Hain was silent from his place at the bottom of the room. The old Vrai–Lilith had insisted that Hain call him Hume–had repeated his offer to seat Hain beside Lilith. Naturally, Hain had refused, grabbing hold of the only chance to assert some control over the situation by taking the only other seat available–the one at the dead center of the room.

"Some of the details you already know," Lilith said when the room had settled. "But others," her eyes turned down, "are, well, more complicated."

She looked from the floor to Hume. "I don't even know where to begin."

Hume nodded, placing a withered white hand on her shoulder. Revulsion coiled through Hain at the sight.

"Why not from the beginning?" Hume said.

"The beginning," she said, as though just considering the idea sapped her strength. She closed her eyes briefly, and nodded. "That's probably best."

She opened her eyes and turned them on Hain. "The Foew found me as an infant and raised me in Promise. My parents left me there, in the hollow of an old pine."

Hain had heard this story before–save any mention of the Foew–and it never failed to make his heart ache. Old gods from before the End Day still held sway in many villages bordering the Godless. Brutal gods, hungry for the kinds of sacrifice that left young mothers weeping over empty cradles.

"You told me before that the Cats found you."

"They did." Lilith said. "In a way."

Hain scowled. "What does that mean, 'in a way'?"

"It means the Cats don't act on their own. They're controlled by the Foew."

Hain blinked. "How is that possible?"

"For now, just believe me when I say that it is," she said. "I know it must be hard to wrap your head around, but try not to get too hung up on the details."

"Do you mean the part about people from a secret city in the Godless controlling the Cat Clans, or the part about you growing up here?" Hain said, his voice incredulous. "Because both ideas sound crazy, Lilith."

"I'm sure it does." Lilith said with a dark chuckle. "It even sounds crazy to me sometimes, but it's true."

"Yes, but how can it be true? How could you have been an Homage from the Cats if the Cats are controlled by these people?"

"You're not wrong," she said. "But you're not completely right either. The fighting between Echo and the Cats at the Godless border was, well–" She stopped, shaking her head. "I can't think of a way to say it in a way that won't sound horrible."

"Staged," Hume said from beside her.

Hain's jaw threatened to hit the floor. "You staged a war?"

"I don't know if I'd call it a war, so much as skirmishes," she said quickly. "And anyways, the Cats were harmless. Just chasing some farmers from their land every now and again. Nothing more than that."

Hain thought back to his encounter with the Cat at the edge of the Godless. To the Cat who'd come after him after he'd found Lilith alone in their clearing. Neither had hurt him, but he wouldn't call them harmless.

"Assuming the Cats really are under control from these people–"

"Foew."

"Whatever," Hain said. "You're saying that they basically staged a war–"

"Skirmishes."

He glared knives at her. "Can you not interrupt me?"

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Go on."

"Why do any of it?" Hain said. "Why send the Cats at all?"

Lilith began to speak, but Hume cut over her.

"A number of reasons," he said. "The main being that we needed a means of opening dialogue with your people."

"The skirmishes led to the treaty," Lilith said. "And the treaty meant taking me as Homage."

Hain narrowed his eyes at them. "Because everyone knows the most logical way to start a conversation with someone is to punch them in the face."

"Technically, we punched you in the face by proxy," Hume said with a smile that made Hain want to wrap his fingers around the other's gaunt neck. "But I do understand the irony of it."

"It's not ironic," Hain said. "It's idiotic."

"It's the only way they could be safe," Lilith said. "Think about how you reacted to the Foew, and multiply that times all the people living in Echo. What do you think the Faithful would have done to them if the Foew came knocking on the haven gates?"

"Exactly what they're getting out on the streets of Promise right now," Hain said. "What they deserve."

Lilith's face pinched into a scowl as she started to speak, but Hume raised a hand to stop her.

"Our soldiers engaged with the Vrai report that the Vrai attacks began at the cells where that Vrai freed you," Hume said. "Some even reported that they were ambushed from inside the cells."

"And?" Hain said. "What's that go to do with anything?"

"I only wonder if you saw or heard anything suspicious when the Vrai freed you," Hume said. "Something you kept to yourself, perhaps?"

Hain thought about the second Vrai posted in the hall outside his cell, and about Boothe's orders to gather 'the others'. Hume obviously suspected Hain, and there didn't seem any reason for him to keep the information to himself.

"I did."

Hume nodded. "Was there a reason you didn't tell my guards?"

"Aside from wanting to start trouble in your haven?" Hain said. "Not really."

"He wants us dead!" someone shouted from the benches above Hume. "He admits it!"

