Somewhat unsurprisingly, both Ash and I were in a celebratory mood that evening – so much so that we even splurged on dinner delivery from our favorite Brickston pub. (In other words, we hired one of Cortland’s off-duty runners to jog there, order half a dozen eel pies, and bring them back in a gingham-lined basket. Brickston might be dirt poor, but even the nobility agreed that it had the most authentic Doskvolian eel pies – ones that were almost-maybe-just-about worth getting your hem muddy, your curricle scratched, and your pockets picked.) Bits of flaky pastry drifted down to coat our legs and the carpet as we ate, but Sleipnir happily mopped them up and stood on his hindlegs to wipe down our trousers with his tongue.

Partway through the meal, Faith floated in, tsked cheerfully at our barbarity, and daintily ate her pie on the table with a knife and fork and plate. I licked my fingers one by one just to annoy her.

Absently scratching our dog behind the ears, Ash asked out of nowhere, “Isha, what is your loyalty to Iruvia?”

“It is my homeland,” I reminded him drily. “I do have a fairly strong preference for preventing an Imperial invasion.”

“Good!” he praised, as if he were one of my tutors and I’d just answered a tricky question correctly.

(Which, given my background, wasn’t quite as ludicrous a reaction as it might have been otherwise. At the very least, Mylera would have been shocked by my directness.)

Slouching down comfortably in his chair – part of the new, cushioned set that had replaced the ones he destroyed in his tantrum – Ash remarked, “Well, if I were the Imperium, the first concern I would address is the Iruvian leviathan hunters. How many do you have?”

“Last I heard, nine.” House Ankhayat owned five, and House Ankhuset the other four. Once it had been five each, prior to that mysterious incident that Mylera might or might not have caused and for which she’d been crucified, but leviathan hunters were prohibitively expensive to build. The Ankhusets had not yet marshalled the resources to replace theirs.

Ash’s eyes opened wide with surprise. “That’s not a lot of ships.”

As if Tycheros had any! “We maintain a fleet purely to ensure self-sufficiency,” I retorted. “We’re not exactly trying to set up our own Lockport.”

Ash looked dubious about Iruvian business acumen if that were the case, but he dropped the matter. “Well. Doskvol has the best deep-water port in the Shattered Isles, but obviously that would be off-limits in a war. Could your fleet make it all the way back to one of your own ports without refueling here?”

“Yes, theoretically.” Like all the other leviathan hunters, the Iruvian ships were based in Doskvol, which, in addition to being the largest and best developed deep-water port in the Imperium, also lay closest to the Void Sea where the leviathans lived. Our ships probably carried enough fuel to reach Bright Harbor, but that wasn’t exactly an option at the moment given its occupation by the Imperial Fleet. “Unfortunately, there’s no way to contact the leviathan hunters when they’re at sea.” Houses Ankhayat and Ankhuset were not nearly friendly enough with the demon-hating Hadrakin to hire telepaths for their ships. In fact, I had absolutely no idea how House Anixis had wrangled the services of two Hadrakin assassins. No wonder Sigmund (and Grandfather, and the Patriarch) had been, shall we say, irked when we killed them.

“A communications blackout is problematic,” mused Ash. “Isha, I think we need to speak with my family….”

“About?” I asked sharply. Unless the Slanes’ part-demon heritage allowed them to communicate telepathically through the ghost field, I didn’t see how they could be of any use whatsoever.

Ash very deliberately chose not to react to my tone. “We didn’t leave Tycheros on bad terms,” he pointed out, emphasizing the “we” so subtly that only another Slide would have caught it.

Now it was my turn not to react.

“We came here as merchants. We still have connections there, and no one benefits if Iruvia and Tycheros both lose what limited autonomy they still possess. We’re in the same ship, so to speak, and I think increasing bonds between our homelands will be helpful.”

“You don’t have any Demon Princes, do you?” I inquired suspiciously.

Finally he surrendered to mild annoyance. “No, no, we’re less demonic than you, in fact. All the demons are in Iruvia.”

“How does it feel to be the most demonic person in the room, Isha?” murmured Faith from where she’d curled up sideways in her chair, one leg dangling lazily over an armrest. She’d been so quiet that I’d almost forgotten she was there.

I acted as if she weren’t. “Are you sure there aren’t any demons in Tycheros?”

“We’re all descended from them, but we don’t worship them. And we certainly don’t have Demon Princes running around telling us what to do.”

Doubtfully, I reminded him, “Demons can be very subtle.”

There was an impression of shocked innocence from Grandfather.

“No. We’re not ruled by demons. And that’s all there is to say about that matter.”

Not as far as I was concerned. “You’re positive,” I pushed. “Absolutely, definitely positive.”

With a sigh, Ash elaborated, “Tycheros consists of a loose association of city-states. While it’s possible that we have a few demon worshippers here and there, they’re no more common than in Akoros – ” although given what Faith had revealed about the Church of Ecstasy, that might not be saying much – “and certainly Iruvia wins hands down if we’re competing over the degree of demonic influence.” I must have looked a little mutinous, because he changed the topic. “In any case, Tycheros has a lot to lose if Iruvia falls to the Imperium, so maybe we should see if we can help.”

Somewhat dubiously, I conceded, “I suppose it can’t hurt….” After all, Sigmund was already edging towards some kind of accord with Skovlan, and the more allies for Iruvia, the better.

“Good! Faith, are you in?”

After a loud, sustained yawn that displayed more of the inside of her mouth than any non-barber should have to see, Faith replied silkily, “I already spend my time associating with two demons. Why would I want to hang out with more?”

