Fuki'ra Im'bah was standing by Araan's seat when he turned around. She had changed out of her previous armour, wearing a more simplistic red Life Amour with a black chest-pore engine and a similarly colored jacket modification. Araan couldn't decide if she had done that because of the burial or because of the accusations at the meeting.

  Fuki'ra hadn't been here before, let alone in the room, so her presence brought attention. When he took his seat, she didn't leave, instead she placed her hands on the neck rest.

  “Please, sit.”

  Araan just stared at her and she added, pointing at the transparent wall, “Your people still need to see you watch the fight.”

  He turned around, the soldiers were out of the way now and the nobles were back to circling, readying for a battle.

  He took his seat and she remained beside him. “My father used to tell me stories of how Dnmilah Kolvaki participated in the burial games as Lord Redinan in his time. My father often said it was like a thunderstorm in this arena when he won it.”

  “I wouldn't doubt it,” Araan replied casually.

  “That does not interest you, Lord Redinan? I know many who wanted to see you down there.”

  “I wasn't informed this would happen." Araan wouldn't have participated even if he had been told. Too much attention on the wrong person.

  That slowed his plans.

  “Ah,” Fuki'ra said simply.

  Since he sat, Araan had been uneasy because she stood behind him. He turned slightly, and looked up at her. “You know, in the Fourth, only bond-mates stand the way you're standing. I'm having a little trouble remembering if we shared the same custom.”

  She smiled curtly. Araan found even that disconcerting, she didn't seem like the noble that silenced the hall a few micro-seikans ago.

  What does she want? He thought.

  “No, we don't have that custom here,” she said, still smiling. “And gladly so. With talks of the heir-designate and my sister, House Im'bah would be accused of monopoly if the new Lord Redinan also found interest in me.”

  Tisiryk was already searching for a bond-mate? “I didn't know that.”

  “Then you haven't heard anything from me,” she replied, the smile finally receding.

  Araan's attention was drawn back to the crowd by their heightened screams. He held back a frown as he watched. The ten nobles had split into pairs and had begun fighting; Pilipe wasn't winning against his opponent. Being a great Sygad operator didn't mean he would excel at this as well, he didn't know what his cousin expected to happen. He was constantly backing away, doing his best to avoid the dangerous swings of his opponent's axe. He fell once, stumbling against a stone. His opponent took a big swing at him and glassy chunks of sand went flying as Pilipe managed to get out of the way.

  The people's favourite was a tall, broad noble who wielded an arced stone club studded with sharpened crystals. He was tearing through his opponents, two were out — laying unconscious on the ground — and he was already headed for another. The new pair had taken the initiative and was herding him in, closer to a wall near the entrance. He seemed ready for them. A general's son perhaps. Or maybe one himself, the glory of winning the Lord Commander's attire was bound to attract the attention of the great and strong.

  Fuki'ra Im'bah hadn't left. No, she remained right where she stood, staring straight ahead like she was interested in the fight. When Araan looked at her, she glanced at him before returning her gaze to the arena.

  “My favourite pair is those two,” she said pointing at two lean nobles battling each other with spears in the eastern corner of the compound. Both wielded their weapons poorly. The diffuse sunlight made their facial expressions clear even from this distance. Those two had no idea what they were doing.

  “The ones handling spears like swords and not the giant fighting off two cyperans like it's nothing?” She nodded and Araan asked, “Why is that?”

  “The shorter one to the right with the greystone spear is Vilini Voraja, High Commander Yuin Voraja's son. Vilini's opponent is the new Head of House Milades, his name... It is so forgettable — Flibben! Yes, Flibben Milades.”

  Two minor Houses with a rivalry more popular than either of them alone. Araan was yet to understand what exactly she was getting at.

  “Two cycles ago, neither of them would have made a bold move like that, fighting for the Lord Commander's armour.”

  “Both Houses are old, I know that much. They have managed to persist in history and now they want growth. It's not unheard of.”

  She tapped against his seat loudly. “So, House Vinid is aware of their theft from the Weaponer Families? From me, and says nothing?”

  “What?"

  “House Milades has excavated over one hundred leagues of crystal fields in one of my territories. While Flibben celebrates his profits, and makes bold establishment moves like the one you are watching unfold, Yuin and Vilini pretend to be in search of new crystal fields when I'm certain they head southeast of Kolvak. How does an irrelevant trading family like Voraja secure rights to new fields without us agreeing to it? That is against the law and it stands in every corner of the World Empire. I will be honest, Lord Redinan, I had believed you would be curious as well but instead I find you speaking from a place of approval of their actions.”

