“Oh, Ulla, it’s so good to hear your voice,” she said. “I have no idea how long it’s been since I talked to you. I’d swear it was yesterday, but it also feels like it’s been ages.”

“Yeah, I know exactly how you feel,” I agreed.

“Are you in Förening? Are you safe?” she asked.

I filled her in on the situation as I understood it, but I just barely touched on Sunniva’s recovery attempts—“Finn’s put me in touch with an aura healer to try to restore memories”—and Dagny explained that Elof hoped for something similar with the Ögonen.

As I suspected, she didn’t remember anything at all, and she wasn’t surprised by my vague recollection of a prison cell.

“And I think they were stealing my blood,” I confessed.

“Stealing your blood?” she echoed. “Like vampires?”

“No, they weren’t drinking it.” I paused, thinking. “I don’t know what they’re doing with it. Maybe drinking it, I guess. But they took it with a syringe. I don’t know if they took yours or not, but I have some scars on my left forearm.”

“I had no new marks on my arms, but I did have a three-quarter-inch scar on my right temple, a two-day-old bruise on my ribs, and a three-inch diagonal healing cut across my lower back,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“You sound awfully certain,” I commented.

“Elof and I did full-body exams for any new marks. It was the only way we could discern any abuse or violations.”

“And you didn’t see anything that could be a needle mark?” I asked.

“No, and we specifically checked for that. But Elof did find a pair of odd dots he thought might be from a psionic stun gun’s prong.”

“Sorry you guys went through that,” I said.

“You went through it too,” Dagny reminded me gently. “I’ll talk to Elof and see if he has theories about why they wanted your blood. I’m sure he’ll have questions. Is it okay if he calls you later?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“What are you going to do now?” Dagny asked. “Are you staying in Förening?”

“For the immediate future, I think so.”

Truth was that I didn’t know where else to go. With my internship gone, I was out of work, and I didn’t have a place to live. Most of my possessions—other than the boxes stored in the Holmes’s basement and what I still had in my duffel bag—were in the apartment. I’d have to go to Merellä to get my things soon, not just because I wanted my stuff but to free up the space so Dagny could find a new flatmate.

I told her as much, and I promised to square up the back rent as soon as I could.