Faolan bent down and rummaged in the guts of his bike for a moment, and sure enough out folded the wings, stretching out more like sails, glimmering silver solarfoil. Orfeus could not help but laugh in delight. Whether this was some lofty, godly overworld or the depths of Hell or something in between, she couldn’t deny it was full of wonders.

Faolan twisted a lever. The wings folded comfortably back in, crinkling, tucking back up close to the bike shiny as cicada shell.

He turned and strode off. Orfeus fell in behind. He glanced at her.

“What next?” she said.

He looked at her more slowly, eyes flicking up and down. She straightened, chin up, frowning, feeling weighed and measured. “You were stabbed yesterday,” he said, as though she had forgotten. “And you are weak. Unused to such things.”

“Thank you greatly, brave Wolf,” Orfeus said, but she said most of it to empty air, as he strode off fast enough she had to jog to keep up. He walked faster, and she lengthened her stride. “Where are you going?”

A quick glance out of visor eyes. “For the rest of today, you rest.”

“No,” she protested. He stopped, planting his feet, and she overshot past him. She wound back a few steps to face him. “You said today we would begin our work!”

“To be able to work, you must rest.”

Orfeus bared her teeth. “I think I prefer it when you aren’t talking.”

Faolan fell silent. Orfeus endeavoured to feel sorry and didn’t quite manage to.

He began walking, slower. She stayed where she was. “So what am I supposed to do?” she called after him. She’d been haunted, all but plagued by his shadow, and here she was howling at his absence.

“Rest,” Faol called back without turning around. Orfeus could hear the irritation in her voice. “Just do nothing.”

Orfeus stood, feeling desolate, and pressed her lips together. Right now, she could think of nothing in the world worse than inaction.

Orfeus prowled the base.

A fair amount of the corridors seemed lined with rooms like hers, unknown numbers of them occupied. The place felt like it had a skeleton crew, but there had been racks of empty docking stations out where the bikes were. Maybe there was a constant rotation of staff as they went out on their little bounty hunting missions.

She stood outside the training room a moment, then very deliberately stretched. The various aches were enough incentive to make her prowl restlessly on. She couldn’t afford more injuries right now.

Her thoughts wheeled and paced violently in the cage of her skull. Orfeus snuggled on the bed in her room, tucking her cloak over her, and pulled out her porter. Yes, there was web access up here. Every amenity, though that didn’t extend to carpet.

Curled up like that, she checked on Tinctora. Then immediately knew she shouldn’t have.