Rose scoffed. “What can you do?”

  “You don’t think the House has secrets?” Rose 003 said. He smiled. “Just ask him,” he said silkily, nodding toward Asa.

  “What would you want in return?” Asa said coolly before Rose could respond.

  Rose 003 smiled wider. “The military used to recruit from the House Initiate Apprentices, oh, once maybe every three years,” he said. “Now it’s every year. I want allies.”

  “Why us?” Asa said at the same time Rose barked, “This doesn’t involve you, Asa.”

  Asa knew he was inserting himself into Rose’s business without asking. The only reason Rose hadn’t left the room yet was because he was too injured and couldn’t leave. But Asa was willing to suffer the consequences.

  Rose 003 looked deeply entertained, as if he was watching a planet-side tennis match. It reminded Asa, unsettlingly, of the Galatea that wasn’t his mother.

  “Why us?” Asa said again, his tone firm.

  “There’s a strange demonic energy around you,” Rose 003 said, narrowing his eyes. “It’s very strong. Can’t you see it?”

  Even humanoids with no power could see demonic energy with positive aura—the kind of demonic energy used for spells, for magical rituals, like when Galatea had cast that spell on Asa and Mouse. But since Asa’s power was restricted, he couldn’t see demonic energy that had negative aura. Whatever Galatea had been able to see when he and Mouse had been in her time-line, he wouldn’t be able to see without full access to his power.

  Rose looked at Asa too with a suspicious look on his face. Asa could tell that he couldn’t see it either. He wondered what kind of training Rose 003 had under-gone to strengthen his power.

  “You’ve been hanging around someone very powerful,” Rose 003 said, his tone almost purring like a cat. “I want to know who that—“

  And then Rose 003 was interrupted by a blur of a kid skidding into the room, leaping into Rose 003’s arms.

  “—Rose, he’s gone!” Sol said. He wore an Novice apprentice uniform, which was mostly white with large accents of red, and he had long hair. Asa had never seen Sol’s hair so long. The Red Seal Syndicate often clipped children’s hair short so it wouldn’t get in the way. “Galatea says you can come now.”

  Asa’s Rose started to smile a little. Asa could tell he didn’t realize it or he would have controlled it quickly. But then another older child entered the room at a slower pace.

  “Sol, you can’t just barge in like that,” Gemma scolded. She wore a Senior apprentice uniform, which was mostly red with large accents of white. It was like taking time-traveling into the past.

  Asa blinked rapidly, unable to believe his eyes. He hadn’t seen Gemma since—since—

  “What if the Head Apprentice was busy or in an important meeting?” Gemma continued.

  “In the infirmary?” Sol 003 said, incredulous. “Well.” He examined Rose with a critical eye. “Maybe if he had to do surgery to remove a hand or something. Maybe.”

  Rose 003 raised his arms, one eyebrow raised, as if to show that of course he still had both hands.

  “Gemma?” Asa’s Rose said hoarsely, staring at her as if he had seen a ghost.

  “Yes?” Gemma said, looking confused. And then her eyes widened, looking back and forth between Rose and Rose 003. “Rose squared?”

  “You’re here,” Rose said, sounding shocked. “In the House.”

  “Yes?” Gemma said, looking Rose 003 with an expression that Asa could still read even after all this time. She thought Asa’s Rose was being super weird, and she wanted further context immediately.

  “Are you—how are you?” Rose said, uncharacteristically stumbling over his words. “Are you well?”

  “Duh,” Sol 003 interjected, rolling his eyes.

  “I’m well,” Gemma said more politely, but she still edged subtly closer to Rose 003.

  Rose hardly seemed to notice that he was freaking her out. He looked at Asa, straight-on, his face absolutely gutted with devastation. Asa couldn’t bear looking at him when he looked like that.

  Asa swallowed hard, turning his gaze to Gemma but avoiding her eyes. “I’m glad you’re well,” he said to Gemma. His throat felt as if it had swelled up three times its normal size, inflamed and aching. It was hard to look at her. But he also couldn’t look away.

  Because here was proof that Rose had been right—that if Rose had been in his place, if Rose had been Head Apprentice for the House, Gemma would have been okay. She would still be alive.

  “Why wouldn’t I be—” Gemma started to say, frowning, and then she stopped. Asa could see her realize a possible explanation as her face fell. Gemma had always been so quick. She had been wasted on the House. She should have been planet-side at the top academy, she should have been showered with opportunities.

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  Rose 003’s facial expression chilled. “It’s odd that you have no doppelganger here,” Rose 003 said to Asa. “According to the medical monitor, our time-lines are close enough that it should be fairly similar.”

  Asa shrugged, a jerky movement.

  “But instead, your presence seems related to the displacement of my doppelganger to the Red Seal Syndicate,” Rose 003 continued. “How interesting.”

  “What do you mean?” Asa said stiffly. “How would I have displaced Rose?”

  “Well,” Rose 003 said slowly. “In all of the proximal time-lines that are nearby, I’m the Head Apprentice.”

  “What are you talking about?” Asa said, rattled. “How would you even know that?”

  “The House has a stake in what happens across the nearby time-lines,” Rose 003 said, as if it were obvious. “How could it not when the military and the Red Seal Syndicate are doing the same thing?”

  “I know that,” Asa snapped. “I’m just saying, how could it be all of the proximal time-lines? How could you even look?”

  “Through my contract with the House, of course,” Rose 003 said, impatient. “If you were the Head Apprentice, wouldn’t you know that?”

