Page 56 of The Amber Sunburst

He could just… keep the book closed. Stay ignorant and become the clueless boy from the countryside he’s pretending to be.

But then he thinks about the beach by the castle and his father’s soft laugh cutting through the light haze of sea mist. He thinks about his people, the hundreds he can greet by name on the streets of Nuevo Vatican. He thinks about the fact that home is home, no matter whether he truly belongs there or not.

Kallias puts his own book down, pushes his glasses up to his head, and leans his hand against his chin once minutes have passed and Alexander’s done nothing but stare.

“You should read this before anything else. It’s basically… the rules. For everything here.” His eyes flick down and he taps the title of the book. “It’s just a thought experiment, really. It was never meant to be more; Plato said that himself. I mean, the whole book is this kind of absurd discussion between Plato’s brothers and his mentor, Socrates. It’s framed in a boring, cyclical conversation that never gets anywhere. But, for some reason, whoever created this place based it on this⁠—”

Kallias taps the book cover again, this time more passionately. Has Alexander finally found something he feels more than indifference for?

“—The Doctrine of the Forms, the book that outlines our religious system, is a bastardized version of the philosophical principles in here and The Ideal State is a streamlined version of Plato’s bureaucratic system. And from that, the Republic.” He gestures around them. “And no one here knows that everything they believe in is nothing more than a hypothetical.”

“Kallias, this is…” Alexander starts, motioning wildly to the whole library. “I mean, this is insane. How did you find out about this place? How did you find this?” Alexander yanks the book up from the table and shoves it in his face.

And, okay, maybe he’s putting off opening the book, but he is also genuinely curious. In his hand is a key to toppling the whole governmental and religious apparatus of the Republic, and, for some reason, Kallias has access to it.

“Just read it, idiot,” Kallias shoots back, already looking away. “And someone showed me this place as a gift.”

“A gift?”

“It was my fifteenth birthday.” He does not add anything more, and Alexander doesn’t dare ask.

Instead, he opens the book.

They stay for an hour and a half without talking, then Kallias makes sure Alexander puts the book back—“People would burn you as a witch if they found you with that thing”—before leaving.

Alexander almost wants to remind him about his half of the deal—it feels unfair, how much more he’s getting out of this than Kallias—but he knows Kallias is too smart to have forgotten. He’ll ask soon enough.

Kallias nods a quick goodbye at Alexander’s room, then he continues down the hall to his own a few doors down.

“Night,” Alexander responds.

“Same place tomorrow,” Kallias says, not a question. Then, at his door, “Goodnight, idiot.”

Alexander grins to himself as he tiptoes into his room.

13

OPHELIA

Ophelia hates everything about the Sun Temple now.

She hates the rooftop, where she made goofy faces at her girls from across the dinner circle; she hates the Atrium, where she heard their screams echoing; she hates her bedroom, where she read what very well might be their last words to her.

She tries to be there as little as she possibly can.

And, thankfully, not being there is easier than it used to be. She has Eudoxia now: someone she loves impossibly more with every passing day. Someone to keep her company when her thoughts fall into gloomy reminiscing. Someone to care about her when no one else in the world does.

But being grateful doesn’t change that she is angry. Fuming. Murderous.

And… sad. She’s just so sad.

She shakes the tears out of her eyes before they can form and sets her face into a harsh scowl. She doesn’t drop it, even when she makes eye contact with one of the Priestesses wandering around the dark caves with her.

The four girls she’s been working with this week have all tried to smile at her, engage her in conversation, get her to act anything like she used to, but she can’t bring herself to humor them.

She doesn’t mind being in the caves though, helping to prepare for the first Trial. It’s dark and dank and musty, like it was drilled open recently, and they’re being forced to lug heavy rocks around the tunnels to ready the space, but anything is better than the Temple.

She heaves boulders out of their cart, as instructed, and places them where the Auxiliaries will be most likely to trip over them. She moves efficiently in a calm silence that the other girls clearly do not intend to match.