"The Eternal Radiance values us all, Child. Each person has been given a sacred purpose. Each person is a useful tool in the Sublime Light's hand. Do what you are meant to do, and rejoice in the knowledge that your work helps cultivate the Garden of Light."

--The Holy Ovidiana

*~*~*~*

With every bite Daedalus took, Valens's expression twisted in greater disgust.

Chewing slowly, Daedalus glanced away from the man leaning against Astricus and Cercitis's pod's wall and looked down at the broad sporeleaf in his hand. The gray lotus-like plant was hardly the strangest thing he had ever eaten. The royal chefs back home loved experimenting with palace cuisine, and countless bizarre dishes had been placed before him over the years. 

Although he must admit, night-side flora had never been on the menu.

After First Glare, Cercitis had brought the sporeleaf in a large web basket, along with several other plant-like foods she deemed nutritious and flavourful enough for the twins' first night-side meal. She had plopped the basket atop the pod's mushroom table and then nearly crushed Daedalus in a hug, before finally demanding that the twins sit and eat.

Some things never changed, it seemed.

"How does it taste?" his foster mother asked as she supervised the meal. She avoided looking at Domi as the other boy sniffed a brittle crystalline twig and gave the helix-shaped sprig a very Valens-like grimace. Still, she murmured, "You need to eat too, Domi. Your body needs both day-side and night-side nutrition, now." She returned her questioning glance to Daedalus, brows arching.

He worked the sporeleaf over between his teeth, considering it. "Not too terrible," he said, lifting one hand politely to cover his mouth as he spoke. Bitter flavors burst over his tongue, reminding him somewhat of toasted coffee beans. He nibbled the leaf, unsure whether he liked it or not, then picked up another plant. The bulbous fruit, with a skin similar to a lime in color and texture, glowed in his hands from several long pink stripes.

Domi tossed his crystal twig back into the basket and eyed the new colorful fruit with a little more interest. "Let me try that one," he said and watched intently as Daedalus dug his fingernails into the pulpy peel to tear the fruit in half. "Looks like candy."

Inside, the fruit resembled a pomegranate, except the seeds nestled in their separate compartments each glowed bright pink with a green spark in the heart.

A scent reminiscent of mint, strawberry, and pineapple wafted through the pod.

"Do not eat it yet," Daedalus cautioned as he handed half to his now-eager twin, then glanced at Cercitis and Astricus. "Do we have to do it with this one, too?"

His foster father dipped his head. "Every time, or you won't be able to digest it. Not pleasant."

"It doesn't look pleasant now," Valens muttered. He cringed as Domi, with an uneasy look on his blue face, flexed his hand and allowed the filament hidden within his wrist to emerge. "Doesn't that hurt?" the older worldholder asked, grimacing at the new appendage.

As Domi just stared with something like horrified fascination at the slender pearlescent-blue filament, Daedalus released his own. He could not help a shudder at the unfamiliar sensation of it sliding free of his skin.

"No, it just feels really weird," Domi said, his eyes--a crystal-flecked blue now instead of brown--darting to Daedalus and watching with care.

Moving slowly so that his brother could see, Daedalus brushed the filament over the fruit as he had done with the sporeleaf, shivering as a small measure of the spores within his body released into the fruit.

Domi glanced at his own wrist, then at the fruit. "Just touch it?" he asked nervously, copying Daedalus and then twitching in surprise. "Oh."

"What does that thing feel like?" Valens asked, eying the filament like he expected it to leap off of Domi's arm and bite him in the face.

Daedalus's twin shrugged. "Sort of like my middle finger's on the wrong side of my hand." He tilted his head and squinted as he bent the flexible filament to the aforementioned finger. "And there's something kind of pointy on the end, like a thorn, or--"

"Don't!" Cercitus said as she jerked forward and reached a blue arm across the table.

Between one breath and the next, Domi's eyes rolled back, and the fruit tumbled from his hands as he flopped sideways.

Daedalus's heart leaped into his throat as his twin sagged against him. "Domi!"

Valens, lurching across the pod, grasped Domi's shoulders and peeled the unconscious boy upright, eyes wide with alarm as he stared into his slack face. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's fine," Cercitis said.

Daedalus glanced at his foster mother, surprised to find amusement instead of fear twisting the Empowered lifeholder's expression. Promenia gathered around her, humming sweetly. "He only sedated himself," she said, a smile twitching her deep-blue lips. "I'll wake him up."

A moment later, Domi straightened, his eyes crossing as promenia rose out of him. He blinked owlishly into Valens's face. "What?" he asked.

The older worldholder glared. "You idiot."

Domi's head swiveled around, and wildly-dilated blue eyes passed over everyone and everything. "What happened?" He yawned and then offered a grin that stretched a little too wide. "I feel great."

