Illim watches his host's thoughts worriedly, but he remains passive as Serid gives a smirk of his own--a disturbingly toothy one. "Very well. It is impossible to know what lies she has told you, so I will start at the beginning.
"When we were both arisths, we were given a shameful assignment: to spy on the Earth Yeerk movement by becoming a part of the Yeerk culture. Ertoran took a Yeerk morph, and I assumed a human one. This one, in fact," he gestures to his chest before setting his hand back down on the tabletop, knuckles bent in rigid anger. "Every day, she would infest me, and we would prowl around the Yeerk Pool, attend Sharing meetings, and gather information.
"I did not realize the implications of our ever-lengthening stays in the Pool: she was becoming attached to the very individuals that I then saw as our enemy," he continues. "It should have come as no surprise, then, when she deliberately maintained her position in the Pool long enough that we were forced to demorph in a quiet corner of the compex." His upper lip curls back even farther. "Naturally, I was captured--who knows what she told her friends while feeding on Kandrona?--and she escaped."
Now that he is finally vocalizing the wrongs done to him, he cannot seem to stop speaking. "She abandoned me to the Empire with nothing more than an empty promise to break me free. I was a fool to hope in her. She never returned. Even after I assumed a life as a nothlit, forever revoking what remaining ties I might have had to my Andalite people, there was no sign of her. I hope, for your rebellion's sake, Myitt One-Nine-Five, that you have not entrusted her with too much information or too many responsibilities."
Tora stands wordlessly in Myitt's ship, having used most of the time of Serid's barrage to complete her demorph. It is difficult to say what she is thinking. She feels hollow.
