“A roving band of killers,” Miss Militia said. “They suffered losses in the city I was protecting and went recruiting to replace their own. The prospective recruits who didn’t cooperate were made to cooperate. Swansong included.”

“Thank you for the clarification,” Luis said.

It almost sounded like that was another rebuke, not a pleasantry.

“I was thrown into battle against one of Miss Militia’s colleagues. He killed me. I was brought back from death, thrown into more danger. The hardest head could be softened by that much dying.”

Chris spoke up, “You say that, but there’s another you out there who got harder, not softer. You reveled in those days you spent with the Slaughterhouse, and she still does.”

“What are you doing?” Ashley asked him.

“Commenting.”

He sounded like some blend of irreverent and resentful as he made his ‘comments’. It jarred with how everything else seemed to be an ongoing dance. I could see tension and betrayal across my team. Kenzie smiled. Even Vista looked bothered.

“You reveled,” Luis said.

“Not quite that.”

“It’s good,” Luis said. He smiled. “We’re always hungry to get insights about how your kind think and operate. We study you voraciously, even now that we aren’t being ordered to, we compile records, we send ambassadors to talk to your experts and we pay them. But a simple, brief explanation helps. You reveled.”

“A simple brief explanation from him is going to be misleading.”

“So we can’t trust them. You’re here to warn us, not to reassure?”

Ashley clenched one of her hands.

This is a charade. A dangerous charade with the lives of millions who were counting on food and shelter may not get that.

“Why do your kind want things like kingdoms, island chains, or pieces of cities?” Yosef asked.

“Do you know how we get powers?” Ashley asked.

“We know. As well as you do, I think.”

Right. Goddess had mentioned they’d studied powers at her behest, with labs that rivaled Bet’s own, just with a hell of a lot more focus and motivation, and possibly a few more eureka moments.

…Possibly a little less massaging of data or focus on what was more palatable.

“We come from places of powerlessness. Hold someone down at the floor of a lake, and they fight to come up for air, but the fight doesn’t stop there. We put distance between ourselves and the water.”

Luis smiled. “She told you we like our proverbs.”

“She didn’t.”

“We do like them. You were powerless once and now you want power. You need it, a dare say?”

“I dare say it depends on the person,” Ashley said, defensive.

“Dare say,” Luis said, and he winked at Ashley. “The little prizes you learn when you pick up a tongue.”

“Will you chatter or will you step back, Luis?” Yosef asked.