“Oh fuck,” Nyx said. “They were all right. You really have gone stir crazy bug fuck. God didn’t talk to you, Raine. You were hallucinating.”

“I’m not here to convince you of anything, Nyx, only to speak the truth of what happened and what was said to me. I knew someone would come for me. I just… God did not see fit to tell me it was you.”

“For good reason, I’m sure.”

He seemed puzzled. Then a broad grin lit up his haggard face. “You don’t believe me,” he said.

“I don’t believe in much of anything,” she said.

“That is your curse. I pity you. Those without belief can be taken in by anything. Without strong beliefs, well… a person could be persuaded to believe anything.”

“The way you were?”

“We’ve been second class in Nasheen for centuries. Fodder for an endless war. We want equality, Nyx. That’s all.”

“Equality,” Nyx spat. “You want two years of your life at the breeding compounds? You want to be a vessel for twenty babies, all of them carted off to get blown up in some war? Then you want to give up another two years at the front, throwing your body against munitions with the boys? Come home and raise up some house boys and girls from the coast and then throw them out, too? We’re just the caretakers for the fodder, Raine, when we’re not the fodder. If it’d been you here at home while we fought the war, it wouldn’t have been any easier. At least you had a dream of home. I was already home. I knew it was all a lie.”

“I won’t have a state that treats my body as a disposable thing.”

“We all give our bodies to Nasheen. You’re not special. You keep going on about how you want to change things for men. Surprise, Raine. The whole bloody system is fucked. Nobody else in this bloody country is any better off than you are.”

“The men—”

“What’s your solution? Bring the men home but keep women in the compounds? Men get back their bodies but women don’t?”

“We’ll deal with that when it comes. The important issue right now—”

“Is men’s advocacy. Yeah, I get it. Men at the expense of women. You need to change the whole system to be free, not just improve your part in it.”

“But if we started with—”

“As soon as you improve your lot, you’ll fuck over the rest of us, the same way we did you. I know what people are like, Raine. Humanity is a monster you can never kill.”