"The Vrai knew right where to hit us." Smith's face was flat and white as a gravestone as he spoke to the gathered Foew. "They struck the most inhabited portions of the haven."

Hain watched from his place near the back of the room as a melange of shock and horror rolled over the faces of the gathered Foew.

Hain felt it too. Because he'd seen what the Vrai could do. He'd watched Vrai torturers scourge victims to the bone. He'd seen skin flayed and peeled from arms like gloves. And he'd heard the screams, crying for them to stop. To please, oh God please, just let me die.

But this, Hain thought, was somehow worse than anything he'd witnessed before. This was death, heaped and piled in a smoky ruin until fire and blood clogged the streets. This, Hain realized, was the enemy he'd seen in Memory. The true Vrai.

A blocky-looking Foew spoke into the pause. "What of survivors?"

Smith's voice came out low. "No word."

"But that's hundreds of people." A willowy Foew said in a trembling voice. "Surely someone must have survived."

"Maybe," Smith said. "But maybe not. Given the extent of the damage, it's unlikely that we'll be hearing anything soon."

More silence blanketed the room. Hain listened, eyes on the floor, hands folded into his lap. He wanted to leave. Sitting in the midst of their grief felt obscene, like sneaking into the funeral of a stranger.

"We need to track the missiles. Find out where they shot them from." The willowy Foew spoke again, but this time her voice was hard. "We need to hit the bastards back."

Hain saw heads nod as the sound of assent bubbled about him, until Smith's deep baritone cut over it.

"There will be no retaliation," Smith said. "At least, not for now. Our first duty is to evacuate all those who've reported in." Smith leveled the gathered Foew with a hard look. "And considering the situation, I move that we vote for an interim chairperson to coordinate our efforts."

"But what about those who can't report in?" Lilith spoke up from the center of the room–the place Hain thought Hume would have likely sat. "Surely there must be some survivors beneath the rubble."

"And give the Vrai a chance to finish their work with another round of missiles?" Smith shook his head. "No. I won't allow what's left of our people to be slaughtered on a fool's errand."

"Unless your order came from Hume, I don't think you should be talking about allowing anything," Lilith said. "Speaking of which, where is Hume?"

Smith sat up straighter in his chair. "We have authority enough to convene without him present."

"That's not what I asked."

"Hume was taking shelter in one of the sectors of the haven that was hit," said the willowy Foew. "At present, he's unaccounted for."

"As are a lot of our people," Smith said. "Which is exactly why we need to decide on a strong leader to carry us through this crisis. That said, I make a motion–"

"Cut the power grabbing theatrics." Lilith's tone was a cracked whip as she cut over Smith. "Everyone here knows this isn't what Hume would have wanted."

"What he wanted?" Smith sneered, heat boiling behind his smoke-colored eyes. "This entire situation would have never happened if it weren't for what Hume wanted."

Lilith nearly screamed with derisive laughter. "You're delusional if you possibly think the Vrai attacks are because of Hume."

"Not because Hume." Smith lanced a finger toward Hain. "Because of him."

Lilith looked from Smith to Hain, and back.

"That's ridiculous," she said, but Hain could hear uneasiness in her voice. "Hain had nothing to do with the attack."

"He had everything to do with it!" Smith snarled. "It was him the Vrai sought to free from our custody. It was him the Vrai attacked not once, but twice. And from inside the haven."

Smith's accusation was a thunderhead, and Hain felt like a lightning rod as the gathered Foew leveled their eyes on him. A chill crawled over his spine.

"And now," Smith went on, "the Vrai have launched an attack on all of us, simply for harboring him."

"That doesn't even make any sense," Lilith said. "What possible reason could the Vrai have for coming after Hain?"

Hain fought the urge to clutch at the ring bound in the pouch about his waist. He knew what the Vrai were after, even if Lilith and the Foew didn't.

"It doesn't matter why the Vrai are so keen to see him dead," Smith said. "But the evidence is clear that they're willing to destroy an entire haven to see it done."

"Then let us go." Lilith spoke quickly, worry riding the current of her words. "Both of us. Hume meant for Hain and I to go to Sierra. You can have us gone, and we can carry out Hume's plan."

The words were fresh out of her mouth when the room's door slid away to reveal a trio of Foew guards. Their eyes panned over the room until they found Smith.

"Take her," Smith said to them, then added, "and the human as well."

