Lives of Bitter Rain

The third installment in the Tyrant Philosophers series, this novella traces the life of Angilly, a woman who rises through the ranks of the Palleseen Sway, a colonial empire that conquers foreign nations in the name of "perfection," an ideology demanding the eradication of religion, superstition, and mystery from the world. Structured as interconnected vignettes spanning roughly 25 years, the story follows Angilly from a traumatized child in occupied territory to a seasoned diplomat maneuvering through the politics of a foreign court.

At 12 years old, Angilly lives in a Palleseen garrison in Jarokir, a conquered land the Pals call "liberated." Her father is a statlos, a low-ranking clerk, and her mother is a Fellow-Inquirer from Correct Speech, a branch of the administration that interrogates citizens for disloyalty. Having absorbed the Palleseen ideology, Angilly believes the Jarokiri's poverty stems from their refusal to abandon their religious traditions. During a rainy-season meal, the garrison comes under a curse attack: Food turns rotten, smoke fills the air, and a living inferno shaped like a serpent rushes through the refectory door. Angilly's father forces her through a narrow window, dislocating her shoulder and breaking her forearm. Outside, she witnesses a Jarokiri priestess wreathed in sacred flame. Her parents and most of her classmates die. Angilly survives with a scar on her chin and a lasting terror of fire.

Shipped to the Palleseen Archipelago, the empire's homeland, Angilly is placed in Thorntree House, an orphanage for officers' children. She shows no academic distinction but becomes the unbeatable fencing champion. At 15, facing a mediocre clerical posting, she receives an ultimatum from her Aunt Ostrephy, a Fellow-Invigilator in Outreach, the Palleseen diplomatic office: Angilly must achieve distinction in every subject or be buried in a remote mining complex in the Fleigh Isles. If she succeeds, Ostrephy will place her in Outreach, the advance force that enters foreign nations before armies, reshaping politics through words rather than weapons. When Angilly reveals reluctance to serve abroad, Ostrephy lights a squat black taper with a magic word and holds it near her niece's face, commanding her to breathe through her terror. Angilly obeys.

At 19, Angilly is a Cohort-Invigilator, Outreach's entry-level rank, stationed in Farasland, a foreign port state. Within three weeks, she compiles an 80-page report accusing her superior, Fellow-Invigilator Lasaret, of consorting with smuggler cartels, an insurgent faction, and a priest of a murderous cult. The head of the Palleseen operation accepts Lasaret's sealed explanation and exonerates him. Rather than punishing Angilly, Lasaret burns all records and recruits her onto his team, explaining that the smugglers, insurgents, and priest each serve Outreach's strategic interests. He praises her thoroughness but tells her to lose her rigidity.

Four years later, now a Companion-Invigilator, a more senior Outreach rank, Angilly returns with Lasaret to Jarokir. Their team includes a new junior officer, Cohort-Invigilator Tomelly, and a new specialist: Companion-Invigilator Benallers, a half-Allorwen officer from Exceptional Stratagems, the Palleseen demon-conjuration division. The Allorwen are a people whose tradition of summoning and binding demons through individually negotiated contracts the Pals have stripped of religious context and repurposed as a military tool. Angilly and Benallers develop a personal relationship alongside their professional partnership.

Investigating a secret war over sacred relics from Jarokir's destroyed temples, Benallers summons a fire demon that forces Angilly to confront her deepest fears when it reflexively mimics her dead father's face. The demon leads them to a sub-cellar where they find Tomelly murdered, the scene staged to resemble a ritual sacrifice. Angilly recognizes that the cult's sacred symbols have been drawn backwards, revealing amateur work. Cohort-Broker Woret, a storeman they had earlier interviewed, emerges wielding a stolen sacred amulet, his hands ablaze. He killed Tomelly when the young officer discovered his smuggling operation. Angilly overcomes her terror of fire to kill Woret, a cathartic confrontation with her childhood trauma.

