"If you have no other questions for us, then we will return to the city," Treasa said softly. Isra nodded violently.

"If you have any, hurry up and ask, or forever hold your peace," she grumped. "'Cause, I'm leaving pronto, and taking Treasa with me."

"Questions?" Desdemona asked. "I love questions. They float out of your mouth like big curious balloons and they fly to everyone's ears and whisper their little words in the holes. Oh, they whisper and they whisper. They tickle your brain and make it giggle."

"Is this monologue disturbing anyone else? Because I'm thinking we need to keep anything sharp and pointy away from Little Miss Mental Instability here," Sylvia commented.

"Sharp and pointy? Ooo, my favorite words!" Desdemona said happily and pulled an unsheathed dagger from the folds of her dress.

Bobby inched away from the crazy people, not entirely sure what was going on because his author is absentminded lately.

Simon sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He stepped up to Desdemona and reached over to snatch the dagger from her.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not now, love. We have to play nice, remember? Just until we get out of this little funhouse." He glanced around. "However, if the ditto rears its head I promise you can play with it however you'd like." He patted her head gently and tucked the dagger away.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

"Ooooo, I would like that, Simon! I would use every single one of my knives on it and then my teeth. And we'll crunch on them and get the yummy juices free. Oh, Simon, I need some hot blood. I feel quite famished."

Sylvia idly made a wooden stake appear in midair and then, with a flick of her hand, set it alight, before making it vanish again.

"I have one. What the heck is the lightning bug? And where is it taking us? And do you have anything else that you'd think we should ask and should know?" Kari thought that covered all of the basics, and was glad that Bobby was back from cloud 9 at last.

"You'll get your feeding time soon, love. Don't worry your pretty little head about it," Simon said in a slightly bored tone as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Bobby stepped up to stand next to Kari since she seemed sane enough at the moment. Then again, she could be a ditto. He found himself studying her hard, wondering how he'd be able to tell if she was a ditto.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

"I am a Kiotaie, of the fire clan," a calm voice said from behind the mansionners. "And I will be guiding you through the rest of your search. Some of you are human, right?"

There, leaning against a tree was a tall thin man, with skin like ivory. His skin contrasted starkly with his dark hair and dark eyes. His eyes seemed to bear the reflection of the flames of a fire. Perhaps the oddest thing was, he nearly seemed to glow, as if he were a night-light--or, at least, as if he had swallowed a night-light. This man, who looked to be barely in his mid twenties, stared at the quietly. After a few awkward moments, he finally spoke again.

"I am Kiev."

Roj had begun to feel uncomfortable. Who was the ditto? Would he even know if he was the ditto?

Roj turned when he heard the voice, and started at the man. "But... but... you were..." he stammered, then gestured to the other still-flying lights.

Kiev smiled lopsidedly.

"Of course. All on this planet have two modes. I suppose it comes from the days when things were as they should be--the Kiotaie Fire and Kiotaie Water were one clan, and each member was both Fire and Water. That has been lost, but we still have multiple forms."

Kiev's mouth twitched slightly.

"Besides, how would you know which Kiotaie to follow if you couldn't see me?" Kiev grinned.