Next morning, Piper came to find her.

Ragnar had a deeply suspicious look on his face as he let the woman in. Piper, for her part, acted like she had the patience of a martyr while the harbinger stared at her.

"I don't remember sending for you," Ragnar said.

"You didn't, Harbinger," Piper replied with a small nod that might have doubled as a bow. "I came to see if Selena wanted company."

Selena had no idea what Nayanor customs were like. She'd grown so used to Ragnar being in charge that it hadn't occurred to her what other women on Luminos had to deal with. In addition to their fated warriors, they had to put up with the strict hierarchy that clearly ruled the planet.

"Company?" Ragnar asked.

"Yes," Piper replied while Selena gave her an encouraging nod, anxious to see more of the fortress, Isidor-Fol. "I know you must be busy with the haul and I could show Selena around, share my experience, tell her about the customs and everything."

The harbinger had a weirdly skeptical expression for such a simple request. When he replied, Selena realized what the problem was.

"It sounds very similar to a custom we abolished a while ago," Ragnar said tersely. "It's no longer common for females to be introduced to Luminos by other Terrans. I'm sure Mjorn has told you this."

Piper's distasteful look told Selena that the woman had definitely met Mjorn and possibly had some interesting conversations with the man.

"Yes, Harbinger," Piper replied despite that. "I know he has taken up the duty to keep us in check, but I thought that since Selena was your fated, it wouldn't be a problem."

She was good, Selena had to admit. While being respectful, she was buttering Ragnar up by implying that the rules did not apply to a harbinger.

From what she'd seen so far, they didn't.

It was time for her to open her mouth too.

"I would like that," Selena told her fated. "I met Piper on your ship. I don't think she's the type to show me escape routes as a part of the tour."

Ragnar observed them both. It was an odd experience for Selena. She couldn't remember needing permission to go somewhere since she'd been a child, but Luminos truly was a paranoid place. She and Piper waited until the harbinger gave a rough nod.

"Very well," he allowed. "I have other duties and I don't want my female to be locked up in here like a prisoner. Show her the fortress, Piper, but remember your place."

Piper didn't reply. Selena got the sense that what the woman would have had to say wasn't very polite, so she wisely kept it to herself.

They saw Ragnar off before being left alone in the massive hall.

Piper turned to her and the comforting, wide smile was back on her face.

"So how have you been?" she asked right off the bat. "The first two days are always the worst, kind of dreamlike. Some women expect to wake up or be rescued. You wouldn't believe what they look like when they wake up in the morning and it's still good old Luminos.

"You look like you're still sane, so that's good."

Selena laughed. It was nice to have someone by her side who could joke about their terrible situations.

"I'm fine, I guess," she admitted. "Shocked, but slowly getting used to this. It's not like I have a choice in this. No one has ever escaped Luminos, have they?"

A weird look flashed behind Piper's eyes as she shook her head.

"Not yet, no," she said.

"What do you mean?" Selena asked, instantly curious. "Are you telling me that someone will try?"

Piper gestured to the great hall around them. Natural daylight was seeping in from a route that Selena couldn't figure out, given that they were deep inside a wall of rock. It bathed the throne room in a bright aura, illuminating the statues of Nayanor warriors.

"Look at this place," Piper said, shrugging. "It's pretty, I'll give the bastards that. I like the throne room, but this is the nicest room in Isidor-Fol. And even here, don't you get that feeling? A big, positively massive space that only few people live in?

"It's a tomb. All the fortresses are tombs. Luminos is a dead world, but Nayanors simply won't admit it. They have stubbornness in their blood. I wouldn't blame any woman who wanted to get off this planet. Many have tried before. I'm sure many more will try too."

Selena supposed that it was true, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Piper hadn't told her the whole truth. Her doubt deepened when Piper flashed another smile and said:

"Let's talk about something else. There will be plenty of time to ponder over the meaning of our existence here. If there's one thing Nayanors have gotten right, it's the name of the storm that you'll see in a few months. It definitely is long. People get a tad philosophical at that time."

Selena chuckled. They left the throne room behind, walking along a vast hallway toward a waiting hovercarrier.

"These are absolutely necessary," Piper explained. "You'll get one too, I'm sure, when the harbinger trusts you to move around alone. The place is humongous and you haven't even seen the Black Hall. It's the largest fortress.

“My fated Dyo took me there once. I have never gotten agoraphobic and claustrophobic at the same time, much less indoors. They say even Nayanor warriors have gotten lost in the depths and been found decades later."

"Dead?" Selena asked, shocked. "I thought they were practically immortal."

"Yes and no," Piper said. "The diadons are very powerful and Nayanors are tough as well. It's very hard to kill one. And they can endure unbelievable conditions if they need to. Young warriors like to play a game when the storm approaches, testing how long they can withstand it. But they still need food and water to survive. They'll outlive a human, but there is a limit."

That made sense, but Piper's words had triggered another topic that Selena's mind refused to let go.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Sure," Piper said as they climbed into the hovercarrier and started driving along the walkway.

It was so long that Selena couldn't see where it ended. There was about a mile of empty path ahead of them and then it all blurred into a single point of indistinguishable darkness.

"Do you know what happened to Ragnar's brother?" Selena asked. "I get the feeling there's a story there, but he won't tell me. The only thing Ragnar told me was that it wasn't a warrior's death. Did he get lost in the fortress too? I figure some sort of accident happened and Ragnar is too embarrassed by that to tell me."

Piper's eyes flicked to her and back to the stone road they were driving on.

"Yeah, I know," she said. "I found the body."

