“No,” said Loki. “It’s not that simple. His outself and inself aren’t fully separable. He’s too young. He sent his outself before it was safe to send it. So it’s still bound to his inself. Both parts of him, the ka and the ba—he’s as much inside his brother as inside himself. It might kill him to separate him from his brother. His inself might also be lost.”

“He’s not lost,” said Enopp. “He’s right where he wants to be.”

“That’s because he’s young and stupid,” said Loki. “What he did was kind. No, it was noble. But his body can’t last like this. His ka has to come wholly back inside his body. As it is, he’s in very grave danger of losing his body. And then he would only live inside you, Enopp.”

“He can stay as long as he wants.”

“It doesn’t work that way. Right now the only reason he hasn’t taken you over is because he’s still partly connected to his own body. But if he ever lost that, then the two of you would fight for control of your body.”

“No we wouldn’t,” said Enopp.

“Right now, Enopp,” said Loki. “Who said that? Was it you, or was it Eluik talking through you?”

Enopp fell silent. Thinking.

“Exactly,” said Loki. “Eluik sent himself partly into you in order to protect you, to watch over you. But if he doesn’t get back inside his own body, then his body will die, sooner or later, one way or another. And when that happens, Eluik will become like the Belgod. A loose ka, attached to another person’s body.”

“You keep saying ‘ka’ and ‘ba,’” said Danny.

“If you trust me, I can teach you,” said Loki. “Meanwhile, these boys are bound together and they don’t want to change. For all we know, Enopp is silently begging his brother not to leave him. He might not even know he’s saying it.”

“I’m not,” said Enopp. “He can go if he wants, I’m not afraid anymore.”

“Eluik may not believe that,” said Loki. “Or he may not know how to leave you. Or he may be even more afraid than you ever were, Enopp. He might have been coming to you for comfort. I don’t know. You don’t know. He doesn’t know. But somehow he has to sort it out and get back entirely inside his own mind and outside of yours, or he will become something terrible.”

Enopp got a stubborn look on his face.

It was identical to the stubborn look on Eluik’s face. The only difference was that Enopp was looking at Loki, and Eluik wasn’t looking at anybody.

“Nobody’s going to force you to do anything,” said Loki. “Isn’t that right?” Loki looked at all the adults.