Karma kept an eye on the organisers as she thought, careful not to allow any minor changes in posture or expression to go unnoticed. She had several moments of silence, several moments of the Immortals all around her deciding on their own next moves.

After that their attention would turn back to the meeting, and she’d be contending with the full faculties of them all.

To start, she tallied those she could count on being on her side. Balogun had made it apparent where she stood in voting for the investigation of Bob Danielz; the others, however, required some consideration.

Riris was the Sieve’s head healer, and that role stuck far closer to her than merely a single event. She’d lived centuries, and for each year of that long life her magical studies had never once wavered from the path of restoration.

The woman placed far more time into humanitarianism than even most mortals, and Karma had seen her attitude towards the destruction wreaked by Tamaias’s battle. If she was to sway her over to her own side, she’d need to use the citizens of Bermuda as leverage.

Sins was a trickier one. From what Karma could tell she was typical of an Immortal, ambitious and single-minded. She was one of the regional Viceroys serving under Prince Gangorah.

Gangorah Menza was a very powerful man, and his hatred of butchers was well documented. No doubt Sins had meant to curry favour with the man by pushing the organisers into condemning Danielz as the killer.

That showed a particularly short-sighted level of ambition, one tainted by the desire for recognition as much as power. Convincing her to seek credit for the success of the Sieve would be Karma’s best chance.

Lesifarz was perhaps the loose cannon, Karma had no clue what he wanted nor how she could predict it. However Sorafin, as a member of the Jaxif Faction, would surely have similar goals to her in strangling the Unixian Alliance by prolonging the Sieve.

Which left only Zilch, a guaranteed vote in opposition to extending the Sieve. Herself included, Karma had three safe votes in Sorafin and Balogun. That meant she needed only to sway a single one of Sins, Riris or Lesifarz.

A possible goal, but certainly not an easy one. She inhaled sharply, feeling the turn of her mental gears as she sharpened herself to the utmost.

***

Astra smiled and waved as Crow left, hiding her relief through concerted effort. She felt better than she had the night before, that much was undoubtable, but the presence of others was still an exhaustive one.

Of course she was hardly alone in the room, even now. The Gemini was still where she had been for days, resting in her bed and looking thoroughly grumpy.

Astra had snuck several glances at the girl, careful to avoid accidentally making eye contact even when others were present. She wasn’t sure why, perhaps simply because the thought had repeatedly assailed her that the Gemini was stealing no small number of her own looks.

Trying to push her mind elsewhere, Astra carefully shifted herself over and got up from the sofa. She felt herself waver for a moment after standing, but the dizzy spell faded as quickly as it had come.

Her concussion had not been a terrible one, and yet it would ail her for another week. She felt her blood begin to boil at the thought of sitting back due to her injury. That was the worst part of her shakiness by far, each moment she spent struggling to remain upright was another reminder of how useless she was.

“Do you need any help?”

The Gemini’s voice broke the silence of the room so suddenly that Astra took a moment of staring to realise the girl had spoken at all. Feeling her face begin to burn at the cheeks, she hurriedly answered.

“No, thank you. I’m fine, just stood up too quickly, a little bit dizzy is all.”

Quickly turning to hide her face from the girl, she made her way across the room and reached for a book. As she bent down to grasp it, a twinge of pain ran up her side.

Astra’s injuries had, all things considered, been rather light. Nonetheless, even with the use of relics a half-day and night of healing had been less than was necessary to completely remedy them.

Her cracked rib had been unbandaged yesterday, and though she was four-fifths through the process of healing, that very process had slowed to a glacial rate with the expiration of magical aid.

Perhaps she was simply ungrateful to complain. She grit her teeth and moved back to her seat, lying across the sofa and resting her head back as she waited for the pain of her side to die down. Once it had, she was able to raise her arms.

Reading with an injured rib was a surprisingly complicated procedure, and one which had required much trial and error on Astra’s part to perfect. Had she attempted to lie on her back, raising her arms to hold the book before her would have put a dreadful pressure on the point of incidence.

Sitting, too, was not feasible, as remaining upright for too long would bring a swarm of disorientation assailing her head. Eventually, she had learned to rest on one side, keeping her shoulders in such a way as to make her body as flat as she could.

Even so, Astra got no more than two pages into the story before she realised she hadn’t actually taken in a single word. A flash of annoyance overcame her as she immediately recognised the source, and yet when she turned for the upteenth time to reassure herself the Gemini was not, in fact, staring at her, she found she was wrong.

The girl’s incandescent eyes were affixed directly on her, widened ever so slightly with either curiosity or surprise. An expression of neutrality was about her face, though the moment she realised she’d been caught it vanished, her eyes turning away at the same time.

“Sorry,” the girl mumbled, barely visible from the space between them. Astra suddenly felt her face burning. Unsure of what to say she simply spat out an answer.

“It’s okay.”

She had just enough time to wonder whether it made her sound like a bitch when the Gemini spoke again.

“I was just looking at your book, I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”

An attempt to redirect the conversation, and one Astra was incredibly grateful for.

“Oh, are you an avid reader?” She asked, injecting as much genuine interest into her voice as she could. The Gemini shook her head.

“Not at all, which is probably why I haven’t seen it before.”

A smile played at Astra’s lips as she took in the joke, and she suddenly felt compelled to answer the unspoken question.

“It’s called The Vagabond, a story about a highwayman who falls in love with a woman and feigns nobility to earn her hand in marriage.”

The girl’s face blanched at that, and a flood of embarrassment overcame Astra.

“What’s wrong?” She blurted out, far too quick to stop herself. The Gemini shook her head quickly, clearly as embarrassed by her immediate reaction as Astra was.

“Sorry, it’s just… well, people always get it wrong in stories about nobles and such. I suppose I was making an assumption, but I take it the story’s about some true love that they share only between each other?”

