‘And you were victorious?’ I ask.

Veridia smiles faintly. ‘Reportedly,’ she says.

The Vow’s artificial lumens bloom to compensate for the lack of starlight as the void shutters approach their final position.

‘It is strange,’ Veridia says. ‘I only know that those memories are missing because of the spaces left by them. I realise that probably sounds like foolishness.’

I think of the spaces within myself, left behind by the Last of Days. The things that I only know are missing by the absence they left behind.

‘No,’ I say, as the shutter locks itself into place with a heavy thud. ‘It doesn’t.’

Qi-Oh petitions me several times to meet her in the training halls in the Vow’s lower decks. Her fervour does not surprise me. We may have been in separate squads before, but I know Qi-Oh well enough to know that the God-Emperor did not bless her with patience. When I arrive, she is waiting in the marked circle with a training blade in hand, which does not surprise me, either.

‘You asked for honesty,’ she says. ‘I could not conceive of anything more honest than combat.’

I nod and take up a training blade from the rack on the wall. I test the weight of the longsword, and step into the marked circle.

‘Not the other sword, then,’ Qi-Oh says, nodding towards the one belted at my hip.

I shake my head. ‘Not against my own.’

She tilts her head as if considering it, then shrugs. The sparring bell tolls and Qi-Oh does not hesitate, impatient even now. She darts forward and strikes at me, so swift it is hard to stop. Almost as swift as Ashava once was. Where Ashava used artistry, though, Qi-Oh uses ferocity. It is easier to see, and to counter. I catch her blade on my own, turning it aside. Qi-Oh paces back, frowning. The expression pulls the scarring around her bionic eye taut.

‘So, how does this work?’ she asks, as she circles.

I am the one to attack, now, with a crossing strike that she parries. ‘Just speak your mind,’ I tell her. ‘Tell me what it is that you need.’

Qi-Oh tilts her head again, and I feel then that this is as much her testing me as anything else.

‘I need only orders, Sister,’ she says. ‘Enemies to fight, and wars to win. Vengeance, as you said.’

‘For Ophelia VII,’ I say.

Her frown deepens. ‘Not just Ophelia VII,’ she says. ‘For everything. What happened on Ophelia was because of the Rift. The Rift exists because of sin and weakness. Decades and decades of it.’

It is then I start to see the truth of Qi-Oh. Not just her fervour, or ferocity, but her anger. I know then that if I am going to give orders, I need to know the root of it. I dart forwards, and this time it is Qi-Oh who has to work to catch my blade and force it aside.

‘We will have vengeance,’ I tell her. ‘That is our purpose. What He made us for.’