"Very well." The sky-whale's body curved and then flattened out as ze changed altitude. "As you might have already guessed," the Vvz'zsh explained, "there is more than one kind of Passage." The manner in which Dzrtk spoke made it clear ze was trying to minimize our conversation's already incendiary amounts of awkwardness.

I let my thoughts wander through Dzrtk's exposition. It made for a nice distraction, as well as a welcome change of pace.

"In Half Passage," the tchn't't continued, "a piece of our soul stays tethered in our bodies. Not only is this easier to perform, but it makes it simple to quickly relay your soul from one creature to another, using your body as a stepping stone. Of course, this comes at a cost: when a D'zd is in Half Passage, killing zyr D'zd body ends their existence, no matter where the rest of zyr soul might be."

"Let me guess," I said, "the other kind of Passage is called Full Passage?"

Dzrtk fanned zyr fins. "Yes. In Full Passage, your entire soul leaves your body and enters another's. The only way to kill a D'zd in Full Passage is to kill the body zyr soul happens to be in, while zyr soul is in it. Otherwise, ze will continue to exist, as is currently the case for me."

"Isn't it dangerous to exist without a single body of your own?" Nina asked. "And, if it isn't, I really feel like it should be."

"It is certainly dangerous," the sky-whale said.

"Over time, a D'zd mind not anchored in a D'zd body will begin to decay, though with sufficient skill, this process can be delayed."

"Will you be alright?" Lark asked.

"Yes. There should be at least one spare D'zd body at Zd'tk'chrr (Zud-tok-chirr) for me to take. I'll be fine."

"That's… that's crazy," Nina said.

"You get used to it after a while," Dzrtk replied.

"Why's this such a big secret?" Lark asked.

"If the T'dzd'ch knew about Full Passage, they'd slaughter all their livestock. My people have countless Fully Passaged spies hiding in plain sight among the Dominion's beasts of burden. With them gone, we'd lose the only true advantage we have over the Dominion. That's why it's so important you explain what it is you did back there, N'n. I've never seen anything like it. It could be the miracle my people have been praying for."

Nina nodded. "I'll be happy to tell you. Though, if you don't mind," she stretched her neck to peer over the edge of Dzrtk's flank, "I'd prefer to wait until we weren't in the middle of the sky."

"It's no trouble," Dzrtk said. "Besides, we'll be at Zd'tk'chrr soon enough."

"Well," I said, bobbing my flower and stinger, "I think I'm ready to ask my questions now."

"Go ahead," Dzrtk replied.

"As…" I sighed. "…if you haven't already figured it out, I'm still reeling from what happened. Dk'brr, he…"

"The lines of good and evil cut through every soul," Dzrtk said. "In my humble opinion, I think that only makes it more remarkable that we've managed to come as far as we have."

"I wish I could share your optimism, Dzrtk," I said. "I used to, once upon a time, but… not anymore." I sighed out light. Its waves bounced off the sky-whale's hide, passing through the sky's dusty clouds like wandering souls.

"How much of what Brrk'zk Szr't't said was even true?" I said. I hadn't posed the question to anyone in particular.

"Maybe none of it was," Lark said. "Still, I don't really get why this is eating you up, Doc. Your other ghosts have been talking about how, lately, you've been going on and on about how everyone lies, everything is horrible, and nothing is true. So… why worry about what one guy said?"

I had to admit, that was not an inaccurate description of my mood as of late.

"It's just…" Squeezing, I tightened my grip on Dzrtk's flank. "…having nothing to believe in isn't a very pleasant way to go through life, and it's even worse when the reason you don't believe is because you don't feel there's anything worth believing in. What happened to Dk'brr… it reminded me of that, and I didn't want to be reminded."

"What did they tell you, if I might ask?" Dzrtk said.

We told zym.

"Hmm. A mix of truth and lies, it seems," the Vvz'zsh replied. "It was the Southlanders who betrayed us, not the other way around."

"And the rest?" I asked.

"The Krr't were an ancient group of Vvz'zsh," Dzrtk explained. "They're heroes, not villains! The Dominion hunted them to extinction. They never would have harmed EUe. The Winged Savior is a hero to all D'zd."

"But then who killed EUe?" Nina asked.

