I turned to the Vvz'zsh. The panting flexions of zyr abdomen were calming. Ze seemed to be improving. "Focus on me, Dzrtk," I said. "You were saying?"

"The Dominion hates us because we still follow the old ways: lifelight, and Passage."

"And those would be?" I asked.

"Lifelight is what they call Charge. Charge is a Southlander belief."

"Yes, Brrk'zk Szr't't explained some of that to us," I said.

"Then let me explain this," Dzrtk said. "I was raised to believe that Lifelight binds all living things together. Passage is the sacred rite through which we honor that power."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that what you call Passage is what he calls soulbreaking?" Nina asked, pointing first at Dzrtk, then at Dk'brr.

"Yes," the Vvz'zsh replied. "To the T'dzd'ch and other Southlanders, life is meant to be kept separate; neatly sorted, like a garden without vines. Through Passage, we borrow other creatures' bodies. We use their abilities to benefit everyone. We clear fields and chase away predators. We build sanctuaries and cull herds when their numbers threaten nature's balance. We live in harmony with nature, instead of forcing it into submission and enslaving it."

"Do you ever Passage into other D'zd?" Lark asked.

Dzrtk recoiled from us, splaying zyr limbs across the kiln. "Never. That would be a violation. It's unnatural and evil. Two D'zd minds can't exist in the same body. Passage into another D'zd is just another form of murder."

Oh fudge.

I'd just had an epiphany, and—alas—it wasn't pleasant.

"Sword stab me…" I muttered, "that's what the puppets are, aren't they?"

"You believe zym?" Dk'brr said, flicking zyr stinger in surprise.

I glanced at zym. "Do you have any evidence to the contrary?"

Dk'brr started to reply, but zyr light sputtered out. "I…" Ze let zyr arms sag downward, lowering zyr scissorblades.

I turned back to Dzrtk. "Well?"

"You almost got it right," ze replied, grimly. "The T'dzd'ch refuse to perform Passage. They see it as blasphemy. Instead, they use their Chant to murder the souls of living things and turn them into lifeless machines for them to use. They defile nature and themselves."

Suddenly, Dk'brr dropped one of zyr blades. The D'zd stepped back. "No. No! I… I don't believe you!"

"Why not?" Lark asked.

Flustered, Dk'brr flicked zyr stinger-tail from side to side.

"My progenitor would never stand for anything as awful as that. It's monstrous!" Ze glared at Dzrtk, extruding zyr flower's antenna in a viciously crude gesture.

"It looks like your parent hid the truth from you," Dzrtk said. "Poor thing…"

Dk'brr bent forward and picked up zyr sword. "I don't need your pity!" Ze held out the blade, pointing its edge up to the Vvz'zsh's neck.

"Ask yourself this, Brrk'zkling," Dzrtk said, "have you ever seen your Chanters' troops talk? You know it in your abdomen. You feel it in your limbs. They're not people anymore. They're drones. Puppets.

"I…" But Dk'brr didn't say anything else. Ze was at a loss for words. Zyr blade quivered near Dzrtk's neck.

"I saw it," Nina said.

"What?" Dk'brr asked, flower whipping in her direction.

"I saw Chant in the puppets," Nina said. She turned to me. "That's why it looked like the fungus' aura, Dr. Howle. It—"

I stuck out my hand. "—You don't need to say any more, Nina. I get the picture."

&alon's aura stole away its victims' minds, and when she felt threatened, she turned their bodies into zombie minions.

"You understand, don't you?" Dzrtk said, raising zyr flower. "What they're doing is evil, and I'm proud to fight against it." Ze managed to rise to all four knees. "I'd stand against the T'dzd'ch even if they weren't stealing our land and making puppets of my kin. The Dominion won't stop until they've crushed lifelight's last believers into the dirt. Without their puppets, their civilization collapses, and the Vvz'zsh will oppose that evil magic as long as we remain. It's kill or be killed, Dr. Zhn'nt. That is the truth of this world. Only one side will prevail, and as long as I live, I fight to make that side mine."

Well, fudge. Talk about shades of moral gray.

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"But…" I glanced at Dk'brr, "there are good people here. They don't deserve to die."

"You can shine that again," Dk'brr said.

"My clan didn't deserve to be cut down either," Dzrtk replied, "but they were. What, do you expect us to simply take it and do nothing? They'll wipe us out! Don't my people's lives matter, too?"

Ugh. This was not going to be easy. Again, it was like with Geoffrey and Yuta, only worse.

"Why not try to reach out and join hands with Brrk'zk Szr't't?" I said, trying to be optimistic. "If ze knew about the abuses behind these puppets, maybe ze would—"

"—I thought you'd be wiser than the Brrk'zkling, Dr. Howle," Dzrtk said. He flicked an arm at Dk'brr "Do you really think their Brrk'zk doesn't know? Of course ze does. They all know. They know, and they don't care. As long as they have a comfortable home and lifelight to sate them, they'll only ever care about who gets destroyed to maintain that cozy existence when it's finally their turn to march into the Fossil Wind." Ze glared at Dk'brr. "Besides, even if your progenitor had the will to challenge the status quo, the Dominion would strike zym down as soon as ze tried, and let me tell you, their evil will make ours seem like a kindness."

And then, wouldn't you know it, a section of the floor swung up as a trapdoor opened off to the side. There'd been an odd-looking pattern on the floor right beside it; I guess I now knew what it meant.

If only I'd learned it sooner.

Unfortunately, it turned out that Brrk'zk Szr't't's retainer had been under our (metaphorical) noses this whole time.

