The Girl woke up with a snort, her throat the kind of raspy that only came with having spent a good amount of time snoring. She lifted her head, the mass of curls obscuring her vision, but she knew someone was in the room with her.

  She checked on the link. Mama and Otter weren’t anywhere near her. They felt far, and for once, she had trouble telling what direction they were in. It felt like everywhere and nowhere simultaneously.

  There was a small scrape of sound, and the Girl focused on it, wiping sleep from her eyes. Liaru, Mama’s master servant, or maybe head butler – having only half of someone’s memories was kind of a crapshoot for fine details – was pcing a dining tray down on the bedside table. She looked every bit the professional the Girl remembered her as, but her gaze was frosty, even annoyed.

  “Lunch,” Liaru said. “Since the Seat’s guest appears to have slept through breakfast.”

  The Girl scrambled up, trying to make a cloak for herself out of bnkets while standing, somehow tripped herself, and fell directly out of bed.

  “Thank you,” she mumbled.

  “I am just doing my duty,” Liaru said. “There is also a visitor.”

  “Mama’s not here right now. They’ll have to wait.”

  “So I see. I was unaware the Seat had departed. She normally informs me of her comings and goings. But the visitor is not here for her. She wishes to speak with you.”

  “Me?” the Girl squeaked, pulling herself out of the mess she’d made on the floor.

  Liaru looked down at her, and her gaze flickered from cold annoyance to confusion, to a neutral gaze in moments. Her eyes had darted down. The Girl followed the path of where she’d looked, and realized Liaru had seen the simple metal band around her neck. Pin and unadorned, but if one were familiar with Vexurians and their pilots, a damning piece of evidence.

  But luckily, everyone knew said pilots could not survive outside their armor.

  The Girl was safe. Liaru would keep quiet of any suspicions she had – she was very loyal to Mama, and for good reason – and would doubtless not believe the impossible possible in either case. The band was just a fashion statement. A symbol, something worn ironically to decre how little power the Criobani had over her. Yes. The Girl just had to convince herself of that story, and others would assume the same.

  “Yes, you, although I am uncertain why someone would see fit to visit a yabout.”

  The Girl opened her mouth to protest, and then realized she had slept until lunch. Or maybe after. She gnced out the window to get an idea of where the sun was.

  Definitely after.

  Liaru departed the room, somehow managing to merge stiffness and grace in her gait at the same time. From the Girl’s memories, she knew that Liaru was married, but apparently her wife wasn’t giving her anything in the bedroom, because she definitely needed to get id.

  The Girl threw on clothes, an entire outfit pilfered from Mama’s drawers. They didn’t smell like Mama. They hadn’t been worn since Mama had fled the city apparently. Some part of the Girl felt cheated at that.

  The Girl’s belly rumbled a little, and she shoveled a few spoonfuls of the stew and broke off a small piece of bread that had been left on the bedside table into her mouth before curiosity got the better of her. Who would be here to visit her of all people?

  She poked her head out the door, and found her guest waiting for her just outside. The Girl froze on seeing Leilynn, bedecked in a floral sarong and a very tiny top, her hair in a stylish updo that must’ve taken a servant all morning to manage. Leilynn looked nervous, her feet shuffling in a mix of impatience and a seeming desire to want to flee.

  The Girl knew the feeling.

  “Hi,” she said nervously.

  Leilynn’s face lit up, a wide, beautiful smile taking it over. Something in the Girl’s heart fluttered a little.

  “Vex,” Leilynn said in that achingly beautiful voice of hers.

  “I’m not Vex,” the Girl said. “I’m… I don’t know who I am.”

  “I know,” Leilynn said, brushing past her and walking into the bedroom. “That’s why I’m here. Well, one of two reasons.”

  The Girl watched her enter, unsure if she should stop her or not, or kick her out, or do anything. Instead, she closed the door, leaving them alone together, cutting off all hope of rescue from Liaru and her disapproving gres.

  “One of two?” the Girl asked.

  “Yes. We’ll receive news soon. I’m here for it. So I am here for it.”

  The Girl cocked her head to the side. “That’s… a little strange.”

  “Yes. It is a little strange, as I am a little strange.” She sounded wistful when she said it, but also a little sad.

  Some part of the Girl’s mind, some weird part shaped by the half of her brain that was filled with Otter’s memories, made the Girl reach out with one hand, her index finger extended, and poke Leilynn on the nose.

  “Boop.”

  “My first boop,” Leilynn said. “They always say you remember your first.”

  The suggestive, pyful tone of it had the Girl blushing.

  “I, uhm, I don’t know about this ‘wife’ business,” the Girl stammered. “What you said before. I don’t even know if I, uhm…”

  Leilynn caught one of the Girl’s hands with both of her own, holding it and running a thumb along it in a soft caress. “You do. You already know you do, and it has nothing to do with how your parents found you, and what they gave you.”

  The Girl looked away. “This is very unfair. You already know everything about me, and I know nothing about you.”

  Leilynn ughed, a tinkling, musical sound. “Hardly. I know bits and pieces. Stolen moments I’ve been allowed to glimpse without context, and all in the wrong order. Now. Now is when I finally get to know you. And I’ve been looking forward to it for years. If anything, you have the greater advantage.”

  “I do?”

  “Years of memories from Rua. All the moments where she watched me intently, thinking I didn’t notice. Not realizing that I already knew I wasn’t for her, and I already knew about the women who would come into her life. Otter. Sami.” She looked about to say more, list off another name, but stopped herself. “I can’t say too much. I can’t really change things by knowing the future. Events that I’ve seen will always happen. But I might muddle what happens in between, and that never works out well.”

  “So, you telling me that I eventually choose the name ‘Vex’ won’t change the fact that I choose that?”

