City I was encompassed by the deep freeze of its winter. With the sun no longer coming above the horizon, the never-ending darkness and the Guard’s occupation made it a gloomy place to be. The streets were nearly empty aside from watchful Guardsmen, and no one came up to rebel against them. Those in the Guard were perhaps as afraid of the locals as they were of them. Their implants now made them vulnerable to attack and left them anxious, thinking that anyone coming around the corner might just make a go at them. Already, nearly forty locals had been killed accidentally, simply because they made a move which was considered even remotely threatening around a posted or patrolling official.

  Under the full lockdown of martial law, the City had become as frozen as the surrounding landscape. Milla, Temki, Lechi and Xavier—his first time in the region—couldn’t even scout ahead to get a view of the City with no sunlight to power the demirriage. Instead, they had dangerously warped straight into the apartment that belonged to Temki’s grandmother, Tess. Luckily, her home was still safe for the time being, and she gladly provided food and lodging to the four. During the first two days, she didn’t talk much about the current situation, instead spending time getting to know her grandson’s friends, and assuring them that as soon as she had a better idea of the situation herself, she’d give them a full update.

  That briefing came on the third night, after she passed out another round of perfectly prepared soup, made with the quality cooking synthids she had access to with her position as City architect. No one had mentioned the local rebellion since the day they had arrived, and the visitors were relieved when she finally started on the subject.

  “It’s all been one big fuss after another,” she began. “The pretorian watching this City, that dreadful Trinqit, spends most the day at Hekens’ office, giving him every command she can think of. The capitol building is filled with Guardsmen—more appear every time I go there, it seems. And they’ve got an anti-alchemagi sphere somewhere in there, as well.”

  “What’s that?” Temki asked.

  “It’s like a sunsphere, but it blocks all alchemagi within a large radius instead. Nothing powered by the energy can be used, either. You can’t just demirriage your way in. Of course, it means the Guard also can’t use alchemagi, but they’ve got more than enough weapons to keep the place secure. The only way you’re going to have a chance at freeing the City is by getting up to Hekens’ office and using the position against the Guard. And, so far as I see, the only way of getting up there is by letting yourself get captured. Trinqit is still looking for all of you, Temki especially…”

  “What if we disabled the sphere?” Milla wondered. “If I could use my vector lines, we’d be able to get the carriage up there and free Hekens and his son; I could protect the group against Trinqit, seeing as how I’m the only one that really has a chance against her.”

  “I’m not even sure where the sphere is, dear. I really don’t think we can do anything in a straight forward manner.”

  Xavier questioned, “Ignoring all that for a moment, what about rebel activity here?”

  “Yeah, and what of the rairer I sent to help you?” Lechi added.

  “Ah, yes, she caused quite a fright when she first showed up like that. Funny thing is, the reports indicated she was avoiding the Guard and running around the ruins of the Administration complex with one of Temki’s scarves. They summoned me down to deal with the situation, what with my knowledge of rairer behavior. I found her quickly. Small, timid thing, really. She’s been following them around since, but because we don’t have any animalects here, we don’t really know what to do with her.”

  “Wait, them?” Milla asked.

  “The City’s small rebel group. We’re so remote that most of the people here don’t know about the war yet. There are very few insurgents who adhere exactly to Rivia’s ideas, but they’ve been waiting for the signal for generations now. Hekens and I never paid them much mind before, but now I’m helping them when I can. Just a group of thirty or so young men and women. Kids, really. Lost out here in this pocket of civilization.”

  “But this is perhaps the most important City to the rebellion right now. Rivia will never let a possible loss this large become a sacrifice in his war, but he also has with him the officers and paradigms we really need.”

  “We probably shouldn’t stay here much longer, Tess,” Lechi added. “The Guard is bound to discover us if we keep our connection with you this tight. How about we go meet this little rebel cell? I could talk to Zalatrya, and we might be able to get things moving.”

  “Where are they, exactly?” Xavier asked.

  “They keep on the move in the ruins below the City. The Guard only really occupies the train station and main entryway down there.”

  “Any fights break out yet?”

  “No, the cell has been avoiding conflict. They’ve also been keeping in contact with those fighting in D. Luckily for us, it seems that they might just come to an eventual victory on their end.”

  “We really need to begin evacuations, what with knowing how long they’re going to take. How strong is the Guard presence on the streets?”

  “Barely large enough to cover the City. It’s a smaller force. But they can easily prevent trains from leaving, or call for reinforcements and bring the entire Guard over here if they gave a second thought to needing aid.”

