Victor Daniels had died seven years ago.
The dates beneath the portrait left no room for misunderstanding.
I looked from them to Lynne.
She was still staring at her father’s face.
For most of the walk, she had spoken about him as though he might step around the next corner.
She had laughed while telling me how the other healers tied him to a bed.
She had repeated his words in his voice.
Somehow, it was only now that I realized Lynne had spent the entire walk telling me stories about someone who had already passed away.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Lynne gave me a small smile.
“You didn’t know.”
Beside Victor’s portrait hung two others.
Both men were blond, and they resembled each other enough that they had to be related.
One was young, not much older than Daniella.
The other had the same face worn by several more decades.
There were dates beneath their portraits too.
The younger man had died first.
The older one several years later.
Then Victor.
Three portraits with three sets of fresh flowers.
Whatever had happened to this family, it had happened more than once.
Miss Daniels touched Lynne gently between the shoulders.
“Would you like to wash first, sweetie?”
Lynne nodded.
Before anyone else could move, Daniella passed me and headed toward the stairs.
“Excuse me.”
I stepped aside.
“Sorry.”
She disappeared upstairs.
A few moments later, I heard water being poured into a metal tub, followed by the scrape of something heavy being moved and the crackle of a fire being stoked beneath it.
Lynne’s mother removed the gray blanket from around her shoulders.
“Daniella will help you.”
Lynne looked toward me before following her sister.
“I’ll be back.”
“Okay.”
She climbed the stairs slowly.
Miss Daniels returned to the kitchen, leaving Jonathan and me standing near the entrance hall.
For a moment, neither of us said anything.
Jonathan looked me over again.
My wet clothes.
The bruises.
The crooked name tag.
Then he leaned closer.
“So…”
I waited.
“Did you really fight three Massino men?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“I fought two.”
Jonathan relaxed slightly.
“I shot the third.”
His eyebrows shot back up.
“And June handled the others.”
Jonathan stared at me.
“That’s still insane.”
“I had a shovel.”
“As opposed to their knives?”
“It was a good shovel.”
He laughed.
Miss Daniels returned carrying a stack of bowls.
“Someone helped you?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“A girl from the academy named June.”
Miss Daniels’ entire expression brightened.
“June was there?”
“You know her?”
“Of course I know her. She practically lived here for a few years.”
Jonathan leaned against the wall.
“She ate here more often than I did.”
“You were always out,” Miss Daniels said.
“I was hungry from working out.”
“You were also perfectly capable of coming home.”
She carried the bowls toward the dining room.
“June has always been welcome here.”
My mind returned to the pool room.
June standing between Lynne and the remaining men.
Her yellow tracksuit and an expression cold enough to empty the room of sound.
Then she had looked at my name tag.
Something in her face changed.
After that, she hadn’t spoken a single word to me.
Miss Daniels smiled.
“She’s an absolute angel!”
I remembered the speed of June’s movements.
The men getting absolutely wrecked.
The stunning yet cold expression on her face through all of it.
Angel wasn’t the first word I would have chosen.
“Why didn’t she come back with Lynne?” Miss Daniels asked.
“I think she had somewhere else she needed to be.”
Miss Daniels nodded.
“When you see her again, tell her I miss her.”
“I will.”
Jonathan leaned toward me.
“If you fought her, who would win?”
“Her.”
He frowned.
“You didn’t even think about it.”
“I saw what she can do.”
“You’re supposed to say you’d win.”
“Why?”
“Pride.”
“I’m proud of being alive.”
Jonathan laughed again.
Then his expression grew more serious.
“The guards said you moved like someone trained by the Royal Guard.”
“They were exaggerating.”
“So you are trained?”
“No.”
He stared at me.
“I don’t really know how to explain it.”
“You disarmed two trained men without knowing how?”
“I’ve had a confusing day.”
He folded his arms.
“How did you get into the academy?”
“I don’t know.”
“What path are you in?”
“I don’t know that either.”
Jonathan’s eyes narrowed.
“You say that a lot.”
“Jonathan,” Miss Daniels called from the dining room. “Stop interrogating our guest and help me set the table.”
“I’m not interrogating him.”
“You’ve asked him six questions without breathing.”
Jonathan looked at me.
“Was it six?”
I shrugged.
“I wasn’t counting.”
“See? Conversation.”
Miss Daniels appeared in the doorway and handed him a stack of spoons.
“Table.”
He took them.
“Yes, Mum.”
As he left, she gave me an apologetic smile.
“He’s curious.”
“I noticed.”
“He worries about Lynne.”
“I noticed that too.”
Her gaze shifted briefly toward the stairs.
The smile remained, but something tired moved behind it.
“So do all of us.”
She carried another stack of bowls toward the dining room.
“Come sit down, dear.”
I followed her.
There were eight chairs around the long wooden table.
