He’s right that I’m unfamiliar with the majority of Maker society. I know things run differently in Avant, and I’ve seen how resistant even the most caring of the Makers are to sharing their knowledge. Access to a Ha’i stone would mean Kor could stop drinking blood and still be well. We could help so many others to be well. Are the millions of people on this planet worth sacrificing a few?

These are not the kinds of decisions I’m equipped to make.

“Besides”—Kor reaches up to grip the silver crucifix at his neck—“we’ve found another universal blood donor, but, let’s be honest, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. This has to happen sooner rather than later.”

“Kor, we’ll find a way to—”

“My health isn’t what’s important. I’m just one person. Operation Genesis’s success is what’s important now. If all goes to plan, we’ll arrive undetected and go straight for the scrolls.”

Kor climbs through the window and jumps to the floor, then reaches up to help me through.

“The scrolls are in a very public place. It’s a school. There are teachers and children—” I say as I shimmy down. The guest room is dark and crowded and smells of mothballs.

“We’ll be cautious to avoid casualties. But this is too important. Too many years of history have been waiting for this moment.” He turns and makes his way through the obstacles in the room and out into the hall.

Casualties. As I follow Kor down the grand staircase, I feel sick with dread. Who might those casualties be? Simon, on guard at the Ark stairs? Xander at the desk—only a few weeks from giving birth? A bookish Sophist master in the library at the wrong time, sure to get involved because he’s too selfless for his own good?

Would Kor harm them for the sake of his mission? This can’t be the way. These can’t be the right hands to heal the world.

I think of my middle name, Isabella, named for Queen Isabella of Castile. She is still a revered figure in history; there are monuments of her all over the globe. It’s a common name in the Families—who all have a historical connection to her rule—and it always surprised me just how much my Jewish father despised it, how he spit at the statue of Isabella when we passed it in DC. Why had I ever been surprised by that? Her goal of a unified Spain cost tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of thousands of exiles.

The Families claim to have moved beyond their gruesome origin, but how can they not feel the echoes of the past in these choices?