Hesitantly, Astra nodded.

“Thought so. It doesn’t really work like that with us, I’m afraid.”

Suddenly, Astra recalled all the stories and anecdotes she’d heard. The seemingly contradictory relations certain figures were said to have had.

“Are…” She trailed off, trying to think how best to form her question. “Are you saying that those special marriages with... more than two people are real?”

The girl didn’t answer immediately, but her look said it all. Astra decided to bite her tongue after that.

The next words came from the Gemini.

“It makes sense, when you think about it.”

Astra hadn’t meant to give her any kind of look, but with how swiftly the girl corrected herself she must have done so accidentally.

“Not the idea I mean, the fact that it came about. Magical talent is hereditary, makes sense people want to… well, maximise how many children powerful mystics are producing.”

There had been many people in Selsis with a similar philosophy. Similar in that they believed in breeding the most advantageous specimens, but different in that they never suggested it be carried any further than cattle farming.

She suddenly felt quite sick.

“I suppose that was a lesson I had to learn the hard way,” she muttered absent-mindedly. The Gemini frowned

“What lesson?”

Realising she’d given away more than she wanted to, but not seeing another way out, Astra faltered only for a moment before elaborating.

“Well, it’s all about talent isn’t it? People talk a lot about hard work, effort and dedication and all that, but at the end of the day it really just comes down to natural ability.”

Not wanting to meet the Gemini’s gaze, to see what kind of expression would reside there, Astra turned to the floor. Several moments passed before the other girl spoke again.

“Where’s this coming from?”

Astra felt a sudden rush of anger at the Gemini. How could she not know? How in the world could it not be obvious? All the talent in the world and she missed something like that?

“It’s coming from my fight, you fucking idiot.”

The silver-haired girl jumped slightly at Astra’s voice, the bitterness so sudden and strong that it shocked even herself. The Gemini’s surprise vanished an instant later, anger rushing in to fill the vacuum.

“I was asking a question, you don’t need to bite my head off.”

Every instinct Astra had told her to argue, her thoughts shot back to all that time she and the Gemini had spent hurling barbs at one another, but after a second she realised the girl was right.

“... I’m sorry,” she managed, finding the words requiring no small amount of coaxing to leave her lips.

“Alright,” the girl said primly. She hesitated before continuing. “I saw that fight, and… well, I understand where you’re coming from. I can’t imagine being overwhelmed like that.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet you can’t.” Astra muttered, realising what she’d said only after the words had already left her mouth. The Gemini’s eyes hardened at them.

“Alright,” she snapped. “I was trying to extend an olive branch, since you used your own credits for my treatment and I can understand where you’re coming from, but if you’re going to be like that-”

“Like what?” Astra interrupted. “Not you? Weak? Like everyone else on Mirandis? If you want to extend an olive branch then don’t pretend that you know the first thing about what it’s like to be anyone else.”

“Like you’re holding your loss against everyone who’s stronger than you, rather than the one who actually beat you.”

Astra didn’t have a response to that, and the Gemini spoke again in the time she spent thinking for one.

“I was going to be sympathetic, but really if you’re only just realising that some people are better at different things than others then you’ve just spent your entire life deluding yourself.”

“It’s not just different things though,” she shot back. “It’s the one thing that determines practically every avenue about someone’s life, the thing I was always best at.”

The Gemini arched an eyebrow.

“And did you become best at it after working harder and longer than everyone else, or were you just always that way?”

Dropping her gaze, Astra fell silent. The Gemini continued.

“Instead of complaining about only being one in a billion or however rare your talent is, why don’t you try being thankful that you got off so lightly. You lost consciousness after the last strike, if that Amelia girl had stomped one more time she’d have burst your head like a grape.”

The mental image sent a shiver down Astra’s spine, but it didn’t distract from the Gemini’s words.

“It’s easy to say something like that from the top of the world.”

A flicker of annoyance ignited across the girl’s face.

“It’s easier to take offence from half a step below.”

Astra stared at her, and the Gemini stared back. Somehow, a kind of mutual agreement seemed to pass between them to drop the topic, and so she moved on to something else.

“What’s it like, anyway. Being a noble I mean. Well, being everything you are.”

“Did you mean to ask what it’s like to be tutored by the Princess of Olympus?”

A grin split Astra’s lips.

“That too. I only spoke to her for a bit, but… well she was everything I expected, and more.”

The Gemini sighed, though the slight smile at the corner of her mouth let Astra know it was light hearted.

“I suppose it’s hard to describe her. She’s headstrong, focused, doesn’t miss anything and seems to expect everyone else to be just as sharp.”

Astra found herself frowning.

“That doesn’t sound like her at all, from our meeting at least.”

“Hm? Oh, I suppose not. She can take a while to come out of her shell, you can tell she likes someone because she’ll become increasingly less friendly.”

“She becomes less friendly the more she likes someone? Why?”

The Gemini shrugged.

“I think she’s just funny like that. Oh, but don’t worry, she doesn’t like anyone at first. I’m sure she’d warm up to you if you spoke more.”

Astra found herself crossing her arms.

“I wasn’t worried,” she replied. The silver-haired girl arched a condescending eyebrow at her.

“Really? Because you seemed like you were going into shock at the very thought.”

“Oh shut up, I admire her because she’s one of the few famous prodigies who doesn’t just sit around and show off their magic. I’m not in love with her or anything.”

The Gemini pulled an irritating face, and Astra almost felt the urge to argue the point further. Instead she simply lay back, picking up her book, which had fallen from the couch, before beginning to read once more.

Though she tried very much to fully invest herself back into the story, a stray thought simply wouldn’t stop eating away at her.

Had the Gemini simply been exaggerating when she’d said Astra was one in a billion?