Nobody placed a bowl at either end.
Jonathan arranged the spoons with far more precision than the task required.
Miss Daniels looked at the name tag pinned to my shirt.
“What should we call you?”
My hand moved toward it.
“Xu,” I said.
Jonathan looked up.
“Is that your family name or your given name?”
“I’m not sure.”
He waited for me to laugh.
I didn’t.
Miss Daniels glanced at him before looking back at me.
“Are you from Zhong Hua?”
“I don’t think so.”
Jonathan studied my face.
“You definitely don’t look Zhanghuanese.”
His mother gave him a warning look.
“What? He doesn’t.”
He gestured vaguely toward me.
“He looks Jambudvipan.”
“Jonathan.”
“That wasn’t an insult.”
“It sounded like you were inspecting a horse.”
“I was making an observation.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
Miss Daniels sighed.
“You’ll have to excuse my son.”
“I don’t mind.”
Jonathan held out his hand.
“Jonathan Morgan.”
I shook it.
“Xu.”
“Apparently,” he added.
I stared at him.
He grinned.
A short while later, footsteps descended the stairs.
Miss Daniels looked toward the doorway.
“Lynni?”
Lynne entered wearing soft blue pajamas.
Her auburn hair was still damp, and the skin around her eyes remained swollen.
She looked cleaner, but not much less exhausted.
Daniella followed in a loose shirt and comfortable trousers, carrying the gray blanket folded over one arm.
“Sit down,” Miss Daniels said.
Lynne lowered herself into the chair beside me.
Jonathan sat across from us.
Daniella took the seat beside him.
Miss Daniels carried in a large pot of seafood stew filled with fish, shellfish, potatoes, carrots, and herbs.
The smell alone made my stomach tighten.
I couldn’t remember when I had last eaten.
Not earlier that day.
Before the tree?
Before that?
I didn’t know.
Miss Daniels ladled stew into each bowl.
Steam rose toward my face.
“Eat,” Daniella said.
I looked at her.
She wasn’t smiling, but her words didn’t sound harsh.
I tore off a piece of bread, dipped it into the broth, and took a bite.
My eyes widened.
“This is incredible.”
Miss Daniels smiled.
“Thank you.”
I took another bite before I had finished swallowing the first.
Daniella’s mouth twitched faintly.
“I told you to eat, not choke.”
For a while, the table remained quiet.
Spoons tapped against bowls.
The fire cracked in the adjoining room.
Lynne ate slowly, her attention occasionally drifting toward places no one else seemed able to see.
Daniella watched her.
Then she looked at me.
“How long have you known Lynni?”
I swallowed.
“Since this morning.”
“We met just before orientation,” Lynne added.
Jonathan stopped with his spoon halfway to his mouth.
Daniella’s gaze remained on me.
“This morning?”
“Yes.”
“And you followed her when the Massinos came after her?”
“I didn’t know who they were.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
I set my bread down.
“They were chasing her.”
“So you chased them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I frowned.
“Because they were chasing her.”
“You didn’t know her.”
“I mean, yeah, but—”
Daniella leaned back.
“You saw several armed men pursuing a girl you had met a few hours earlier, and you decided to follow them alone?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds stupid.”
Jonathan snorted.
“It was stupid,” Daniella said.
“Well, what else was I supposed to do?”
“Why didn’t you find a teacher?”
I froze.
The possibility had never entered my mind.
“…That would have been smarter.”
Jonathan laughed into his bowl.
Lynne didn’t.
She looked between her siblings.
“Why are you doing this?”
“We’re talking,” Daniella said.
“No, you’re questioning him.”
“I want to understand what happened.”
“He helped me.”
“I know what you said.”
“You don’t sound like you believe me.”
Daniella’s expression tightened.
“I believe that you believe him.”
The warmth at the table disappeared.
Miss Daniels placed her spoon down.
“Daniella.”
Daniella looked at me again.
“The name on your shirt is Zhanghuanese.”
“Yes.”
“But you don’t believe you’re from Zhong Hua.”
“No.”
“Which part of Jambudvipa are you from?”
“I don’t know.”
“How long have you been in Albion?”
“I don’t know.”
“What town did you travel from?”
“I don’t know.”
Each answer sounded worse than the last.
Daniella folded her arms.
“You don’t know your homeland.”
“No.”
“You don’t know how you entered the academy.”
“No.”
“You claim you aren’t trained, but you disarmed two armed men.”
“I don’t—”
“You met my sister this morning. Hours later, she was lured into a trap, and somehow you were there.”
“I followed the men.”
“How convenient.”
Lynne stood so quickly that her chair scraped across the floor.
“Stop.”
Everyone looked at her.
Her hands were pressed against the table.
“He helped me.”
“Lynni—”
“He almost died helping me.”
“I know.”
