Maria woke up when light came through her window. For a moment, she felt scared—she was te for blood collection! Then she remembered. She wasn't at Blood Farm #17 anymore. She was in this new pce with pretty colored gss.

  She put on the clothes someone left for her. They weren't gray like blood bag clothes. They were clean and soft. She looked in the small mirror on the wall. Her face was the same, but her eyes looked different. More alive.

  Someone knocked on her door.

  "Good morning," Helena said when Maria opened the door. "Did you sleep good?"

  Maria nodded. "There was no loud noise to wake up. No one yelling for blood collection."

  Helena's smile got smaller. "We don't do that here. Breakfast is ready, and Father Gabriel wants to meet you after, if that's okay."

  "Father Gabriel?" Maria said the strange words. "What does 'father' mean? Is he someone's blood parent?" Maria had heard old blood bags talk about "parents" sometimes - people who made you and took care of you when you were small. But at Blood Farm #17, no one knew who made them. Blood bags just appeared one day in the collection rooms.

  Helena looked surprised. "Oh, no. 'Father' is what we call him because he was a priest before..." She stopped, then said, "It's a name for a man who serves the light."

  Maria's heart beat faster. A man who served the light! Here! Her hands shook a little.

  "He serves the light? Like Thomas did? Can he tell me about The Promise?" The words came out fast.

  "I'm sure he'll talk about what you believe," Helena said with a strange look—like she wanted to ugh or maybe cry. "Let's get you food first."

  The eating pce was big, bigger than any Maria had seen. About ten people sat eating food—not the gray paste from the blood farm. There were strange brown things that smelled good and colorful things she'd never seen before and something hot in bowls.

  Nara waved to her from a table in the corner.

  "How did you sleep?" Nara asked when Maria sat down.

  "Good. The bed was soft." Maria looked at the food. "What is this?"

  "Oatmeal with honey and apples," Nara said. "The brown thing is bread. The colorful things are fruits. Try it."

  Maria stared at the "bread" and "fruits" with wide eyes. She had heard about these things in Thomas's stories about the time before demons, but she'd never seen them. She took a small bite of the hot food. Sweet taste filled her mouth, then sour apple taste. She made a small happy sound.

  "It's good," she whispered, afraid someone might take it if they knew she liked it.

  While they ate, Maria heard the workers talking quiet.

  "...thinks Father Gabriel is..." "...should we tell her?" "...Helena says wait until..."

  Maria didn't know what they meant. Why were they talking quiet about the light-man?

  After eating, Helena took Maria to see Father Gabriel. They walked through halls with pictures and things Maria didn't know. Helena tried to tell her about Father Gabriel.

  "Father Gabriel knows a lot about many things," she said. "He's been studying religious texts for many years."

  "Religious?" Maria asked. The word was hard to say.

  "Things about faith and light and promises," Helena said. "Like what you believe."

  They stopped at a big wood door. Helena knocked soft.

  "Come in," said a deep voice.

  Inside was a room with more books than Maria ever saw. Books on all the walls, from floor to top. In the middle was a big desk with open books, and behind it sat the man Maria saw in the garden yesterday.

  Up close, he looked both young and old. His face was smooth, but his dark eyes looked like they'd seen many years. He wore bck clothes with a small white part at his neck. He had a silver cross around his neck like the one on top of the building.

  He stood up when they came in and smiled a little.

  "Thank you, Helena," he said. "You must be Maria. Welcome to my home. I'm Father Gabriel."

  Helena left, closing the door. Maria stood near the door, not sure what to do. Her mind was racing with thoughts about a real light-teacher. She was so excited that she didn't even notice when Father Gabriel called this pce "my home."

  Father Gabriel pointed to a chair. "Please, sit down. Would you like some tea?"

  Maria sat careful and looked at the hot cup he gave her. "What is 'tea'?"

  "It's a drink made from dried leaves and hot water," he said, not ughing at her. "It helps people feel calm. Try it if you want."

  Maria took the cup, smelled it, then took a tiny drink. It was warm and tasted like pnts and something she didn't know. Not bad, but strange.

  "Baron Cassian sent your papers," Father Gabriel said, pointing to some papers on his desk. "He said you have... special beliefs. I'd like to hear about them from you, if that's okay."

