Kayla rubbed at her eyes. Her eyelids dragged dryly. A headache thrummed behind them, brought upon by too little sleep and too much thinking.

It was long past curfew. Kayla expected to find at least a few trainees sneaking around, but the halls were empty. Her steps echoed in the silence. Kayla felt exposed. Her senses were heightened, heart drumming with adrenaline. She closed her eyes in an attempt to find calm.

Dimitri stared back at her from within the darkness of her own mind, face bruised, eyes paling.

Kayla shook her head. The memory lingered, staining the shadows at her periphery red. She walked faster. The threat was in her mind, inescapable and unconquerable.

A soft, rhythmic sound disturbed the silence. It grew louder as Kayla neared the training hall. Kayla tried the door and found it unlocked. A single lantern burned inside. It illuminated a corner of the room, where a girl had snapped to attention. Haunted eyes turned to Kayla before dropping to the floor.

Kayla walked further inside, toward the circle of light. The girl watched her approach from beneath her lashes. It was the young cadet from Musser's training class, the one who had nearly fractured a wrist during the lesson Kayla had led.

"I did not catch your name yesterday," Kayla said.

"It's Rin, M'am," the girl replied softly.

"How long have you been here, Rin?" Kayla asked.

"Not long," Rin said, too quickly. Kayla raised a brow.

"Just over an hour," the girl amended. Her face gleamed with sweat. Her small body shook minutely, the muscles overused.

Kayla held in a sigh. "Training modules are carefully structured for a reason, cadet."

"I am really sorry," Rin said.

"You will be, when you can't get out of bed tomorrow," Kayla said. "Run through the kata again."

Rin glanced at Kayla with wide eyes. She moved back into position hesitantly, and began the exercise anew when Kayla said nothing to discourage her.

The kata started slowly. Rin's body weaved through the space defined by the practice mat, growing more fluid with every movement. Her arms made gentle arcs through the air. Her legs swept over the floor in low, slow kicks, each punctuated by a soft exhale.

Rin's hands clenched into fists. The dance transformed into a battle suddenly, like a lighting breaking through a cloudy sky. Punches and hip-level kicks came in staggered succession. Haggard breathing filled the silence, disjointed and distressing.

"Enough," Kayla said.

The girl broke form. She bent over and gripped her knees, panting heavily. Sweat slicked her hair to her cheeks.

Kayla caught the girl before she tumbled face-first onto the floor. She guided her down to sit on the mat, legs folded beneath her. Rin whispered her thanks. She fidgeted, her quiet the kind that preceded questions.

"You did well," Kayla said, resigning herself to a conversation she was probably not in mind to hold.

Rin hunched in on herself. "I couldn't keep it up. I can't keep up."

They were no longer talking about the kata. "You were holding your own yesterday," Kayla offered.

"Barely. I need to–" Rin inhaled deeply. The exhale came out shaky. "I just... I have to make service this year."

Kayla let the silence build between them. Rin rocked back and forth – a gentle, unconscious movement meant to self-soothe. "What happens after the exams?" the girl asked at length.

"You will be assigned to teams," Kayla replied.

"We move to the barracks, right?" Rin continued.

"Yes," Kalya confirmed.

Rin hesitated. "I've heard that... that we get to live together," she said at last. "All teams, all ranks."

"With the exception of teams stationed outside the capital," Kayla told her.

Rin looked up sharply. Kayla noted the alarm in the girl's expression with some interest. "Outposts are manned by senior units. Cadet teams serve in the capital until they are deemed experienced enough to join a city-post rotation," Kayla explained.

"Oh. H-how long does that take?" Rin asked.

"Minimum a year, barring extraordinary circumstances," Kayla said.

"Has that happened previously? A team going out early, I mean," the girl fumbled.

"Not often. Individual soldiers are promoted more often than entire teams, but even that is rare. No amount of natural aptitude can make up for field experience. Of course," Kayla added, testing a hunch, "Sparks tend to be pulled through the ranks faster."

Rin stilled. Even her breath died out, like a snuffed candle. "Is that so," she whispered.

The girl's mind buzzed, a niggling presence just beyond the tall walls surrounding Kayla's own inner self. Plucking the reason for her unease would be easy. The barest brush of Kayla's mind to Rin's would avail her of the girl's surface thoughts.

Kayla's stomach lurched with a sudden bout of nausea. She rose to her feet.

"It's much too late. You must rest," she told the girl.

Rin hurried to stand. "Yes. I - I will go. But, um, could I ask you to... that is, would you..."

"I won't tell anyone," Kayla promised.

Rin's relief was visible. The girl smiled, cheeks dimpling.

"Thank you so much, M'am!"

Kayla waved off Rin's gratitude and headed for the door. She paused at the threshold. Rin was busy rolling up the practice mat. The girl's hair glowed gold with the light of the lantern. The image of her smudged in front of Kayla's eyes. Rin's hair ran black, its neat lines crinkling and curving around an angular face.

