“I’m just trying to be clear. So here it is. In Vadeshfold, there’s a creature that lives in the streams. It’s very tiny, but if you get it on you it burrows into your skin and grows, and it quickly crawls up your body to your face. It covers your mouth and nose and ears and eyes and reaches through them to grow into your brain. But it doesn’t kill you. It just . . . takes over.”

“And this is what happened to—”

“No! No, you have to listen and let me explain because Loaf is fine. Better than fine, just ugly. And way less ugly than he was when it first—look, this creature was the reason the people of Vadeshfold all died. Half of them got this parasite—we call them facemasks—and the other half didn’t, and they fought each other until they were all dead. But when we arrived, Vadeshex warned us not to get near the water and so we didn’t get taken by the wild facemasks.”

“But you had to explain about them, so—”

“Vadeshex had nothing to do after all his humans died. He was pretty much a failure as caretaker of the colony in his wallfold. But he thought these facemask parasites had potential. So he began to breed them and change them so that they wouldn’t make the people crazy. Because when a facemask takes over a larger animal, it enhances it. It replaces the eyes with better eyes. The reflexes speed up. It hears better. So Vadeshex spent thousands of years trying to develop a breed of facemasks that would enhance human beings without taking over completely. It takes over, but if you’re strong-willed enough, you can control it. You stay yourself.”

“I can’t pretend that I don’t guess that you’re only telling me this because Loaf got one of these facemasks.”

“I figured you would. When I first heard what happened I wanted to kill Rigg for letting it—”

“Rigg let this happen?”

“No! That’s what I thought, because they went without me into the . . . place. But Rigg couldn’t stop him.”

“You could have sent Rigg back in time to warn him! Like you’re doing now!”

“Loaf wouldn’t let him. You have to understand, Rigg was only just learning how to do this stuff on his own. He would have needed me, and he didn’t want me to see Loaf like that. Because it’s—it’s much better now. You won’t think so, but Leaky, it was horrible at first. This thing completely covered his face so it looked like he couldn’t breathe. And then it made new eyes for him and a new mouth only they weren’t in the right place and—I’m sorry! I’m wrecking everything! I’m doing a terrible job of telling this.”

“He looked horrible,” said Leaky. “He looked monstrous.”