June and Sofía again, feeling a surge of pride. Two Inosen women, from immigrant backgrounds—they all made up Sumerand, so they should all be a part of what it would look like in the future. For the first time, she felt hopeful there might be a future for the people of Kosín like her, who’d so often convinced themselves they’d never have one.
After the meeting, she and Tannis walked together back to the Stacks and stopped at Raurie’s uncle’s tavern along the way. Raurie stood outside of it, her purple shawl draped over her shoulders, and waved to them.
“Where are you two going?” Aina asked as Tannis walked up to Raurie and kissed her on the cheek.
“One of the initiatives the Sacoren are proposing is to give more business opportunities to Inosen, now that we don’t have to hide.” Raurie smiled and held up her wrist so her bracelet caught the sunlight. “I’m finally going to open a jewelry store.”
“That’s great, Raurie,” Aina said. “I’ll make sure to sell some diamonds there.”
“Not that kind of jewlery store, Aina—” Tannis interjected, but stopped when Aina began to laugh.
“Joking,” she said with a wink. “Maybe. See you at the Dom later, Tannis? I’m going to train that recruit from Thunder.”
Tannis nodded and left to the Center with Raurie, while Aina descended the hills that led farther into the Stacks. The evening had gone quiet apart from the sounds of people cooking and laughing inside their homes.
They all wanted something to hope for, a way to believe they could pull themselves up from nothing and prove to the world what they could really do when they just had a chance. Kohl had loved the Stacks too, but his whole life had been spent fighting, and in the end all his love amounted to was a need to control. The Stacks would stay the same for a while, since a change as big as she and Tannis envisioned wasn’t something that could be accomplished overnight. She took a slightly longer route than usual, wanting to take in the Stacks as they were at the end of one era and the dawn of a new one.
One thing that would never change was that this would always be her home.
A few blocks from the Dom, Aina spotted a girl roughly twelve or thirteen years old. She walked behind two older men on the tips of her toes. Both men could easily pick her up and toss her across the street if they wanted to. But neither of them even seemed to notice her, she walked so quietly.
If Aina hadn’t been watching, she would have missed the moment when the girl swiped a wallet from the back pocket of one of the men.
The men continued on, laughing loudly about something while the girl darted to a doorway and began to count the kors she’d taken.
Holding back a laugh, Aina walked up to the girl, taking in her lack of shoes, the holes in her clothes, the gaunt hollows under her cheekbones. She didn’t blame the girl for shrinking away from her and tightly clutching her prize.
“I have a job for you,” she said, and a hint of recognition lit up the girl’s eyes when she looked at Aina. “Picking pockets might keep you alive for now, but it won’t get you very far here. If you want more, as well as food and a bed, come with me.”
Without waiting to see if the girl would follow, Aina continued down the street. When Aina approached the next corner, where she would turn to reach the Dom, the girl would easily be able to guess what awaited her if she chose to join Aina.
Aina waited until she was across the street from the Dom, then glanced over her shoulder. Halfway down the street behind her, the girl she’d offered a job to approached slowly, keeping to the shadows on the side of the street. When the Dom came into view for her, she tilted her head back slightly. A relieved grin flickered on her face, lit up by the sun.