“It won’t be easy,” teeped Azaroth. “That’s why we keep practicing our starky moves inside Chu’s video game. But I promise that once you do get hold of the harp, I’ll run to Gladax and make sure she lets you keep it for a while. Deep down she really does want you to succeed. It’s just that she’s too pessimistic and selfish to make it easy.”

“The nanteater has a plan,” repeated Chu.

“Have you ever run into Hibrane versions of yourselves?” Thuy asked Ond and Chu. They’d left the hideout to walk down the street, picking their way around the giant, slow-motion shoppers. They’d dropped their telepathic animal disguises, and Azaroth wasn’t with them—all part of the plan.

The rain had let up; it was a cool and cloudy afternoon of the winter holiday season. “Do you think there’s two Onds, two Chus, and two Thuys?” continued Thuy.

“Two Jayjays is what you’re really thinking about,” said Ond, teeping into her head. “I’m guessing the two branes aren’t so much like mirror images as they are like different metanovels on the same themes. There’s no reason to suppose all the characters will be the same.”

“Thuy misses her boyfriend,” said Chu in a bratty tone.

“I’m worried about him, okay?” said Thuy. Surely the orphids had cleaned the nanoslime off Jayjay by now. But what if he was dead. What if that one brief roll in bed and shared meal of pho was to be Thuy and Jayjay’s last time together? “I’m capable of worrying about other people, Chu. You could learn from me.”

“It’s not my fault I’m autistic,” said Chu, making his voice very small.

“Don’t pick on him,” said Ond. “It’s not easy being Chu.”

“Sorry,” said Thuy. “I’m all keyed up.” She studied a group of giants calmly inching down the sidewalk their way. The San Francisco Highbraners were so used to seeing Ond and Chu around town that the Lobrane gnomes didn’t attract all that much notice here.

“I do too worry about other people anyway,” said Chu. “I worry about Bixie and about Nektar. I worry about Ond. Will Nektar ever want him back?”

“We’ll sort it out when we get home,” said Ond. “It’s okay, Chu, I’ll find someone.”

“The night we came here, Ond messaged ‘I love you’ to Jil,” confided Chu. “Do you think Jil loves Ond back, Thuy?”

“I’ve never heard Jil talk about Ond,” said Thuy. “But we do know that she’s breaking up with her husband. Could be that Ond has a chance.”

“Craigor tried to make babies with Nektar,” said Chu, who was bursting with all the information he’d gleaned from his merge with Thuy. “But now they don’t like each other. Sex and love don’t make sense.”

“You’re learning,” said Thuy.