That had been before the years with Tubal Last. What was Pet’s mercy like now? Last had implied that they had learned to kill while with him. And worse, that they had learned to enjoy the act.

Impossible.

But Niko had seen more unlikely things in the course of her life. Had seen people whose actions she would have thought she could predict with confidence do strange and unexpected things, sometimes betraying secrets that they had been holding all their lives.

Last was a smart and unscrupulous man with immense wealth at his command. He’d had time as well, plenty of time to plan his revenge. Time to twist Petalia, to make them something completely different from the gentle, playful being Niko had known.

Was there any way for them to find their way back to what they had once been? Niko had never seen anyone make that journey. Sometimes you could make peace with the past but it was always still there, what happened. You couldn’t erase it without removing part of who you were.

Some people edited their memories freely, or therapeutically. But the erasure that would’ve been required to remove the violence that Last had wreaked on the Florian’s mind, that was an entirely different matter and would’ve been the same sort of death that Takraven’s clone had faced when they’d fled TwiceFar station. You could know that someone else would awaken and that they would in many ways be you, but you also knew that you would be gone.

Their flask drained, the Geglis returned to loading their ship.

23

While Niko said her goodbyes to Pet, Atlanta was once again in the kitchen. “I don’t understand Lassite,” she said to Dabry.

He didn’t take his attention away from the root he was chopping, which had appeared from his luggage, and which he said was turmeric. Half of it had gone to be sprouted in the Thing’s greenhouse, along with a similar gingerroot and some variegated reeds that smelled like peppery cinnamon.

“What don’t you understand about him?” Dabry asked.

“Why Niko keeps him around. No one seems to like him much; no one talks to him.”

“Have you talked to him?” He flicked peel away to expose saffron-colored flesh.

“I tried to.” Atlanta wrinkled her nose. “He said a lot of things about a Spiral of Destiny. And doom.”

“He does mention the Spiral of Destiny a lot. As far as I can tell, he believes Niko is walking it and the rest of us are all just here to help her. At the end of it, he says there’s something that will change the universe.” He paused before he went on. “A long time ago, Niko was part of some very important negotiations.”

“I know all that. The ones at Rourke’s Leap. He wants to be with Niko because he thinks he can show her the Spiral of Destiny?”