“And what if I’d met vem outside the Gate? I know we’re not the event we were thirty years ago, but there are still Unraveling-history buffs out there who would swarm if they saw us in the same place.” Ze reached out and grabbed zir other body’s green-and-yellow woven sleeve, holding onto it for support. “And ve’s coming here to train for the Long Conversation? That’s why ve’s deigning to actually come inside a Sheltering?”

“That’s not fair, Fift,” Dobroc said. “You’re being unfair to vem. Ve’s given us plenty of support. Ve’s been to Shelterings.”

Fift felt a sharp ache in zir abdomen. Ze didn’t have a name for it. Loss, anger, longing?

Dobroc raised zir eyes. “And yes,” ze said, “we are going to hold a Conversation. Ve’s ready.”

Fift snorted. The image came unbidden: Shria, fifteen years old, lanky and fiery and beautiful and dangerous, snuggled up like an egg in a nest. I know you do something. I’m not talking about the Long Conversation, either. You have bodies. Show me. Zir cheek pressed up against vir breasts. Vir hand smoothing across zir stubbled scalp. Vir smell, like a wild surface forest only Fift had ever visited. The vines of the supper garden overhead, in green light. Vir mischievous grin.

“Do your partners at the region-level Episode today know you’re starting to train Vails?” Fift asked.

“They suspect, certainly,” Dobroc said. “They’re always accusing us of hiding something, and if you forced them to articulate what they fear we’re hiding, I imagine training Vails in the Long Conversation would be near the top of the list. Why, Fift? Do you disapprove?”

“Of course I don’t disapprove. I’m proud of vem.” Ze looked at zir hands. Pale lavender at the palms, shading to darker purple at the knuckles. A stupid choice; it didn’t suit zir at all. “I’m going out. To the Crimson Gate. In both bodies.”

“All right,” said Dobroc, sadly.

Chapter 23

2

The Crimson Gate was in a concourse that thrust out from the main body of Windswept Sheltering into the air above Undersnort. Three bodylengths high, the passage ran through a massive opening in the puff-weave wall. It was paved with grownbone tiles. The path twisted, so you couldn’t see the world beyond Windswept until you’d walked a bit. Within the Gate, on either side of the passage, there were nooks in the walls where you could reach the world’s feed; they were crowded with bodies. People murmuring, laughing, scowling: Windswepters, hard at work, or getting the news of the world beyond.