“Listen carefully,” Svanda continued as the car entered the fringes of the town. Neat rows of squat concrete buildings ran along each side of the road, while people in tidy but basic clothing went about their daily business around them. “There are three types of people here: Daerx, Qualified, and Unqualified. White badge is Daerx, while a grey badge is Qualified. Stick close to me and there shouldn’t be any problems, but watch yourself around anyone with a badge. You’ll have little to stand on if you get into trouble with one.”

Nina nodded absentmindedly as she surveyed their surroundings. It was surprisingly clean considering the grim atmosphere that the desolate mountain scenery provided, but then again, she was at the Daerx Clan’s seat of power. The people she’d managed to get a glance at as they breezed by seemed happy enough, but whether their expressions were genuine or not was probably a different story. Smile and nod was a tool she had quickly picked up for appeasing the upper management while she’d worked on Caecus, and the same skills almost certainly applied here if you were considered a second-class citizen. It was a shame that Svanda’s influence wasn’t something that they could always lean on, but unfortunately it was unavoidable. Not only did they lack even a single drop of Daerx Clan blood in their veins, they also weren’t even from Terminus to begin with. Outsiders, Svanda had called them, and Nina could only cross her fingers and hope that her status wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

“You’re not like a princess or anything cliché, are you?” Saela asked as Svanda withdrew a large white badge from a pocket. Round and about the size of Nina’s palm, the badge featured three golden mountains with a purple crown around the largest of them in the centre, the stylized design more crude than regal. Sticking it above her breast so that it contrasted starkly against her black fatigues, Svanda chuckled at the question before glancing out of the window to the towering building at the end of the main street. Set into a cliff face which rose away towards the troubled skies above, the building looked like a modern castle of sorts. Ornate stonework twisted its way up around each of the ten or so floors, while both steel and glass filled in what space remained. The light from the wide and evenly spaced windows almost seemed like a swathe of eyes, and Nina pictured the structure as a haunting yet elegant guardian which oversaw the rest of the town.

“The head of the Daerx Clan is my grand uncle,” Svanda finally said with a weak smile, adjusting her badge before taking a deep breath. “I’m not close enough to be at the centre of anything, but I guess you could still say that I’m valuable.”

“Valuable as what?” Saela probed. “A wife?”

“Well, there’s that,” she admitted as her eyes turned to the gates which separated the streets beyond from the castle grounds, tall spikes of uninviting black steel twisting together across the road. “But there’s more to it. Even just my knowledge is valuable to them. Travelers aren’t too common, especially within the clan. Trust is in short supply these days, especially for outsiders bringing news.”

“Sounds boring,” Saela said before taking a glance outside. “Don’t see why anyone would want to live here either. Everyone flocking to Southstone and East Terminus is starting to make a lot more sense, and this is supposed to be one of the better ones.”

Nina ignored Saela’s barb and considered Svanda’s words. Marriage? Not Svanda. Julia’s face floated into her mind for a moment, but she quickly shelved the thought. She had suspicions about the two, but suspicions were never going to get her anywhere without asking, and that wouldn’t be wise now either. The more intriguing question, she thought, was why Svanda had ended up with Reina in the first place. If the stories were right, they had already known each other for years before Nina had dropped into their lap. What was Svanda doing in Luem when she met Reina, and why was Svanda allowed to leave Terminus to begin with?

“Not now,” Svanda said after Nina voiced her thoughts. “We’re here. Stay close to me when you can and keep your mouths shut when you can’t, alright?”

Nina nodded as the car came to a halt at the gates, ignoring Saela’s scowl as the window beside Svanda eased downwards. Standing ready to greet them was a thin man in a grey uniform, his short silver hair which was typical of Terminus locals combed over in a neat wave, while a grey badge featured on his chest. Nina also noted the compact submachine gun dangling from his hip, the T&TERM etched in large letters along the barrel catching her eye.

Opening his mouth to speak, the man’s gaze flinched as he saw the badge which Svanda wore. Changing his mind, he instead gave her a shallow bow before retreating to a small concrete guardhouse by the road, opening the gate for them without a word. Svanda seemed unfazed by the reception, but it did leave Nina a little awestruck. No questions, no identification, no nothing, yet the respect that Svanda had been shown was completely genuine. Sure, she was important, but what had left Nina the most impressed was the power of the badge. The fact that it had been taken at face value without a second thought told her that the badge was law, regardless of who wore it. Trying to counterfeit one probably had unimaginable consequences, though Nina didn’t plan on asking if there were any examples.

