"I said that?" he said, staring into her as if wishing to believe it were true.

"Many times," she repeated, shaking her head and grabbing his arm again. This time he let her hold it, though he left in hanging limply in her grasp. "You said you dreamed of our time together your whole life."

"I believe you," he said, seeming to find some hope in her words. His arm lifted towards her face, slowly, hesitantly. After so much suffering and violence, Aida longed for his touch more than she could have imagined possible.

"We're here," Eth snapped from behind them as they fell into the shadow of the massive cubic building. She pushed between them, breaking their slight tether of contact and connection. In the bitter cold of the dark gray shadow, Aida longed for the mere chilly bite of the air in the gray sunlight as Ryk pulled back into himself and the temperature dropped significantly.

Ahead of them, a group of half-a-dozen figures in gray suits and gowns stood under strange parasols dangling layers of white lace to cover all but the vaguest hints of face and shoulders. A couple-dozen guards in slimmer, rust-free versions of the tanks-knights' getups stood about them, their weapons clean and ready.

Maxem stopped and gestured to the hidden figures. "Board members of the Directory."

She gestured at Aida. "The Mother of Exiles and... others."

Wake "hmphed" at that description, but Maxem didn't seem to care. She walking off towards the huge building without so much as a parting nod or a look back.

Curiosity outweighed judgment and Aida bent down in an attempt to peer under the lacy parasol veils. The figures behind recoiled as if horrified while their uber tank-knights leveled their half-cannons with an air of hyper-alert readiness that made Aida wonder what would have happened if she had pulled out a weapon.

She'd only gotten a fragmentary hint of glance, but had she seen a hint of color under the parasols?

"Whoa, whoa! Easy now," she said, straightening quickly and raising her hands with palms out. "No peeky. Got it."

"We are the Directory," a man's deep voice said from the knot of Directory members.

Exactly which of the figures spoke, Aida couldn't tell, so she figured she could just address them all like the nameless, homogeneous chunk of some governmental clique they appeared to be. "We are Exiles, coming to seek your aid."

A commotion arose at the gate now a few blocks behind them. The Thorn had started stirring and expanding. Whatever machinery ran the gates rattled and clanked from inside the blocky gatehouse on the side where the rusting steel gate retracted into, but it didn't seem to be functioning since the gate remained immobile.

"The Directory does not take sides in affairs of The Book. Never has. Never will," a female voice said from the parasols. "And you were not invited here."

"We know both of those things and we're not asking you to..." she trailed off as she thought she caught a hint of movement and color among the drab city folk still trudging along on either side of the island the tank-knights about them formed in the middle of a broad, empty plaza fronting the immense stone block of a building.

She scanned the run down, crack-traced and window-boarded buildings and apartments nearby. Who or whatever had caught her eye had either moved on, was hiding, or had been a figment of her imagination. As utterly exhausted as she was, the last wasn't that far a stretch.

"Ahem," Wake said, elbowing Aida far more roughly than really seemed necessary.

"Ow. Uh, yeah. Um... we're not asking you to take sides. We just want to hire some of your tank-knights to help out a bit. They work as mercenaries, right? Isn't that how mercenaries operate?"

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"Hire? How many?" the male voice said from under the parasols. "I wasn't aware that the Mother of Exiles possessed more than one verse and we negotiated building a Syphon after you refused our offer to purchase it. If I remember correctly."

"Not my verse, some of hers," Aida said, pointing at Wake. "May I introduce Wake, Dynast of Graves. A verse made for the dead of the dead by the dead with the dead about the dead because of the dead... or something," she'd hoped to nail the phrase she vaguely remembered Fallon using an age ago but was pretty sure she butchered it instead.

"One of the primary leaders of one of the warring Chapters in the Book," the female voice said again, her tone implying she was informing her companions. Maybe it was her imagination, but these Directory people spoke with a different accent than Maxem's lifeless, emphasis-free drone. Could be they just used a bit of inflection and spoke at a pace faster than boring. Or it was all the same but her strings changed how she heard it for some reason?

She wondered again how the things worked, anyway. Was it technology or magic or was there any difference to someone who hadn't the most basic idea how they might work? Whenever she'd asked anyone she got some vague answer about 'connecting to the Logos' or something of the sort that only clouded things further rather than clarified.

"I am one of the leaders of the Resistance Against..." Wake sighed. "Of the Rags."

"And you will be paying to hire some of our Keens?"

Wake glared at Aida.

"Look, pay the verses now and actually get something for them or just lose them to the Ancients later," Aida said with a shrug. "This way you at least get something to fight back with."

"If I choose to do so and if we manage to get an army of Keens, they obey me, not you," Wake said. "Just so we're clear."

"Just so long as you don't use them against me and mine, sure," Aida said. She hardened her look. "If you try to use them against the One-Eighth, menials, Wretches, or pretty much anyone but the Ancients, I won't bother fighting against anything or anyone else. Ryk, Ghillie, and I will put everything else aside to come find you."

Wake stared back at her for a moment with a look just as hard. Then she softened slightly. "Deal."

The Dynast turned to the Directory members. "I will be paying for them."

A long pause. The parasols shifted as the figures beneath them moved closer together to confer.

Behind them, the gate rattled closed a meter or two, then metal screamed and it lurched to a halt again. The Thorn continued to expand even though it was already easily large enough to contain a couple hundred people. A couple hundred Legionnaires. Blurry hints of human forms began to solidify inside its curling reach.

"Take your time," Aida mumbled. She glanced at Eth and Ryk, hoping to maybe catch a hint of the future they saw from here via their body language. Ryk stared glumly at his spear, muttering to himself. Eth looking over at Ryk, her expression pained. When she stirred and looked Aida's direction, Aida snapped her look elsewhere to avoid embarrassing the girl. What was that all about? Were they fighting about something too or was she also concerned about his sudden shift?

Finally, the fragment of the Directory huddled before them make up its mind. "You don't seem to be carrying enough Currence to pay for a platoon of Keens even. How will you be paying?"

"Not Currence. Were you not listening? Verses," Wake said, turning her haughty look on them. It felt strangely good to see her using it against someone other than Aida.

Apparently they hadn't taken them seriously for this shocked them into silence. Even the super tank-knights about them shifted and glanced at each other.

"You realize that any verses given to the Directory are joined with Ink permanently and forever, as per the ancient accords?" the man's voice intoned.

"Of course," Wake said. "How many Keens could we get per verse?"

An uncomfortably-long pause followed. Aida glanced at the Thorn again. The insides shimmered and ranks upon ranks of human shapes began to outline amid the distorted mirage-blur within the Thorn. She couldn't imagine how anyone could stay standing during the Vale transition, much less conscious. They were probably called the 'Vale Legions' for a reason though.

"Any time now."

"We will have to discuss this with a full assembly of the Directory," the female said.

"I don't think we have that kind of time," Aida said. "Can we maybe just promise to give you a verse now in exchange for protecting us from the Legion that's about to come through that Thorn and sort the rest out later?"

"Not without the full Directory's consent," the male voice said, with others echoing the sentiment. "Return to Ink in a few days and you'll have your answer."

"I don't think we have a few days and, if you hadn't noticed, leaving requires going through the Legion that's about to invade you. Could we maybe get an advance payment to hire, I dunno, all the Keens here for a start?"

The Directory continued to confer with one-another, ignoring her completely.