‘For years,’ he says. ‘Long enough for Tian to start talking. Understanding things. To start asking where I went at night, and what I did.’

‘What did you tell him?’

‘That I was a soldier,’ Zoric says. ‘He believed me, because why wouldn’t he? Begged Idoney again and again to build him one out of spares. It took her weeks to gather the pieces and put it together. A little clockwork soldier with a flashpin that made the lasgun barrel light up.’ He opens and closes his hand, miming the on-off action of the light. ‘I came back late one night after a bad job. A killing, for the lord’s son. Idoney was sitting on the floor with Tian while he made the little soldier march up and down the floorboards, over and over. He was laughing and smiling and so was she. Something about seeing them like that changed things. Changed me. I thought that was it. The moment.’

He pauses. Shakes his head.

‘I told Idoney to get Tian ready while I went down to the portlands to find an off-worlder. Someone who wasn’t of Vyze. Wasn’t of the Houses. I gave nearly everything we had to a rogue trader for passage for three on his black market junker. And then I went back to the hab to fetch them.’

He takes a breath. I know what he’s going to say, because of his scars and how we found him. Because he might not have told me the story, but Sofika has. She couldn’t help but see it all written on his soul, the moment she met him.

‘When I got back, I found two crossed daggers painted on the outside wall of our hab. I tried the door, but it was locked. I shouted for them, but they didn’t answer. So I broke it down.’

He pauses. Flexes his burn-scarred hands.

‘They must have cut a leak into the gas lines, because the whole place went up like that.’ He snaps his fingers. ‘I tried to get to them, but I couldn’t see. Couldn’t breathe. I fell. Blacked out.’

His voice has changed. Turned low and soft. Distant.

‘When I came to I thought it was snowing because of all the ash and the dust. I was covered in it, head to toe. The ceiling had come down in places and the walls had folded like parchment. It all missed me, somehow. I got up and dug through the debris until my hands were bloody, but I couldn’t find Idoney. Couldn’t find Tian.’ He shakes his head, and puts his hand into the inside pocket of his jacket. ‘All that was left was this.’