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The map on Maren's desk was perfect — and that was the problem. Every border, every contour line, every elevation mark confirmed what her employer needed it to confirm. She had drawn it herself, over three weeks, working from data she now knew had been altered…

There's a word in Mandarin — yuán fèn — that means a fateful coincidence, the invisible thread that pulls two people into each other's orbit. Nadia had always thought it was beautiful. She thought about it now, watching Elias read her manuscript, his pen hovering but never touching the page…

The message took forty-seven minutes to arrive. That was the lag now — twenty-three minutes each way, the speed of light making its unhurried crossing between Earth and the colony. By the time Director Voss read the evacuation order, the decision it described had already been made without her…

In the city of Vareth, names were currency. You could spend one on a favor, lease one for a season, or—if you were desperate enough—sell it entirely, which meant spending the rest of your life as no one. Dael had sold hers at sixteen, bought it back at twenty-three, and now someone was using it again without her permission…