Page 150 of A Drop of Corruption

“Graft trips,” said Malo. “Organic traps, all wound together, each dependent on the next.”

“Correct,” said Thelenai. “It’s quite clever, do you know? There is a time element to it. After several days, certain aspects of it should decay, and then…” She laughed lightly. “How amazing! He was able to predict not only what I would do but also thepreciseamount of time to build into this contraption, to ensure its evil purpose.” Her smile faded. “What a thing I did, in granting such powers to that man. And yet…even he could not predict Dolabra.”

I cast my eye along the pier to our carriage, waiting in the darkness.

“Can you stop it, ma’am?” asked Malo.

“Mm?” said Thelenai. “Why, of course, Signum! I’ve already done so.” She reached behind the crate and produced a long bronze cylinder. “Without the very fertilizer that would make thekani,the diffuser is quite useless.”

Malo and I stared at her, frozen in disbelief.

“It’s…it’s safe, then?” asked Malo in a strangled voice.

“This is the Empire, children,” said Thelenai, “and no reagent is truly safe. But once this is burned and disposed of, yes, all will be safe.”

We both breathed a deep sigh of relief. “Oh, thank Sanctum,” said Malo. “Thank fucking Sanctum, it’s done? It’s truly, finallydone?”

Thelenai smiled sadly. “Done? Not quite. There is one more thing to do.” She removed her helmet, baring her bald, sweat-dappled brow to the night. Then she shut her eyes, taking in a deep breath of the sea air, and said, “Kol—would you walk with me for a moment?”

—

I followed the commander-prifictoto the very end of the pier, where she stood gazing out at the bay. I joined her in staring at the tremendous, shivering green construct of the Shroud, glowing in the fading moonlight.

“What a sight it is, eh?” said Thelenai.

“It is, ma’am,” I said. “First I feared it, but…now I find something beautiful in it.”

“How kind of you to say! I once thought it beautiful, but…now I find it strange to look upon. First, all my life was bent on making it. Then all my life was bent on making it irrelevant. But now, perhaps, I shall succeed…and the Fifth Empire—as some call it—shall unfold.” She sighed. “A pity that I shall not see it.”

“You won’t, ma’am?”

Another high, light laugh. “No. No, of course not.” She turned to me. “So. How do these things commonly go now, Signum Kol?”

“I’m…afraid I don’t comprehend your meaning, ma’am.”

“My arrest, Signum Kol,” she said gently.

I stared at her blankly.

“I now turn myself in,” she said, “you see, for all the wrongs I did in bringing these threats about.”

The waves lapped about us. There, in the distant belly of the horizon, a lance of gray dawn light stabbed through the clouds.

“You mean, ma’am,” I said, “that you wish me to—”

“Did your immunis not tell you?” she asked.

“N-no?”

“I see…She asked me to make my choice days ago, and make it I did. The marrow is now safe. My plans shall succeed. I will win an era of peace and prosperity for the Empire…but I committed great crimes in doing so. I kept the augury a secret and worked mightily to hide it from the Senate of the Sanctum. Because of this choice, dozens are dead, and the entire Empire might have unraveled. I would not wish for any other Apothetikal to follow in my steps, or grow so prideful and careless as I. And…I feel I do not deserve to see the bright future I have made.” She gazed west, toward the High City. “I, perhaps, am more like Pyktis and his father than a true imperial servant. And I should not taint the world to come with my touch.”

She turned back to me, smiling sadly. I stood there, struggling to imagine how to respond. I had never arrested someone of such high office before. The idea felt slightly surreal, especially since all the suffering she’d brought about had been for a very noble purpose.

“But you did so in service to your people,” I said. “You thought tha—”

“No, Kol,” Thelenai said. “I wasnotthinking of my people. My eyes are clear now. I was thinking of myself. To serve is a tremendously humbling thing. How easy it is to mistake glory and fame for duty! But duty is thankless, invisible, forgettable—but oh, so very necessary.” She smiled at me again. “You know that, of course. Long have I heard it said that the Iudex is the most thankless of all imperial services—yet without it, all my labors here would have come to naught.” She stood up straight, sniffed, and smoothed down her robes. “What is one more life to give, for this great pursuit? I have asked it of others. Now I shall do so myself. So. Let us go, Kol. Finish my story for me, so the next one can begin unblemished.”

I listened to the waves crashing about me and watched the shimmering form of the veil in the distance. How great the world seemed in that moment, and yet so small.