[ A piece of Matt thinks, Sure, I bet you tell all the Shard-Bearers that. Which is maybe unworthy of him, but the one thing everybody says about Aetós is they're not necessarily to be trusted.

The quality of their attention changes, making the Communion feel taut. Matt's slow to answer, but for reasons of accuracy rather than any desire to build suspense. ]

I burned it up, I think. My magic is--I conceive of it as light, but also maybe more crucially, as life? But while we had it, my friend took a look, and ...

[ Sensations pass through the connection. Matt's mind is an imperfect container for Tezcatlipoca's knowledge, but what fragments he was capable of retaining, he shares: intangible, oily darkness, fitting itself to the width of any crack it finds and seeping through. Swallowing souls like pomegranate seeds. Eating worlds. ]

We found hunger, primarily.

Which isn't much of a surprise. But I think I'd been ascribing more ... emotional intent, to this thing, than maybe it has. It's been reading our memories and looking like people we love, and I thought that was to hurt us. Maybe it is to hurt us, but it's not out of sadism. It's a predatory tactic.

It's the space in between stars. I wonder if maybe it's the space between thoughts, too. Everything that isn't.