His orders name his son.
Elion
Elion is an officer of FERROGRID. He is also Arion's father. When those loyalties collide, his training offers answers his child cannot survive. He must find a way to act before obedience decides for him.
Elion knows how to receive an order. He knows how to examine a problem and look for the procedure that will resolve it. Then the problem is his child, and the order leaves no room for the answer a father wants to give.
Even at the family table, his habits can put him at a distance: a boy asks for his father's presence and receives an officer's questions. Beneath that awkwardness is real care, expressed through the practical things he knows how to do.
He searches for a correction that will bring Arion back inside the rules. But every attempt takes place under a deadline. What remains of a father's authority when the institution behind it is the thing his son must escape?
Explore Book I →