Kayla squeezed her eyes shut. Rin was staring at her when she opened them again, blonde and pale-cheeked. Kayla swallowed around the hard lump lodged in her throat and turned away.

"Head straight back when you are done here," she called.

The door slammed shut behind her, cutting off Rin's earnest, "Yes, M'am!"

Kayla's shoulders slumped briefly, burdened by pain and exhaustion.

She exited the building. The night was cold, the skies a patchwork of silver-edged clouds. Soft neighs and the smell of horses weighed the air. The stables were near the training halls, which in turn stood between the barracks and half a dozen flat-roofed buildings that made up the administration complex. Most windows were dark. Kayla took in her surroundings, noting and discarding stray shapes and flickers of movement. She bowed her head and strode forward.

Guards patrolled the premises. Their partners were four-legged and uniquely equipped to detect danger in the dark. One such pair emerged from a pool of shadows between two buildings, blocking Kayla's path. The guard raised a hand. The large mastiff at her side growled, more honest in its greeting. Kayla slowed her steps.

"Business in the Tower," Kayla said, the words filling the dwindling space between her and the guard.

"Purpose?" the guard asked flatly.

"Classified," Kayla replied.

The guard's lips thinned. Kayla recognized the woman: a rank three soldier, Numb, capital-bound due to age and injury. They were not officially acquainted, but had seen enough of each other over years spent in shared housing for Kayla to be certain she had been recognized in turn.

"We heard about your sister," the guard said.

Kayla did not allow herself to react in any way. She wondered if the 'we' the woman referred to was the same group of soldiers Musser had been offering as a source of solace not a day ago.

"She was a skilled soldier and a good woman," the guard offered. The sentiment was likely honest, despite the begrudging tone in which the words were delivered. Mika was – had been, Kayla reminded herself – well-liked among the regular troops.

Kayla passed the guard. The dog snapped its teeth, jaws vibrating around a low growl.

"You lost two soldiers that day, didn't you?" the guard called out.

Kayla stilled. She did not turn around.

"Your entire team," the woman continued. "In my time, a Captain would have slit their own throat as an apology for such failure."

Kayla laughed, a sharp peal of sound that set the mastiff barking. The guard was a Numb. Her anger was banked by hate and fear of Sparks; it bit at the back of Kayla's mind with frozen teeth.

Kayla resumed her steps.

The buildings that comprised the administrative complex were mostly residential, the apartments within them allotted to Court bureaucrats. The main hall housed the administrative offices and fed into the Queen's Tower, allowing quick and covert access to the Court.

Guards stood at attention at the building's entrance. Kayla surrendered the two daggers she carried for examination.

"Handing in a report?" one of the guards asked.

Kayla slotted the daggers back in their sheaths; one in her sleeve, the other over her left thigh. "I will need a guide," she said. The usual route to the cells was sealed at night, but there were other ways to reach Dimitri. Kayla did not question her sudden need to see the man. She was following instinct, as any good soldier would do in her place.

The guards exchanged a look. One of the men left his post to confirm the validity of Kayla's request with a superior. His partner studied Kayla, gray eyes narrowed in thought.

"Captain Starr," he said, finally placing her face.

Kayla looked past him. "Not anymore."

The second guard returned after some time, a much younger man in tow. The youth was a Zero through and through, from the unfocused eyes to the flat expression to the eerie way he moved, as if his feet were not quite touching the ground. He offered Kayla his hand – not to shake, but to display the silver oval tattooed into his palm. Kayla nodded in acceptance. The young man turned on his heel and disappeared inside the building, obviously expecting Kayla to follow.

The guards looked after the man, then at Kayla. Their faces were twisted in matching sneers. Kayla kept her own expression blank. Hatred of Zero was common ground for Sparks and Numbs, often used as foundation for camaraderie in mixed teams. Kayla did not care for any of it anymore – not Zero, not her place in the troops, not the curse of a Spark that marked her as defective from birth. Her sister was gone. Her body was broken. The opinion of these two men mattered so very little in comparison.

Kayla stepped inside the building, as silent as her guide.

There were people working on the upper levels. The administrative offices never closed, aides ready to accept messengers from the Tower or soldiers with urgent reports at all hours. The ground floor was empty save for the guards on patrol, however. Kayla was fairly certain most if not all of the uniformed men and women they passed were Zero. Like the Tower, the administration halls were guarded by regular soldiers not too long ago.

The passage connecting the administration hall to the Tower lay underground. It ran parallel to the cells and indeed, fed into them at a crucial juncture. The tunnel split often, the path too narrow to allow more than one man through at a time. Weak light diluted the darkness to heavy gray. It worsened the hazy feeling of disorientation.

Kayla had not expected to be allowed entry so readily. "Am I expected?" she asked, partially to distract herself from the thought of how easy it would be to slide a dagger in her guide's back.

"No," the youth answered.

Kayla's steps faltered. Zero rarely spoke, and never with such obvious confusion in their voice. Kayla suppressed the instinctive urge to exploit this unexpected weakness in Zero's defenses. She could not afford to anger her guide – not when her access to the cells depended on the man's continual cooperation.

