I was a bit jealous, that she had something that could alleviate the pressure, distract, and give her a ‘release valve’, as Clockblocker had put it.

The boys were sitting on the same planter box when we rejoined them. Kid Win had a tool in his hand, and was working on something that he’d perched on his knee. He looked up and smiled. “All good?”

“Yeah,” Vista said. “Some background stuff.”

“Where were we?” Kid Win asked.

“What stays, what goes, communication,” I said. “Valkyrie said she talked to you before bringing you back to life.”

“I barely remember,” Dennis said. “I remember the conversation, vaguely. She asked for details about who I was, and I had the impression she saw, but she asked too, and it mattered that I told the truth.”

“Did anything else communicate with you?” I asked. “Teacher had control over agents, in there. I’m not sure if he’s in a state to report on what he was doing, now.”

“We talked to one another. Our agents did, too. It’d be like… being sent as a messenger. Bringing over a share of myself, my memories.”

“Like flashes of lightning?” I asked.

“Yeah. That works. Some were more talkative than others. There’d be stuff like Kid Win—his agent would reach out to me to verify details or see them from another side. Everything forming a giant web.”

“When someone triggered, it’d reach out to everything,” Kid Win said.

“Good, okay,” I said.

“My head’s spinning and I’m not seeing where this is going,” Vista admitted.

“I want to open lines of communication,” I said. “I kind of did, last night. I called for help, and the Wr—my agent answered.”

“And you said you have more control,” Kid Win said.

“I want that for everyone,” I said. “Everyone on our side. Can you tell me anything that would help? Ways to close the communication gap, so we can reach out?”

The boys exchanged looks.

“What?” I asked.

“Equipping you with some more general information and filling in the blanks is one thing,” Kid Win said, quiet. He fixed those red eyes with glowing gold pupils on me, where he’d previously held a posture like he didn’t want to meet anyone’s eyes. “Giving you that kind of information would be… a lot.”

“If that was even a thing,” Dennis cut in.

I didn’t believe him. There was something.

“What can you tell me?” I asked.

“I’m supposed to tell you that you need anchors,” Clockblocker said. “You need things to hold onto. Things from your past. Your family. Yourself.”

“Fuck that,” Vista said.

“The others are striving for control,” Kid Win said. “Teacher’s lost his thrall horde and they apparently took him prisoner, but the tools are out there. It’s a question of the arrangements he made. Your sister—”

I winced.