{Enki | Tumu’s Sanctum}

Twelve nacres.

Outside of Tumu’s door.

They entered, yelling. Bethany didn’t hear what they said or see what they looked like. She was safe under the hood over her head. A metaphorical garment, it came to her whenever she closed her eyes, bidden by her fear. Everything under this hood was meant to happen.

Struck, burnt, frozen, sliced, and bled.

So when a hand grabbed her arm, Bethany was safe. She let him corral her with the others. Familiar, warm hands which checked her over.

Fine. Bethany was fine.

She ate a person once, and she was fine.

Tonight, she’d do it again.

The shouts from both sides couldn’t penetrate the fuzzy static in Bethany’s ears, but before long, those familiar hands pushed her forward and led her somewhere. She let them. It took a long time.

The twelve new nacres hovered on either side of their grid formation, locking the familiar people in place with her. It’d be easy. Quick.

But Bethany wasn’t allowed, so she followed and ignored the fuzzy conversation around her.

It wasn’t her time yet.

Not even as they arrived in a space less vast than Tumu’s sanctum, but broader than the corridor. Remaining good, Bethany lifted the hood and cracked her eyes.

Beds everywhere. A bank of terminals lined the far wall. Machines big enough to hold a person took up the center of the room.

With the hood lifted, Bethany could hear.

One of the new nacres, a Tritan, said, “Place her there. Now!” The skin on him looked like Tumu’s, but shorter and darker.

He was talking to Lynn and Pablo, two people Bethany liked very much. They lifted the mother of Razor’s baby up from a cot and placed her in one of those person-sized machines.

The nacre from earlier shooed them off and settled the pregnant woman in the device. “Get back. Over there by the rest. That’s right.”

One nacre with a gun trained on them said, “Don’t even think about it, Shadow scum. We know you’re here to kill our Primaries, and we take great offense to that. So give me an excuse to blow your head off or await your interrogation and execution obediently. We’ll find the others soon.”

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Another one joined the scorn. “How could you ever think Eminent Lance would work with the likes of you—”

“That’s enough talking to the prisoners.” The first one said as he stared at a projection screen. “Good. The baby’s heart is beating. The mother’s a mess though.” He looked at Miy for the last “Who’s the father?”

Bethany didn’t care anymore and put the hood back on. This place, with all its medical equipment, was exactly what the Shadow needed.

Twelve nacres without names. Bethany opened their memories and let them flood into her. Eleven fell to the floor.

Birth. Academy. Job designation. Courting. Pairing. Pairing went wrong. Forced to sleep in the suspension pods. Awakened. Informed of the loss of the entire female population. The new Tritan Prerogative. Resentment. Consigned to guarding Enki. Called by Lance to locate and detain the Shadow, hiding in the Dyson’s Sphere. The pride of finding the intruders. Honey brown eyes. Danger—

Nothing.

Bethany lifted the hood and stared at the last Tritan standing. He gaped with his mouth open like a goldfish. Prepared for this, Lynn, Twenty-One, Pablo, Miy, and Caedes aimed the fallen guards’ weapons at him.

Lynn took a step toward the lone Tritan. “Now. You told us these guns can turn you inside-out with or without a nacre. If I shoot, you die. But I don’t want to shoot a fellow soldier for only doing his job.”

Yes. But they weren’t soldiers. Bethany saw. This one was a second level physician. He fell in love with a Tritan girl named Kip. He liked the way she always served him extra food at the supper line. The way she cheated at their games. Kip promised to take him to the stars, but that was the night the Primaries locked the younger Tritans in the pods.

Qas never saw the stars.

Bethany crossed the room, paying no mind to the others exchanging glances. Qas stared down at her with a frown on his mostly featureless face. This was not his best day.

Slowly, carefully, Bethany held out her hand.

The frown never left his face as he peered down at her. A moment passed between them, long and curious. Strained and confusing. When no one fired a gun, and Bethany didn’t attack, Qas cautiously lowered his hand into her smaller one. Bethany took it and pulled him along to the others, hoping to convey with her eyes what she wanted them to understand.

None of these men were evil.

They were sad.

Well intentioned, Lynn and Pablo stared at her. Twenty-One and Miy looked at one another, shrugging. It was Caedes who took a step forward. In that rough voice of his which Bethany quite liked, he explained to Qas, “We kept you awake because we need medical help. That woman is not well. Bethany, here, thinks you can help Triss. Will you?”

Bethany felt Qas’ confusion as he met everyone in the eye. With that frown entering his voice, he said, “But you’re Shadow.”

Pablo tried. “As one physician to another, I know helping people takes priority.”

They all glanced as Twenty-One spoke up. “These people were once my enemy. I fought against them in battle, but they aren’t what I was led to believe. Likewise, you think they’re evil because you were told so. They’re not here to kill your kind. They’re here to stop Imminent.”

Confused, Qas tilted his head. “Imminent is a myth.”

Lynn took a less gentle approach. “And they’re mythically kicking the Vast Collective’s ass. They’re hiding behind Enki to do it. Bethany screened your memories, and in them, she saw someone worth knowing.”

Qas peered down at her again.

Please. See it.

Lynn’s hand slipped into Bethany’s, and the girl understood.

A walk in an enemy’s shoes was rough, but there was no better way to understand them.

Korac taught Bethany that.