Larry Luxenderf was dead, consumed by thermonuclear devastation. Karl and Yuth fled from the blast, swimming over city streets, buildings hurtling past them as they wove through the ruined cityscape. Karl felt strangely detached, as if the past few hours had happened to someone else, and he was only peering through their memories.

Yuth was inconsolable. Her cutting cries and screaming claws tore through Karl's world once the waves of destruction and collapse had finally petered out. Even after the other wyrms came to help, Nurse Costran still spewed spores and rage at Karl whenever she so much as laid eyes on him, which happened quite often, considering she had six of them.

It was not without some trepidation that the wyrms agreed to take shelter at the edge of a massive blast pit a nuke had dug into the city. Though it was far from the only one of its kind, it appeared to be the most stable of the lot. Ruined buildings dripped down its slopes like candle-wax. Groves of charred metal beams surrounded the pit with their skeletal presence.

The Strangers and their silver sky-ships were keeping their distance from Elpeck. The reason was anyone's guess. The nuclear bombs? Larry's frightful power? Or Greg's? Some combination of the three?

Karl certainly didn't know what the reason was.

Dr. Nowston had been expressing concerns about something called radiation—apparently, it posed a great risk to human beings—but then Mrs. Elbock had chimed in and said that wyrms weren't troubled by radiation, because she herself, and likely many other wyrms, produced it whenever they ate anything made of metal. Kurt and the others argued about whether the amounts of radiation made that way were as intense as what the nukes gave off. Eventually, Dr. Rathpalla intervened and explained that if their group had been given a fatal dose, it would already be too late for them to survive, so they might as well shelter in the irradiated ruins.

For what it was worth, Karl noticed that the &alon-fungus and its creatures started retaking the charred earth within minutes. So, the fungus didn't seem to have a problem with the radiation, and Karl figured wyrms wouldn't, either, which was good, because they had a lot more important things to worry about, such as the remaining nukes.

Despite initial hopes, no one in the group housed the spirits of engineers who knew how to safely defuse the bombs. A lot of hemming and hawing happened after that. It was painful and frustrating, and the miserable episode went on a lot longer than Karl would have ever wanted. Still, they eventually reached a decision.

"We'll leave the missiles stacked at the bottom of one of the blast pits," the spirit of Dr. Marteneiss had said.

"As long as we keep them encased within the pressure-altering plexuses that kept them from detonating in the first place," Dr. Nowston said, "they shouldn't explode, Angel willing."

Though Karl understood the logic, he couldn't bring himself to be comfortable with it. Geoffrey couldn't, either. Neither of them wanted to have the weapons around. They were just too dangerous!

"Wyrms or not," Geoffrey said, "people shouldn't wield power like that."

"Then why do they want to have it?" Karl asked him.

Geoffrey tamped the shaft of his halberd down on the glass-crusted ground. "Because they're scared, and rightly so." He looked up. "They're scared of the Strangers in the sky, and of what happened to Sir Luxenderf." Geoffrey looked Karl in the eyes. "Aren't you?"

Karl was too scared to reply.

Once the bombs had been placed in the next pit over, everyone stopped to pay their respects to Larry, both wyrm and spirit. So many of the doctors and nurses had stories to share about the man's simple kindness, upstanding attitude, and horrible teeth.

"You should have seen what they were like before he got braces," one of the doctors—an elderly dentist—said.

Hearing all the fond memories made Karl regret that he hadn't gotten to know Larry better.

Yuth ended up bringing the grieving to an abrupt end. From where she was coiled, on the upper slope of the pit, she looked up at the sky and said what was probably on everyone's mind.

"What just happened?" She lowered her head. "Who… what did this?", She shook her head from side to side with ponderous swings.

"Something is happening to the wyrms," Dr. Nowston said. "I just don't know what it is."

"Yeah, Dr. Nowston," Jonan said, "we got that part already. That's the one thing everyone here actually understands."

"Is this &alon's doing?" Dr. Marteneiss asked.

"I have no idea," Dr. Rathpalla said.

Dr. Marteneiss continued. "Alright, if you can't tell me the who, then tell me the what: what is it doing?"

"Well… nothing good," Dr. Nowston said, "that's for sure!"

Merritt slithered forward. "I know Genneth insisted &alon is one and the same as the darkness she'd been warning him about, but…"

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Kurt crossed his arms. "What is it, Merritt?"

Mrs. Elbock stared up at the sky. "What if &alon was right?"

Geoffrey stepped forward. Karl's imagination conjured into being the sounds of glass and concrete crunching beneath his boots. "What do you mean?" Geoffrey asked.

"What if there is something out there?" Merritt said. "Something dark, cold, and cruel?" Then, raising her head, Mrs. Elbock sang a wordless song, sharing an imagining with the gathered wyrms.

Overhead, the afternoon was suddenly struck out by Night, which swept up from the horizon and drew itself across the sky, but instead of the familiar black, the sky in Mrs. Elbock's mind was filled with impossibly many pinpricks of light.

It was dazzling and glorious, and everyone gasped in awe at the sight. Karl and Geoffrey made the Bond-Sign, as did many others.

Mrs. Elbock continued. "Genneth shared this with me. If any of you have already seen it, then you already have an idea of what I'm about to say. As for everyone else…" Merritt pressed her clawed, three-fingered hands together and held them against her chest, as if praying.

"What are they?" Mr. Twist asked.

"These are stars, Charles," Merritt said.

"They're… beautiful…" Jonan said. For once, the young physician didn't offer any quips.

"As Genneth explained to me," Merritt said, "they're… other Suns."

