It was so unexpected, I didn’t actually understand what he’d said for a good thirty seconds. “What?”
“Will you come home for New Year’s?” he asked again, looking the closest to nervous I’d ever seen him. “You haven’t been back to Seoul for a while, and it would give me great pleasure to spend time with you in a nonlethal situation.”
“I’d like that too,” I replied slowly. “But…aren’t you going to order me home?”
Yong shook his head. “The Peacemaker banished myself and my mortals, but you are my daughter, not my mortal. I don’t control you any more than she does.” He nodded at the DFZ, who nodded back rapidly. “Also, the Peacemaker holds this territory as a dragon. He doesn’t have the power to banish humans.”
I hadn’t considered it from that perspective. I was so used to thinking of myself as a dragon’s liability, it hadn’t even occurred to me that I could simply not listen to the Dragon of Detroit. I glanced nervously at the Peacemaker anyway, just in case, but he was already stomping away, ranting to his tall guard about ungrateful, stubborn dragons too proud to understand the messes they left behind. It was a plight I had great sympathy for. I just couldn’t believe it no longer applied to me.
“I can stay?” I whispered.
“I’m counting on it,” the DFZ said. “Priestess or no, Dr. Kowalski will kill me if I let you leave before she’s finished your training. And I don’t understand the new organizational system you’ve set up for my treasury at all.” Her face grew panicked. “I won’t be able to find anything if you leave! You don’t even have to serve me. I’ll cancel your debt. I’ll give you a job! You can be a city employee. I’ll even throw in a pension, just don’t go! I don’t care that you chose your family over me. You still fought for my city and my people, even the ones in Rentfree! Yong has tons of mortals he can rely on, I don’t. I need you, Opal. Please stay.”
The way she begged made me feel warm and needed in a way I couldn’t describe. “Well, when you put it like that, how can I refuse?” I said with a grin. Then I grew serious. “But I have some conditions.”
Another god would have been insulted by that, but this was the DFZ. Just like her city, she was always ready to bargain. “Name ’em.”
“The Gameskeeper didn’t come out of nowhere,” I said, waving my hand at the wreckage around us. “The fact that he was able to build such a huge empire here proves there’s a serious problem with inequality in the Underground. I know you’re the ultimate city of the free market, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave your most vulnerable to struggle on their own. You always say that people make the city, but cities also determine the lives of those who live in them. By letting your poorest citizens be vulnerable, you make yourself vulnerable as well. You nearly lost all of Rentfree tonight! You thanked Dad and I for saving it, but we shouldn’t have had to. This all could have been prevented if you’d just taken care of the people down here instead of leaving them to be prey to things like the Gameskeeper.”
“I know that,” the DFZ said in a defeated voice. “But I keep telling you, I can’t change what I am.”
“I’m not asking you to change your nature,” I said stubbornly. “I’m asking you to adapt. The Underground has been a pit of suffering and poverty since Algonquin’s rule. It’s long overdue for a change, and change is absolutely in line with everything you stand for! We can even start right here.” I pointed down at the slagged arena floor. “You’re always telling me you want to be a better city. Well, what if, instead of running a tourism hub based on shocking visitors with how terrible the Underground is, we turned Rentfree into somewhere people want to visit for its own merits? It won’t even be that hard. The infrastructure to bring people down here is already in place, and you’ve got a huge vault full of world-quality art just waiting for somewhere to show it off.”
“Hold up,” the god said. “Are you suggesting I open an art museum in Rentfree?” When I nodded, her face grew appalled. “Shouldn’t that sort of thing be up on the Skyways?”
“Why should the Skyways get everything? They’re already full of nice stuff. This place is struggling, and we just destroyed its only major employer. If you leave Rentfree like this, it won’t matter that we took out the Gameskeeper. Something else will just move in to take his place. But if that something is you—which it should be since this is your city—we can actually change this neighborhood for the better.”
“Do the people down here even want art, though?” the city asked. “I mean, it’s a big shift.”
“Everyone wants beauty,” I said confidently. “It is a big change, but people down here adapt, and all great cities have museums! Now’s your chance to add your name to that list and plug a critical weakness at the same time. I’m already organizing your treasury. All you have to do is let me put all that work on display down here, and we’re done. With the stuff you’ve already collected, we can open a world-class museum that anyone can come down here and visit for free.”
Her glowing eyes flew wide. “Free?!”
“Yes, free,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “They’re called ‘public works’ for a reason. If you really want to be a better city, you have to invest
