She should go to bed early, but the restlessness won’t let her. After being so much out of her flesh, she wants to stay connected to it. She wants to stay close to other bodies. The other pilots gather in loose, gossipy clumps, and from the frequency of furtive glances in her direction she can tell that she’s the topic of conversation. Word will get around about her extraordinary performance today. Her feelings on this remain in flux. Being a public figure is new, still, and the gulch of notoriety is patchworked with opportunity and pitfall. Social clout is a multi-edged blade, which she must wield very carefully. For now, it looks like the General’s gamble is paying off from the outside, so her position is safe. It gives her time to gather her strength, to strategize.

Let the servings gossip. Let their imaginations overheat. Let the rumors tenderize the ground for the casting of false belief.

A hand closes around her elbow, unexpected and warm. She stifles the instinct to punch. In her tiredness and introspection, she’s failed to notice someone sneaking up on her from behind. It’s only her captain, who disappeared somewhere right after training ended, and has just manifested in the dining area. Sunyata Diamond says, “Misery. I hope I didn’t startle you.”

“Not at all,” she lies. “Is something the matter?”

“No, no. I just wanted to speak with you. I—pardon my foolishness. I know this will sound strange, but I must thank you.”

“What for?”

Misery asks this already knowing the answer. She can see it in her captain’s face. Quiet faith builds in Sunyata Diamond’s heart, citadels and minarets dashed by the cruelties of war slowly reassembling block by block. Diamond squeezes her elbow. “I have spent so many nights praying for a sign. I lost my entire crew to Heretics years ago, and since then it’s been hard to believe in a just world. Hard to believe in a Demiurge that looked out for us. I thought Zie had turned from me, that Hir ears were closed to my pleas. I almost lost faith. But now, here you are. I was a fool to underestimate Hir Grace.”

“You are only human,” Misery says, thick and gentle as a cloud. Sermonizing comes so easy to her, and now seems the right time for it. But not the brimstone and fire she summoned back in the Capital. Her captain needs comfort, and she can offer it. “Doubt is the natural state of the human condition. It’s how we survive.”

“Indeed,” Diamond says. “Yet—forgive me all the same. I should not have doubted.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” My child. Misery zips her lips in time. She hated when Crem said that.