"Come on," Domi said, looking his twin over as the two of them walked to the door leading from their bedroom to the private skychamber's common room.

Daedalus wavered on his feet as he followed but did not use the gold-leaf wall for support the way he had that morn. He was getting stronger little by little, and tension seeped out of Domi with each new improvement.

Domi reached for the doorknob, then stilled as a fragment of the muffled conversation on the other side drifted through the faux marble.

. "...don't know what to do."

Domi and Daedalus exchanged glances. The older twin shook his head, but Domi rose on his toes to peek through the tiny window.

On the other side, Valens and Aix sat adjacent to each other on two of the four divans in the common room, coffee goblets abandoned before them and promenia humming a low thrum around them as they helped the skychariot navigate.

Aix patted Valens's hand where it rested in a fist atop the corner table between them. "Just take it one day at a time, Valens. Provide as much support and structure as you can. That's what all children need, but especially traumatized ones."

Valens gritted his teeth. "I'm not good with kids." He grabbed his goblet and took a sip of the beverage.

"I think you're doing fine."

Daedalus glanced at Domi. "Perhaps we should go," he said in a low voice.

Domi did not want to go. It was weird to see Valens so uncertain. And he wanted to hear what else Aix would say. The two adults were talking about him and Dae, after all. They had a right to listen.

Amber eyes met his own through the glass and Domi froze. "If you're going to eavesdrop," Valens said dryly, "you might as well come in."

Domi offered a sheepish smile and eased himself off of his toes. He blushed under his twin's pointed look. "Come on."

Aix smiled and rose to his feet as the twins stepped into the room. He pressed a hand over his laurel.

Domi tensed. "Don't." Nausea churned in his belly at the reminder of the royal title he now bore in truth and how it had come to him. "Please."

Aix and Valens exchanged a look--the latter arched a brow--and the older man finally shrugged, lowering his arm. He nodded politely at Daedalus. "Basiluculus, you look better."

"Somewhat," Valens said, less impressed than the other man. He hadn't bothered to stand when Domi and Daedalus arrived but now he rose from the divan and frowned at the older twin. "Why aren't you in bed?"

Aix approached Daedalus and rested a hand on the illusory's girl's slender shoulder, nudging him to the divan opposite Valens. "He's well enough, young Aedilis. The crystal wouldn't allow him to rise if he wasn't ready. Still, Basiluculus, you should rest as much as possible." He glanced at Domi. "You as well, Basilicus."

That word. Domi crossed his arms over his chest and pretended the ache there was just an echo of his brother's injuries. "Please don't call me that," he choked.

"Nor me," Daedalus said, wincing as Aix guided him to sit on the divan. Between his broken ribs and arm, he seemed to have trouble lowering himself on his own without pain, but Aix soon had him situated, adjusting his sling. "I am a Principis Heres no longer." He swallowed hard. Domi hated that he was still so pale, and now more color faded from the female face he wore. "The world saw me burn."

"You will always be Domi's brother and your mother's son, Basiluculus," Aix said gently. He offered a sad smile. "But perhaps we can practice our Pyrrhaei identities. The skychariot attendants cannot see, erm, Daedala due to Princeps Buccina's aid. However, we might benefit from a little practice for when we arrive and that part of the illusion fades."

"Thanks," Domi said.

Valens glanced from one twin to the other. "Now, what do you two want?" His lip curled. "Other than to eavesdrop."

Daedalus drew a careful breath. "We wish to train."

"No."

Domi blinked at his aedificans's flat refusal. The man had not even stopped to think about it. "Valens--"

The amber-eyed man shook his head. "I said no. You need to rest. Both of you."

"With respect," Daedalus said, frowning up at the older worldholder, "we are not asking. We must train. Prepare." He nodded as Aix held up a bowl of ice with a questioning arch of a silver brow and then turned back to Valens. "We reach the skyhaven tomorrow morn and then we shall arrive at the Restoration Tower eight hours later if we make good time." He glanced from Aix to a narrow-eyed Valens, and though Domi winced at the stern look on his aedificans's face, Daedalus seemed oblivious. Or unconcerned. "How are we going to reach the tower and fix the Trellis?"

"You let me and Aix worry about that," Valens said firmly.

"You two have been through a nightmare," Aix added, pouring ice into a handkerchief and tying the ends together, "and need to--"

"The whole world has been through a nightmare," Domi said. It was hard not to raise his voice. "I have to help get them out of it." His fists clenched at his sides, one arm twinging in faint complaint as he aggravated the swelling caused by Dae's resonating injury. "I have to." He had ended millions of lives and the lives of everyone left depended on him now. He'd never be able to forgive himself if he failed to get the Trellis back, but he knew next to nothing about magic. He needed to learn. Fast.

