Ascendant sneak peeks

The Good of the Many

Pov: Justice

Timeline: Before the initiation of the Saboteur Program

Something shifts in the shadows of his office.

Assassin! Spy!

His hand clenches around the pommel of the dagger hidden in his clothes. Before he has a chance to draw it, the shadows shift again and from them emerges a child. She is small, and thin as all of the children are thin now. She stares at him with wide eyes.

"Hello," he says. He isn't entirely sure how one speaks to children, now that he is given the opportunity. He was never the one that children flocked to. They all liked Haven more, for her easy laughter, her bright smiles.

The girl seems surprised to be addressed and she glances behind herself as though there might be some other person in the room. "Hello," she says, so quietly that he almost doesn't hear her.

"May I ask what you're doing in my office?"

She shrugs, still staring at him with wide, surprised eyes. As though she is shocked that he has not only seen her but engaged her in conversation.

He feels that he is supposed to humor her or do something to make her laugh but he cannot think of what might make a child laugh. Much less this strange, silent, solemn one that has somehow snuck into what is supposed to be one of the most secure rooms in the Citadel.

He smiles at her but it feels more like an awkward grimace, but she returns it hesitantly and doesn't burst into tears so he thinks he's done something right. "This is no place for fledglings," he says, too sternly, he thinks, her smile disappears. He has no more time for this though and he calls for the guards.

They seem just as surprised to see her as he is. "My king?" one of them says. As though he is asking Justice why there is a child here.

"It seems our little friend has gotten lost, please find out where she has come from and return her there."

The guard proves to be better at children than Justice is. He smiles brightly to the girl and scoops her up. "Come along then, little sneak," he says, "we shall leave the king to his work."

The door clicks shut behind them and Justice can't help scanning the room as though there will be another child hiding in the shadows. He snorts self depreciatingly, it is more likely to be a Black-Wing assassin come for his head.

He sighs and scans the papers scattered across his desk. There are too many things gone wrong and not enough time to right them. He never thought he would hate anyone more than the king of the Black-Wings, but Diligence's daughter is proving to be even more of a curse upon him than her father.

He scowls at the reports. With the Black-Wing's victory in the flood plains the herds are feeling the strain of the Citadel's starving population. A sickness already swept through them last spring and now their food is as scarce as that of his people.

They need something to turn the tables, an unexpected victory, a soldier capable of striking back at the Black-Wings and causing them more harm than the Black-Wings have dealt him.

An assassin. To kill the new queen, to raize her crops, to poison her water.

Unbidden, his mind turns to the solemn eyes of the child. He would never have dreamed that she was capable of doing him any harm.

Part of him wants to reject the idea, wants to preserve what innocence can be found in the hell of war. The rest of him argues that the sacrifice of a few would be worth it to preserve the many.

When he hears the guard return to his door he summons him in.

"How may I serve you, my king?"

"Summon Concord."