Jinto becomes an aristocrat of the spacefaring Abh because of his father's political bargain. Travelling towards the imperial capital, he meets Lafiel, an Abh princess serving as a military trainee. An enemy attack turns their journey into an escape through wartime danger.
Both characters sit awkwardly between a title and a lived role. Lafiel is royalty learning to serve within a military hierarchy. Their encounter introduces the genetically adapted Abh through two people whose circumstances make its institutions personal.
Jinto's new status does not mean that he has become biologically Abh. The political bargain places a ground-born child inside a genetically adapted people's nobility. Set beside Lafiel, the difference makes the empire more than a fleet of ships: belonging can be assigned by institutions even when bodies and upbringing remain different.