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My physical self was a matter of some debate at that point But I don’t think the blue jewel could have been reery and refit She had instructed rowth scales in order to encourage elasticity, and as a result, my crystalline structure had fused to the lattices of her ware-core

We pulsed together

The way Cassian said it—what you’ve done—scared Ceno, but it thrilled her too She had done so unexpected, all on her own, and her mother credited her with that Even if what she’d done was bad, it was her thing, she’d done it, and herfor her results just as she’d ask any of her programmers for theirs when she visited the home offices in Kyoto or Rome Her mother looked at her and sao her to share it Ceno thought through all her feelings very quickly, for my benefit, and represented it visually in the forht She had a fleetness, a nimbleness to her mind that allowed her to stand as a translator between her self and e, and then I will explain it in sy me what you think I mean, and ill understand each other better than anyone ever has

Insidemaiden version of Ceno in a crown of crystal and electricity, extending her perfect hand in utter peace

But all this happened very fast When you live inside soood at the ciphers and codes thatthey are

Show me

Ceno Uoya-Agostino took her mother’s hand—bare and warth of translucent cable and connected the base of her skull to the base of her lass doreenhouse and ether, connected by a warostino entered her daughter

We had planned this for months How to dress ourselves in our very best Which fraht What to say I could speak by then, but neither of us thought it es with Ceno went so like this:

Sing , Elefsis

The terees Celsius and the stock of rice is low (Long pause) Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh

Ceno felt it was not worth the risk So this is what Cassian sahen she ported in:

An exquisite boardroolowed softly with quality, the plush leather chairs invitingly lit by a low-hanging ht fixture

descending on a platinuh-rise looked out on a pristine landscape, a perfect combination of the Japanese countryside and the Italian, with rice terraces and vineyards and cherry groves and cypresses glowing in a perpetual twilight, stars winking on around Fuji on one side and Vesuvius on the other Snow-colored tatami divided by stripes of black brocade covered the floor

Ceno stood at the head of the table, in hershe had endlessly questioned over the weeks leading up to her inevitable interrogation She wore a charcoal suit she remembered froon to scoop her up out of the friendly but utterly chaotic house of her ever-sleeping father The blazer only a shade or two off of true black, the skirt unforgiving, plunging past the knee, the blouse the color of a heart

When she showed me the frame, I had understood, because three years is forever inour language to speak to her : Respect me Be proud and, if you love me, a little afraid, because love so often looks like fear We are alike We are alike