Those three names in Miguel District

When Broken Rainbow handed him the note, Jin'en had just drawn the black rod back into his palm.

Dark radiance shrank back along the lines of his palm. In less than three seconds, his palm was clean again.

Unica had sent the note. The addresses of those three names in Miguel District were all marked on it: Wu Xun ran an underground pawnshop in the Notik Bridge shopping district; a man surnamed Miao had a used-watch stall beneath Uptown Tower; the third had no name listed, only a code name in the file, "Wastebasket." He rented a cubicle in that row of half-empty office buildings on the east side.

Jin'en scanned it. "Which one is Wastebasket?"

"The last one. He matches up with the one who escaped from the platform in the Old Port District." Broken Rainbow crouched by the stairs, her bare feet on the floor, and looped her braided cord twice around her fingers. "The man on the platform took a bus toward Miguel District. If he was going to Wastebasket, then Wastebasket holds the root of this Prism network."

"Take Porsette to check the first two." Jin'en folded the note and tucked it inside his coat. "I'll handle Wastebasket."

"Mother said Prism would start tracing you once you left the manor." Broken Rainbow did not move.

"I won't take the route you took. I'll go around behind the secondhand market and enter Miguel District from the back," Jin'en said.

"If Prism wants to track my patterns, they first have to know where I am.

"If I go over the back mountain, they won't even be able to guess which district I'm in."

Broken Rainbow watched him for a few seconds, unwound the braided cord from her wrist, then wound it back on. She did not try to stop him again.

"Little Red Riding Hood is coming with me to Notik Bridge. If you're late, I'll wait at the manor until dawn."

"Mm."

The two went their separate ways.

Broken Rainbow took Porsette down the mountain through the front gate. Jin'en waited behind the large rock on the back mountain until the sun slanted west, then climbed out through the scrap heaps behind the secondhand market and circled into eastern Miguel District.

Wastebasket's rented cubicle was on the twelfth floor of an office building.

The entire building was half-empty. Three elevators were out of service, and the fluorescent light in the remaining one flickered badly. It stopped after every chime.

Jin'en skipped the elevator and climbed the fire stairs floor by floor.

Spatial Perception spread out. There were two living signatures in the eastern room on the twelfth floor: one sitting, one moving.

The one moving had steady footsteps and even breathing. He did not seem like an ordinary person.

Jin'en stopped at the fire door and condensed the black rod. Dark radiance hugged his palm as he suppressed his own spatial fluctuations as far as possible.

He knew all too well what a perception type felt like-the person inside was almost certainly the eye Prism had stationed at the end of this network.

If he dared use Spatial Folding to get over there, the entire corridor would explode the next second.

He edged along the wall to the cubicle door.

The door stood ajar. Through the gap, he could see someone behind a desk, sorting through things with his back to the door.

The one who had been moving stood in the corner, holding an iron box.

Jin'en did not knock.

He slipped the tip of the black rod through the gap. Dark radiance spread over the floor, silently reaching the feet of the person in the corner.

Just as that person took a step, a patch of concrete collapsed beneath his feet. His whole body sank, and the iron box slipped from his hands, striking the floor with a dull thud.

The man behind the desk sprang up and reached into a drawer.

Jin'en's rod tip touched the drawer first. Dark radiance sealed its seams shut.

The man's hand stopped halfway in, as though something had bitten down on it. He could not pull it back.

"Wastebasket." Jin'en stood in the doorway.

The man behind the desk froze for two seconds, slowly withdrew his hand, and turned to look at him.

He was around forty, thin, with very cold eyes.

"You came faster than I expected."

"Who figured you out?"

"When the one on the platform escaped, I knew this network was finished." Wastebasket did not retreat.

"But I didn't expect you to come in person. Mandrake, don't you stay inside the manor?"

Jin'en did not answer that.

He walked over, picked up the iron box from the floor, and lifted its lid.

Inside were several stacks of document envelopes, several rolls of negatives, and a thin notebook with a cover worn whitish.

"You're the root of Prism's network in Miguel District."

"I'm not the root," Wastebasket said.

"I'm just a contact. The stuff passes through my hands and gets sent up. I don't know who's above me."

