"Jewel heist." Gilly said suddenly, loudly. It made me jump; we hadn't been in a conversation. She was still laid up in bed after her interrogation, her purple bruises had only got worse, now a menagerie of colours, vivid, like a sunset on her skin. I had been rebuilding my sock ball.
"What?" I frown.
"I was part of a jewel heist." She grunts, trying to move to sit up. I want to help her but the whole being in different cells thing kind of makes simple kindnesses like that a little difficult. She knows that though.

Finally sitting, she takes a deep sigh, not looking at me. "Five men, in and out job. Simple. Except one of them got it in his head he could take the whole damn thing for himself. Ender Gems. How he thought he could carry one of those alone let alone…" She trails off, I wonder if she realises I have no idea what one of those is. "He left us in a bad situation. Lockdown on the palace, sirens going off. We bolted only to find he had taken the ship, bastard." She spat. "Finally we managed to steal a merchant ship. Didn't get that far before we found out the ship was in a bad way. Had to dump most of the reserves to keep going. We crash landed near Asgard. They caught us and locked us in here. The Asgardians are allies of the Enderians."

I watch her for a moment, the dark eyes under lids without lashes, the pale hair, the skin the colour of moonlight. "Where are the others?" She shrugs. "They didn't help you when the cells were opened." I say aloud slowly. She nods.
"I think they must be on another level, or in another part of the prison; a less intense part I hope." She glances up, seeing my narrowed eyes. "The prison is segregated by severity of crime." She explains. "This area," She waves a webbed hand about, "one of the most serious areas."

"Why are you here and they're not?" I ask, shuffling closer to the wall dividing our cells.
"Because I said I was the ringleader?" She shrugged. "I was taking a fall for someone else. Couldn't have them locked up here, she'd never be able to handle it." Gilly shivers a little. "Plus, I have a lot in my past I'm not proud of. Stuff that gets me on a lot of wanted lists. Whether I was the ringleader or not, I've done enough to have earned my place here."

"So what were they interrogating you about? The jewel heist or the other stuff?"
She laughs. "I think you know the answer to that."

There's a pause between us. "Do you regret taking the fall?"
She shrugged. "It's what you do for the people you love." This, of course, only leads to another pause.
"I'm still not telling you why I'm here." I smile.
She bursts out laughing. "Damn breather, why do I even try?"
"Was any of that true?"
"Every word."