  Maria put down the tea and sat up straight, like when she led prayers at the blood farm.

  "The light was here before the demons came," she started, her voice like when she said The Promise. "We have to hurt because we were bad, but when we give enough blood, the light will come back and the demons will go away."

  Father Gabriel listened, looking like he was thinking hard. When she said demons, his eyebrow went up a little, but he didn't stop her.

  "And Thomas taught you this? At the blood farm?" he asked when she was done.

  Maria nodded. "Thomas was old. He knew about the time before demons. He taught me The Promise, and I taught others."

  "I see." Father Gabriel leaned closer, putting his fingers together. "What do you think about this pce? Cassian's pce? Here?"

  "It's... not the same," Maria said slow. "The Baron tricks cursed people into thinking they're not cursed. And the cursed people let him trick them. The demon-helpers here don't act mean like at the blood farm. And this pce..." She waved her hand around. "It has crosses and colored gss with light people. Thomas talked about pces like this, from before."

  "Light people?" Father Gabriel asked, looking like he really wanted to know.

  "In the big room with the high top. The colored gss shows people with light around their heads."

  "Ah, the saints in the stained gss windows." He nodded. "Yes, this building was a church before the outbreak. Before what you call 'the demons' came."

  "Church," Maria said the word again, remembering Nara used it too. "A pce for light and faith."

  "Yes." Something moved in Father Gabriel's eyes—surprise, maybe. "Would you like to learn more about what this pce was? About the faith that was here?"

  Maria's heart beat fast. "Yes. Please."

  "The people who built this church believed in light too," he said. "Light that wins over darkness. They used crosses to show faith and sacrifice."

  "Sacrifice?" Maria asked. "What does that mean?"

  "Giving something you love for others," he said. "Like when you share your food with someone who has none."

  Maria thought of the old blood bags who gave her extra food when she was small, even when they were hungry. "Thomas did that. He gave me his food sometimes."

  Father Gabriel's face got softer. "That sounds like sacrifice, yes."

  "Are you a... light person?" Maria asked. The question she wanted to ask since Helena said he served the light.

  A strange look crossed Father Gabriel's face—kind of happy, kind of sad. "I was ordained as a priest before the outbreak," he said. "That means I was chosen to serve and teach about faith."

  "What is 'ordained'?" Maria asked.

  "It means I was given special permission after years of studying to be a teacher of faith," Father Gabriel expined nice.

  Maria frowned a little. "What is 'studying'?"

  "Learning about something for a long time," he said. "Reading books, listening to teachers, thinking about ideas over and over until you understand them."

  Maria nodded slow, trying to think what that might be like. At the blood farm, there was no time to learn things that didn't help you stay alive.

  "What is 'outbreak'?" she asked, not knowing the word.

  Father Gabriel's face got more serious. "That's... a long story. I'll expin it another time when we have more time to talk about it properly. It's when the world changed and the demons first appeared."

  Maria leaned forward, eyes wide with hope. "You really teach about the light? The real light? Like Thomas did? Can you tell me more about the light than Thomas knew?"

  Father Gabriel was quiet for a moment. "I believe that all creatures, even those changed by the outbreak, have a reason and meaning."

  Maria frowned, confused. "What is 'meaning'?"

  "It's... what something is for. Why something exists. Its purpose," Father Gabriel expined, searching for the simplest words.

  Maria tilted her head, trying to understand. "Like the demons punishing us? That's their purpose? To take our blood until we pay enough?"

  "Is that what you really believe?" he asked gentle. "That humans deserve to be hurt?"

  No one ever asked Maria if she really believed The Promise. It just was. Like breathing. She never thought to ask about it.

  "Of course," Maria said, looking at Father Gabriel like he had asked if water was wet. "Or else why would the demons punish us? Thomas said we must have done something wrong, or the demons wouldn't have come. And we have to pay with blood until it's enough. Then the light comes back."

  Father Gabriel stood up and got a big book with old leather cover. "There are many ways to understand why bad things happen," he said, coming back to his desk. "Many people have tried to expin why good people get hurt."

