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The vrisha disappeared again and brought back what looked like a lantern with funny patterns in its glass. They wound up the switch on one side then set it down on a crate nearby. The lantern came to life, turning in its metal casing, and the patterns made flowery shapes along the wall dance. A little chime began to play with it.

Dani watched it and let her laughter die away. Even in an ugly company city world, kids could be found, even if only a few hundred. And the vrisha had collected the toys now that they were gone.

She glanced up at the vrisha and felt…oddly guilty. “How long have you been here?”

They tugged at the ear of the cat. “Kalis minari raas.”

If she was going to be stuck in here with them, it was going to be a long couple of days. She glanced back at the door. Maybe she could escape at some point, but traveling through the dust storm was incredibly risky especially now that her suit wasn’t intact and her helmet had a hairline crack in it. Her helmet did have a way to communicate back to the ship—or would have if the power wasn’t down. If Morse was working on it, she could try in an hour or two. For now…

She studied the vrisha, still not knowing what to make of them. Did they want revenge or not? She couldn’t blame them if they did, but it made her wary all the same.

She set the stuffed animal down and got off the table. Without taking her eyes off them, she circled around them, and as she did, the vrisha turned to face her.

Let’s try this again. She put out her hand. “Truce?”

The vrisha’s gaze flicked down to her hand.

“No hurting, okay?”

Their nostril’s flared.

“No biting. No eating.”

“No…eat,” they said.

“Or biting.” She raised her hand to her lips and pretended to bite down then shook her head. “No.”

They seemed to understand but were thinking on it. “Minaris tisa?”

“What?”

They slinked back to the table and tapped on one of the notches. “One?”

She grimaced at them. “No. Not once!”

They huffed as if that were vexing and inconvenient.

She shook her head at the audacity. “And no more scaring.”

“Sc—scarrring?”

“Like this.” She made her hands into claws and bared her teeth, lunging and growling at him.

The vrisha flinched back, appearing appalled.“Ess niset hissa vrisha arishari,” they hissed.

Something “no vrisha.” She suspected they were saying that’s not how they act. “Well, that’s what it looked like”—she pointed to her eye— “to me.”

They snorted, mumbling something else.

“No pinning either. No being weird. Just be nice.”

“N-niiicee?”

“Yes. Like how you were before.” She took the mealbar from her pocket, showing it to them, then pointed to the stuffed cat. The vrisha followed her gaze. “Nice.”

“Nice,” they said in Garret’s voice, making her wince.

“Yes.”