"How do they contact you?"

"I leave it in that underground locker at Notik Bridge. A different one each week. They come collect it."

"Which locker?"

"Behind Wu Xun's pawnshop. Third row by the wall, the top compartment."

Jin'en closed the iron box.

This matched Old Zheng's account-Prism's middlemen all worked the same way. Goods went through lockers, and people never met. "Wu Xun is in the same network as you."

"Yes. Wu Xun collects goods for the higher-ups. The man surnamed Miao handles surveillance."

Jin'en asked nothing more. He tucked the iron box under his arm and backed toward the door.

The person in the corner had already climbed out of the collapsed concrete. He cradled his right wrist and did not dare raise his head.

Wastebasket stood behind the desk, watching Jin'en back out, then suddenly spoke. "Mandrake, that thing on you-"

Jin'en paused.

"What you just used wasn't spatial." Wastebasket stared at the right hand hanging at his side, his gaze intent, as though memorizing something.

"The mark you're hiding is light. But what you released was dark."

Jin'en said nothing. He pushed the door open and left.

Wastebasket's words lodged like a thorn in his back.

At the fire stairs, he glanced back at the door-Wastebasket was still standing in the doorway, watching him without fear, only memorizing.

A perception type. Wastebasket himself was a perception type. He could "smell" ability attributes.

Sooner or later, that thorn would be passed to whoever needed to see it.

Jin'en had descended two floors when his phone vibrated.

It was a single, very short message from Broken Rainbow: "Trouble at Notik Bridge. Little Red Riding Hood is trapped."

Without stopping, Jin'en vaulted straight out through the window on that floor of the fire stairs and landed in the alley behind the office building.

He called back as he ran. Broken Rainbow answered, her voice mixed with wind and the clash of metal.

"Wu Xun was a trap. He and the man surnamed Miao are both in the pawnshop, and there's a perception type guarding the door. Little Red Riding Hood was sealed in the moment she teleported here. She can't teleport out."

"Location."

"Pawnshop's back door. I'm holding them off."

Jin'en hung up and ran toward Notik Bridge.

He did not stay at ground level. Keeping to the shadows on the rooftops, he crossed three streets in several leaps.

When his perception spread over the pawnshop area, the first thing it touched was that "wall"-a perception-type ability user had locked down the space throughout the pawnshop's rear alley, cutting off Porsette's teleportation destinations and leaving her trapped inside.

Broken Rainbow's voice came through the back door, followed by a dull thud, then the sound of a blade scraping sheet metal.

Jin'en did not approach head-on.

He circled onto the roof of the building beside the pawnshop and condensed the black rod. He extended its tip down along the outer wall, and dark radiance seeped through the cracks into the pawnshop.

First, he touched the edge of that "wall." Then he let the devouring force seep through the cracks, like a spoonful of boiling water poured onto ice.

A gap split open in the perception-locked space, and the pressure inside suddenly eased. Porsette's teleportation came alive.

Almost simultaneously, Jin'en heard Porsette opening a door inside the pawnshop-she had not teleported out, but had instead opened the door behind that "wall."

The perception type was putting all his strength into sealing the space, leaving the back of his head wide open.

Broken Rainbow did not waste the opening. Her blade flashed and struck the perception type in the hollow of his shoulder.

The force sealing the doors shattered completely.

Jin'en vaulted off the roof and landed in the rear alley.

The pawnshop's back door stood open. The man surnamed Miao lay across the threshold, clutching an arm broken by the back of a blade, unable to get up.

Broken Rainbow stood inside with her blade pointed down. A cut had split the web of her right hand, and blood ran down the hilt.

Seeing Jin'en enter, she brought the blade across her body and did not step aside.

"You're late."

"Wastebasket's end is wrapped up." Jin'en set the iron box on the floor. "Where's Wu Xun?"

"Inside. The perception type caught him inside too when he sealed the doors. I slashed his shoulder." Broken Rainbow tilted her head. "Little Red Riding Hood is inside."

Jin'en walked in.

The pawnshop was dim, and half a row of shelves had toppled over.

