"A pleasure to meet you, Chiana," Matt says and means it, if only because he can tell already that she's sharp, her first instinct to test him when most people would let their sympathy cloud their judgment. He watches her move in that hazy crimson place in his mind, but his gaze remains fixed and unseeing.

"That's an unusual name," he continues, and then reconsiders, smiling. "Perhaps not unusual for this place. I haven't been here long."