  “All right…” Milla thought. “Tess, how much do we need to get out of the City? Aside from people and the rebels, what else is there?”

  “We should collect as many synthids as we can hold for the rebels, and then there are the City records, all crucial. But there’s one thing I won’t leave without: my architect data. If I have that, I can rebuild this beautiful City at any point, so long as I have the powerful synthids required.”

  “That’s your life’s work, isn’t it?” Xavier replied. “I can understand how important it’d be to you. But how much data are we talking about?”

  “My predecessors’ work, too. Cities are in a state of perpetual updates. Every light, brick, and street is maintained and inscribed on high capacity datastones. Each of the sixty-two stones weighs half a ton.”

  Xavier choked a bit on his soup and coughed. “Goodness… And for such a small City, as well. C’s architectural archive must be enormous.”

  “If we can just get a couple on each departure, we could get them all out, along with our people. So long as we’re freed of the Guard, we can keep half the people in our shelters, and Rivia can bring in the Fragmented City. We’ll need the rebels to protect us until we evacuate every last citizen.”

  “We’ve still got to free Hekens first and get rid of Trinqit,” Milla reiterated. “If we can purge the capitol building of officers, it should cause enough breakup in the chain of command to begin the evacuations. But the big problem remains in getting inside first and disabling that sphere.”

  Lechi looked over at Temki and asked, “Can we simply overpower the sphere’s suppression field? Could a paradigm do that? Anyone know?”

  “Yes,” Tess replied. “Stronger, experienced paradigms might be able to, in any case. But I don’t think Temki is capable.”

  “Why might I be able to?” he asked.

  “The suppression field is kind of like a balloon,” Tess explained. “It blocks alchemagi at a basic level. Let’s say that alchemagi is… water surrounding the balloon, not strong enough to puncture it. But paradigms can only use the one alignment that flows throughout their body, so they’re more like a focused, sharp needle. They could pierce straight through. And strong mind adepts have long been known to get past such fields already.”

  “Trinqit isn’t a paradigm,” Milla replied. “Her vector abilities are strong, as we’ve seen, but with the field up, she likely couldn’t harm us, either. It might be better to forgo wasting time—and safety—searching for the sphere on the outset, and simply have Temki do what we need to.”

  “With the rebels’ help, you might just be able to get into the tower, but there’s no way of knowing ahead of time if Temki can overpower the field, or even use his powers in a controlled manner to begin with.”

  “I don’t know…” Temki murmured. “My alchemagi frightens me more than anything. I don’t know if I can control it at all.”

  “We could teach you,” Xavier replied. “Us three and the rebels—we could teach you how to use your powers. Mind is a global alignment; it’s just quite weak for most of us.”

  “We need something tactical, though,” Milla said. “Temki can’t just sustain a mind blast or something—Trinqit would probably overcome it, or Temki would wear himself out.”

  “We could try an illusion,” Tess replied. “Trick them into seeing something. All mind adepts can create visions by relaying their thoughts into others, and I’m sure Temki could make a very realistic projection.”

  “Grandmother, I don’t think I can…”

  “You’re not the first mind paradigm,” Lechi noted. “There have been others before you that have learned how to control their abilities. A couple of them even managed to synthesize very small Cities by themselves. Not functional or stable, mind you, but made briefly to test their limits.”

  “Lechi’s right,” Milla replied. “Temki, I’m sure we can put you through just the little training you should need to make illusions you can control. You used to do it without trying when you were baby, after all.”

  The shortwave radio on one of the desks in the room buzzed loudly, silencing everyone.

  “Ms. Rachester, report to Hekens’ office as soon as possible.”

  “Oh dear, can’t ignore that, I’m afraid,” Tess sighed. “You four had better go ahead and meet with the cell. They’ll appreciate the help—especially if Lechi can speak to the rairer and get her to cooperate.”

  “Right now?” Milla replied.

  “It’d be for the best. I don’t know how much longer I can keep you hidden here as is,” she said as she walked around her apartment, turning on every light. “I’ll help get you there, but we’re going to have to make two trips so that you can hold onto the carriage scroll.”

  “We’ll take good care of Temki, Tess. And we’ll let you know if we can when we’re going to make our move, and maybe you can make some suggestions concerning a good illusion.”

  “Can I really not stay with you, Grandmother?” Temki asked sadly.

  “Not yet, dear. Don’t you want to help your friends? They’re really counting on you this time. And I’ll visit when I can.”

