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“Nina,” Theo said, “let me get you upst—”

“Off you go, Charmer,” Tess said cuttingly, knocking her shoulder into his arm as she passed. “Surely there’s some other way you can make yourself useful.”

Tess took my elbow, and before I could glance at Theo again, she ushered me through the swinging door. Her arm went around my waist as we ascended the stairs, and I at least had the wherewithal to hide my surprise. “Come on, darlin’,” she motioned, allowing me to lean my full weight against her side.

On the third flight, she cleared her throat, adjusting my arm across her shoulders. “Is it true?” she asked. “You stopped that landslide?”

I tried not to think of the weight of the hill on top of me. “Of course,” I said. “I had to.”

“Hmm,” she said, and nothing more.

In room number fifteen, Tess deposited me gingerly onto the bed, then turned the mismatched knobs over the bath, filling it first with steaming water, then cool. She helped me out of my dirt-encrusted dress. She held my hands as I lowered myself into the water. The scowl it seemed she’d been born with never left her face.

“Tip your head back,” she instructed, then doused my hair with a pitcher. I suppressed a moan at the mercy of it. To feel the grime slipping free of my skin. To luxuriate.

Somewhere in the trenches of my memory, my mother had done as Tess Colson did. She combed fingers through the snarls of my hair. She added scented oil to the water. I closed my eyes, half there in Scurry, half here in Kenton.

“The gas don’t linger too long,” Tess said, perhaps as softly as she was capable of. “The room will stop spinnin’ soon.”

“It’s not the gas,” I replied. “I’ve just overextended myself.”

When Tess didn’t reply, I almost slipped away into sleep. The water lapped at my throat. She washed the mud from my hair. My ears filled with nothing but a gentle rhythmic pulsing.

“I’ve always envied Artisans,” she said suddenly.

It was a curious enough comment for me to lift my eyelids. “Youenvy Artisans?”

“You sound surprised,” Tess smirked. “Don’t all Artisans assume we Crafters envy them?”

I delayed my reply. It seemed important to get it right. “Artisans are arrogant by nature,” I said. “They believe even the sky envies them.”

“You don’t count yourself among ’em?”

“No,” I said simply, chewing over my next words. “I… I know your son has the Alchemist holed up somewhere. And that the Union managed to steal a certain amount of terranium in the South.”

Tess’s eyebrow quirked. “Is there a question in there?”

“Have you never been tempted to take some idium for yourself? Surely Patrick would—”

“I’d never allow him to waste ink on an old woman like me,” she said easily. “There’s not much in reserve. Very little, in fact, and Pat doesn’t trust many people.”

I considered what her words could mean.

Tess tipped warm water over the crown of my head again. “My son said you were there with him at his siphonin’—that you found the idium together.”

I couldn’t quite interpret the intensity in her gaze. “Yes.”

“Only you picked the Artisan ink, eh? And you stayed in the city.”

I frowned. Nodded. I wondered if an insult were to follow. How dare a Crafter girl betray her very blood?

But Tess sighed. “I would’ve done the same, in your shoes. There was a time I would’ve swallowed anything to get me out of this place.” She grimaced, replaced the pitcher to the floor. “You look around Old Kenton now, and you wouldn’t recognize it. But once, it was just soot and misery. I was jealous of the Artisans in their sparklin’ buildings. Jealous of their other finery, too. The dresses and coaches and balls and feasts. Their magic. It all seemed like such a dream, didn’t it? You must’ve imagined the same.”

I nodded but didn’t speak.

“I’ve never been to Belavere City,” she said then. “Never left Kenton, in fact. Girls weren’t allowed to siphon when I was young, only boys, so I cut my hair with shears and tried to muscle my way onto a carriage in my brother’s clothes. Didn’t work, of course. I was thrown out on my arse before I could make it to a seat.”

I laughed at the story despite myself, and Tess grinned. “Was worth a try.” She shrugged. “My best hope after that was to find a good husband. One that wasn’t quick to anger. One that wouldn’t waste away on bad bluff. And even if I was lucky enough to find a good man, it was still likely the mines would take him, like they’d taken my father.”