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contradiction impossible to resolve.
    Yi loved it, and he loved Yi Two, and he loved that being each other made them far greater than being alone in ways that were completely ineffable.
    They began, as always, catching up. Yi now remembered Katherine telling him what she’d found, saw the worry in her eyes, the upset crease in her brow, and heard the small catch in her voice. Katherine, the defender of anything in trouble. If there was a fight, she didn’t back either party, but instead wanted the fight to end and everything to be well.
    The Jhailing Jim, as always, appeared inside of them as soon as they called, a presence they could hear. It was more intrusive and less intimate than braiding, and always slightly jarring. While Yi and Yi were like each other, they were not like any of the Jhailings.
    What can you tell us about the dangers to town? they asked.
    Manna Springs is in danger of falling. We may be forced into defensive measures.
    Can’t you keep the people you negotiated with safe? Charlie? Manny?
    The agreements are all recorded. This is why we built the Wall.
    Yi fell silent, communing again with Yi Two, both realizing the same thing. You will not help because it will be seen as meddling. This is the approach that you took to Chrystal’s murder.
    We are not allowed in town.
    But we are!
    One of you at a time.
    What about Charlie? Where is Charlie? Nona?
    They are going to Ice Fall Valley and will join the fighting there.
    They will be targets.
    Yes.
    Yi and Yi stared out over the water. Only one of them would be able to go, and one Jason.
    They both knew the land, but Yi One had lived the last visit. There might be a small advantage in that, a visceral body knowledge. I will leave in an hour.
    You can’t harm humans, the Jhailing warned them. Not even if it means you must die.
    The trade-off that Chrystal had made. Life for life.
    I understand , the two Yis said at once.
    They let themselves separate, a slow languid process. Each found the ability to play with their own perception of time fascinating.
    Will we be as different one from another as some of the Jhailings are? Yi asked.
    Yi Two responded. If we live so many centuries.
    They crossed the exercise field, walking quickly and side by side, the residue of the braid clinging to them, binding each energetically to the other.

CHAPTER FIVE
    SATYANA
    Satyana stood up from her desk in the very heart of the Star Bear and closed the screen in front of her. She stopped in her private privy and brushed her hair and pinned golden earrings into her earlobes. Her blue dress matched the bright unnatural blue of her eyes. She tugged at the hem to get it just right across her shoulders.
    Gunnar would be here any moment, and she still hadn’t decided what to say to him. The information she’d just heard wasn’t going to make it any easier, either. She returned to her office and paced.
    She stopped and stared at the picture of Ruby Martin that she kept on the wall above her desk. The red-headed woman stared back at her with a triumphant expression. The photo captured one of Ruby’s early concerts, when she was just realizing that she could captivate—and change— a huge crowd. It had been taken before the sickness that eventually killed her, when she still looked beautiful and fierce.
    â€œEasy for you to look that way,” Satyana whispered to Ruby’s image. “You’re dead. All you had to do was teach us not to be cruel. I’ve got to teach the whole damned Glittering not to be afraid.”
    Ruby on the wall failed to answer. Nevertheless, Satyana stared at the picture as if it could talk. Ruby had been her greatest creation. Oh, Ruby had been flesh and blood, and downright naive when Satyana first met her. Almost irritating in her single-mindedness about fairness and equality, in her desire to change everything she didn’t like about the Diamond Deep. Ruby had more fire and more passion than any ten women