Cercisus chuckled. "You're extra relaxed from the sedative you just accidentally gave yourself," she said dryly. "I'd clear that away as well---" She rolled her eyes. "--if I didn't suspect this might actually help you be a little less impulsive."

"Wait a minute," Valens murmured, staring at Cercitis like she had sprouted filaments from her ears. "You just used promenia to heal him!"

She nodded. "Yes."

"While he's awake," Valens added, frowning.

Astricus cleared his throat. "We've been exploring the changes," he murmured, taking Cercitis's hand and rubbing her knuckles. "It doesn't seem to work on everyone, but some..."

"Changes?" Domi asked, rubbing his eyes with a yawn. He glanced down and stared at the glowing fruit he had dropped, then lurched sideways to swipe it from the ground. It took two tries for him to grasp it, bumping into Daedalus as he straightened with a victorious grin.

Daedalus rolled his eyes, grabbing it from his twin and sniffing it the way Cercitis had demonstrated when she first brought the basket. Thankfully, a faint peppery scent rose from the seeds, and he nodded. The spores had already begun breaking down the night-side plant into digestible substances; it was good for his twin to eat now. Snorting, he handed it back to Domi, who promptly began chomping it like an apple.

Cercitis watched him eat in amusement. "Yes, Domi, changes. When we woke up after Blending, some of us discovered that we'd been unregistered somehow. The promenia no longer seemed as skilled at recognizing us, perhaps because of the spores we carry."

"It happened more often to Pyrrhaei than Promethidae," Astricus added. "But some Lightbearers experienced it too." He drew a deep breath. "And the Rex's injunction against promenia for healing doesn't work on some of the lifeholders." He nodded toward Cercitis.

"And your promenia ignores the ranking system," Daedalus murmured, fruit forgotten in his own hand. His eyes widened. "So when you try to take the tower--"

Valens scowled at him. "How do you know about that, Alumna?"

Daedalus crossed his arms. "Never mind that. But do you honestly believe that you can pull it off without us? Even with this advantage, the tower still answers only to me and Domi, Aedificanti. We can tear the Trellis down as easily as breathing, and yet you want to leave us here?"

"Yes, I do," Valens said firmly. "We have a way of dealing with this dilemma, Alumna. It's not as easy as involving the two of you, but it still has a decent chance of working."

"A decent chance," Domi slurred scornfully. "This is the most important thing ever, and you're leaving us out."

"That's right, I am," Valens said, his amber eyes unyielding. "Speaking of which." He glanced at Astricus and Cercitis. "It's that time. If you'll find Ausus, Aix, and Buccina, I'll meet you and the others outside." He frowned at Domi and Daedalus. "After I take these two back to the pod." His eyes narrowed from one to the other. "And ensure they stay there."

"This is our fight too," Daedalus said, even as Valens nudged him to stand up. He scowled as his aedificans took his arm, then his twin's, and pulled them both toward the pod door. "Let us help."

Valens shook his head. "The two of you have done far more than it was ever right to ask you to do." At that, Cercitis lowered her eyes to her lap. Their aedificans glanced at Domi as he marched the two of them out the door and down the tunnel toward Father's pod two doors down. "Merula has been speaking all over the Caeles about how we must build a new world founded on new ways. This is one of those new ways. It doesn't matter how useful you are, you're children and shouldn't be used." He tugged them into the pod. "So come along."

"Plenty of time for that later," Domi slurred under his breath, reaching up to give Valens's shoulder a clumsy pat.

Daedalus's eyes widened as the tall man abruptly stumbled and knocked into him. "Valens?" he gasped.

Domi guided the worldholder to the ground with care as the man's knees collapsed and his amber eyes fell closed. He retracted the filament pricking the man's flesh, leaving a tiny bead of blood behind. "Sleep well."

Daedalus gaped from his twin to their unconscious aedificans and back again. "You planned this?" He felt his jaw drop as a second realization sank in. "You sedated yourself on purpose!"

Domi straightened with a shrug. "I needed to be sure I'd know how to do it and that it was safe." He glanced down at Valens. "Looks like it worked." He stretched lazily, grinning. "He'll feel loopy when he wakes, but amazing."

"No, he will not. He is going to be so angry." Daedalus leaned over to pat Valens's cheek, but the man did not stir. "I cannot believe you did that!"

Valens was going to kill them both.

Domi cast Daedalus a crooked smile. "He'll get over it."

"If we survive," Daedalus pointed out. He swallowed hard as he straightened. "If we do not, it will haunt him for life. He will be furious with himself for not seeing this coming and stopping us."

Domi's jaw clenched. "Then we'd better find a way to pull this off and live." He nodded toward the pod door, where clivias began drifting past like white clouds, their throbbing pulses changing to a hunting rhythm accompanied by flashes of brilliant, multi-layered crimson heat. The bestias' infrared words echoed Domi's auditory ones. "Let's go."