Many Collective years later, we still lived in the Great House. With the Spire overdue but near completion, I helped mother prepare for the relocation. Outside, she hung freshly washed linens and drapes while I pressed sleh fruit for oil.

"Slowly, son," she said to me.

I obeyed, grinding the mill in slower rotations.

She kissed my temple and squeezed my shoulders. "Very good."

I smiled at her with my eyes. I tried to make them sparkle for her, how she liked. We hid our smiles. We both expected--

"Savis, attend me," Umbra barked as he took a seat on the very throne on which I was conceived.

Even though it was large enough to fit four comfortably, Savis knelt on the stone at his feet. This was the way of things. She muttered, "My King," and did not look at me for the rest of the proceeding.

Amolot stood beside the throne. Her carved, muscular form never relaxed. Contrary to the traditions set by Elden, her long hair was pulled back high from her face with much of it painted in various stripes of bright colors. She shifted her yellow eyes in my direction as if she realized I observed her. I flinched and continued my work.

A heavy Icarus approached the throne with his hands cupped in respectful greeting. "King Umbra, thank you for gracing us with this upgrade intervention. We waited so long--"

"My denial to grant you an upgrade before now was due to your own inefficiency to meet my demands."

The man bowed his head further until his hands were higher than his head. "Yes, your majesty."

Umbra rested his elbow on the throne and gripped his chin. "While I resent providing an upgrade before the Spire is complete, I understand you lost many skilled workers retrieving the materials from the Ignis Desert. You require replacements to complete the castle. How convenient. Do you agree, Amolot?"

Amolot leaned over in her extra tight robes to whisper in my father's ear. My mother stared ahead until Umbra nudged her with his boot. "What do you say, woman?"

I gave up pretending to focus on my work and watched.

Savis kept her chin high as she answered, "Our civilization is structured in such a way that it might only thrive on the charity of the oppressors. We cannot expect them to obtain upgrades by their own means, yet you expect them to complete the work of those above their caste in both strength and intellect." The heavy Icarus glanced at her then, and for a moment, my mother's eyes connected with his. "The people beg for your charity as they work for you. Grant them their request, and the Spire will prosper from their elevation in caste."

Umbra stared at the back of her head as if she grew a second one.

Amolot grinned beside him.

He asked through a clenched jaw, "How far of an advancement do you require?"

The man lowered his hands and swallowed so loud I heard it several steps away. "Wings, sire. The castle is almost inaccessible without them. Only two men possess them."

"Of course, you need wings." He nudged mother again. "Go fetch one of the urns. A Coalition descendant should suffice."

These urns later inspired Devis to construct the Pretiosum Cruor. They prevented the nanites within the blood from degrading. Elden created them.

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As she unfolded herself from the ground, Savis nodded faintly to the stranger. A reassuring gesture.

Unfortunately, it wasn't discrete enough. "Savis."

Mother froze at the sound of father's icy voice that made me wince.

"I thought of a better idea. Amolot?"

On his command, Amolot gripped my mother by her arms and redirected her in front of the heavy Icarus. The silent guard held Savis tightly. My mother's arms even bruised. The stranger took a step back, terrified.

"You may take your wings from her," Umbra commanded.

The color drained from my mother's complexion. The stranger gaped with disgust drawn in the lines of his face. In my shock, I stumbled and spilled the contents of the mill.

Father rolled his eyes. He ordered out of hand, "Do something with the Heathen once we're done, Amolot."

"No!" Savis cried out. "You promised--"

Amolot jerked my mother to silence her.

But like you, she wasn't easily silenced. "You promised the education and discipline of our children would always fall to me."

A crowd gradually gathered at the spectacle. While I recovered the mill in haste, the people glared at my father with thinly veiled censure.

One anonymous voice shouted, "We told you, Ieha. You mason the castle for him, and he would not thank you. But you wanted to test his reason. Have you found any yet?"

Amolot's eyes shone with malicious excitement. I shuddered.

Ieha, the heavy Icarus, wrung his hands. He turned this way and that to glimpse the audience. "Sire, they are hostile."

Umbra sat forward with his hand ready to close into a fist. "They are the reason you will not receive your upgrade--"

"Icari of Cinder."

The din silenced for Savis' address. They waited for more. Behind her, Umbra narrowed his eyes into angry slits.

"Your King is most gracious to allow me this honor. Ieha will receive the blood of the highest caste that he might share it with you. Is this not kindness your King pays you?"

Umbra foamed at the mouth. He never intended blood as precious as my mother's circulating throughout the castes. "What--"

Amolot released my mother to whirl around. Without words, she convinced him to remain silent. I never knew if it's because she wanted to see what would happen next. Or if she was intelligent enough to seize this opportunity to prevent an uprising.

In any case, the people cheered. Some cried out phrases like, "Praise Elden for Umbra" or "Our Lord is magnanimous."

Quietly, mother assured Ieha, "Please. Take it." She extended her wrist to him.

I'm not sure if Xelan or one of the other Icari in your army ever informed you of the intimate act of blood sharing. It's not meant to be public and not with anyone other than your mate. What Umbra commanded of my mother was no different from whoring her out to his contractor as payment. But she understood the day Elden died, her life was different. She adapted like a soldier. Like you.

Ieha took blood from her wrist, touching her as little as possible. He spent a scant few seconds, maybe a minute, drinking. Only as much as required.

Father stared at his mate with nefarious calculation. Without looking away from her squared shoulders and straight back, he asked Ieha with an almost disinterested tone, "When will you finish my Spire?"

"With this..." He licked his lips nervously as he glanced at my mother apologetically, "...we will finish within the month."

"Do not waste anymore time." Umbra waved, dismissively.

The crowd followed Ieha away from the Great House. Dispensation of blood as precious as the daughter of Elden required planning. They got what they needed from her. One would drink from him. And then another from the one until it diluted. No longer bearing wings.

King Umbra rapped his fingers on the throne in sequence. "Amolot?"

The female guard turned to him.

"You are to discipline my son and any future children I bear."

"No!" Savis rounded on him and cried, "No! You promised me. I would take care of our children--"

"You are not living up to the expectations I had for a mother of my brood. Perhaps it is a consequence of your youth, but that aside, you may continue to educate them. Amolot will punish them and--" He held up a finger to stop Savis from further argument. "She will train them in combat."

An eager smile spread across Amolot's face as Savis' expression tightened with horror. Meanwhile, I finished recovering the mill and corked another barrel of oil for mother. I remember thinking she deserved something at the end of all this. I was barely Earth-age four, so I didn't completely comprehend everything as I do now. But I know my mother screamed a lot that day, and mostly about the threatened mistreatment of me. So I filled one extra barrel of her favorite oil.

Amolot beat me until I fell unconscious. My nacre was slower then. It took days for me to walk again. I fell in and out of consciousness to the sound of my mother's sobs as she tended me. I mostly recalled that her hair smelled of sleh. It's one of the things I miss most about her.