Nobody said anything for several seconds, and for a moment, I wondered if I had pushed too far. These people were suspicious of us, and from what they were saying, they had a right to be. Devon Alexander had wanted to take their technology and had been pretty outspoken about it. Now I was here instead of him, and I was guessing they weren’t quite sure what to make of me.

And who could blame them? I wasn’t exactly the most upright and loyal citizen to the Tower, so my behavior had to be worlds apart from what they had read about in their little book. It actually bothered me that I wasn’t looking at it even now, trying to find the parts about the Tower and get their point of view. It would help me gauge what they had learned about our life here, and what their perception of us was. They were obviously wary, but I wanted to know more about why.

I resisted the urge, though, and tried to keep my face neutral, if not mildly pleasant, while the two deliberated.

Thomas broke the silence first, with a chuckle that was as rich as it was smoky. My body tingled with awareness, and I resented every moment of it. I already felt like I was juggling two men; I had no room for a third—especially one who looked as arrogant and commanding as Thomas. I could tell he liked being in charge, taking the lead, and that was my job, dammit, not his.

“All right,” he agreed amicably. “If you’re so eager, you go first.”

I regarded him with a coolness, indifferent to the fact that he had called my bluff. I had meant what I told them: I wanted to be honest. There was an opportunity here for us to become friends, maybe even plan our escape, once we had stopped the legacies, restored Scipio, and gotten people used to the idea that other pockets of humanity had survived. Better yet, maybe we could be the first envoys from the Tower, doing what Thomas and Melissa were doing and making allies of other civilizations. I knew it would take time, but the first step down that road was telling the truth.

I started by asking them what they knew, which wasn’t much, beyond a handful of titles and names they couldn’t remember but promised me were in the book. They knew about the bio-foam, and how we repaired our broken bones and had walls that displayed medical information. I was surprised that they didn’t have all of that already, but they assured us they were working toward it, having been inspired by what they saw. I felt uncomfortable about that, like they were stealing our technology. It was something that gave us an advantage—something to trade with if the people of the Tower ever emerged. Something we could use to create relationships with the rest of the world.

Then I realized they hadn’t really stolen it. Just tried to emulate what we had done. In that light, it was a little flattering.

As for my side of things, it was impossible to tell my story in a linear way once I got started. I started by explaining who I was, my position, and my department, and gave them an idea of what we did. But that invariably led Thomas to make a comment about how it was good that we didn’t have gender discrimination, which made me ask if they did, and then they were telling me about Matrus and Patrus, the countries divided by gender. I listened in awe and horror as they told me about what life was like for the women of Patrus—treated like slaves, little better than dogs, even stolen and ripped from their homes—and the boys of Matrus, who were screened for aggressive behavior and weeded out of the populace if they tested positive. They had supposedly been sent to the mines to work, but had actually been experimented on (they wouldn’t go into detail as to how, but judging from Melissa’s and Thomas’s faces, it wasn’t good).

They asked if our society had a lower class, and in response, the three of us held up our wrists, displaying our indicators that showed our ranking. I explained to them how the ranking system worked, about the nets in our heads, but glossed over Scipio and the AIs altogether. I kept the rest of the story much simpler for them, explaining only that we had learned of a secret group that had been manipulating laws in order to gain power over the system, resulting in more and more people losing rank, while those in power remained on top.

Melissa rolled her eyes and said, “Ah, yes, no truer love story than that between people and power,” with a quirky smile that had us laughing.

In return, they told us about the former Queen Elena and her quest for power, in which she had faked Patrian aggression to start a war. In doing so, she had killed hundreds of Patrian males, and it had taken the better part of ten years for the country to rebuild. But rebuild it the Patrians did, with the help of their ally Queen Morgana, of Matrus, and Prime Chancellor Viggo Croft, of Patrus. The latter of whom, of course, was Thomas and Melissa’s father.

The siblings talked about their parents a lot. It was actually kind of sweet, and I could tell by the way they smiled and laughed that they had a very healthy relationship with both of them. I could see the love and pride beaming out of them. I envied that, a little bit, mostly because it started to drag me back to that “what if” place I had been in after my mother died, and I quickly resumed my thread in the story. Even though I omitted the AIs, I told them everything else, the words spilling out of me faster than the water the hydro-turbines sucked up from the river. It felt good to talk about it with someone who was outside of the situation. My friends and I lived, breathed, and slept with this crap on a daily basis, so talking to them about it was pointless, as they knew all of the problems. But Thomas and Melissa were different; they were safe, and neutral. They didn’t have a dog in this fight, no vested interest, and they were very sympathetic listeners, empathizing with our plight as the story unraveled. I could tell they agreed with a lot of the choices I had made.

It took over an hour for us to finish, and by the time we were done, we were all sitting around the conference table, having all sat down at various points in the conversation. Our talk had fallen off, in one of those natural pauses that occurred during lively conversation, when Leo said, “You never told us about the radiation of the Wastes. You indicated you knew what it was caused by?”

That was right. I had forgotten about that in the organic exchange of information. I leaned forward, interested in what Thomas’s answer would be. The radiation was the only thing keeping us from crossing the Wastes outside, and if they knew what was causing it, I wanted to know what it was. Maybe it was a pipe dream, but I had a hope that if we knew what it was, we could figure out how to stop it and finally leave the Tower.

