Zericho was about to lie down on the couch in her office room, which she had dragged in from the central area, when she heard Lief say, "Zericho, can I come in?"

"Come in," she called.

Her brother appeared, quietly shutting the door behind him. When he saw Zericho by her couch, he asked, "Can I sit down?"

Zericho nodded, glancing to the side. For some reason, hearing his voice out loud reminded her of the mess she'd gotten him and Darshek into, completely by her own fault. Taking a slow breath, she sat down as well, watching her knees.

"Do you think Tailor's gonna be alright?" Lief asked.

Zericho glanced toward him and chuckled. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He's a smart bird, and he seemed alright yesterday, didn't he? Besides, he survived without Darshek for three months, that one time in Karin Circle when Darshek got put on the wanted list..."

Lief scowled at the memory. "Yeah, and we both had to hide out because apparently we look too similar for the guards, even though he literally has a left arm and I don't. It was so unfair."

She let out an exaggerated sigh. "Stars, your brother doesn't use his brain sometimes."

Lief echoed her sigh. "Even when our moms were still here, he was always getting the whole family in trouble. You hated him when we first met."

Zericho pursed her lips. "I never hated your brother, Lief. He's just...a lot sometimes." After an awkward second of silence, she added, "I mean, he got the barrette for us, right?"

"Yeah," he agreed distractedly, mind apparently wandering to something else. "Everything is so expensive here," he blurted, green eyes roaming over the room.

Zericho chuckled softly. "Yeah. And just think about it—after we finish our work here, we can use the money to buy whatever expensive stuff we want. We could get our house back and make it look just like this room. It's exciting, right?" She poked his arm playfully.

He shrugged, smiling. "Yeah, I guess so."

It wasn't exciting to Zericho—it was infuriating. Her mother had been imprisoned for failure to pay the Kingdom's tax, and this was where that money would have been spent. Maybe not in House Calla, but in some noble's unused spare room, never to see the light of day.

"You okay?" Lief asked in her head.

She blinked, rubbing her forehead. "Yeah, sorry. I'm just a little-"

The door banged loudly.

Closing her eyes for a second to let her heart rate slow down, Zericho called, "What?"

The door opened to reveal Kaneia, with a russet and copper mechanical hawk perched on one forearm. It cocked its head as it scanned the room, bright gold eyes unblinking.

"You are to follow me to Lord Annavhe's meeting room," the guard captain ordered curtly. "We'll decide what to do with you there."

Zericho bit her lip. Lief's hand found hers, and she shot him a reassuring look, pulling them both to their feet and following Kaneia into the group's central area. Darshek, Dust, Imika, and Mianin were already waiting.

She noticed Darshek fidgeting with Kaneia's barrette and some chain-like object of unknown origin. He met her eyes and slipped both into his pant pocket before walking to hold her hand on the other side. Darshek was usually 'too tough' for anything like hand-holding, so it only went to show how scared he really was.

At least he and Lief both proved useful in the trial run, she told herself. Even if Annavhe imprisons me, I can argue that they'd be better off working for him.

It was clear the second Zericho saw Annavhe's face that the lord had prepared a speech. He watched with his chin raised and his lips pursed as the group of criminals filed into the meeting room, looking the whole time like he was one second away from either reciting poetry or screaming about the inherent lawlessness of their existence. Maybe both.

Once everyone had taken their seats and Kaneia had positioned herself by the door, Annavhe cleared his throat. "I am more than disappointed by your performance in the tasks expected of you," he began in a stiff tone, cobalt blue eyes raking across the room. "Not only did you split up and then get lost, but you—and I cannot stress this enough—were discovered by my sister."

"What's so scary about Cafonie finding out, anyway?" Zericho interrupted, nerves making her irritable. "Is it because she'll tell your parents you're up to something?"

Annavhe hissed, holding his forehead as his composure disintegrated. "No, because she's the person whose life you're supposed to ruin!"

Zericho's eyes widened. She glanced at Dust's similarly surprised expression, before they both started chuckling. "Oh my Stars, it makes so much sense now," Zericho exclaimed.

"Quiet," Kaneia snapped from behind her.

Annavhe was now openly glaring, but to her surprise, didn't explode. "Do not assume to know my intentions before I've explained them to you."

Suppressing an eye-roll, Zericho leaned back in her chair.

"As. I. was. saying," Annavhe continued, eyes leaving hers to scrape over the room again. "You have disappointed me, but you also did succeed at the task I assigned you, if only by a hair's breadth. So, I would be willing to give you a second chance to prove yourselves."

