Redana Claudius, Princess of Tellus, Alpha of the Silver Divers, looks up into her mother’s monstrous face. Behind her she can feel the tension of Bella’s body, a bowstring pulled taut under impossible pressures. Before her she can feel the heat, not just of the fires but of her mother’s judging gaze. The world is a plate being spun on the very tip of a knife.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” she says. It’s a small, pathetic sentence, but its impossibility in a place like this is impossible to ignore.

How dare she?

How dare she be so small?

“Every connection is [i]building![/i] Every love is [i]love,[/i] you, you, you [i]dummy![/i]” She takes Bella’s hand. She squeezes. The clammy skin under her fingers…

Where is the hate in that?

“Love tore a hole in the universe, and I’m sorry, but— what, does that mean we’re not supposed to love? Not supposed to care? If this is all there is, then I’m still picking my silly little goal and my silly little friends and my silly little wife [i]anyway![/i]”

Her voice is silly and small and cannot reach the farthest corners, but fire blossoms in the heart of it.