Dzrtk's sibling led us through the town. Despite the architectural similarities to T'kznd, now that I had a close-up look at the place, I realized just how many differences there were. There were clear workplaces— where fabrics were being woven, or animals were being butchered—but no sign of anything like a marketplace.

Did they even have a monetary system?

One thing I did notice: several animals, including a sky-whale or two, were being loaded up with bags filled with goods—garments, pieces of exoskeleton armor, even sets of scissorblades.

One of the tchn't't sky-whales took off, with a handful of d'zd riding atop it.

They have air power? I wondered.

If so, why weren't they using it against the Dominion?

More questions, I supposed.

I couldn't get Dzrtk's mention of caverns out of my mind as I watched D'zd clamber up from trapdoor-covered holes in the ground. I thought back to the caves we'd seen on our flight up.

Was this some kind of inside-a-mountain city?

"What are they doing?" Nina asked. She pointed at a group of d'zd carrying stone slates in their arms.

The more I looked, the more slates I saw. People were carrying them up out of the holes in the ground, or out from the front doors of their homes.

"Heating slates," Dzrtk said. "There are some racks in the plaza up ahead."

Nzk'k'k led us into a roughly hexagonal plaza. The rising sun was just beginning to cast its light onto the space, banishing the shadows trailing from the fang-like crags at the bowl's periphery. Several dozen of the racks Dzrtk had spoken of were laid out on the ground. They had long, ceramic frames with triangular cross-sections. D'zd laid their heating slates on the racks, directly in the mounting sunlight.

"Oh, I get it," Nina said. "They're letting the slates soak up the sun's rays. That's what the weaves must be for."

"Weaves?" Nzk'k'k asked.

"Ze means Chant, sib," Dzrtk said. "But yes," ze added, turning to face Nina, "Chant is used to make the slates hold their heat for a long time. In the evenings, we bring them indoors to keep warm."

"I thought you said they were Vyxit," Nzk'k'k said. "How would ze know the slates were Chanted?"

"I can sort of see Chant," Nina said, in a soft shimmer.

Nzk'k'k stared, then looked at zyr sibling. "I… I see what you mean about needing to take them to the Chieftain."

"What's up with the bowls?" Lark asked.

Turning, I saw what she'd been talking about. The simply decorated, ceramic bowls were multiple D'zd body lengths in diameter, and were far, far broader than they were deep. They were filled almost to the brim with viscous, waxy substance. It took three to five D'zd just to carry one, which was probably why I saw so many obviously-Passaged animals at work carrying them out into the plaza. I saw vrr't'k, brzhts, and many other animals whose names I neither knew, nor knew how to pronounce. Particularly numerous were these creatures that looked for all the world like squat, heavily built, crab-legged boulders. They could carry an entire bowl on their back, though it took another D'zd's help to get the bowls on or off them.

"Latex," Nzk'k'k said, "from the Milk-Szrg groves." Ze looked up at the Sun. "The Sun's warmth cures the latex into ingots for our smiths to work into weapons, armor, tools, and more."

"Man oh man," Nina said, "I saw whole farms of those back on the walk to Tih-Kuzoond."

"Yes," Dzrtk replied. "It is part of the Dominion's ongoing war efforts. There's little doubt they are readying to launch a major offensive against our people."

No wonder everyone seemed to be on edge. As soon as heating slates of latex bowls were deposited out in the Sun, the Vvz'zsh went back into the shops and dwellings to bring out more.

We kept on walking, and a couple minutes later, Nzk'k'k led us to a large hexagonal door in the ground.

"Here we are," ze said.

Either half of the door had been opened, folded up and over till they pressed against the dirt. With the doors out of the way, there was nothing to obstruct the frustratingly vertical tunnel that they would have blocked when closed. There was a good deal of traffic going in both directions.