Zericho let out an audible sigh of relief, then turned red in embarrassment.

"First," Annavhe stated, holding up a shaking finger. His other hand had a death grip on the lip of the table. "I need you to answer my questions honestly and completely. If I discover later that you lied to me, you end up in the dungeon with no further debate. Is that clear?"

There was a long moment of silence. Then, to Zericho's surprise, Dust said, "Clear."

"Clear," Imika echoed reluctantly.

Zericho ground her teeth, glancing sideways at her brothers. She didn't even have much useful to say that the lord didn't already know, but the idea of disclosing anything still made her stomach churn.

"I don't think we really have a choice here."

She took a deep breath, crossing her arms. "Clear," she muttered. Her brothers echoed her.

This time, it was Annavhe who sighed in relief. His eyes found Dust's first. "What background do you have doing criminal activity, specifically?"

The pirate sighed, running a finger through his ginger hair, which for once wasn't tied up. "I worked in Captain Ryan's crew for four years, and eventually ascended to the rank of second-in-command. I functioned as Ryan's bodyguard and advisor, and when we were betrayed by an allied crew-" His eyes flicked in Imika's direction. "-and the Sun Guard discovered us, I was the only member of either crew to escape. Since then, I've been able to keep myself alive while planning to rescue my surviving crew members."

Annavhe nodded with a businesslike expression. "And you have an Aster, yes?"

Dust nodded, smiling slightly. "His name is Quasar. I've had him for seven years, and kept his body in working condition the entire time."

The lord looked intrigued by that. "You're a mechanic?"

"Not a skilled one, but I know enough to make basic repairs."

Zericho recalled the small solar-powered dog Cafonie had shown her and Dust, which Annavhe had apparently built himself. Biting her cheek, she glanced at the medium brown skin of the lord's hand, which was slowly turning white as he pressed it into the table. She'd never heard of a House lord who was willing to get their hands dirty enough for mechanic work, but apparently, it could happen.

"Imika. How and why did you start working with Dust, and what service can you offer me?" Annavhe's deep voice brought her back to the discussion at hand.

"Oh, he was one of the traitors," Dust interrupted, sounding forcefully cheerful as he looked the executioner's way. "Turned on our crew in the middle of a job, got us discovered by the Sun Guard, and promptly ended up locked in the Royal Dungeon, until I suppose they offered him the job of executioner."

Imika nodded along, looking nervous. "I'm decent in combat, and I know the layout of the Sun Palace, as well as several people who work there. And I have Tungsten," he added hurriedly, noticing the lord's unimpressed look. "As soon as I find someone to build a new body for him."

"I can do that," Annavhe said with a wave. His eyes turned to his next target. "Zericho. How long have you and your brothers been stealing from innocents?"

"You make it sound so wonderful," Zericho grumbled. When the blue eyes narrowed further, she huffed. "My mother trained me in the basics since I was old enough to talk. How to spot a valuable on a person, how to tell easy targets from difficult ones, how to guess the value of an object at a glance. She also taught Darshek and Lief after she married their mother. But it wasn't until we were fending for ourselves that we actually put the skills into practice. That was three years ago," she added.

"What are each of you best at?"

She rolled her eyes at the sporadic way he was conducting this interview. "I scout targets and make the plans. Darshek actually grabs whatever we're stealing." The boy smugly held up Kaneia's barrette in demonstration. "And Lief keeps watch on the situation and tells us what to look out for. But all of our jobs overlap, depending on the situation."

Annavhe looked curiously at Lief. "How do you communicate with them?"

There was a second of silence, and then the lord's eyes widened. "Oh. That will certainly be useful."

Zericho caught her brother smiling out of the corner of her eye.

Annavhe took a second to think, folding his hands together as he looked around the room. Finally, he announced, "Darshek and Lief, you're in. Zericho, you're in for now, but I will reevaluate the usefulness of you and your ideas once we begin planning. Imika, we haven't reported your actions from yesterday to the Sun Guard-" He glanced at Kaneia for confirmation before continuing. "-so you can continue to function as executioner and report to us with any information that might be necessary. Dust..." He pursed his lips. "I want to see what you can actually do in combat."

Dust raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"I want you to spar with Kaneia. She will evaluate your ability."

Zericho twisted around to look at the aforementioned guard, who had an interested look on her face. It seemed like Annavhe was expecting her to clarify, so she said, "You don't have to beat me, but you do have to show some level of competency. We can use the House guards' training arena."