It occurred to Pat that maybe Eluik had spent years in deep frustration, as Enopp controlled and silenced him, while speaking for him. Yet it might be that Eluik really did want to comfort and protect his little brother, and if he had to sacrifice his own ability to speak in order to do it, maybe he didn’t resent it.

Would he resent being liberated?

Was he being liberated? Ultimately, it would be up to Enopp. Would he understand what Pat was showing him?

Still she did not speak with her mouth, but rather communicated as This One had communicated with Danny and her, showing the boys her understanding of what she was discovering inside Eluik’s body. This is you, Enopp. You are in him; he is not in you. You can give him back to himself, by pulling away here. And here. And here.

Then Pat sent part of her ba into Enopp’s own body, showing the empty place—if it could be called a “place”—where Enopp’s ka should be, and how inadequately his thousands of gates substituted for Enopp’s missing inself.

Time seemed to have no meaning when communicating ka to ka like this; Pat was very thorough in her demonstration, and she could sense that Enopp understood well enough to pull parts of himself, tendrils of his control, out of Eluik’s body. But as for moving his entire ka back where it belonged?

It was time for Pat to give him a choice, which meant also giving him time to choose. She pulled her ba back into herself, and then murmured, “It’s time to let Eluik have his body back, Enopp. He has served you so kindly, and you have also been his friend. You didn’t know what it was costing him, or even where you were. But now you know. Will you give him his freedom back? Will you take up your own bones and live?” She kept up this low incantation, always asking, never demanding, but still urging him to decide.

“Shhhh,” whispered Enopp. But whether that was a command for her to be silent or simply an escape of air, Pat could not tell.

“Eluik,” murmured Pat, “it’s all right now for you to tell him what you want. To let your brother resume his place. His body isn’t a lonely cave, it’s his inheritance, his kingdom to rule alone. As yours was also meant for you alone. Stand beside each other now as brothers, not inside each other with all this confusion, with one of you helpless and the other lost.”

She realized that now she was urging an outcome; but why not? Neither of them could have any kind of life until this conjoinment at a metaphysical level was replaced by the proper distribution of souls in bodies: one for one.