After talking with Father Gabriel, Maria felt strange. Happy but also scared. Too many new things all at once made her head hurt.

  Helena showed Maria to a different room than the one she slept in st night.

  "Father Gabriel thought you might like these quarters better," Helena said, opening a door. "They're closer to the garden and have more space."

  Maria stood in the doorway, not moving. The room was bigger than any sleeping pce she'd ever seen. A bed with soft-looking covers sat against one wall. Real wood chairs with cushions. A small table. Even a rug on the floor in swirling patterns of blue and green.

  "This is... for me?" Maria asked, not going in.

  Helena nodded. "Yes. All yours."

  "Why?" Maria asked, her eyes narrowing. "Why give a blood bag a nice pce?"

  Helena's smile dropped a little. "You're not a blood bag here, Maria. You're a guest."

  Maria didn't know that word. "What is 'guest'?"

  "Someone who stays in another person's home for a while. Someone who is welcomed."

  Maria frowned slightly. "What is 'welcomed'?"

  "It means people are happy you're here," Helena expined patiently. "They want you to be here."

  "What is 'happy'?" Maria asked. At the blood farm, no one talked about being "happy." They talked about being more hurt or less hurt, more hungry or less hungry, more tired or less tired. But not "happy."

  Helena looked surprised, then sad. "Happy is when you feel good inside. When something makes you want to smile. Like when you tasted the sweet water and your eyes got big - that was a little bit of happy."

  Maria thought about this. She remembered the feeling when she tasted the sweet water. It was... good. Different. She didn't have a name for it before.

  "Happy," she repeated quietly, trying the word out. It felt strange on her tongue.

  Maria took one small step into the room, then stopped. This felt wrong. Like a trap. At the blood farm, good things never happened without a price.

  "What do the demons want from me?" Maria asked, her body tense. "Why am I here in this nice pce? Blood? Work? What do I have to do to stay here?"

  Helena looked sad. "Nothing, Maria. Father Gabriel arranged for you to have this room because he wants you to be comfortable."

  Maria frowned, more confused than ever. "Father Gabriel arranged it? Why would demons listen to a man of light? Demons hate the light. Thomas said they are enemies."

  Helena opened her mouth, then closed it again. She seemed to be thinking very carefully about what to say.

  "That's... something you'll understand better with time," Helena finally said. "This pce is different from what you knew at the blood farm. Many things here may not make sense at first."

  Maria didn't like this answer. More confusing words that expined nothing. But she nodded, adding this to her growing list of strange things. Why would demons let a light-man tell them what to do? Why would they give him a pce to live? None of it made sense with what Thomas had taught her.

  "Thank you," she said, the words feeling strange in her mouth. She rarely had reason to thank anyone at the blood farm.

  Helena showed her where everything was. A bathroom with real running water. Drawers with clean clothes. A window that opened to let in air.

  "Dinner is in one hour," Helena said. "I'll come get you then."

  After Helena left, Maria stood in the middle of the room, afraid to touch anything. It was too nice. Too soft. Too clean. She felt dirty just standing there.

  Slowly, she walked around the room, keeping her hands at her sides. On a small shelf were strange objects she didn't recognize. Small things made of colored gss. A round thing with a ft bottom that seemed to hold something white and string-like inside.

  Maria reached out one finger to touch it, then pulled back quickly.

  "What is this?" she whispered to herself.

  She moved to another shelf where several books stood in a row. Not knowing how to read, she couldn't tell what they were about. She pulled one out carefully, afraid it might break. Opening it, she saw pages and pages of the strange marks Nara had called "words." Some pages had pictures too - more crosses, more people with light around their heads like in the big windows.

  Maria put the book back exactly where she found it.

  Next to the bed was a small table, and on it sat a cross like the one Father Gabriel wore around his neck. Maria stared at it, remembering what he said about crosses being a sign of giving something for others - "sacrifice," he called it.

  She reached out and touched it with one finger, then jerked her hand back as if it might burn. But it didn't burn. It was just smooth, cool metal.

  Next to the cross was a strange object Maria had never seen before - a small mp with a gss covering. A thin wire ran from it to the wall.

  While Maria was looking at these strange things, Helena knocked and came back in with something in her hands.

  "I thought you might like this," she said, holding out a small cup. Inside was a clear liquid that smelled sweet.

  "What is it?" Maria asked, not taking it.

  "Just water with a little honey in it. To welcome you."

  Maria stared at the cup. "What is 'honey'?"

  Helena looked surprised again. "You've never had honey? It's a sweet golden liquid that bees make. It makes water taste good."

  Maria had no idea what "bees" were either, but she was tired of asking questions. At the blood farm, they got water twice a day. Sometimes it tasted bad. Sometimes it made people sick. But it was never clear like this, and it never smelled sweet.

