“I think about gouging out Suhail’s eyes with my bare hands.” She said it through gritted teeth. “I think about shooting Nashira a hundred times, in every part of her body. I think about stabbing Gomeisa in the gullet, but I know they’d kill me first, so I don’t do it.”

“But if you think like that, you’ll be stuck here forever,” Julian said gently. “Do you want that?”

“Of course I don’t want that. I want to go home. Whatever that means.” Liss turned her away. “I know what you must think of me. You think I’ve got no backbone.”

“Liss,” I said, “we didn’t mean—”

“Yes, you did. I don’t blame you. But let me tell you something, if you want knowledge so much. There was a rebellion here during Bone Season XVIII, back in 2039. The whole human population of Sheol I rose up against the Rephs.” The pain in her eyes aged her by decades. “They all died—amaurotics, voyants, the whole lot. Without the red-jackets to fight them, the Emim got in and killed them all. And the Rephs just let them do it.”

I looked at Julian. He didn’t take his eyes off Liss.

“They said they deserved it. For their disobedience. It was the first thing they told us when we arrived.” She ran her cards between her fingers. “I know you’re both fighters, but I don’t want to see you die here. Not like that.”

Her words silenced me. Julian rubbed a hand over his head, looking at the stove.

We didn’t go back to the subject of rebellion. We ate the beans, scraping the cans clean. Liss kept her deck on her lap. After a minute, Julian cleared his throat.

“Where did you live, Liss? Before this.”

“Cradlehall. It’s near Inverness.”

“What’s Scion like up there?”

“Same as down here, really. The big cities are all under the same system, but with a smaller security force than London. They’re still bound by Inquisitorial legislation, like the citadel.”

“Why did you come south?” I said. “Surely the Highlands were safer for voyants.”

“Why does anyone go to SciLo? Work. Money. We need to eat just as much as amaurotics.” Liss drew a sheet around her shoulders. “My parents were too afraid to live in central Inverness. Voyants aren’t organized there, not like the syndicate. Dad thought we should try our luck in the citadel. We spent our savings to get to London. We approached some mime-lords, but none of them needed soothsayers. Once the money ran out, we had to busk just to get a doss at night.”

“And you were caught.”