Since Class E was having an impromptu party with students from other classes, Natt didn't come to dinner at the Tinkerers', so she didn't have to face Basque's grilling yet.

Symantha and Tink played with their food, while Basque's plate was almost completely untouched. He hadn't messed around and went straight to the final question, "What's your endgame?"

They still hadn't answered.

Basque picked up his fork, stabbed a piece of grilled eggplant, and shoved it into his mouth. His eyes never left their faces. Their eyes didn't meet his.

"Equality," Tink finally said.

"Not a complete government overthrow?"

"No," Symantha answered.

"That's more of what Sophia's after now. After what they did to Natt."

Basque's heart skipped a beat. "What they did to Natt?"

Tink looked away, but Symantha met his eyes. "Her eye. Her falling. All of it was to stop her from becoming an Archduchess."

"But she showed them!" Tink interrupted. "Became the best damn Class E teacher ever."

"A lot of good it did her and those kids."

"Yani-gobblers."

"Who set Natt up?"

"Her former team. They worked with Archduke Willmas, Earl Krill, and Duke Olithan. Olithan took her spot in the dukes. Willmas took the spot into the arches that should have gone to Natt."

Basque clenched his fist under the table. "What did Krill get out of it?"

The married couple looked at each other, then back at Basque. Tink shrugged, and Symantha said, "We don't know. We expected that he would jump into one of the two march spots, but one went to Julvie and the other to a man named Stank."

"Stank? As in the past tense of stink?"

Tink laughed, then choked and coughed on the noodles he was eating. "Don't you go and let him hear that."

Lying his hand flat on the table, Basque looked at the couple. "So, Natt was working to improve things for the commoners, and a faction of people colluded to make her fall and remove her from any sort of power?"

"Well, I'da guessed that they were trying to feed her to some Yani, but she was just too stubborn to die. And then she came rolling up in here, raising commoners too good."

Symantha put her hand on her husband's arm. "It's not quite that simple."

Basque waved a hand. "The simple version is fine. I'm not that interested in the past. All I care about is the future and how your plans will affect my students."

Again, the couple looked at each other. Symantha answered again. "We're out of the revolution/reform business. We just decided not to have kids and support Natt wherever she goes."

Basque nodded. "And Natt?"

Symantha shrugged. "You'll have to ask her that yourself. When she was wasting herself away, she had no plans. Now, with you? She's revived. I have no idea if that revived her dream of an egalitarian society or not."

"I'm not here to start a coup."

"She knows that, but she also knows that you're going to graduate the strongest class of commoners ever."

"So they can live their own lives, not so they can be used as someone's pawn."

"We're all someone's pawn. Even the king is a piece to be moved by someone."

Basque fell silent and resumed eating. He wanted to tell them that his students would grow up to be able to move themselves, but they lived in a society. It was a shitty society, but still one nonetheless.

Complete freedom from being moved and affected by others could only be attained through complete isolation. But then, what sort of existence was that?

None of them spoke for the remainder of the meal. It wasn't an awkward silence, more of a contemplative one. To Basque, it made sense that those opposed to the current Kruamian system gathered to him.

As an outside force, Basque was a disruptor. Those in favor of the status quo, like Krill, would be hostile. Hianbru, and by extension, Basque, represented change. Sophia said that he attracted talented people. He didn't think it had to do with him personally, just what he represented.

He felt for them, but he wasn't here to start, lead, or have any part in a revolution. If any of his students felt like joining them, that was their prerogative, but Basque also refused to allow Sophia or any other force to use his classroom as a recruiting ground.

And Natt. His heart swelled. He'd played it cool when the Tinkerers had told him of Natt's past, but he hadn't wanted to listen, not because he didn't care, but because he cared too much. He thought she was incredible before, but knowing she'd risen to such heights in order to change the world around her, only to be taken down by hidebound traditionalists, enraged him. He'd already memorized the names of all the people who'd conspired against her and didn't want to go further.

"Ahem," Tink cleared his throat. "Looking at those new blueprints you gave me about the kill switches, I can get those all installed by tomorrow."

Basque nodded. "Thanks, Tink. Can you also check to make sure none of the cores have been tampered with, or opened, or inspected?"

"Yeah, that's no problem."

"Thanks for being honest with me."

Symantha paused her dishwashing. "Don't be too hard on Natt."

"I won't."

She nodded. "Night, Biscuit."

"See you both tomorrow." With his goodbye said, Basque left the tinkerer's shed and made his way back to the dorm hall.

