Arevio squeezed vir eyes shut, violently, as if Fift had struck vem, as if Squell’s blow had landed on vir temple.

“Fift,” Grobbard said, gently, “why would your agents listen to us now? We are not . . .” zir voice faded, and ze licked zir lips.

Pip stood, slowly, and walked from the room.

Fift’s skin was like ice. Zir stomach was a hard ball of acid. “I’m—I’m sorry that—”

“Don’t,” Frill said, vir voice thick with tears. “Just don’t.”

“It’s zir,” one of the Staids on the steps said. “It’s really zir.”

“How did ze even get down there?” Nupolo said.

“Oh, run all you like, Fift!” Smistria threw up vir hands. “Let’s just make a gigantic chase tableau in the middle of Foo, shall we, where the Peaceables run you down like a lapine in the hedges.”

“If I may be so bold as to introduce myself,” said the Vail on the stairs—according to lookup, ve was Bojum Holkitz of name registry Buttercup Void 5, 110 years old—“I am the Practices and Principles liaison for the Manifesto Working Group of [Embracing Fift and Shria]. It’s a great, great honor . . .”

Arevio came cautiously around the table and put vir arms around Fift. Ve lay vir head, with its fuzzy, silken, gray mane of hair, on Fift’s shoulder.

It was like being scalded or stabbed.

“And, um, I’m the Theory liaison!” one of the Staids said—Morinti Bob of name registry Selfish Turkey 12, 125 years old. Ze gestured to the other Staid. “And this here is Emim. Ze’s not a liaison.”

“I take the minutes,” said Emim Potching of name registry Unfortunate Plank 2, 75 years old. Ze looked a little overawed, a plump, shy Staid, bald, in an ill-fitting cream shift.

“Oh,” Fift said. “Oh, well, I—”

Arevio, Frill, Squell, Pip, Grobbard, Smistria, Nupolo, Thurm, Miskisk. They were gone; they were lost to zir. Sisterless orphan Fift.

“Kumru’s beard, Fift,” Smistria growled. “You can’t keep defying the Midwives! You don’t . . .” Ve squeezed vir eyes shut, holding the bridge of vir nose. “You don’t know how far they will go.”

“I don’t know how much you know about our team-tag,” said Bojum Holkitz of name registry Buttercup Void 5, “Fift Brulio Irax . . . uh, that is, Fift Brulio.” Ve flushed, then cleared vir throat. “But we are really serious. We are the real deal. Unlike, um, [Avengers of Fift and Shria] or [Harbingers of Fift and Shria’s Devotion], we don’t just relate to you and Shria as some kind of arbitrary symbol! We proceed by close textual analysis of the record—”

“Not just the clip-ops,” Emim said.

“Not just since the riot, either,” Morinti said.

{What are they talking about?} Fift asked zir agents.

{Some individuals}, the context advisory agent sent, {have been using the team-tagging mechanism, developed for impromptu sports events, to form . . . alternative groupings.}