Reclamation

"Haven't you heard the story about how, after the Servant moved the Realm, the power-gifted started taking lives on their own authority, not the Nameless's, so the Nameless Powers allowed the People to raise their hands against the Teachers for a time."

"Trail," said Cups severely, "if you're going to teach the apocrypha, do it elsewhere."

"What are you fools doing out there?" The fire's orange light showed Branch in the River's face poking out of the shadow. "Get back in here!" She brandished a leather tent flap.

Cups groaned. "If your sister had any proper feeling," she whispered, "she never would have left her family where Branch could get her claws on them."

Trail's hand smashed across Cups's cheek before she even knew what she was doing. "Unsay that, Empty Cups, or I'll have your guts for breakfast!"

"And I'll have yours, Broken Trail, if you don't get back in here and quiet down!" hissed Branch.

Cups, holding her cheek and wrinkling her forehead, slunk back toward the tent. Reluctantly, Trail gathered her poncho hem around her and followed. She could feel Branch's smug satisfaction like she could feel the wind whipping around her head.

Trail bowed her head and ducked back into the tent, shuffling on her hands and knees until she found a blanket corner that wasn't snatched away when she tugged on it.

See what a good obedient girl I am, she thought as she rolled herself up in the threadbare fabric. I always do as I am told.

And I have been told to find my sister.

Memories of pain chased each other around Aria's skull. The needles that drew the scars down the backs of her hands burned. Cobblestones dug into her knees as she groveled at the city gates. Her jaw ached from keeping her thoughts silent. Childbirth tore her in half.

Gradually, Aria became aware that the pain was more than memory. It burned in her deflated stomach, pounded in her head, throbbed in every joint. Old bile and metallic heat weighed down her tongue.

Other memories. The woman of the Skyman with her strange green eyes and skin that turned red under the light of day. "I've heard the apocrypha, too, you know. I know your family's story. My people are looking for a way to take the Teachers down where they belong. You can help. For your help, you'll lose those hand marks. All you've got to do is bring your stones over the World's Wall and talk to my people."

She is not Shameful Blood. I would know. I would know. Of all people I would know…

They led her up one of the dark canyons, to the threshold of a white building that looked like a gigantic mushroom squatting in the permanent night. The palest, hairiest man she had ever seen had walked up to her. She forced herself to hold her ground.

Dispassionate eyes looked her over. There had been more words and she had agreed to everything unconditionally. A needle bit into her arm, and there had been blackness, until she woke surrounded by bald, babbling children and realized her namestones were gone.

The fear brought by the memory of that waking kept Aria's eyes shut while she sorted out her physical sensations. She lay on her side. Her arms were behind her. Something soft cushioned her right shoulder and her back. The air was as cool and dry as the inside of a Temple. It smelled of nothing at all. She could hear a whirring noise from somewhere underneath her, soft, but constant.

Gentle pressure rested against her ankles and knees. She tried to separate her wrists and couldn't.

Blast him! He's got me tied! The realization overrode the fear and her eyes opened. First, she saw Teacher Hand sitting in front of her. His square chin stuck out a little too far and his black eyes held the glimmer of anger.

A sensation of absence crept into her consciousness.

"Where are my namestones?" she croaked around the sand that seemed to be clogging her throat.

"I have them." Teacher Hand clipped off each word as he spoke it.

Oh thank you, all the Nameless. Aria craned her neck to try to see her surroundings more clearly. Tan walls and a tan floor enclosed them. The place was furnished with big, rounded lumps of stuff, some white, some clear like glass.

"We're hidden from those Bald Children then?" she asked, twisting her head so she could see him better.

Teacher Hand's mouth twitched. "For the moment."

"Where is this?" Aria rolled her eyes to gesture around the room.

"My ship."

"Ship?" She tried to match his accent on the meaningless sound.

"The means by which I went over the World's Wall," he explained through clenched teeth. "What did the Rhudolant Vitae want with you?"

"Why should you care?"

Teacher Hand leaned over her. "It's not a good idea to be snide with me, Notouch." He clenched his fist so the knuckles pointed at her, the first gesture to call down the curse of the Nameless Powers.