Porsette stared at Jin'en's right wrist for two seconds. The silver glow beneath his cuff had already faded.
"What did you see?" Jin'en asked.
"Silver." Porsette raised her eyes to him, her gilded pupils pale in the corridor's night lights. "Like big sister's blade light, but different."
"How was it different?"
"Big sister's blade light is cold." Porsette tilted her head, as though searching for the right word. "Your light was... moving. Like water stirring just before it boils."
Jin'en tugged his sleeve tight and said nothing.
The corridor fell silent for a few seconds.
A faint electrical buzz came from a wall lamp near the distant main staircase, almost too quiet to hear.
"You said I couldn't open the lock in the back alley." Porsette suddenly spoke, her voice lower than before. "How did you know it was old?"
"Rust around the keyhole. The key goes in at an angle." Jin'en leaned against the banister, lightly tapping the floor with the toe of his military boot. "You tried it?"
Porsette did not deny it.
Her gaze left Jin'en's face and swept along both sides of the corridor.
The wall lamps used for the night patrol were still lit, but their placement was wrong-walking toward the front entrance from where Porsette stood meant passing three lamps.
The third lamp was at the corner and did not illuminate the back-alley door.
"You went around the third lamp," Jin'en said.
Porsette turned back to look at him.
"You even counted those."
"I count the corridor lamps when I have nothing to do," Jin'en said. "Twelve on each floor, three broken. Different ones are broken on each floor."
Porsette stared at him for two beats, and the corner of her mouth moved.
The curve was slight, nothing like Broken Rainbow's upturned smile. It was more like confirmation-confirmation that the person standing opposite her had indeed noticed what she had noticed.
"You're looking at escape routes too," she said.
"I'm looking at every route."
"Why?"
"Habit."
Porsette asked no further questions.
She gathered the loosened braid back behind her shoulder, smoothing her fingers along it twice, her movements a little brisker than before.
Her cloak's hood was still crooked, the fabric animal ears drooping from the top of her head. She did not straighten it.
"I'm going back to sleep," she said, her voice returning to that soft tone. "Good night, big brother."
The "big brother" sounded very natural.
Far more natural than the deliberately trembling voice she had used in front of Broken Rainbow.
The ending rose slightly, as though she had said it casually, yet also as though she were testing him.
Jin'en did not answer.
Porsette did not wait for an answer either.
She turned and took two steps toward the other end of the corridor, her bare feet almost soundless on the wooden floor.
After five or six steps, she paused and turned her head.
"Can I come find you again tomorrow?"
"No."
"Why?"
"You're going to the training ground tomorrow during the day," Jin'en said. "Mother has arranged basic footwork training for you."
Porsette's expression did not change.
But Jin'en saw the fingers hanging at her side curl, then relax.
"How do you know?"
"Mother always arranges training within three days of bringing someone back. Daffodil's was on the second day, Broken Rainbow's on the third," Jin'en said. "Tomorrow is your first day."
Porsette tilted her head and looked at him for several seconds.
"You even remember that."
"I have a pretty good memory."
Porsette said nothing more.
She turned back and continued walking, her bare feet leaving faint damp footprints on the wooden floor-the corridor had just been mopped and was still wet.
Jin'en watched her turn into the side corridor, the red of her cloak like a shrunken flame in the dim light before the wall swallowed it.
The corridor fell quiet again.
Jin'en leaned against the banister for a while, then pulled his right hand from his pocket and glanced at it.
Beneath his cuff, the silver markings had gone completely dark. He tugged his sleeve into place, then turned toward his room.
He paused as he passed the courtyard.
The bare tree still stood behind the iron fence, its naked trunk pale beneath the night lights.
What Flora had said during the day circled through his mind-"You can't touch that tree. Mother said so"-and he glanced at the sign on the fence. The lettering was even less distinct than last time, the rust another layer thicker.
Jin'en looked away and returned to his room.
The next morning, footsteps in the corridor woke him.
They were hurried, as though someone were running.
When Jin'en opened his eyes, the sky outside was only half light. Mist from halfway up the mountain seeped through the gap in the curtains, cool against his skin.
As he sat up, he heard a second sound.
"-Stop right there!"
Flora's loud voice carried up from the first floor.
By the time Jin'en opened his door, the corridor was already bustling.
Unica stood at the top of the stairs, one hand on her hip and the other pointing downstairs.
Flora came pounding up the stairs, her twin ponytails flailing wildly, a slipper clutched against her chest.
"She's way too fast-" Flora panted, screeching to a halt in front of Unica. "I chased her for three laps. Three! She wasn't even wearing shoes!"
"Who?" Unica asked.
"The new one! The one in the red cloak!" Flora held up the slipper. "She ran off wearing my slipper! The left one!"
Unica's expression barely changed.
She glanced at Flora's bare left foot, then toward the stairs.
"Where is she?"
"The training ground." Flora pouted. "She ran over to the training ground. I chased her to the entrance but didn't dare go in. Mother is inside."
Unica's brow twitched.
Leaning against his doorframe, Jin'en listened to the exchange and roughly pieced together the scene: Porsette had got up that morning to go to the training ground, swiped one of Flora's slippers from outside her room on the way past, then run off.
Why take a slipper?
Jin'en thought about Porsette walking barefoot on the corridor floor the night before.
"She doesn't have shoes?" he said.
Unica and Flora turned to look at him at the same time.
"She wasn't wearing any when I saw her yesterday." Jin'en leaned against the doorframe, his voice even. "Bare feet beneath her cloak. She walked from the third floor to the first, then back up again."
Flora opened her mouth.
"Then why didn't she ask Mother for a pair?"
"What do you think?" Unica glanced at Flora.
