Even while digging and hauling tubing around and helping Yorune stretch a long, oily panel of cloth like a fence halfway across the basin they'd created, Lio didn't understand what was happening. But Yorune was a cheerful and encouraging taskmaster, and for once, almost no one complained as they worked. And then the back-aching preparations were finished, and all that was left to do was test it.

Yorune stood in the shallows, both hands pressed to her chest. Duhar whooped as the Swordfish skipped over the lake, towing the submerged extractor behind it. The tubing that Rosareen and Onfenka had attached stretched like a single pale tendril from the extractor back to the basin.

The top of the extractor began to spin, making a miniature whirlpool in the green coated lake. A minute later, Lio heard a sputtering, slurping sound behind him, and turned just in time to watch the tubing vomit up a mound of green sludge. It oozed down into the containment basin as more of it bulged from the rudimentary piping.

"Yorune!" Lio shouted, trying to jump in the infernal waders. "It's working!"

And then it was really working. Yorune, sister goddesses bless her, thought to put them in shifts so everyone got a bit of a break from shoveling the never-ending morass of featherweed from the containment basin into the dumpster. Hands cramped from his turn with a shovel, he waded into the lake to help sweep featherweed toward the current of the extractor.

Teres and Ravi were near the bank scooping the plant from the surface of the brackish water, and Lio splashed toward them. The gunk at the bottom of the lake dragged at his steps as he carved a path through the featherweed, close enough to hear their conversation.

"I used to be big into hand to hand arts." Teres used a net to push the waterweed out of the shallows. "When I was little, I begged my father to take me to a training ring."

"Did you ever learn any of the disciplines?" Ravi asked, moving to stand parallel with her.

Teres did not lift her gaze from the water. "Nah, couldn't really afford training. I still like watching the competitive bouts, though. Sehet Rama is the coolest." She spotted him drifting closer and lifted her voice, teasing. "Isn't that right, Lio?"

"So true." Lio nodded slowly, searching for a safe lie. "He's astounding." Could be astoundingly good or bad.

Unfortunately, Teres burst out laughing and Ravi grinned. He'd flubbed his attempt to sound knowledgeable about anything to do with elite combat competitions. Shocking. "What?" Lio asked, glancing between them.

"Sehet Rama is a fighting discipline, not a person," the com said.

"Well, yes," he lifted his chin in Ravi's direction, looking down his nose. "I was about to clarify that when you interrupted me." His heart expanded when Ravi smiled at him. It was the way he'd smiled when Lio had first managed to make him laugh, fond and sweet and a bit bewildered. Suddenly he wanted to swoon into the lake.

"Teres," Ravi began, "have you ever taken a physical assessment for an Enforcer unit?"

She shook her head.

"Any Enforcer careers come up on your pathways assessment?"

Lio darted a glance at her. Teres bent close to the featherweed and made a noncommittal sound. He understood her trepidation, but for all the talks they'd had, they still had not produced a plan for her future. If she would share her dilemma, Ravi would know what to do. Lio danced a little closer and prodded her in the calf with the net.

"Ow, Lio, what the—"

"Just tell him," he muttered. "He'll help."

Teres pressed her lips together, and then peered back at Ravi, who was watching them carefully. "The thing is, Com, I...I didn't take the test."

Ravi's eyebrows shifted marginally higher, but he didn't look angry. Just as he'd reacted to Lio's belief that a lightship was out here somewhere. Surprise without judgment. "Why not?" he asked.

"It takes me a while to get through assessments. The words are work. And with the fucked up scores I've already got and no resume, it just isn't worth it." Listlessly, she pushed the carpet of featherweed away.

"If you could get training to take a physical assessment for an Enforcer unit, would you be interested in that?"

"Is that possible?" She stopped with the net in midair. "Can you train me?"

Ravi's eyes narrowed, considering. He spoke slowly, as if turning over an idea. "I can absolutely teach you the basics. Of course, training and passing an assessment in a specific discipline like Sehet Rama would take longer. But worth it if we want to position you for an elite unit."

"You know Sehet Rama?"

"Yeah, he's a great guy."

