“Let me see.”


    Bee had told the Eidolon everything — everything. Once she started talking, it all just spilt out, all the hurt, grief, and confusion. To her credit, the Eidolon listened to it all with patient restraint. Much to the silent warrior’s disapproval, Bee refused to sit on the wooden pews. Instead, she curled up in a nook of the stonework, hiding where the candlelight barely reached her, close to the Vat-Mother’s shrine.


    The Eidolon crouched at Bee’s side, inspecting the vat-born’s damaged arm and missing hand. At first, Bee whimpered and tried to pull away. Still, the Eidolon insisted. She was gentle in her manipulations, checking where bone remained beneath the flesh and inspecting the Skinwelder’s work.


    Much to Bee’s embarrassment, the Eidolon made her turn around, bend forward, and lift her wings so she could likewise check the cuts on her back, where there was a laceration in the skin beneath the plates of her torso and above the plates of her hips, a parting gift from the hound. The wounds were already numbed by some autonomous reflex in the young vat-born. At this point, Bee wasn’t sure if it was the worm rolling in her skull that did it or some augmentation she didn’t realise she possessed. The Eidolon let her know that the wound had stymied its own bleeding well enough to not be an immediate concern.


    With a sigh, the Eidolon put a hand back on Bee’s shoulder, tapping in silent language. “I have faith you will rise to the challenge.”


    Bee looked up from the floor, bottom lip trembling as she met the Eidolon’s dozen-eyed gaze. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now,” she said quietly.


    The Eidolon paused, watching Bee’s reaction, before her fingers worked a reply. “I have been deceived about a great many things. All my life, I have been led astray. I see that now, so clearly.”


    “What do you mean?” Bee asked quietly.


    “I was sent by my Lord and Master to capture you before the Immortal could claim you. He wants you for himself.”


    “Okay...”


    “I was sent with an army. I do not lead them, but we are brothers and sisters in faith and service. Do you understand?”


    Bee nodded mutely, so the Eidolon continued.


    “They have been butchered in ambush. Not only by the hounds, like you saw, but also by the forces of your family. They didn’t deserve their fate.”


    Swallowing a lump in her throat, Bee hugged herself and looked down at the ground. The feminine likeness of the divine Vat-Mother loomed over them, stone lips and empty eyesockets revealing nothing of her wicked intentions.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    “I do not believe you are like them though,” the Eidolon tapped in silent language. “I ask your permission to go, find faithful amongst the survivors, and to bring them here to you.”


    “Here? To me?” Bee looked up, feeling a sudden sting of worry in her belly.


    The Eidolon squeezed Bee’s shoulder to reassure her. “I cannot just leave them to suffer. If you do not trust me, then go. Run into the depths. As you have said, you are not my prisoner.”


    When Bee hesitated, the Eidolon continued, firmer of hand, a conviction in her. “We have done terrible things to find paradise and salvation. I have done terrible things. But much as I promise you that I will shield you from any harm, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to make this right.”


    “How?” There was scepticism in the young vat-born’s voice. Her eyes narrowed.


    “We must start by ending this slaughter,” the Eidolon insisted. “Brother against brother, sister against sister. If the others see who you are — noble of blood, human of form — if the others hear what has really happened, then they will surely understand reason.”


    Wincing, Bee looked away and shrugged at that. “Everyone seems pretty sure about themselves,” she said. “What difference could that make?”


    “I believe—”


    “It can’t be that simple,” Bee cut her off. She finally forced herself to stand and walked away, breaking contact with the Eidolon. Then, folding her arms, wings flicking with irritation, she stopped to scowl at the image of her mother’s sister-clone.


    The Eidolon stood too, cloak sweeping in the dark as she approached Bee. She was intent on explaining more, but the vat-born stopped her with but a word. “Fine.”


    Glancing over, Bee saw the Eidolon offer her a sweeping bow, which flooded her belly with a confusing swirl of emotions. Still, she tried to appear non-plussed, affording the warrior a narrow-eyed look and a sulk. “Just do whatever it is you need to do.”


    Why did she even trust this brute? Bee reasoned that the Eidolon was probably just like every other monster she had met. Despite everything, though, she did.


    The Eidolon’s eyes met Bee’s gaze, holding it for only a moment. It was an unreadable expression, her twelve shining yellow eyes surrounding rings of teeth embedded in a gaping mouth cavity. But it meant something, nonetheless.


    Then the silent warrior departed, cybernetic body striding across the temple floor and out of its great entryway.


    Bee was left alone in the dark depths of a ruined city within The City, left to consider everything she knew and everything she knew that she didn’t. It was time to decide who she was beneath the weight of her heredity, daring to grasp some inkling of destiny. She had been made to kill the City in a mad act of vengeance. She knew that. But she also knew, now, that her mother’s scheme had been doomed from the outset. And wasn’t that a horrible thing? It seemed just at the time. Yet what did it achieve to inflict such hurt and misery as she had been born into?


    Most of all, though, it was time to rest. So Bee did, finding a nook again to crawl into, a small shelter from an unfamiliar world. Finally, she fell asleep, remembering those first few days in the halls of her birth, imagining her mother’s reassuring embrace. Bee even found peace for a time, however brief it was to be.


    For the worm touched her thoughts, even as she slept. “Sweetheart, we have so much to share. Let me taste these dreams, these memories. Let me in... Let me in.”