“So we’re the real Vadeshfolders, right?” asked Square. “Me and the children, here, now. Not those adults a couple of centuries from now who took on facemasks to become supersoldiers like Loaf and Rigg.”

“That’s right. In fact, we’re talking about offering you and the other kids a chance to go back to a time soon after humans in Vadeshfold became extinct, and let you have almost the whole eleven thousand years. You just have to promise to leave this area empty, so they don’t interfere with us bringing you here.”

“When are you going to offer that?” asked Square.

“When the other kids are old enough to decide,” said Umbo. “And when you take a mate and we find the best way to get facemasks on your babies.”

Square got solemn. “These are my sisters,” he said.

“We’ve been worried about that.”

“I need to find somebody from outside. Somebody who takes the facemask as an adult.”

“They won’t be pretty,” said Umbo.

“You think I haven’t seen Rigg and Loaf? I don’t care about pretty, I care about not mating with somebody I grew up with.”

“I agree with your sentiments. So does the whole civilized species.”

“So my plan really is the best one.”

“I’m shocked that you think you’ve proven your point when I’m not aware of your having done any such thing.”

“Which means you’re not shocked, you just think it’s amusing the way I leap to conclusions and don’t show you my reasoning. You’re as bad as Rigg about that, in your own way.”

“I’m so glad to hear it,” said Umbo.

“Here’s my thinking. You can’t decide to bump us back ten thousand years till the younger ones are old enough to make a rational decision. That’s going to be years from now. Meanwhile, you have to test mating, and since I’m the oldest, that means you need me to mate. But I’m not going to mate until I find somebody from outside Vadeshfold, which means you have to take me out of here and then we have to see if the person who falls in love with me can take a facemask.”

“Another few months,” agreed Umbo.

“And during that time, what better way for me to occupy my time than to go along with Rigg on a couple of raids, really get my imitation of him down perfectly, and also learn how he leads other men in war. So I can do it in his place.”

“What makes you think you’ll like killing people any more than Rigg does?” asked Umbo.

“Maybe I’ll hate it,” said Square. “But I’m Loaf’s son, and he went for a soldier, didn’t he? He’s a good man, isn’t he? But he’s killed other men willingly enough, and it didn’t make him a monster.”