title: Song of the Depths
author: Price, Bonnie L.
description: To the Creshe Empire, I'm just a number. I've spent the past five years in isolation and under study. With my home razed by a Syldrari attack, my mind damaged, and nothing but white walls and a viewing window around me, I dedicated myself to two things: training my body, and reading any book they allowed me to have. The Empire wants me to serve, to use the inhuman power the Incident stirred within me. Technically, they asked, but it wasn't much of a choice. It never is. Serve, or... I refused to be a mindless slave. My life was taken from me once. Never again. With the Empire moving forward with their xenophobic plans, they needed someone capable of killing Syldrari-and I was just that. A tool they could use, a tool they thought they could manipulate. Needing me was their first mistake. They gave me leverage; I named my terms. Now, after five years, my life can begin.