The party was still in full spirits when he got back. He could hear the sounds of their revelry before he opened the door to the dorm hall. Even though Basque had given them permission to use the lounges in the mezzanine, they were empty. He figured there was a difference between being allowed to and feeling safe to do something.

Opening the door to the dorm hall, chaos greeted him. Like his students had done on the night after the orientation dinner, they all opened their doors and went from room to room as they pleased.

The sound of a musical instrument came from one of the boys' rooms, and Basque went to see. Jame stood on the table in his audience room, jamming on a guitar. His roommate Kolt bounced on the sofa behind him, screaming a song, and Taraia was whipping her hair around.

A couple of other girls bobbed along with the song, but none of them had Taraia's enthusiasm. Not familiar with Kruamian music, Basque didn't know if it was an original song Jame and Kolt made together, or if it was a popular song known by the others.

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"Yani-killing machine! Yani-killing machine!" Kolt scream-sang.

"We're going to be a~!" Jame came in. Jame's soft voice contrasted and complemented Kolt's harsh vocalization, creating an interesting harmonization.

"Yani-killing machine! Yani-killing machine!"

"Ger~e~net-Shr~."

"Basque! Basque!

"Ger~e~net-Shr~."

"Basque! Basque!"

It wasn't until Basque started laughing that the students noticed his presence.

The two boys' eyes went wide.

"Gerenet-Shr!" Kolt rasped his voice as he sang.

"We didn't mean—"

Basque waved his hand. "No, I liked it. I'd love to hear it from the top one day."

Both of them blushed.

"Yani, yeah!" Taraia shouted. She held her hand up. "Give it here, Basque!"

Basque looked at her raised hand with a raised eyebrow.

She jerked her hand up twice, and Basque raised his hand in a similar manner. Rearing back, Taraia slapped her hand against his.

"Ow! Yani!" she yelled and shook her hand. "Are you human or a wall? Yani-balls!"

Basque laughed at her, then looked at the two boys. "Don't let me interrupt you. You're both great."

When he left the room, the song picked back up again with the boys singing his name. Continuing down the hall, Basque stuck his head into room 307.

Reianna and Fawna had pushed their furniture up against the walls and had spread a large blanket over the floor. From Class E, Dmi, Cayelyn, Xav, and Jan were in there, as well as Luvina from Harnel's class. Basque was surprised to see Yesenia, Natya, and two other maids also lounging with the students.

Xav sat next to Yesenia, so close that his shoulder brushed against hers anytime either of them moved. Cayelyn lay on the blanket and kicked her legs in the air behind her as she snacked on a cookie from the spread in the middle. Dmi lay on top of Reianna, and Luvina and Fawna were on either side of her. Though he wasn't next to her, Jan's eyes never left Reianna's face.

"Yeah, Belinia, working for a duke is all that. My mom and I had our own place with a separate kitchen and bath at Duke Olithan's."

Basque's blood ran cold at the duke's name. Cayelyn's mother worked for one of Natt's betrayers.

"What about your dad?" the slate blue-haired maid asked.

"Never knew him, but others lived in their own places as families on the estate."

Natya took a cookie from the middle. "But you only know there, right?"

Cayelyn shook her head. "I still have memories from when he was just a marquess. We had two roommates then. They were mean and creepy. I don't know what they did other than follow Mom or stop me from leaving the room. Things got much better when Olithan became a duke."

"Gerenet-Shr!" Reianna said and jumped up. Dmi flopped to the floor.

The rest of the kids followed suit.

Shaking his hands, Basque said, "I'm sorry to interrupt. I just got back and was looking around. You all enjoy your picnic."

When none of them made to sit back down, Basque waved and left them. Cayelyn was connected to someone who'd hurt Natt. He wondered if Natt knew that. He wasn't worried that if she did know that Natt would hold it against Cayelyn. Natt wasn't that sort of person. He made a note in his interface to ask later.

Thinking of Natt, he finally found his lover in Braelyn and Maecy's room. She was officiating a game of slaps being played by four teams: Braelyn and Zophiah, Medow and Emmah, Ryleegh and Eoghwin, and Thoms and Leviah.

They were playing the advanced version, where instead of a letter being called, Natt would say a word or sentence, and they had to find the first letter of the sentence. Ryleegh and Eoghwin had a solid lead.

"Write 'right' with a pen!" Basque called out.

Medow and Eoghwin slapped "R" while Thoms got his hand in under Zophiah's for the "W."

"Thoms!" Basque said.

Leviah did a little dance and grabbed his arm. Thoms turned red.

"Basque-Shr," Natt said.

Braelyn, Emmah, Ryleegh, and Leviah's hands all hit the "B."

"Emmah!" Basque said. She took the card.