  “It won’t,” Leilynn said with a nod. She looked about the room, and sighed. “Oh, Rua. So utilitarian. A bedroom, but no adjoining sitting room. Really now. In a house this big?”

  “You’ve never been in Mama’s room before?”

  “No. Why would I? I already said, she is not for me, and I am not for her. We’re sisters in name only, I’m afraid. I care for her. Perhaps even love her, after a fashion, but there isn’t the closeness that she desires.”

  The Girl looked down, and since Leilynn was already holding her hand, she guided her to the bed. “Well, sit down, since we don’t have anywhere else.”

  “Already trying to get me into bed? You’re more bold than I thought you would be.”

  The Girl blushed, and Leilynn ughed again.

  “I’m sorry, I tease, I don’t mean to embarrass you. Honestly… I think I’m just as nervous as you are.”

  “Why would you be nervous?” the Girl asked.

  “Why wouldn’t I be? I’m finally here. I finally get to talk to the woman I marry. But I don’t know what causes us to get there, beyond snippets. And all of my previous retionships have been… strained. I always knew they would not st. And many were ruined by my being Dream-touched before they even had a chance to begin. Too many people vying for what I might know, and never vying for me, I suppose.”

  “That sounds bad?” the Girl said. All of this was a little surreal. And going entirely too fast. She didn’t really know what to say, so waved towards the bowl of stew and accompanying loaf of bread. “Hungry?”

  Leilynn looked at the stew that had obviously been sampled from, with the spoon still sitting in it, and the small loaf of bread that had a chunk torn out of it.

  “You’re different than I’d expected you to be,” she said. “I know what you become. My first viewing of you was… different than what you are now.”

  “A monster,” the Girl said, remembering Mama's memories. “You called me a monster.”

  Leilynn winced. “Yes. I didn’t understand what I was seeing, at the time. I still don’t know entirely. But I’ve seen other parts of you since then.”

  “Anything good?”

  “Some. Some of it very… interesting. Other parts were bnd. Sitting in a proper sitting room, just the two of us, reading. Together alone. Eating meals. Racing soo-meng. I remember our first… well, I can’t get into that one. I think my favourite memories of us are the bnd ones. The ones where nothing is happening, and it’s just the two of us, or us with… Hmm. I keep nearly slipping up. I don’t normally do that.”

  “Is it because I am so very vexing?” The Girl wished she hadn’t told the joke as soon as it left her mouth. She wasn’t as witty as Otter, but that part of her brain wanted to try its hand at it regardless. “Is that why I choose that name?”

  “Hardly. You choose it in an act of defiance. You’re sweet, and you’re kind, and you’re passionate, but if there is one thing that you are above all others, it is stubborn. So, when someone tells you to do something you don’t want to do, it makes you resist all the more.”

  “So, what? I pick the name out of stubbornness? Does this have to do with Otter and the piece of the Vexurian?”

  “No. Although I can see why you’d think that. No. It’s because of this.” Leilynn reached forward and ran a finger along the metal band around Sunny’s neck. “People have already noticed this. Liaru. Jua. They don’t know what to think of it. Not yet anyway. But they’ll figure it out soon enough. Everyone will know a Criobani walks among them soon, even with the trick you did to your eyes. And what will you do, when a mob tells you to leave the Isnds? When they say you must depart, and never see Rua again?”

  The Girl couldn’t find the words. Something welled up in her. Something angry and nasty. A wounded, lonely animal. Cornered.

  “I… I would… I would…”

  She could see it now. She knew the Siyans’ hatred for the Criobani well. Their well-earned, justified hate.

  “There is a type of bird here on the Isnds,” Leilynn said. “The quana.”

  “I know it,” the Girl said. “Small. Not very smart, or fast. Its beak is blunt, and its talons aren’t suited for fighting.”

  “But nothing preys on it.”

  She could see the bird now in her borrowed memories. Of Rua exploring an isnd with Kir, back when they were barely more than girls. Old enough to be left unattended, but young enough to get themselves into trouble.

  Kir had wanted to go hunting. To find ferocious prey. Instead, they’d found a quana.

  Rua hadn’t seen it first. If she had, things might’ve been different. But instead, Kir had spotted it and killed it with a well-pced throw from a sling. She hadn’t known. She hadn’t been familiar with the wildlife of the Isnds, hadn’t known not to kill a quana.

  Touching one was death. Its feathers secreted a venom that killed on contact. Only other quana were immune.

  Its blood was almost as deadly when exposed to air. It would turn into a colourful mist, shifting like a rainbow in the wind. Much like the quana themselves, with their bright colouration signalling a warning to the world.

  The mist was beautiful to look upon. It changed and swayed against the wind, as if it had a life of its own. It was hypnotic in reality, lulling anything that looked at it into a motionless stupor.

  Not for long. Just long enough for other quana to smell it, and descend.

  This was how quana hunted. Everyone knew what one looked like. They stood out, even in the beautiful tropical isnds, surrounded by other bright colours.

  Most things knew not to sy a quana. And those that didn’t found themselves prey to a flock of the venomous birds.

  Rua had pulled Kir away, managed to get them away in time. They’d both nearly died that day. Kir had wanted to keep the failure a secret. Rua had made sure everyone knew what a fool she’d been, to teach her a lesson she’d never forget.

  One did not attack a quana and live. Their very plumage was an announcement of such to the world around them.

  The Girl nodded in understanding, and something clicked.

  “I won’t be put in a suit of armour again. I won’t be taken from Mama again.”

  “I know,” Leilynn said.

  “Vex,” the Girl said, trying it out. “Vex Quana.”

  Vex kind of liked the sound of that.

  DorenWinslowe