Ki met them at nightfall. She was examining the four golden loops atop her Caster's staff, her long fingers running along the length of the metal and then prodding at the light blue tips. Her long dark hair fell like silk past her shoulders. She looked up as the three approached; her face was devoid of expression as per usual.

"When did you get that staff?" Tia blurted out, before any salutation was given. Ki looked taken aback.

"I, uh..." She spun the staff along its base, eyeing it. "It was a present from Master Mami when I passed my Level five exams."

"So you are a Quaestor?"

She shook her head.

"Master Mami does not wish me to enrol into the king's Casters, even though I have the prerequisites." She hesitated. "Having said that, I feel I may just enrol myself once I am proficient enough as a Level five. I wish to serve my country."

Her confession reminded Tia of how firm Master Anu had stood when Tia professed her wish to apply for Quaestor once she'd passed Level four. She wondered what the reason was behind both the Masters' decisions to advise against their trainees from entering the elite group. It wasn't as though they were to use the Wind in battle. The only difference Tia could see was that they would wear the same type of medallion and answered directly to the king. Their tasks focused more on Singing and Hearing, passing messages from city to city and Hearing from the nature for natural disasters and weather forecasting. She couldn't see what was so undesirable about the post.

"It is a very pretty staff," she said, not without envy, her eyes shining. Ki shrugged, tucking it close to her side.

Without another word, the trainee swept on her heels and the three raced to follow; her long strides equalled that of Enlil's and Tia half-jogged to keep up. Even at this hour, when the temperature chilled slightly and the air felt easier to breathe, there were still many slaves filling the paved streets. In the partial darkness, the smoke stains on the grey buildings were less discernible and Tia could imagine the thick smoke pumping steadily from the chimneys of the factories were in fact part of the clouds overhead.

The slaves parted ways for the Hume Caster trainee, nodding their heads respectfully before going on their way. Enlil ducked his head, averting their gazes.

Ki led them down a little side-path that went unnoticed to many passers-by, next to the smoke-stained temple of a city hall. There stood a one-storey wooden hut stretching from one end of the back garden to the other. Candle lights flickered inside the windows, which had curtains drawn across them and Tia could make out people's shadows flitting behind. She felt her stomach tightening. This place made her feel uneasy. It smelled of... illness. Tinctures, antiseptics and medicines. It reminded her of the horrid draughts that Master Anu had procured from the local apothecary when she fell ill. The liquid would burn her throat and make her gag and her eyes water.

Master Mami's trainee opened the thin, wooden door, gesturing for them to follow. She closed it quietly and swept the curtains around them, filing them into the foyer. A little gasp escaped from Tia's lips.

Rows upon rows of knitted bamboo mats were laid out along both sides of the rectangular building. Lying on those bamboo mats, wrapped in dressing, were injured slaves. Some of them were sleeping, some of them groaning in pain, others half-conscious. They were being attended to by healers, dressed in their white overalls and face masks. The slaves looked clean and tidy, their wounds neatly bandaged. There were at least fifty slaves lying with injuries. Tia had never seen anything like it.

"What happened to them?"

Ki rolled her eyes. "We are a city of workers and crafters, woodworkers, blacksmiths, carpenters, miners, diggers – you name it. All of these are heavy, physical, dangerous manual jobs. Naturally, there are injuries."

Enlil said nothing, but his pale eyes took in the calmly-lit, peaceful place with a sort of awed silence.

"Are you surprised?" Ki's attention was astute, her dark eyes fixed on the boy. "I am guessing, where you come from slaves that become injured or compromised are immediately replaced. Medical care is expensive, after all; slaves are not."

His silence seemed to only confirm her thoughts.

"Why is it so different here?" Tia said, taking a few tentative steps forward. One of the healers shot her a warning look and glanced pointedly down at her dirty travelling boots, and she halted.

"What you are looking at is the result of Master Mami's influence on the ministers for the past few decades." There was pride in Ki's voice. "Hume used to be like that also. Slave turnover was one of the highest in this city compared to any other. Injuries were common and we simply did not have the facilities for rehabilitation and recovery, so we disposed of them." She swept her arm out around her, her cerulean cloak flapped in the motion. "But now, with Master Mami's efforts, we heal our own. They go back to work as soon as they are deemed fit, and continue to earn. They are not afraid to do dangerous jobs for they know they would receive good healthcare if they become injured. They know to come to us with health concerns. We have healers who have trained in Pathos. We have adequate equipment and resources. So long as Hume remains running the way it is, we are self-sufficient, we have compliant, content slaves who are in good health and we maintain our energy output to Capital."

"Do the people in Capital know of this?" Mommu said. Tia jumped. She had almost forgotten he was there. Ki gazed sideways down at him.

"It matters not what Capital thinks." She hadn't answered the question. "The requirement for Hume to maintain without external influence is that we provide the allocated energy production Capital demands and so long as that quota is fulfilled, we and our ministers maintain primary running of this city." She turned to Enlil. "Now do you see why all of them were so ambivalent about your great plan?"

Enlil was quiet for so long that Tia was convinced he was ignoring all three of them. She could see why the slaves were reluctant to overthrow the government when it seemed that they had been so lenient with the benefits that were offered. It seemed foolish that any of them would risk jeopardising that when they all remembered what it was like to be a slave under the previous style of administration.

