Orfeus swung her feet over, settling them on the ground next to her boots. “What, you’re not going to ask me for samples so you can study Blood?”

They put the bottle down to look at her. “No,” they said, looking sincerely insulted. “You’re my patient.”

She found herself smiling, cautiously. At least this lot were better than the Elders in this regard.

“Those scars might be with you for a while, though,” Mordrai remarked, rolling their sleeves back down.

“Good,” Orfeus said.

They looked at her with a tilt of the head.

Orfeus forced her smile broader and shrugged. “I need to remember, to make sure nothing else ever gets that close to killing me,” she said. “Faolan’s taught me that already. Faol’s taught me many things.”

“Hm,” Mordrai said. “Well, she is the best of us.” They frowned, testy. “Though she doesn’t visit the med bay as much as she should with the injuries she gets. Augments can’t do everything.”

The unwanted pang of compassion stung worse than her welts, and Orfeus ignored it. “How much can augments do?” she said. “Strength, endurance, fast healing, I know that, but I don’t know what else.”

Mordrai cocked their head. “I was informed you didn’t wish to be augmented?” they said, voice trailing up in question.

Orfeus shook her head firmly. “Just curious.” Know your enemies and know your allies, especially when they were one and the same.

“Well.” Mordrai leaned against the cabinet thoughtfully. “Ideally, augments just improve on what’s already there. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the process, though, I didn’t invent it. That was the old medic.” They shuddered. “Quite the piece of work from my understanding.”

“Oh?” Someone from here saying that meant a lot.

“After a time, it seemed they viewed the other hunters less as comrades and more as subjects,” Mordrai said, looking pinched and severe. “Victims, perhaps. But it’s from before my time and I don’t want to talk about it. You might ask Luga.”

Orfeus hummed. “Unlikely.” She lounged back, scowling. “I need to progress in the organisation first,” she said, playing up her irritation to steer the conversation somewhere safer.

“Well!” Mordrai said cheerfully. “If you keep healing at this rate, you’ll be ready to hunt in no time!”

“Mm,” Orfeus said. She looked down at her boots, pulled them on, one after the other. “Good. That’s…good.”

She stood up. Mordrai had already turned, putting things away in immaculately organised drawers. They nodded to her briefly.

Orfeus nodded back, and stopped at the doorway. “If I can ask,” she said, “what happened to Luga?”

They blinked brown eyes at her. “What do you mean?” they said. “Happened? Nothing happened to him.”

She flared out her fingers, then curled them up like claws to illustrate her point. Mordrai frowned.