She was on duty today, which is why Li sat on her bunk at the barracks and not at home. Everything she was aced to was crumbling around her. Usually, that pce brought stability to her life, but not this time. Now, everybody was just runniically in all dires, not knowing what to do . The orders they received were quite tradictory, and they couldn't even figure out the current of and.

  Li took a long breath and sighed. Questioning everything was her sed nature and brought the ire of her superiors more than on her. However, asking and speaking out her frustrations was, in her opinion, the only reasonable way to make ge.

  Not now, though. Now, she should y low and just follow orders.

  Garrick was one of their peers. Sworn to protect the pead safety of the town. Like any other ranger. He rose to the town cil level thanks to his achievements and spectacur service. But also, he always was that person who preferred violence otiation. If he thought pung a suspect would give him answers faster than talking, that recisely what he did.

  Still, Li always hoped that his voi the cil would improve security, not decrease it. An ope? Wasn't that a bit too much?

  She sat in her quarters in the barracks, trying to analyze everything that happened in the past 48 hours. Li was almost ready to bme herself for the violent outbreak that was happening right now. At least she felt she may have been an involuntary catalyst of these events.

  For her, it started with what she still sidered a betrayal of her unity and maybe humankind as a whole. She khat undead could be very dangerous, yet she allowed Aira to tinue experimenting with the tablet.

  Was she getting soft just because she saerson behind those ethereal green and blue eyes? Maybe. But there was something else that pushed her to make that decision.

  Elder's beard, she wit herself. Aira had some weird powers. It was so much more than any of them expected from an undead.

  Of course, they weren't supposed to know anything. The information was held tight, but people always talked and gossiped. The official version was that the undead were mindless creatures that survived only due to some mysterious ways. They gathered in groups in their cities, but nobody knew what was happening there. Were they anized as a society?

  Before Li met Aira, she was sure they, indeed, didn't have any survival skills. Not to mention mysterious ways to influence gadgets.

  But all of that seemed to be another lie. Or at least a myth created by humans. She saw how intelligent Aira was. The woman... yes, she would never use the word "it" to talk about her. Aira was smart. She learheir nguage in just a few weeks!

  And that was ahing that bugged Li. Shouldn't Aira retain at least some memory? She couldn't have wandered from far away. She had to know the nguage. Or was it all a preteo trick the humans? Trick her.

  The undead definitely kept a lot of information to herself. But what could be her end goal? Just not telling anything to humans didn't seem like it.

  Li's thoughts returo that damablet. She saw it with her own eyes. It reacted to Aira's touch. That was even more unexpihahing else that was strange about the undead captive.

  "No, that 't be," said Li. "There should be a reasonable expnation. I must have been imagining things!"

  Still, the right thing was to report it to her superiors ahe cil decide. It was so far above her pay grade.

  Oher hand, Li felt siy behind Aira's behavior. She wholeheartedly wao help this woman. And wouldn't her report only make Garrick act earlier? He obviously reparing for quite some time, sidering how fast his ies took trol of all the most critical parts of the town and overturhe gover.

  It was so typical farrick. His habit was to cut first and decide who was right and rong after. That was one of the things that made Li sider keeping information about Aira to herself, at least for a couple of days, as she promised.

  So, that's where they were two days ter. The whole settlement was turned upside down. Garrick's loyal rangers overpowered aand imprisoned most of the Elders. And some of them were even rumored dead.

  "Li, are you ing? Garrick calls for a muster of all us who are on duty." Korin peeked in her room for a moment. "Hurry up, he isn't known for his patience! Especially now."

  Was it safe for Li to show herself in front of Garrick today? Everybody knew she ending a lot of time with the undead captive.

  But then, she did that following the direct orders of her superiors. They 't bme her, right? Even if those superiors may already be dead.

  Li sighed, stood up slowly, ahe building to face her fate.

  ***

  And here she was. With an undead lying unscious in her bedroom. Could they even be unscious? She never even thought she'd have to sider the semantics of the differeal states of the undead.

  If hiding Aira, the bona fide enemy of the town and humanity wasn't enough, she also had two dead rangers iher room.

  Li couldn't even begin expining or rationalizing the events that led her to this moment. When Garrick ordered Aira's pyre to be ighe Elders were already dead oher pyres. But she knew her life would never be the same when she saw them tied to the posts. She won't be able to serve under Garrick or whoever he put in charge of the rangers. Not after he killed the whole cil. Whatever the reasoning.

  What was even worse was that she saw the faces of her fellow townspeople. How they absorbed every Garrick's hateful word. How their faces lit up when the Elders started dying. Those people ehis violence. So, in her mind, she formuted the first steps of her escape pn. Right there, on the spot. There was that Old World facility a few days away from Mountain View. She could camp there for a while and then figure out her options. The options that wouldn't include w under Garrick.

  And she had to do that right away, with winter ing so soon.

  But then, everything happened so fast.

  Aira singled her out in the crowd with her gaze and smiled.

  The fire started burning Aira's feet.

  Aira stayed strong.

  Her face ged as if she wasn't there anymore, in the middle of the square, in the ter of this hateful crowd. It was as if she was searg for something within her.

  What happened ? There was no logical expnation for that. The fires suddenly died out, and a murmur went over the crowd. Garrid his aplices fell to the ground without warning, sound, or evident attack.

