Page 109 of Tidal Creatures

The shoe’s too big. It’s too big, and it looks like it fits, and she can’t imagine anyone would put on shoes that were too small in order to commit a murder. Chang’e untenses, shoulders slumping.

“Thank you,” she says.

“No problem,” says Artemis, sounding bewildered. She puts her foot back down. “Did you learn anything else?”

“Dodger understands the everything better than anyone else I’ve ever met, I think because it’s linear and mathematical in a way that doesn’t make sense to most of us; she says it wouldn’t be possible for someone who’s not a Lunar or accompanied by one to get into the everything. Because of the way we work the buddy system, someone would know if Aske had pulled somebody into the everything with her; she went in alone.”

“Which means we’re looking for a homicidal Lunar?”

“Yes, and it wasn’t you.”

Artemis blinks, slowly. “I would like you to please explain, in very carefully selected words, why you feel like you need to specify that I didn’t kill one of our own.”

“Anna,” says Máni. Artemis turns to him. “She’s not you, but you share a body. Chang’e told me Judy was able to enter the everything when she was first trying to figure out what was happening. If Judy can get into the everything, Anna could do it too, if she managed to surface long enough to seize control. We know she was working with the alchemists when they suppressed her and let you take over solo. If they wanted Aske dead for some reason, they could have pulled Anna to the surface, set her loose, and let you come back as soon as the deed was done. You’d have no idea what had happened, and could honestly say you weren’t there.”

“But it wasn’t the alchemists who killed Aske, and I don’t think they’re the ones who ordered her dead,” says Kelpie fiercely. The rest of the Lunars turn to her, frowning. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’m not defending them. I know they’re bad people, even Margaret, no matter how nice she was to me. But they’re alchemists. If they were the ones who’d had Aske killed, we would never have found her body.”

“They would have broken it down for raw materials and put her to work, because that’s what alchemists do,” says Erin, opening her eyes and pushing herself to her feet. “They don’t leave good components laying around for other people to make use of.”

“So what could they have wanted?” demands Chang’e.

“They wanted the everything,” says Dodger.

The Lunars—and Erin—turn to look at her. She’s still on the ground, eyes still closed; if not for the fact that she’s talking, it would be easy to assume she was sound asleep. “What do you mean?” asks Artemis.

“Her branch of the everything collapsed as fast as it did because there was too much weight on it. It was falling apart before we got there, but it was stable, mostly because she was still in there—I’m not sure it could tell the difference between living and dead without something to compare it to. It could have endured that way for weeks, or even months, just empty and floating mired in the sky above the City. When we made it realize Aske was dead, that it was dead, it gave up and dropped away.” She sighs, finally opening her eyes. “Don’t you see?”

“See what?” asks Chang’e.

“Get a Lunar to kill another Lunar on your behalf. Leave her where she falls. Create an empty everything that still has a window but doesn’t have an owner. Make yourself a synthetic Lunar who doesn’t have a window of their own,” she nods toward Kelpie, “and send them into the abyss. Zib was able to take the graveyard path into the City and open the doors from the inside, and it was made very clear that anyone who opens the doors can let people in. So you send your synthetic in, and they let you in. Then you have access to a stable window, with no one to stop you.”

“And how is that Lunar supposed to even get into the everything, if they don’t have a key?” demands Artemis. “If they did have a key, how would they open the door to someone else’s everything?”

“Blood,” says Dodger. She shrugs. “That’s how alchemists do everything. Get enough of Aske’s blood, and even if they can’t fool the universe into accepting someone natural as a Lunar, they can fool it into accepting a synthetic Lunar as Aske. There’s a lot of blood in an adult human body. Approximately one and a half gallons, for most people. Well, I only saw a little under a gallon while we were in there. Was Aske a blood donor?”

“She never mentioned it to me if she was,” says Máni.

“So she would presumably have had the normal human amount of blood,” says Dodger.

“Because knowing how much blood that is, and being able to estimate how much blood someone has lost with a glance, that’s a normal human thing,” grumbles Máni, sotto voce.

Chang’e elbows him. He grimaces, unrepentant.

“Let me see if I’m following you here,” she says. “You’re saying the alchemists had Aske killed because they had Kelpie and thought she would be able to access the City via Aske’s window, as long as Aske’s iteration of the everything remained accessible. And that by using blood collected by the Lunar who did the actual killing, they’d be able to convince one of our keys to open Aske’s gate into the everything, meaning they’d have an unprotected point of access, without any Lunar actually taking the step of betraying the City itself.” Chang’e isn’t sure it’s possible for a Lunar to betray the City. She has the feeling, vague and unformed, that the City would stop them if they tried.

Dodger stands as she nods. “Yup. It’s convoluted, but alchemists like convoluted. They think a simple plan is destined to fail, because the universe abhors a straight line. Give them a labyrinth with a finish line at the end, and hoo, boy, they are your new best friends.”

“There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“How were they planning to access the everything without a key? There are only three in the city, and before Aske died, I would have told you there were only two. I’m certainly not handing mine to a stranger.”

“I’m not either,” says Artemis.

“Who has the third key?”

“Right now, I do,” says Máni. “I was supposed to hand it to Artemis—clearly unnecessary—and then she’ll give it to whoever comes next in the rotation.”