“Do not use my life to justify your falseness,” Sera said, and every head in the sanctum swiveled toward her. “If I had known . . . if you had not stolen our magic and our knowledge and our history, I could have communicated with the humans from the very beginning. Yes, there are those who are greedy and arrogant and cruel, but there are also humans who are kind and loving, who risked their own lives and futures to return me to this City. We are meant to explore, we are meant to learn, we are meant to give back what we take from the planet. We are meant to be so many things we have been denied. I always thought I was the only one in this whole City who was different. But I know now that is not true. You have made us think we are all supposed to be the same. But that is not what Mother Sun intended. You kept us in one place for so long, we forgot ourselves. But we remember now.”

“What would you have done?” the High Priestess demanded. “If you were in my place. You think you know so much, Sera Lighthaven, because you have been to one planet. Well, I have been to many! I have seen things you could never dream of. You think you know so much about our purpose? We are safe here! How is that not better for our City? Why should we risk the journey through space, the dangers of planet after planet, when we can stay right where we are!”

“Because life is risk,” Leela said as if she was hardly able to believe she had to explain this to a centuries-old woman. “Life is uncertainty and danger. You have dulled our minds and our hearts. You have kept us so still and sedentary that Mother Sun could not find us any longer. That is not the way to be a Cerulean.”

Sera felt her throat swell as all eyes turned back to Leela. Their people were looking at her with unabashed admiration.

“I must admit,” Freeda said. “I have always thought about visiting the planet. But I never wished to acknowledge this, not even to myself.” She turned to Sera. “I am sorry that I called you a nuisance. Perhaps I was envious. It seemed so easy for you to express your wishes out loud.”

“I always wondered about the tether, too,” Daina said. “If there were ever people who tended to it. I am sorry, Sera, that I made it seem as if you were strange for thinking so. I simply did not want to be seen as strange myself.”

Sera’s eyes were brimming with tears once more and her mothers were gazing at her, their faces alight with pride. Her purple mother took her hand and squeezed it gently.

“You were happier that way!” the High Priestess shrieked. “I kept you safe here, I kept you healthy and whole, I—”