  Aira recovered from her reverie, tensed, and ripped away the bonds that tied her to the post. One jump, and she was near Garrick, growling something right into his face. It almost seemed they had a st chat before something like lightning fried the man at Aira's feet.

  The panic that immediately bhe crowd was like nothing Li had ever seen. People were trampling each other, trying to get further away from the dead bodies of Garrid his ies. Some of her still-alive colleagues did their best tahe townsfolk, but it was utterly impossible.

  That wasn't the end for Li, though. Despite her doubts, she was sure she o remove Aira from the se. Some part of her brain told her it may have been an even more signifit betrayal than what she had already done. But it also felt like the right thing to do. Aira was an unwilling partit iown's power struggle. And Li knew she o learn more about her aory.

  Never before had she relied on chaos and fusion as much as this m. She was able to grab a cart and pick up Aira's unscious body along with the bodies of two Garrick's rangers, just to cover up her deed and move them away.

  Doing her duties as a ranger. Nothing suspicious.

  And that's how they ended up in her house he edge of the town with two dead bodies.

  ***

  The chaotic execution happened in the m. Now, a whole day had passed, and Aira was still unscious. Li went to the kit to check the dishes she had already washed and sorted three times to kill time and distract herself from dark thoughts. Just to be sure they were . Occasionally, she peeked outside. No one was ing for her... yet.

  There was no ce her deceit would stay unnoticed for long. As soon as the new and structure bees operational, they'll begin to stitch together the events of the m piece by piece. And the disappearance of the undead's body would raise many questions.

  She heard Aira stirring in the room. "By the Elders' breath, keep it down!" Li whispered urgently, hurrying to her co-spirator's side. "It's not like anybody would uand you, but yrowls be heard from outside!"

  Aira nodded her uanding and poi a cup of water. "Ah... thirsty, huh?" asked Li. "Hold tight, I'll fill it i." Aira growled softly and looked around her with i.

  "How did you get here?" asked Li. "It's a long story. Luckily, when you did that thing... whatever you did to Garrid his goons, everyone else ooked out of their wits and bolted home. And we're stretched thin as bark these days. First, Garrick's prab, then you sweeping through his ies. Still, we are lucky they didn't e for us yet."

  Li made a pause, taking a nervous breath.

  "Anyway, this meant nobody was there to enforce order," she tinued. "At least for some time. So, I volunteered for the up. Mao slip you away with a few other bodies before anyone caught on."

  Li still wasn't sure it was wise to share any information with an undead. Probably, it wasn't wise to be in the same house with an undead, either. However, it was too te to worry about that. She had no way back. But was there any way forward for her? For them?

  "Thanks for not roasting me alive, by the way," Li said, issuing an unsure ugh. "Had me rattled like a loose gear whearted dropping one by one. What was that?!?" She couldn't stop the stream of words. "I'm still not sure I did the right thing by not finishing yht there on the square while you were out of it. But Garrick… that was wrong, all of it."

  She paused again. "Oh, it wasn't smart to tell you that I sidered killing you," she said. "Bones and bark, I don't even know if you be killed. What would that make you—twice dead? A dead undead?" Li's shhs were promptly turning into unstoppable giggling. She rested her back against the wall, closed her face with her hands, and allowed her body to slide to the floor.

  Only to hear Aira slowly standing up from the bed and croug closer to hug Li. They sat like that in the er for a few moments until Li's nervous giggles fizzled out.

  "Right," Li finally managed, sniffling as she got up. "Guess we could both use some tea."

  As soon as both of them were seated, with mugs of hot liquid oable before them, Aira quickly checked her pockets, searg for the gadgets she had removed from Garrick's body.

  "Looking for these?" asked Li, pointing to a pile of stuff o tertop. "Yeah, I also was surprised by the size of this stash. I suppose you got all of them off Garrick?"

  Aira nodded.

  "What a bastard! Not only did he kill his peers, but he looted them. Maybe I should check those bodies I still have in the ba for more valuables? I wouldn't put it past Garrick's people to follow his example."

  Aira looked questioningly.

  "I didn't have time to dispose of them or to think of an excuse fing them to the cemetery half a day ter. I guess we leave them here for now. We'll have to leave soon anyway. Well before they start to stink."

  "So," she looked at Aira, "what should I do with you? I've burned my bridges food, helping you. 't see them letting me ba the fold. But holy, I had so many questions before the coup. And I don't think I'll get any answers here iown."

  She paused as if sidering her options. "Also, so much depends on the choice of the cil. I have no idea who will be appointed with all the previous Elders killed by Garrid, well... by you, if we t Garrick himself. They might go soft on me... or haright."

  Aira looked at her patiently. There was no fear or pleading in her eyes. Just a calm expectation of Li's decision.

  "You know? Damn it! I want to know you better. I o learn more about you and your people. There is something about you that makes me feel that helping you is the right thing to do. And if I'm gonna be cast out, I might as well get some answers out of this mess. Doesn't feel right, just throwing you to the wolves."

  Li looked at the pile of gadgets and then at Aira. "Is it even safe to let you mess with the tablet?" Li asked her. "Now I'm sure that I wasn't seeing things. You could influe somehht? Not that you'd answered me if you wao kill me, huh?"

  Aira nodded and spread her hands as if surrendering to Li's judgment.

  Li threw her hands in the air and then messed up her hair with a quick motion as if that would help her make the decision.

  "Ah, moss and mud!" she excimed, grabbing the tablet. "Fiake it. What happens, happens."