Agnes was confused and surprised—she had barely spoken about the university, as if that would make real the possibility of failure.

Sera smiled. “Leo is more impressed by you than he lets on.”

Agnes felt her cheeks grow hot. “It’s not important,” she said. “The main thing is to get you to Braxos.”

“Agnes.” Sera stood and took both of Agnes’s hands in her soft silver ones. “This journey was never only about me. We are all changing, making new paths in our lives, me and you and Leo. You are my friend. I would never want you to miss an opportunity because of me. We will go to Ithilia and you will interview at this school and then we will continue on to Braxos. I would never forgive myself if you lost this chance. I would never want you to resent me after . . . after I’m gone.”

Agnes felt like a thorn was stuck in her throat. She wanted Sera to return to her people, but she was going to miss her desperately. She’d never really had a true friend before. She had Vada now, but Vada was something else—Vada was need and want, Vada was in her dreams at night and on the tip of her tongue in the morning. Vada was all sorts of things that Agnes had never felt before.

“You are the best friend I’ve ever had,” Agnes said. “I’m so glad I met you. Well, I’m not glad that my brother caught you with a net launcher and my father locked you up in a crate, but . . .”

Sera laughed. “How strange the way this all began. But you were always kind to me, right from the start. You made me believe that not every human was evil.”

“Chalk one up for humanity—we aren’t all bad.”

“Those Misarros were awfully frightening,” Sera said with a shudder. “I fear it may be even more difficult to get to Braxos now than we had thought.”

“But you said Errol knows the way,” Agnes pointed out. “So we have an advantage over everyone else.”

Sera nodded. “I wish he could tell us how far it is, how long it will take to get there. But he speaks in terms of swims and shoals. I don’t think he understands distance like we do.”

Agnes collapsed onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. Sera sat down beside her.

“I felt so confident back in Kaolin,” Agnes said. “Focused. Like I knew what I was doing. Now we’ve made it to Pelago and I feel like I never understood just how big the world is.”

“Me neither,” Sera said. “I had only ever seen the City Above the Sky until I fell. But there is so much more in the universe.” She sighed. “I always wanted to see this planet. And then I got my wish, but not in the way I thought.”