Vayi climbed back into the room where Kuwin was sitting on the collapsed ceiling, looking at his newly branded arms.

"Are you sure it doesn't hurt?" he asked.

"I felt it when Osa touched me," Kuwin whispered. "Now it's numb again."

"She'll have an explanation for us," Osa said, kicking Laura's unconscious body.

"Are we waiting here till she wakes up?" Kuwin stood. "I feel like we should leave."

"Not yet," Vayi said.

"If you hadn't noticed, Seneseba," Osa said. "We're kind of in enemy territory here."

"Exactly," he said.

"No," Kuwin shook his head. "No more killing."

"Thanks to Laura, the clans now know that there are two witnesses that they can use. Let's not forget that the means to control us is literally in your arms, Kuwin. They're going to target the three of us unless we act first."

"You're not killing innocent people just because you're afraid."

"Just the leaders then?" Vayi asked. "Who? The Prime Minister? The clan heads? Family leaders? Sector leaders? How about the person in charge of the totas?"

"How is this so easy for you to say?"

"Some of them might be innocent now, but I bet you, once we kill the leaders, their loved ones? The innocent people you're protecting will want revenge and then they'll come after us."

"Maybe we don't have to kill them at all," Osa offered, as both men looked at her.

"I'm listening," Vayi said, hoping that she'd make more sense than Kuwin was making at the moment.

___

Vayi pushed open the door to the room where they'd interviewed Kuwin. It felt like a lifetime ago, watching Kuwin on a screen from another room, just to make sure he was safe, but also to make a note of the things he said. Having never visited either of Osa's sisters, he hadn't known the full details of what had happened that night or how another witness had suddenly appeared.

He dropped Laura's body on the chair as she gasped herself to consciousness, looking around her as her hair had come loose from her bun to form a scanty veil over her face.

"Where am I?" she asked. "Really? Another twisted interrogation?"

"You forgot to gag her?" Osa said.

They'd tied her hands, but seeing as she'd been unconscious, Vayi hadn't thought it was necessary.

"You shouldn't kill me, you know?" she whispered to Vayi, as if any whisper would hide words spoken from Osa. "I can help you."

"Do you have a scarf I can use to gag her?" Vayi asked Osa, as Osa removed her outer shirt, leaving her in nothing but a sleeveless shirt.

"Eww," Laura said, sneering at the torn, bleeding, sand-covered shirt.

"Have you looked at yourself?" Kuwin asked her, gesturing at her own torn and dirty dress, not to mention blood from her wound.

"A good Christian would have taken me to a hospital," she said. "I have a dagger in my hand."

"You could have gotten it out, yourself. Instead, you chose to gather your totas."

"I had work to do."

"You asked them to cut off my arm," Kuwin charged back at her. "Honestly, I'm holding out hope that they won't kill anyone else here, but if either of them wanted to kill you, I wouldn't cry about it."

"We're all set," Osa called from where she'd gone to tinker with the laptop and cameras that Laura had set up earlier.

Vayi joined her, looking at the screen as the first call connected.

"Laura?" Dr Marsa Elheji, the Prime Minister of Usehjiki said, as soon as her face appeared on the screen. "What's taking so long?"

"Oh okay," Osa said, running to the front of the camera. "Can you see me, Madam Prime Minister?"

"Who are you?" she asked, squinting at the screen. "Osa Oseki?"

Osa sighed in relief. "I was almost disappointed you didn't know who I was."

"Where is Laura? What's going on?"

"Don't worry." She turned the camera to the new captive. "The tables turned but I won't lock her in a prison of her own mind. I'm just waiting for more faces to join us." As she spoke, she came around to stand by Vayi as the people who had been on the call during Kuwin's interrogation started to answer the call, with new faces popping up. "Excellent."

"What are you planning, Miss Oseki?" Dr. Elheji asked. "Surely you know we won't just let this go. We will hunt you down till we find you."

"I know. Which is why I wanted you all to see this."

She turned the camera to Vayi.

"What are you doing?" he asked, as Dr. Elheji's voice echoed the same question.