  “Okay… I guess I’ll stay with them a little longer. I mean, I do like them and everything, but if I had a choice…”

  “We know,” Lechi replied. “But we’ve all got to be brave. The Guard isn’t going to stop coming after us just because we stop running.”

  “Right,” Tess said and turned on the room’s last light, a reading lamp by a large chair in the corner. “That’s all of them. Will it be enough?”

  “Should be plenty,” Milla said. She took out the scroll, and scattered the nearby cats away to allow the carriage to form. “Here goes.”

  The light-based vehicle flickered into existence, taking a few dozen seconds to become completely stable. Lechi called over Tanesh, who had been sleeping on the reading chair, and the six entered the carriage.

  “I still hate these things…” Xavier groaned.

  “This design has a center pedestal, right?” Tess checked.

  “That’s right. You can’t even see it in this light, but it’s there.”

  “Got it. Okay then, here we go.”

  She hit the invisible button in front of her, sending everyone inside downward through the building, and to the Administration ruins below.

  They appeared in a small concrete room lit by several lamps, rebels in raggedy uniforms beneath them. They stopped their discussion and turned towards the carriage that had just appeared in front of them.

  Tess opened the door and shouted out, “Hi, kids. Just dropping off your new friends. They’ll be right back.” She closed the door again and faced Milla. “Got a good look around?”

  “I’ve got a good picture of the place, yes.”

  “Good. Back up we go.”

  She warped the carriage upward, returning them to her apartment once more. She stepped out and looked back at Milla.

  “Don’t be going anywhere with that carriage unless I give you the all clear,” she explained. “You’ll never know just how full of Guardsmen some place is until it’s too late. I’ll drop by when I have the time, so until I give the go ahead, just stay with our local upstarts. They’ll take good care of you. And take care of yourself as well, Temki.”

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  He nodded quietly. Milla gave a small farewell wave, and prepared to tap the nearly invisible pedestal to send them back down once more.

  “Um, Milla, what happens if your memory isn’t good enough again?” Xavier fretted.

  “What? Don’t trust me? We were just there ten seconds ago.”

  “You know what, Xavier?” Lechi turned to him and spoke bluntly. “You really are the oddball among us, aren’t you?”

  “I… Uh, I guess that’s true,” he sighed. “Rebellion, demons, Citywide evacuations… I wasn’t cut out for this stuff.”

  Milla laughed and hit the activation button. A few seconds later, they stepped out into the rebel hideout, and now noticed that Zalatrya was with them—who nearly gave Xavier a heart attack at first sight.

  “So, you’re the ones Tess has been telling us about,” the leader of the small group greeted them.

  “That’s right,” Milla replied.

  “Let’s save the intros for later. We’ve got a lot to fill you in on.”

  “I don’t mind jumping right in, trust me—I’m used to it.”

  “Good, good. Come over to the table, and we can show you what we’ve been working on for the past week.”

  Without a moment’s rest, the group joined together with the others to begin planning the operation to free the City.

  “Hekens, I really do tire of this drab place,” Trinqit moaned as she looked out from his office window. “White and gray… the only two colors anything comes in up here. I can’t blame you for wanting to leave.”

  “Are you ever going to leave?” Hekens said angrily from the other side of the desk, giving a look over at the two armored Guardsmen at the door. “Your men are killing my people for no reason at all. You’ve taken away all that was once beautiful about this City within days. I dread thinking about what will happen over the next few weeks…”

  “I’ll leave once this silly ‘war’ ends, Mayor. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me to be. Do not forget your obligation to rid this City of its ‘freedom fighters’, lest you want the title of Traitor to all Aurra. I know that quite a few people will receive that moniker before this is over.”

  “You’re the one in the running, Jenera. You’re meant to protect the people under you. Instead, you support a king who only thinks of himself.”

  “You’re not as cowardly as I had first imagined.” Trinqit smiled deviously. “You’ve got some gumption speaking to a pretorian in such a manner. Jeremi—your father actually has a spine. Did you know that?”

  He looked from the child’s table at the corner of the room, said nothing, and went back to his handheld puzzle.

  “Leave my son alone,” Hekens growled.

  “Jeremi, sweet, polite, obnoxious boy, you really should respond to adults when they speak to you.”

  Trinqit formed a simple vector line above the table, and then brought it down to slice it in half. Though startled, Jeremi simply watched the whole thing, and went back to his puzzle as if nothing had happened. But Trinqit terrified him, and both she and his father knew as such.