They turned a corner. The Zero youth stilled so suddenly Kayla nearly walked into his back.

"No passage," a detached female voice called from the dark.

Kayla looked around her guide. A Zero soldier stood in their path, blocking the entrance to another tunnel. Kayla knew in her bones where it led.

"Captain Starr is allowed access," Kayla's guide said. He did not approach his comrade. Something in the youth's stance told Kayla he was as discomfited by the Zero's presence as Kayla herself.

"No passage," the female Zero repeated. Her face shifted only as much as needed to utter the words.

Kayla's ears rang. The air turned heavy around her, crackling with violent intent that did not originate from Kayla but was in her all the same.

The female Zero cocked her head. Her eyes slipped to Kayla's clenched hand, then down, to her thigh. She had marked both of Kayla's concealed weapons. Kayla was too agitated to be impressed.

A shadow emerged from the tunnel the Zero guarded. Kayla drew the dagger hidden in her sleeve, only to hastily re-sheathe it and bow her head.

"Lady Kiku, my apologies," she began.

"Enough," Lady Kiku interrupted. Her face was ghostly in the dark, her eyes sunken. "03, with me. 014 and Starr, stabilize the prisoner. Now!" she snapped, and Kayla was off and running before the woman was even finished speaking.

Lady Kiku's hands were covered in blood.

The tunnel that led down to the cells appeared without an end, like something out of a nightmare. The path turned steep all at once and Kayla tumbled into a wall, carried by momentum. "Do not," she barked. The Zero youth dropped the hand he had raised to help her find balance.

The door to Dimitri's cell gaped open. Kayla slammed inside, just to reel back. Dimitri lay crumpled against a wall. His arms hung limply above his head, held up by chains. His torso was bandaged around the protruding dagger. The bruises mottling Dimitri's exposed skin were turning green at the edges, healing. The man appeared almost healthy.

His pain carved Kayla's mind hollow.

Kayla staggered forward and fell to her knees at Dimitri's side, jaw clenched tight. She saw what she had not been able to make out from the door: The shivers rippling over Dimitri's skin. The blood drying in his ears.

Physical signs of a botched telepathic invasion.

Kayla reached for Dimitri with a trembling hand. She laid her fingers over his temple, exerting the barest pressure. Dimitri's skin was cold and clammy.

His mind burned.

The defensive barrier around Dimitri's inner self was thin and growing weaker. Kayla did not dare breach it. The fire that raged just beneath was familiar, its bite acidic.

"What did she do to you?" Kayla whispered.

Dimitri's hands clenched in the chains, muscles bulging under the skin. His eyes slit open.

Kayla fell back on her heels. She attempted to take something that does not belong to her, she heard, but not with her ears. The sound seeped through the physical connection between her and Dimitri in shallow vibrations. Like a heartbeat.

It did not belong to Dimitri.

"Who are you?" Kayla demanded.

We have met.

Phantom needles dug into Kayla's fingers, pinning them down to Dimitri's skin. Kayla hissed. The pain was purely in her mind, and all the worse for that. She had no practice bearing this kind of hurt.

"Captain Starr," the Zero youth prompted.

"Stand down," Kayla snapped. She did not dare shift her attention from Dimitri and whoever... whatever was using Dimitri's body as a puppet.

The Zero did not respond. Kayla had her eyes closed to better focus on the threat she had encountered in Dimitri's mind, and could thus not confirm whether the youth was still present or had departed in search of reinforcements. The latter would be highly inconvenient. Kayla's report of her last session with Dimitri lacked certain details regarding the nature of Dimitri's mental defenses. Namely, their being not Dimitri's own. The omission had been an impulsive decision. Kayla still could not quite explain it to herself; she certainly would not be able to do so to the Court.

The imposter laughed. The sound was caught between a growl and a purr; Kayla's mind reshaped the mass of fire in Dimitri's mind as something easier to understand. A giant feline with fur made of licking flames watched her from within the darkness behind her eyelids. One of its paws pinned her to Dimitri, nails dug deep into the flesh of her hand. The other batted at Kayla's own defenses, gauging their strength rather than actively attacking. Kayla was not overly concerned with its actions – the walls surrounding her mind were thick, and the connection between herself and Dimitri was too shallow to allow much damage on either side.

Impressive, the feline purred at last, You will do.

Any response Kayla might have had was silenced by a sudden wave of pain. Kayla swayed. She felt a brief touch against her shoulder, proof that the Zero youth was still with her, before her attention was pulled back into the vortex of Dimitri's mind.

Listen carefully, soldier, the feline said, I will show you how to fix him. If you do as you are told, I might forget the part you played in his misery when the time for retribution comes.

Kayla swallowed. Dimitri's body started shaking again, the skin under her fingers rippling.

Tell me what to do, Kayla bid.

The feline spoke. Kayla listened, and worked, and tried not to think about what she was doing and who she might be helping.