  “I never said anything like that,” Araan replied a little too quickly. He couldn't help it, he didn't even know this was that kind of conversation. Was this why she had come to him, because she knew he wouldn't be able to handle her like Tisiryk or his family members might have? Did she see him the same way everyone saw Finram? Incapable?

  The first thought that crossed his mind was to say something snag. Words that utterly disrespected Fuki'ra and her person; they came quickly without even searching for them. But he held back instead, Burvan had told him to act like a Lord. An insult would be the opposite of what a Lord would do. Then again, there was the possibility that Fuki'ra might not take the insult for what it was. She might consider it a victory to a degree. Then he would really look like Finram.

  To put her in her place he had to say something level-headed, not an order like he would in the Trigad but one that unbalanced her. Instead of an insult, he asked a question. “How exactly did little Flibben manage to clear fields that you own? Excavation equipment is the loudest and workers stop fifty micro-seikans before the Dark Half sets in, at least in the Fourth they do.”

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  She offered a patronising smile. “There's the Vinid in you, bred here or not, losing isn't something any of you tolerate. Lord Vinid, I didn't come here to challenge you nor did I choose to speak with you because I wanted a contest of words, I did because I saw you as a Vinid who would be least interested in one.”

  “Enough with the formalities, then. Speak in words that mean what you say.”

  “The crystal fields are our lands, one report and my products are mine again,” she stated.

  “So the problem is not that they took it?” he asked.

  “We have never extracted from those fields before, they are unlike normal fields, blocked off by Delacite on every side. They have been there even before my dead father assumed leadership of my family.”

  That got his attention. Even the best Sygad Mecha would fail to do a thing to Delacite of that age. Workers would die even as they arrived. “How did they manage that?”

  “New Machinery. My father often said we would build with the crystals of delacite in the future. Perhaps that belief made him fight to keep fields like these. New. Powerful. Revolutionary.”

  Her meaning dawned on him then. “So your reason for coming here was to tell me what you really think about my eldfather's murder.”

  Fuki'ra touched his shoulders lightly. “Direct accusations isn't something that is done in meetings as open as the one with the heir-designate, especially when you're not fully certain. I am now, and by the time the other Weaponer Families are formally asked about the ownership of the armour's design, and they all deny it, you will start to see it the way I do. The delacites barriers were crushed, like Dumod itself walked through those fields. House Milades do not have the means to buy such machinery and neither does Voraja. Someone had to have given it to them. Someone new.”

  “You underestimate the power of patience and ambition,” Araan told her.

  “The Houses involved may be minor but it's usually the overlooked party that has the time and chance to grow in secret.”

  “You really are new to all of this, Lord Redinan, in a world as harsh as ours, no one really underestimates anyone, we just pretend to

  . I am certain when I say these Houses don't have the power to break empire laws so openly, not without new backing.”

  When Fuki'ra spoke like that it made sense to him. And it was also so clear that she hadn't come to him in the name of loyalty to House Vinid. If what she said was true, whoever had access to that much technological power, had attacked not just his family but sought her out with moves like these to her fields. That was a threat to any Weaponer Family let alone hers. Araan knew what she wanted out of this and he was ready to give it to her if it meant a lead on his eldfather's killers.

  He took one glance at his vambraces and asked, “You said House Voraja's workers are heading southeast.”

  “Yes, Lord Redinan.”

  Tisiryk and many others on the floor made a loud booming noise along with the crowd's increased screams. When Araan looked, he saw just three fighters standing in the arena. The people's favorite was standing over both opponents from earlier. Vilini had collapsed completely after three strikes from Flibben's spear; two across his back while he struggled to pick up his own spear, Flibben struck his neck when Vilini stood up, twisting in response to the back strikes.

  Pilipe was the third and last noble still in the fight. He was standing with his left foot on the back of his opponent as he beckoned for more praise with hand gestures. Araan had no idea how that came to be but he was all for it.

  “What I need from you, Lord Vinid—”

  “I know what you want,” Araan interrupted as he turned to look at her. “Whatever House Im'bah needs to do to find this... Supporter, do it. When the time comes to defend those actions before the Lord Commander and the council, my name and office will back you.”

