“It was years ago,” he began. “Lir was already a Fiveson, and Aric held up Lir’s feat to all of us as the kind of offering any potential Fiveson should aspire to. And I did.”

Unbidden, memories of that night crashed around her like waves. Lir had used her to get to her family, then he’d taken her brother under his wing, all to please Aric.

“There were no Fivesons before us. It was new. The fastest way to the top. And we all knew that whoever succeeded Aric would be among them. We went a little wild with it. One day, we were young Bullets. We trained, we followed orders, we served knowing eventually, if we proved ourselves, we’d be rewarded; taken off rotation and sent to the Holster to raise children for Aric.” He glanced up at the sky, steadying himself there before continuing on. “The next day, we were each competing to be more dangerous than every other Bullet we knew. We trained harder, but we also looked for opportunities to prove we could be dispassionate in the service of the Father.” He paused there, searching for the exact words that would drive his point home. “We looked for opportunities to practice cruelty.”

Caledonia’s stomach knotted. Her mind spun through so many terrible possibilities. She’d heard many tales of Bullet cruelty from her girls. She’d believed each and every one. There was no reason for them to lie.

But this time was different. This time, she wanted none of it to be true.

“When Bullets are still coming into their prime, they’re assigned to the AgriFleet. I was there longer than some because I was given—no, I took—the opportunity to command. I was responsible for all the youngest recruits, and I was hard on them. I saw the way people feared Aric, the way they talked about Lir, and I knew if I wanted to stand with them, I had to do something worthy of their notice. Something more than Lir had done.” His lips pressed flat in a private sneer. Every muscle in his body was tense. Caledonia wished she could reach out and soothe him, but her body was just as tense.