Walking through the citadel, Kano staggered, only avoiding falling over by catching herself against the wall.

“Are you okay?” Nove asked, shifting her bulk to look back at Kano.

“Oh, yeah, dying is great. You should try it sometime.”

Nove grinned. “I’ve tried it a few times, despite my wishes, but it never seemed to take.”

“You shouldn’t let that stop you. Isn’t perseverance a virtue?”

“Kano,” Nove said, her expression grim, “did you talk to An about helping you?”

“Nope.”

“Why not? What if she could fix you?”

“I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but I don’t exactly trust her.”

“You trust her enough to let her meet that Kano in the tank.”

Kano looked away. “That was just a test.”

“And? Did she pass?”

“It’s too early to say. But the last thing I want is to let some necromancer have their way with me.”

Nove crossed her arms. “You didn’t seem to have that problem when you were letting Yon cut you open.”

“Yeah, and look how working with Yon turned out.”

“And do you think the same thing might happen with An?”

“I don’t know, maybe?” She thought An seemed reasonable and that she was working toward something beneficial. But she’d thought the same thing about Yon, so it was pointless trying to judge people based on what they said. Especially when those people were necromancers.

And she hadn’t seen enough of what An had done to make any real assessments, though that didn’t mean there weren’t others who were more familiar with her past actions. Ignoring Nove’s response, Kano went off to find Miusvon. The necromancer’s longtime servant had to know more. The natural was in her room, disassembling and cleaning the rifle she usually kept on her back.

“What’s up?” she said, continuing her work as Kano walked in.

“You said you’ve been working for An for years, right? What was it like? What sorts of things did she do during that time?” Kano didn’t expect Miusvon to be able to give her a complete picture, but Kano hoped she be able to offer some useful information at least.

“Mostly just a bunch of sitting around while she conducted research or getting the materials she needed. Pretty usual necromancer stuff, I imagine.”

The answer was about as much as Kano would have expected, in that it was of no use whatsoever. “What about when you were helping Gresitosis? Do you know what she wanted from him?”

“She never told me the details, but it was something to do with what he was doing with the children.”

Equally unhelpful. Kano had no idea what he’d been doing with the children, though she did remember there having been some kind of orb involved. What had happened to that? It wasn’t in her home when she last checked, so Shorin’s people must have taken it along with Nove and the others.

“I see, never mind, then. By the way, have you seen some sort of gold orb around here?”

“Nope. Why do you ask?”

Kano shook her head. “It’s nothing important. I just remembered something.” Absorbed in her own thoughts, she walked off. Where was the orb? If it was taken by the same people who raided her house, then Himin should know where it was or be able to point her in the right direction. But she could hardly leave the citadel to speak with her and risk missing something important. It would have to wait until later.

For all the tension Kano felt within the citadel’s walls, she couldn’t see it in any of the other inhabitants. An and Miusvon seemed content with their work while their minions wandered the citadel, seemingly without a thought in their heads. Though that was generally how ghouls were anyway.

Now that she thought about it, Kano was amazed that Urick managed to complain as much as he did with his limited faculties. Not that Kano needed any more examples of how much one could do with a little after getting to know Thirty-Six and, to a lesser extent, the other children. To Kano’s surprise, thinking of them and how they weren’t here produced a dull mental ache.

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She sighed. She really must have too much time on her hands if she was getting caught up in whatever nonsense this was.

If only she was free to drink instead of waiting around here, but much as she disliked it, this was technically important. It was a pity there was no one trustworthy who could watch them for her, but such was life. Even if you didn’t have much of it left.

It occurred to Kano that even if she couldn’t go outside to search for answers, there was still plenty within she hadn’t figured out. An had only just arrived, so there wasn’t much Kano could learn about her without asking the necromancer herself, but this was apparently the place where Kano had been created. Someone in here must have answers about her past. She went back to Blob Kano’s room.

“Didn’t Karen leave any records behind?” Kano asked, standing beside the blob’s tank. She’d searched through Karen’s rooms and lab but found nothing of use.

“There should have been,” the tank dweller replied. “I guess she must have taken them with her.”

“I thought you said she was dead.”

“She was when she left, presumably. Unless someone took her and her stuff out with them. But that was probably a long time ago. Who knows what happened to her after that.”

“How long ago did she leave?”