Thomas blinked and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “As a matter of fact, you’re what caused it,” he said flatly, and I blinked.

“What do you mean?” I demanded. “The radiation is fallout, right? From the End?”

Melissa shook her head, her green eyes simmering with sadness. “Your Tower dumps toxic sludge into the river, and it has seeped into the surrounding area, killing everything within a hundred-mile radius, give or take.”

Disoriented by the news, I sank back into the chair. We were causing the radiation that was keeping us here? The entire time… it was our fault that we couldn’t go outside? Did the other councilors know? Was this just some unforeseen byproduct of the Tower that no one predicted? Or worse, was it some sort of deterrent to keep others away from us? What was it doing to the rest of the world?

“The two-hundred-mile radius is also barren, but in the three- to four-fifty range, things start to get interesting,” Thomas added, seeming to read my mind.

I didn’t like this. He was beginning to speak cryptically again, meaning he was hiding something.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What gets interesting?”

Melissa rolled her eyes and smacked her brother on the arm. “He’s being a jerk. Just ignore him. Basically, the toxic stuff you dump back into the river has done something to the environment and surrounding atmosphere, and has kind of created its own ecological system.”

“I…” I looked over at Leo, who shook his head, and Maddox, who shrugged, looking as bewildered as I felt. No, I was beyond bewildered. I was downright deflated. All I knew was that the very thing that was keeping us alive was also keeping us trapped inside. “Thank you for telling me that,” I told them.

Thomas nodded solemnly, and for several long seconds the group fell into silence. I didn’t mind; I was still trying to process the bombshell they had just dropped on me. Then he started speaking again, this time with a note in his voice that signaled a change of topic.

“You know, in situations like these, I am permitted to offer people from an oppressed culture refuge in Patrus. We obviously wouldn’t be able to handle the entire Tower’s population, but from what you’ve said, you don’t have many people on your side helping to fight against these legacy cats that are messing everything up.”

“Cats?” Maddox echoed, cocking her head.

In my opinion, she was focusing on the wrong damn thing. He had just told us he could give us an escape. Freedom from the Tower’s insane laws and broken systems. From the nets in our skulls and Scipio’s watchful and polluted gaze. We could be free, breathe fresh air, see the world without the glass of the Tower warping our view of it!

“It means people,” Melissa said dismissively. “Anyway, my brother is right, but there’s a catch. We couldn’t take you all now. One of you must come with us to lodge a formal petition with the government and request permission. That person would need to give our people information on how many you intended to bring into our country, and what sort of skills they would be contributing to Patrian society. Then our people will have to deliberate and decide, but we could push them for a decision within a week, given the precariousness of your situation. No matter what they decide, I promise that when you next see is, it won’t be without the representative you send.”

“You’re in luck that we need males in the population,” Thomas added with a wry smile.

I frowned and gave him a look, uncertain how to interpret that remark. Was he saying that women wouldn’t get in? I wasn’t sure of the numbers offhand, but if they were offering refugee status to our people, the top of my list of applicants consisted of the Paragon-takers we had been supporting. But I didn’t know how many males there were versus females. I narrowed my eyes at him, about to ask.

His sister smacked him again before I could even open my mouth, this time with a slap loud enough that his gasp of pain was believable. “Ouch,” he said, rubbing a spot on his shoulder. “Brat.”

Melissa ignored him. “My brother didn’t mean that as it sounded,” she told us. “All people are welcome. We just have to screen them for any potential threats, and then give cross-cultural training classes to prepare them for Patrian society.” She paused and gave us a small smile. “If you’re interested, of course.”

I considered her offer and didn’t hate it. Our Paragon supply was already waning, having been diluted in our attempt to manufacture more for the people we were supporting, and now that my brother had been added to the list of people who needed it, we would be out sooner rather than later. Jasper had taken a pill to run a chemical analysis on it, to help us get the formula, but he wasn’t awake, and we had no idea when he would be—or if he even still had any analysis he might have run.

Not to mention, I had been wanting to do something to help those people for a long time, and this was an opportunity to actually free them from this life. I had once considered asking them to join in the fight against the legacies, because I needed people I could trust to help us (and dependency bred a form of trust, I supposed), but this solution was far better. And it helped get that particular loose end off my plate, so I could have more worrying time for the other problems.

Maybe it was a little callous of me, but I really could use a break. This seemed like a good one, but it also wasn’t only on me. “Can we have a few minutes to talk about this, please? Alone?” Thomas and Melissa nodded and stood up. I watched them go for a second, and then on impulse asked, “Can you send in my other people while you’re at it? They need to be included in the conversation as well.”

“I can tell you’re used to being in charge,” Thomas said laughingly. “But yes, Your Championess, I will summon your people for you.” He executed a courtly bow while I flushed bright red with embarrassment. I could’ve gotten up and retrieved Quess and my twin myself, but it was habit to ask someone leaving the room to do things for me.

The privilege of power, I supposed. Had to be careful of that in the future if I was going to be dealing with a sovereign ally.

I kind of liked the sound of that, and found myself wondering what the future would hold if I could manage to pull off saving the Tower and eradicating the legacies. There were so many things that I wasn’t certain of, but one thing I did know: the intrusion of Thomas and Melissa had brought a sliver of hope into our lives. We hadn’t had that in a long time… and the future was starting to look brighter by the second.