  “Children…” Trinqit yawned. “What is it with them? Especially the youngsouls. I’ve seen the richest businessmen from Earth drool stupidly over their toys after coming to Aurra. Funny thing, isn’t it?”

  “Petty. How much joy do you find in this behavior?”

  “What happened to your wife again, Hekens? Oh, that’s right, she got sick and tired of you, and when she tried to take little Jeremi away, she somehow managed to ‘fall’ from this very floor. No coincidence that you’re a former Guardsman, I assume. And now you’re scared because providence no longer exists. But I’ve gotten over it, as I trust my own talents. You’re a sniveling little politician that can’t even pick a side in this cute little war.”

  Hekens’ heart raced. For nearly a week, Trinqit had spent her free time at his desk, throwing out as many insults as she could think up, mostly because she was simply bored after swiftly taking the City away from him.

  “Jeremi really needs a new mother, don’t you think? He’s a cute kid. I’d be willing to take him off your hands, if it means I save him from becoming one more person of your caliber and fortitude.”

  “Ms. Trinqit… Please, enough. You’ve already taken almost everything from me. At least be courteous and respectful about it.”

  “Mayor, I’m part of the Guard, remember? As the common Aurrian says: it’s my job to make you hate me. I’m only being professional. Would you like to waste your breath continuing this pointless argument?”

  A Guardsman rushed into the room before Hekens could respond. Trinqit waited for him to come up to the desk and give a report.

  “Ma’am, sensors in the Administration ruins have detected energy burst signatures. They seem to be from a demirriage.”

  “Ah, we know who that is.” Trinqit turned back to Hekens. “So, Mayor, it looks as if your friends are giving it a second go. Tell you what… if your men find them before we do, I’ll loosen my grip on the City and pull back half the Guard here. On the other hand, if you or my men fail to find them within forty-eight hours, I believe we’ll have to begin using civilians as a means of drawing them out. You know what I’m referring to, of course.”

  “What is it going to be? A hundred a day until they surrender?”

  “Seems like a good start. How’d you come up with that number?”

  “Trust me, I know well by now of your degree of morality, Jenera.”

  “Then show me yours, and do the right thing.”

  “They’ve got a rairer. My men will take heavy casualties if they try to combat it in such confines—”

  “I don’t care about their pet rairer pup, Mayor. I want this increasingly annoying situation dealt with now. I’ve become rather tired of it, despite my calm demeanor. So… pick up your phone, and make the call…”

  He hesitated a moment longer before touching his desk’s handset.

  “All City I personnel, this is Mayor Hekens. I’m approving the search for the local rebel cell. The Guard is standing by to assist, but… It is up to you—you’re the ones that need to begin the search. That is all.”

  “Good,” Trinqit said and turned around in the chair. “You’re finally beginning to cooperate. Keep up the good work, and you’ll be rewarded justly by the Guard for helping to prevent a greater conflict.”

  Hekens looked at the floor in defeat, knowing that he had just betrayed his new allies. At the same time, he was still willing to help them as much as he could… even if it meant placing them before his own people.

  If City I, and everyone in it, had to end up a sacrifice for Rivia’s efforts, then he’d see to it himself.

  The activity had picked up in the small rebel base ever since Milla’s group arrived. Lechi was introducing Zalatrya to those she had followed around for a while, though the beast had to move carefully as she was just small enough to fit inside the place, long ago a barracks for Guardsmen.

  On the other side of the room, the rebels’ pair of mind adepts were with Temki. They were working on two different aspects: to see how much of his power he could control without his control staff nearby, and a lesson on creating realistic illusions. Xavier was their test subject, but only seemed to be getting a worsening headache from Temki’s mental probing.

  “You’re sure my head isn’t going to explode?” he groaned.

  “Xavier, this is important,” one of the adepts replied. “All we’re asking you to do is sit there and ignore Temki as much as possible. The tougher you make it for him to break in, the faster he’s going to improve.”

  “I’m seeing terrible things. Animals running around with no heads, millions of scorpions coming out from the walls… My horrible mom from two Earth lives ago. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

  “He’s still trying to get past your conscious output,” the other adept explained. “Right now, he’s basically messing around with the part of your brain that causes dreams and hallucinations. Once he gets past that, he can inject something more controlled.”

  “Temki, if you ever get there, give me something pleasant, would you?” Xavier moaned again and rubbed his forehead.

  “I’m sorry…” he replied. “This is rather difficult.”

  “It’s fine. I don’t mind helping you, but I wish you’d hurry and get me past the disturbing stuff I’m seeing now.”