Porsette crouched behind the counter, her cloak covered in dust.

When she saw him enter, her gilded eyes lifted beneath her hood. She said nothing, but her whole body relaxed a little.

"Couldn't teleport out?"

"They sealed every location I'd saved." Porsette's voice was hoarse. "I could only see inside the pawnshop. Outside was all walls."

"The walls are gone now."

Porsette nodded.

Her legs were a little weak when she stood, and she had to brace herself against the counter, but she made no sound.

Jin'en went over and looked through the contents of the iron box.

Sure enough, Wu Xun had another list, more complete than Wastebasket's. It contained three additional names, all in Miguel District.

He gathered everything, and the three withdrew through the rear alley.

Back in the car, Broken Rainbow bandaged the web of her hand in the back seat. Porsette took off her hood and leaned against the front seat's backrest, silently watching the view outside.

"That cut on your hand." Jin'en glanced at Broken Rainbow in the rearview mirror.

"The perception type's knife grazed it." Broken Rainbow wrapped it deftly. "It's not deep."

"Have Unica put some medicine on it when we get back."

"Mm."

The car drove back up the mountainside.

Jin'en parked in the concealed space in the rear courtyard, and the three entered through the hidden door in the side corridor.

Inanna stood outside the study in the corridor, clutching the note Unica had just brought her.

She watched Jin'en enter through the hidden door. Her red eyes showed little change, but the curve of her lips diminished slightly.

"You left the manor."

"I did."

"Prism's network in Miguel District has been cleaned out."

"It's been cleaned out." Jin'en set the iron box on the corridor floor. "The lists are inside."

Inanna did not look at the box.

Her gaze settled on the right hand hanging at Jin'en's side and lingered for two seconds.

"The thing on your hand was exposed."

Jin'en did not deny it.

"Wastebasket is a perception type. He saw me use the dark attribute."

Inanna stood where she was without speaking.

The current in the corridor's wall lamps hummed.

After a long while, she spoke. "You even kept it from me that you'd developed a second ability."

"I didn't keep it from you," Jin'en said.

"It only awakened recently. I hadn't had time to tell you."

"You had time." Inanna's voice leveled out.

"You've trained for so long, yet never thought to tell me.

"On those scales in your heart, you always weigh yourself first, then Red Letter."

Jin'en did not answer.

Inanna took a step into the study, then stopped again.

"You protect Porsette, Broken Rainbow, Daffodil. You've never missed a single time," she said. "Do you protect me?"

Jin'en looked at her.

She stood in the study doorway, her long silver-white hair falling behind her shoulders. The light shone down from overhead, stretching her shadow far behind her.

"Mother." Broken Rainbow spoke from the far end of the corridor, her voice quiet. "He left the manor to save us. He cleaned out Prism's network in Miguel District alone."

Inanna turned to glance at Broken Rainbow, then looked back at Jin'en. Without another word, she turned and entered the study, leaving the door open.

The corridor fell quiet.

Broken Rainbow leaned against the wall and finished her bandage. "She didn't invite you into the study. She's really marked this down this time."

Jin'en picked up the iron box and headed for his room.

Porsette followed for two steps, then stopped. "Big Brother."

"Mm."

"That thorn of Wastebasket seeing your dark attribute will get passed up sooner or later," Porsette said. "Even if Prism is cut off, there are still people above them."

Jin'en stood outside his room and glanced back at her. "I know."

He pushed the door open, went inside, and set the iron box on the desk.

The silver markings on his right wrist lay quiet, and his palm was perfectly clean.

But he knew that thorn had already sunk in. Whether the people above Prism would come tomorrow, he did not know.

What he could do was seal off every place that thorn could reach before dawn tomorrow.

That night, Jin'en did not sleep.

He spread the lists from the iron box across the desk one by one, circled the three new names in red pen, then marked Wu Xun and the lockers and handoff points Wastebasket had mentioned.

Before dawn, he listed every loose end he could sever, wrote it all on a sheet of paper, and tucked it beneath the iron box's lid.

Early the next morning, Unica knocked on his door and said Mother wanted Jin'en at the training ground.

Broken Rainbow and Porsette were already there.

