“It’s hard to believe I’m finally back,” Bornon said, as they entered the Armonin Research Center. “I thought I’d die before I saw the inside of these walls again.” He turned to Rovon. “Do you think the other humans could live here now?”

Rovon shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

“See?” Kano said. “Aren’t you glad you came?”

Bornon grunted, looking away, but he wore the hint of a smile.

Thirty-Six ran her hand along the wall with wide eyes. “It’s all so shiny. I had no idea anyone could build something like this.” She looked to Kano. “It’s much nicer than your house.”

“Fine,” Kano said, “you can live here instead.”

“No!” Thirty-Six cried, clutching at Kano’s clothes. “I still want to live with you. I was just saying…”

Kano’s laughter echoed through the halls of polished metal.

Though Rovon no longer had access to the facility’s systems, he could still navigate using signs placed throughout the complex. No one else could make heads or tails of the bewildering sequences of letters and symbols, but Rovon deciphered them with ease. Kano was glad he’d stayed—she’d have hated to wander her way through this sprawling mess of a building. After a long walk, they reached where the bulk of the center’s medical equipment was kept. From what Rovon discerned, it was meant for treating the center’s research subjects.

As they entered, Yon rushed forward, pushing aside the humans in her haste. Bornon cursed at her while Rovon just scowled. Ignoring them, Yon took in the room. “Now this,” she said, excitedly, “is wonderful. When I first learned of this place, I was expecting at most a few scraps of old-world tech, nothing functional. For it all to still be operational… It’s like a dream come true.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kano said, “you can drool over it later. Can you use any of this stuff to fix me?”

“I only just got here. How I am supposed to know? Let me enjoy this for a moment.”

Kano tapped her foot on the floor, impatient to start. “Fine, just don’t forget why we’re here.”

“No need to worry there,” Yon said with a mean little smirk. “My memory is working just fine.”

Biting back a reply, Kano reminded herself that she still needed the necromancer to perform what was likely a delicate procedure on her brain. In search for a distraction while she waited for Yon, she spoke to Bornon. “So, you’re really planning on living here with the other humans?”

“Yeah,” he said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “Why? What’s it to you?”

Kano was a little taken aback by his hostility. She decided he was still upset from his argument with Rovon. “I was just wondering how it would work,” she said. “Is there food and stuff here?”

“Even if there’s nothing to eat here, we can figure out a way to make food. With all the fancy equipment this place has, there has to something we can use. Anyway, our plans are still in the early stages. I’m sure the others will be able to come up with better ideas once I tell them they can live here.”

Kano was impressed. He’d already thought that far ahead. Maybe her leadership qualities were rubbing off on him. Compared to Bornon’s plans, simplistic as they may be at this stage, Kano had nothing. Just the faint hope that Yon, a necromancer, could fix her. She’d been helpful so far, but Kano was expecting Yon to betray her. Since when did necromancers cooperate with anyone?

The medical equipment held little interest to Bornon. Instead, he opted for a tour of what he hoped would be his new home. Rovon was happy to oblige, though Kano was unsure if it was because of a mutual understanding between the humans or if Rovon didn’t want to stay with Yon.

She could understand the latter. The sight of the necromancer grinning and muttering to herself was making Kano uncomfortable. Putting her hand on Thirty-Six’s shoulder, she asked, “Should we go as well? Or do you want to stay here?”

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Thirty-Six tilted her head from side to side. “I want to see more of this place.”

They followed after Rovon and Bornon through the maze of glittering steel. Hearing them approach, Rovon stopped. “Do you need something?”

“Not really,” Kano said. “There’s just not much else to do, so we figured we’d join you.”

“I see.” He looked them over. “Then—and I hope you won’t take this the wrong way—might I suggest you use the showers?”

Looking down, Kano realized what he meant. Their clothes hadn’t been the cleanest before they’d set out. Now they were covered in a layer of dirt. Normally Kano wouldn’t have cared, but it didn’t seem right here, not in these pristine environs. “Fine. Where are the showers?”

He gave them directions, and a short walk later, they were there. Kano was in the process of disrobing, discarding her clothes on the tile floor, when Thirty-Six asked her what she was doing.

“I’m taking a shower.” Kano removed the last of her clothes and stepped into one of the little cubicles, closing the transparent door behind her. The shower turned on automatically, spraying her with warm water, fragrant with some cleaning agent. She stiffened in surprise, then let the water wash over her.