Years later, in Bracinta, a crumbling but wealthy nation where the Pals serve as peacekeeping advisors, Angilly has been promoted to Fellow-Invigilator after Lasaret's elevation. A growing rift emerges within the demon-conjuration program between Benallers' traditional Allorwen approach and a newer school that buys demons in bulk using standardized forms. Angilly orchestrates a solution to local unrest by secretly collaborating with General Halseder, a royalist veteran, to remove a corrupt vizier under cover of a staged military sweep. Immediately afterward, Benallers vanishes. News arrives that Pallesand has invaded Allor, his mother's homeland. Angilly never learns whether Benallers fled, was seized by Correct Speech, or died. The loss strips away her last ideological conviction, leaving only self-interest.

After several more assignments, Professor-Invigilator Flockersly, head of Outreach and a member of the Sway's governing body, promotes Angilly to Sage-Invigilator and assigns her as the new Palleseen Resident in Usmai, the dominant power among the Successor States, former tributaries of the dead Moeribandi Empire. He asks pointedly whether she can carry herself in a fight, linking her lifelong fencing skill to her new posting.

Angilly arrives in Alkhalend, Usmai's cliff-built port city, and witnesses a grand public ritual. The Alkhani Kaleithi, wife of the blind Alkhand Oparan, the ruler of Usmai, walks into the city's sacred pools and dons a featureless mask, joining the Alborandi, a monastic order that tends the Waygrove, a mystical gateway to other realms. By joining, Kaleithi dissolves her marriage and identity. The Bashonin Tarcomir, the charming Loruthi emissary, introduces himself as Angilly's diplomatic rival. The Loruthi are the Sway's chief global competitor.

Angilly discovers that Usmai's duelling tradition is strictly gendered, preventing her from using fencing to build a relationship with Gorbudan, the warrior-prince eldest son and heir, who already socializes with Tarcomir. Instead, she befriends Dekamran, the Alkhand's mild-mannered second son, who was educated abroad and is self-aware about his position as the prince who will never inherit. Over three years, Angilly cultivates Dekamran but cannot reach Gorbudan, whose bond with Tarcomir ensures Loruthi dominance when Gorbudan inherits. The Alkhand, who was blinded in the conflict in which he killed his treacherous brother to claim the throne, grieves Kaleithi's departure until he breaks down publicly, weeping and tearing his robes. Only Dekamran kneels beside his father.

War erupts between Pallesand and Lor. Though the Alkhand declares neutrality, Gorbudan secretly raids Palleseen holdings at Loruthi behest. Angilly drafts papers for Dekamran to serve as ambassador to the Archipelago, hoping to remove him safely from the country, but Dekamran refuses, saying his father needs him. In desperation, Angilly travels unauthorized to the Waygrove. The Alborandi monks refuse to acknowledge her, walking around her as though she does not exist. As night falls, she breaks down against the palisade wall and speaks about Dekamran with genuine care to a monk who sits mimicking her posture. The next morning, a different monk presses Kaleithi's ornate wedding necklace into her hand.

Back in Alkhalend, Angilly delivers the necklace to the Alkhand through intermediaries, attributing the gesture to Dekamran's concern. The necklace communicates that Kaleithi will not return, freeing the Alkhand from the uncertainty consuming him. At court, the revived ruler publicly confronts Gorbudan with his crimes: breaking neutrality and raiding Palleseen holdings at the Loruthi envoy's behest. A ghost bound in the skull of the Alkhand's slain brother echoes the condemnation. The Alkhand banishes Gorbudan and names Dekamran his heir.

The political landscape reverses. As the war between Pallesand and Lor concludes, Angilly's once-warm relationship with Tarcomir is destroyed by the conflict. She kills Tarcomir in a duel fought outside Usmiat gendered conventions. Pallesand is ascendant and Dekamran is set to inherit, but the story closes with Angilly's reflection that it does not feel like winning.