Gasps both sporey and spirit rippled through the ruins.

A young voice spoke up—Lopé Broliguez, if Karl remembered it correctly (which he did). "That's… that's impossible!" The wyrm shook his head and stared at Mrs. Elbock. "It can't be true. It can't. There is only one Sun. It is the Face of our Savior, the Holy Angel."

"Why can't it be true?" Dr. Nowston asked.

"Because…" The little wyrm shivered. "If there were other Suns, they would have to be other Angels, and that can't be, because there is only one Angel. One Angel, one Beast, one Queen; one God in three persons."

The wyrm made the wyrmsign.

"Kid," Kurt said, "ideas like those make sense when the world is small. But this…" Mr. Clawless shook his head.

"It brings to mind a line from Fetzmorgan," Mr. Twist said. "There are more things in Paradise and earth, Nelson, than are dreamt of in your theology."

Kurt nodded. "Yeah." He looked up in wonder. "There's… there's just so much more to the world than any of us could have imagined. I think it's kinda prideful to assume we already have all the answers."

"Then why weren't these stars in our skies?" Lopé asked. "Why weren't they mentioned in the Testaments?"

One by one, the stars vanished, as if a great darkness had rained on the roof of the sky and snuffed them out.

There were more gasps.

It was hard to watch the destruction of something so beautiful.

"Why are they disappearing?" Bethany asked.

"Genneth thought &alon was to blame," Merritt answered. "But… what if it isn't her doing?"

"Who else could it be?" Yuth demanded.

"The Darkness," Merritt said, "the one that &alon is so afraid of."

"Are you trying to say this Darkness is what ate my Larry from the inside out?" Yuth asked. Her song was softer, this time.

"It's the only remaining answer that makes any sense to me," Merritt said. "Though, I admit, I might be wrong." She curled her tail around and stroked her flank with her claws in a fretful gesture. "There's still so much we don't understand."

"Dammit!" Dr. Nowston hissed out plumes of spores. "I could sure use my old lab right now."

"The hospital's gone," Karl said.

"A smoldering ruin," Bever added.

Dr. Nowston tossed his head in frustration. "I noticed."

Still, Karl couldn't help but be curious. "If you don't mind me asking, sir," he said, "how would your lab have helped?"

"If there's anything to be understood about what happened to Larry," the pathologist replied, "diagnostic and laboratory equipment could help us see what it is." Dr. Nowston glanced at Dr. Rathpalla. "And if something is going to happen to Dr. Rathpalla, then—"

Ibrahim cut him off. "Elpeck Polytechnic. That would be the next logical place to look for that kind of equipment."

"Wait, really?" Dr. Nowston asked.

"Yes," Dr. Rathpalla replied, "and I should know; I went there for medical school."

Dr. Nowston nodded in agreement. "Well, when you put it like that, then let's get going!" He pulled himself out of his coil and slithered along the curve of the blast pit, readying for take-off.

Dr. Marteneiss tromped after him, gesticulating vigorously.

"Now wait a minute," she grumped, "wait a minute," Heggy grumped. "Hold your damn horses!"

Karl glared at her. "If Dr. Rathpalla is in danger, there's no time to lose!"

Dr. Marteneiss swept out her arm. "All of us will be in danger if more of this shit happens again." She thumped her fist on her chest, jostling her white coat's unbuttoned collar. "Hell," she added, "I might even be in danger, and I'm already dead!"

Geoffrey stepped forward. "Karl is right. Yes, Dr. Marteneiss, we are all in danger, but that risk remains no matter what we do."

If Karl had still had a mouth, he would have beamed.

"Not necessarily," Dr. Rathpalla said, with a shake of his head. "If I'm right and this thing is being spread through wyrm linkage, then as long as we refrain from physical links, we'll be able to contain the spread."

"But what if you go mad?" Geoffrey asked.

Pensive, Ibrahim lowered his head. "Maybe it's best that we split up. That way, if I lose control of myself, no one else will be—"

"—No," Merritt said.

Everyone turned to the sound of Mrs. Elbock's song.

"Merritt?" Dr. Marteneiss said, eyebrows raised.

Mrs. Elbock slithered toward the middle of the pit, at the center of the group. "I know what it's like to be separated and alone. Cassius, he…" But her song broke off.

From what Karl had heard, Dr. Arbond was still trapped in Ms. Kathaldri's body, where he, like her, had been exposed to the same dark force that had claimed Larry.

"We need to stay together," Merritt continued. "If Ibrahim is right, we won't need to worry about infecting each other, and if he isn't, I doubt there's anything we can do to stop it. Either way, we can't help each other if we're separated."

Morgan hoisted his rifle onto his shoulder. "The lady has a point. Somebody is going to have to deal with Dr. R if he ends up going rotten."

"Also," Dr. Marteneiss added, "someone has to stay to watch the nukes."

"That…" Morgan raised a finger in protest, only to lower his hand as the confidence on his face fell apart. "…that is a very good point."

"Very well," Merritt said, "but Ibrahim won't be going alone."

Thankfully, it didn't take long to figure out who was going to join Dr. Rathpalla on his quest. Mrs. Elbock, Dr. Nowston, Yuth, and Kurt all chose to accompany the psychiatrist to the Polytechnic, as did Karl. The wyrms who chose to stay were either too shaken by what had happened to Larry or too nervous about what might be waiting for them at the Polytechnic.

Mr. Twist made Ibrahim's group swear that if something happened, they'd send a wyrm back to let the others know.

"We have to stay together, even when we're apart," he'dt said. "And I should know, I could really use the help!"

Karl just prayed it wouldn't come to that.

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