The Stormwatch encircled the room. Thyssa had never seen so many in one place. Bringing up the rear was the Lord Protector himself, in his huge pauldrons and cape. Not only had Lili followed her, but she’d brought the entire army!

  “I must congratulate you on defeating Watchful,” said Lili. “He’s threatened the Walled Garden since its first bricks were laid. So have you malforms.”

  Thyssa’s eyes darted from spear to spear. This was bad. Her instincts screamed at her to run, to fight her way through the circle, to survive, just as she had done all her life. But her traitor heart wouldn’t allow it. Merryway had saved her. Fought for her. Even knowing what she was. She wasn’t running. Not until she’d saved Merryway. They would get out of this together, or not at all.

  She had to stall Lili long enough to heal the wound.

  “You don’t sound surprised about Watchful. You knew I’d kill him?”

  Lili shrugged. “I knew one of you would kill one of you. Leaving the other badly weakened.”

  “And Merryway here is just collateral damage.”

  Lili turned solemn. “Your fault, not mine.”

  “It never is your fault, is it?” Thyssa glared up at Lili. “How’d you get past the trials?”

  “Oh, it was nothing,” said Lili. “A bit of imagination, a bit of faith. It’s all quite easy for a human. Especially perfect humans. Even the Cavern of Yourself would have had nothing evil to reflect. But, then, it’s gone anyway – I see an animal lost its temper and smashed it.”

  Thyssa gritted her teeth, but didn’t show it – didn’t dare show Lili she was getting under her skin. “An animal? That’s all I am to you? After all we did together? After all the talks, all the tests?”

  “After all the killing.”

  “Dr. Goodfellow was hurting me.”

  “That lie again?”

  “And if you hate killing so much, why work with the Stormwatch? You always hated them.”

  “They’re working with me,” said Lili. “We don’t usually see eye-to-eye. Really, this is a testament to the strength of diplomacy and compromise. It’s simply amazing what you can do, with reason and calm.”

  Thyssa looked up at Lili, eyes pleading. “You can reason with them, but not me?”

  “We are perfect. You are irredeemable.”

  “That wasn’t what you told me before.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Lili sighed. “No, it wasn’t. But that’s what scientists do, Thyssa. They change their minds based on evidence. No duty but to truth.” She extended a hand. “The Benevolent Heart and Sapient Brain. Give them to me.”

  The bleeding stopped, and then Merryway’s blood began to flow back into them, as if the wound were a drain. It was a miracle…but a slow one.

  “Why do you want them, anyway?”

  “We need both stones to perform Scission,” said Lili. “Ever since Watchful stole the Sapient Brain, we couldn’t make any more perfect humans. Our population has stagnated – as have our ideas! More and more, we are isolated, fearful, looking down on the rest of the world. We are a perfect people, but we have an imperfect culture.”

  “Is making everyone perfect really worth all this?” asked Thyssa. “What’s wrong with just ordinary people?”

  “War!” shouted Lili. “Starvation! Pollution! Did you think our lakes were always poison? Did you think food was always so precious? This very temple – where are those who built it?”

  “The humans…killed each other?”

  “In droves! Hate Dr. Goodfellow’s legacy if you must, but he invented Scission because he knew what Watchful forgot: Either we remove our sins, or they remove us.”

  “You’ll be making more of us. You couldn’t even get along with one.”

  “I haven’t given up on your kind,” said Lili. “Just you. You said it yourself – you’re not all alike. My evils are not someone else’s. I just need to find more compliant subjects and, through them, I’ll have the malforms all under control.”

  “Because you’ll dangle your toys over them. You’ll let them be human, and all they have to do is serve your every whim.”

  “Some creatures need to have little treats dangled over them, Thyssa. And others don’t comply even with them. Even when it is utterly irrational, utterly futile, they writhe and bite, unable to accept themselves or the world.”

  “If I can’t accept this world, it’s because it’s unjust. And if you can, it’s because that injustice benefits you.”

  “Poetic. I wonder if you got that from me, or the Sapient Brain. Will you hand over the stones now, or should I treat those beautiful words as your last?”

  About half the blood was back where it belonged. But the Sapient Brain warned her that Merryway would still die if she stopped channeling its power.

  “One thing I still don’t understand –”

  “Your ignorance is deeper than this revolting Muckpool that spawned you. It would take longer to rectify than your natural life. I will wait no longer. Stones or die.”

  The circle of Stormwatch closed around Thyssa.

  Thyssa turned to them, facing one blank mask after another. “Merryway is only alive because I’m keeping them alive, with all my strength. With all the stones’ strength. If you interrupt now, you’ll be killing a human. Not like me. A human-human. You know? Those two-legged things you swore to protect?”

  “We swore to protect the Walled Garden from outsiders,” said the Lord Protector. They kept marching forward.

  “All I need is more time!”

  “We don’t give a damn what you need,” spat the Lord Protector. “You killed good people, and we’ll make you suffer for it.”

  They pointed their spears at her, which glowed bluish-white as they charged up. Thyssa realized she was going to die for Merryway. So this was where her feelings led. It was like her mother said. The Benevolent Heart had made her weak. Weak in a way she could never have understood before. She had the stones with her. She could have escaped. But it was too late to be selfish. She had lived like a human, and now she would die like one.

  “The righteous protect the weak,” recited the Lord Protector. “They will guard the innocent, and strike down any who would harm them –”

  Just then, a great and terrible hand burst through the surface of the Muckpool, grabbing the Lord Protector and hurling him across the room. He hit the wall with a sickening crack, armour and bone alike shattered.

  “LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE.”