  Asa’s face felt frozen in a strange rictus of guilt. Or perhaps it was shame.

  Rose snorted mirthlessly. “Because he never signed a contract with the House,” he said.

  Rose 003 looked genuinely surprised for the first time since Asa had met him. “How could you be Head Apprentice without a contract with the House?”

  “Because his Mother pulled strings,” Rose said, putting a mocking emphasis on the word ‘mother’. Asa’s neck and face went hot with embarrassment, his shoulders hunching closer to his ears. “She used up her own valuable capital just so that Asa wouldn’t have to dirty his hands with a House contract.”

  “Galatea is his mother?” Rose 003 said, his green eyes widening, his face finally losing the deeply practiced skill of nonchalance.

  Asa wasn’t surprised that Rose 003 had been able to put it together—there were only two obvious choices, Madame Katusha or Galatea.

  Rose 003 quickly controlled his expression, but not before Asa saw a shade of something else on his face, before he put that away too. Asa was only able to recognize Rose 003’s longing because he knew his own Rose so well, because he had already had all these conversations with Rose.

  “He does look just like her,” Gemma piped up, from where she had politely burrowed into Rose 003’s side.

  “Should I go get her?” Sol 003 asked Rose 003, tugging at his red sleeve, tucked into Rose 003’s other side. “I think she would want to meet him.”

  “No,” Asa interjected. “We have to get back. There’s no sense on muddying the time-lines even more.”

  Asa’s Rose looked at him with incredulity. Sure, normally Asa would want to meet this Galatea out of curiosity, or potentially for information. Normally Asa wouldn’t care about mixing the time-lines or changing things he shouldn’t. There weren’t strict rules about it anyway. How could there be, when the time-lines themselves were so uncontrollable? When new time-lines were created on a regular basis?

  Rose stood from the bed slowly, not gripping onto anything. The wards had been working the whole time, glowing demonic red, so Asa hoped Rose was healed enough to make the return trip. “We do have to get back,” Rose said reluctantly.

  “Come with me for a moment,” Rose 003 said to Asa’s Rose, his face serious. “Sol, go show Asahel the gardens—the roses are beautiful this time of year.”

  “Hey, that’s gotta be a no-go—” Asa started to protest, but Rose was already following Rose 003 out of the room. “Rose, I don’t think it’s a very smart idea for us to get separated in a different time-line.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Rose said, flipping up a hand behind him in a dismissive wave. Asa watched as both Roses—the same height, the same color hair, but one wearing black and the other wearing red—walked out of the room together. Rose moved much more slowly than he normally would. Gemma followed after them, her hair fluttering behind her.

  “Come on,” Sol 003 chirped, tugging at Asa’s hand. “Let’s go to the gardens.”

  “I already know what the gardens look like,” Asa grumbled. After all, he had lived in the House his whole life—he knew every single corner of it like the back of his hand. But he followed Sol anyway because the alternative was sitting in an empty room, waiting for Rose to return.

  The gardens were located behind the House in case any of the guests or clients wanted to stroll outside. The gardens were enclosed so that the digital star could shine at all time. Guests and clients could pretend they were planet-side, even if they had never been planet-side before. For most of them, it was the closest they would ever come to visiting planet-side. The ceiling of the gardens possessed an artificial blue sky with no clouds.

  But the plants themselves were all real.

  Asa could smell the roses as soon as he stepped foot into the greenhouses. The greenhouses followed the seasons of the planets, and right now it was spring planet-side. Asa touched one of the green leaves, soft and waxy, as Sol 003 led him in a wandering path through the greenhouses. Sol 003 chattered the whole time about what he was going to do when he was grown up.

  “—and then I’m going to join the military and get my very own demon!” Sol said excitedly, as they walked down a narrow path enclosed by jasmine flowers.

  “You’re going to what?” Asa said, moving branches of trees out of his face.

  “When you join the military, they give you a demon so you can be more powerful,” Sol 003 said patiently. “You can get paid more when you’re in the military than working at the House. But the military doesn’t accept just anyone, you gotta have strong magical power—”

  “I know that,” Asa said impatiently. “But why do you want to join the military so bad? They may give you a demon contract, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to deal with the energy drain.”

  “That’s why I’m lucky the House took me as an apprentice,” Sol 003 said brightly. “So I can get the training, and then I’ll be able to handle the drain, and then I’m gonna make a lot of money and I’ll be able to buy Luna whatever she wants!”

  Asa’s heart felt suffused with a terrible sadness at what Sol 003 had said. “Where is Luna now?”

  “She’s here at the House,” Sol said, more solemn than he had before. “She doesn’t have any magic, and she doesn’t like what she’s contracted to do. When I grow up, I’m gonna get her out. That’s why I have to join the military.”

  Asa could see the logic. If an individual amassed enough power and money, they could buy out a contract. Asa rested his hand on Sol 003’s shoulder. “I believe in you,” he said, just to see Sol 003 smile again.

  Asa and Sol had strolled very far into the gardens, which had already been enlarged using a magical ward that folded in extra space. This meant that the gardens could be larger than the actual space they took up. Hardly anyone came this way since it was so far from the House, and only someone who lived at the House would probably even want to be back here.

  Asa stopped abruptly, frowning.

  There was a bench ahead of them, and there were two people sitting there with their backs to Asa and Sol 003. “Is it typical for people to be this far out in the gardens?” Asa said, although he had a sinking sensation when he looked at the smaller figure with long black hair.

  Sol 003 put his hand over his eyes to shade his digital holo visor. “Oh!” he said. “I think it’s Galatea.”