Luminous forms

appeared in Aj's sight

imploring it

to cease its hunt.

Politely but firmly,

Aj demurred.

Aj spoke:

'For the good of all,

even for you,

who created me

to do your will

must I do this.

To restore all that is wrong

to rightness.

A door opened

to show the way

and I will do

what must be done

to take us through it.'

In the subsequent days Hassani spent with Goboro digging through records, the beautiful man she'd encountered by the statue rarely traveled far from her thoughts. She hadn't caught a single glimpse again and not for lack of trying.

Goboro made happy company, at least. The fat, baby-faced eternal novice melded joviality, competence, humor, and an absolute lack of ambition. This proved a perfect combination to endear him to everyone and threaten no one. Everywhere they traveled through the Annalis' labyrinth, catcalls, jokes, hails, waves, and smiles greeted them.

Deep in the bowls of the bureaucratic beast, they sifted through its digests. Without warning, he burst into song:

"The blind Verser Lord visited his hairy harem horde.

Finding every delight to be had with women overnight.

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When the Lord's adviser found him blissful but none the wiser,

the horrified vizier bent his ear..."

A supervisor approached to admonish Goboro for distracting nearby acolytes from their important work recopying ancient copies of older documents, but the man veered away trying to control his laughter as Goboro reached the punchline.

"This way does not the harem lay,' the Vizier bent to say.

'These three nights of female delights

transpired not in your harem with women ready and able,

but in hay with the horses of my Lord's stable."

Goboro's expressions as he mimed the blind Verser Lord's subsequent journey from happiness to horror to shrugging acceptance and back to happiness reduced the room to tears.

The scribe's antics tuned out as her brain caught up with her fingers. Her pulse pounded and she retraced the brailled sheet before her three times. "Goboro! This's what I've been looking for."

"So said the Lord ever after at the touch of a horse's tail." Goboro stuffed a faded scroll back into its nook as he bandied over to her.

"Can you be serious for one moment?" She handed it to him and watched his fingers glide across it.

"I've been serious that long once or twice before, but no promises." He looked up, shrugged, and shook his head. "That's it? An order for a ConMach convoy of weapons from Ziggurat?"

"With a Legion escorting them. This proves that we're chasing something real, not off hunting ghosts."

"That reminds me of my great-grandmother's horny ghost and the time-"

"Enough stories." She swiped the braille from him and shook it in his face. "This request came in to the Skeinry in Ziggurat several days ago. Urgent."

He scratched his butt and blew a raspberry. "Urgent? For what? Hasn't been a major uprising since the Sixth Tier Rebellion over a hundred years ago and that was in Ziggurat besides. With all the legions based there, weapons come and go all the time."

"Enough to arm three legions? And did you feel where they went?"

"I would have if you hadn't stolen it back from me before-"

"Sunset."

He frowned. "The Verse of Vaults? Why would Inro the Impossible need that many weapons in a verse hoarding only useless old artifacts and decrepit prisons for mythical creatures? Did the Vault Legions all get drunk and lose fifteen-thousand spears, shields, and helmets? Doesn't seem likely what with them always having three Chapters staring each other down in the armories arguing over every misplaced arrow."

"Why indeed? We haven't found the record of the convoy getting there yet, right? Why was this buried in Archives when it should have been in Arrivals?"

Goboro shook his head, the silver hoop in his left ear swinging. "If you want to fit in, call Archives 'the Dust' and Arrivals 'the Dirt.'"

She smiled and patted him on the arm. "I don't need to fit in, that's what I have you for."

He took the braille again and rubbed a finger across slowly. "Good thing my old friend Wannibae saw this come down here and commented on it. We'd never have found it otherwise. Should I track down whether the weapons actually went out? The receipt confirmation from Sunset?"

"Yes. And while you're doing that, see if your friend knows who filed this down here." Hassani stood. "I'll head to Paths and Ways to see if I can't commandeer a 'nail."

"A 'nail for where? Ziggurat?"

"No. Well yes, there too. I was thinking Sunset."

More scratching at his back and arm. "Do Inviolates have liberty to go to Sunset? I'm not sure how it works, but I wouldn't think they'd let just anyone wander into the Prison of Prisons."

"I guess we'll find out. Meet at the food cart at dinner to see what we've found?" she said, already halfway to the door.

"Hai!" He slapped his belly. "You're buying for all this extra walking. Have to keep up my strength."

"I think you've strength stored for a hundred times this much walking. Maybe you should be thanking me instead." She rolled her eyes. At the door she paused and turned. "If you have a moment free, something else you might check on for me."

"Oh?" He grinned. "For you or for your husband and his fishing business again? Something damning about his competitors?"

She frowned at mention of Denault and shoved all thoughts of him Avani away before it swept her away. "Not fishing, dipping. And no, not that. Earth mean anything to you?"

"Earth?" He stared at his foot, then the cobwebbed ceiling. "They should get someone to clean up there. And no, never heard of them. Who is it?"

"It's a where, I think. See if you can find anyone who has heard. Quietly."

"This tied to the weapons?"

"Maybe. Not sure."

He threw up his hands. "Whatever you say, you're the Inviolate. I'm just the stumbling ox following you around."

"Okay. Keep your ears out and fingers fresh."

Once in the hallway, they turned opposite directions. She sifted through what little information she had. A huge weapon allotment sent to a verse with no reason to ever need them... or did it? She couldn't imagine what might justify such a huge transfer. Sure, rumors always swirled around Sunset's great guarded treasures and dangerous artifacts, mad, imprisoned Dynasts, and sealed-away demons, but when had anything ever proved substantial?

If the transfer completed as planned, why had the Black Court sent her on this errand? If convoy was real and legitimate, who buried the request in Archives and why? Why not just destroy it?

A thundering explosion of movement snapped her out of it. Her hand darted to her sword hilt.

Just startled nesting birds panicking in a small space.

Heart thudding, she looked around.

Lost in her musing, she'd taken a wrong turn or three, placing herself in an abandoned hallway featuring a caved-in roof, moss-covered fallen beams, and crawling vines. A nearby door askew in its frame revealed a sunny, rubble-strewn courtyard half-reclaimed by the marsh.

Another realization put her on alert.

All thoughts cleared from her mind. Senses sharpened. She subtly shifted her feet to a solid stance and loosened her sword slightly in its scabbard.

She'd managed to isolate herself in a remote, abandoned section of the Annalis... and she wasn't alone.