  Milla moved her attention to the other side of the room, where Lechi was still introducing the rairer to the others. One of the rebels was trying to feed her a bowl full of synthesized food, but pulled back in fright every time she tried taking a bite of it.

  “Just hold it out,” Lechi assured him. “She won’t bite you, trust me. She’s a smart creature, really.”

  “You keep saying that, but, I mean… look at her. She’s meant for hunting. And the species has a vicious nature, doesn’t it?”

  “You’re wrong. They were built for labor deep underground. She has five legs so that she can cling to walls and still carry things around. And her eyes can see in the dark, and see temperature at the same time.”

  “We’ve heard that the Guard are using these things as weapons,” another rebel added.

  “But that’s not what they were designed for. Are you really going to rely on the Guard to show you what these animals can do? Look, they’re as smart as a dolphin and about as friendly towards humans, too. Now she’s very hungry, so just stick the bowl out already.”

  “Okay, okay… But it’s your fault if she bites my hands off.”

  He nervously held the bowl out again. Zala bent down, grabbed it with her sharp teeth, brought the bowl up, and swallowed the stew in one gulp. She placed the bowl back in her feeder’s hands and chirped happily.

  “Uh, wow… Maybe I misjudged.” He laughed.

  “Congratulations, you now have a rairer as a friend,” Lechi mused. “Now pat her snout and the bond will be sealed.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding…”

  “So, maybe we should say our hellos now?” a voice asked.

  Milla looked to her right, where the lead officer of the cell was standing. He was a young black man with a hint of French in his accent.

  “Milla Nolland,” she replied as he took a seat next to her.

  “Lieutenant Pip Montag. I’ve heard a few of your stories. You worked with Osk in the Saharan skirmish, right?”

  “Yes, I did. Back when my group was all together.”

  “And you guys really took down the Palm?”

  “Sure did.”

  “I see… I have a few more questions, if you don’t mind. As you can see, we’re pretty isolated out here, and we don’t know what we’re doing quite yet. I can show you the schematics of the capitol, and Tess told us about why the City has to be evacuated, but I don’t have a clear idea of what’s going on out there. Or even up there, above us.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t, either. We enabled them, but I think it’s going to take some time until the rebels can begin strategizing on a global scale.”

  “Who else is working with you under Rivia?”

  “He’s got commanders waiting to go in the prison dimension he’s in, and… do you know about Hold’s kingdom?”

  “Of course. I worked for Escellé a lifetime ago.”

  “We’ve got Shin and Verim, both from that kingdom—which I’ve yet to see myself. Then there’s also Jeryn, an alchemagist who’s been with us since all this started, and Simon, who’s about your age and from Earth. He helped us earlier in Africa and has been with us since. Then there’s also my brother Garder, working with Jeryn to keep on Lontonkon’s trail.”

  “And I’ve heard that you’re a vector?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, that comes as a big relief. That pretorian, Trinqit I believe her name is? She’d cut us to ribbons if we tried something. Even if you can only defend against her attacks, it’d give us a chance. I don’t know how much longer we can hide down here. We’re running out of places to go.”

  “Maybe we should just go ahead and go through with our plans tomorrow—after checking with Tess, as she asked us to do.”

  “I’m getting nervous. We all know she’s got Hekens up there, who will eventually cave. And the rebels know how outnumbered we are. Loss of Guard providence may have just been a false beacon of hope.”

  “You all need to come up with a clear, long-term goal, and a name for yourselves. If you don’t even have a name, how will history remember you? Win or lose, do you want to just be known as ‘those rebels?’”

  “Aren’t you with the movement, Milla?”

  “Not officially—not yet, at least. Maybe once Rivia and his men are freed from the fragmented world. Until then, we’re on your side, but… just not quite part of it. And we’ve still got our own objectives for now. Anyway Pip, what is it that the rebels want as of this moment?”

  “I don’t know. A whole variety of things, really. Most of the visions we see of Aurra’s future probably won’t come to pass.”

  “I know that Garder shares the belief with many about wanting to end judgment. I think that’d include getting rid of the City ranking system, and letting the masses judge people instead of the few.”

  “Yeah, that’s a big one. So is getting rid of the haze. We can all see how bad that aspect of Aurra is. I mean, because of it, we’re trapped in Cities instead of being free to explore most of a world that could be beautiful, if we found a way to get rid of the orange stuff. Problem is, no one seems to be sure who, or what, is maintaining it.