"Watch your step," Nzk'k'k said, before going over the edge. As ze clambered down, ze held zyr abdomen almost parallel to the wall. And though the tunnel wasn't a straight plunge—it curved out of view to the side a little over one story down—I couldn't look down it without feeling a rush of vertigo.

Lark bowed her arm at the entrance in a dramatic gesture. "After you, Doc."

If I could have gulped, I would have.

— — —

"Brand would have a field day with this place," I said.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

My life was deep in the throes of its D'zd Arc. It was the kind of thing kid me daydreamed about, minus the D'zd and the sheer weirdness of it all. Oddly enough, there were also (honestly uncanny) parallels to typical high fantasy tropes, which, paradoxically, made this impossibly alien environment seem even more unusual than it would have, without them. Case in point: the Vvz'zsh had hollowed out a significant portion of the mountain's interior. Honestly, it was like someone had taken the storied halls of the dwarven kingdom from the ancient Trenton Underland saga and crossed it with an ant colony—tunnels galore!

Like an ant colony, the Vvz'zsh city consisted of a collection of rooms in varying shapes, sizes, and uses, linked by networks of tunnels that served as the main thoroughfares. Narrow gaps carved into the tunnels' walls in place gave passerby a view into surrounding rooms, assuming heating slates hadn't been slid in to block them.

It was comfortingly warm inside the mountain, much more so than I would have expected. And it was all thanks to those heating slates. Nearly everywhere we went, the slightly sticky walls were tiled with heating slates, radiating warmth for the Vvz'zsh to enjoy. Slates in the wall slots contributed as well, suffusing the tunnels and shafts with a continuous warm updraft that rustled through our thickly layered garments.

Honestly, it felt amazing.

Workers—again, very much ant-like—were at work like the lamplighters of Elpeck's past, pulling out slates whose heat had been spent and carrying them topside to let them drink in a day's worth of sunlight.

"Where are you taking us?" I asked.

"To our Chief's chambers," Nzk'k'k said.

Nzk'k'k led us off the main thoroughfare, away from the crowds. Eventually, we traveled up a tunnel that dead ended in a set of double doors parallel to the sky.

"Is this the place?" Lark asked.

Nzk'k'k bobbed zyr stinger in the affirmative. "Yes."

Our guide opened them for us; we quickly skittered in after zyr.

The Vvz'zsh Chief's room was shaped like a garlic bulb. The double doors were set into the floor at the center of the chamber. The floor rose and fell in waves of carved stone whose motionlessness swept around the doors like the line on a radar display.

Ornamental rugs—or, perhaps, banners or blankets—hung from the walls here and there, loosely woven together from several dozen kerchiefs apiece. Heating slates were scattered around the chamber, laid on the floor, or up against—or on—the smooth, undulating walls. There were quite a variety of odds and ends on display. Some of them rested on any one of the several great, bowl-like tables scattered around the room, or in the undulating shelves recessed into the walls. I saw parchment inscribed in luminous ink—messages and maps—wall-mounted weapons, pottery—sealed, secretive jars, and finer porcelain, and a small garden of fanged fines and furled leaf-trees, and much more, though none of it caught my eye quite as much the two whole rows of wall-recessed shelves filled with neatly placed crystals, cut and polished into various shapes: cubes, dodecahedrons, and other geometric forms whose names escaped me. Strange symbols covered the crystals. Some of these matched some of the characters I'd spotted on the documents on one of the tables, and on the walls of the tunnels and some of the buildings up topside, but others were completely different, arcane figurations that gave off a faint, particulate radiance.

If these crystals weren't important, I didn't know what was.

Also important: we weren't alone. There were two other D'zd in the room, standing by one of the tables on the far side of the room.

Nzk'k'k stepped toward them, bowing zyr torso with a sweep of an arm.

Despite zyr alien appearance, there was no doubting the commanding presence of the larger of the two D'zd.

Leadership transcended the boundaries between species, I guess.