Having heard about how the slaves lived only from Enlil's own past, this high level of treatment was astonishing. She could easily have been satisfied there and then that Enlil was mistaken, but his burning anger deep within that surfaced whenever slaves were mentioned could not have been false.

She waited anxiously for his reaction.

"You say they are happy?" he managed at last, in a strangled voice.

"Feel free to ask them yourself," was Ki's indifferent reply.

"But why? Why does it matter to Master Mami how the slaves fare? Windcasters have never truly cared about how the lower class felt."

The look that the older apprentice gave him was almost withering.

"You honestly thought that only slaves cared – no, even more naively, that you are the only one who cared? Believe me, slavery – at the very least the type of slavery practised in other regions – is not easily accepted by many. Master Mami openly objected to it and did it to the best of her abilities. You are grossly misinformed if you believe you are the only one intent on making slave liberation uniform throughout Dernexes. Other Casters, ministers, civilians, and advisors feel the same. Just because it is a sensitive topic not openly discussed by many, does not minimise the significance of it."

"Ki!" One of the healers called out to the trainee. The girl immediately went to his side and was deep in serious conversation, her brow furrowed.

"Please..." came a faint voice. Tia, startled, tried to locate it. Her green eyes fell on one of the injured men, who was holding out a shaking hand with the bandages half-unravelled, revealing blistered, raw-looking skin.

"What is it?" Enlil took a hesitant step toward the patient. He crouched down slowly so that he was at eye level – or would have been, had the man not also been bandaged from the top of his head down to the tip of his nose.

Tia half-hid behind Mommu as she eyed the wounded person, whose body was mostly covered by the wrapping, realising, with a sudden lurch of the stomach, that most of his body was likely covered by the same crusty, burned skin. The man licked his dry lips.

"Please... do not be angry at the Casters." The voice was as dry as sand. "Without them, I would be long dead. I and many others owe our lives to Master Mami and the ministers here."

"But you have witnessed what we – what the slaves go through – in this country," Enlil whispered. His hand also shook as he gripped the edge of the bed. The man lowered his arm, a small smile playing at his lips despite the extent of his damage.

"I have, indeed," he rasped. "I escaped from the outskirts of Westersands; I have been through the poverty, the suffering and the abuse our people suffered. I should not even be alive. Hume took me in rather than send me back when I ran away. They gave me a warm bed, a job, food on the table, clothes on my back... even now, injured in a mine fire and useless for at least several more months, they still decide to keep me. Anywhere else, I would have been put down already. I serve no purpose until I recover. I am nothing more than a parasite to them at this point."

Tia's heart felt so heavy she was sure it would fall out of her chest and through the floor. His matter-of-fact tone was devoid of any resentment or disappointment.

"Why did you run away?" she said. The man coughed: a hollow, forlorn sound.

"My sister's children were close to death... the whole family was starving, so I stole some bread the baker had thrown away. I was seen." He swallowed. The speaking seemed so difficult for him that Tia wanted to stop him, despite her curiosity. "The ministers ordered my arrest. My sister tried to protect me... but she was killed for hindering 'justice'. She was carrying her third child in her womb at the time. Even that did not prevent the brutes." There was a trace of bitterness. Tia couldn't tell his expression beneath all the wrapping.

"And the others?" Her heart felt heavy but she couldn't stop herself.

He shook his head. "I do not know. Dead, most likely. Her husband, also."

"So there is nothing left for you in Westersands." Enlil's voice was deadpan.

"Nothing except certain death. I am lucky that none of the ministers are ever aware of the identity of individual slaves. Once they fail to find me, eventually greater issues arise and I am forgotten."

Tia was suddenly reminded of the friendless, family-less addicts back in Kiramone, whose absence and subsequent death from being harvested would never be noticed.

"There is no need for sympathies; it was many years ago," he said, a gentle smile on his chapped lips. "Do not look so sad."

"You can see me?" Tia was astonished.

"No, but your emotions are very out in the open, my dear. I can feel them. It is a wonderful trait." He paused, licking his dry lips again. He gave another cough. "I am lucky that I am still alive. If those men had not killed my sister and her family, they would have all starved anyway. Nothing will bring them back."

"How can you not be angry with Dernexes?" Enlil burst out, face reddening. "How can you not be angry with the king? Or the Westersands ministers? They killed your sister and her entire family!"

"You are still young," was the calm, quiet reply. "You do not understand that what they did was, to my sister's family and to me, the lesser of two evils. Falling at the blade was much less painful than starving. My only regret was that I did not join them. I was a coward. I fled instead of embracing the inevitable."

"Life is precious," Tia said in a tiny voice, tears threatening to spill. "You are still alive – that is the most important."

"You are a sweet child. Grace be with you, my dear. The city assigned to you when you are a Windcaster will be a blessed one indeed, to have someone as passionate as you."

Tears fell silently onto the ground.

"Perhaps you can change lives as Master Mami had changed ours in Hume. You have a good heart, dear child; never lose sight of that. Do what you feel is right. But please..." The man's voice cracked as he turned to face Enlil again, "I know your pain. We all feel your pain, but Hume is the best thing that has ever happened to us."

Enlil nodded silently as he stood up straight. He left without another word.

"Enlil!" Mommu called, hurrying after him at once.

Tia glanced at the Level five trainee before following. It was evident that Ki had been listening to the whole conversation from across the room. The expression on her long pointed face was almost like... reminiscence?