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months before when he flew down with Charlie and Jason.
    The rhythmic thump of footsteps came up behind him. Yi slowed to allow Yi Two to catch up with him. Their long lanky bodies matched perfectly, the mirror image no longer a shocking surprise. Chrystal and Katherine had convinced the dual Yis and the dual Jasons that they should identify themselves with color. So Yi Two wore blues and greens and blacks, and Yi One wore yellows and purples and reds.
    Yi Two looked disturbed.
    Something’s wrong, Yi observed. He and his mirror almost never used audible conversation between each other anymore. Silent sharing felt more complete, more nuanced.
    Katherine has been listening to media around Manna Springs. She’s detected an attack starting there. Everyone who was part of negotiating the deal with the Next is being threatened.
    That means Charlie.
    As they rounded the corner, they began running along the inside of the Wall. A pair of bigger robots who had long ago abandoned human form raced past them, and for a moment Yi sensed their joy in movement, marveling again that life as a machine was about movement and exploration, about joy and learning. After the bigger machines rounded the next corner, Yi asked, Is Charlie okay?
    We don’t know where he is. Or Nona. Manny’s home is surrounded, and there have been reports of fighting at Ice Fall Valley.
    Yi felt fear for his friends and the weight of obligation. Before he ever walked on the surface of Lym, he had promised to tell Charlie of dangers. They had been speaking of dangers from the Next, and this was, at best, caused by the Next’s arrival. Still, he owed Charlie.
    There were thousands of people on Lym, and more coming now with the influx of Next. Many of them hated the Next and might kill any of them on sight. Others had been kind. He had met Charlie’s uncle Manny, who ran the town and by default the planet. He had never been to his house, so he couldn’t calculate its defensibility. But he had been watching when he flew into the spaceport with Charlie, and the town was a sprawling thing with open spaces and wide streets. The architecture varied widely, built up over hundreds of years, all of it natural and fragile. It would be very hard to defend.
    Manny’s troubles were real.
    If Charlie’s at Wilding Station, he’s probably safe. It was on Goland across the sea from Gyr Island, far enough away for safety and a good vantage point where Charlie would be able to see any ships coming in. The Next had access to the spaceport’s records, so Yi requested information and continued. Ice Fall Valley is dangerous. The caves are safe; they have doors. But the gleaners aren’t warriors, not as far as I know.
    As if he’d waited for Yi to come to the same conclusion, and known when he did, Yi Two suggested, We should stop and ask a Jhailing .
    Yes. Soon .
    Yi Two smiled. Choose the place.
    By the sea.
    He pushed his body, head down, leaning into the run, thinking only of each and every movement of every muscle and of his other self beside him. Another joy—clarity of focus far deeper than he’d ever managed, even in meditation.
    He stepped off the running path and slowed to a fast walk. Yi Two matched him stride for stride. They folded down to sit cross-legged. In front of them, the controlled surfaces of Nexity gave way to rocky shore and then to sand. Sound passed through the field barrier, and the rhythmic crash and susurration of water on the shore calmed Yi. Seabirds called and screeched.
    They linked arms and fell into each other’s inner selves, abandoning being alone in favor of sweet, sweet connection. Braiding. Becoming one. There was no new heartbeat to feel, no breath to match, but there remained an essence, a self so intimate and so deep that touching it made his soul quiver.
    Within a few moments, they did not have to talk to each other because they were each other, one being as well as two, the