Metal Slinger

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, bullying, and child abuse.

Brynn discusses her plans for attending the annual Market with two fellow guard trainees, Kai and Messer. They fret that their role as guards, which will compel them to live aboard merchant ships, means that the Market may be their only chance to experience land for decades. They head above deck, where Brynn is astonished by the view of the land before her. Brynn is of the seafaring Alaha people and has therefore been “half convinced the land dwellers were a myth” (3). She admires the land-dwelling Kenta people, even though a long-ago war with the Kenta is the reason for the Alaha people’s current banishment to shipboard life. Gramble, the trainees’ instructor, cautions them against getting into any trouble while on Kenta.

The Kenta are hostile and suspicious toward the Alaha visitors, though the Alaha have been cautioned against bringing even minor weapons. As they head for the food stalls, eager to enjoy the Market’s offerings, Brynn, Messer, Kai, and another trainee named Aurora struggle not to react to the watching Kenta soldiers. Kai asks Brynn to dance, though this would violate Alaha’s strict “Rule of Boundaries,” which prohibits “any intimate contact of any kind between the opposite sex until the Matching Ceremony” (11).