If you could get a graduate degree in ignoring anti-demon slurs, Ash could have collected one doctorate from every university in the Imperium. He turned back to me as if she hadn’t responded. “I’ll set up a meeting with my mother and sister.”

Despite his best efforts, Ash never did manage to find a time when Tess was free, so he and I conferred with his mother alone. Or, to be more precise, Ash conferred with his mother about Akorosian-Iruvian relations from a business perspective while I listened without saying a word.

At least, until Mistress Slane mentioned casually, “Scuttlebutt in merchant circles is that we’re all trying to divest from Iruvian interests.”

“Really?” I exclaimed, shocked into joining the conversation at last. “It’s gotten that bad?” True, invasion was the watchword of diplomatic and military circles, but I hadn’t realized that even the merchants had gotten wind of the crisis.

From the overly patient look on Mistress Slane’s face, I should have realized that merchants tracked diplomatic and military developments very closely indeed. “Generally when an isle is going to be invaded, it’s hardly a winning place for investment.”

Slowly, Ash said, “That’s true, but we – that is, Tycheros – also stand to lose a lot if Iruvia falls….”

Mistress Slane eyed her son warily. “I feel like you’re leading up to something.”

In a rush, Ash spelled it out for her: “There’s currently a scramble to track down certain Akorosian battle plans, the specifics of which would be very useful. First of all, we might as well profit from this however we can.”

I opened my mouth to protest against war profiteering, but he shot me a Let me handle my mother glare, so I shut it again. Indeed, Mistress Slane’s eyes lit up at the mere potential for profit.

“Secondly,” Ash continued, “Tycheros’ political freedom might be next, which would certainly interfere with our economy.” His mother nodded slowly, digesting the implications of greater Imperial control over Tycherosi internal affairs. “There are quite a few high-ranking Iruvians in Doskvol at the moment, and if we can arrange for them to meet with high-ranking Tycherosi, it could be mutually beneficial.”

“Hmmmmm.” For several long minutes, Mistress Slane stared at the ledgers on her desk. At last she looked back up at her son. “You think we should ally with the Iruvians then. When did you become an idealist, Ash?”

On her tongue, “idealist” sounded about as complimentary as it would coming from an Anixis.

Since his actions damned him anyway, Ash embraced the epithet and explained earnestly, “When I came here and discovered what Akoros does to anyone who defies it. A stronger Imperium is good for no one. Yes, yes, I know we can’t exactly help the Iruvians militarily, but…they’re desperate. Or, they will be.”

“Yes,” she agreed, carefully impassive.

“So if we offered them a safe harbor for their leviathan hunter fleet, we stand to profit – especially if war doesn’t break out.”

Mistress Slane remained silent, but now it was the silence of furious mental calculation.

As if trying to assure her that he wasn’t requesting an insurmountable investment, Ash added, “I’m just hoping that we can build some bridges between the Iruvians and our contacts in Tycheros. After that, whatever happens is up to the political leaders.” He spread his hands, disclaiming responsibility for their decisions.

Slowly and thoughtfully, his mother said, “I’ll see what can be done. You do raise an interesting point – that Iruvia’s semi-autonomy would make them an intriguing trade partner. And truth be told, right now stock prices for any venture involving Iruvia are quite low…. I suppose I do like a bit of a gamble.”

I exhaled quietly, feeling conflicted over a possible alliance between Iruvia and Tycheros.

Ash, on the other hand, sagged in his chair and shot a relieved glance at me. Then he quickly switched topics before his mother could overthink things and change her mind. “You said Tess couldn’t come?”

At that, Mistress Slane looked startled. “Oh. Haven’t you heard?”

Somewhat defensively, he reproved her, “We’ve been very busy.”

She forbore to comment. “Tess couldn’t come because her uncle died, by which I mean Vhetin Kellis’s uncle, Commander Orris. Apparently the Hive is quite abuzz right now. Djera Maha is calling for blood, and Tess is, of course, playing the grieving niece, which is consuming all of her time.”

I processed that information in flash. The second-in-command of the Hive was dead, and not by natural causes, either. Given Hive incursions into the Docks, this was information that the Lampblacks and Red Sashes needed to know immediately. “Do you know what happened?” I asked, leaning forward eagerly. “How did he die?”

“It is extremely mysterious. No one seems to know a thing, except that he is definitely dead.”

“Whose side is the Hive on, anyway?” Ash asked pragmatically.

“Side?” His mother gave him a half-incredulous, half-reproachful stare. “It’s the Hive. It’s one of the premier crime organizations in the city. The only side it’s going to take is that of profit.”

“And an impressive job it does of that too,” Ash agreed. “You’d think the Imperial government would investigate, but it doesn’t seem to care.”

“The Hive is too insignificant for it to bother, really. Besides, half the nobility benefits.” From the doubt in her tone, Mistress Slane was beginning to worry whether her son’s newfound idealism extended to the futile, suicidal, and massively unprofitable cause of stamping out organized crime.

Sounding a little dreamy, Ash reassured her, “I’m just jealous of their lucrative arrangements. By the way, if you happen to come upon the battle plans, or if you happen to know someone who is willing to pay a prolific sum for them – ”

Relieved into levity, she feigned offense. “Are you asking me to fence your stolen goods for you, Ash? I’m a legitimate businesswoman!” Then she smirked, and he chuckled.

We left her office with her promise to send us letters of introduction to her Tycherosian contacts, as well as to keep an ear out for news of the battle plans. While I doubted that the merchant circles would find them before an agent of House Anixis, I certainly wasn’t going to discourage an informant.