Ryu sat up. Or tried to. Restraints tied him to the bed. He smacked dry lips, letting his head rest back against the stiff bed. The manacles were clearly the kind that sapped cultivated strength, and for a moment, he wondered if the Bugs had captured him again. Or if he’d never escaped in the first place.

“Up now, are we?” Golden light flared in the room. Golden fire. It flickered to lamps in the corners’ of the room, revealing an empty white room. Well, empty save for the woman sitting in a seat next to his bed.

“Untie me.” His voice was hoarse, but his body seemed free of injuries. When the manacles came off, he could search for Emiko or head straight back into the Circle.

“No,” Ash said.

“No?” He jerked against the manacles. “Let me up. I will not be chained. Not again.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “And you won’t try to kill us all if I do?”

He sighed, deflating back into the bed. “I have no quarrel with you or your people. I just want to find my sister and my friends and head home.” Wherever home was.

She clucked her tongue. “About that,” she said. “The Circle has fallen. The forces have called a moot. I hear they’re going to abandon the Sixth and muster their forces. At the Lord’s Flock insistence.”

Ryu’s eye twitched. Keira. “I should be there. I’m a…” He trailed off. The world did not know he was Ender, only Lucius, Keira, and Ash. If it was revealed Ender was a prominent member of the Premier Aristocracy, well… Best to keep his identity a secret.

“A what?”

“A Ranker.”

She laughed. “Your number is in the negatives, remember? You’re a murderer.”

“What do you want, then?” he asked, feeling the hollowness wash over him once more.

“I’m not sure, yet.” She stroked her chin, looking at him from the corner of her eye. “What do you think about retreating?”

He thought it over for a moment. “It’s safe, maybe, but abandoning the Sixth and the Seventh to the Bugs sounds insane. The Colony is already far stronger than us, and the Lord’s Flock has already worked them once before. Playing into their game now seems foolish.”

“And you have proof of this?”

“Not any that anyone would recognize. I have a bit of a… history with the high priestess or whatever she calls herself of the Lord’s Flock. She made sure I was captured by the Bugs, and then I escaped. While I was them, however, I learned a great number of things.”

“Such as?” Ryu could see she was interested now, leaned forward in her seat.

“The Bugs are shells. Puppets. Their bodies have been stolen by a race of parasites who call themselves the Colony. The Bug puppets operate in multiples of eights. Their war units have eight members, their elite group is known as the Sixty-Four, and the group above that is the Upper Eight. At the top is the One, a being I suspect has reached the Pinnacle.”

She leaned in closer. “I’m not sure I believe you, but in any case, your concerns have mirrored the words of the Enchanters’ Guild heads. And no doubt every other group. If the Lord’s Flock didn’t have such a sway on the public and much of the fighters, things might never have reached this far.”

He had a tingling suspicion he knew where this was going. “Again, what do you want?”

“I have been asked to call a meeting of the Big Seven.” Gods, he hated that name. “But before then, I was supposed to offer you a contract.”

“To kill Keira? I’m not an assassin. If she dies, it will be for my own reasons.”

She sighed, muttering something about a drink under her breath. “It doesn’t matter why, as long as you do it.”

“I think I’d like to attend this meeting first.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that.”

Choices, choices. “No.”

Ash tittered and shook her head. “Alright, then.” She stood up and walked out of the room, revealing a brightly lit hall past the door before shutting it.

Ryu laid back on the bed and tried to sleep. It was such an obvious bluff that he knew he was meant to see it.

---

Ash stopped outside of the door and leaned her head back into the walls. Thank the gods that idiot could read her bluff. She was beyond weary of the Enchanters’ Guilds machinations. Of the lies. The moot had just started, and they were already plotting to have their rivals eliminated.

She was not going to force a man into murdering another human being. The Circle had fallen hours ago. They had never stood a chance. Bugs more powerful than the one she had fought seeped from the cracks of the district, killing like insectoid gods of death. The Big Seven couldn’t even meet if they wanted to; half of the members were injured and close to death.

The Sixty-Four, he had called them. The Colony. That man knew things, and she hardly knew what to do about it. When had such weights settled upon her shoulders? She was a waste of life, a drunkard, addict, and liar wrapped into one hateful ball. The love of her life was dead. Her family wanted little to do with her. Humanity was nearing closer to extinction by the day.

Her father had told her there were stronger shoulders to carry the heavy burdens, but she knew the truth. No one would act for anybody but themselves given the choice. Fleeing the Ring until their forces could gather for one, large push was an excuse. No amount of numbers could save them. They needed stronger elites. They needed to keep moving upward.

She sighed. She had too much to worry about and too little time to change anything. A drink. Yes, that sounded right. A drink would whisk her troubles away.

“What’d he say?”

Ash’s eyes snapped open. A weasally man stood in front of her, his short brown hair slicked back. Orin. Her supervisor, he called himself.

