Page 26 of Cast in Atonement

He asks me to point out that he cannot, at the moment, move. Both Helen and I are preventing it.

“Just let him leave!”

We do not wish him to “accidentally” overlap with Mrs. Erickson’s guests.

This was reasonable. “You can’t prevent that?”

We are not even certain what we would be preventing. Helen doesn’t deem it worth the risk to Terrano. If his state—and theirs—were concrete and separate, we would have immediately done so.

“Terrano’s attachment to his True Name is the most tenuous of all the Barrani I know. I think it’s more dangerous for him.”

And it is safe for you?

Kaylin squinted as she looked at her arms. “Yes. Yes, I think it’s safe for me. I have the marks of the Chosen.” She hesitated, and then said, “But that’s not why I think it might be safer. I don’t have Words. I think the only people who are guaranteed some sort of safety are Mrs. Erickson...and me.”

Because you are mortal?

“Because we don’t need Words to live, yes.”

Very well. Terrano is not, as you guessed, corporeal in any of the traditional senses. Fallessian is, but he is tightly connected to Terrano. I do not believe he will attempt to maintain that connection if Terrano is returned to your plane of existence.

“Good. Sedarias would murder us slowly if we managed to lose Fallessian here.”

Terrano did not, as it happened, go away. Kaylin offered a few choice words—in two languages Mrs. Erickson wasn’t likely to know—as the most difficult, reckless member of the cohort appeared in front of her. He had a rope of gold tied around his waist. At any other time she would have snickered; it was something used on foundlings when they went on their very rare field trips.

But she thought the rope was gold in color for a reason. “That rope better not be Fallessian.”

“Nice to see you, too.”

“How did you get here?”

“We were almost in the same place,” Terrano replied, shrugging. “It’s darker here than I’m used to, but I could see a pretty blazing light, and I followed that.”

“Instead of listening to Helen and Hope?”

“She’s your landlord and he’s your familiar. I don’t have to listen to them.” He reached for the rope around his waist; when he touched it, he shouted and lifted his hand as if it had been burned. “You talk to him,” Terrano snapped, glaring at Kaylin.

His eyes were black with obsidian flecks.

“Can he hear me?”

“He can hear me, I can hear you, so even if he can’t hear you himself, he’ll hear what I hear. I’m certainly hearing what everyone else thinks.” Given his expression, she could imagine what the cohort’s opinion was.

“Fallessian, Hope feels it’s not safe to be anywhere near these ghosts. Mrs. Erickson is talking with them now. I can’t understand most of what they’re saying; I can understand Mrs. Erickson.” She hesitated again, exhaled, and said, “I think the ghosts are words. True Words—possibly closer to True Names than the spoken language of the Ancients.

“I’m not certain what they’ll do to True Names. I think it’s possible that the reason they could possess Sanabalis was because they could almost fill the same space as his name. I don’t really want that to happen to any of you; I think Helen’s probably already moved Mandoran, Torrisant, and Annarion to someplace safer.

“Mortals don’t have those words. We don’t need ’em to live and breathe. We don’t live forever because we don’t have them—but I don’t think they can possess either me or Mrs. Erickson.”

“Fallessian wants to know what they can do to the marks of the Chosen, if you think they can just shove important words to one side. That’s not how he put it,” Terrano added, “but that’s what he means.”

“I don’t know. But... I think the worst they could do is join the marks on my skin. There’s nothing in me that they can displace.”

Hope said, That is not entirely true. You carry a True Name within you. Your life does not depend on it, but it is there.

Kaylin forgot about it, most days. “I don’t think it works the same way. Look: if it disappears, I’m still going to be Kaylin Neya. I’m still going to be a corporal. I won’t become some sort of weird undead vampire the way Barrani do or can.

“Just...let Mrs. Erickson talk and let me listen. I think the two of us are going to be safe.” She hoped.

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