Jericho goes stiff and pales, his features tightening. The delusion’s never been this way and anxiety looks alien on him. “A Heretic ship? What ship?”

“Just like the last time, a warship came with the three units that keep attacking Rootsdown. You know them. Beggar, Tinker, and Sailor. And just like the last time, we destroyed the ship.”

“So a ship came with them? What kind of ship?”

“What? Who knows? Who cares? It was a Heretic ship. You think I know what Heretics call their ships? They’re roaches to me. I destroyed it. We got the mechs, too. Good riddance.”

Jericho turns from her, paces in tight turns, digs his fingers into the flesh of his arms. The delusion has always pretended to be more human than he is, but this wide-eyed toddler act is working her last nerve. “Why are you so upset?”

“There were people on that ship. You murdered them.”

“It’s war. What is it you think soldiers do?”

He inhales and exhales deliberately, not looking at her. “I didn’t think—the war hasn’t been that way in ages, I thought—” He runs thin hands through his sandy hair. “So. I see.”

In her dreams Misery has never brought up the scores of nobility she sacrificed before the Larex Forge. She’s been the bladesaw of the Demiurge, only she’s doubly unapologetic about it now. It needed to be done. The masses of the Faithful needed the wake-up call. And yet—why should she confess any of this to a mere delusion? Jericho only serves to entertain her; he has no will independent of her own.

Or does he? Misery presses him again: “Why are you so upset about Heretic deaths?”

“Because they’re people, Misery. Heretics are people. I know the Church of the Faithful teaches otherwise, but I didn’t think you really bought into that rhetoric.”

“Well, you thought wrong.” There it is. Misery understands: the nullvoid is trying to seed doubt in her soul. Make her feel bad for what she’s done. But she won’t. “Haven’t you realized? I’m chosen of the Larex Forge. My mother was right about me. What I did today was absolute proof.”

“You don’t care about killing people?”

“I do care. I care very much about killing voidtouched assholes. I saw my mother ripped to pieces by the nullvoid. Right in front of me, when I was a kid. I’ll never stop having nightmares. And the Heretics want us to be friends with the void? Worship the void? They’re evil. They’re delusional. They want humanity destroyed, is what they want. So I do care. It’s my life’s goal to end their existence. I won’t stop until they’re all dead. Every last one of them.”