  Carefully, Maria took the cup. She sniffed it again, then took a tiny sip. Sweetness filled her mouth, and she couldn't stop her eyes from widening.

  A treat. Maria knew that word. Sometimes at the blood farm, if a demon visitor was especially happy with the blood collection, the blood bags might get a "treat" - an extra scoop of food paste or a few minutes more rest time.

  But a treat for no reason? Just for being here? It didn't make sense.

  Carefully, Maria took the cup. She sniffed it again, then took a tiny sip. Sweetness filled her mouth, and she couldn't stop her eyes from widening.

  "Good?" Helena asked.

  Maria nodded, taking another small sip.

  "That's a mp," Helena said, pointing to the strange object on the table with the wire. "For light when it gets dark. You turn it on by pressing this." She demonstrated, and the mp suddenly glowed with light. Maria jumped back, startled.

  "What is that?" Maria asked, staring at the glowing mp.

  "It's electric light," Helena expined. "You've never seen it before?"

  Maria shook her head slowly. At the blood farm, they had some lights in the collection rooms and the guards had bright lights for night checks, but blood bags never controlled lights themselves.

  "You can turn it on if you want light, and off when you want to sleep," Helena said, pressing something again that made the light go away. "See? On and off. It's your choice."

  Your choice. Another strange idea. At the blood farm, blood bags didn't have choices. They had orders. They had punishments. They had collection times. But not choices.

  "I'll come back when it's time for dinner," Helena said, leaving Maria alone again.

  After the door closed, Maria stood very still, listening. No sounds of locks clicking. No guards outside. She crept to the door and opened it a tiny bit. The hallway was empty. She could just... leave. Walk away. No one was stopping her.

  But where would she go? Back to the blood farm? To the pce with cursed people where the Baron sent her from? No, she would stay. For now. To learn about the light from Father Gabriel. To find out why this pce with crosses and saints and candles felt important somehow.

  Maria went to the window and looked out at the garden below. Flowers in many colors grew in neat rows. Small paths wound between them. A fountain in the middle sent water into the air.

  Why would demons make a pce like this? It didn't make sense. Demons were punishment. They took blood and hurt people. They didn't make beautiful gardens and give nice rooms to blood bags.

  Unless it was a trick.

  That thought made Maria step back from the window. Yes, that had to be it. A trick to make her trust them. To make her let down her guard. To make her forget The Promise.

  She knelt beside the bed and whispered The Promise to herself, to remember why she was here.

  "When we've hurt enough, When our blood has paid the price, The light will break the dark, And demons will turn to ice..."

  But even as she said the familiar words, questions came to her mind. If Father Gabriel served the light, why did he live with demons? If demons were only punishment, why did they make beautiful things? If blood bags deserved to suffer, why give them nice rooms and sweet water?

  Maria stood up, feeling dizzy with too many questions and no answers. She picked up the cross from the bedside table, holding it tight in her hand.

  "Show me what's true," she whispered to it. "Help me understand."

  The cross, of course, didn't answer. But holding it made Maria feel a little braver. She put it back exactly where it had been, then went to the clothes drawer Helena had shown her.

  Inside were simple clothes, but clean and soft, not like the rough gray uniforms from the blood farm. Maria touched them carefully, still not quite believing they were meant for her.

  As she closed the drawer, a terrible thought came to her. What if this wasn't a trick by demons? What if it was a test from the light? What if the light was seeing if she would forget about the blood farm people just because she had nice things now?

  No. She wouldn't forget. Even with a soft bed and sweet water and clean clothes, she would remember the blood bags still suffering. She would learn from Father Gabriel about the light, and then she would find a way to help them. Somehow.

  When Helena knocked again for dinner, Maria opened the door right away. She had made up her mind to be careful, to watch everything, to learn all she could. She would pretend to accept this strange pce with its strange nice things, but she wouldn't be fooled.

  "Ready?" Helena asked.

  Maria nodded, following her to the dining room. As they walked, she noticed small crosses and other symbols on the walls that she hadn't seen before. More signs of the light in this strange pce. More things that didn't fit with what she knew about demons.

  "Helena," Maria asked as they walked, "why does Father Gabriel live here with demons?"

  Helena stopped walking, her face doing that strange thing again - like she wanted to ugh but also cry.

  "That's... a complicated question, Maria. I think it's best if Father Gabriel expins it himself, when the time is right."

  Maria nodded, adding this to her growing list of things that didn't make sense. She still thought Father Gabriel was human - the only human here who served the light. Why would a light-serving human live in a pce with demons? It didn't fit with anything Thomas had taught her.

  But The Promise was still clear in her mind. The light would return. The demons would be defeated. The suffering would end. That much she still believed. The rest... well, maybe Father Gabriel could help her understand the rest.