“Is this what you’ve been stewing on?” Sveta asked me.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“How bad, on a scale of one to ten?” Rain asked.

“What’s a ten?” Tristan asked. He was already eating.

“Gold Morning,” Rain said, dead serious.

“Seven, then,” I said.

“I would have called the Goddess situation a seven, with what happened to the prison,” Rain said. He was entirely serious now.

I’d wanted to handle this better. I returned to the acronym.

“Where do you guys stand on the subject of Chris?” I asked.

“Oh,” Rain said. He looked a little crestfallen at the name. “That’s ominous.”

“Is he okay?” Kenzie asked.

“I don’t know. We don’t have any updates on what he’s doing right now, or how he is, but we do have information about him.”

“I always had a bad feeling,” Sveta said. “It started as a small discomfort when he was in the group. I could sympathize, turning into a monster, not having control, but… it was always a bad feeling and the little things only added to it, never really making that feeling less intense.”

“I really don’t want to spoil a reuniting of the team with us dumping on Chris,” Kenzie said.

“I’m not,” Sveta said.

“You really kinda are,” Kenzie said. “And I understand why, he left and that sucks. It’s easier to deal with if you get angry instead of sad.”

“Kenzie,” Sveta said, and her voice was lower, “I understand that you want to respect Chris and his feelings—”

“And you should want to too!”

“—but please respect me and don’t minimize my feelings to protect his.”

“He’s not here to defend himself, so if I’m being forced to take a side then I’m going to take his. I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Sveta said. “I’m sorry too.”

Ashley approached her, sitting on the desk beside Kenzie’s keyboard, a bowl and chopsticks in hand. She didn’t look like she was having an easy time with the chopsticks.

“We’re not dumping,” I said. “At least, that’s not the intent. I respect that Sveta’s instincts were to be uncomfortable around Chris.”

“I don’t like the word instincts,” Sveta said.

“Fair. Feelings?” I offered.

“Feelings,” Sveta said.

“And I don’t want to condemn him either,” I said. “But what I’ve found out looks pretty bad. It’s up to you guys if you want to tackle this in one way or another. We could raise the subject tomorrow.”

“I won’t sleep all night if I’m busy imagining the worst outcomes,” Rain said.

“I want to know,” Kenzie said, looking stubborn.

“I’m not sure you do,” Ashley told her.

“I do.”

I looked at Sveta.

“You told the others?” Sveta asked.

“A little less loaded. Easier to bring up,” I replied.