Jamal could clearly hear what was being said; he couldn’t join in the conversation. But he could still speak to Mrs. Erickson. She turned to the door when—Kaylin assumed—Jamal started to speak again.

“I have a question for you,” she then said, turning to face Teela and Kaylin.

Kaylin nodded.

“Is Azoria dead?” Mrs. Erickson’s voice was completely steady. None of the usual softness, the tone that implied her constant, unchanging kindness, adorned the words.

Teela answered. “We were told she was dead; her line was excised. Her family no longer exists. That is as much of an answer as I can give. Barrani died—recently—for investigating her history; I do not believe Azoria responsible for their deaths.

“I’m not sure, at this juncture, how to define dead or alive when it comes to your perceptions. The children are ghosts. Amaldi and Darreno were not. Kaylin only assumed that the latter two weren’t actually dead because of how she could see them. She assumed Jamal and the other children were dead because she could see them without intervention. And because you called them ghosts.

“Amaldi and Darreno weren’t dead. To your eyes, however, there was no difference between them and your children—if one ignores the fact that your children have always been trapped in your house. I believe the answer to your question is a very qualified yes: yes, she is dead. I do not doubt that her body, or perhaps a very, very clever simulacrum, was destroyed.”

“But if it were destroyed, her name...” Kaylin paused. “You don’t think her name returned to the Lake.”

“No. Had it, none of us would be here, having this discussion. If she managed somehow to drain the life out of captive Barrani—and we have no idea how long that might have taken—it’s not a stretch to believe that she did the same to her own name. It may have been inadvertent. From the few stories that have survived, she was very like Terrano when it came to choosing between experimentation and her own physical safety. If she began her experiments long ago—and we have evidence she did in the preserved Berranin suite—we might draw conclusions from what we found.

“Perhaps she understood that she would face execution if her attempt to interfere with the Lake failed; she no doubt hoped to move into a different, but eternal, body.

“She almost certainly attempted possession of Barrani first. Until and unless she removed the names, it was probably impossible. Given the existence of her gallery, I’m almost certain she tried.” Teela’s eyes were narrowed. “Perhaps the destruction of the names at their core wasn’t about gaining power, but about hollowing out the force that made each Barrani victim unique.

“If they were possessed of a name, she might command or control them should she discover that name—but she could not be them.”