Page 114 of A Drop of Corruption

“No, but the sketch of it is there, under the paint.” She rested herchin in the palm of her hand. “Regarding the wardens and thenaukari,I personally find the situation reprehensible. But good governance is about choosing theleast badoption. Invading and holding Yarrow, well…is not that. Yet do not despair! There may be options less foul than the ones now presented to us. But as to your own predicament…” She sighed. “You still yearn for the blacks of the Legion, and the sea walls—don’t you? That is where you plan to be, at the end of all this.”

I said nothing.

“Was where we left it not agreeable to you?” she asked. “I told you I’d recommend you to the Legion myself, when the time came.”

I wondered what to say. Yet she had asked me to speak, and speak I would.

“But…I won’t be able to do so,” I said softly. “My father left too many debts, ma’am. And the Legion is far too perilous, you see.”

“Ahh. So—your creditors will call in your debts if they think you risk your life too cavalierly?”

“Yes.”

“Hm.” She sniffed and drummed her knees. “Hm. Would the people who possess all your debts be the Usini Lending Group, Din?”

“Yes,” I said, startled. “How did y—”

“I am aware of them,” she said archly. “Another question, Din—have you been approached here by a representative of the Usini Lending Group? Perhaps one intending to use your stationing to this dangerous canton as an excuse to alter your loans to a ruinous arrangement?”

I hesitated.

“A yes, then. Hmm!” she said. “Fascinating. Now, one final question.” One long finger tapped her cheek. “Back in Talagray…was it a girl? Or a boy, perhaps? I am merely curious, you see.”

I watched her guardedly. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the person you left behind there, of course. For I know you are a sentimental sort, Din. Someone made an impression on you, so much so that you are drawn back to that place. True?”

I swallowed, stung. “There…was a man, yes. But that is not why I wish to serve there and be counted among the Legion.”

“Oh? Then why?”

I sighed and spread my hands. “How can I live knowing that he and thousands like him expose themselves to such danger each day? Why should I be one of the folk they save each year? I wish to save lives in my service, ma’am, and be put to tasks that are much…” I trailed off, unsure what to say.

“More important?” she suggested.

I stayed silent.

She chuckled lowly. “Oh, child…are you not aware you are about to be sent to perhaps thesecondmost dangerous site in the Empire? All because some wretched villain threatens the very foundations of our civilization? Do youtrulyclaim these tasks are so insignificant?”

My face grew hot, and I turned away.

“Oh, no,” she said, sighing. “I do not mean to mock you, Din. For I understand. Justice is not a terriblysatisfyingtask, is it? The Engineer can see a bridge span a river, and marvel at what they made. The Legionnaire can look upon the carcass of a leviathan, and know they’ve saved countless lives. And the Apoth can watch a body mend and heal and change, and smile. But the Iudex…we are not granted such favors.”

She leaned closer to the glass. “This work can never satisfy, Din, for it can never finish. The dead cannot be restored. Vice and bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And the drop of corruption that lies within every society shall always persist. The duty of the Iudex is not to boldly vanquish it but tomanageit. We keep the stain from spreading, yes, but it is never gone. Yet this job is perhaps the most important in all the Iyalets, for without it, well…the Empire would come to look much like Yarrow, where the powerful and the cruel prevail without check. And tell me—doesthatrealm look capable of fighting off a leviathan?”

“No,” I said softly. “But we have the gentry, and many powerful folk in the inner rings. We have our own lords and nobles and kings, don’t we?”

Her pale face shot closer to the glass. “Perhaps! But recall, boy,” she hissed, grinning savagely, “that I traveled to your tiny cantonspecifically to entrap themostpowerful,mostcorrupt gentryclan in all the Empire—and we did it! We broke their backs, and theystayedbroken! And oh, how that deed warms my heart still!”

I fell silent, abashed.

Ana withdrew. All warmth and sympathy was gone from her face now, and when she spoke again, her voice was taut and joyless: “Do you know, Din, that when I first considered you for this job, there was only one manner in which you were deficient. And it was that you weren’thurtenough.”

“Hurt?”

“Yes. For the most passionate Iudex officers are the ones who’ve been harmed, you see. Those who have been wounded once and watched the wicked go unpunished. It puts a fire in them. Doesn’t make themgoodat what they do, necessarily, but it does make them…enthusiastic, let us say. Willing to suffer, and bear burdens others could not.” She licked her teeth. “You are not like this, Dinios Kol. You serve to support your family—a decent, dutiful cause, certainly, but one born of desperation, not pain.”

There was the click and groan of a door in the room beyond, then footsteps, many of them.