The moment Shon stepped foot into the political loyalty test room, he was met with an air of solemnity. Everything here inspired both awe and intimidation.

  Gigantic pillars in the corners propped up a domed ceiling almost three floors high. The half-covered skylights directed beams of sunlight toward the center of the room, like sabers of heaven piercing through the darkness of man. Everywhere else was shrouded in shadows. Not a single window was visible.

  Shon took a seat in the center. In front of him sat three examiners, two Valerian and one Fraxian. Around him, in the shadows, masked observers sat in silence, ready to record his tiniest movements.

  “Candidate, I believe you are familiar with the rules,” said the Valerian examiner in the center. “We will ask you a few questions. All you need to do is to answer truthfully. Lying would result in immediate disqualification.”

  “Please be reminded that a Fraxian Truthsayer will be observing you today,” said the other Valerian examiner.

  Shon looked at the Fraxian examiner. She must be the Truthsayer. Only Fraxians with the finest thermal sense could become a Truthsayer. Heavily trained in behavioral psychology, they could detect lies through the tiniest change in body temperature. Even the subtle warmth of a heartbeat could not escape their eyes. The Truthsayer here was also wearing some additional Thermotech gadgets, likely to enhance her perception.

  However, the Truthsayer wasn’t the only source of truth, because that meant giving too much power to a single Fraxian. Shon could also feel a heavy gas pressing against his skin.

  “In addition, please be reminded that the room is filled with thermal-reactive gas. Please do not be alarmed by the ensuing chemical reaction.”

  For a Fraxian, thermal manipulation was as much a strength as it was a weakness. Whenever they felt a powerful emotion, they would involuntarily release or absorb heat. Any change in surrounding temperature would reveal their thoughts and feelings.

  From what Shon understood, the thermal reactive gas would change color in response to the slightest temperature shift — as little as a fraction of a degree. Although academy-trained Fraxians like Shon could conceal temperature swings from an untrained eye, it was impossible to hide them from the thermal-reactive gas.

  This, combined with the Truthsayer, meant that Shon had no other options.

  He must tell the truth.

  Shon sat down slowly and took a deep breath, slowing his heartbeat and regulating his body temperature.

  The exam began with simple questions to establish a behavioral baseline. They asked for Shon’s name and city of birth. Whenever Shon uttered a word, the observers would scribble on their notepads. Even when he sat quietly, the pens would not stop moving. He knew they were scrutinizing everything, from his intonation to his body movement. He felt like a circus animal, like one of those Fraxians displayed in the old-day freak shows.

  The air around Shon slowly turned to a pale, translucent yellow. He quickly pulled away from these angry thoughts. The air gradually cooled down again, and the yellow tint was gone.

  However, the cooling did not stop. At the sight of the thermal-reactive gas changing color, Shon felt something new. Discomfort was now replaced by worry. He feared that the color change would disqualify him from the Exam. The more he tried not to think about it, the worse the worry grew.

  The air around Shon chilled more. A light cyan hue began permeating the air.

  “Candidate, please do not worry too much about the thermal-reactive gas,” said the Fraxian Truthsayer gently. Her voice was warm and soothing. If it wasn’t for the solemn demeanor, Shon was sure she would be quite personable outside the Exam.

  “The changing colors will not disqualify you,” she continued. “Most candidates, including many Stormrunners in the past, had triggered the gas. It’s completely normal.”

  Somehow, simply by speaking, the Truthsayer felt a lot more human to Shon. At her reassurance, Shon calmed down. The surrounding air went back to normal.

  However, just like in a storm, a sudden calm only foreshadowed the chaos ahead.

  “So tell me, Shon,” the center examiner spoke. “Your mother is an immigrant from the Bastion Empire, is that right?”

  Shon nodded slowly. He could feel himself sweating a little. The air turned to a very light hue of blue, representing uneasiness. Seeing no reaction from the examiners, he spoke out aloud.

  “Yes, that is correct.”

  “And for your deceased father, was he also a Bastion immigrant?”

  “Yes.”

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  The examiners paused a little. Shon felt the uneasy silence. The air turned a little more blue.

  “What were your parents’ occupations in the Bastion Empire?”

  “My mom was a schoolteacher. My dad was a desk clerk. That’s all they told me.”

  The two Valerian examiners shot a look at the Truthsayer. She nodded her head. Seeing that, they proceeded with their questions.

  “Why have they not spoken more about the Bastion?” asked the left-side examiner.

  Shon hesitated. Back when he was a kid, whenever he had returned home bruised and defeated, he would beg his parents to tell stories about the Bastion Empire, where there were no Valerian bullies, where Fraxian kids would be the center of attention for all schoolteachers.

  However, every time he wanted to hear these stories, his parents would subtly change the subject. Sometimes, when he pressed too hard, his sister would shush him.

  Only after Shon grew up did he understand how delicate this subject was.

  “I don’t know. I guess my parents didn’t like their time there.”

  The air remained in the same hue, signaling no temperature changes from Shon. The Truthsayer also nodded her head.

  The two Valerian examiners seemed skeptical, but they decided to move on.

