Page 87 of Tidal Creatures

“I was able to go in while stepped all the way down,” says Artemis.

“Yeah, but you were still a Lunar, stepped down or not,” says Dodger. “I am still the Doctrine of Ethos, irritated by a system I don’t understand or not. There’s a difference.”

“As if you can’t convince reality to view you as anything you want,” says Erin, sounding halfway amused.

“Not the point,” says Dodger. “If we need to be able to get you, or Roger, or even Kelpie inside to avoid splitting the party, we need to know what happens if I can’t get in.”

“Not sure I follow, but let’s go with that,” says Erin. “Chang’e?”

“Dodger’s right: we haven’t technically tested this with someone who isn’t tied to the Moon in some way,” says Chang’e. “If nothing else, we should hopefully be able to pull you through by holding on to your hands until we’re safely into the everything, and then we just take you to the window. Honestly, my bigger concern is what happens to someone who’s not a Lunar if they’re present when we open the window? City air is … intoxicating, even for us, and we’re basically designed to endure it. I don’t know what happens to you.”

“Reed created us to take the City,” says Roger. “I’m not worried about getting drunk or passing out. If anything, I’m worried we’ll get one whiff and decide it’s time to fulfill our purpose.”

“Nope,” says Dodger, easily enough. “I just joined another think tank in Australia, and we’re going to figure out the necessary calculations for creating perpetual motion.”

“Isn’t that engineering? Or physics?” asks Máni.

Dodger shrugs. “It’s all math when you dig deep enough. Pretending otherwise wastes everyone’s time.”

“Let’s not stand here and start a philosophical debate when we have things we need to be doing, all right?” asks Roger, mildly. “Erin, you ready?”

“Ready,” she confirms, and starts down the stairs.

Artemis frowns. “I know why the two of you are coming, and we couldn’t do this without you, so I’m not complaining. But why are we bringing her?”

“She’s our best killer,” says Roger. “If something goes wrong, or we lose control of the situation, Erin will take care of it.”

“Love to be useful,” says Erin, deadpan. “But yes, I’m capable of murder, and I’m not squeamish when we’re talking about killing alchemists. Some people need killing.”

“That’s a very soothing and reassuring attitude, and not at all alarming,” mutters Chang’e.

Erin shrugs, unrepentant. “If it’s us or them, you’ll be happy to be on team ‘us.’”

“Right,” says Chang’e. “We access the everything, and Dodger determines which window belongs to Aske. Then we find a way to get to her window, and we break in. That should get us into her version of the everything, and let us try to figure out what happened to her. There’s a good chance her body is still there, since Máni left her inside to avoid uncomfortable questions.”

“And once we know? What does that do to solve things? We have dead Lunars, we have agitated alchemists, we have no proof they’re connected—”

“Except that they’re happening at the same time, and it seems like a pretty extreme coincidence if they’re not.”

“When you put this many nonhuman people in the same place, we have to start distorting the laws of causality at least a little,” says Roger. “I would be shocked if we didn’t. That would actually be more of a stretch than the idea that we do.”

“You do,” says Kelpie. “I mean, we do. It’s part of why there’s a lab here. Setting up under your noses meant taking advantage of the strain on the laws of reality, and being able to turn those little improbabilities to nobler uses.”

Silence falls, uncomfortable and awkward. Kelpie grimaces as she realizes what she just said.

“Or, um. To use them to hurt people, I guess. Sorry.”

Artemis pats her on the shoulder, stopping when she sees how Kelpie shies away. “It’s all right,” she says. “You’re still adjusting.”

“They killed someone,” says Kelpie, sounding miserable. “Two someones I knew, and maybe more than that. I shouldn’t need any more time to adjust. I should be able to just know they’re the bad guys. But even if I don’t know for sure that your dead Lunars and the alchemists being all upset are connected, I do know it for sure, because the eclipse is coming. Margaret was in a tizzy for weeks, trying to push everyone to find the answers she needed, and when they didn’t, the man from the Congress showed up to investigate the lab, and that’s when she…” She pauses, swallowing hard, and looks away from the group, staring at the house. “That’s when she told me what I was, and told me to run, and died. When the Congress came. The only thing that changed was how close we are to the eclipse. So that’s what’s going on.”

“If they’ve been trying to find a way to trick their way into the City, could killing enough Lunars let you fake being one for long enough to get into this everything you keep mentioning?” asks Erin, thoughtfully. “Just lie to the world, get to the window, and slither into the Impossible City. Once you’re inside, you can open the gates to anyone you want. We know that from the books.”

“Earlier, Smita mentioned Zib getting into the City via the graveyard path,” says Dodger slowly. “She assumed we would be looking for someone who was trying to use the road of moonlight to get inside, but what if we’re wrong about that?”

“My sister, the literary analyst,” says Roger, sounding almost entertained. “What are you thinking, Dodger?”

“I’m thinking Artemis told us the alchemists who’re looking for Kelpie made an auf,” she says. “They’re not alive, not really, but they’re not dead either. They’re in-between, unresolved integers, and they could probably use the graveyard path, if you could get them access.”