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Ibai did as she asked, but he didn’t look disappointed, as she might have expected. Perhaps he’d just been trying to revive the conversation.

Emiliana decided to try a different approach. “Why are you with Abolish?”

The Monster tilted his head at her.

She understood his reaction. The question probably wasn’t contextually appropriate. But this calmness was playing on her, it seemed. She wanted to get a better idea of what she was dealing with here, of who she was dealing with. If rumors were to be believed, this thing standing before her was without humanity or mercy, more like a force of nature than a human being.

Though, to be fair, as she looked at him, she could certainly see where those rumors had come from.

“You do not seem so terrible,” Emiliana went on, wondering if she was pushing her luck here. She felt like she had a bit of leverage to work with, though she couldn’t tell how much.

“What do you know of Abolish?” Gohvis asked her.

Emiliana wasn’t sure how to answer that. It sounded like a loaded question.

The Monster answered for her. “You know only what the Vanguard wants you to know. You know half-truths and propaganda.”

“Enlighten me, then.”

“I will,” said Gohvis. “In time.”

The way he said that made Emiliana feel almost as if it were impossible to question him. If not for this stillness in her mind, she might have succumbed. “Why not now?” she asked.

Again, Gohvis took his time. “This is not the place for it.”

That made Emiliana look around. Rocky wilderness was all she saw--excepting, perhaps, the narrow valley in front of them. It did seem like a strange place for Gohvis to have stopped, and she was about to ask why when an interruption arrived.