"Same," I agreed, scooting towards the edge so I could head to my own bed. "I'm really glad Gideon's going to be okay, Meri. You deserve a happy marriage."
"It's because you saved him," Meri reminded me. "Ayla, when you started giving orders to Tobias?"
"I knew he'd be strong enough to hold him down," I explained.
"It's not that," Meri insisted. "It's how brave you were! I could never talk to a man like that."
"He'd probably hit me if I tried," Callah mumbled, clearly exhausted.
"They won't hit me in the infirmary," I explained. "It's the one place where we women are allowed to take charge."
"But most men don't care," Meri countered. "Spare the rod and spoil a wife, right?"
"Seen but not heard," Callah added.
"Beautiful to behold, a feast for the eyes of men," Meri quoted.
I groaned as I flopped down on my own bed. "I know, I know."
"I think it's those books you read," Callah teased.
"You can read them too," I reminded her.
She shook her head against the pillow. "I don't want to climb. Too much work. Besides, I'd be terrified someone would know."
"But they don't even know the room exists," I said.
Callah grunted dismissively. "Doesn't matter. I'd quote something I'd learned in one and the men would figure it out. I don't know how you keep it all to yourself."
"She doesn't," Meri said, still sitting cross-legged on her bed. "She tells us."
"And neither of you have gotten in trouble yet," I teased. "Which means you're good at keeping your mouths shut."
"Well, then maybe you should tell us another one of those stories." Meri flashed me a smile before pulling back her covers. "Something happy, Ayla. Something to make me forget seeing those blue feathers in my fiancé's chest."
Which was enough to make Callah sit up in a rush. "Blue?"
"The Wyvern," I said, proving we all knew what it meant. "He put four arrows into Gideon. One just missed his lungs. Three hit his gut. I had to push one out the back so I didn't destroy his liver."
"How do you even know where those are?" Callah insisted.
I chuckled softly. "The books. There are so many with pictures of the insides of people. It shows the lungs, the heart, and all the vital organs."
"Which is why you're so good in the infirmary," Meri said. "Do you think Mrs. Worthington has ever read them?"
"No," I said as I changed into my nightclothes. "I think Mrs. Worthington learned about the vital organs by seeing what wounds killed our hunters. She said she lost many patients before learning how to clamp the blood vessels. That's why she showed me how."
"Maybe they'll let you be a nurse instead of a wife," Callah said.
I murmured at that and then slipped under my blankets. "I'd be happy as a nurse. I wish I could learn as much as a doctor, though."
"Only men were doctors," Meri countered, "and we don't have enough medicine anymore to need them."
"It was different back when people lived on the surface," I told her. "My books say there were both men and women as doctors. Lots of types of doctors too. Back then, people did a lot of things we can't do now."
"Which is why the Devil won," Callah said. "Because women forgot our place is to serve our husbands."
"All men," Meri corrected.
"Mm..." I murmured. "I just wish I knew where the Dragons were back then."
That made Callah lift her head again. "What?"
"The Dragons," I clarified. "Back when people lived on the surface of the Earth - but after we left the Garden of Eden - the world was a busy place. People lived in homes that went up and up and up. Skyscrapers, they were called. And they had science and innovations. Women and men were equal, and people came in so many different colors."
"Fairytales," Meri scoffed.
"There's pictures," I insisted. "Men with skin as pale as ours, but dark black hair and eyes the color of thick tea. Women with skin the color of that tea and hair even darker. All colors."
"Drawings?" Callah asked.
I shook my head. "Actual photographs, like the ones we see of the surface in school."
"But no Dragons?" Meri asked.
"Dragons were things from fantasy," I explained. "I'm not quite sure what that means, but they were. Then again, there are also books of fantasy with drawings of dragons, so I don't know. Still, all the books with actual photographs don't mention them. No Dragons, no Devil, and no demons."
"Maybe the Devil brought the Dragons back?" Meri guessed.
