PROLOGUE

I am a queen.

Or at least that was the meaning of my name in our world’s official language. Yet I had been born to a metal worker and homemaker sixteen years earlier. I figured I would be an unrequited queen, if there ever was such a thing. Nevertheless, I knew my place within my family just as well as I knew my role within the Realm.

My family gave me my first name, but my caste determined my last. I had always liked my last name. It was strong, distinctive and unapologetic, as well as telling my father’s profession. Together with my first name, it gave me what I believed was an undeniable presence before I even entered a room.

Truly, who wouldn’t look to see who was named Kira Metallurgist?

As soon as I entered the halls of the Realm Exhibition with my family, a young woman bumped into me, her expression tight as she strode passed us toward a small group. She spoke into the ear of one of the younger males then pulled a small metallic object from his coat pocket. While his friends dispersed, she took another device out of the inside flap of her black and gray jacket and started to tap at it. The young man’s face took on a pleading expression. An elderly man overseeing a nearby table with similar metallic objects on display approached them quickly with growing dismay.

“Rabble-rousers,” Ma said to me with a frown before walking over to Da, who was at an exhibit close by. She ex