“Okay,” whispered Aissaba, “but let’s talk somewhere more private.”

“I’m going to pee!” announced Cassandra. This was largely ignored by the parents, who were focused on the house, and by Orion who was focused on the parents. As she skirted the basin, she whispered, “Just so you know, I don’t have the pebble on me. So don’t try anything.”

Aissaba wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth, but where would she have stashed it? Surely not at school. If it wasn’t on her, it was probably in her backpack, which was probably in the Humvee.

This was good. Ready-made backup plan: knock her out and search the vehicle.

Aissaba and Tassadu waited for Cassandra to disappear into the woods and followed a moment later. Tassadu slung his pack of supplies over his shoulder and took one of the psychic distortion pebbles with them, leaving the others to continue distorting the conspicuous fruit tree.

Cassandra was waiting in a grove of ancient trees, as if these had managed to hide for centuries while their brethren were being harvested for lumber. Tassadu placed the distortion pebble on one of the gnarled guardian’s twisted arms. If anyone followed, they would find only a council of trees, leaning in as if to whisper to each other.

“So,” said Cassandra, not making eye contact, “you came all the way to Earth to get the pebbles back?”

“Technically, no,” said Aissaba, squatting down to be at eye level. “We came for you and Orion.”

Cassandra looked up hopefully – the blue flash reminding Aissaba of the purple they had once been. The Styx protocol had gotten something right, at least – reverting their genomes but doing a crappy job with their memories.

“There’s something going on,” said Aissaba, thinking of Styxx, of her mother, of the ancient book, of the storm clouds, of the blinks. “Something we’re all caught in the middle of.”

“Tell me about it,” muttered Cassandra. “Dad is acting the way he does when he thinks the world might finally end. And Mom’s acting like she does when she microdoses LSD.”

Aissaba blinked. “Happy?”

“Yeah,” said Cassandra. “But, like, scary happy. Like they think they’ve been ‘chosen’ or something.”

Aissaba put her hand on the shoulder of Cassandra’s jacket. “Maybe we can figure it out together?”

Deep breath. Time to turn on the charm and get that pebble. Before Aissaba could get started, however, Cassandra’s hand went into her jacket pocket. They came back trembling, not with pebbles but with a pair of sunglasses. “I bought some like yours,” she said, voice cracking. She put them on just before her eyes started brimming over.

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Aissaba discovered that a pebble had gotten into her own throat, too. “I left mine at the Fortress,” she said. “But I promise, I’ll bring them–”

“Actually,” said Tassadu, grinning as his hand went into his pack, “I figured you’d forget them.”

Aissaba looked in disbelief at the sunglasses that came out pinched in his talons. To say that he was the “responsible one” was an understatement. She put them on and studied her reflection in Cassandra’s glasses, the web of leafless tree branches behind her looking like rivers running across the surface of a white planet.

“We make a cool pair,” said Aissaba, amazed to find that she meant it.

From the way Cassandra sniffled and nodded, she seemed to be in agreement.

“Thing is,” Aissaba said, “if we don’t get those pebbles back, some bad things are going…”

She trailed off because, miraculously, Cassandra was already holding out a pebble. It glowed like a brownish-yellow star, both in her palm and in her sunglasses. “I hid mine, but I’ll give you Orion’s for free,” she said. “Will that help?”

“Yes!” exploded Tassadu, snatching the pebble. “You have no idea…” Gushing praise for Cassandra, he placed the pebble to his forehead and went to work on something only he could see.

“How did you get it from him?” whispered Aissaba, suddenly overcome with a wave of feelings she couldn’t quite identify. For some reason, though, she thought of herself holding the brown robes out to Cassandra in the courtyard of the Fortress. Somewhere in a parallel universe, perhaps Cassandra had accepted them – and perhaps having a Fortress daughter was making the parallel Aissaba feel a similar kind of joy, a parallel urge to fold Cassandra into the warmest, tightest hug imaginable.

“He’s in a tight spot,” said Cassandra. “I told him if he gave it to me for safe keeping, I’d put in a good word for him.”

“Cassandra, you are literally the best,” said Aissaba. To Tassadu: “Can you use it to delete the video?”

“It’s a mid-quality map pebble,” said Tassadu. “I don’t think it’ll survive being re-flashed as a language pebble. But I could easily fry the cellphone from here.”

“She’ll have a copy stored in the cloud,” said Cassandra. “I could help you with that too. Tonight. After she goes to sleep.”

Aissaba could no longer resist embracing her, overcome with the need to protect the girl from the winds of winter, from the the winds of fate. Seriously: this kid was the best! At Aissaba’s chest, partially muffled by her cloak, Cassandra added: “I just want one thing in return.”

Hesitantly, Aissaba asked what it was – worried that the girl might want something impossible. Even more worried that she might find herself agreeing to get it for her.

A breeze washed through the ancient grove, almost covering Cassandra's tiny voice. “I want you to teach me,” she said. “I can’t go to the Fortress. But maybe we could do, like… a homeschool version? Like, 3pm Spanish, but with magic pebbles?”

Aissaba and Tassadu looked at her dumbfounded. In a strange way, what Cassandra had just described sounded like it might just fit the definition of “recruitment.” Aissaba knew she was being optimistic, but perhaps, even now, the storm clouds above the Fortress were lifting.

Aissaba was ready to approve the request immediately, but Tassadu interjected: “We’ll have to run it by the Master of Mind during our next check-in. But to be honest, she might actually authorize it. Things are kinda weird right now.”

“Just curious,” said Aissaba. “Is there anything specific you want to learn?”

Cassandra shrugged, pulling away nonchalantly. “Maybe we could start with life magic?” she said.

“But why?” said Aissaba, sensing there was something hidden behind those sunglasses.

“I should probably be finished peeing by now,” said Cassandra. “Let me know, okay?”