Page 173 of Alien Burn

“I haven't forgotten.”

She believed him.

26

DHOMHES

Roemary looked at Sereya throughout the hearing.

She had counsel on either side of her and a guard behind her chair. Her injured wrist was supported in a pale wrap. Someone had brought her better clothes.

Dhomhes sat beside Sereya while the examiner reviewed her account. The hearing was closed. Her protected history remained in a sealed record, with her advocate authorized to challenge any attempt to circulate it beyond those who needed it for the case.

It wasn't the same as never having been threatened. There was no arrangement he could make that would give her that.

But the account before them was hers. She had read it, corrected it, and signed it.

“Were you instructed to take Adryel to the loading bay?” the examiner asked.

“Yes.”

“Did you agree?”

“No.”

“What did you do?”

Sereya described calling for help. The communicator. The attack on the guard. She paused once to drink water, then finished without looking at Dhomhes for permission to continue.

Roemary shifted in her chair.

“You always needed someone to tell you what happened,” she said.

Her counsel put a hand on her arm. Too late.

Sereya turned toward her.

“I remember what happened.”

“You remember what he wants you to⁠—”

“You told me I could leave before they hurt Adryel.”

Roemary's mouth closed.

Sereya's voice remained steady.

“You thought that would make it easier for me to agree.”

The examiner called for order. Roemary leaned back between her advocates. Sereya faced the table again and answered the next question.

Dhomhes kept his hands in his lap. It was among the harder things he had done that week.

Afterward, in the corridor, Sereya took one of them.

“I thought I'd feel different.”

“How?”