Eliin sighed. “It’s gotten terrible. Every year, the geroi take more away. More freedoms, more rights. And the people there just accept it. The System numbs their minds to it a great deal, of course. Makes them forget what they’ve lost. But still…” She stopped in front of a blank patch of wall. “Here’s the place,” she said to Isaak. “Squeeze right inside. It’s a bit tight, but of course we can’t have Enforcers happening to find their way in.”

I frowned, and was about to ask where exactly we were supposed to squeeze into considering the wall was smooth and solid, when Isaak brushed past Eliin and disappeared into the flat surface. I stared, mouth agape, as she turned to me and said, “Quickly, now,” and prodded me forward. I flinched, bracing for impact, but it didn’t come. There was no wall. As I stepped forward, it disappeared entirely, leaving nothing but a narrow gully just a few paces long that opened out into a wider cave.

Isaak was waiting for me on the other side. “Did you see that?” I whispered to him.

“See what?” he asked, a bewildered expression on his face. Then I realized—he wasn’t wearing his earpiece. He’d pulled it off after the Liberator had patched us into the gerotus briefing. He must have left it in the hospital room.

“It’s so easy to manipulate a mind that’s reliant on the System,” Eliin had said. Is this what she meant? The System had caused me to see a wall where there was none? How much had the System concealed from me in Hope Renewed, without me ever knowing?

Eliin squeezed out of the gully behind me, snapping her lantern on once more. “I have a small home here, just outside Bright Horizon. We have a stockpile of supplies for faction members traveling back and forth on missions. Do you know your way back to Elytherios?”

“No, this is our first time making the trip,” Isaak said.

“Well, you’ll be all right. The gurzas know the way. Can I offer you a meal before you leave?”

“Um, no,” I said before Isaak could accept. He shot me a crestfallen look, but I didn’t want to spend an overlong amount of time with this woman—just because she was believing our lies now didn’t mean we could keep it up indefinitely. “We need to get back. The Liberator is expecting us.”

Eliin looked confused for a moment, then she laughed. “You must mean Eos. I’ve never heard him called that outside of the citidomes.”

“She, uh, she hasn’t been with us very long, Eliin,” Isaak said with a shaky laugh.