“Arcady is good with a blood draw, so she will be in and do your interview. All of your vitals look good.”

“Arcady? Okay.” She shrugged.

“You can get dressed; she will be in in a few minutes.”

“Thanks for warming your hands.”

Dr. Kerry chuckled. “I will be in touch if the blood work shows anything.”

She nodded and dressed the moment he was out of the room. She knew the labs were all recorded, but this mattered to her. She wasn’t an escort, and she didn’t show off.

She waited in the room, and then a white-haired, violet-eyed woman came in with a smile. “Leska, please come with me.”

Leska got to her feet, and they walked down the hall to a comfortable boardroom. She sat where directed, and Arcady sat across from her.

“Hello, this is for the records.”

“First, can we get the blood draw?”

“That will be done last. First, we need items for the biography in case anything happens to you.”

“Oh. Wow. A company funeral. Right.”

Arcady paused. “No. In case you form a union with an active. The archives need to be maintained so that we have lineage and genetic history.”

“Oh, like you come from two humans and are one of two actives they produced.” Leska didn’t play games.

Arcady sat up. “You know about that?”

“Of course. Cadence is a very good friend. A sister when I had none. I was the same for her. I was already in a group home run by some very nice people. The Palmers. When Cadence came to us, shivering and terrified, I was assigned to help her because I was the least threatening, and she looked like she had been threatened a bit. I got her clothing from the storehouse and set her up in her room. There was a separate bed, and she asked me to stay, so I stayed. We became roommates, and she graduated two years ahead of me.”

“What did she say about her family?”

“She said she activated when she was six. That the rhythms she put out made her smile and dance, but she had to remove her synthetic clothing to do it. Her parents started to beat her when they caught her, and then they put her in longer, uglier clothing that she couldn’t harmonize through. They realized that they could punish her for being an active and then just cover it up. She was known to be quiet anyway, so no one at the school noticed, and then you activated, and her beatings got worse.”

Arcady stared. “What? I was there?”

“It went on under everyone’s nose. You were there, the authorities were there, and no one saw a damned thing. Her back is scarred from shoulder to knees. She can blur it a bit now if someone is looking. It upsets people. There is no way that it isn’t what you are looking at.”

“They were beating her? I was right there.” Arcady looked lost.

“You were focused on the changes in your own body, and they had always treated Cadence like that, so there wasn’t anything different. They never told anyone she was an active. She was just a naughty child. Families have them, and some deal with them quietly.”

“She ran after me.”

“She did. She ran six years after you left. That was when she realized that she wasn’t alone and why you left. That there was another active in the family. She found you and Thomas at the shelter, and she spoke to Thomas. He said that there weren’t any extra funds for her, that you two had your hands full staying on top of things.”

Arcady blinked. “If he weren’t in jail, I would break his face.”

“Indeed, but this is not your story.”

Arcady jolted. “Right.”

“She ran to Aksalla because they welcomed actives. She was attacked when she was making her way, but they made the mistake of getting her naked, and she harmonized them.”

“What does that mean?”

“She made them at one with the universe, or she turned them to sludge. Choose what you feel is best.”