The car eased through the gate before beginning the journey around the large loop which approached the castle. Neat lawns stretched away from them on either side, while the crisp crunch of gravel underneath the tires proved to be the loudest leg of their trip so far. Nina watched with interest as a few people wandered about the grounds, some maintaining the fountains or rows of hedges while others sat at ease. The large white badges on those that loitered about were not hard to miss, but she was also surprised to see that a few people working wore grey badges of their own. If people who were considered Qualified were fit to maintain the castle grounds, where exactly did that leave both her and Saela?

Realising that her thoughts would have to wait, she swallowed as the car came to a halt before the castle’s front doors. Two storeys high and carved from heavy black timber, the doors seemed not like an entrance, but more like the maw of a gigantic stone beast. Below them sat a flight of shallow stone stairs which ran down to where they had stopped, the stonework forming a striped design which drew her eyes upwards. Thick slabs of white marble ran up the very centre, while polished grey slate flanked it on each side. Finally, thinner streaks of black stone ran up along the very outsides, framing the way up to the entrance while completing the monochromatic theme in what seemed to be intentional design.

Opening the door, Svanda pushed her way out of the car as an almost inaudible sigh escaped from her lips. Saela followed her out while managing to seem relatively unfazed, while Nina stepped out last after shrugging off her lingering reluctance. It seemed colder up here, she thought, although the elevation almost certainly played a role. This was mountain territory, and the calm but steady breeze that chilled her cheeks made sure that she wouldn’t forget it.

“Do not step on the marble,” Svanda said as she held her arm out to block them, nodding her head in the direction of the path which ran up the centre towards the doors. “Or the slate for that matter either. Outsiders are forbidden to walk on anything but the jetstone while inside the castle. Over there.”

Nina frowned as she looked over to one of the thinner strips of black which ran up the outside of the staircase. She hadn’t realised it from where she sat in the car, but now that she stood she could see that the path wouldn’t even take them through the front doors. The white marble path that stretched straight through the middle of the doors did leave a small amount of room on each side, but the strips of grey slate filled up what was left. With nowhere else to go, she followed the jetstone path’s route, hiding a thin frown as she watched it instead disappear behind two smaller doors off to each side. They weren’t even allowed to walk through the main doors if what she was seeing was correct, and Svanda’s steady arm across her chest suggested that she shouldn’t even consider it.

Unqualifieds had it rough.

“I can’t imagine Reina taking that kind of insult without a word,” Saela mused from where they stood as she came to the same conclusion. “Though a side entrance? No way.”

“Reina doesn’t need to,” Svanda said quietly in reply as she focused on a single woman who had appeared on the top of the stairs. “She was given a grey badge under the table to keep up appearances. Doesn’t look so good for the family if my boss is an Unqualified outsider, does it?”

“No wonder why Trim doesn’t come anymore then,” Saela said with a thin smirk. “Something tells me that the invitation wasn’t extended to her.”

Svanda frowned, but quickly wiped it off her face as the woman made her way down the stairs. With long silver hair which hung down to her waist and pair of bright green eyes that studied them with interest, the woman kept her feet firmly in the centre of the two or so meter wide strip of grey slate as she descended. Nina noted the thick silver chain which hung around her neck before she studied the plunging cream dress that she wore as it rippled in the breeze, a large green gemstone in the shape of a teardrop hanging between her breasts. The last thing Nina glanced at was the grey badge fastened to one of the two thin straps which wrapped around the woman’s neck, and before she had a chance to look at anything else the woman had stepped onto the gravel before them.

“Back so soon, Svanda,” the woman said with a shallow bow, her voice crisp over the breeze. “Your mother will be delighted.”

“At least one of us will be happy,” Svanda replied with a wry smile. “For now, take us to my rooms.”

“Of course,” the woman replied with a smile before her gaze flicked over Nina and Saela who stood behind her. “Follow me. I’ll have Ethel see to your attendants.”

Svanda nodded before stepping onto the wide marble path which ran up the centre of the stairs, the woman who had greeted them quickly stepping onto the slate beside her. Turning as she went, Svanda gave them an apologetic smile before making her way up towards the slowly opening doors above, her sigh evident even from the movement of her shoulders.

“Just wait for a moment and someone will be out. Remember, the jetstone,” she said over her shoulder. “Sorry, but I’ll see you up there.”

With that, Svanda marched up the centre of the stairs, entering the castle through the slowly opening doors before disappearing into the blackness beyond.