“You do?” I’m not sure why this surprises me so much. I suppose I never gave much thought to other region leaders’ children, so I don’t know why anyone would care about me.
Her expression turns sly and frustrated. “Yes, I do.”
“Okay, well, it’s nice to meet you.” I don’t know if that sentiment is entirely true, or reciprocated. “May I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
Getting information from someone who does not want you to have said information requires one of two approaches: force, or persuasion. Knowing when to apply which is a delicate art, like glassblowing. Air and pressure and heat. For Faith here, more a handmaiden than an Order soldier, the weapon is persuasion. “Why do you know Eos’s real name?”
Faith blushes, eyes frantic. “Why do I—I never said?—”
“You almost did, though.” I smile. “It’s okay, Taylor has me under lock and key, and I’m in no position to snitch on anyone, am I?”
Faith licks her lips, still suspicious. “I guess not.”
“I’m curious. Taylor doesn’t fraternize with anyone and lives many states away, yet you somehow know her well enough to be on a first-name basis, and have access to her invaluable prisoner.”
“This is a prison?” She eyes the luxurious room with a bemused smile.
“Anything you’re locked inside is a prison. Look, I’m not trying to get you in trouble. I don’t get to talk to many people, especially not anyone who knows the woman with my life in her hands. I want to get to know her better, so that…” I sit back down on the bed. “So maybe she won’t kill me when this is over.”
Faith nods, chewing on the inside of her lip as she mulls over what I’ve said. “I wouldn’t say I know her very well. I don’t think anyone does. Except maybe Mason, or—or Hunter. They see her all the time, but I only saw her over the summers.”
“The summers?”
“Yeah, they trained here every summer, the three of them. I didn’t see the others much, but Taylor was often in the library, and I was there a lot because I struggled with my studies,” she confesses softly. “The tutors here are stretched thin as it is, so she took it upon herself to help me.”
“Is that so?” Taylor’s people-patience is as thin as thread, so I can’t picture her doing the ABCs with a recruit. She has precious free time, so the fact that she’d willingly use it to help this young woman could be very telling. “So, you are not as close with Mason or Hunter?”
A shy smile creeps onto her face. “No, they were usually too busy. Taylor’s always been nice to me.”
“I bet.” Cute, fake red hair, beautiful caramel skin, nervous disposition. I chuckle.Thisis Taylor’s type. Damsels. Of course it is. “Why do you think that is?”
“I’m not sure. I think she needed a friend, especially after she lost Hunter. She’s…she’s about the loneliest person I’ve ever met.”
Taylor’s loneliness has always appeared to be a choice to me. “Hard to believe Theia’s protégé wants for companionship.”
“Being Theia’s second-in-command makes Taylor popular, but it doesn’t mean any of those people care about her. Surely you understand that, with how many people must’ve thrown themselves at you to get to Leader Piccolo?”
I do understand that. Proximity to power is intoxicating. It can seduce the most morally upstanding among us. “But you’re immune to that, are you? You want nothing?”
“Me?” Faith chuckles. “I don’t want anything from the Order. Delilah got me out of a bad situation, but I don’t want to be a soldier.”
“Then what do you want?”Or more accurately, who?
“I want to matter. To at least feel like I matter to someone,” she says, wringing her fingers. “I wouldn’t expect somebody like you to understand, but when you come from nothing, and people treat you like nothing, all you want is to have someone care about you. And Taylor, she isn’t just kind, she makes me feel like I matter, like I’m important. In return, I—I am her friend. It’s the only thing I can offer her.”
I raise an eyebrow. “That’s not wholly true. You work here, there is more you could offer her.”
“Clearly, you don’t know Taylor,” she dismisses with a snort.
“No, not as well as you do, obviously.”
“No, not as well as I do.” Her face suddenly lacks the cherubic innocence of before, but rather a stony expression has taken its place. A sludgy emotion crawls through my veins. “You assume because I’m a whore, I’m incapable of a platonic friendship?”
Well, she doesn’t mince words. I respect that. “No. I’m saying everyone is ‘friends’ until they’re not. Until a moment of passion or weakness, and then they’re much more.”
“I’ve never seen Taylor have a moment of passion or weakness.” She sounds disappointed but covers it well. “All she wants is this rebellion to succeed. So, I do what I can to help. Whether that’s the business, or being there for her, I make myself useful.” Exhaling a shaky breath, she stares me down. “You want my advice? Be useful to her. Become indispensable to the cause. Fight for her, and she’ll fight for you.”