"Silence!" Hume said, spinning about to face the heckler. "I am the Speaker here, and I will have silence!"

The room went quiet, but Hain could feel tension boiling from the benched observers.

"But those guards were there to keep you safe." Lilith's voice sounded pained. "Why would you set them up if you knew they'd be killed?"

"Why should I care? They're the ones who had me locked up."

"Because the people in Promise aren't your enemy like the Vrai are." Hardness edged out the pain in her tone. "They're Foew. They're our friends."

"I don't care what they call themselves, Lilith. I don't see any difference between your new friends and the Vrai who invaded Echo. They killed thousands of people." Hain felt his face grow hot as he spoke. "Just because they've somehow convinced you that you grew up in their haven, doesn't change any of that."

Lilith's cheeks went red. "They didn't invade you."

"Uh, sorry?" Hain cupped his hand behind his ear. "Are you telling me that there aren't actually an army of these creatures occupying Echo right now?"

"Another complication in the story," Hume said. "For now, suffice to say that those who invaded your home are not, and never will be, a part of Promise."

"No, that will not suffice," Hain said. "You're telling me that you were trying to reveal yourselves to the people in Echo, but everything you've said makes it sound like you're more interested in staying hidden."

"They were trying to hide, but not because they wanted to hurt you," Lilith said. "They were afraid that you'd try to hurt them."

Hain threw up his hands. "Do you hear how stupid you sound? They invaded us, Lilith. Not the other way around."

"These people didn't invade anyone," Lilith shouted. "Didn't you hear what Hume said? Those were the Vrai."

"Look at them!" He jabbed a finger at Hume. "Do you really not see that they're the exactly the same? Who cares what they call themselves"

"Are humans just humans?" she said. "The Dyad of Sierra are humans. Does that mean you're the same as them?"

The corners of Hain's mouth sank toward the ground. "We both know that's not the same."

"It is the same. You're willing to think of yourself as different from other humans, but you're unwilling to extend the same courtesy to these people," Lilith said. "You hated when people in Echo judged you for the way you looked or who your parents were, and not by what you did. But now you're doing the same thing to the Foew." She gestured to the gathered Foew. "They could have left me to die in that forest when I was a baby, but they didn't. They could have done the same with you."

Hain bit his lip. He accepted–albeit reluctantly–that these creatures had saved his life. But the leap from that admission to trusting them could have been measured in miles.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Hain asked after a moment. "About Lilith, and the Cats." Hain shook his head. "I can't imagine that's something you share with outsiders too frequently."

"Because we need your help," Hume said. "All of us gathered here. One need only look right now to the streets of our haven to understand the threat the Vrai pose."

"You seriously think I'd consider helping you?" Hain said. "I'm still not completely convinced that you people are any better than the Vrai."

"I cannot listen to this any longer!"

Hain's eyes widened as one of the Foew stood up from a bench near the top of the room, one finger jabbed accusingly at Hain while he looked to the faces around him.

"Be silent Smith!" Hume said. "This is not–"

"I will not be silent," Smith shouted over Hume. "I will not sit by and condone giving safe harbor to a creature such as this. A creature who admits his hate for us while the bodies of those who'd protected him are barely cold."

"Smith!" Hume's voice was a hammer on stone. "Stop your nonsense, or I'll have you dragged from this room!"

The new Foew wouldn't be silence. His baritone voice carried through the hall as he turned his attention on Hume.

"You can try to act as though bringing this human," he spat the word from his lips, "into our midst is a good idea, but you cannot silence those of us who see your folly for what it is."

"You were heard, and rejected." Hume rose from his seat, his thin body tensed as though he might bound up the stairs, and lay hands on the other Foew. "So you will sit, and you will be silent."

Smith opened his mouth to shout back, but a loud crack like snapping bone made the entire room flinch as one. Alarmed shouts rose from those gathered.

Another crack rent the air, and Hain felt a buzzing sounding rip past his ear. A burning sensation sizzled the side of his head, spinning him from his chair and onto the floor.

Then the screams began.

Hain tried to stand, but the room seemed to stand on end, tipping him back onto the floor. Another two cracks rang out back-to-back, and hot chunks of flooring spit at his eyes. He tried to yank himself back, but the room spun too quickly for him to do anything but cling to the ground.

This is it, he thought. I'm dying.

The clarity of the words blotted out the chaos around him. After everything he'd survived in the Godless–after everything he'd done to free himself, to free Echo–he was going to bleed to death, sprawled out on the floor, surrounded by his enemies.

The sentiment still clung to his thoughts as the darkness took him.