Fift knew there were moments when ze’d been important to Shria. Maybe not now; maybe not even in the lab at Stiffwaddle . . . or, not in the way ze’d wanted. Shria hadn’t boiled with desire for Fift, had ve? Not the way ve did for Vvonda. That had been Fift’s desire.

But ve’d trusted Fift. Ve’d wanted to tell Fift vir secrets.

“It will be clear to everyone,” Miolasia said, “that Fift is not really at fault. It was Shria Qualia Fnax, after all, who drew zir into the riot.”

Ve’d trusted zir ever since that day in the forest.

On the byway, before the crowd of anonybodies . . . ve’d held out vir hand.

Steam billowed up through the exhaust shaft. The air in Fift’s lungs was scalding. Ze reached up from the top of the inflated foam, and took hold of the lumpy, braided roots that formed the shaft’s walls.

{Fift}, zir social nuance agent sent, {what are you doing?}

The first time ze’d climbed into the exhaust shaft, when ze was eight, ze’d expected to be caught and scolded. Ze’d been sure of zir parents’ omniscience.

Ze pulled zirself into the shaft, reached for higher holds. Zir feet found the spaces between the roots.

{Fift?} sent the context advisory agent.

But ze hadn’t been caught. The exhaust shaft was an invisible space, missing from the house feed; missing, by some Far Technological quirk, from the house’s entire proprioception.

In the meeting room, a drop of sweat ran down Fift’s forehead, across zir cheek.

{Please explain your motivation}, the context advisory agent sent, {for your actions at this time.}

With Fift’s external send locked down, zir parents wouldn’t pay attention to chatter with zir agents. {I thought we could have a conversation}, Fift sent, {where the house can’t see us.}

“And then, let us not forget, Shria left zir alone,” Umlum added. “Enticing zir into a riot, and then stranding zir there. Surely you agree, Fift, that that was wrong of vem?”

Fift looked up from the meeting room table. “Oh. Well, um—”

“It was wrong of Shria,” Umlum said again, “to abandon you in the riot.”

Pip leaned forward, zir eyes drilling into Fift.

“You said so yourself,” Umlum said. “To Shria. ‘You should have stayed with me’—do you remember saying that?”

“So surely it can’t do any harm,” Miolasia said, “to repeat it now.”

In the breakfast room, Frill flung vir arms up. “Fift, answer the void-spurned question. Just tell these—these ordering parents of the Kumru-abandoned world what they want to hear . . .”

Fift pulled zirself up, hand over hand. {You said it was a matter of local infrastructure.} ze sent. {That you couldn’t let me send because of the house rules. Am I outside the house now?}

{Further defiance of your parental cohort carries significant risks in this situation.} the social nuance agent sent.