Miles

Mikkel will tell you that we--all of us in Easternport, even you, Townies--are the product of war. And because of that, we are in a constant state of war. He uses that to explain away the things that he does, or why he does them. He uses it to provoke me into fighting him and then point to it as proof of why I'm fighting him.

Mikkel is a schloch. But he's also my kollectiv brother, so I put up with him. I tell you what he says because Steven told me he's looking for an answer for who the people of Easternport really are. Well, that's one answer--a very simple answer. I think the better answer is a lot more complicated than that:

The biggest turning point in Eastenport's history was the day the Serpents declared themselves the new governing force of the city. Like it or not, that's just how it was. And yes, Mikkel, Cory, Nate and I were involved in making that happen. If you want an explanation on that, though, you will have to ask Mikkel. It was his plan, not mine.

Cory was the only one that had to report to the Serpents for work every day, so I don't know how it happened, but she claimed she was invited to the Inauguration Ball for the new head of state, King Matthias Rea--the first king of Easternport at the ripe old age of eighteen. Poor bastard.

So the night before the ball, Cory came bouncing back to our new place of residence at the previously abandoned Rea Estate, telling us all that she needed a dress. "Matthias said that my dress has to be white, of course, and reach the floor and cover my scars, and I can't show my Master's brand, but my Serpent brand has to show--and with the red ribbon, too." Cory babbled with excitement about this chance to dress up. I don't think she really thought about what the party really meant, she just wanted to wear a dress.

The four of us sat in the kitchen: a grimy mess of forgotten tools and rusted appliances. In the corner, though, was a small space that leant itself well to staying warm and fairly clean. There, we swept the floor and set up a new table.

Mikkel sat on one side with his back against the stone wall, his arms folded across his body in quiet confidence as he stared down Nate across from him. He held himself with the grace and air of the adelige, even when no one viewed him as such. He never seemed to let anyone's words affect him. It wasn't that he was proud of who he was, but he certainly didn't bother to hide it. He couldn't. He looked too much like his philandering father with his thick dark hair and prominent brow. He had nothing in common with his mother's husband. Rumor was, as soon as he was born, the doctor gasped and christened him as the Bastard he was.

Nate, who sat with both hands protectively shielding his cards, was the next one to be called out as a Bastard—born only three months after Mikkel, from the same mischievous father who liked to bed rich, married women. It was after Nate's birth that all the adelige husbands started examining their babies for any sign of infidelity in their wives. The two Bastards looked undoubtedly like brothers. But Nate lacked the prominent brow that gave Mikkel such a dark and intimidating look. His face was softer, lighter and when he smiled, everyone had to smile back.

"Don't go to the ball, Cory," I said. I took a swig from a bottle of benton and handed it to Nate beside me.

"But I was invited to go!" she pleaded back. "Matthias, himself, told me I could come. I just need a dress. A white dress. And... maybe brush my hair. What do people do for a party like this?"

I put my hand on her knee. Physical tough usually worked with her. "Please don't go."

She neither refused my hand nor acknowledged it. "Please, let me. I'll never get a chance like this again."

"Let her go, Miles." Mikkel didn't shift his eyes off of Nate who was thumbing his cards awkwardly. "She wants to go; she can go. We'll find a dress for her tomorrow."

I gaped at Mikkel. "Why are you encouraging this? You know how this is going to turn out." I turned to Cory. "Cory, you know this won't go well. adeliges are cold-blooded pricks, how do you think they're going to treat you?"

"Matthias gave me very clear instructions to stay out of people's way. I'll just stick to the wall and they'll leave me alone."

I shook my head. As an adelige, I could tell her it was a terrible idea. But she wasn't about to be swayed from it. She was too stubborn. Mikkel made her that way. Ever since Mikkel had taken her under his wing, there had been a shift in her personality. Mikkel said he was giving her confidence, but he was doing more than that. I just didn't know what. That's why I was sure he had to have a master plan for this party. He wouldn't agree to let her go unless he had a plan. It made me mad. He was using her. He always used her. But he never did it without helping her as well. So I couldn't stay mad. I just had to trust that he was still good at plan making when he was drinking this much.

"Nate is cheating," Mikkel mumbled.

"Can you prove it?" she asked, already forgetting me.

"No. But he's got an awful tell. I'll figure it out."

Mikkel

So you want to know who you are, Steven? I could tell you anything in the world and you wouldn't know what to make of it. Until you come up with the will power to decide for yourself who you are, you will be whatever someone else calls you.

As for your request for the full story, I'm not sure I can oblige. There are some things better left unsaid--like my plan to help the Serpents defeat the Underground. All of that mess is better left buried with those who died that day. But what came after was a new era! And that, I can tell you about.

It started with Cory getting invited to Matthias's Inauguration Ball. Obviously she was getting set up for some awful thing by the Serpents, why else would they invite an outsider to their party? And her, no less! But when an aristocrat dares you to do something, you don't back down. You take that dare and use it to spit in their faces. That's something Miles hadn't learned yet... or refused to learn, maybe. Dr. Gore kept putting ideas of pacifism into his head, which then pushed his spine out.

So, I spent the night preparing for Cory's time at the party--with Nate's help, of course. See, I wasn't invited, but I needed to "talk" to a few key members of the Serpents. They needed to hear me.

Cory

Look, it wasn't that I really thought that the Serpent aristocrats--the "adelige" as they called themselves--would treat me all good and all. But it wasn't like I had been treated all that great any other time in my life. The only four people that I really trusted to treat me good at all were the M Kollectiv, who I called brothers, and Dr. Gore, who saved my life that one time. Or brought me back to life, I guess I should say.

