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There is nowhere to flee We thought to pass just under the guns of the Scepter Arauntlet

Our pilot is cale

What can I do? Think Think

"We will open coustus says "Bribe the us Every man has a price"

"We’re jaoing to die We all know it Augustus doesn’t panic or surrender resolve I don’t kno I thought he’d handle death Maybe I hoped he would wail about and turn pale But for all his faults, he is stalwart After a ’s shoulder She flinches, surprised

"Whether ustus says sole in his last mo, a master of his human frailties For him, death is merely the ultimate frailty Humans whimper when they die They claw for life even if there is no hope He will not Death is not grander than his pride

Golds, in o to their deaths for their families, for the pride of their clan They do not whimper when the mines collapse around them or when the pitvipers come from the shadows They fall and their friends weep and sweep their bodies aside But we have the Vale to look forward to; what have the Golds? When they perish, their flesh withers and their naer till time sweeps them away And that is all If anyone should claw for life now, it should be the Aureate

I claw because I carry the torch of sorab Sevro on the shoulder and, with a horrible, eerie laugh, tell the pilot to take us closer to the deadliest ship in orbit, one which now has angled itself to intercept us

"Take us near the Vanguard," I repeat to the Blue

"That would cause our chances of survival to decrease by--"

"Never tell me the odds, just do it," I command

Everyone turns and looks at e but because they’ve been waiting to turn and look atI would ustus

Eo said people would always look to ave hope I rarely feel it in myself There is none in ry, petulant, selfish, guilty, sad, alone--and yet they look to aze, almost wither away and ask someone else to take the reins I can’t do it I’m small I’m just a liar in a carved body But that dreauished

So I act and they watch

"You gone space mad?" Victra asks "When they realize we don’t have the boy …"

"Draw an angle toward the Vanguard’s bridge," Mustang tells the Blue

Augustus giveswhat I plan "Hic sunt leones"

"Hic sunt leones," I echo, saving ed e with Sevro at a dead sprint So hits our ship Her hull shudders They knoe don’t have Lysander

"Howlers! Get up!" I shout