As two of Lumlu’s bodies closed on the spider, the third shrieked with excitement. At the last moment, the spider leapt straight up into the air over vir heads, and Lumlu’s bodies crashed together.

Frill sighed.

Father Smistria ambled singlebodied into the room, also sweaty, and tossed vir fighting gloves into the compost. A long gash on vir cheek was bleeding. Ve licked a finger and rubbed it along the wound. “Your Father Frill is an illicit combatant, Fift,” ve said. “Ve’s had vir nerves quickened.”

Lumlu’s shriek shifted to panic, and in vir other two bodies ve staggered away from the collision, sat down, and began to wail with surprise and pain out of all three throats. The spider skittered around to its fellows at the other edge of the playpit.

“You, Smi, are a liar, and a bitter-minded loss-denier!” Frill snapped. “I haven’t had my nerves quickened any more than you have!”

“Please—Smi, Frill!” Thrimon said, stricken. “Is this sort of talk appropriate in front of our staidchild?”

“Ze’s no child anymore,” Smistria said. “Ze took care of that long ago. The bout should have been mine.”

“Ze’s only forty-six!” Thrimon said.

Shria’s voice. It was carried through zir dream on the cold wind. Ve was laughing; then ve was speaking, intensely. Ze couldn’t make out the words. Another one of zir dream bodies was in the belly of a skywhale—a skywhale full of anonybodies who were staring at zir, trying to decide something important.

“You haven’t achieved anything, you know,” Frill said, arms still crossed.

Egathelie and Mulis leaned forward over the playpit. “That’s it, darling!” Egathelie said. “Wail, my dearest, wail! Use your wonderful lungs! Wail it all out, then get up to fight again! That’s the way!”

One of Lumlu’s bodies wavered mid-sob to look up, and Mulis, vir longer Maternal experience granting vem an indulgent air of superiority, leaned across Fift to touch Egathelie on the arm. “Don’t distract vem, Eg,” ve said, and Egathelie nodded.

“What do you mean, Frill?” Thrimon asked.

“These Shelterings!” Father Frill cried. “What difference do they make? Penning yourselves up inside secret enclaves like . . . oh, I don’t know, like some character or other in your Kumru-blessed Conversation—”

“Frill!” Thrimon said, horrified, and Smistria cackled.

“—what good does it do? Out here, the Midwives and feedgardeners have all the power they ever did—”

“And a good thing, too!” Smistria said.

Frill glared at Smistria. “—and the Clowns are just . . . entertainment again!”

“I don’t know if that’s entirely—” Thrimon began.

Lumlu sniffled and helped vemself up, wavering on vir small legs. Ve looked into vir own faces, warily blinking. Maybe, Fift thought, ve was realizing for the first time that ve could hurt vemself, that vir own bodies were capable of betraying vem.