"What the hell are you doing over there?" Adaobi said at the Denny's. "It's amazing. She's green again! I'm betting she'll start walking any second! What's your secret, guys?"

"Sheer brilliance," Lir said offhandedly.

"Keep it up." She met my eyes and smiled.

"Where's Lux," I asked. "She okay? That was serious business."

Adaobi nodded. "She's at the theater. Looking at auditioning."

Lir and I raised our heads. Did not look at one another. Did not respond in any way.

Because for just a moment, she'd broadcast a jolt of sadness. It was quick and gone.

If she felt our concern she didn't show it. "There are more guys from your board coming in, they're asking permission. At this point we just give it. The more the merrier for repair crews."

"Yes, Ms. Adaobi," I said. "I liked the memorial service."

"It was good stuff," Lir said. "Pass the fake bacon." He gobbled it like a dog.

"You knew what to say," I told her. "I mean, there's nothing a person can say. A thankless job, but you did it well."

She frowned. "We can only do our best. And you're not doing so bad yourself. The Winnie repairs are great. People want to see more of you. You would have been welcome at the service."

"Huh," I said, meaning: you a gul-dang liar.

"Look at this," she said, and brought up a video with her phone. It was of me, standing atop a burning Winnie. Lir scampered around my feet, helping me herd preschoolers and teachers to our flying flatbed. The caption: Firefighting Duo Saves Preschool! "What do you think?"

"Dammit," I said. "I hate having my picture online."

"Oh do you now. Check out this studmuffin." Because the camera was low, looking up at me as I held a crying toddler, one who had hugged me and buried her face in my filthy, ashy Hawaiian shirt. Lir was perched on my shoulders, looking cool and ready for action. His tail curled around behind us in a compositionally dynamic manner. The sun gleamed on my glasses. It looked like the trailer for a movie.

"Lir looks damn cool," I said. "And we didn't save the preschool, we just helped everyone get out of it. Gotta rebuild it."

"Yeah, yeah. Now look at these." She popped up another window full of comments beneath my video:

I'd hit that harder than a drunken stepdad

Look at him in those slutty little glasses making me ovulate

My ideal body weight is mine on his!

King Arthur himself couldn't pull this guy out of me

Excuse me sir I'd like a hug and for you to wear me like a pair of sunglasses

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Treat me like a school bus and fill me with children!!

My jaw had fallen open. I looked at Adaobi and she collapsed into loud laughter that drew the gazes of the other Denny's patrons.

I had trouble finding words. "It's wrong."

Adaobi raised her eyebrows. "Wrong how? You were there, you helped, you got Lir the chick magnet with you."

I just shook my head. I was getting dizzy, and my eyes were watering. It was wrong.

"It's unrehearsed and people can tell," Adaobi said. "The world wants to know who you are."

"The world?" Now my face went cold.

"You're turning gray," Lir said. "Don't panic." He reared up and patted my face. Then he butted his head beneath my neck. "It's going to be okay. Nobody blames us. The people here don't hate us."

"They should…they should…" I'd been shouting in my sleep again, Lir had said. Something about Todd. And fire. "Eleven dead."

"I know. But remember: I'll be there when it happens."

"When what happens?" Adaobi said.

I looked her in the eye. Lir's head rose on its long neck, cobra-style, and gave her that same look. Neither of us said anything to Adaobi, but she felt something coming from us and dropped the subject.

"I gotta go, guys." She leaned down and hugged us, Me and Lir. She pinched the fold of loose furry skin on his back, shook him around a little with it. "Good job."

Lir and I went back to his bar. The captured drone Todd had used was there in pieces. "I want to use this to find a way to talk to them when I want to," I said. "Not when it's the Covenant's idea. Any suggestions?"

"No. That's electronic, not magical. I can magic stuff up decently but no clue about this. Speaking of which, let's do a training montage."

I wasn't good at Magical fighting. Lir wanted me to be better at it. He beat me up.

"I think you'd be better off with a Cazador classic called the Stalk. Kind of a super camouflage invisibility trick. What do you say?"

That was much better. Avoiding people was already in my wheelhouse. Perfect. I got it right the first time, and even Lir admitted he was impressed. "You can hide in the corner and bonk people over the head with a baseball bat," he said.

We got a call from Mabruk: new arrivals. Lir hopped on my shoulders and we went to greet them.

A boat loaded with Pingsters was moored to the immense back of the wounded baby Winnie. I recognized one of them as the Owen Pingster. I introduced Lir and Mabruk to him and his crew.

His battish face with its huge ears and nasal architecture creased and flexed. I'd learn his expressions soon enough. "Are we doing Last Unicorn? Call me Ruhk, then. Creatures of Night, Brought to Light!"

"Glad to have you here, man. Amigos, this guy saved me and Lux from a Human infestation."

Lir and Mabruk welcomed the Pingsters; there were ten. They were aiming their outrageous sonar-faces at me, the others, at the Winnie. They were silent, or at least I couldn't hear them. But my bones vibrated with the echolocation they were sending out.

Mabruk pointed at the ball-shaped trees on the back of the baby Winnie. "You can stay in those if you like. Just Houseplants but they work. Keep you in the dark during the day."

It turned out Pingsters were excellent carpenters. They could tell how to harvest wood, how to assemble things without nails. Their sonar made it easy for them. They used tools but didn't seem to need them in the least. I tried watching and learning, but got nowhere. Magic, maybe. Or just insane amounts of skill.

I faced the rest of the assembled Walshery at lunch. "This critter here, she doesn't have a name yet."

All of us at once: "Molly."

MOLLY

We all got the signal from her. All of us. Because all of us were Owen. And more Owens were arriving all the time, apparently. This would be an extremely fussed-over Winnie.

Molly was burned, but healing. Young but growing at an absurd rate. It was a good day.

The pain started slowly, then ramped up. Someone I knew was hurting. Two people. Pain like Nothing I'd felt before. Not physical. It was grief. Hurt, outrage, insult. Regret. Both sides of a fight.

"What is this?" Lir said miserably. "Holy crap! Stop it!"

I got two phone calls simultaneously. From Lux Interior and Adaobi the Mahout.

"Oh no," I said.

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