(Hrotrun looked at vir cohort members, all of whom shared vir slightly-too-perfect, slightly-too-similar, poured-from-a-box prettiness. They had the same ordinary bangles and feathers, the same slightly peculiar scarves; but they stood at awkward angles to each other, not quite meeting each other’s eyes, as if they were strangers thrown together by chance, together only grudgingly.)

“I’m so sorry to say that,” Squell said, kneading vir hands, “because you know I love the Clowns! Everyone does, except your Father Smistria. But why did they have to fool around with the feed? The feed is . . . it’s like our immune system, and to compromise it . . . ! Well. No wonder infections, spiritually speaking, are blooming!”

Fift looked for Dobroc again. Ze would see Fift in zir audience, but so what? Ze’d just sent zir a message: of course Fift would look zir up, everyone did that when they got a message, it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of.

There was a grainy clip of Dobroc’s present position; then ze passed out of range of that visual pickup and Fift could only hear zir footsteps in an echoing space, and behind them, a dull thrumming and a hushed roaring.

“There have been more riots,” Squell said, “did you know that? Since the feed has been back up! Velvet-waving hooligans and marginals with nothing to lose . . . !” Ve shuddered. “I’m sorry, smoothling, I shouldn’t be burdening you with this.” Ve took a deep breath. “The point is, everyone’s doing their best to calm things down again. If you avoid getting any more audience, if things stabilize, if you break off contact with Shria, if you don’t comment in the world-of-ideas, if you stay in the apartment for a few weeks—” Ve heaved a sigh, and tried to smile.

(An electric look passed between Hrotrun and vir cohort. They looked like they were gathering courage, grim and excited and scared at the same time, with a hint of mounting euphoria. It seemed like a strong reaction to a challenge to the mats by a bunch of vailchildren . . . although, if they were so marginal, maybe it was as much of a breakthrough for them as it was for their challengers? Hrotrun reached up and fingered the odd-looking scarf around vir throat . . . )

Dobroc was not visible, but zir one public location was clear enough—ze was in the access tunnels that threaded into the fulcrum of Foo. That’s why ze wasn’t visible—feed pickups were sparse there, and interested in maintenance, not people.