She shrugs. “I’m just glad you finally pulled your head out of your ass. You butchering this would have been the real torture.” She pauses. “For me, that is.”
I watch her, transfixed by the relaxed contours of her familiar face. “Why are you helping me?”
“Because you need it,” she says, and I feel the truth in her words.
“I do not know your name,”I say, still unable to take my eyes off her face as she focuses on her careful dance of thread and steel.
“Amara.”
“Amara,” I repeat back, enjoying the way the sound rolls off my tongue. “I like it. Is that a common human name?”
“There aren’t any names that are common forallhumanity. We’re too … separated.”
“By what?”
“Different cultures and languages and stuff.”
Of course. Her people have many languages. “How many languages do your people have?” I ask, wishing I already knew the answer.
“A lot,” she says slowly as her face scrunches like she’s just realized something. “How is it that, out of thousands of human languages, you just happen to speak English? Not French or Spanish orwhatever else?”
“I do speak Spanish.”
“Of course you do,” she mutters.
“Mandarin too,” I add. “Like I said, I know many languages.”
“Let me guess, you’re also an accomplished marksman and you compose symphonies in your free time.”
“I do not understand.” I know what her words mean, but it feels like I am missing her meaning.
She shakes her head, a ghost of a smile on her lips.
“That was sarcasm, yes?” I ask.
She laughs. “Yeah, it was. So where are you from?” Her hands still, and she looks up at me with concern. “You’re not fromhere, right? From Calidus?”
“No one is from here.” How does she not know that? “I am from Vhorath,” I say.
“Oh, right. Forgot I knew that.”
“How did you know I am from Vhorath?” I thought she did not know anything about me.
“They told me when I was looking for your sedative—before I knew you didn’t have one.” Her hands settle on the edge of the bed. “You keep acting like I should know more about you, but then you get weirded out by the things I do know. So what’s going on? Are you a criminal or something?”
I bite back a laugh. “I am not a criminal, no.”
She resumes stitching with a hum. “Well, what’s life like on Vhorath?”
“We all speak the same language and function under the same government. We value family and community, but above all else, we value honor. Our biggest exports are weapons, wood, and produce.”
“Wood?”
“We have very large trees.”
“Huh. Alien trees.” There’s a sharp pain as she tugs on something in my side. “For some reason, I never considered whatother planets would be like. Beyond this one, obviously.” She pauses and wets her lips. “What do you miss most about it? Home, I mean.”
“That is a very personal question.”