Flora shut her mouth, looked down at her bare left foot, then at the slipper in her hand that had been taken.
"Then... she can wear it, I guess." Flora's voice grew quieter. "But she could at least have told me."
Jin'en said nothing.
He went back into his room to change, put on his coat, then headed downstairs.
Passing the dining room, he glanced toward the training ground-there was no one by the stairs, but the smell of iron sand hung heavier than usual in the air.
Someone was moving inside the training ground.
Jin'en did not head that way.
He turned into the kitchen, where the cook was clearing away the breakfast leftovers.
He took two slices of bread, spread some jam on them, and ate them standing.
After eating, he went to the courtyard.
There were few people in the courtyard at this hour.
The corridors were quiet, with only half the wall lamps lit, leaving the light dim.
The bare tree stood behind the fence, its naked branches reaching toward the ceiling like a flayed hand.
Jin'en stood beside the fence for a while.
He heard footsteps.
Bare feet on wooden flooring, very light, but with an odd rhythm-two running steps, a pause, two running steps, a pause, as though avoiding something.
Jin'en turned.
Porsette came running from the side corridor, the hem of her cloak fluttering with her steps, her hood bouncing behind her head.
She wore a slipper on her left foot, while the toes of her right curled against the floor. She ran like a rabbit with a lame hind leg.
Her steps faltered when she saw Jin'en.
Then she changed direction and ran straight toward him.
Before Jin'en could say anything, Porsette had circled behind him.
She stood behind his back, both hands gripping the rear hem of his trench coat, her whole body huddled between him and the fence.
"Big brother."
"Mm."
"Big sister is looking for me."
Jin'en glanced down at the hand gripping the back of his trench coat. A red fingerless glove, fingertips pinching tight.
"Which big sister?"
"The white-haired one." Porsette's voice came from behind him, muffled. "She said she was going to teach me basic footwork. I don't want to learn."
"Mother arranged it."
"I know." Porsette's voice grew a little quieter. "But I don't want to learn in the training ground. The floor is so hard, and my feet..."
She did not finish.
Jin'en felt a light tug on the back of his trench coat, like some unconscious movement.
Footsteps came from the far end of the corridor.
These were different from Porsette's. The front of the foot landed first, the center of gravity held low, every step steady and quick-that was how Broken Rainbow walked.
"Little Red Riding Hood-" Broken Rainbow's voice drifted from around the corner, lazy and drawn out. "Where are you-?"
Porsette's grip on Jin'en's trench coat tightened another fraction.
Broken Rainbow rounded the corner, her white hair loose, her cargo trousers rolled to mid-calf, her bare feet on the floor.
Her steps slowed for a beat when she saw Jin'en, then she spotted the bundle of red behind him.
"Oh." Broken Rainbow tilted her head. "So this is where you're hiding."
"She doesn't want to go to the training ground," Jin'en said.
"Mother said to."
"She doesn't have shoes."
Broken Rainbow looked down at the bare foot showing beyond Jin'en's trench coat-her right foot, toes curled, a little dust on the instep.
"Flora's slipper." Broken Rainbow's gaze shifted to the slipper on Porsette's left foot, clearly two sizes too large, and the corner of her mouth lifted. "Did you steal it?"
"Borrowed it." Porsette's voice came from behind Jin'en.
"Flora chased you for three laps."
"She can't outrun me."
Broken Rainbow narrowed her eyes.
She took a step forward. Jin'en did not move.
Porsette shrank back behind Jin'en, but did not run.
Broken Rainbow took another step, stopping about an arm's length in front of Jin'en.
She tilted her head at the half of Porsette's face peeking out from behind Jin'en's shoulder, light shifting in her green eyes.
"Found someone to hide behind?" Broken Rainbow said.
Porsette did not answer.
Broken Rainbow looked at her for two seconds, then turned to Jin'en.
"Big brother, are you planning to keep standing in my way?"
"She said she doesn't want to go."
"Mother said she has to."
"Then have Mother come get her herself."
Broken Rainbow's expression froze for a moment.
She stared at Jin'en for several seconds, then pursed her lips and slipped her hands back into her pockets.
"Fine." Her tone suddenly relaxed. "Then I'll go tell Mother our new little sister refuses to practice basic footwork and is hiding behind Mandrake."
She turned and left, her bare feet making little sound on the wooden floor.
After a few steps, she turned her head, her green eyes looking back over her shoulder.
"Little Red Riding Hood."
Porsette shuddered behind Jin'en.
"Give that slipper back to Flora when you're done wearing it," Broken Rainbow said, the curve of her mouth fading a little. "She's been crying all morning."
Broken Rainbow left.
Once the corridor had quieted down, Porsette let go of Jin'en's trench coat.
She took half a step back and looked up at his profile.
"Why did you help me just now?"
"I didn't help you."
"You blocked my sister."
"The corridor was too narrow." Jin'en turned his head to glance at her. "She couldn't get past."
Porsette stared at him for two beats, and the curve of her lips changed.
That smile looked much like the confirming curve from last night, but there was a little something else to it.
"You..." she said, her voice a little softer than before. "You always talk in circles."
Porsette lowered her head, took the oversized slipper off her left foot, and held it in her hand.
She stood barefoot on the wooden floor, curling her toes as if adjusting to its temperature.
Jin'en said, "Go return the slipper."
"And then?"
"Then go to the training grounds," Jin'en said. "Learning basic footwork from Broken Rainbow is easier than learning from Mother. She won't hit you."
Porsette looked up at him.
"How do you know?"
"She can't beat me."
Porsette opened her mouth, then her lips curved slightly. It was a very faint curve, but she was indeed smiling.
"Big brother," she said.
Jin'en said, "Do you actually want to call me your big brother, or are you looking for someone to back you up?"