Nellis immediately retreated to her cell, but left her door open. I went to work setting up the monkeypole. I extended a few rungs, twisting them around to alternate and lock instead of nesting into each other. And when I got to about the right length, I looped the end hooks over the iron rail around the ceiling hole, positioning it on the opposite side of the willow tree from the main burrow entrance.

"Chry! Got something for you!"

Chrysoll exited her cell, walking up to me directly. She stood there, looking at me, waiting.

"We got our own ladder, for the roof garden."

I gestured at the monkeypole. She scaled it immediately, flashing her naked ass at me in the process. Her voice called down from above.

"Thank you, Rav. I really like it up here."

"Hey. I also got some stuff to keep people from breaking in to our cells.  Extra security, sort of. I already put something on my door. Do you want me to do yours?"

Her head poked over the rail.

"Is this because someone went in your cell the other day?"

"Yeah. If some messenger could do it, the fash spies could do it, too. I don't want to take that chance, so I added a hidden catch to the frame."

Her face turned red.

"Yes. Please. I wouldn't want Hegem Unus getting in to my proofs. That could be dangerous. They had some keen minds, before. When we used to be allies. And if my work could be applied to etherism, they might be able to develop something we couldn't counter. It seems improbable, but a nonzero probability is still possible."

"No way. Allies? With us? I didn't know that."

"Oh yes, they got really weird, right around the time we were born, about 18 years ago. The whole country suddenly took a dark political turn, and the rest of the world cut them off a few years after. That's why people think another demon's run is coming. It fits a historical pattern. Radis and Keeler published a correlation that matched otherwise inexplicable political shifts to the birth of the hero that eventually defeated the lord of their demon's run.  According to their math, there's a 95% probability that the next world gate will open within 2 to 7 years. And the hero is probably Unian."

"Well that fucking sucks. Who wants a fascist hero?"

"There's no guarantee that the hero will have the same political leanings as the ruling party of their home country."

"Oh, come on. With that youth loyalty brigade thing they started up? They'll be a whole manure cart of walking indoctrination. I don't care what Mr. Fok said; I am not teaming up with a steaming turd, even if it means the demons win. Not like that would be the end of the world. That's how we got the devas, diablos, and cubuses, right? They're not entirely a disaster, now. It only took them like two or 300 years to settle in."

"And sequential uncontested demon runs. They only made peace because they didn't want to share the world with even more demon races. And we still can't put too many of them in the same cities. Can I watch you fix my door?"

"Oh, of course."

I got my trapmaking kit, and integrated my newly-acquired hardware. I did the same thing for Chry's door that I did for mine--a hidden pressure switch to release a spring catch. It wouldn't hold up against a battering ram, or even a stiff shoulder slam, but at least it would keep anyone from getting in without any signs of entry. Chrysoll watched me the entire time, perfectly silent, completely naked, and unfailingly attentive. It was a little creepy, but if she wasn't getting something out of it, she would have stopped watching and just gone back to doing her own thing, so it was sort of flattering at the same time.

I finished, showed her how to open the door from both the inside and the outside, and then she vanished back up the ladder once more, without another word.

I went on to Nellis's cell.

"Hey, Nel? Want me to fix your door like I did mine? So burglars cant sneak around in your stuff?"

She was sitting on her bed, staring at her hands.

"Oh, sure. Thanks."

I did my goblin business, but even quicker this time. I'm a fair hand at trapmaking, if I do say so myself. Learned from the best.

Nellis hadn't moved.

"It opens the same way as my door now. Pull the lever to get out, press the switch to get back in. Do you... uh... do you want to talk about it?"

"I killed somebody, Rav. I've been in some deep shit before in my life, but it never went that far. And the cops just... let us go. No, not even that. They made us leave. No. They made you leave. And I was just along for the ride. What would have happened if it was just me?"

"If you weren't with me, you never would have been attacked in the first place, Nel."

"What is it about you, Rav? My life was an orderly crystal of pain and coping before, and you came along and smashed it into a mess of shards. And there's hope and fear and love and all kinds of stuff in there. How do you do that?  I never had a real friend before. And I met you. And if you were gone from my life tomorrow, I would die. That's why I started Raging. They were going to take you away from me."

"I'm sorry."

"No. I don't accept your apology. Take it back. It's because of you that I feel really alive now. You poured your magical chaos goblin paint onto my future. It's because of you that my dreams have color."

"Okay, then. I take it back. You're welcome?"

"How can I be a doctor with hands that destroy life so easily?"

"But that is what healers do."

"That's not how I see it."

"When someone is hurt, or sick, why can they not heal themselves? If I cut my finger on a bit of metal, it closes up, and a few days later, it's like nothing ever happened. I don't need a doctor for that. But if the wound gets infected, I do. What happens then."

"I clean it out. Disinfect the area. Debride the affected tissue."

"Removing the corruption, in other words. What is that, exactly? Some kind of foul ether?"

"You know it's not. Animalcules get into the tissues, multiplying by feeding on your flesh."

"And the healer must destroy the corruption, so that the body can repair itself. You removed some corruption today. Those men were infesting the body of an entire city. A country. A whole world. What you did today will make it easier for us to heal our wound. And we need to be healthy, if there's another demon's run."

"A healer... kills corruption. That is what it was, wasn't it. He cut my throat down to the bone. That's something that could even kill a troll, you know. Not right away. I would have slowed down enough to not be able to stop him from bleeding me more. And he would have burned me, I know it.  Everybody knows that's what you do with trolls. Blood so full of oxygenators, you just light it up, like a strong whiskey. Like they did to Lazar, in the end."

"Feel a little better now?"

"I never needed a friend, back when I didn't have any. But now I do, and I need my friend now. Chry isn't right for it, not on this one. Can you be the friend I need? Tonight, will you stay with me? I don't know what I need exactly. Hold me down, so I don't fly away. That's what it feels like."

"Whatever you need."

She started crying again. It wasn't heaving, moaning sobs this time, but quiet tears, streaming down her face.

I pushed her flat onto her bed, and climbed over her, pinning her down with my weight. I laid my head against her breasts, and she combed her fingers through my hair. I'm not sure who fell asleep first.