The lighting warps and the frame freezes, turning the faces greenish-brown and paralyzing them: Tai’s in a childish grimace-pout, and Noni’s in a serene, wide-eyed stare, inside a circle of clapping scientists.

[Tai is speechless]

Tai: Oh my gosh. Look at my baby resting bitch face.

Saxim: I’ve never seen anything creepier. Did David Lynch film this? I love it so much.

Tai: You would! [Tai wipes brow] I’m sweating. Talk about a blast from the past. I’m going to be honest, Monty, I still don’t really know what self-actualization means.

Saxim: What were you looking at, at the end?

Tai: You mean, why did I look constipated? I think we were staring at my mama, actually. She was off-screen, dangling chocolates to get us to behave.

Saxim: That makes infinite sense.

Tai: This might be an overshare, but she was working on a secret project in the library—like, seriously, every day—and I was so happy when she took a break for this. Seriously, I remember being overwhelmed with joy.

Saxim:… Secret project?

Tai: I mean, let’s be real. I’m pretty sure it was White Fox.

[Tai looks at camera]

Tai: Hey, if any of you film buffs who are good at the internet find a copy of the script anywhere, slide into my DMs, okay? That includes you, Mama, if you’re watching.

[Tai winks, as Saxim’s smile freezes]

Tai: Okay, bye, y’all. Monty, I’ll call you back in a sec!

[Saxim ends video]

[Tai clicks the wrong button to end video]

[Tai sighs, and her face wobbles]

Tai: Oh my freaking freakity freak, what was that, Thaïs Foix Hammick?

Live comment: T are you ok?!

Live comment: She looks so young & scared rn what is wrong w our Viloki queen

[Tai startles and grins big, then waves]

[End of video]

VILOXIN

NONI

The road splits at Viloxin airport: one path shoots you toward the tiny, glittering jewel of Limatra city, nestled at the sea’s edge, and the other weaves you deeper into the lush, hilly terrain at the base of Mount Vilox. To reach Stökéwood, people take the latter, past the affluent neighborhood of Mitella, where the upper crust of Viloki society lives, and through a wooded area known to locals and foreigners alike as Delirium Forest.

In the old Viloki legends, one ventured inside to see vivid glimpses of the future, or treasured glimpses of the past, long thought lost. Inside the forest of delirium, the present melts away to nothing at all. That’s why they find bodies inside, lost to dehydration, smiles stretched across the corpses’ lips. That’s why my classmates’ nightmares lived inside this forest. Inside this brain-tingling, dark beauty.