The trapdoor opened onto a smooth, inclined ramp-stair. Three D'zd stood on it, with a fourth lurking in the shadows not far behind them. Past the lurking fourth, the space beneath the floor led to the tower's warm, spacious, Charge-rich basement. It smelled delicious, and considering the night's cold, being down inside it probably felt like Paradise.

If only the D'zd on the stairs had been friendly. (To think: the one time the D'zd had stairs, it turned out to work against us.)

"What in the world?" Tchk'tk said.

The retainer clasped a pair of short daggers in one of zyr upper hands. Pungently sweet D'zd bodily fluids stained the weapon's grisly, scalloped edge. It looked like a surgeon's tool—or an assassin's—not an assistant's.

It wouldn't surprise me if Tchk'tk had used it torture Dzrtk.

"I can't get so much as a single moment of warmth and peace, can I?" Tchk'tk asked, clearly irked.

"Oh fucking fuck," Lark cursed. The singer skittered back in dismay.

The armor worn by the two D'zd standing behind the irate retainer identified them as soldiers. One had half a pair of scissorblades; the other had one of those living plant whips.

The one with the whip yelled. "The prisoner!"

Dk'brr stepped out in front of us and sheathed on of zyr blades in the holster at zyr abdomen. "Calm down, Tchk'tk. I've been with them the entire time. As Messengers of the Vyx, Zhn'nt and zyr party have the right to interrogate our Vvz'zsh prisoner."

"Noted," Tchk'tk replied. "But why cut zym down? You should have left the Vvz'zsh up in the torture room, where ze belongs."

"You were supposed to interrogate the Vvz'zsh," Dk'brr said, "not torture zym."

Tchk'tk ruffled zyr flower. "So, what, you expect me to just stand there and ask zym nicely?"

"I expect you to be civil," Dk'brr said, "not a barbarian! In that regard, you're no better than they are!"

Tchk'tk pressed zyr lower pair of arms together, hand against hand. "Fossils, you really are your progenitor's nymph, aren't you? Do you know what happens when the enemy is at the gate and people like you are in charge?" Ze flicked zyr stinger contemptuously. "No, of course you don't, you chargeless simpleton. Leaders who refuse to do what needs to be done leads their followers to the graves. They're worse than monsters, they're weak." Tchk'tk glanced at the soldiers. "We're strong; we're the heroes—and don't you ever forget it."

Then, in a flash, the retainer lunged forward and sliced zyr daggers at Dk'brr's arms, cutting through one of zyr joints.

Dk'brr screamed in pain as the lower half of the injured limb dropped to the floor, taking Dk'brr's blade with it.

Then Tchk'tk pounced, slamming zyr torso into Dk'brr's.

I raced forward, grabbing Dk'brr by one of zyr uninjured arms and pulled zym back. Ze groaned in pain. It was a struggle for zym to lift zyr flower as ze looked the traitorous retainer in zyrs.

"What are you?!" Dk'brr asked, flower open wide. "An agent of the Krr't?"

Tchk'tk scraped one of zyr daggers along the wall. "Hardly. I'm just a civil servant, following orders and doing what's right."

Tchk'tk glanced at zyr soldiers. "Kill them all."

Ugh, today just really wasn't my day, was it?

Tchk'tk made way for zyr subordinates, leaping onto the wall.

"Run!" Dzrtk said.

Ze tried to scramble forward, but zyr body was still too weak.

The four of us scampered away from the trapdoor. Dk'brr unsheathed zyr other scissorblade and grabbed the one ze'd dropped on the floor with one of zyr lower arms, though ze struggled to hold it.

Ze must not have trained with that limb.

Skittering along the wall, Tchk'tk raised zyr blades and jumped at us while the soldiers charged up the ramp. The sworded one spread zyr arms to slice us with zyr scissorblades, while the soldier with the whip lashed out, flicking those freaky magic plant buds at us.

Nina waved an arm through the air while belting out a luminous shout, and for a split second, her magic was visible. It was a sickle-shaped void against the backdrop of her words, and it distorted her sound as it swept through her scream.

The energy blade sliced off one and a half of Tchk'tk's arms, and split the hurtling plant buds like melons. Its impact kicked cracks into the ceramic wall, and Tchk'tk yelled as ze toppled onto zyr side.

One of the retainer's daggers clattered to the floor.

Dk'brr stared at Nina, zyr abdomen trembling. "What are you…?"

I dashed toward the door, but one of the soldiers cut me off. We skittered side to side, me dodging, ze trying to strike with zyr whip, which Nina ripped out of zyr grasp, conjuring magic with an inward flick of her arms.

There was another yell behind me. I glanced over my shoulders just in time to see a third soldier gallop up the ramp to the basement, while the second soldier lunged toward Drztk and lopped off the Vvz'zsh's head with a double strike from both scissorblades.

Dzrtk's body fell to the floor, flower-first, limp with death.

I screamed. "No!"

"Fucking hell!" Lark yelled. She glanced at me. "Screw the AVUs, Doc! Use your powers! I'm tired of this bullshit!"

This was a wash. I guessed we'd have to come back and try again.

Fudge.

Focusing, I reached out with my mind, drawing up my wyrmly mental capacity to exert my will on the D'zd's Archive. As I did so, the soldier charging up the ramp to the basement let out an undignified scream. A vrr't'k hound pounced on zym from behind, toppling the soldier onto the floor and knocking zyr scissorblades out of zyr hands. The beast raked its claws across the soldier's abdomen, spilling gleaming liquids onto the ceramic.

"Kill it!" Tchk'tk shrieked. "Kill! It!" The retainer skittered halfway up the wall.

Then, to my complete surprise, the vrr't'k turned to face me.

"Run, Dr. Howle!" it yelled, and in Dzrtk's voice.

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