“Let me see...”

Bee had told the Eidolon everything - everything. Once she started talking, it all just spilt out, all the hurt, grief, and confusion. To her credit, the Eidolon listened to it all with patient restraint. Much to the silent warrior’s disapproval, Bee refused to sit on the wooden pews. Instead, she curled up in a nook of the stonework, hiding where the candlelight barely reached her, close to the Vat-Mother’s shrine.

The Eidolon crouched at Bee’s side, inspecting the vat-born’s damaged arm and missing hand. At first, Bee whimpered and tried to pull away. Still, the Eidolon insisted. She was gentle in her manipulations, checking where bone remained and inspecting the Skinwelder’s work.

Much to Bee’s embarrassment, the Eidolon made her turn around, bend forward, and lift her wings, so she could likewise check the cuts on her back, where there was skin beneath the plates of her torso and above the plates of her hips, a parting gift from the hound. The wounds were already numbed by some autonomous reflex in the young vat-born. Moreover, they had stymied their own bleeding enough to not be an immediate concern.

With a sigh, the Eidolon put a hand back on Bee’s shoulder, tapping in silent language.

“I have faith you will rise to the challenge.”

Bee looked up from the floor, bottom lip trembling as she met the Eidolon’s dozen-eyed gaze.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now,” she said quietly. A wave of nausea came over her, and Bee forced herself to look away from the Eidolon, which helped settle her stomach.

The Eidolon paused, watching Bee’s reaction, before her fingers worked a reply.

“I have been deceived about a great many things. All my life, I have been led astray. I see that now, so clearly.”

“What do you mean?” Bee asked quietly.

“I was sent by my Lord and Master to capture you before the Immortal could claim you. He wants you for himself.”

“Okay...”

“I was sent with an army. I do not lead them, but we are brothers and sisters in faith and service. Do you understand?”

Bee nodded mutely, so the Eidolon continued.

“They have been butchered in ambush. Not only by the hounds, like you saw, but also by the forces of your family.”

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Bee hugged herself and looked down at the ground. The feminine likeness of the divine Vat-Mother loomed over them, stone lips and empty eyesockets revealing nothing of her wicked intentions.

“I do not believe you are like them though,” the Eidolon tapped in silent language. “I ask your permission to go, find faithful amongst the survivors, and to bring them here to you.”

“Here? To me?” Bee looked up, wide-eyed, feeling a sudden sting of worry in her belly. The Eidolon squeezed Bee’s shoulder to reassure her.

“I cannot just leave them to suffer. If you do not trust me, then go. Run into the depths. As you have said, you are not my prisoner.”

When Bee hesitated, the Eidolon continued, firmer of hand, a conviction in her.

“We have done terrible things to find paradise and salvation. I have done terrible things. But much as I promise you that I shall never allow harm to come to you, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to make this right.”

“How?” There was scepticism in the young vat-born’s voice. Her eyes narrowed.

“We must start by ending this slaughter,” the Eidolon insisted. “Brother against brother, sister against sister. If the others see who you are - noble of blood, human of form - if the others hear what has really happened, then they will surely understand reason.”

Wincing, Bee looked away and shrugged at that.

“Everyone seems pretty sure about themselves,” she said. “What difference could that make?”

“I believe-”

“It can’t be that simple,” Bee cut her off. She finally forced herself to stand and walked away, breaking contact with the Eidolon. Then, folding her arms, wings flicking with irritation, she stopped to scowl at the image of her mother’s sister-clone.

The Eidolon stood too, cloak sweeping in the dark, as she approached Bee, intent on explaining more, but the vat-born stopped her with a word.

“Just do whatever it is you need to do.”

Glancing over, Bee saw the Eidolon offer her a sweeping bow, which flooded her belly with a confusing swirl of emotions. Still, she tried to appear non-plussed, affording the warrior a narrow-eyed look and a sulk. Why did she even trust this brute? The Eidolon was probably just like every other monster she had met, Bee reasoned. Despite everything, though, she did.

The Eidolon’s eyes met Bee’s gaze, holding it for only a moment. The front of the warrior’s head was made up of twitching rings of teeth around a gaping mouth cavity, one that the twelve eyes circled, lidless and yellow. Hence, it was an unreadable look, but it meant something nonetheless. Then the silent warrior departed, sinuous body striding across the temple floor and out of its great entryway.

So Bee was left alone in the dark depths of a ruined city within The City, left to consider everything she knew and everything she didn’t. It was time to decide who she was beneath the weight of her heredity, daring to grasp some inkling of destiny. Most of all, though, it was time to rest. So she did, finding her nook again to crawl into, a small shelter from a cruel and unrelenting world where she imagined her true mother could watch over her. Finally, she fell asleep, remembering those first few days in the halls of her birth, imagining her mother’s reassuring embrace.

Bee even found peace for a time, however brief it was to be...