"I wasn't—"

Four hands hit the "I."

"Eoghwin!"

"Hold on! Pause!"

The students' hands hovered as both H and P were already taken. Basque laughed. "Looks like you all are having fun. Curfew is in thirty minutes. I'll leave them to you, Natt."

After overhearing Billiam tell Reianna that calling her "Miss Cormick" gave strength to her detractors, Basque decided to never call her that name again. He really wanted to take her with him back to his room. He wanted to talk about what he had learned from the Tinkerers and about Cayelyn. But what he wanted most of all was to take Natt to bed and strip her clothes off.

Natt nodded and went back to the game, and Basque left them to it after taking one last look at the breathtaking Kruamian.

Students darted from room to room, and a new song drifted out of Jame's room, but no one paid Basque any mind. His door was the only one closed in the hallway, and he kept it that way after he went in, but still, the sound of the happy kids playing leaked through it.

The sound rang in his ears, and he smiled. It was the first night since they'd raided the platters from the banquet, and Basqued hoped that it would be a more frequent occurrence.

Heading further into his room, he opened his bathroom door. Since Yesenia was no longer on guard duty, he didn't expect Wendina's corpse to be there and wasn't surprised to find no traces. Warm water filled his bathtub. He glared at it. He didn't feel dirty enough that his need to bathe outweighed the discomfort of knowing a corpse had just been in the room.

He exited into his bedroom and, after putting on a black training suit, Basque waited in his room, listening to the muffled sounds of the happy children. He was proud of his class. Their visitors didn't stand out at all. If he hadn't known the other kids were nobles from other classes, he never would have been able to tell that they weren't his normal class members.

Soon, the sounds faded out as curfew approached. Then his class, yelling as one, "Thank you for coming!" echoed into his room. After that, there was silence.

Basque hoped that Natt would come to his room, but she didn't.

Twenty minutes after his class saw their visitors off, Sophia appeared in his room.

"It's time," she told him.

He nodded and followed her through the servants' door. Yesenia was waiting in the hallway, and she fell in line behind them. When the elevator began moving on its own, Basque jumped.

"Your elevators move without being cranked?" he asked as he looked around the small cage.

"Through the interface, yes," Sophia answered.

Despite still being early, the main servants' corridor was empty as they traveled down it. Basque had been there once before, as he'd insisted on seeing it when moving in. Then, it had been a hive of activity as the servants prepared for the beginning of the school year.

Sophia led them through a series of twists and turns, up elevators and through empty rooms and corridors. Basque didn't think he would be able to find his way back to save his life. Eventually, they exited the building from a door hidden behind a bush on the west wing.

A carriage waited for them. Sophia whistled twice, and a trill came back. She nodded, then waved Basque and Yesenia out from behind the bush, and the three of them got in the carriage. Wendina's body lay inside it.

Yesenia frowned at it.

"I thought you would have been used to it," Sophia said. "You babysat it for hours today."

"Being used to it and not being bothered by it are two different things."

Sophia nodded and looked at Basque. Her head rocked back and forth as the carriage moved. It was a much rougher ride than Billiam's carriage had been.

"I don't think we were seen leaving. Natya will stand guard at your room, making sure the moles don't burrow up tonight," Sophia said.

"Moles?"

"The ones who are not with me; the ones who report to Yasher and Krill."

"You know who they are?"

"Of course I do. Enemies spoonfed the information you want them to have are easier to control."

"How many of yours are serving my students?"

"All of them. I'm insulted you think I'd let such valuable resources be cared for by noble sycophants."

Basque ground his teeth. "My students are not your 'resources.'"

Sophia smiled. "It might be a poor word choice, but it's apt."

"How so?"

"Basque-Shr, you know my goals. I'm sure Sym told you everything. So, let me ask you this: How do you overthrow your oppressors when they are the only thing keeping you safe from death?"

Basque hadn't thought about that part yet. In Hianbru, every citizen was capable of fighting some level of Yani. Here, only the nobility had the skills to do so.

"I want to upheave the system, but if I get rid of the only people who can fight off the Yani in a bloody coup, this country will be wiped out by those creatures before we even get a new government set up. Your students are the keys to my dream."

"If they want to join you, I won't stop them, but I won't let you recruit."

She smiled. "I won't have to."

The carriage rocking came to a stop, but Sophia made no move to get out. She frowned.

"We should be there, but he's not given us the sign yet."

The door flew open, and Sophia jumped back, and her face went white.

"Biscuit. I'm disappointed. How could you go along with such a hair-brained idea?"

Billiam, in all his pastel regalia, stood in the door.

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