Chapter 3

“The source is claiming that it’s a maleLevel 1 source. And we all know there’s no way that’s true.”

The conversations around them started again with less urgency.

Sae sighed. “You’re right, I guess. There’s never been a documented male Level 1 Source in all of history.”

Everyone knew that. Kaede nodded along, consciously relaxing the muscles in her shoulders. Sources were predominantly biologically female. Only Level 9 had about equal numbers of male and female sources, and the numbers dwindled rapidly after that. There were only two Level 3 sources who identified as male, and one of them was transgender.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about escalation of hostility,” Kaede said after a long period of silence. “It’s bad enough with the arms race. We’ll have more war machines than sources at this rate.”