Without a word, two of the guards wound through the spread of chairs toward Lilith, while the largest of the three came for Hain.

"What is this?" One of the Foew stood. "What have you done?"

"Securing the safety of Promise." Smith said cooly. "If the Vrai want the human, then we'll let them have him."

Rage planted hooks in Hain's stomach. After everything he'd survived–the Godless, the attempts on his life, the barrage of bombs–Smith was simply turning him over to the Vrai.

"You can't do this!" Lilith's voice skirted the border between rage and panic as the guards pinned her arms to her sides. Her head jerked left and right, fighting to meet the eyes of the assembled Foew, but none seemed willing to meet hers.

None, it seemed, except Smith.

"How do you still not understand?" The stolid expression he wore lent him the air of being carved from stone. "It's already done."

~~~

"It's treason then." Lilith marched behind Hain down the dim tunnel, arms bound in irons at the front of her waist. The anger in her voice was fire in those cool confines. "I wonder, did you know Smith had planned to seize power? Has he promised you something in return?"

"You can stop talking on your own, or I can make you stop," Hain's captor, the largest of the three, said over his shoulder. "You decide."

But Lilith kept on as if she hadn't heard, or didn't care. Knowing her, Hain thought, it was likely the latter.

"Or maybe you're too stupid to do anything else but follow blindly?" She spoke with a mocking lilt, and Hain thought he could hear a smile on her lips. "Just another drone, ready to march to whoever is beating the drum."

Hain felt his nerves jolt as the guard's shoulders stiffened. The Foew jerked Hain to a halt and spun, the air around him nearly shimmering with his anger.

"Shut your mouth," he told her, halving the distance between them, "or I break your face."

Hain turned to watch, and found the suspected smirk pulling at his friend's lips.

"Threatening violence already? You must really be on edge," Lilith said. "Though I suppose that makes sense. Selling your honor must make hell with your sense of right and wrong."

The guard snarled something unintelligible as he brought his hand up in a balled fist to strike.

"Hey!" a voice came from further up the tunnel. "Yes, you! I'm talking to you!"

The guard spun about. Hain followed suit, and felt surprise slap him across the cheek. Walking quickly toward them, mouth pinched into a tight scowl, was Sanger.

"Were you about to strike that prisoner?"

The guard hesitated for a beat before answering, sparing a look at his comrades, as though either of them might tell him what to do.

"What do you care?" the guard said after a moment, and Hain was sure he could hear doubt in the Foew's voice. "These prisoners aren't any of your concern."

"Is that right?" Sanger said. "Then which of you is planning on treating any injury your cause? You?" She leveled her finger at the other guards in turn. "One of you?"

The guards kept silent.

"Or what about when you're injured?" Sanger's scowl deepened. "Who do you think is going to fix that?"

At this, the guard rolled his eyes. "She's not going to be doing anything to anyone."

"Who said anything about her?" Sanger said, just before letting loose a wild hook at the guard's chin.

Sanger might have had the element of surprise, but Hain could tell from the way she punched that she wasn't used to throwing her fists. The guard dipped back, easily avoiding the swing, before shoving Sanger's tiny frame toward the floor and starting toward her.

That was, at least, until Lilith's booted foot connected with his crotch from behind. A pained wheeze dribbled from his mouth.

The guard doubled over at the waist, staggering away just long enough for Hain turn on the remaining two. But Lilith was already on the attack, seizing one guard by the shirt and flinging him at the remaining third. The pair went down in a tangle of limbs that saw them both collide and sink into a moaning heap.

Hain went on the offensive, kicking out at the downed guards before they had a chance to recover. His boot connected into the gut of one, just as an iron grip clamped down on his shoulder.

Hain's muscles clenched. He cried out at the pain before finding himself flung into the wall, solid stone punching the breath from his lungs.

Hain spun, fists raised, as the Foew whom Lilith had kicked rounded on him. Pain burst from Hain's cheek as the guard's fist plowed into his face. Hain tried to roll away, but the guard's hand was a vise, pinning him against the wall. Hain shut his eyes, fighting just to shield his face as stars went supernova in the black behind his eyelids with a second punch. Then a third. A fourth.

Time slowed. Thick fingers found his throat, clenching hard. Hain's vision narrowed to a tunnel. Dark splotches nibbled at the edges of his vision, and the world shrunk down to black.