“Do you wish he came with us?” asked Brigga Lin. “No.” Hope didn’t want to think about Red right now. “He looked like he would have been helpful.” “Yes.” “You care for him that much?” The question took Hope by surprise. It had been so long since she’d talked to someone who understood her formal code of honor. She’d more or less resigned herself to having her motives opaque to everyone she knew. But Brigga Lin understood. The biomancers seemed to have their own code of honor, twisted and poisonous though it might be. Brigga Lin understood why Hope hadn’t asked Red to stay, though she knew he would be a valuable asset in this fight. If she had, and he said no, then she would have lost respect for him. And if she asked him and he said yes, then she would be dooming him to the same dark fate that was in store for her. She would rather reduce her own chances of success than suffer either of those two things.
