CHAPTER 3

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"Nothing to worry about of course," she brushed off casually as Ryder continued to internally scream until his eyes bulged at the pressure in his throat and he forced himself to breathe.

"How –" his voice broke and he coughed, holding up a finger. "How am I not human."

"Well, either your mother has some explaining to do, or you're something that I have never seen before," she said and he had a feeling she was smiling at him.

"Well one of those weird flying wolf eagle things looked at me with a creepy black eye – does that help any?" She tapped the chin of her helmet thoughtfully. "Interesting. Well, I'm staying up all night anyway since it's my shift, so I'll take you to your dorm, then come back.

"Zachary, you are dismissed – make sure you take a look at these scans while I'm gone."

"Gotcha." He grabbed his coat and just as he was halfway through the door, she called

"And Una's teaching you tomorrow night, don't forget." The two of them heard incoherent yells of exasperation from around the corner and Ryder smiled. "I'll show you your room."

He followed her out the door and she closed it behind them, before showing Ryder the other three doors. "The door with the bottle is the medical room as you now know. The dagger is the prototype and testing weapons room. I design armour and weapons, so the newer ones I put in there to be tested. I design them in my room, which is the door with the moon," she pointed to the door and he nodded. "I also make and experiment with new medicines in there. This one is Una's room," she stopped in front of the wooden door with the carved empty circle.

"Why is your room right beside hers?" She turned to him and stared at him silently for a moment.

He had a feeling he'd asked a stupid question.

"I'm her second in command – apart from Meredith and Marcus, I'm the only person she trusts to protect her and stay by her side no matter what."

"So you guys are friends I'm guessing?" he prodded as they walked away towards his room.

"No," she replied. "Merely acquaintances." He laughed.

"Now I'm no expert, but 'acquaintances' usually don't trust each other with their lives. Hm?"

"My Lady doesn't have friends. She's –"

"The leader and everyone is below her, yeah I know – but why can't you guys still be friends?"

"After her mother died with her unborn child, her father died a few years later and Una fell into a downward spiral. She wouldn't eat, drink or go outside. Her powers were out of control. Then her older sibling left and she decided once and for all that she would never rely on anyone ever again.

"Even if she wanted to be my friend, she would force herself not to anyway." Ryder walked in silence for a while. Then an idea popped into his head.

"Can you tell me anything about her siblings?" he asked slowly and carefully – aware he was treading on thin ice.

"I can tell you that her older brother was a coward," she said bluntly. He took a deep breath and kept his eyes on the floor when he asked,

"If her younger sibling was still alive, how old would they be now?"

She stopped abruptly and he slowed to a stop, turning to face her.

"Why the sudden interest in Una's family?" she asked, but her voice held curiosity and no hostility at all. He shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"She just seems lonely. I'm interested in what made her like this."

"Nineteen," Loch Ness replied. "They'd be around nineteen years old if they were still alive."

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