Fae watches them walk through the tower doors, skinny, knock-kneed things, all tufts of hair and wide, searching eyes. She descends from her room, the bruises beneath her eyes faded, the ones on her neck hidden beneath fabric.
Caj stays behind, waiting at the door as she walks further into the hall, over to the small huddle that constricts at the sight of them, these two beings of words and nightmares, made flesh in the daylight.
Fae kneels down next to the children, not minding the dust on the floor, not caring about the dirt on their knees.
"My name is Fae," she tells them. "Lord Toulonne said you all needed a place to stay, so I thought you could come here, if you like."
"This is Helen," she says, gesturing over to the woman who hovers in the doorway, watching. "She's going to be taking care of you while you stay here."
And then she drops her voice to a whisper only they can hear: "She looks intimidating, but she's not all that bad. She likes butterscotch."
A girl blinks at her, eyes round and transfixed. She's clutching a small, worn toy in her hands whose seams are torn and edges singed.
"Is there food?" one of the boys asks suddenly, peering around and then shrinking back when his voice carries across the hall.
Fae feels a smile—a real, genuine one, almost foreign now to her—touch her lips.
"Lots," she tells them. "Tomorrow I'll take you to the kitchen. I can introduce you to the cook. If you're good, he might let you lick out the icing bowls."
She watches their tiny feet pad across the corridor, trailing like ducklings behind Helen as they wander to their rooms, stomachs soon to be filled and eyes sleepy. She watches and she feels the hand on her shoulder, warm and anchored in a different reality.
She turns back toward it, back toward Caj, and he gazes at her for a moment before saying: "It's time."
She voices the thought that has been lurking inside her head as they climb, side by side, up the long, winding stairs.
"We're going to have to make him official."
"Ben knows," she adds, explains. "It's why... it's why it went so poorly. Keno has been made."
It's a few more steps before he replies, voice low but even: "I know."
She glances over but he keeps his gaze fixed ahead.
"I told him to come," he says after a minute and she stops on a landing.
Caj turns back, looking everywhere else first before he looks at her.
"He's more useful in here now," he says. "Plugging up all the holes he used to get inside."
"He's going to love that," she answers and the line of his mouth twitches upward.
He turns to keep climbing and Fae bites her lip, watching the broad line of his shoulders, his tousled, black hair.
"When do you think we should introduce him to Hin?" she asks and his head turns, the light catching the hooked bridge of his nose, just above the glint of his metal shoulder guards.
"You should introduce them now."
The general is hunched over maps when they enter the room, and her fingers prod rough figurines across the board and she sighs and scowls, brows knit so closely together Fae wonders if they will ever come apart.
"Your Grace," Hin says, bowing quickly before pushing a red object out from the sketch of the tower.
"General, how are things?"
She grunts in answer.
"I'd like to introduce you to my new spymaster."
That catches her attention: the woman's head jerks up, toward the open door, first toward the Queen and the Protector, then to the unknown man standing to their right, leaning on the doorframe.
"General Hin, this is Keno. Keno, this is our commanding general."
The man's mouth stretches into a wide smile.
"Hin Jessyn—from the Fisher's District, up on Third Street. One of a set of twins. So nice to make your formal acquaintance."
"Who is this?" Hin demands.
"Oh, we haven't met before," the man says. "No reason to—you were one of the few city guards who never took bribes."
"Your Grace," Hin begins, eyes narrowing.
"Keno is reliable," Fae answers, stepping further into the room as Caj slides the door shut. "The Paragon personally vouched for him."
The thief flashes a bright smile.
"He's agreed to take on a more formal position now," she continues.
"More formal," Hin catches. "More—"
"He's very clever," Fae pushes on, "and he's intimately acquainted with the seedier parts of this city. The parts that are currently giving us some problems."
With this the thief sits on the edge of the table, leaning over the sprawling map.
"Not all of us," he assures the general. "I'd like you to know that the majority of us are perfectly reasonable, only interesting in some small burglary and blackmail—"
"Keno."
He holds up his hands.
"But of course, with the minority setting everything on fire, there's not much valuable left to steal, which is why we—" he gestures between himself and Hin, "are all going to be such good friends now."
He flashes the general another smile.
"Enemies of enemies are always the best of friends. And friends," he turns, plucking a black figurine off from a western section of the city and plopping it down into the northwestern part, "don't let friends make terrible mistakes. That pocket vacated that building last night. They should be up in the shell of Westling School of the Dutiful Obscure. You're either operating on three day-old news, General, or someone is lying to you."
His teeth are pointed in the hazy daylight.
"Why don't we find out who that is?"
A/N: My boy got himself a promotion... he's all grown up now. *tears up*
In other news: who hasn't bought any Christmas presents yet? This author! Who is sinking under the crushing pressure of slowly constricting time and mounting expectations? This author!! Who keeps delaying any attempts at shopping by curling up and watching dog documentaries on Netflix? This author!!!!
Aka: this weekend is the Christmas Shopping From Hell weekend. I bid you all farewell, it has been a good run.
Also, I'm getting banned from thanking too many people on Wattpad again. (I know, what a problem to have.) So if somehow your wonderful support gets lost in the quagmire that is Wattpad's anti-spam measures and goes un-called out please know its not that I don't appreciate the votes/adds to reading lists. It's that Wattpad doesn't appreciate my appreciation of your appreciation. And I think we both don't appreciate that.
Chapter notes: You might be thinking to yourself: "Westling School of the Dutiful Obscure? That's a mouthful, but also a mouthful that sounds awfully familiar." And what do you know, you'd be correct, because it was mentioned in Paragon's "The Things We Never Wanted to Know" chapter as one of the places raided by the Jarles (with the help of that wonderful man, Brezkin). Fun fact, General Hin is the twin sister of General Jin (their parents were very creative) who was (is) the one working with Ruben and Allayria at the front lines toward the end of Partisan. Neither of them do or would like Keno.
Also, el kiddos were invited into the Tower back in Prodigal's "A Red Queen" because everywhere else is inconveniently on fire. Thanks a lot, Ben.