Anyway, the way I saw it, this was the only time in my life that I'd get to go to a big party all dressed up like that. How could I turn it down? It was so special for Matthias to even invite me. And it was just as special to have Mikkel's support, even if I couldn't get Miles on board. That was how it always was with those two: if one agreed to something, the other didn't. They couldn't see eye-to-eye on anything. Nate said they had been like that ever since they could talk.

Mikkel and Nate, on the other hand were inseparable. I always thought it was because they were half-brothers, and on account of who their father was, they couldn't really depend on anyone else. But Miles said it was something else, though, he wouldn't ever tell me what.

I wasn't at all surprised to see that the two Bastards had stayed up all night after Miles and I fell asleep in the kitchen. On the floor next to them was a pyramid of coffee cans. Two empty bottles of benton stood at each point with sprigs of weeds coming out of the top. A carefully arranged stack of cigar butts towered next to it. An "obelisk," Mikkel called it. "We went to Egypt." Whatever that meant. "We picked up a limo for you," He said. His gently rounded accent slipped in and out of his speech. Sometimes he sounded like an aristocrat and sometimes he sounded like a gutter kid--like me.

"A limo? What for?"

"For your big party tonight. Were you planning on walking down there?"

"I... hadn't thought about it. When did you get a limo?"

"Last night," Nate said, putting the card deck down he had been playing with. He tried to smile in his usual sweet way, but his eyes sagged and so did the edges of his mouth. "After you two fell asleep. We can use it to go pick up your dress. Are you ready to go?"

"Right now? It's--"I checked my watch. "Seven in the morning."

"Good." Nate bounced up from the bench and stretched. "So we can get breakfast."

We nudged Miles awake and took off for downtown in the limo. Mikkel parked it wherever he saw fit. The cops never bothered us. There were very few cars left operating in the city. Most people that could afford gas drove motorcycles to save money. And motorcycles could park anywhere. So why not a limo?

We found my a dress in a small tailor shop run by an elderly woman and her daughter. It was nearly impossible to look for a dress in the shop because they didn't have electricity, but the shopkeepers really wanted to make a sale. They scurried around in the dark to find one that fit my needs. The dress they found was too big. It hung from the collar like a pile of sheets. So, the women hurried me outside to measure and pin the dress for alterations.

By the time I was allowed to take off the dress, Mikkel and Nate were asleep on the floor of the shop. Miles handed the shop keepers a wad of money that he had been carefully counting out and said he'd be back to pick up the dress in the evening. I was a little upset at that. I had wanted to pay for it myself. But Miles was being sneaky with his money. He had bought that kitchen table without telling us and Mikkel told me that he was stashing money somewhere. I didn't know how Mikkel knew that. And I didn't know where Miles hid his money. But Mikkel had a talent for figuring those things out. He liked puzzles. Especially sneaky puzzles.

Miles kicked Mikkel and Nate awake and walked out the door without saying much of anything.

Mikkel stayed awake long enough to drive the limo to Dr. Gore's studio apartment on the Fault. Nate could drive, too, if he wanted to, but he was just as tired as Mikkel. Miles and I didn't know how to drive. It just wasn't necessary to know. I never even found out how Mikkel learned, but he must have been the one to teach Nate. He taught Nate everything.

By the time we got to the apartment, Dr. Gore had gone to work in his attached clinic, so we let ourselves in through the window. We would have gone in through the clinic's front entrance, but there was this new nurse that really hated us and would raise a fuss if we walked through the clinic like that.

Mikkel and Nate went straight for the bed and passed out together, while Miles and I rummaged through the fridge for breakfast.

Dr. Gore walked in just as I started to wash my plate. "Please tell me you didn't break my window," he said.

"Just the frame. The glass is fine," Miles said as he pulled an anatomy book off of a shelf.

Dr. Gore closed his eyes and sighed, letting his shoulders slump.

"Mikkel will fix it," I said. "He's learning how to fix our windows at the estate."

"I suppose you ate all my food as well."

"Of course not!" I said, "We left some for those two. They fell asleep before eating anything."

"Of course," Dr. Gore opened his fridge, sighed again, and began making himself a bowl of cereal.

"I can pay you back for whatever we took," I said. I reached in my bra and pulled out a handful of bills.

Dr. Gore raised his eyebrow at me, but shook his head no. "So when are you guys getting your own beds?"

Miles and I shrugged together. "Perhaps we can find some when we go back into town for my dress."

"Your dress?"

"Yes! I'm going to the Inauguration Ball tonight!"

"Are you now? The Serpents are letting you all go to their big party?"

"Not all of us. Just me."

"Just you." He paused. "And you think that's a good idea to go?"

"Why not? I helped them get to where they are."

"As did your brothers."

"But I belong to the Serpents now. I'm going to be working with them. Why shouldn't I be allowed to go?"

"I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed..." Dr. Gore sat down on a plastic chair taken from an abandoned hotel in the North End many years ago. He set his bowl down on the matching plastic table and thought carefully before talking again. "All I'm saying is, I'm not sure I trust these guys to treat you right."

"They can't hurt me," I said. "I belong to them now. They're not allowed to hurt me. I have the king's brand on my arm." I pointed to it just above my red ribbon on my right upper arm.

Dr. Gore looked up at Miles for his input. "I've already tried talking to her," Miles said, browsing through a book as thick as a brick. "But Mikkel and Nate have thrown their support behind her to go. I can't talk her out of it now."

Dr. Gore shrugged and let out a sigh. "Well," he said, "I'll be here if you need me. What time are you going?"

I was upset at what he seemed to be implying, but decided to ignore it. "I'm only allowed to be there from 11 to midnight. I think that's when Matthias is going to make a speech. I don't know though. Do you think he'll talk in Gebrochen or English? I probably won't understand what he says if it's in Gebrochen."