And to Their Shining Palaces Go
Novelette 16,486 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"When my parents heard I was selected to serve in the Alariel’s shining palaces, I think it broke them. Letters made of actual paper were so expensive that I ran as soon as the drone handed the envelope to me. I banged open the front door of our tiny apartment and rushed into my mother’s study."
Content warnings 1
violence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Asimov's, where the author gets the click.