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Chapter One: New Jailer

Jade

High General Janus's office still smelled of parchment, dried ink, wood polish, and old leather, the same mixture it had carried for as long as I could remember. I'd spent enough hours inside these four walls that the scent had stopped registering years ago. Just another piece of the Citadel, like the black stone under my boots, the bells marking the hour or the Masters who always seemed to know where I was supposed to be before I did.

I stood beside his desk with my feet apart and my hands clasped behind my back, shoulders square, chin level. Nobody had told me to stand that way. Years of the Masters correcting my posture had trained my body to do it on its own, as if an inspection could start any second and I'd better already be ready for it.

The map of Aracardis covering the wall behind Janus gave me somewhere useful to look at while four men sat on the other side of his desk and tried not to make it obvious they were watching me.

They weren't very good at it.

I'd taken one look when I walked in. Four men, all in Residential Battalion uniforms; black fitted shirts, black cargo pants, tall boots. The same uniform I wore, minus the thigh rig of throwing knives I never went anywhere without.

All too broad and tall, making the room feel smaller and me feel every inch of my five foot two. Then I fixed my eyes on the map and let my ears do the rest. A boot shifted against stone. Someone tapped two fingers against his knee in a rhythm he probably didn't know he was keeping. Leather creaked every time one of them moved, and somebody's breath went out hard the second Janus opened the file in front of him.

Ignoring people while still knowing exactly what they were doing was a skill the Council had given me years of practice in.

Janus didn't waste time on pleasantries. "Before we get into it. Corian," a short nod at the blond one, hair knotted at the back of his head, spine so straight it made mine look careless by comparison, "commands Nephrite. Nykos, his second," the one beside him, dark-haired, a crease between his brows that looked permanent. "Alex." Pale hair, pale eyes, already watching me like I was the most interesting thing that had happened all week. "Halver." The biggest of the four, quiet, arms folded.

Four names. No history attached, no ceremony. I filed them away the way I filed everything fast, and without letting it show.

What Janus hadn't bothered saying out loud, I already knew. All four of them were Apex, same as me. A squad built entirely from Apex Tier was rare enough that even outside the Citadel, people had heard of Nephrite. Apex tier usually came with a title, a specialization, something stitched into your name. Mine had gotten me a collar instead.

"I'll get straight to the point," Janus said. "The Council has decided to place a new recruit into your squad."

A short silence, then Corian answered.

"Respectfully, sir. Recruit placement doesn't usually need a meeting in your office."

Even and polite. The words underneath weren't.

Janus laughed dryly and without humor. He then dropped a thick file onto the desk, hard enough to make the inkpot jump.

My eyes went to it before I could stop them.

Of course they'd brought the big one. I wondered sometimes if the Council kept a smaller file somewhere, something compact enough for casual meetings, for whenever someone needed reminding that I came with an unreasonable amount of paperwork attached. Instead of dragging the whole monstrosity out every time they wanted to discuss me like a particularly troublesome Citadel weapon.

"The Council reviewed every active squad in the Residential Battalion," Janus said, "and decided Nephrite was the best fit."

Decided.

I knew that word. The Council had been deciding things for me for as long as I could remember. Where I trained. Who trained me. What I studied. Where I went. Who was allowed near me. When I could use my ability, and when I couldn't.

My hand twitched toward the knife at my thigh before I caught it and laced my fingers behind my back instead.

Janus was one of only two Council members who'd ever seemed bothered by how the rest of them handled me. He and Dannian had fought over my training, my restrictions, and the endless assessments for years. Loud enough sometimes that I'd heard them through closed doors while standing in corridors I definitely hadn't been told to stand in.

I'd never thanked him for any of it.

Maybe I should. Hmm, maybe a fruit basket?

Nothing said thank you for repeatedly telling the Council I should be treated like a person quite like handing the High General a decorative arrangement of fruit.

A laugh climbed my throat. I swallowed it.

Wrong moment.

"The reason you haven't already been handed orders and a personnel file," Janus went on, one hand flat on my file, "is that there are unusual circumstances around this placement."