“Most of zir was at that banquet in Tearless,” Grobbard said, zir eyes still closed. “It’ll take zir forever to get back from there. Ze’s also on zir way back singlebodied, on foot, from the above and before. Ze answered my first note, nothing since then. But the send is affected as well.”

Shria let go of the red body and leapt to vir feet, shoving forward towards Fift. Ve was knocked down again by a blue anonybody and Fift lost sight of vem for a moment.

Ze was here, alone, in the midst of a riot. It was a riot, and the Peaceables were nowhere to be found . . . but then, of course, they couldn’t see the riot, could they? An invisible riot. Ze posted an Urgent Request for Assistance; but even if it was noticed among a hundred million others, how could the Peaceables gather without the feed? No one could see zir, no one could help zir.

Fift had spent much of the year ze turned nine in a course of Martial Staidity, which was considered just the thing for somatic integration. Ze asked zir agents to recall it.

{You’ll have to—excuse us.} zir context advisory agent sent. {There is a difficulty.}

{Some norms are apparently in need of reevaluation.} zir social nuance agent sent. {Obstacles present themselves. One is currently not local to oneself. Please attend.}

Kumru.

“Freedom! Valor! Conquest! Babies!”

Martial Staidity. How did it go? Get your feet under you. Center of balance low. Everything proceeds from the thighs and the buttocks. Always move slowly.

In turtle stance, ze pressed zir body gently against the moving, shifting bodies. Ze held zirself against them, giving when they shoved, moving into the space that opened up when they rocked back.

Father Frill and Father Smistria hustled Fift along. Frill was shaking with rage, vir nostrils flaring, vir teeth chattering. “Who hit you, Fift?” ve asked again. “Who?”

“I don’t know!” Fift said, zir voice cracking a little. “How should I know? There’s no lookup! There’s no lookup!”

“All right, all right,” Smistria growled. “One foot in front of another.”

Fift took an elbow in the face, hard—ze couldn’t get zir neck loose in time (stupid, stupid, holding zir neck tight like a stone), but ze remembered to let zir knees fold, to fall with the blow, crumple down, flow down, chest to zir knees, rolling back up, back onto zir feet. Zir ears rang.

Under Frill’s hand, ze shuddered.

“I almost got a connection to Darnadi for a moment,” Frill said through gritted teeth. “Perhaps you could just call, Smi?”

“Call?” Smistria snapped. “Are you feeling wealthy enough to compel a logistics administrator to do your bidding over a call? You really should let me know about these secret sources of confidence of yours, Frill. It must be sexual conquests, because your cooking certainly hasn’t improved . . .”