"I'm nineteen," she said again, very quietly. "Why are my hands old?"
Alex didn't have an answer. He had a dagger.
He pulled it out of the dark and held it flat in front of her, so the blade caught the sun. It was a cheap academy dagger, and it made a bad mirror. It was good enough.
Ash looked at the woman in the steel.
She touched the scar on her chin. She found the grey hair above her ear and pulled it straight and looked at it for a while.
"How long?" she said.
"I don't know. You look about thirty."
"Thirty." She let out a breath that was nearly a laugh. "I missed my twenties. All of them. Mum said those were the good ones."
'Say something,' Alex told himself. 'Say something nice. You always say something.'
"Hi," he said. "I'm Alex. Alex Walker."
--System Message--
+1 Human Affinity Points
Total Human Affinity Points = 21
------------
The chime rang in his head, bright and cheerful.
For the first time ever, he wished it would shut up.
