Powerful: A Powerless Story

The narrative perspective shifts from Adena’s first-person narration to Makoto’s. It is five years later, and blacksmith Makoto is in the slums of Loot, caught up in the throngs of people watching and cheering as the combatants selected for the sixth Purging Trials are escorted away. Makoto is desperate to find one of these nine people, Hera Colt, whom he is sure will be killed during the Trials. He knows that someone like Prince Kai, also selected for the trials, is much likelier to survive, “[b]ecause these Trials were made for Elites like him. Not Elites like her” (8). Makoto feels that it would be more just if he himself were forced into the Trials instead of Hera, because he has “spent [his] whole life huddling in her shadow, hiding from life itself” (9). Up ahead, Makoto sees an Imperial ushering Hera into a coach; he is devastated that he has not gotten to her in time to say goodbye. Then he sees Paedyn, the “Silver Savior,” being escorted to the coach. Like everyone else in the slums, he has heard about how she battled a Silencer to save Prince Kai, but he is skeptical about the truth of the story. Nearby, Makoto sees a young woman with dark, curly hair frantically waving goodbye to Paedyn. He remembers meeting the young woman before; she is a seamstress who tried to sell him a blue shirt, and she annoyed him with her perky chatter. Watching her now, he realizes that she must know the Silver Savior well. A plan begins to form in his mind.

Adena resumes her narration on the evening of the day that Paedyn was taken away. She refuses to think that Paedyn might not survive and return to the life they have built together in “the Fort,” a ramshackle assemblage of scraps that they built to live in when they first met. She knows that Paedyn will be rich if she wins the games; it would be an ironic outcome for Paedyn, who is secretly an Ordinary, to beat the Elite contestants in their own game. Paedyn has managed to survive in Loot all these years by faking one of the powers that Elites have, pretending to have psychic abilities to escape detection as an Ordinary.

In the morning, Adena goes out into the city, intent on a plan she has hatched to spruce up the Fort in anticipation of Paedyn’s return. Hungry, she tries to steal a sticky bun and history repeats itself; she ends up being chased through the streets by an Imperial. She ditches the unwieldy pile of clothing she is carrying in an alley, deciding that she can come back for it later, but she still cannot evade the Imperial. Fortunately, she is rescued by someone’s intervention, just as she was five years ago. This time, it is Makoto, who grabs her and phases backward through a wall with her. She sneezes from the dust on the blacksmith’s hand covering her mouth and nose, and he reacts with disgust. Adena’s fright and anger dissolve when she gets a good look at Makoto, whom she thinks is “so handsome, it’s piercing. Like a blade, something about him is sharp and cold” (21). As she considers the details of his appearance, like the scar on his lips, she thinks he looks familiar. Makoto makes a sarcastic comment about her sneezing in his hand. Adena notices a silver streak in his hair and feels sad at this reminder of Paedyn’s silvery hair. When Makoto makes another cold observation, Adena tries to “earn” a kinder tone from him by smiling and trying again to make conversation; he cuts her off with a condescending remark, and she thinks that Paedyn would likely have stabbed him by this point.

Just as Makoto begins to tell Adena what he wants from her, she recalls where she knows him from: He once shouted at her on the street and criticized one of her garments. She finds it amusing that this “insufferable” man wants her help, and she resolves not to give him the satisfaction of upsetting her further. Makoto explains Hera and his desire to get into the castle to speak to her one last time and give something to her. He wants Adena to create an Imperial uniform for him so that he can phase into the castle undetected. In return, he will give her food and supplies and help her see Paedyn. Adena agrees.

Makoto and Adena walk through the slums of Loot. Adena tries to make conversation, but at first Makoto’s replies are all sarcasm and deflection. He considers that their entanglement may “crack” Adena, as the two are very different people and his own deep unhappiness may alter her “unbearable perkiness” (33). He also notices how beautiful she is and that her eyes have a “sort of serenity that doesn’t belong in the slums” (33). He knows that part of his hostility toward Adena comes from his own fear of how attracted he is to her. This fear is compounded when Adena lets him know that she expects his companionship to be a part of their deal; she also expects a daily sticky bun. Despite Makoto’s attempts to stay aloof, he is eventually drawn into good-natured banter with Adena. He is embarrassed when he must let her into the “glorified shed” that serves as his home and place of business. When she sees the weapons that he has been working on, they talk about their very different perspectives on Loot, and Makoto explains that he also trains people to use weapons for self-protection. Adena measures him for the Imperial uniform she will be making; both are hyper-conscious of the intimacy of the situation. Afterward, she sends Makoto out to buy fabric, saying that she has a pre-sewing ritual to attend to.

After getting herself organized for her sewing project, Adena snoops around Makoto’s shop. She focuses her attention on his weapons collection and accidentally cuts her palm open on a hidden dagger; terrified of Makoto’s likely reaction, she considers fleeing, but just then he enters with the fabric. As she tries to hide the injury, he grabs her wrist and demands to know what happened. She is surprised to see the concern in his face. He leads her to the side of the room he sleeps on, where she did not dare to go before, and lifts her onto a counter; she is flustered by the contact with him. As Makoto cleans the wound, she apologizes for getting his knife bloody and is rewarded with an unexpected smile. For a moment, she glimpses the boy he must have been before being “hardened by life itself” (49). She teases him about finally smiling, and his stony mask returns. She tells him that eventually she will get him to smile again. He leans forward to stop her leg from anxiously jiggling, and she is overwhelmed by the intimate contact of his hip against her leg. He tells her she will have to earn a smile, because he does not deserve to smile; she is curious, but he does not elaborate.

Two days later, Makoto works on a new knife design while Adena, head bobbing with fatigue, sews through the night. Concerned that she is pushing herself too hard, Makoto takes the needle from her and tells her to go home and get some sleep. She tells him that maybe if he gets some sleep he will be less grouchy tomorrow, and he comments that it has not worked so far. Makoto finds her attempt at sternness endearing. As she leaves, she tells him that in the morning she expects him to greet her with “a smile and a sticky bun” (53). Once she is gone, Makoto reflects that “[s]he is an intoxicating sort of exhausting” (53).

As Makoto is cleaning himself up for bed, there is a pounding at his door. Adena is back, panicked and crying. She throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his bare waist; he hesitates before putting his own arms around her and pulling her close. She sobs out a story about being harassed in the street by a group of men; Makoto is furious at the idea, but he calmly reassures her that she can always come to him if she is frightened. The truth is that, if his plan succeeds, he does not actually plan to be around much longer, but he does not mention this to Adena, because he does not want to expose his own cowardice. When he learns that Adena always depended on Paedyn to take care of people like the ones she just encountered, he tells her that it is time for her to learn to defend herself. He tells her that she should sleep at his place; she agrees only on the condition that he also spend a night at the Fort. He insists that she take his bed. Noticing a spot of coal dust he missed on his elbow, Adena pulls his arm toward her and swipes at it with a cloth. She is very gentle, and he reminds her that he is not fragile. She comments that this is so, but she says that he is delicate and needs to be “handled with care” (60). He is too stunned to speak for a moment. Then he heads out into the night to look for the men who upset her.