She glanced about the stone hall as if looking for the source of the voice before glancing down in surprise. “Orin! Surprised to see you down there. He said no.” He wasn’t that short, but she knew it bothered him anyways.

He scowled. “It’s your job to convince him, you know.”

“How can I when we have nothing to offer him? Do you think he cares about meeting other people? We didn’t even offer him any money,” she said.

He straightened his collar. “How much?”

She laughed. “He doesn’t care about money. It’s just that we didn’t even try. If I’m honest, I’m not sure there’s anything we have that he’d want.”

“You catch Ender, and now he won’t kill anyone? Where were his morals before? Ask him if he has family? Surely there’s someone he cares about. We can-”

The flicker of golden fire interrupted him. “Go in there and ask him about his family. Please. I’ll wait.”

Orin paled. “This is…” He straightened his collar once more, his throat bobbing. “This is your responsibility. You don’t want me to go back to the Guild heads and tell them you came up empty-handed, would you?”

She smiled. “I don’t know, supervisor. Would I? How about you tell them, and we’ll see who they punish. I can promise you it won’t be me, however.” She let her flames snake around her hand and wrist. “Tell me what I can offer him.”

He pulled a list out of his storage. “Only what’s on this,” he said. Sweat had started to bead on his forehead.

She took the list, but it was too late. She had made her decision. She just needed a drink first. A tall, bottomless drink.

---

Ryu tested his restraints. Stupid, getting captured again, but at least he knew what to expect from human greed. He needed only to wait for his opportunity and escape. His standing in the new Genji Clan would be strange, however. After all, he couldn’t imagine his identity being secret after this.

Perhaps it was for the better. Governing had never appealed to him. The power had, of course, but he could gain it through other means. He also wondered if he would ever see Bonny again. Likely not. His presence would only turn others against her and her child. Their child. His stomach twisted. Jinn would take care of them.

The door to the room swung open once more, and Ash stepped through. She stomped over to his side and pressed a hand onto his normal arm. Pain seared through his flesh.

“What the-”

“Good,” she said. “Now I’ll be able to keep track of you.” She looked up at him. “We’re going to meet the other Rankers, but if you try to escape, I will release your appearance to the whole Ring and bring them marching down on you.”

He worked his jaw for a moment. “Alright.” Better than being locked up in a little room.

She nodded, and a few moments later, his restraints popped off. He popped up in a blur of black smoke, yanked on her wrist, and grabbed her throat. The dead screamed in his mind.

Heat crept up his chest, and he realized her other hand was pressed against his stomach, burning with golden flames. She’d break in a single twist. He would become ash for it, but it seemed as good a trade as any at the moment.

“Aren’t you tired of being a murderer?” she asked, wheezing past his hand.

He thought for a moment. “Tried being a better man. Didn’t work out that well.”

“How about you try again?”

He looked into her eyes. So much like Bonny’s. Like Jinn’s. Like everyone’s he cared about. He let go of her. “We’ll see.”

She straightened and waved an arm. A lump of clothes dropped out. “Put those on,” she said.

He cocked his head. “Why?”

“You’re going to a meeting as Ender. I would be surprised if anybody attacked you, but do you want them to know what you look like? To recognize you?”

“It’s all black,” he said, holding up a leather coat.

“Your name is Ender. Melodrama shouldn’t be anything new.” She snorted then, the smell of alcohol washing over him.

He gritted his teeth and went silent, putting on the black leather coat over his black shirt and pants. Black boots came on after, and a leather and steel mask covered the bottom half of his face. He pulled the coat’s hood over his head.

“Where’s my storage ring?” he asked.

She flipped it to him. “I made sure they didn’t see it. You should really keep less identifying items in there, though.”

He grunted. “Maybe I should just quit getting captured instead.”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure what you think pieces of shit deserve, then.”

Ryu found no fault in her logic. They left the room and entered an empty hall. Well almost empty. A short man with slicked back hair looked up when they left the room.

“Ms. Malan, what have you-”

Ash’s fist sent him flying back into the wall, where he slid to the ground. She sprayed fire on the walls around him and then turned to Ryu.

“You punch things, right?”

“I-”

“Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Just hit the walls and make it look like a fight has happened. They’ll think you escaped until Orin wakes up. Hopefully.”

He sighed and put a few chips in the stone walls of the hall. After they were done, Ash led him up some stairs and into a small, unassuming house. They left through the back door.

“Why?” he asked.

She shrugged. “The other Rankers need to know what you’ve told me. I don’t think falling back to the Fifth or giving up most of the Sixth is the right idea. We need people in the Seventh. The Bug’s clearly understand this is a race. It’s not about killing. It’s about making it to the top first. I imagine they only waited as long as they did to study us.”

Ryu had thought much the same. “They want our bodies,” he said. “Apparently we have a higher potential for growth than their current forms.”

“Why didn’t they take yours, then?”

He brandished his pale arm. “They tried.”