Page 154 of Alien Burn

He gathered her against him when she reached for him. This crying had sound in it. She hated the sound, tried to swallow it, and couldn't. Dhomhes's hand stayed warm against her back.

Nothing fell apart because he heard her.

When she could sit up again, he passed her a clean cloth and refilled the tea.

The government had hidden her. New records, new history, a name selected from a list because it was common enough not to be remembered. She had tried to be grateful. She was grateful. Being grateful hadn't made it easy to answer to someone else.

“There's money,” she said. “An estate. But to reach it I have to prove who I am, and every time someone explained the process I could see another place my name would have to go. Another office. Another person.”

“We can look at that. When you're ready.”

“I don't want it tonight.”

“Then we won't look tonight.”

The simplicity of that almost made her cry again.

The program had been a lawful way off-world. A chance to go so far that the old danger might become someone else's news. She hadn't expected to be chosen by anyone. She had hoped to find work wherever the ship left her.

Then Roemary had sat beside her.

“She learned how I took my tea. Asked whether I'd slept. Saved me a seat.” Sereya looked at the cup in her hands. “Little things.”

Dhomhes did not try to interrupt the memory with himself.

“She told me things about her family. Things that made it sound as if she was lonely too. I don't know whether any of them were true.”

“Some might have been.”

“Does that make it worse?”

“I don't know.”

She was grateful he didn't pretend he did.

“One night she told me whoever I'd been before, she would have liked that girl too. And I believed her.”

Sereya looked down at her hands.

“I told her about the roof. My name. Everything. She held me while I cried.”

For a while she could hear only the hum beyond the window.

“It wasn't horrible the next morning,” she said eventually. “That would have been easier to understand. She just started reminding me how much she knew. How careful she was being for me. What a good friend she was.”

And there had been errands, and apologies Sereya made for things she hadn't done, and little humiliations she endured because causing a scene might make someone look too closely.

“Then tonight she told me to deliver Adryel. As though it was one more thing to carry.”

“You refused.”

“I nearly didn't. There was a moment when I thought about agreeing just to get her thumb away from that message.”

“But you didn't.”

Sereya set down the cup.

“You now know everything she knew. More, actually. I want you to understand I know what I've just done. I chose to tell you.”