Sasha doesn't believe that animated series about the tastes of Shuos heptarchs are the best guide to past or future history, but there was an embarrassingly memorable scene involving Khiaz, Jedao, and a flurry of goose feathers, and everything Sasha knows about geese suggests that if you have them, dogs are extraneous. "Seyli, please move faster if you can," she directs. "Some instructions are getting through to the Green Team, and I don't know how they'll react. I'll call Alaric for backup."

She then contacts Alaric and Ione: "Seyli is with Jedao. He's cooperating, but I'm not sure if it's the drug, or something else. Ione, get close and get ready for pickup. Alaric, we may need you as backup."