Orfeus ran a hand through her hair. “Not…yet. But I might have found a few things worth knowing.” For all she’d thought of them as monsters, these halls as a dark and vicious place, she found herself defensive. “They’re really not too bad, you know.”

“They’re certainly the Order of the Wild,” Em said, carefully.

Orfeus stood up, gestured. “At least they don’t stab you in the back,” she said hotly. “They look you in the eye when they hurt you. Not like the Elders, didn’t Bright tell you, someone there stole my blood.”

“Obviously I’m not going to stand in judgment of you,” Em said. She set her helmet down on the bed and patted it. “They use my tech, like I said.”

“I’m not saying they’re good, of course they’re not good,” Orfeus said. She cocked her head, trying to find the right words; the right words were a powerful thing. “But they could be better. They could be something necessary, even something beautiful.” Everyone laughing at the feast, and Mordrai’s fumbling kindness, even Em, being here, those all proved they were just people. Orfeus nodded, certainty settling around her. “The First Precept of the Green: a healthy ecosystem is balanced between predator and prey. There just has to be a way to make sure the knife only cuts where it’s meant to. I think they could be better.”

Em looked up at her. “So you’re not here for answers, really.”

Orfeus paused at that. She sat back down. “No, not anymore. Not just that.” She looked her dead in the eye. “But I’ll take anything I can get.”

She was prepared for Em to flinch back, or leave her there, because Orfeus had left everything behind already. But Em just sighed, exasperation with a hint of fondness, like when Orfeus dropped by too late at night or Bright blew something up.

“Changing systems from the inside…” Em said and shook her head. “You’re the one fond of the old sagas. Tell me, how does that normally end?”

Orfeus hadn’t said anything that ambitious. “Hasn’t ended yet,” she said, brightly.

Em pinched her nose. Orfeus glanced at her with a pang, the weariness on her face. Whether Orfeus deserved it or not, Em certainly was worried on her behalf. She’d caused a friend anguish for no reason. On the other hand … even if Orfeus was making the best of it, finding her feet in a bad situation, Em armed and equipped these people. Only bothering to find out details when missions were intended to be deadly? Some comfort, when Orfeus would bear the scars on her back for all her life. She didn’t know how to feel about Em’s association with the Order, what to do with the sting of betrayal when everything she’d done was worse and they were all on the same side now anyway.