Showtime. “My mother saw angels. Sometimes they visited her in dreams, sometimes they danced in the air. People said she was voidmad, but she always kept her faith. She told me that one day the angels would come for me, too. Lead me to my destiny. She died when I was a child, but what she told me came true. That day—twelve years since her passing—I heard a voice in the air. I followed, into the desert. There zie was, shimmering in the heat, a mirage in the shape of a person not much older than I. Zie spoke to me in words I could understand. Zie told me that the time had come. What my mother told me … it was true. I was being called to service by the Larex Forge. The Demiurge had an important plan for my life. Zie said I was the pivot around which the fate of the Faithful would revolve, and that my first mission was to protect the colony from the Heretics. It was a test.”

“I see.” The Archbishop must be used to hearing from would-be Messiahs; their expression does not shift a picron. “Tell me, then. What happened that day?”

“That day.” Misery shuts her eyes and sways slightly. This is an important bit. “That day, I followed my angel’s guidance. I took myself across the desert that separates the living quarters from the military base that rings Rootsdown.”

Ruin snorts. “You followed your angel’s guidance? Now which of us is being delusional?”

Misery ignores that. “With the angel’s help I got inside the base and located the radar room. My intrusion triggered an alarm, which set the base on high alert, and because of that the Heretic’s imminent attack was revealed. It was all part of the plan.”

None of this is a lie, by the way. All of it happened. Of course her version is somewhat embellished, but who doesn’t embellish these things? The truth is, when Ruin came to her she had been trying to escape Rootsdown for a while. Since Mother died, she had no reason to remain on that voidinfected dust ball. Misery had planned to hitch a ride off a merchant vessel, but Ruin’s appearance convinced her—made her realize—that it would be much faster to steal a military ship, which would have independent codes for the jump gates. And because she has bonemeal for brains, that’s exactly what Misery tried to do. Followed the directions of a delusion. Waltzed into the most secure location on Rootsdown imagining she wouldn’t get caught. Genius-level shit, there.

Imagine if she’d stuck to the original plan. Imagine if she’d snuck into some beacon-layer’s clutch hold instead. Imagine where she’d be now, what she’d be doing.