Teres' laughter was thunderous. Lio crossed his arms and jutted a hip, but his glare melted when Ravi's twinkling smile landed on him again.

"In all seriousness," Ravi continued, "I'm not the best with Sehet Rama, but I can get you started. And then maybe we turn you over to someone who really knows that shit." He nodded back toward the banks. "Orvaska has the highest scores of any recruit I've ever seen."

Lio swiveled around to stare at the Vashyan recruit, who looked as though he were in the middle of yet another argument with Aziri. Perhaps someone should warn Aziri that Orvaska could apparently follow through on his decapitation threats.

Ravi sloshed further into the lake, hashing through more detailed plans for training. Teres gripped Lio's wrist and leaned toward him before he could follow. "Alright, Lio, I was playing before, but now I mean it. Don't mess with this one." She patted his cheek with a lake-water drenched hand and jogged after Ravi.

Lio watched his friend catch up to the com, barraging him with questions about Enforcer units. Ravi was extraordinary, and the rest of the crew was waking up to that fact. It was a relief to have Teres hopeful again. If he ran after them now, he could laugh with his friend and perhaps steal more smiles from Ravi and revel in the comfort of their plans and their presence. He swallowed and trailed his empty net through the water. Then he stumbled back toward the nearest bank and let them go.

The hours whisked by, inexorable as the spinning extractor. They wolfed down food in shifts, and plunged deeper into the lake to get at new sheets of featherweed. During Lio's fourth turn in the pit shoveling, he clenched his teeth and tossed up a shovelful without looking. It came back down all over him, showering him in what felt like mealy green sand. He dropped the shovel and swiped the grit out of his face. When he looked up to see if he'd missed the dumpster, he saw a great green pile looming above the edge of the container.

Onfenka noticed it just after him. She stopped shoveling and pursed her lips. "So. It is full."

"That means we're done!" Rosareen shrieked. She flung her shovel down and dashed toward the lake, yelling for Yorune and the rest of the crew at the top of her lungs.

Duhar was the last to make it in, dragging the heroic cyclone extractor behind him. The crew clustered close while Yorune mopped at her eyes and sent a missive to their host. When the old man reappeared, he looked more annoyed than when he'd first seen them.

"Name of the Little, it's almost dusk! Most crews have the sense to give up earlier—"

"We did it." Yorune beamed. Lio was sure that no one had ever gestured with so much pride at a dumpster brimming with dried weeds before. And Goddess help him, he was smiling so hard it hurt.

The old man swung around, stared at the dumpster and then looked back at her in open amazement. "Been six years that I've hosted this task, and I've never handed out the commendation for it."

He transferred the commendation to them right there, setting off a chorus of alerts among the crewmembers who had holowatches. They finally got him to leave after he offered them all several garden fertilizer coupons and Yorune a job, and then they were left standing in their slimy waders, green spots all over them, grinning wildly at each other.

Jossen cleared his throat. "Well. I'll be honest, I didn't think this crew would ever pull together the way you all have in the past two weeks." He shifted to Yorune, standing near him. "And Yorune, that thing you made was...it was damn spectacular. I don't know how you came up with that, but I do know we all owe this commendation to you. Good job."

Lio gaped at whomever had replaced their perpetually displeased subal. Yorune looked happy enough to burst, and across the circle Aziri gave Jossen a tiny, approving tip of his chin. There had to be something in that lake water.

"Do we go home?" Onfenka asked.

Ravi's nod set off another round of cheering, and then Yorune lifted her hand, one finger raised. "Actually, since it's almost dusk and we'll be walking back in the dark anyway, could we possibly stay a bit? There's a weather anomaly on this lake that I've been dying to see."

A beat of silence, and Lio imagined that everyone was thinking of showers and warm beds and no more shovels. He cleared his throat. "Since Yorune just got Opalina our second commendation, I think the least we can do is stay. As a team." He tried not to look at Ravi.

"Yes," Orvaska said, at the same time as Aziri said, "I agree." They gave each other a startled glance. That decided, the crew scattered along the shore to pack the supplies back into the cart and eat what remained of their food.