“I don’t know. Don’t you know anything about the history of the citadel? Anyone who lives around here should be able to tell you more than I can.”

Kano blinked. She hadn’t thought of that. She was so unused to the idea of other people, especially the residents of Shorinstown, knowing more about something than her. Unless that something was the art of staring lifelessly into space and drooling—they seemed to have mastered that.

“Nove,” Kano called, having left the abomination behind to comb through Karen’s rooms in hopes of finding something while she spoke with Blob Kano.

The huge creature lumbered into the room, casting an uncomfortable glance at the tank. She didn’t seem very taken with the idea of there being another Kano. It was sweet, in a horrifically dull way. “What is it?”

“Do you remember anything about the history of this place?”

“I know some of it, why?”

“I want to know anything to do with Karen, the necromancer who used to live here.”

“I’ve never heard the name Karen, but I’d heard a necromancer used to live here. All I know from that time is rumors, though. By the time we left here, Shorin had already taken over.”

Kano sighed. She’d made a simple enough request. Why did Nove have to babble on like this? Kano felt a stabbing pain in her head as she realized she’d nearly glossed over what Nove had said. “What do you mean by ‘the time we left here’? When were we here?”

“Years ago. Back when we first met.” Kano stared at her blankly and she continued, “I’m guessing you don’t remember.”

“Not in the slightest. What were we doing here? What was I doing here?”

“I honestly don’t know how you ended up here; you never wanted to talk about it. But I think you were part of some experiment, just like I was.”

That wasn’t much help. Blob Kano had already told her as much. “Fine, forget how I ended up here. Why did they make you?”

“They didn’t, I think. As far as I know, whoever was running this place got me from another necromancer.”

“What? If you were already made, then what were they using you for?” It didn’t sound like they’d been putting her to work, so why did they want an already complete specimen?

“They were doing something to my mind, altering me somehow. But whatever it was, it didn’t work, and they left me to rot in a cell, barely aware of myself or my surroundings.”

Kano scratched her head. Nove wasn’t exactly the brightest person she’d ever met, but she was a far cry from barely aware. “What happened after that?”

“I don’t know how long I was down there, but at some point they brought you down there as well. I think you were the same as I was, another failure. But you weren’t broken the way I was. I’m not sure what was wrong with you, but I’m guessing it had something to do with the reason why you’re dying now.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kano hardly needed to hear more about her own problems. “Get to the point. What did I do? I’m pretty sure you said I helped you somehow?”

“That’s right,” Nove said, shuffling her massive feet as her voice became choked with emotion. “If it weren’t for you, I would have died down there without ever knowing anything.”

Kano rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh. But what did I do?”

Taking a deep breath, Nove’s eyes grew distant as she dredged up her memories. “Well, I remember you’d been down there for a while. You were hurt. I could smell the blood. You talked for a while. I couldn’t understand it then, but I think you were trying to be reassuring. You came over to the side of your cell, and I did too.” Nove’s jowls drooped in an expression of consternation. “I think I was going to eat you. I was hungry. But you reached through the bars, and then everything went dark. When I woke up, I was myself for the first time, or something like it. It was terribly confusing at the time.”

“That’s it? You don’t actually know what I did?”

“I know that you saved me. But as to how… I think you gave me a piece of yourself somehow.”

A piece of herself? It wasn’t much to go on; that could mean all sorts of things. “Did I say why I did it?”

Nove hung her head and shook it. “No, you barely said anything for a long time, just what you needed to say to get us out of there.”

Kano sighed. Couldn’t anyone give her a straight answer? But talking with Nove hadn’t been completely pointless. At least she’d confirmed that she’d been here in the past. And she learned another, albeit minor, part of what Karen, and whoever was working with her, had been doing. If only she could talk to someone who’d been there before she left. Shorin would have been a perfect choice, if she hadn’t left him rotting in the dust.

“Do you remember anyone else being there? Anyone who might know more?”

“Not really. Other than us, the cells were pretty empty, and I don’t remember seeing anyone on our way out, other than a few ghouls. But I doubt they’d be much help, even if I could point them out somehow.”

Kano ground her teeth. She’d hit another dead end. There was nothing for it, then. If she couldn’t find out anything about Karen on her own, she’d just have to ask An about it. If there was anyone who could unravel the citadel’s secrets, it was a necromancer.