Sai leaned out the door to the egg chamber's balcony while Coatl-ome finished plating food for herself and Nichal. The orc, of course, had swiped his earlier and was already halfway through his meal. Coatl-ome glanced at Cuatete. For whatever reason, the raptor had not swiped Sai's unattended food.

  "Have you ever looked," Sai drawled, "I mean, really looked at the Citadel?"

  Coatl-ome paused, staring at the orc. Nichal too froze, his saurian steak halfway to his mouth. They glanced at each other. "You know," Coatl-ome said, holding out a hand for Nichal's plate, "I wondered if that muck had gone bad. For once I'm glad you swiped food before me." Nichal put down his steak and handed his plate to Coatl-ome.

  "It doesn't fit, right?" Sai asked, his voice slurring.

  "I knew I should have used the goo for the sauce," Coatl-ome sighed. She scraped their meal into the garbage pot.

  "Have you ever wondered where this place comes from?" Sai asked.

  "It was a draconic hatchery," Coatl-ome replied. She considered what food she still had in stock.

  Sai leaned back into the room. "I'm not talking about Somber Tune," he said.

  "Chokiskuikatl," Coatl-ome corrected.

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  "I'm talking about this place," Sai said, waving an arm out the door. "All of it. The Vale. It's all jumbled up. Somber Tune's Draconic, but the citadel isn't like anything I've seen. And I can see the Purrisien farms to the south from my cell. None of it makes sense."

  Coatl-ome tossed up her hands and walked back to the table. She'd have to go hunting later. "It's a nightmare, Wulfgar," she said. "Literally created by the Eternal Nightmare. I don't know how much reality you should ascribe to anything you see." She frowned at the orc as he staggered back into the room. "Especially right after eating spoiled muck." She sighed and traced a claw across the top of the table. "But I have wondered about it, yes. Amid everything else, the hatchery feels real. It feels familiar. You made sure I didn't get raised in a hatchery, but the idea of one is still there in my ancestral memory. Mostly, though, it's the constancy. Chokiskuikatl and the citadel never change. They have a weight the rest of the Vale doesn't. Maybe it's because we've been here so long. Maybe it's because we're bound so closely to the Nightmare. But I can feel what's part of Syn and what is real. And this Vale is full of a mess of both."

  It was only then that Coatl-ome noticed she'd managed to tell an entire story without getting interrupted once. She whipped around to see what Sai was doing while she wasn't paying attention and hissed. "Get out of my bed, Wulfgar!" she shouted.

  Sai rolled out of her bed and fell to the floor. "Huh?" he asked. "What? Where?" Nichal sighed.

  Coatl-ome snorted smoke. "Get up," she said. "You're leaving."

  Sai staggered out of her bedroom and back into the main hall. "Were you always purple?" he asked.

  "Out," Coatl-ome ordered, clenching her fists. "You obviously need some fresh air."

  "Air?" Sai asked. He wobbled out the front door, Cuatete quick to follow. "Is there air out here?"

  Coatl-ome shook her head after him before turning to stare at Nichal. He shrank back from her gaze. "So full of both," she said.