Lio put away his shovel, stripped out of his waders, and climbed to a rocky perch that afforded a good view of the lake. Duhar was frothing around on the Swordfish, showing off with ridiculous spins that splattered Yorune and Onfenka, who were for some reason back in the disgusting lake.

It was not at all as impressive as the crystal-blue lake his grandmother owned in the southern Galia region, or the pounding ocean surf that roared along the private beaches where he'd spent childhood vacations. The lake was full of weeds, the surroundings were all mud and rock, and yet somehow, it was so much better than all of the things he'd had before. Like everything else about Opalina, he couldn't take it with him.

A noise over the rocks made him look up to see Ravi picking his way toward him. The com selected a rock a good arm's length away and sat. Lio wanted to stare at him, or crawl off the rock and over into his embrace and curl up there. Goddess, he knew better than to get so attached. But it was impossible to get away from Ravi, and if he couldn't get away, all he could do was keep looking, keep seeing how good and caring and right he was.

"I've learned that you're only silent this long if you're pissed or asleep, Lio."

He let out a hollow laugh. "Neither, this time. Just thinking."

"About?"

"What you said to Teres. I don't know how you do that, connect all the dots between people. Figure out how they can help each other." He pulled one knee up and rested his chin on it. "You've got Yorune leading us like the world's most cheerful archcom, Aziri believing he's Jossen's life-coach, Orvaska training Teres...it's quite the skill."

Ravi shrugged. "I've done this a while. You figure out what people need and how to help them get there."

Lio tipped his head to look at him. "And who figures out what you want?"

He got a swift, sidelong flicker of dark eyes, and then Ravi fixed his gaze on the lake. "What someone needs and what they want aren't the same thing." He leaned back on the stone and let out a long breath. "What I need is to turn this outpost around so I can work my way up in the Enforcer units."

If he were braver, he would ask Ravi what he wanted. But he could only seem to ask that of strangers, men who didn't know him and never saw all of him. He was still pitting what he thought he should say against what he desperately wanted to say when the others started to climb toward them through the thinning light.

They clustered around the rocks, chattering and laughing and needling each other. Lio avoided Teres' beady-eyed look and leaned his elbow on Aziri's shoulder. Everyone was in good spirits, and he didn't need to dampen any of it.

"Yorune." Rosareen's voice was suddenly sharp. "This weather anomaly doesn't involve more rain, does it?" Lio followed her pointing hand out to where a formidable array of clouds tumbled in with alarming speed.

"There may be some rain. And a few breezes," Yorune said. "But we're safe up this far from the lake."

The sky darkened so quickly it was as if a blanket had been thrown over the sun. Wind surged at his back, buffeting him so that he gripped the rock. "Yorune!" he yelled into the sudden nighttime, "This isn't a breeze!"

It was a storm, a terrible storm, trying to rake them off the mountain. Lio huddled close to Aziri and Teres when the rain gusted over them. He leaned close and half-shouted, "At least it's not as frightening as the slot can—"

Thunder drowned him out, followed by a blinding flash of lightning. And then another lightning strike. And then another, illuminating everyone around him in ghostly white. Lio jerked his head up and stared.

Lightning backlit the storm clouds in electric purple and blinding gold. It raced across the sky in long, branching scrawls. Bolt after forked bolt struck the lake, a firestorm of heat and light that illuminated the surrounding mountains in sharp relief. There was so much of it that at one point he was staring at a wall of lightning splintering above the water.

Yorune stood up and let out a whoop. "That's it! Look! Wrath's Mirror!"

The lake had earned its name. Lio laced arms with Teres and Aziri, who reached out for whoever was nearest to them. Arms looped through arms and someone, probably Duhar, started howling into the storm, and Aziri yelled for him to shut up, and they laughed and shouted and screamed back at the thunder. Braced on the mountain, they balanced each other as they stood amid the lightning breaking apart the night.

The lightning left white marks in his vision, but Lio couldn't look away. The air was illuminated, flickering and alive. Lio watched Wrath and her dark lake Mirror, and there was no place else in the world he wanted to be. He had known for half his life that he needed to be in the Fennec region, among the wildness and the promise of adventure and all the long guarded secrets. But perhaps was he really needed was this. A flash of acceptance and belonging, even if it wouldn't last.