I visit Reed when I can (he’s healing well), eat meals with Asher when schedules allow it (rarely), and spend the bulk of my time sitting in meetings with the Tetrad. Our talks become overwhelmingly focused on water. How long will the waterfall flow through the settlement? How much of it can we safely share with those beyond our walls? What is causing the supply to dwindle?

The Prime asks me to pull together a scouting party. I’m to travel above the Backbone, survey the state of the river that feeds the Verdant, and report back with my findings. When I mention that this task seems more fitting for the Tender or the Reaper, she bats a hand at me. “I need the truth of this world—what lies above the Backbone, what secrets the river holds. That is a job for the Verity.”

I’m starting to wonder if I should have accepted the title of Goddess. At least then I would be firmly fixed to matters of religion.

“With that reasoning, you could have me heading up practically any task,” I grumble.

“I trust you with this, Delta,” she says, “and my Reaper is still far too busy here with security and training new troops.”

I nod, accepting the mission. “Do you want to approve my team before we head out?”

“If you are confident in your choices, so am I.”

“When should we leave?”

She sighs heavily. “I wish I could say that you could wait for the active period of this solar cycle to pass, but that will be many moons still, and we need answers now. Depart as soon as you’re ready. I’ll see to it that the Reaper arms your team with plenty of black powder and modified rifles. Until we meet again, Verity.”

We shake hands in parting, and I make for Reed’s chambers. When I arrive, the room is empty. After asking around, I hear that he’s returned to the infirmary, and I break into a run, panicked.

Even ten days after the battle, the place still smells like blood and decay. I find where they’re holding him and push through a sheer curtain, revealing his bed.

“Hey,” he says, smiling, and I exhale heavily.

“You weren’t in your room, and I panicked and—”

I freeze as he sits up and the blanket falls to reveal his injury. His arm has been severed below the shoulder, cauterized and bandaged. The last I saw him, he was healing well. He had two arms. The stitches kept pulling, and there was a bit more puss than the Tender had hoped for, but he’d been dismissed back to his room.

“Reed, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It was just yesterday,” he says.

“Still. No one told me. I should have come by.”

“I’m here. Probably wouldn’t be if you hadn’t applied that tourniquet, so don’t go beating yourself up.”