Ruban was angry. But then, at this point, that was one of the constants of his life. Eight years after the deaths of his father and girlfriend, the destruction of his home, he could barely remember a time when he hadn’t been angry.

What he wasn’t so sure of, though, was what, or who, he was angry with. Was he angry with Ashwin for withholding information about his family? Information that would have blown Ashwin’s cover sky high, that Ruban would probably not have believed anyway, given the source. But information that could have brought him just a little bit closer to avenging the destruction of his family, the cold-blooded murder of his loved ones.

Or was he angry at Safaa and the rest of her subjects, for seeing it all and letting it happen anyway? For sitting in their pretty little goddamn bubbles in Vaan and thinking they deserved the peace of which they had robbed humanity. For dumping their castoffs on earth and locking the door, leaving him and his kind to deal with their mess. Ruban didn’t care what Dawad said. The Aeriels had screwed humanity beyond all justification – and if it wasn’t malice that drove them, it was indifference. And really, what difference did it make, when the end result had been all the same?

Most of all, though, he was angry with himself. For failing, time and time again, for almost a decade, to do what he should have done years ago. Find the creatures responsible for all the deaths, all the pain and bloodshed, and make them pay – for what they did to him, what they did to his family, and what they were doing to the world. And if it was the last thing he did in his life, he would make Tauheen pay for what she had done. He would find her, and he would kill her. Set her on fire and watch her burn. It was the only way he could forgive himself, and the universe by extension.

“What could Tauheen possibly have hoped to gain, though?” he heard himself say, his voice oddly calm. It was as if his brain had forgotten to communicate to his mouth the storms raging through his mind. “By killing her, I mean. Blackmail only works if the subject is still alive. Killing Aunt Misri would only have pushed Subhas to go even further against her.”

“Only if he knew that she was the one who had killed her. Besides, maybe it had nothing to do with him at all. She was a scientist at SifCo. Do you know what she was working on at the time of her death? If it had anything to do with the reinforced sifblade formula, that may have been the reason why she was targeted.”

“Perhaps. But then, why did she bother trying to kidnap Hiya now? She already has the formula she wanted so badly. What more can she hope to gain, through blackmail or otherwise?”

Wiping his hands on a dishrag, Ashwin threw himself onto the couch, draping his legs over the armrest. It was hard to think of him as an immortal demigod with superhuman abilities, at times like these. With a resigned shake of his head, Ruban nudged the Aeriel’s feet off the couch and seated himself in the newly empty space.

“For the raw materials, of course,” Ashwin said, scowling. “A formula alone doesn’t make a weapon. And reinforced or not, these are, after all, sifblades we’re talking about. What’s the one thing you need to manufacture a sifblade? Sif, obviously. Raw sif-ores, to be more accurate. Tauheen can’t really enter a sif-mine herself. Quite apart from the physical discomfort of it, it would attract a lot of unwanted attention. Remember Ghorib? Caused quite a stir, didn’t it? And those were just run-of-the-mill Aeriels nobody gave a shit about. Not even X-class.

“If she had leverage on one of the main power-players of the IAW, then that would make obtaining the raw materials for her little project that much easier. Nobody would question the Defence Secretary accessing sif-mines, or even ordering the transportation of ores for processing and stuff.”

“And he would do all of that and more, if Hiya’s life was on the line,” Ruban finished softly.

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A few minutes passed without either of them saying a word. The clock chimed eleven. Finally, Ruban said: “You know, all of this is still only a hypothesis. We still have no concrete proof that Tauheen did what we think she did. If we could get it, though; if we could prove that she attacked, murdered and abducted the family members of key government functionaries in order to get them to do her bidding under duress. Well, if we could prove that, we could have central forces deployed against her – every military and paramilitary organisation in the country would be deployed to help apprehend Tauheen, not just the Hunter Corps. It would become a national priority, the first priority. We’d even get international help. After all, Vandran officials couldn’t have been the only ones that Tauheen and her followers targeted.”

“No, indeed they were not. There were reports of casualties spanning the globe. Not the general terrorist activities that the Exiles indulge in, either. Targeted assassinations, abductions, things like that.”

Ruban nodded, satisfied. “After that, it wouldn’t matter how many spies Tauheen had within the IAW. The matter would be out of their jurisdiction once we prove that civilian lives are on the line, that civilians have been killed for over a decade with no government intervention. The Supreme Court will take charge of the investigation and it’ll be all hands on deck. Even Tauheen isn’t powerful enough to stand alone against the entire world.”

“You know,” Ashwin began, flicking his tongue over his lips in a nervous gesture that better became the Zainian nobleman than the Prince of Vaan. “If you really want to find proof of everything that Tauheen has done over the decades, I know someone who can help with that.”

“Yes?” Ruban said, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re not going to like this, but hear me out, okay? Safaa has had spies all over the planet tracking every single one of our mother’s movements for centuries. There is no power in the universe that knows the ins and outs of all of Tauheen’s secrets, all her activities and goals, better than my sister. You don’t know what obsession is until you’ve met Safaa,” he sighed. “In some ways, she’s more like Tauheen than Tauheen herself.

“What I’m trying to get at is this. If anybody would know where to find evidence of my mother’s activities, it would be Safaa. If Tauheen really has been planning all of this for as long as we think she has, Safaa and her elaborate spy network are bound to know something about it. She’s the best resource you could possibly hope to have.”

“You’re saying you want me to meet your sister?”

“Exactly.”

Ruban ran a hand through his hair. Of course, nothing in his life could ever be simple. He didn’t trust Safaa, didn’t trust any of the Aeriels, really.

He did not think Ashwin would deliberately mislead him. Tempting as it was to hold on to those old prejudices, the guy had had ample opportunity – and provocation, if Ruban was being honest with himself – to kill him, if that was what he wanted to do. But just because Ashwin didn’t mean him direct harm did not mean his sister would not have her own agenda to further through Ruban. In fact, Ruban was pretty sure that was exactly what she would have.

And in the interest of continued honesty, Ruban wasn’t entirely sure he could trust himself not to try and wring Safaa’s neck when he finally met her. He was not one to delude himself about his abilities, and he knew that that would probably end with him bleeding out slowly at the feet of the Aeriels. But he wasn’t sure even the threat of imminent dismemberment would be enough to keep his anger in check when he finally came face to face with the creature responsible – if only indirectly – for so much chaos.

And while all of that was compelling argument against accepting Ashwin’s offer, the fact remained that the Aeriel was right. Without Safaa’s help, there was no way Ruban would ever find out the truth behind what happened to his father, to Miki, to his aunt. Even if he managed to kill Tauheen without that knowledge, he would never know why. Why he had to lose everything he valued for the sake of some mad Aeriel Queen’s rivalry with her daughter. Why Hiya had to lose her mother before she had even had a chance to know her. Why all their families were torn apart like they were nothing more than toys for some malicious God to play with.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” he said at length, turning to look out of the window. It was drizzling again, the raindrops like flecks of silver against the dark night sky. “I’ll meet your sister, if you really think she can help us find proof against your mother. You have one fucked up family, you know that?”

Ashwin laughed. “Believe me, no one knows it better.”

“Where do I meet her, then?”

“Why in Vaan, of course.”