  “It is settled then, Lord Redinan. I'll— what is it?” Fuki'ra asked, irritated. Araan had been listening to something else.

  “You don't hear that?”

  He'd heard the loud boom again. This time Tisiryk and the others didn't laugh and the crowd's screams didn't spike. He cocked his head, focussing his hearing, searching for its source. In the background he could hear Fuki'ra ask what was wrong but he ignored her for the moment.

  It didn't sound natural, now that he heard it a second time. It was not like a creature's roar nor any sounding instrument he was familiar with.

  The arena hadn't suddenly become quiet, so it was difficult to determine the sound's repetition if it had any. But just as he began to relax, it sounded again. Much louder this time. Everyone on the floor heard it and began to react by asking guards about it while the arena remained oblivious, crowd and fighters alike.

  Fuki'ra noticed it first. She pointed at what first looked like twelve thin, black lines in the sky, rapidly enlarging as they approached the compound. Soon those twelve lines started to look more like outstretched wings. A glowing 'flesh-orb' emanated from each of the creatures, in the middle of the outstretched wings, and landed on the ground and the booming sound erupted.

  The ground shook violently and the crowd finally noticed it.

  There was some confusion but real commotion began when the creatures landed in the compound. Most hit the 'step-seats' and the compound quaked. People who weren't crushed by the landing were stumbling into the arena and had to face the four winged creatures slashing at anyone with their pair of clawed feet. Up ahead there were dozens more approaching, these had many tiny, upright 'bristles' on

  the creatures.

  Riders.

  Araan knew what the creatures were and what they meant, if the 'bristles' weren't enough indication.

  Tualankir were the only winged creatures known to be drawn to the wild storms of the Dark Half. They had massive, multi-tailed, cylindrical bodies covered in tough skin, and a shell over their heads like armour. Heads... From the base of the neck, where the shell began, there were numerous tinier, tubular bodies, heads, each ending with an eye, all held in place and protected by the open-ended shell.

  A few of those heads worked to inflate orbs of flesh with an explosive gas that it made within its body. Its great, wide wings were made of thin grey flesh that healed rapidly from damage. They were territorial and when they wished to assert it, they spread their wings—just like they did now—and bled, screeching harrowingly from the same opening they used as eyes.

  There was hardly a chance to take in one scene before the next problem showed itself. The Redinan soldiers arrived just in time to calm the nobles about the attack but the Tualankir began slamming into the Tower, causing tremors. Down there was utter chaos, higher was safer. Right then, he regretted not insisting on Dirakh staying up here. People were dying down there, was he safe? Could he keep himself that way? These types of attacks hit too close to home for Dirakh.

  Looking around the room reminded him of how close he'd gotten to the transparent crystal wall. Everyone was further back except Tisiryk. And Fuki'ra. For some reason she didn't leave. Her family was three rooms away, that could have been the excuse, but she didn't budge.

  As the screeches continued, more guards and even Redinan soldiers in their full gear came in, trying to calm everyone. Araan moved closer to them to listen.

  “Tipine will hold against these attacks, royal ones. Everyone within the Tower is safe,” every one of them said in different versions. Araan frowned at it and so did Tisiryk.

  “Do the cyperan out there not deserve safety? Where are my Tower Guards?!” he roared. “How did these things get in unnoticed?”

  Multiple booming explosion erupted before he could get an answer. The new horde with riders arrived. These Tualankir were more mature, larger. They maintained their flight and formation with ease. Like he'd assumed the bristles were riders— cyperans— Scavengers. They didn't look that much different, except where the average cyperan had numerous tiny teeth or none at all, theirs was jagged and long. Their long akoras were as thick as Araan's arms and they covered themselves in hides and used Life Armour engines that even Araan's eldfather's father would call outdated. There were scores of Tualankir in the sky and on their backs, hundreds of Scavengers.

  This was a raid.

  They were staring at them like prey; gaze unfazed in the air and a jagged smile. Prey ran and predators hunted. The Scavengers wanted them to run and the nobles did. The soldiers and guards all began clamouring that they exited the room. Suddenly, there were visible rippling waves underneath the Tualankir's flesh.

  The Tualankir were about to fire their explosive orbs at them and all Araan could hear were the guards' orders to run and their reason for the sudden order. The tower was made of impenetrable Tipine.

  The transparent crystal wall was not.