“Eat.”

  The steel woman tossed Mithra a charred piece of raptor meat. She crouched down in the same position as before and kept staring.

  “Eat.”

  Was she trying to be so grating? But Mithra was hungry. It was common knowledge that using a mark required nutrition and, with the amount of heavy lifting it did for her in the last day or two, she was ravenous. She grabbed the charcoal pretending to be food and bit into it.

  A bitter taste assaulted her taste buds, but she didn’t care. With each bite nausea was slowly replacing the hunger. She didn’t know which feeling she preferred.

  “You could’ve at least cooked it,” she complained under her nose, between the bites.

  “I have.” The woman’s answer was delivered in a monotone scraping voice. It was eerie, the way she was utterly motionless. She looked almost like a statue as she spoke. A creepy one.

  “It’s raw in the middle.”

  The woman shrugged. Even that movement looked mechanical.

  Mithra bit down on the meat, forcing her anger down. It was hard to control her emotions when her every instinct screamed that she was in danger, that she wasn’t looking at a person but at a machine, an abomination. She had to keep reminding herself that the stranger was a human.

  “We got off on the wrong foot.” She held out her hand. “I’m Mithra.”

  “Leah.”

  Left hanging for too long, Mithra withdrew her hand. “You don’t want to eat? There’s still some left.”

  “I don’t need to eat. He looks like he wants some, though.”

  The hatchling was nibbling on Mithra’s shoe. She’d forgotten about it with everything that happened. It took some nudging, but it stopped biting her boots and bit into the charred meat instead, a little hesitantly. It ate more enthusiastically once it got to the raw part. Leah observed the scene with unblinking metal eyes, sending chills down Mithra’s spine.

  “You don’t need to eat right now, or you don’t need to eat at all?” Mithra asked.

  Another shrug. Gods, she was infuriating. That was suspicious, though.

  “What are you?”

  “That’s a weird question. You of all people should know,” Leah said, gesturing to Mithra’s neck. “Can’t you read my mind?”

  That wording was peculiar. So, she knew Emotion Mages could affect more than emotions. What was the good answer here? Leah didn’t seem too wary of her mark, but she had no way of knowing Mithra wouldn’t use it to control her. Did she know Mithra didn’t know how to do that, or did she have some protections in place? Was she testing her, trying to feel out her capabilities? Or was Mithra overthinking it?

  “I don’t know how.” The truth was best for now. It’d be too easy to get caught in a lie. “You move like a machine, look like an abomination, but talk like a human. Again, what are you?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Of course it does!”

  “An overly simplistic worldview. You’ve been talking with the Guardians, I see.” Leah lowered her mask, revealing her pale face. “I am human, and I am a machine. By the Guardian’s doctrine that’d make me an abomination, wouldn’t it? But you look at me, and I’m so different from what you've been taught to hate. I’m not mindless. I’m not trying to hurt or kill you.”

  “Abominations aren’t human. They’re—”

  “Oh, what your people call abominations are very much human. Or used to be, depending on how you look at it. Are lobotomized humans people? When you strip part after part from a person until they’re left only with the base instincts necessary for completing a given task, what is the result? Should it still be considered a person?”

  The woman was trying to shake her. It couldn’t be true, it’d contradict everything she’d been taught.

  “Who are you?”

  “That’s a better question.” Leah smiled, or at least looked like she tried to. Her mask slid back into place. “I’m Leah, and I consider myself a researcher. I’m trying to find a way to save humanity.”

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  “The Gods already did that.”

  “I’m not talking about the chosen few. The world is much bigger than what you’ve been taught.”

  That Mithra could believe. The priests already proved what she was taught her whole life wasn’t entirely true. Leah was another such proof.

  “I… We have to go inside the Veil, then,” Mithra said. “I’ll introduce you to the Guardians, if what you’re saying is true, they’ll help.”

  “No.” Leah grabbed Mithra’s hand in a steel grip. It hurt. “They’ll kill me.”

  “What? They won’t. My uncle is a Guardian, we’ll go to him first. He’ll vouch for you.”

  “Look at me and tell me, honestly, that they’ll see past my appearance.” There was something in her voice. A hint of emotion? “Go with me to the Enclave, to my people. You can help, without getting the Guardians involved. We can go to them after we figure out a solution.”

  “Solution to what?” Mithra couldn’t understand Leah’s motives. What was she trying to achieve? Why did she need her? The woman was still holding her wrist. It was uncomfortable.

  Leah took out a small cube from her pocket. She turned Mithra’s hand and put them side by side. There was a symbol on the cube. It was identical to Mithra’s mark.