  He opened the book, showing her pages with small, neat writing and some pictures. "This is one way of thinking. It says that bad things aren't always punishment. Sometimes they happen because the world has both good and bad in it."

  Maria stared at the book, amazed that someone wrote down thoughts about light and pain. At the blood farm, words only existed when spoken.

  "Can you..." she stopped, feeling bad. "Can you read it? The words?"

  "Are these the words that Nara talked about? She said people put thoughts on paper with marks?" Maria asked, her fingers hovering above the page without touching it, as if the words might be sacred.

  Understanding came to Father Gabriel's eyes. "You don't know how to read."

  Maria shook her head, feeling shame. "At Blood Farm #17, nobody could read. Thomas told us stories about 'books' from before, but we only had words passed from mouth to mouth between blood bags."

  Father Gabriel closed the book gently. "There are many things to discuss about faith and light. We will have time for that." He pced the book back on his desk, looking thoughtful.

  Before Maria could answer, a bell rang somewhere in the building.

  "That's for lunch," Father Gabriel said. "We can talk more ter."

  As they walked to the eating pce, Maria watched Father Gabriel from the side of her eye. He moved quiet and smooth, and there was something in his face—a kind of sad peace—that made her think of Thomas.

  A man who served the light, just when she needed help. It had to be a sign. The light sent her to the right pce.

  In the hall, they passed two workers talking quiet. When they saw Father Gabriel and Maria together, their eyes got big and they looked at each other scared.

  "Is something wrong, Martin?" Father Gabriel asked one of them.

  "No, Father," the man said fast. "We were just... that is... does Maria know about—"

  "We were just going to lunch," the other worker cut in, pushing Martin with his elbow. "Nothing important."

  Father Gabriel gave them a strange look but nodded and kept walking. Maria looked back at the workers, who were now having a quiet fight with words.

  "...needs to know he's a..." "...let Father Gabriel tell her..." "...won't end good..."

  Maria frowned. What were they talking about? What did she need to know about Father Gabriel? Was something wrong with him?

  When they got to the eating pce, Nara was already there. She looked surprised to see Maria and Father Gabriel together, and something like worry crossed her face.

  "Maria, there you are," Nara said, coming over fast. "Did you have a good talk with Father Gabriel?"

  "Yes," Maria said. "He's going to teach me to read words about the light."

  Nara's eyes went quick to Father Gabriel, who nodded calm.

  "That's... good," Nara said, but she didn't sound sure. "Maria, can I talk to you alone for a minute?"

  Before Maria could answer, another worker came with an important message for Father Gabriel. He said sorry and left, saying they would talk more ter.

  As he walked away, Nara took Maria's arm and led her to a quiet corner.

  "Maria," she said in a low voice. "There's something you should know about Father Gabriel."

  "What?" Maria asked, confused by Nara's serious face.

  "He's not what you think he is," Nara said careful. "He's not a human who serves the light. He's—"

  "A very wise teacher," Helena said, showing up sudden beside them. "Who knows much about the old ways. Let's not tell her too much on her first day, okay, Nara?"

  The look that went between Helena and Nara had meaning that Maria didn't understand.

  "Of course," Nara said finally. "One thing at a time."

  Maria looked between them, confused. "What were you going to say about Father Gabriel?"

  "Just that..." Nara seemed to pick her words careful. "He has many interesting ideas about light and faith that might be different from what Thomas taught you. Keep an open mind, that's all."

  Maria nodded slow, still feeling like she was missing something important. But the thought of learning to read, of finding out more about the light and faith and promises, pushed her questions away.

  That night, in her room, Maria knelt beside her bed like she did at the blood farm, saying The Promise soft to herself.

  "When we've hurt enough, When our blood has paid the price, The light will break the dark, And demons will turn to ice..."

  But as she said the words she knew, she thought of Father Gabriel's kind eyes. She thought of the colored gss pictures of light people—saints, he called them—and the crosses that meant giving something you love for others.

  "Please, light," she whispered when she finished The Promise. "Help me learn the truth. And keep me safe from demons while I stay in this strange pce."

  She didn't know the funny part of her prayer—asking to be safe from demons while a demon was taking care of her—as she got into bed. She dreamed of words in books that might finally expin the light that had helped her for so long.