I could not risk Aua's death. Of the three sisters, she seemed the least dangerous, and there was so much more that I needed to know.

"Move," I said to Nani, and the eldest's face contorted with fresh hate as her limbs jerked away from the small rolled-up ball of her sister.

I knelt beside Aua, her body drenched in sweat. Absently, I ran a hand through her chestnut braids, and some strange warmth tickled my breast. I wanted her hale and hearty for the answers I needed, but at the same time some distant part of my heart simply fretted that Little Aua was unwell.

I shook my head of the strangeness, and with the utmost care, lest she break, hefted Aua into my arms. The hot of her body bled into my naked flesh, and my cheeks pinched into a smile.

"We'll take her to one of the rivers," I said to Nani who looked on with unabashed horror and frustration.

Because humans (needed water). And (dusk lilies) attracted fireflies at dusk, the roots of which could be ground into a fine powder. When mixed with (rocklurker) dust and crushed (chokeberry), the paste could be swallowed or spread across the top of the gums.

These thoughts and still more fluttered across my mind. I discarded each in turn, and when I looked down at Aua I found that I had begun to cradle her in my arms, as if I was her...

"Grandmother," I said, the word a curse. Because I wore the woman's skin and her thoughts bled into my own. But was the truth of it? Where did her thoughts end and mine own begin?

I stopped on the cusp of the wavering torchlight. I looked over my shoulder to find Nani struggling under the weight of Sofh's lifeless body. The fiery sister lay over Nani's shoulder like some grisly pelt. The eldest tried to balance her stiff body with one hand while torch fought back the creep of shadow with the other.

I felt nothing as I looked on the struggle, not even a tola of warmth or the meanest crimp of frown.

Why then did Aua's warmth so delight me?

I reached the river by accident.

Large as Nani was, she soon tired under the weight of her dead sister. I watched on with mild interest as the two of them tumbled and collapsed, rolling further and further down the hill until they came to a violent stop under the cover of black. Her mouth was still sealed shut, but Nani made her fury known with a muted guttural growl.

The torch had lost its flame in their tumble, and so I was forced to meander blindly towards the sound of Nani's frustrations.

I thought it strange that the night was without the shine of star, and as this absent thought took hold, I tripped over the jut of a boulder.

At least I thought it was a boulder at first.

I could not see the rocklurker as it crawled out from the earth, but I could feel the maijik that surrounded the groggy (jini). The chatter of its crystalline teeth drowned out Nani's frustrations.

I was thrown back as an invisible stone claw smashed into my stomach. My mind alighted with panic over Aua, and I cried, "Stop!"

I hit the soft grass of the plains as the rocklurker fell silent, the chitter of its teeth stilled.

I lay on the grass for a long while as the jini's obedience tickled free new realizations. Because they were the (Low Creatures) born of the residue of (unanswered prayer). I did not even know what that meant, but at the same time I knew the jini to be a (failure) where I was a (success).

And then I remembered Aua, My Little Aua.

"Find her," I said. The night was absolute, and I could not even see the massive stone body of the rocklurker let alone the delicate ball of Aua's hurt.

The jini rumbled across the plains. I could see what looked like the whisper of shiny dust race around as the rocklurker strove to obey. Nani let out a muffled cry, and the jini chittered in satisfaction.

The jini returned to where I lay, and I groped the black. I knew a moment's fear at the touch of cold, dead skin, but then I realized it was Sofh's. The rocklurker had collected all three sisters and left them to rest atop the flat of its rocky body.

"Thank goodness," I said as I felt Aua's warmth. Or was that the grandmother's relief?

I shook the thought free. I would worry on it another time.

"Take us to a river," I said to the jini, and its massive claws tossed me onto its back.

The water was a cool salve to the day's confusion. The rocklurker had shaken all four of us from its back into the river without so much as a warning.

I pulled Aua to shore as Nani sputtered over her dead sister. It occurred to me that Sofh could be carried with the current a hundred miles away, so I had the rocklurker help Nani find the body.

I sat with Aua beside the quiet rush of river. Feeling (stupid). Humans needed water, so I brought Aua to a river? Had I really thought whatever ailed Aua could be solved with a little drink?

She needed a (healer), a (surgeon), a (maij).

I turned to where Nani splashed, her lips still sealed. I searched my thoughts, the grandmother's perhaps, but I had no idea what Nani's maijiks could do. All I could remember was the fear and hurt of the Nani's words.

I thought also of the fires that burned from the top of the hill. Human settlements, but what of the war? I had not forgotten the Konac warriors. Who knew if I would find a friendly healer at one of the towns.