  “As a Fraxian now, what do you think of the Bastion Empire?”

  This question was venturing into dangerous territory. Public narratives around the Bastion Empire were always carefully crafted around propaganda.

  “The Bastion Empire is a dictatorship. Therefore, I think it is an enemy to the Republic of Valeria,” Shon replied slowly, carefully picking his words.

  “I am not asking for facts. I am asking for your opinion, specifically your opinion as a Fraxian.”

  The question of the Fraxian identity was unavoidable. Shon wished he had Zora’s eloquence to mask his thoughts with flowery rhetorics. However, all that Shon could do was to expose his naked mind.

  “I believe that the existence of the Bastion Empire harms the Fraxians.”

  The air shifted color, turning from the earlier blue to a mustard yellow. The examiners looked alarmed. They stared at the Truthsayer. This time, the Truthsayer did not nod her head.

  “Candidate, if you are omitting some thoughts, this is your last chance to express them. Next time, omission would be seen as a lie.”

  Shon’s heart raced. The truth was, he saw the Bastion Empire as a distant homeland. In principle, Shon disagreed with the Bastion’s military dictatorship. However, despite the Bastion’s past conflicts with Valeria, and despite the conspiracy theories of them puppeteering Valerian politicians or controlling sandstorms, the sole idea of a Fraxian nation was enough to fascinate Shon.

  Demonstrating curiosity of the Bastion would be career suicide, but lying to the Truthsayer would be no better.

  “I believe the Bastion Empire’s dictatorship and past wars hurt all Fraxians.”

  That was true. In the past, whenever Valeria had conflicts with the Bastion, the Valerians always took out their anger on the Fraxians. There were countless lynchings, race riots, and burnt neighborhoods. Of course, that was back when Valeria could still match the Bastion in technology.

  As Shon finished speaking, the air gradually faded back to its translucent color. After what felt like forever, the Truthsayer nodded her head.

  However, the Valerian examiners were not going to let Shon off the hook so easily.

  “Please elaborate more.”

  Shon carefully treaded through this minefield of a question, stepping through every word with the utmost caution.

  “I dream of a world where Fraxian kids could grow up, finding role models around them in the Republic of Valeria instead of hearsay from the Bastion Empire.”

  The gas showed no color change. The Truthsayer gave a light nod. The two Valerian examiners looked at each other, contemplating the merits of this response. Finally, they decided to proceed.

  “Do you believe that the Bastion Empire caused the storms?”

  This was another tough question. Since Fraxians possessed the ability of thermal transfer, there had always been conspiracies about the sandstorms being a weapon of the Bastion Empire. However, anyone with a bit of physics knowledge would see how illogical this statement was. Just because water could put out a matchstick didn’t mean it could extinguish the sun.

  However, this was not a test of physics knowledge. This was a test of political loyalty. Shon was not sure if he should just reject this claim. Although the Valerian government had only publicly blamed the storms on Mother Nature, they still made ambiguous jabs at the Bastion here and there.

  “From what I know of Fraxian biology, even a thousand Fraxians cannot create a storm. But from what I know of the Bastion Empire, they would not hesitate to weaponize the storms if they know how.”

  The examiners pressed on.

  “Then how do you explain the fact that disproportionately more Valerians die in storms than Fraxians?”

  This was tricky. The factual response was that Fraxians had superior abilities in thermal perception. The honest response was that Shon believed the storms were a retribution against Valerian oppression. However, a test of politics was no place for facts or truth.

  “I wish innocent Valerians could be spared,” Shon picked every word carefully. “But a storm is indifferent to who we are and what we want.”

  To Shon’s relief, the Truthsayer nodded her head, and the examiners considered his answers satisfactory.

  What a close call.

  After a few more questions on the Bastion Empire, the examiners finally seemed convinced of Shon’s loyalty. However, Shon saw a bleak future. Even if he were to become a Stormrunner, his family’s history with the Bastion Empire would forever be branded on his back. It was a burden heavier than his orange eyes.

  As the test drew to a close, the examiners threw out the toughest question.

  “Do you think the people of our nation deserve more than the life they have now?”

  For this question, a wrong response meant not only failing the exam but also going to prison.

  If Shon answered yes, it would look like he was criticizing the government for not doing enough. As a Fraxian, he did not enjoy the same freedom of speech as a Valerian. With some slippery slope, he might even be imprisoned for suggesting usurpation.

  However, if he answered no, he would be suggesting that the people deserved a brutal life amidst the storms, an idea antithetical to the tenet of the Stormrunners Corps. He would be committing treason, as the storms were officially the biggest enemy of the Republic.

  If he were honest, he wasn’t even sure of his own opinions. In a world of meaningless, unpredictable deaths, believing anyone “deserved” anything seemed absurd. It would be a futile attempt to impose manmade rules on the indifferent Mother Nature, who arbitrarily picked her victims.

  After much thought, Shon gave his answer.

  “If they deserve better, then may I bring them there. If they deserve their lives right now, then may I protect them with my own.”

  The Truthsayer nodded her head. The Valerian examiners looked satisfied. The political loyalty test concluded.