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led to her arrival here.
    This morning, before the crack of dawn,
Nazirah journeyed by train to the largest Red West city, Rubiyat.
With doctored identification that Niko had somehow procured, and a
bribed conductor, Nazirah had boarded the train easily.
    She found her seat in a tiny compartment
near the back, mercifully empty. For the entirety of the five-hour
ride, although she wanted to just lie down and recover lost sleep,
Nazirah was glued to the window, watching the familiar oceanic
views of her home morph into something arresting and new.
    Nazirah is momentarily roused from her
thoughts. An extremely large woman in a royal purple wrap dress,
with dozens of gold bangles jangling on each arm, sits down next to
her. The woman unapologetically takes up half of Nazirah’s seat,
squashing Nazirah into the window. She snaps her fingers, shouting
in Deathlandic at her three small children, currently running down
the center aisle of the bus, to sit across from Nazirah. Once the
children are safely settled, Nazirah’s thoughts drift to where she
hasn’t let them go since last night.
    Since Niko told her she needed to come
here.
    Since he said the name that changed
everything.
    #
    “What did you say?”
    Her voice was not even a whisper, yet sharp
as a blade. Nikolaus stayed silent, allowing her to process it.
They both knew she heard.
    “Adamek Morgen.”
    Nazirah said it slowly, the name heavy on
her tongue … foreign … blasphemous. Nikolaus looked at Nazirah like
she was a cornered rattlesnake, ready to strike. The floor began to
spin, dropping away. The air left the room. Nazirah’s throat
constricted, a thousand emotions overwhelming her.
    Betrayed by her brother.
    “No.”
    Still, Nikolaus remained silent.
    “No!”
    Nazirah shoved Nikolaus, her all-consuming
rage vivid upon her face. She screamed incoherently, grabbing the
front of his shirt. He was a full two heads taller than she, but
she didn’t care. She wanted to claw his eyes out.
    “You would offer amnesty,” she growled, “to
the man who killed our parents?”
    And there it was.
    Once Nazirah said it out loud, it became
real. Adamek Morgen, murderer of Riva and Kasimir Nation, would
walk free, without so much as a slap on the wrist. At the hands of
their own son. And Nazirah, in the bitterest twist of irony, would
never have her vengeance.
    Nazirah’s legs buckled, collapsed underneath
her as she fell to the floor. Nikolaus wrapped his arms under hers,
steadying her, protecting her. But Nazirah could not look at him,
she was so disgusted. She sat on the floor, staring blankly.
Nikolaus slowly bent on one knee before her. He grabbed her
shoulders, but she turned her face away. Nikolaus tilted her chin,
forcing her to look him in the eye.
    “Irri,” he said, “I don’t expect you to
understand this. Yes, he killed Riva and Kasimir. But the rebels
have offered amnesty to many murderers before him. He turned
himself in a few days ago, and is prepared to offer us his
substantial riches and all of his knowledge and connections. You
know who his father is. You know what this means for us.”
    “Don’t touch me, Nikolaus! I am so ashamed
of you!”
    “Nazirah, the rules are the rules,” Nikolaus
said. “I am bound as Commander to offer him the same terms that we
would offer any other person who requests amnesty. I’m not exactly
thrilled either, but it’s what’s fair.”
    “Fair?” Nazirah yelled. “What’s fair would
be to cut his heart out, Nikolaus, and then feed it to him! Not to
give him a goddamn reprieve! How could you trust him? His father is
the fucking Chancellor of the entire country! He probably sent him
to spy on us! Why else would he ever join us?”
    “Nazirah,” Nikolaus said, “you know I can’t
tell you the conditions of the agreement. I’m under oath. But the
time of our rebellion has finally come. We’ve worked towards this
for years – decades – and Adamek Morgen is the missing link we need
to set everything in