"Show them who you are."

"What?" he asked.

"All those totas already know who you are. They're going to report it. I'm just giving them more evidence so that they'd know we're not planning to run or hide."

"We're not?" Kuwin asked.

"No, we're not." Osa got serious. "I'm tired of sleeping in hotels and strange places. I want to go home, so... whenever you're ready."

Vayi felt what she was saying. Being on the run, pretending to be people, being unable to be honest for a moment, just because he was hiding wasn't the best way to live. Looking into her eyes, he understood what she was trying to do. What she was about to do.

Stretching his neck as he prepared his mind, Vayi closed his eyes and went back to his body. To the one he'd known for centuries, the one he used to live in before recent times forced him into other people's bodies for extended periods.

When she opened her eyes, the people on the laptop bore varied looks of shock.

Seneseba's mind was familiar and easy and quiet. No flooding memories or whispering voices on the perimeter, begging to be heard. Looking down at her body in Vayi's clothes, she figured she could live with this for a while. She cleared her throat as she pulled at her unruly hair. Frizzled, tangled, and unyielding, she vowed to visit a salon. Get a modern look for her ancient hair.

When she looked at Osa, she saw the other woman looking back at her with trembling lips, no doubt remembering how this face, how this Seneseba had fed on her sisters and her mother.

As quickly as the look came, Osa wiped it away with a smile as she went back to steady the camera on Seneseba's face.

"What is the meaning of this, Miss Oseki?"

"This is Seneseba. The original. I believe our families imprisoned her for five hundred years."

Seneseba waved at the camera.

"You will not intimidate the clans. Your family drove itself to extinction. You have no one else to fight for you."

"You haven't heard the most fun part." As she spoke, turning the camera back to herself, she walked towards the tree trunk in the corner.

She pointed the camera at the trunk as she raised her hand.

"Easy," Seneseba said. "You don't want this place to collapse on us."

"I got this," Osa said, her face full of concentration as she opened her hand and inhaled. Slowly, quietly, the tree began to break apart, with pieces of it, flowing right into her hands. From where they were standing, they could both hear the sounds of the leaders of the country, as they witnessed Osa's power.

"That's enough," Seneseba said, gently putting a hand on Osa's shoulders as Osa exhaled and closed her hands.

"Did you see?" she asked the clans. "Izeh, I'm sure you felt that collapse earlier. You might want to check out what happened the last time I tried to feed. Your entire country is built on the roots of the erkanara tree. Your traditions surround it, your isolation units are held up by it. If I ever feel like you're trying to come after me, I will destroy you before you get within range." She smiled. "That's if Seneseba doesn't feed on you all first."

Slamming the laptop shut, she switched off the camera and clapped her hands together like she was so proud of herself.

"Job well done."

"Nice," Kuwin said, coming close, but quickly backing away as he put his hands behind himself. "I'm glad there will be no killing."

"I'm still not sure about that," Seneseba said, frowning at her two companions. "Where are we going to go?"

"You forgot the part where I was the sole heir to an entire sector of our country's economy."

"Can we go now?" Kuwin asked.

"Let's give it a moment," Seneseba said.

"Why?" Osa asked.

"You just threatened them. Maybe you want to give them time to inform their people not to attack us when we try to leave?"

Osa's eyes shifted from side to side as her mouth gaped slightly open. "Of course."

___

Without the threat of running for their lives, Seneseba didn't have to mine her way through the walls using ancient history. With Laura being pushed ahead of them, they made their way to the Izecha elevators. Passing civilians and guards, clans-blood, totas, and common attendants, they walked out to the elevator, a spectacle of dirty clothes, blood, and dustiness.

News traveled fast about the exit of the witnesses. Of the things that could happen if anyone got near. Maybe one day in the future, the clans were going to try again. In Seneseba's experience, they always did. They backed down for a few decades, sometimes centuries, but eventually, their horns started to grow again.

She knew they'd come back.

But it wouldn't be that day.

Not when one flick of Osa's wrist could bring the whole place crumbling down on them all.