I laid on the filthy ground, looking up at the First, and glancing over at the writhing forms of his followers just behind him.

He followed my gaze and smirked. “They can’t hear me. Too much pain, too much sensory overload. So we can have a chat with our masks off, huh?”

I stared up at him, not answering, but straining against my restraints.

“I gotta say, I wasn’t sure you’d survive the mists. They’re a struggle, but I figured you’d have maybe a thirty or forty percent chance of making it. And here, not only did you make it, but you also managed to realize I had an ambush set out for you, sneak around it, and blow up my gate.”

His eyes met mine at those last few words, and I returned his stare blankly. Careful not to react.

He nodded. “You’ve got good control, but I know it was you. I’m also certain you didn’t do it because Pott’s wanted you to take us out. After all, how could they even know what I’ve got going here? Besides, they’re a bunch of non-confrontational pussies anyway.” He pushed himself off the wall and prodded one of his writhing followers gently with his foot, eliciting a groan. “So… why did you do it?”

I continued to stare at him blankly. I had no reason to answer. I was already imprisoned, and at his mercy. Whether I told him the truth or not, I couldn’t see how either option would help me.

He chuckled, shaking a finger and pointing at me. “You… you aren’t like the rest of Pott’s. I had a feeling about it when we first met, but thought it would be more trouble to get rid of you rather than let you do it yourself. You’re like me. You think you know what’s best for everyone else, and you’re going to make them see it your way whether they want to or not. You blew up my gate, and killed my people just because you don’t like things here. Seems a little hypocritical if you ask me. Killing my people just because we kill a few humans here and there.”

I tried to keep my expression blank, but I felt it shift involuntarily.

He smirked. “You found out about the other things, didn’t you? Damn, aren’t you a clever guy. So we enslave a few people, some deadmen that don’t fall in line, and occasionally eat one or two of them. Who gives a shit? You know as well as I do that humans are trash, and some deadmen aren’t much better.” He breathed deeply in through his nose. “I can smell the fresh blood on your breath from here. I can tell you’ve had a bite or two yourself. How is that any different from what we’re doing? What I’ve done?”

He was right, at least partially. I had gotten to the point where I thought I knew better than everyone, where I believed only the ways I approved of were the ones that should exist, and I’d brought my gun and my sword to bear to move things in what I believed was the right direction. The difference was what I did was in service of Pott’s, to protect them, to make things better for the Deadmen that had saved me, he was clearly doing what he was doing in service to himself. Besides which, me eating a few people, people who’d been trying to kill me, was a far cry from the systematic enslavement and butchering of anyone in the way on a settlement wide scale.

“You gonna say anything worth listening to, or just keep jawing?” I asked.

He smiled and opened his mouth, but was interrupted by one of the deadmen behind him screaming. He walked over to him, his entire body language shifting with the movement. “Do you ask for mercy my child?” he asked.

The deadman screamed again, and I could just make out part of him from where I was sitting. He was clawing madly at his own flesh, the blood pouring from him sparking and smoking as it flowed from where he tore chunks from himself. “Please! Please, the mercy!”

The First nodded, drew the sharp dagger from his waist, and slit his throat, so deep I could hear the blade drawing across bone. He yawned, wiped the blade clean on his now dead follower’s clothes, then returned it to his waist. He walked back over to the cell I was in, leaning back casually in the spot he’d been in when we first began speaking.

“Anyway, where were we?”

I continued to be silent.

“Oh yeah, the point of this. Of me having you brought to me alive instead of killing you, of this conversation. I want you to work with me.”

“What?” I asked.

“You’re strong, I can tell. Blooded in a way my followers could never be. I haven’t dealt with a pain in the ass like you since I left Pott’s.” He paused, his expression wistful for a moment. “It’s annoying to have to keep up the facade of a holy one all the time. All thees and thous and a bunch of bullshit sermons that mean nothing. I’m tired of it, been thinking of moving things in a different direction, maybe a crusade or two, an excuse to really cut loose. I need warriors for that, strong men and women who can help me really get things done, who can think independently for a change. People like you.”

“What’s in it for me?” I asked.

He smiled. “That’s the right question.” He tapped the bars of my cell. “Freedom, to start. Food, drink, security here in Eden. Knowledge,” he paused to watch my expression and his smile widened seeing something I didn’t want him too. “I know a lot about what we are. It’s taken quite a bit of trial and error, but I can help you, though you’ve been doing pretty well from what I can tell. I mean, you slaughtered some of my best men even though they had the drop on you. Mary requested she be allowed to flay you for that. And don’t think I don’t know you’ve already recovered from whatever beatings she put you through before you got here.”

I approximated shrug from my bindings.

“Aside from that…well, I suppose you can give me whatever ideas you might have for the slaves, and other deadmen. Maybe I’ll have some kind of revelation, and make things easier for them… as long as you fall in line.”

I made a show of thinking, looking conflicted and torn as I thought over what he said, then I let out a long sigh. “I…I’ll do it… I’ll join you.”

He raised his nonexistent eyebrows and nodded for a few seconds, then took a key off one of the nearby walls and slid the cell open slowly.

“You’re a terrible fucking liar.” He slammed it shut again and let out a long hearty laugh. “Smart though. Thinking you could just go along with me until you have a chance to kill me or escape, huh? You really are cut from the same cloth as me.” He laughed again. “Tell you what, I’ll have you drowned, beaten, cut, stabbed, shot, and skinned every day, and at the end of each of them, I’ll ask you the question again. When you tell it to me in a way that makes me believe it, I’ll give you a shot.” He stretched his neck. “Looking forward to that time, honestly this will probably make Mary a lot happier anyway. She’ll probably be more willing to work with you after you’ve been… humbled a bit.” He walked a short way down to the exit. “Anyway, I’ll leave you here to starve for a few days first, get you nice and softened up.” He glanced over to the twisting, grunting forms of his people. “I’ll send someone to get them out here. Gonna be a real pain in the ass to have to watch them in case I need to grant them mercy. Usually I have to block out a couple full days for this bullshit. Oh well, hopefully a couple of them might be useful.” With that he walked up and out of the row of cells, leaving me alone to think surrounded by the screams of his people.

I did my best to stretch the parts of myself that were granted any movement at all, and wriggled until I was able to lay flat. Might as well get comfortable, I’d gone days without eating before, it would be harder to soften me up than he might think. Drowning me, beating me, cutting me, stabbing me, shooting me, and skinning me meant eventually they’d have to adjust my restraints. All I had to do was be patient. Either the trouble I’d started on either end of Eden would grant me a chance to escape, or I’d make my own.