The D'zd Chieftain wore a beautiful robe. Rather than being made from a single piece of fabric, it was made up of scores of decorative, diamond-shaped kerchiefs that someone had gone to the trouble of tying together, much like with some of the blankets hanging from the walls and ceiling. The Chief had pressed the tip of one of zyr broad scissorblades onto the stone floor while grasping its hilt, using it as a staff. The blade's partner slept peacefully in its scabbard at the D'zd's abdomen.

Both weapons had gaps carved into them in the shape of artful, loosely coiled spirals and wavy hollows. The effect was strongly ornamental. It made me wonder if these scissorblades were a ceremonial pair, or if they still had practical use as weapons.

Nzk'k'k stuck out zyr upper arms and pressed them together, fist against fist. "Sir," ze said.

The Chieftain returned the gesture.

Nzk'k'k motioned to the other, smaller D'zd beside the Vvz'zsh Chieftain. "Zz'zz," ze said, "I believe these are the people you've been looking for."

Zz'zz the D'zd sat on the floor in equine poise beside a semicircular, bowl-shaped table extruding from the wall, in which there lay a crystal like the ones on the shelves. The crystal projected holograms in a mix of images, speech, and written text, though I barely caught a word of it before Zz'zz shut off the projections with a double tap on one of the crystal's faces. Ze grabbed the dodecahedral stone and held it in one of zyr lower hands.

Compared to the Chief, Zz'zz was far more modestly dressed, wearing one of the hooded robes and not much else. The D'zd turned to face us and then pointed at us with a wave of zyr arm.

"Is one of you Genneth?" ze asked.

No, not ze, I told myself. He. Even though what he spoke with wasn't technically a voice, I recognized it all the same.

"Suisei?"

The instant the light left my antennae, the D'zd that was Dr. Suisei Horosha got up and skittered up to us without skipping a beat, his stinger bobbing in expectancy.

Maybe it was just me, but it was unnerving to see how effortlessly Dr. Horosha had adapted to his changed body. Even when on the adventure of a lifetime, I was still several steps behind.

Oh well, there wasn't any use in brooding over it, especially when I had much bigger worries to dwell on. At least, now, I could say I'd accomplished something positive, even if it was only regaining something—or, in this case, someone—I'd previously had.

"Excellent," Suisei said, pressing his four hands together. "There's much to discuss."

I noticed that the torso of Suisei's D'zd body had slender contours much like those of his human body.

Nzk'k'k looked the four of us over.

"I take it you know each other?" Dzrtk asked, lifting up the forepart of zyr small, sinuous body from where ze sat atop zyr sibling's abdomen.

"Very much so," Suisei replied.

"Good," Nzk'k'k said.

Dzrtk stared at the storystones. "I didn't realize you were trained in stonespeaking," ze said.

Suisei glanced at Krr'kt'zz. "Like you chief, I've dabbled in the art, myself, despite not being a full stonespeaker."

Nzk'k'k waved a limb dismissively. "Yes yes yes, this is all well and good." Ze turned around. "Now, if you don't mind, my sibling—"

The D'zd Chieftain approached zym. "—Dzrtk?" Ze addressed the Passaged nn'zt. "Is that you?"

The nn'zt lowered zyr head in shame. "Yes."

"What happened?"

"There will be time to discuss it later." Dzrtk glanced at us. "These three are Messengers from the Vyx. Let them go about their business, first. I'd like to get back in a body again."

"I understand," the Chief replied, making the gesture Nzk'k'k had given. Dzrtk's sibling then returned it—it was obviously some kind of greeting—and then turned around and left the room, closing the doors behind zyr.

Lark crossed both her upper and lower arms. "We don't get a 'thank you' or anything, for rescuing you, Dr. Horosha?"

Suisei crossed his upper pair of arms while tilting his stinger to the side. "Fine. Thank you for coming to visit. You got here sooner than I thought you would. Now, come on, there's much to do."

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