Inanna stood in the middle of the training ground, a knife resting in her hand instead of a teaching pointer.

"Prism's operation has been fully wrapped up," Inanna said. "Starting tomorrow, Porsette won't need to leave the estate as bait anymore. Broken Rainbow won't need to follow her around all day, either."

Broken Rainbow tilted her head and glanced at Jin'en. "Then what will she do?"

"Practice her teleportation," Inanna said.

"You used every coordinate she'd saved. What she needs to practice is the ones she hasn't used.

"With this Prism lead cut off, the next group to come might not be using coordinates as bargaining chips."

Jin'en said nothing.

Inanna looked at him and suddenly said, "Starting tomorrow, you'll train that dark attribute of yours separately. I've cleared a patch of land for you on the back hill."

Jin'en paused. "You're willing to let me train it?"

"Prism's people saw you use it. Before long, Hethereau City will know Mandrake has a second blade." Inanna put the knife away.

"Since you can't hide it, you might as well train it until you can show it in public. Only then can you protect people."

Listening beside them, Broken Rainbow wound the braided cord back around her wrist. The corner of her mouth lifted, but she said nothing.

Jin'en stood where he was, watching Inanna walk toward the stairs.

Halfway there, she stopped again without turning around.

"Jin'en."

"Mm."

"As for the question of whether you'll protect me, you don't have to answer now," Inanna said. "It won't be too late to answer when you're no longer one of Red Letter's people."

She left.

The training ground stayed quiet for a long time.

Broken Rainbow crouched at the edge of the training ground and wound the braided cord around her fingers twice before speaking. "She's telling you to leave."

Jin'en said nothing.

Porsette stood in the corner, her gilded eyes moving between him and the stairway. She said nothing.

Jin'en lowered his head and glanced at his right hand.

The silver markings were quiet.

In his palm, that dark power lay heavy.

Inanna's words were like another thorn, lodged side by side in his back with Wastebasket's.

One said he had been exposed. The other said he should leave.

He clenched his fist and walked toward the wooden post in the middle of the training ground.

The black rod took shape. Its tip pressed against the sheet metal, and dark, flowing light seeped down along the weld. The metal silently caved in as though something had bitten through it.

I can train this.

He thought.

Then I'll train it until I can show it in public, until I can protect people.

That evening, on the cleared patch of land on the back hill, Jin'en went through a full round of training with the black rod.

The dark, flowing light extended and retracted more steadily than before. With the rod's tip pressed against a rock, it could eat away a layer without shattering it or going out of control.

He trained until dusk before stopping.

Porsette crouched beside a rock, watching him, and never left. Only when he put away the rod did she speak. "Big brother, are you practicing this because you plan to intercept the people above Prism by yourself?"

Jin'en drew the black rod back into his palm. "I haven't decided yet."

"If you go," Porsette stood up and adjusted her hood.

"I saved coordinates at Notik Bridge. I saved them last time we wrapped up the operation. Wherever you go, I can open a door behind you."

Jin'en glanced at her.

The girl was once again taking herself apart into something useful and offering it to him, just as she did every time.

"Prism's people won't necessarily come from the other end of the bridge," Jin'en said. "Practice the teleportation you're supposed to first. If I really need you, I won't keep it from you."

Porsette looked at him and said nothing more.

The two walked back to the mansion, one behind the other.

As they passed the junction in the central courtyard, Jin'en glanced at the bare tree.

The fresh scrape on its trunk was still there. The hollow in the crack in its bark was empty; he had already taken the unnumbered badge.

He looked away and entered the side corridor.

Prism's operations in the Bridge District and Miguel District were now fully wrapped up.

But Wastebasket's look when he saw through his dark attribute, and Inanna's words, "when you're no longer one of Red Letter's people," still hung over his head.

He returned to his room, read the sheet of paper beneath the iron box once more, then blew out the lamp and lay down.

Starting tomorrow, Porsette would practice her teleportation, Broken Rainbow would no longer need to follow her, and he would train alone with that black rod.

Once he had trained his dark attribute until he could show it in public, he would look back at those two thorns. Neither would be able to pierce him to death.