Wax gave him a flat stare.
“You can’t convict me on a hunch,” Wayne said, folding his arms. “I know my rights. Marasi’s always quoting them to people once we finish beating them up. I get a trial by my peers, I do.”
“Yes,” Steris said, “but where would we find so many slugs on short notice?”
Wayne spun toward her, then—after just a brief pause—grinned widely. Those two were getting along better these days, which Wax enjoyed seeing. For now, he kept inspecting the spike. What were its properties? Could it be melted? Could it…
He paused, then reached to his back pocket. There, nearly forgotten, was the envelope he’dfound on his desk earlier. He opened it again and slid out the iron earring, a traditional accoutrement of the Pathian religion—and a means of communing with Harmony. Piercing your body with metal was a way to connect to God and give him some measure of influence over you.
He read the note again:You’ll need to make a second, once the proper metal arrives.
Rusts. Why would Harmony tell him to make a second earring, presumably out ofTrell’s metal?
There was no explanation in the envelope, of course. Harmony knew Wax far too well. A mystery was a better way to get his attention than an explanation.
Damn him.
He tucked that envelope away again. “Nice work,” he said to Marasi. “Verynice work.”
“Thank you,” she said. “We should have a chance at some more members of the Set soon. I’m planning a sting.”
She turned toward MeLaan, who was leaning against the wall, arms folded. For someone who spent her life in subterfuge—imitating others and doing missions for God himself—she certainly did like to stand out. Today she had left her cheeks faintly transparent to allow the emerald of her skeleton to show through.
“I could use your help, MeLaan,” Marasi said. “I have a corpse that needs to get up and walk around—just long enough to trick the Set.”
MeLaan grimaced. “I would love to, but… I’ve got athing…”
“We could work around your schedule,” Marasi said.
“That might be hard,” MeLaan said. “Since it’s kind of on another planet…”
“Anotherplanet?” Marasi said.
“Well, maybe between planets?” MeLaan said. “I’m not entirely sure. Harmony wants some of us to strike out, begin exploring, learning about the cosmere. It’s become evident that the cosmere knows aboutus.” She nodded toward the spike pinched between Wax’s fingers.
“What’s it like?” Marasi asked MeLaan, with a certain… hunger in her eyes. “Traveling out there. How… do you even do it?”
“It’s difficult,” she said. “Both to get to the other side—which is an inversion of the real world—and to travel while there. I’ll be leaving soon, I’m afraid, but finding out what’s happening with the Set is a priority for Harmony. I’ll ask him to get you one of us to help on your mission, Marasi.”
Wax glanced at Wayne. MeLaan was leaving. Soon? He’dhave to corner his friend and ask how he felt about that.
At that moment however, Allik burst through the door bearing a tray full of steaming pastries. “Aha!” he said, mask up to show off his grin. “A full room. Who wants cinnamon puffs with hot chocolate for dipping! You are obviously planning to save the world again, with those concerned faces. This is an action that requires much choc, yah?”
Wax smiled, enjoying Allik’s enthusiasm. He’dbounced back from the tragedy of losing so many friends to the Set years ago—tortured for information about airships.People are elastic,Wax thought.We can keep reshaping ourselves. And if we’re not quite the same as before, well, that’s good. It means we can grow.
Allik handed Marasi a mug of hot chocolate—almost comically large—with a wink. She took his hand and smiled, squeezing it. Fouryears of flirting and two years of formal dating, and those two still acted like schoolkids sometimes. Wax knew more about it than he really cared to, because Steris tended to take notes, then ask if she should be acting in equally ridiculous ways.
“There’s one other thing, Wax,” Marasi said. “I took a notebook from the Cycle I killed today. What do you make of this page?”
She handed it over and Wax settled back in his seat, Steris peeking over his shoulder as he read through dated entries in the notebook. “Looks like…” he said. “Annotated shipping records, into Elendel? ‘Box one yard square, stamped with foodstuff labels, inspected four out of six times. Larger crate with warning labels, inspected and quarantined. Crate, two yards across, detained every time…’”
Steris frowned. “It looks like they’re recording what gets inspected when shippedintothe city.”
“Which is odd, right?” Marasi said. “It’s not hard to get shipments into Elendel. Only outgoing shipments are taxed for using our railway stations. That’s the entire problem; the Outer Cities are tired of paying us to ship their goods to one another.”
“Right,” Wax said. “Why is the Set so interested in what they can get into the city?”
“Maybe they’re planning to supply a rebel force inside it?” Steris said.