Faint sounds filtered through the fuzzy, sticky cobwebs of Aix's mind. They drifted and caught on lazy thoughts as they made their way toward his awareness, until at last they clarified into a young male voice.

"Come on, just try."

"I cannot."

For a moment, Aix thought the voice spoke to itself. Perhaps the Eyes did not merely cause madness, but were mad as well, talking to themselves like that.

Though why was the voice so young? Shouldn't a planet sound impossibly old? His brow furrowed as his mind struggled to puzzle it out.

"Sure you can." Laughter touched the voice. Not an elder's wise, warm laughter, but juvenile good humor. "I believe in you."

"Domi--"

"Just repeat after me: shit."

Affronted tension filled the second voice. "I cannot say that."

"Expand... expanding your brother's vocabulary, young Erus?" Aix asked. His own voice came out in a low croak but proved serviceable. He peeled his eyes open.

"Aix!" Domi's face lurched into his field of vision, and Aix grimaced as it wobbled in the air before him and seemed to expand into a watercolor of neutral colors backlit by the amber light of a resin lamp. But after a moment it settled into the boy's familiar visage, albeit wobbly about the edges. "How do you feel?"

"Tired," Aix murmured. "Weak. But well enough, considering."

He had expected to feel far worse, honestly. The symptoms of clivia poisoning had descended swiftly after Ausus's pups sliced twin shallow stripes behind his ear. He'd succumbed to fevered sleep within moments, curling upon the empty pod's warm, springy floor the instant Ausus had guided him to lie down.

Daedalus's face swayed into his line of sight to join the younger twin's. The boy scrutinized him, warm brown eyes almost like Valens's amber gaze in the steady glow of the clivia resin light on the ceiling above him.

The twins really did look like they could be Valens's half-brothers. The Eternal Radiance--well, the universe, in any case--had an odd sense of humor.

Aix cleared his throat and yanked his wandering thoughts back on track. "Any changes yet?"

The older twin shook his head. "Not yet, Aedilis. Valens grew bored of watching and decided it was safe to let us wait with you for a time. It has been about three hours."

Aix nodded weakly. "Takes six for the crystal scales to appear, usually." He licked his lips; fever had dried them already. "Ausus said eight for the other changes to set in." But only if he lowered the sensitivity of his own prometus, to prevent it from destroying the infectious agent. He'd done so before falling asleep, but hopefully it had been enough.

"Do you hear the Eyes, yet?" Domi asked. He inclined his head to something at Aix's side. "Or them?"

Aix craned his head up off the springy, webbed-mushroom floor long enough to look, then smiled and lay back again, spent. The pair of clivia pups appeared as tired as he felt, one curled next to him in a tight ball like a blue marble, the other sprawled next to his ribs like a fluffy blue feather. He'd be worried about rolling over and crushing them in his sleep, except he lacked the strength to move.

"Not yet," he murmured, feeling sleep already tugging at his awareness as the fever began sweeping over him anew in a warm wave. His lashes fluttered. "Pups... alright?"

"I think so," Domi said. "Ausus said giving you the doses of poison wore them out, but they'll be up and about before you." He cast an uneasy glance at Daedalus. "He asked us to watch over them, too."

The older twin looked away, crossing his arms.

"Alright," Aix murmured, allowing his eyes to drift closed as his head spun, "I'm going... sleep. No cursing..."

"I'll curse if I want to, Aedificanti."

Aix jumped at the new voice, then frowned. The adrenaline surge drove him upright, until he found himself sitting in the middle of the resin-lit pod and blinking at Valens.

The young man, leaning against the webbed wall a few feet from him, smirked. "Just as fast as Ausus said it would be."

For a moment, Aix could only stare. Where were the twins? He glanced down at his side. The pups? "Huh?" he asked sagely.

His alumna reached out and patted his shoulder. "Ausus said you'd wake from it fast. I see he was right. How do you feel? You look..." The younger man hesitated, studying his face, and it was only then that Aix spotted something blue out of the corner of his eye. "Well, different."

Aix shrugged, marveling that he did not feel the slightest bit tired anymore. Neither did his hips and back complain from lying on the ground for several hours. He lifted his hands from his lap, marveling with a shiver of mixed excitement and dread at the iced-blue skin of his fingers and palms.

It was too late to turn back now, it seemed.

He blinked at the small slit in his wrist and quickly looked away. No, he wasn't ready to explore that kind of change yet.

"I feel the same," he said, and prayed that his words were not just wishful thinking. Did he feel different? Something stirred in his wrist as he clenched his fist experimentally, and he jerked his gaze up to his alumna. "Is it over?"

Valens reached out and poked a spot on his neck, beneath his ear. The faint cling of a fingernail tapping something akin to metal or glass sounded where the pups had administered shallow cuts. "You're chill to the touch, blue, and sprouting crystal scales. But Ausus says you won't be able to hear the Eyes or clivia for a few more hours." He scrutinized Aix one more time, then extended his hand with a satisfied grunt. "Are you hungry? The Blended brought our huskies and sleds back here to the burrow. We can make you some gruel." His lip twitched. "Unless you're craving clivia food."

"Gruel sounds good, Alumna," Aix said quickly. Call him a coward, but he needed to know if he could still eat day-side food before he started exploring any changes. "Will the twins join us?"