"The Southerlanders," Dzrtk said, "who else?" The tchn't't grumbled, snorting out light in quarrelsome plumes.

"Why?" I asked.

"EUe sided with us against the Southlanders and their injustices. They resented our Savior for taking our side."

"I guess everyone really is the same after all," Lark said. "Everyone blames everybody else. Business as usual."

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"It might be usual, Lark," I said, "but it doesn't make me feel any better. Worst of all, we're still no closer to finding Suisei."

Flicking zyr tail-fin, the sky-whale lifted zyr head in curiosity. "Did you say Zz'zz?"

"No, I—" but then I cut myself off and sighed, "…more or less."

Inwardly, I grumbled about the D'zd's alien language.

"Is this Zz'zz from another world, like yourselves?" Dzrtk asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Then, Zhn'nt, I'm happy to say I have some good news for you," ze replied.

"Now this, I have to see," I said.

Suddenly, Dzrtk's body tensed below us. Ze angled zymself downward and spread zyr wings. "Hold on," ze said, "we're coming in for the landing!"

When my pilot tells me we're "coming in for a landing," my learned response was to strap in and brace myself for a precipitous descent. Here, though, the exact opposite happened: Dzrtk swooped down, pulled up and rose, powering skyward with flicks of zyr fin-wings and muscular tail, swept away streams of cyanide clouds.

"Angel's mercy…" I muttered, as our destination came into view.

We arrived with the dawn.

Dzrtk was flying up the slope of one of the biggest mountains I'd ever seen. The upper third of it pierced beyond the grainy clouds. Halfway up its sides, however, there was a ring of what had to be snow: the stuff shone like a pelt of fire by the light of the rising sun. Also, my D'zd vision didn't show any of the aberrations I'd come to associate with smoke.

The mountain's foothills were sculpted by ridges and dry fjords, while cliffs, caves, and plateaus dotted its upper reaches. Handfuls of sky-whales lazed about on some of the plateaus, splaying their wings out to drink up the warmth of the morning sun. One plateau had four sky-whales resting alongside one another, attended by D'zd guards. A tunnel led into the mountain from the platform.

I wondered if it was some kind of landing pad.

As more and more of the mountain came into view, I realized the mountain was headless. Instead of a peak or a ridge, the mountain's zenith dead-ended in a ring of rocky tors surrounding a shallow bowl.

There was a town in the bowl.

That had to be our destination.

Aside from being in a bowl on a mountaintop, the city below us strongly resembled T'kznd, minus the protective walls, obviously. The most noticeable differences were the lack of any tall structures, though the Vvz'zsh more than made up for it with the tight clusters of houses and shops, in their familiar, upside-down teacup shapes. The buildings were gathered in a crescent shaped region opposite a wide, open space that looked for all the world like some kind of aeroport, only with sky-whales instead of aerostats.

Dzrtk started angling downward as we crested over the rim of the bowl, coming in for our promised landing. From this height, the D'zd emerging from their homes and the trapdoor-covered tunnels in the ground looked more like ants than mantises—but silver ants, their bodies aglow with Charge.

The buildings rapidly swelled in size as Dzrtk made zyr descent. Ze aimed for an empty stretch of ground to the right of a sleeping sky-whale.

Dzrtk unfurled zyr wings to their full extent, flapping up a storm as ze made contact with the ground. The landing was surprisingly gentle, though I still dug my claws into the grooves in Dzrtk's hide to keep myself steady.

Finally, we came to a stop.

Dzrtk spread zyr wings along the ground, stretching zyr tail. "Alright, you can get off now."

We clambered down one of the tchn't't's smooth, membranous wings. Oddly enough, the floor of the mountain's bowl was slightly sticky, as if someone had spilled fruit juice a couple days earlier.

Lark, Nina, and I had barely gotten off Dzrtk when several D'zd walked over to us, with their tails held erect behind them, the stingers bobbing anxiously. A vrr't'k accompanied them, though, just by looking, I could tell by the animal's composure that its body was under a D'zd's control.

