València Fierropezuña, Fourth rank of the Temple of the Righteous Hatchets, felt her stomach turning upside-down. As if everything else that had happened recently wasn't enough, now Marcos, a Sixth rank of the Swarming Meteors, had been imprisoned for violating the Great Mother's Edict of Blood, a law which forbade Child-against-Child bloodshed except in supervised training situations. In doing so he also disobeyed his own mother, Carmen, to whom until now he had appeared fervently loyal. 