  “The Gods have blessed you with a mark that can save my people. Please.”

  “You recognize it? No one I showed it to did,” Mithra said, shocked. Seeing the cube, a piece of technology from outside the veil, it struck her. She knew why her mark seemed familiar to her. The same symbol was in the notes from her mother’s last mission. What did it mean?

  “You’ve been chosen, Mithra,” Leah said. “Please, help me.”

  She didn’t know what to think. Too many things didn’t make sense. People lived outside the Veil. Did the Guardians know? They had to, there was simply no chance they wouldn’t meet anyone, not with so many expeditions. Additionally, Leah knew of the Guardians, which meant they did have contact with people outside. Then why wasn’t it public knowledge? Why didn’t Duncan tell her anything? And what was this cube? Where did her mother fit into all of this?

  Her head was spinning. There was too much she didn’t know. Leah seemed like a perfect opportunity for her to learn more about what was going on.

  But could she trust her? Her first instinct was not to, but how much could Mithra trust it? Were her instincts reacting to Leah’s appearance only, like she accused the Guardians of doing? She didn’t believe that the Gods had chosen her, but what other explanation was there? She received the mark from them. They had to have a reason to give it to her.

  She wished Duncan was here. He’d make sense of things. But he wasn’t, and Mithra had to make her own decisions. Leah was asking her for help, asking her to save people. Wasn’t that why she wanted to become a Guardian in the first place?

  “Okay. I’ll help,” she said.

  Leah let go of her arm. “Thank you. Are you rested enough to travel? The Enclave is far from here.”

  “I’m good.” She picked up her sword and sheathed it after rubbing it with snow to get the dried blood off. Her knife was nowhere to be seen.

  “We’ll have to get going then. It’ll be night soon. You can go ahead, I’ll take care of the hatchling,” Leah said. She took out a dagger.

  Alarmed, Mithra moved protectively in front of the animal. It was sleeping soundly in the nest, its belly full again. “What do you mean, take care of it? You’re not killing it. It’s just a child.”

  “So I should let it grow up and try to eat me first? Quetzalcoatlus are dangerous pests and need to be eliminated.” The steel woman was looming over Mithra, a head taller than her.

  “It isn’t a threat now. Killing it isn’t honorable.” She’d fed the hatchling, shared a nest with it. It accompanied her in what she thought were her dying moments. She felt responsible for it. “I’ll raise it so it won’t harm anyone. If you want my help, you’ll have to accept that.”

  “Honor has nothing to do with it. Don’t act stupid.”

  Mithra unsheathed her sword. Maybe she was stupid. She knew she couldn’t win a fight, but Leah needed her.

  “Oh, fuck it. I’m not fighting over that thing. If it eats you in your sleep, I’m not helping.” Leah hid the knife in a compartment on her back and turned towards the stairway. “Get going, we’re leaving.”

  The hatchling, woken up by the commotion, yawned. It scrambled excitedly to Mithra and tried climbing up her leg. Cute. She picked it up and put it on her shoulder, its claws sinking into the collar of her cloak. It snuggled into her neck, uncaring of the grime covering her.

  The three of them made their way down the stairs.

  ?

  Leah sighed, her mask muting the noise. That conversation was way too close to derailing. It was hard for Leah to understand normal people, but Mithra was a whole level beyond. It was fortunate that playing to her ego and her faith worked, otherwise she’d have to force her to cooperate. She was tempted to do that anyway, just for simplicity’s sake.

  Blah. Leah hated playing the social game, but she had an inkling of who Mithra was as a person, now.

  It was unfortunate that she was from a family of Guardians. Leah would have to be careful about keeping the nature of the conflict between the Veil and the Enclave hidden from her. There was a possibility that Mithra would take her side, but not yet. She’d have to approach it carefully. The Enclave was a few weeks of travel away; she had time to plant the seeds of doubt on the way.

  She could teach Mithra to fight better and how to use her mind magic. It was a risk, but if the woman felt like she owed her, she’d be easier to manipulate. It was obvious by the way she treated the Q hatchling that she felt some ill-placed sense of duty to those close to her. If Leah could earn her trust and befriend her, that would only help further.

  When they got to the Enclave Leah would have to protect Mithra from Rubrick. She could practically see him salivating at the thought of a mind mage on his leash. She wouldn’t let his grubby hands anywhere near her. She needed her and Rubrick would try to impede her work, like he always did.

  The good news was that Mithra seemed willing to listen. Maybe one day, she’d really understand Leah’s cause, without the need for deception. She was not ready for that yet, though. The Church of the Veil’s conditioning ran deep.