“Then stop talking to him like he did something wrong.”
Daniella looked at her sister.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
“I’m trying to understand what happened,” Daniella said.
“Me too.”
The words left my mouth before I meant to say them.
Everyone looked at me.
My hand closed around the edge of the table.
“I mean…”
My throat felt strangely tight.
“I don’t know.”
Daniella’s expression shifted.
I looked down.
“I woke up beneath the giant tree near the academy. The first person I saw was Lynne. She asked me what my name was, and I couldn’t remember.”
Miss Daniels watched me carefully.
“What about your name tag?”
I looked down at the tag.
“Xu XiaoXing isn’t my name.”
Jonathan’s expression changed.
“Then whose is it?”
“I don’t know.”
The words began coming faster.
“I thought if I just stayed calm, I’d remember my name. Then during orientation, that was the only tag left.”
I looked down at it.
“So I thought maybe it was mine.”
“You just took someone else’s name?” Daniella asked.
“I didn’t have one.”
My voice cracked.
I hated that it did.
“I knew it probably wasn’t mine. I knew I didn’t look like the people everyone said the name belonged to.”
My vision blurred.
I blinked hard.
It didn’t help.
My hands had started shaking without me noticing.
I gripped the edge of the table until my knuckles turned white, trying to steady them.
I couldn’t bring myself to meet anyone’s eyes.
The room seemed to shrink around me.
“I remember some things.”
I pressed my fingers against my forehead.
“I know what a highway is. I know what a gun is. I know places that apparently don’t exist.”
I tried to look at the rest of the family.
I couldn’t.
“But I can’t remember my mother.”
My throat tightened.
That was strangely difficult to say.
“I don’t remember if I had brothers or sisters. I don’t remember where I slept last night.”
My breathing caught halfway through the sentence.
I tried to pull in another breath, but my chest felt tight.
Saying it aloud was more frightening than I thought it would be.
Until now, I had just kept moving.
From the tree.
To orientation.
To Lynne.
To the men chasing her.
There had always been something else to do before I had enough time to think about any of it.
Now everyone was quiet.
And there was nothing left to distract me.
“I don’t know how I got here.”
The first tear escaped before I could stop it.
I wiped it away immediately.
“I couldn’t even remember what I looked like when I woke up.”
That thought had been hiding inside me all day.
Now that I had said it aloud, it frightened me more than anything else.
Another tear followed.
I wiped at them again.
“I was just trying to remember my name.”
My voice sounded pathetic.
No one spoke.
The table blurred.
I wiped at my eyes again, angrier this time.
This was humiliating.
I should have kept my mouth shut.
I should have left when Daniella first looked at me like I didn’t belong.
I pushed my chair back.
“I’m sorry.”
Before I could stand, Daniella spoke.
“Wait.”
I looked at her.
Instead of looking at me, her eyes drifted toward the entrance hall.
Toward the portraits of the men her family had already lost.
She sat silently for a long moment.
Her gaze lingered on Victor Daniels.
Then she looked at Lynne.
At Jonathan.
Finally...
At me.
The tension slowly left her shoulders.
Her folded arms relaxed.
“I’m sorry.”
The apology was barely louder than the fire.
I didn’t know what to say.
Warm arms wrapped around me.
Lynne.
She held me without hesitation.
For a brief moment, I could have sworn I felt what she was feeling.
My own thoughts quieted beneath emotions that weren’t mine.
Something warm and strangely certain.
She was glad I was here.
The feeling settled over me like a warm blanket before it blurred once more beneath the noise of my own thoughts.
I sat completely still.
Miss Daniels rose from her chair and walked around the table.
She rested one hand on my shoulder.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at her.
“Then we’ll start with what we do know,” she said.
I wiped my face with my sleeve.
“What do we know?”
“You’re hungry.”
Jonathan looked down at my empty bowl.
“He was.”
Miss Daniels gave him a look.
He immediately focused on his stew.
She squeezed my shoulder gently.
“You protected my daughter.”
Daniella’s eyes lowered again.
“You’re bruised, exhausted, and you have nowhere else to go.”
I stared at the table.
“I don’t know if that’s true.”
“Do you know somewhere else?”
“No.”
“Then it’s true enough for tonight.”
She returned to her chair and reached for the pot.
“Until we understand the rest…”
She filled my bowl again.
“…eat.”
I looked at her.
There was no pity in her eyes.
Just an abundance of kindness.
No demand that I prove anything before I was allowed another spoonful.
Miss Daniels pushed the bowl toward me.
“Before it gets cold.”
For the first time since waking beneath the tree, I didn’t feel entirely like a stranger.
I still didn’t know who I was or why I had been brought here.
But for one brief moment, someone had chosen to make room for me before knowing whether I belonged.
So I picked up my spoon.
And ate through my tears.