“Wilting flowers? Are you-“ she pointed at Alister, but stopped. “So that’s what you wanted talk about alone…” She put her hands on her hips. “Okay, I just needed your story. Good on you for not giving anything away. Now, Alister, I need your story too. I know you saved Arden, but you spent a significant amount of time with the extraterrestrials. We need to know if we can trust you.”
Wait, did she figure out that we were…? He blinked, trying to get used the shift in attention and find his words. “I… me and Noel got separated three years ago. I was too young to find her on my own, so I tried… how did you describe it?” He glanced at Noel. “Climbing the social ladder.” She smirked. “At first I was stuck in a weapons factory, But after about a year I reached an age suitable for entering the prison staff. I wasn’t sure of how it all worked at the time, but I wanted to start out with the prison because I knew it was near the experimentation labs, and that A: she was being experimented on, or B: she was a servant to any of the aliens working in either building. I wasn’t old or trusted enough to go to the experimentation labs, so I decided to stick with the prison. I was… interrogated for a while, so they could find a use for me. I showed them my abilities, and then I was put into an orientation class, I think? They told me what was to be expected of me, which was basically that I was to be a servant. For a couple months, I made and served food in the cafeteria, which, I admit, wasn’t all that bad. Only thing was, I wasn’t being paid and they weren’t providing me shelter, so I often slept in the streets or in generous people’s houses. Then I was promoted to being sentinel. It was the opposite of being in the cafeteria. I had money and a place to sleep, but instead of giving people food, I had to discipline and watch them. I… I didn’t like it much, but if I slacked off, I was punished, and that meant more time at the bottom of the ladder, unable to get to Noel. When Arden came in, I guess…” he trailed off, turning his eyes to Evan. “When I let him go to be interrogated, flowers started growing on me, and that… that put guilt on my conscience. I guess you know the rest.”