A muscle twitched in Valens's jaw as the man gritted his teeth. "Fine. We'll work on some things." He fixed Daedalus with a stern glare. "But not you, Basi--Dala."

Daedalus stiffened, ignoring Aix as the lifeholder slipped the ice bag into his sling. "Excuse me? Whyever not?"

"Because you died three days ago."

"But--"

"--and now you look like you're going to fall on your face," Valens went on with a snort.

Daedalus shook his head. "I am fine."

Domi scoffed. "Liar." A moment later, as his twin glared at him, he realized he'd spoken the thought out loud. He blushed. "What? I can feel how miserable you are."

True, Domi could tell that Daedalus felt a little better, but still. His twin's arm and ribs made Domi's own body ache, and they both felt out of breath all the time as Dae's heart struggled to recover. Domi no longer had a fever or crushing nausea like a few days ago when Dae had still struggled with Trellis poisoning, and only a mild headache lingered from his concussion, but still. If this was how bad Domi felt with just echoes, he knew Dae must feel way worse.

Valens sighed, shaking his head. "Dae--erm, Dala, you're going back to bed." He held up a hand as the older twin opened his mouth. "Yes, you are."

"I am not," Daedalus said, brown eyes narrowing. "You are not my father or my aedificans, and--"

"Technically, I am."

Domi could not help staring at Valens in shock along with his brother. A twinge of jealousy pricked. Daedalus was Valens's alumna, too? But...

"You. But. T-that--" Daedalus broke off, shaking his head. "That was just a ruse, Aedilis. Domi is your alumna. Buccina assigned you as aedificans knowing full well who he was. You were only assigned to me because he bore my name." Valens shrugged and the older twin scowled. "I do not exist anymore. There is no Daedalus in the Compendium. And if I am still listed as Domi, you can just ignore it."

"I can, but I'm not going to."

Domi felt his lip quirk as his twin stared at Valens in open-mouthed dismay. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to share an aedificans. Valens might be less infuriating to deal with if the man's attention was divided between tormenting two people instead of just one.

Valens turned from the astonished older twin to Aix. "Will you help hi--her sleep?"

"I do not wish to sleep," Daedalus snapped.

"Too bad. You're a sick kid and I'm the adult. Aix?" Valens turned to the lifeholder.

The old man offered a more conciliatory smile. "He's right, Dala." He extended a hand, which earned a glare. "Come now. You will need your strength when we arrive, so now is the time to recover it." He studied the older twin as Daedalus refused to rise, and his face gentled. "If it would help, I can make you sleep without dreams."

Daedalus relaxed a little and bit his lip, but ignored the outstretched hand. "I... I do not wish to dream. But dreamless sleep?" He swallowed hard and shook his head. "That... that is too much l-like..."

Aix rubbed his shoulder kindly as, behind him, Valens sighed and nodded. "Let me look at your crystal," the lifeholder said. "I believe it may allow me to set it to encourage restful dreams. Will that work?"

Daedalus hesitated and then inclined his head in agreement. "Yes," he said, the fight at last gone from his soft feminine voice.

"Good. Come along now."

Domi bit his lip as Aix reached out to help Daedalus stand. The idea of having his twin in another room sent a spurt of panic through him. "Can he sleep here?" He swallowed as they paused to look at him. "Just so... so that..."

Understanding flooded Valens's face. "So you can keep an eye on him?"

That drew a frown from Daedalus. "Domi, I am well. I promise."

Domi didn't know how to explain. He just couldn't have his twin out of his sight while Daedalus was still sick. He couldn't. "Still. Please?"

"I..." His brother sighed at something he saw on Domi's face. "Very well." He relaxed back onto the divan and offered a wan smile. "It is easier not to get up." He inclined his head to Aix, who nodded, reaching for the green and gold crystal on the older twin's temple.

"Sleep well, Dala," Valens said as the illusory girl's eyelashes fluttered and drifted closed. He turned to Domi as the younger twin yawned against a wave of drowsiness. "Still want to stay up and train?" He sighed as Domi nodded. "Fine, then start breathing."

<>

The eidolon once known, long ago and in another life, as Kaitlyn Byrd smiled as it circled the drifting xeno.

Mortal eyes would be unable to see the flying lifeform, for none of TRAPPIST-1e's three outermost planets traversed the sky yet. Only stars illuminated the frozen night-side.

But Kaitlyn did not need light to see. Despite the humanoid appearance it had formed for itself, Kaitlyn technically did not possess eyes. Not unless one counted the 100 trillion p-tech particles comprising its body, each of which observed the world in every direction. Whether one deemed its sensory capacities "sight" was a matter of debate. Still, it saw the xeno.

"You have grown pretty since I last saw your kind." Perhaps too beautiful; people now wore garments woven of this particular species' fiber, though the process for rendering the poisonous razorlike filaments into something that could be used for fabric boggled the mind. The xeno had come a long way from the fuzzy, ice-burrowing extremophile Kaitlyn studied long ago, and humanity had changed as well.

