“Oh, quit it!” Ve was smiling and frowning at the same time. It was a cockeyed compliment.

“I just . . . sometimes I just want . . . vailish things.” Ze flushed. “That I shouldn’t.”

“Hmm,” Shria said. “Okay.”

Fift’s ears were burning. Ze looked at zir hands. Zir stomach was cold and heavy, as if ze’d eaten ice. Ze shouldn’t have said anything.

“I think that’s all the vines,” Arevio said mildly. “Well done, Fift Brulio.”

Fift looked up at zir Father, shocked—ze had almost forgotten where else ze was. Arevio smiled, amused at zir expression. “Are you enjoying your business voyage with Pip Mirtumil?”

“Look, Fift,” Shria said, turning to zir. “Like I said before . . . I don’t really believe it’s as different for Staids and Vails as we all pretend it is. Those things you . . . want . . . there’s nothing wrong with that. I think it’s normal. I think lots of people wonder if they’ve been misgendered! It’s just too dangerous to say out loud. To challenge the Midwives . . .” Ve shuddered. “But why”—ve licked vir lips—“why should they have so much influence? Why should everyone be afraid of them? I actually”—ve looked down—“I have a, uh, secret about that, too.”

“What?” Fift asked vem. “You do?”

Arevio raised an eyebrow.

“Um, yes, thank you,” Fift told vem. “It’s very—educational.”

“Yeah,” Shria said, “but . . .” Vir standing body blew out a puff of air. Sitting, ve turned vir face away from Fift. “Yeah, that one’s a big one though. Maybe I should work up to it.”

“Oh,” Fift said. “Well, I don’t have a lot more secrets. I might be out. I . . . told you my big one.”

“That’s it? That’s fifteen years of secrets?”

“Hmm.” Ze tried to think. It was weird sitting here, no agents to ask for help with context or memory, no parents arguing about what ze said. It was peaceful, amazing, but also stressful—a constant unnatural feeling of being somewhere that shouldn’t exist, like a hiding place that required you to brace your legs against—“Oh, okay! Remember our bathing pool, at my apartment? There’s this ventilation shaft above it—you probably didn’t notice it, but it’s where the steam goes. Well, you can climb up into it. If you fill the room with steam, you can sneak up in there, and the house feed can’t see you at all. You just vanish. I did that a couple of times, and my parents never found out.”

“Wow,” Shria said. “When did you figure this out?”

“Before we met. I was like eight.”

“Vvonda,” Shria said.

“What?”