"It must be nice to have a big family," he said.
Something in his tone made her look at him more directly. "Do you have family?"
"Not anymore. My mother passed away a long time ago, and so did my sisters. I didn't have any brothers, so it's just me now."
The words hung between them, heavy with unspoken history. Arezoo got curious despite her better judgment. "How old are you?"
"One hundred and thirty-seven."
The number made her stomach twist. He was old enough to be her great-great-grandfather, sitting here bringing her coffee and pastries like a schoolboy with a crush. But then, age meant little to immortals. Din and Max were both over five hundred years old, and neither Aunt Kyra nor Fenella seemed bothered by it.
"I still have a hard time reconciling immortal youthful looks with how old you really are," she said. "I can't imagine living so long."
"You learn to focus on the present instead of the past or the future."
Another long moment of silence followed, and Arezoo struggled to find something to talk to him about.
"What do you do for Kalugal?" she finally asked. "I mean, when you are not bringing coffee to thirsty humans and Kra-ell?"
He looked startled at her attempt at a joke, then his lips curved in a tiny smile. "I'm in charge of electronic security. Making sure our systems can't be breached, monitoring for threats, that sort of thing."
"That sounds complicated."
"It can be," he agreed, some of his awkwardness fading as he warmed to the subject. "Technology changes rapidly. What was secure yesterday might be vulnerable today. It requires constant adaptation."
"Where did you learn to do that? I can't imagine the Brotherhood had computer science programs."
His expression darkened, and she immediately regretted the question. "There was barely any education in the camp other than how to kill as many as possible as fast as possible. I could barely read and write when Kalugal took me under his wing. He taught me and the others, so we were at least literate. He could have just left us ignorant, but he wanted us to be more than what we'd been made to be. We were the lucky ones, and not just because Kalugal saw something worth saving in us. We were not as dumb as the average Doomer was back then."
Arezoo lifted a brow. "Back then? Are the Doomers smarter now?"
"Navuh is working on it. He finally realized that a dumb army of brutes is no longer what would win wars for him. He needed smarter soldiers, so he changed the kind of men he brought to the island to breed his warriors. The next generation of Doomers will be smarter and much more dangerous."
When he'd mentioned breeding, the fight or flight response kicked in, and Arezoo suddenly had a hard time getting air into her lungs.
"Are you okay?" He looked at her with worry in his eyes.
"I'm fine." She forced a smile. "So, how did you get from learning how to read and write to modern tech?"
"That happened much later. After we escaped and got to America, we needed to start from scratch, and Kalugal needed robust security because he feared Navuh coming after us. I discovered that I had a knack for it, and I've been teaching myself everything I could about the subject ever since."
"That's impressive," she said. "Teaching yourself such complex skills."
He nodded. "Thank you. I can't change where I came from, but thanks to where I am now, I can be whoever I want to be, and I owe it all to Kalugal."
"You really care about him."
"I owe him everything," Ruvon said with quiet intensity. "My life and my soul. If I'd stayed with the Brotherhood..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "I would have shriveled up inside. Kalugal gave me the chance to live a life free of hate and death."
Arezoo felt a shift inside of her, an uncomfortable loosening of the rigid categories she'd constructed. This man beside her, this shy and unassuming guy, was a survivor, just like her.