“Why?” Thirty-Six asked, standing behind her.

Kano sighed. Did she have to explain every facet of life to Thirty-Six? “To get clean.”

Once she was done washing her body, she brought her clothes in and gave them similar treatment. Thirty-Six watched her throughout the process, brow furrowed in confusion. Ignoring the ghoul in favor of her own task, Kano stepped out of the shower and looked around for something to dry off with.

There were no towels or anything of the sort, but a little exploration yielded a unit built into the wall that produced hot air on demand. Waiting to dry, she continued her explanation to Thirty-Six. “You need to wash yourself every so often.”

“Why?”

Kano thought for a few moments. “Otherwise the dirt will build up.”

“And that’s bad?”

“Of course,” she replied without thinking, but upon reflection it occurred to her there were far worse things than being dirty. “Well, sort of. Anyway, you should wash yourself while we have the chance. This is probably the only place you’ll be able to do so until we get back to Shorinstown. Have you really never had a shower?”

Thirty-Six wasn’t the cleanest ghoul she’d ever seen, but she was far from the dirtiest. There must have been some way of keeping clean when she was living underground.

“The guardians would come by sometimes and spray us with water. Sometimes we’d get told to change our clothes. That’s about it.”

Kano shook her head. Thirty-Six’s former master certainly hadn’t gone out of his way to teach the children much of anything. Was it really that hard? Kano couldn’t imagine anyone doing a worse job of it than he had. “Well, you watched me take a shower, right? Just do what I did.”

Thirty-Six remained where she was and raised both her arms straight into the air.

“What?” She was clearly expecting something, but Kano didn’t know what.

“Aren’t you going to take off my clothes?”

“Can’t you do it yourself?”

Thirty-Six pouted, and Kano rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Taking hold of the shift’s coarse fabric, she pulled it over Thirty-Six’s head. The body beneath was typical of a ghoul, lumpy and asymmetric, though Thirty-Six had more scars than Kano could remember having seen on one person. “Where did you get all these?”

There were more than she’d expect of an experienced soldier, let alone someone with almost no experience of the outside world. She’d likely have quite a collection herself if her body wasn’t so far beyond that of a mere ghoul. Maybe Thirty-Six was the opposite of that and easily accumulated scars.

“All what?”

“Your scars.” She traced the path of a jagged horizontal scar that spanned the entirety of Thirty-Six’s abdomen. The little ghoul didn’t react in the slightest, just continued to stare straight ahead.

“Getting attacked by those monsters in the conservatory or fighting over harvests.” Thirty-Six shrugged. “Oh, and from the guardians when I made a mistake.”

Withdrawing her hand, Kano raised an eyebrow. “A mistake? Like what?”

“Like missing my quota or sleeping in when there was an inspection.”

“Did that happen a lot?”

“Sort of. I wasn’t very good at that stuff. Not like the ones who were chosen by the master. Err, the old master, I mean.” Thirty-Six blinked. “But I guess none of that matters anymore. I thought I was unfortunate, but I guess I was actually lucky.”

Kano cleared her throat. She’d couldn’t remember having seen the ghoul speak so much of her own volition before—it was unsettling. “Lucky? How so?”

“Lucky because I wouldn’t have met you otherwise.” She beamed up at Kano, who shifted uncomfortably. What was this warmth building in her chest? Was her generator malfunctioning? It might be worth having Yon check that out, too. It wasn’t supposed to do that.

“Enough about the past. We don’t have all day.” She pointed toward the shower.

Thirty-Six inched her way toward it, stopping just short of the door. “Do I really have to go in? It doesn’t hurt or anything, does it?”

“No, it doesn’t hurt. Just get in already. You’ll be fine.”

Arms covering her head, she crept into the little cubicle. Kano chuckled. What was the ghoul so afraid of? It was just a little warm water. Thirty-Six maintained her pose for a few seconds after the water poured forth around her before relaxing. “See? There’s nothing to worry about.”

Once they were both clean and dry, Kano asked Thirty-Six what she wanted to do next.

“Can we go back to where Yon is? I kind of want to see more of the machines.”

Kano didn’t really see the appeal, but she didn’t have anywhere she particularly wanted to be right now. “Sure.”