In a sudden moment of clarity, I recall the videos we saw each week in the Mire—the ones that told us over and over again for years of our lives what a perfect paradise the Arc was. How pure, how kind, how benevolent the Directorate was. How fortunate we were to be invited to live among their ilk. It was all a lie. It was all a means of recruiting us, of herding us into the Arc so they could pick us off, one by one. We’re nothing to them but prey.