Selena's eyes went wide.

"And?" she urged her friend on. "What happened?"

"I don't think I'm the person that should tell you this," Piper admitted. "If the harbinger didn't want to share it with you, I don't think he'd be too thrilled with either of us if I did."

Selena considered. She understood Piper's logic and she didn't want to put her first and only friend in a tough situation. Ragnar might have prettied it up, but they were both prisoners and had to stick together. The curiosity burned in her heart, though.

"Tell me something," she asked quietly. "Anything."

It was Piper's turn to give her answer a bit of thought.

"Well," she finally said. "It wasn't an accident, that's for damn sure. But I already said too much."

"All right," Selena said. "Thank you."

They sat in silence for a while as the hovercarrier buzzed soothingly, like a mechanical lullaby.

"I just thought that if I figured it out, I could understand Ragnar better," Selena explained. "The bond between us isn't going to work, but it's not going to go away either, so I must find a way to coexist with him."

She paused.

"How about you and Dyo?" Selena asked. "What is your fated like?"

There – like a secret you caught out of the corner of your eye – a smile tugged at the corners of Piper's lips and then it was gone again. Selena would have thought she imagined it, but Piper's voice changed when she talked about her fated. It became softer, somehow, not entirely fitting the words coming out of her mouth.

"Dyo is fine," Piper said, trying to sound disinterested. "He's a powerful warrior and he's definitely not as bad as some Nayanors out there. Wait until you meet Mjorn."

"I did," Selena groaned. "That guy could charm the paint off walls."

Piper laughed, nodding.

"He sure could," she admitted before the smile disappeared. "But be careful with him. Mjorn has a special hatred for women. I don't know where it comes from. Maybe it's because he never bonded or maybe he just can't stand us. The point is he'll take any opportunity to make us look bad."

"I got the same impression from him," Selena agreed, "but you're avoiding my question about Dyo."

Piper snorted.

"I guess," she said, hesitating for a moment before continuing, turning the hovercarrier into another area.

There were actual people moving there. Selena was surprised to see how normal everything looked when you removed the obvious – the tomb-like structure, the fact that they were on an alien world. Terran women were moving around, children with silver streaks in their hair were playing on the ground, chasing each other.

Selena didn't miss the fact that they were all boys. So it was true – Luminos was cursed, as the Galactic Union seemed to think. Cursed with no girls being born on the planet.

Nayanor warriors were walking around as well, dressing in full armor like Ragnar, but for the first time, Selena saw Nayanors that didn't appear to be soldiers. They were all buff and powerful too, but the uniforms suggested they were something else. She made a note to ask Piper to explain later.

"It's a funny thing," Piper said carefully. "I don't know how much of this to tell you, but the bonds on Luminos aren't as simple as they sound in theory."

"I'm getting the sense nothing is easy on Luminos," Selena pointed out. "Okay, let's make a deal. I know it's hard for you to trust me because we just met. I think I get how weighty actions and words are on this planet. I'm just going to promise you that nothing you say will ever reach Ragnar's ears if you're worried about him – or anyone else's either.

"Believe me or not, it's up to you. The deal is – just don't lie to me."

Piper observed her with under the bangs of her colored hair and made a face.

"All right," she said, sounding like she'd come to a decision. "We'll see. I can tell you this, though. The fact that I can't immediately trust you is part of the problem here. It wasn't always a prison of paranoia and distrust. You remember I told you about the woman Ashley I met when I first arrived here?"

"Yes," Selena said.

"I've come to think of those times as the good ones," Piper grinned. "Unbelievable, because I'd just arrived, but I could practically smell some hope in the air. Humans were just starting to build some trust with our captors. Nayanors are assholes, but they do value us.

“It was a complicated situation and people like Ashley and her fated Zar Kohora were doing their best to take first steps toward... I don't know. Something better."

"Then Mjorn happened?" Selena asked. "Ragnar mentioned something like that. Women escaping and causing the deaths of people in the fortress by accident."

A dark shadow appeared on Piper's freckled face.

"Kathleen wouldn't see it that way, but they weren't all accidents," she replied, looking at Selena seriously. "Desperate people do desperate things, that is a universal truth."

Selena's mind was working fast, trying to figure out the things Piper wasn't telling her directly.

"You're saying some of the escapes were for revenge?" she asked. "Are you telling me someone was prepared to let hundreds of people die because they hated Nayanors so much?"

"Try thousands," Piper said bitterly. "And yes. The worst thing is that some of those women believed they were doing the right thing. Thought of themselves as kind of martyrs, starting a cleansing here on Luminos. It's messed up."

"I can't believe someone would do that," Selena said, looking at the children playing around the pillars as large as towers. "Nayanors deserve our hatred, but the others... the children."

"Yeah," Piper said, turning the hovercarrier again. "That's where it gets really complicated. You would think that the lines are pretty clear on Luminos. Nayanors brought us here by force, they're the bad guys. No one disputes that. So we humans should stick together, help each other out, right?"

"Right," Selena said.

"That's how it used to be, but not anymore," Piper said, pulling the hovercarrier over in front of a large hall where Selena could hear raised voices. "Now the lines are blurred. Everyone is an enemy and you have to wear two masks."

"I don't understand," Selena admitted as they climbed out of the carrier.

Piper nodded.

"I know," she said sadly. "You will. For now, let me warn you. I'm going to take you to meet Kathleen and the others now. They're okay otherwise, but don't say anything nice about Ragnar unless there's a Nayanor standing behind you.

"Or else it might not be Mjorn or any other Nayanor who becomes your worst enemy."