Quicksilver

Saeris Faine is stopped by a city guardian who chokes her, demanding to know her personal details and threatening her with incarceration if she does not comply. Saeris gives the guardian a false name and identifies herself as being from the Third Ward, a district whose residents are quarantined. The guardian is shocked, releasing Saeris in a panic about infection with a mysterious plague.

When the guardian drops his metal gauntlet, fearing that touching Saeris infected the valuable metal, she seizes the glove and sprints away. Despite the intense training that guardians undergo, Saeris quickly evades the guardian, who is weighted down by his armor in the hot afternoon. She climbs a sandstone wall to escape despite knowing it could give way at any point. She refuses to abandon the gauntlet even though it inhibits her climb.

As Saeris reaches the top of the wall, quartz in the sandstone begins vibrating. Saeris covers the gauntlet, and the quartz quiets.

Saeris goes to Elroy’s glassblowing workshop, as the quarters where she is squatting with her brother, Hayden, are not secure enough to hide the gauntlet. Elroy refuses to hide it, fearing the consequences if Queen Madra’s soldiers find it. Despite his past aid to rebel groups who sought to overthrow the queen, Elroy is horrified at Saeris’s gall in stealing the gauntlet.