Five years before the present. The year 1319.
In the southern lands that the Omens had not yet killed.
"All right, children!"
The clap of hands came from the canteen of the temple, ringing across the courtyard.
"Ah! I'm starving."
"What is it gonna be todayyy?"
The children went rushing in — all but one.
A girl with hair the color of autumn leaves sat crouched on her heels, watching a cat that was busy surveilling a line of ants.
"Seirrr, let's hurry up, the food's gonna run out."
A small figure tugged at her, trying to pull her to her feet.
"They say Lady Mivelle's making fried things today!"
Suddenly
"Whoa—"
The small figure that had been pulling at the autumn-haired girl lost her balance instead and landed hard on her backside.
"Are you okay? I-I'm sorry."
"It's nothing, Seir. I'm just clumsy."
Sophie brushed the dust off her skirt.
"You don't eat meat, right? Then I'm claiming yours!"
"Sure."
"Hehe, then!"
Sophie extended a hand down toward the crouching girl.
Seir took it, and the two of them walked hand in hand to the canteen.
---
"Can I have a little more, please, Lady Mivelle??"
"Me too, I want moreee."
The graceful figure in the black dress was surrounded on all sides by children.
"That won't do, now," she said. "Special things are reserved for good children who do special things."
She bent down and stroked the heads of the two who had asked.
"Not even a little?"
A girl walked behind and tug hem of her dress.
"Lady Mivelle... would it be all right if I asked for one more? Just one piece would be nice."
"Of course, Serena. Go and ask Sylvia for more — you may have two pieces."
"Ahh, that's not fair!"
The graceful woman laughed, fond and warm.
"Everything must come with an exchange, you see. An equal exchange is what fairness means. Remember that — just as Veranthos taught us. And Serena there has been practicing her work so diligently."
"Yes, ma'am."
The children clustered around the graceful woman drooped, one after another, in disappointment.
Munch. Munch.
"It's nice," Sophie said around a mouthful. "Nice that I've got you to share with me."
She winked.
"Is that so... it's nice, then, that I'm useful to you."
"You're super useful, Seir! My Seir!"
A blush spread across the autumn-haired girl's face.
"Is that so..."
---
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
The clock at the back of the room kept its dull rhythm, the same as always.
The afternoon's lesson was history, all of it.
"In the early eleven-hundreds, the god of the place that would one day be called Orenthel used a foul trick to deceive Lord Veranthos — the god known as the Lord of Justice, the Founder of All Contracts—"
A pause to catch breath.
"—and the father of our Lady Mivelle, a god in his own right. The deceiver hoped to do harm to Lady Mivelle herself. But alas — in the end, Lady Mivelle was forced to choose to seal the uncontrollable Veranthos away within a mysterious scroll, where he has slept ever since."
"This is so boring, Seir. Why do we always have to learn about those awful people?"
"Maybe they weren't all bad," Seir said. "Everything can be looked at more than one way. That's what I think."
Her eyes stayed fixed on the line of ants making their way across the wooden desk.
"Huh."
---
The clock struck four in the evening. Class was over.
"Wanna go kick a ball around, Seth?"
"Sure."
An older girl came up behind the two of them and caught them both by the shoulder from behind.
"You can play. But if the ball goes over the wall of the residential district, Lady Mivelle says you are absolutely not to go out and fetch it. You'll just have to live with losing it."
"Yes, ma'am."
The older girl patted them both on the shoulder and left.
"Sister Sylvia's such a fusspot."
"What could even be out beyond the wall, anyway?"
...that's right. What could be out beyond the wall.
Nothing but a world that was nearly dead, surely.
A pair of round, yellow eyes looked out past the wall, empty.
"What's the matter, Seirrrr?"
The figure of the other girl flopped down to sit beside her.
"It's nothing. I was just thinking about the stories my father used to tell me when I was small."
"I was only about four then, I think... it's been five years already. Those memories are all faded now."
"He used to say that, up in the sky, before the Omens, there were living things that could fly — flying all over the heavens, all the time."
"Whoaaa, I'm so jealous! I wish I could fly too."
"And, Seir — have you ever get to see your father, or your mother after we've been here?"
"My father, he... he's been gone a long time now."
Seir blinked, faster than before. It was how she held an expression back.
"Since not long before I met Lady Mivelle."
"O-Oh.. I'm sorry.. Did I ask something I shouldn't have—" The girl flustered, visibly.
"It's nothing. And what about your mother and father, Sophie?"
"Mine?"
The girl stood up and folded her arms with confidence.
"Lady Mivelle says my daddy and mommy are on the other side of the wall — in the part where all the grown-ups live."
She turned and looked down at Seir.
"And Lady Mivelle says that if I do really good work with the Catalysts, and I turn about twelve, and I do one thing she asks of me — she'll let me see mommy and daddy again. She promised it on Veranthos himself!"
"Is that so.."
"Well, everything has to come with an exchange, after all.."
Seir's eyes remained fixed on the small creatures filing across the ground.
"You don't seem excited at all, Seir."
Sophie bent down to look at the same line of ants Seir was watching.
"Hah... but you really do love these little critters, don't you. Can you actually understand them or something?"
Seir leaned down and whispered.
"Mister ants... could you please line up in a circle for me?"
For a moment the ants did not change their path. Then, one by one, they broke from their straight line — the leader turning, the others following its turn — and drew themselves into a slow, deliberate ring on the wood, head to tail, until the circle closed.
Sophie watched with wide, thrilled eyes.
"You really did it!"
"I don't know..."
The rhythmic clang of pots being struck cut in.
"All right, it's six in the evening. Everyone back to the dormitories, off you go."
"Aw, Brother Sean, can we kick the ball around just five more minutes?"
"Just five minutes, Brother Sean!"
The boys begged, stubborn.
"Rules are rules, everyone. Time to head back."
"Boooo."
"Boooo."
But for all the grumbling, every one of them complied.
---
On the other side of the children's residential wall, in the temple.
The dim, darkened halo above the head of the graceful woman in black flared, suddenly, with light.
The thing took her by surprise in a way she could not quite hide — a pleasure at the unexpected.
"Hmm."
A slow smile spread across Mivelle's face.