One immediate difference I noticed between the Vvz'zsh and their T'dzd'ch counterparts was their clothes. Instead of the Dominion's white, kimono-like garbs, the Vvz'zsh wore large cloaks that they draped over their backs and abdomens. The cloaks' "clasps"—if you could call them that—extended into sizable chest-pieces that covered the upper part of their torsos, and the "face hole" in the cloaks' hoods was protected by a couple of twisted, woven cords; looking at it made me think of prison bars. The chest-pieces were made from animals' exoskeletons. Also, beneath the cloak's lengthy capes, I noticed cloth wraps around the Vvz'zshs' abdomens.

I wondered if they'd think Lark, Nina, and I were overdressed.

The D'zd at the front of the group held one of those shrimp-snake creatures in zyr lower pair of arms.

"Identify yourself," ze said.

I got a feminine vibe from zyr stern, almost matronly bearing.

"Go fossil yourself, Nzk'k'k (Enzakekka)," Dzrtk replied, "you don't even recognize your own sibling?"

"Dzrtk?!" Nzk'k'k said. "One of the scouts said you were captured! The raiding party—"

"—Yes, I know. All dead."

"I'm sorry I didn't realize it was you, sib," Nzk'k'k said. Ze turned zyr attention to the three of us. "In my defense, though… you don't usually bring T'dzd'ch swine home with you. Certainly not live ones, anyhow."

Dzrtk thumped zyr tchn't't tail on the ground.

"They're Vyx Messengers, Nzk'k'k! Their clothes are as foreign to them as their bodies. And, for the record, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for their help."

All of the D'zd's stinger tails drooped in shock. The Passaged vrr't'k's wings stuck up at its sides.

"M-Messengers? Vyx?"

"My species has our skeletons inside of our bodies," I said, shining sunnily.

The vrr't'k staggered back in revulsion.

Nzk'k'k glanced at the D'zd to zyr left. "Tell Krr'kt'zz that I have returned," Dzrtk said. "And I've brought Vyxit with me. Please, be quick about it."

The D'zd bowed graciously and then swiftly skittered away.

The other D'zd and the vrr't'k moved to either side of Dzrtk. Nzk'k'k stepped close and held up the nn'zt—the shrimp-snake-cat.

"Come, sibling," Nzk'k'k said, "they'll tend to the tchn't't."

A moment later, Dzrtk stirred up a great wind with a beat of zyr wings that fluttered through our robes and set our bodies atingle with the early morning's chill. I was about to ask Dzrtk to stop it when the sky-whale rolled on its side and chittered out perplexed whale-song, and I realized that Dzrtk's consciousness had left its tchn't't host.

I looked around in confusion. "Where's—"

"—I'm right here," Dzrtk said. Ze spoke from the body of the shrimp-cat-snake—the nn'zt—in zyr sibling's arms.

Dzrtk moved deftly in zyr new body, swiftly snaking around Nzk'k'k's torso and settling into a cute coil atop zyr sibling's abdomen. The movements were so effortless and graceful, you never would've guessed it wasn't the body Dzrtk had been born in. A contented flick rippled through Dzrtk's belts of legs.

Nzk'k'k looked over zyr shoulders at the nn'zt.

"Whether or not you have a body for me," Dzrtk said, "these three need to see the Chief as soon as possible. They're the ones our guest has been talking about."

"Sadly, I'm afraid we do have a body for you," Nzk'k'k replied.

Dzrtk lowered zyr antennae. "What happened?"

"We lost one of our Passaged scouts in Dz'zrt'zt," Nzk'k'k said. "Zyr soul has gone to join the Stormsingers, but zyr birth body is ready and waiting."

Dzrtk wrapped zymself around zyr sibling's torso, flexing zymself to turn zyr little, poppy-like head up at Nzk'k'k's larger flower. "Which phyle?" Dzrtk asked.

"Zrr-Tr'k't-Zrr (Zur-Tirkut-Zur)," zyr sibling answered.

"I'll visit their caverns as soon as I can," Dzrtk said. "It will be an honor to carry the body of one of their own."

"Though nothing can replace lost kin," Nzk'k'k said, in agreement, "knowing zyr body will be put to good use should give at least some comfort to zyr tribesmen."

Nzk'k'k turned to us and bowed, lowering zyr arms toward the ground. "I apologize for my rudeness."

"It's no problem," Nina said.

The D'zd returned to an upright pose. "Welcome to Zd'tk'chrr," ze said. "Follow me."

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