  “Another foreseeable problem with the rebellion is that many people are going to try and take advantage of it to attempt to bring about their own extremist views. We’ve probably already got hundreds of radicals that really have no place in the movement, and need to be weeded out quickly before their ambitions spread onto others. We’re trying to change Aurra, true, but not make it unrecognizable from its current landscape.”

  “What do you mean? What do these radicals want?”

  “I’ve heard about some group called Guardfall, but otherwise I’m not sure yet. I can see there being others who want something unnatural done to Aurra. Like making it a place where you live forever, perhaps. So once you die on Earth, you’re here for eternity. Young passionate dreamers always want something like that—to be with those they love forever. I mean, hell, I’ve had my share of lovers in my lifetimes, but I can’t say there are many of them I’d want to spend that long with,” Pip said with a smile.

  “It’s a scary idea,” Milla replied. “Some mistakenly perceive Aurra as the afterlife, partly because of their ability to retain their memories. But it’s not. It’s a world like Earth, just built differently. The two rely on each other. No one knows where newsouls come from, but if Earth gets filled up with them… I don’t think that’s the way it was all naturally meant to go.”

  “What do you think we should name ourselves?” Pip asked after some silence. “I mean, someone higher up will probably decide the name for us, or one will spread around eventually. I can’t really wrap my mind around anything other than ‘Angels’, and that’s just so expected and cliché.”

  “Rivia’s men already took the name,” Milla said with a small laugh. “How about something more poetic, or ironic, even.”

  “You got any ideas?”

  “Nah, I’m bad at coming up with names.”

  “Well, maybe we can come up with one together. It doesn’t even need to catch on—I just want something to call these guys instead of ‘rebels’ all the time. It doesn’t really fit in Aurra, does it?”

  “Not really. As long as we have time, I’ll think up a few titles.”

  “I’d prefer to have something profound to yell out when we’re making our attempt on the capitol soon. You know, so I could have a war cry of some sort; get the men riled up and such. A name can become a powerful thing. We won’t really resonate without one.”

  “I think he did it!” one of the mind adepts exclaimed suddenly.

  Milla and Pip looked over to Temki and Xavier. The younger of the two was concentrating with staff in hand, while Xavier seemed in a daze, looking around the room as if he were in another place entirely.

  “Can he cast controlled illusions already?” Milla asked the adepts.

  “If not just basic ones. But it’s a good first step.”

  “He should be surrounded by trees with candy for leaves right now…” Temki explained. “It was easy to think up, and I wanted to send him some place nice after all of the headless animals I put into his mind.”

  “Ha, that’s great,” Milla replied.

  “These cactuses…” Xavier murmured. “Why do these cactuses ooze… tar? It’s nice that you’re improving, Temki, but now it feels like I’m in some Dali painting.”

  “Oh… oops. I guess I’m still not quite there yet,” Temki sighed.

  Milla assured him, “Getting closer, though. You’re doing well—maybe by tomorrow, you’ll be skilled enough to fool even Trinqit.”

  “I’ve heard about the kid,” Pip said. “Used to give everyone near him bizarre nightmares. And the chances of a paradigm being born into a City this small… He’s a bit of a miracle child, I’d say.”

  “What about Rivia? Tess said that he was very powerful for a silver, and he hails from I, as well.”

  “Nah. I’ve heard the stories, but I don’t remember much about him. He left this City when I was just a kid myself—and that was after he gained fame by stopping that avalanche from burying us. He’s a person I’d really want to meet, though, so that’s why I’m helping him.”

  “Do you like this City, Pip?”

  “It gets pretty desolate in the winter, but in the summer, it’s really beautiful up here. The nature of the atmosphere makes it look as if the haze barely exists. People tend to think it’s just the sun’s light bouncing off the ice and burning more of it away, but whatever is going on, it really puts us in a different place than any other City. I’ll be saddened to see it be destroyed… even if it can be rebuilt elsewhere.

  “Cities rarely tend to be admired—one of the Aurrian ideals, as you know—but I is different. Most really like this place, which is why so many of us opt to return to it when we’re reborn in Aurra. Many of us have known each other for several lifetimes. Not many Cities are like that.”

  Milla suddenly felt some sadness herself. She knew the place was beautiful, but she hadn’t considered how much I had meant to its people before. And she also realized how conflicted Rivia must have been about possibly erasing the place he had come from. But now he had to put the rebellion above everything else, including his own old neighbors.

  It was the first time Milla really thought about all of the possible sacrifices that may be made in Aurra, to make it a better place in the end.