"Should you get that close?" Logos asked. It crouched in the snow well beyond the xeno's reach.

"Don't worry, we're safe," Kaitlyn reassured the daemon. "I think she's more curious than vicious."

The xeno did not seem to know what to do about the eidolon and daemon who intruded into her hunting territory. She had already attempted to slash Kaitlyn with her hair-thin tentacles but grew less aggressive when the milky white filaments failed to connect. Instead, the long strands had passed harmlessly through the eidolon's form, and Kaitlyn's p-tech had wavered and reshaped a moment later.

Now, the xeno hovered in midair, tentacles drawn back, radiating pulses into the endless night.

"Yes," Kaitlyn said, "call all your friends. I would love to have a look at them, too."

"I don't," Logos said, its p-tech rippling in something approximating a shudder. "I understand mortals, but these? They are strange. Alien."

"We are more strange and alien than she is," Kaitlyn said.

It studied the female xeno, wondering--not for the first time in this life or the ones before--how the creature interpreted the sounds emerging from it. Did she realize speech served as a form of communication? Did she simply react to human language the way she reacted to the sounds emitted by any other lifeform, native or otherwise? The question used to plague its sleep centuries ago. Now, it occupied Kaitlyn's thoughts once again as as it learned more and more about the species' odd behavior around the world since Trellis Descent. The increased cunning and cooperation between packs--and even with other native species. The swarming in the upper atmosphere over the planet's star-side oceans. The non-venomous webbing the creatures were observed spreading over their cages in some textile farms.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" This was not the first time it had asked the question in this life or its first life. Nor was this the first time it received no answer.

The xeno drifted backward, and her irregular throbbing pulses echoed over the frozen glacier.

"Eyes devour, more are coming," Logos yelped.

Kaitlyn nodded. Two wisps of deep, glistening blue crested the horizon. Very young juveniles, apparently, unless the species had changed even more over the centuries than Kaitlyn expected. Long ago, the creatures were always male when they first spawned, budding off their dam's body and separating into two or three pups. But who knew how the rapidly-evolving species had changed?

"Ah, the new generation." It smiled as the infant creatures floated near. Unflinching, it stood still as the pups' filaments whipped and then caressed its face.

These juveniles were newborns, days old at the most, still filling the air with a fine mist of baby venom to confuse and slow predators and prey alike. The dams rarely brought them out of the nesting burrows this young.

"That will not work on me," Kaitlyn said as another brush of a hairlike tentacle sent ripples across its form. "I have no nervous system. But have you had luck yet with others?"

The juveniles retreated, pulses passing between them in a new rhythm. Faster, now. Slower a moment later. Two sharp thuds like drumbeats. They turned back to the eidolon and a wave of heat passed over it, sizzling at the same irregular pace as the booming throbs. The rhythm mimicked the cadence of Kaitlyn's own speech.

The eidolon laughed in delight. "You have learned a lot," it said, excitement thrilling through it as years of hypotheses seemed to approach confirmation, "but you still do not understand humans very well yet, do you?"

The pair retreated further, and then rounded on Logos.

"No!" it squawked, pink hair flaring electric blue. P-tech hummed a higher frequency as the daemon accessed the particles' defensive capabilities.

"Don't!" Kaitlyn urged, and thank God, the daemon hesitated and shrank away from the infant pups as they waved filaments in its face. "They can't hurt you. They are just curious about us, I think."

Logos shuddered as filaments swept across its face, then grinned. "That feels weird." It eyed the pups. "Mortals would find these cute."

"No, this species terrifies humans," Kaitlyn said. "It is too different. Too alien, even if we are the aliens."

The pups caressed Logos's face once more and then retreated and traded pulses of heat and sound with the larger white female. She thundered a long, vibrating pulse and the infants retreated, drifting away like two blue dandelion puffs.

"Interesting," Kaitlyn said. It turned to leave as well, gesturing for Logos to follow, but the female darted in front of them, tentacles spread out to make the xeno twice as large as before.

Kaitlyn ignored her, stepping into and then past the creature, feeling itself sift between filaments and reform on the other side.

The female swept toward it again, blocking its way once more, and Kaitlyn paused.

"What is it doing?" Logos asked.

"I don't know," Kaitlyn admitted. It frowned at the female. "What do you want, you strange thing? I'm terrible prey. At least humans are made of atoms like you are. You can't eat me. Shoo, now. Go away."

Snow crunched behind it, approaching over crackling ice.

"K-Kaitlyn," Logos said, crowding into it.

The eidolon wrapped an arm around the frightened daemon, turned, and gaped as it beheld the creature striding between the pair of returning infants. "Amazing," it said. "So, you have learned."