upon himself. He didn’t move when I entered, and I half wondered if he was already dead. I nudged his still form roughly with my foot; eventually he stirred and looked up at me blearily. After a moment, his eyes came into focus and he realized who was standing over him. He tensed immediately.
“Enforcer. What do you want?”
“The truth,” I replied. “Earlier, when you said that there were other alternatives besides the Contract. What did you mean?”
“The truth is subjective. Do you want my truth, or the geroi’s?”
“Just answer my question.”
His gray eyes held mine; my gaze didn’t falter, and finally he dropped his own. He sighed. “All I meant was that there are other alternatives. Other ways to survive that don’t involve all of us handing our lives over to the geroi.”
“Such as?”
He rolled over on his side, looking away from me. It was a very child-like gesture, and it made me realize how young he really was. How young we both were, honestly. I was only halfway through my seventh year, and he couldn’t be much older. It seemed grossly unfair, suddenly, that he was going to die before he’d ever really lived.
But have you really lived, either?
“It’s just a legend, really,” Eos interrupted my thoughts. “A rumor. But… there’s talk among the plivoi. That maybe the geroi’s scientists were wrong. That maybe there really is a way to stop the atmosphere from depleting. That maybe Iamos can be saved after all.”
I was confused. “But if there were a way to stop this, wouldn’t the geroi have tried it?”