Valens shook his head. "They were fast asleep when I came to check on you." He snorted. "Worst watchers ever. I brought them back to Ausus's pod to rest." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "They need it."

Aix let his gaze pass over his alumna, followed by his promenia. Bone-deep exhaustion reverberated back to him. "So do you," he said, dispelling the thin cloud of particles. "Have you been up all eve? It must be near Brightening."

"I'm fine," Valens said, even as a yawn nearly cracked his face in two. His surly glare warned Aix not to say anything. "Ausus, Cercitis, Astricus, and I had some developments to discuss."

"Developments?" Aix asked, nodding as he followed Valens to the pod door. Thankfully, it stood open already; Aix wasn't ready to find out if he could command them to open yet the way Ausus had.

Valens paused in the dark, labyrinthine hallway just outside the door. He rubbed his eyes as he drew a deep breath, but when he lowered his hands, wonder filled his tired gaze. "It seems while we traveled, the world had another Pyrrhaei Rebellion. Pullati captured skyhavens and Collegiums in most capital cities. And Merula herself took Arx Luminosa. I have no clue how long they can hold power, but it seems we have new rulers."

Aix nodded slowly, impressed and pleased but not terribly surprised. Years of his life had been devoted to studying the Pullati. If anyone could pull off such a feat, they could. The Rex had underestimated them for far too long.

But to maintain power, they needed to keep Promethidae from seizing it again. Especially the Rex. Promenia would remain thin for a time, but worldholders would already be hard at work creating more. Aix had no doubt the new resources would be allocated first to quashing the rebellion. But a great deal could be accomplished with the Trellis alone if the Rex managed to register enough Pullati.

"We need to find a way to topple the damn Trellis again, don't we?" Valens murmured, voice caught between bitterness, dread, and dry humor as he studied Aix's face. "After all the work we put into restoring it."

He swallowed. "Yes, I'm afraid so, Alumna."

The younger worldholder nodded, eyes darkening. "And we need to figure out how to do it without the twins. They've been through too much. They're done holding, destroying, and saving the world. It is time for them to be kids."

"I agree, Alumna. Let's talk to Ausus and the other Blended. They may already have a plan."

Aix inclined his head. "Good idea, Alumna." He extended his hand down the irregular winding hallway. "Shall we?"

Valens glanced at him with a wry smile. "Yes, but you need to lead the way. I can't see much more than the outline of your face." He tilted his head. "Unless you can't..."

A shocked thrill swept through Aix's veins as he regarded the long, weaving corridor, which spiderwebbed off in countless directions from this main passage. Vaguely, he recalled Ausus leading him here, carrying a ball of glowing amber resin.

He didn't need the resin in order to see, now.

"No, Alumna," he said, voice choked. "I can see perfectly well. I'll lead us."

<>

Domi's elbow jostled Daedalus's ribs as the younger twin backed away to avoid being spotted by the men passing around the bend.

"Hide that," Daedalus hissed, and thank the Eternal Radiance, Domi shoved their resin light into a fold of his paenula.

Shadows swallowed them. And not a moment too soon.

Footsteps padded past them in the dark as Valens and Aix walked along the spongy main corridor. Daedalus held his breath until the sounds faded.

The barrows fell into a deep silence. In their cramped tunnels, clivia slumbered, still as death.

"Did you hear what they said?" Domi whispered somewhere to his left.

"Yes," he said, nudging his younger twin toward the pod where Ausus and Valens thought they were fast asleep. He had not the foggiest notion how to navigate through the dark, maze-like passages; luckily, the trail of promenia he had left along the way guided them back well enough. Even Domi sensed the particles, he realized proudly as his brother followed the faint humming distortions writhing against the darkness without instruction.

"Those idiots!" Domi seethed as they crept along. "Do they really think they can tear the Trellis back down without us?"

"It is foolhardy," Daedalus agreed. There was only one way to do such a thing without them, and it involved suppressing or murdering an innocent girl. Their cousin. He could scarcely believe he had another kinswoman left. Surely Aix and Valens would not do aught to harm her? He could not bear the idea. "And this is our fight, not just theirs."

"But how are we going to get rid of it?" Domi asked, voice thoughtful in the dark. "That awful thing. There's no way to tear it down." He paused. "Unless... Unless--"

"Unless we are inside the tower," Daedalus agreed, feeling terror bite deep. Could he go back there, again? Where the Rex was? Where Oliva was? He shuddered, his mind filling with memories of Oliva's cluden sword falling again and again.

He shoved the frightening thoughts away, though his heart still pounded. How could he not to back? Everything depended on the Trellis falling. Everything. He loathed that his father had replaced him with a clivia family, but the pups were children. Real children, not just mindless animals. They deserved a future, too.

Everyone deserved a future.

"We've got to go back," Domi whispered as they at last found the open door of Father's pod and stepped within. His voice fell to a low murmur as he spotted Buccina curled, fast asleep, on the soft floor. "I don't want to, and Valens won't let us, but we have to."

"I know," Daedalus said, gulping loud enough at the thought that he felt sure his twin could hear the sound. "But there is something else that we must do first."

"What?" Domi asked, nibbling his lip as he turned to look at him.

"We, must be leaders," Daedalus said, shivering as he looked at the pair of slumbering clivia pups in the radish bowl. The pair shifted, blue tendrils stirring sluggishly, and Daedalus's eyes narrowed. "One more time."