"What is it?"

"I can barely feel Harley from where I was usually, but I noticed just now - it's like someone dropped him in a bucket of ice, not even like I doused him, there would be regrowth if I'd done it. There's nothing left for me, just a flicker for you - plenty for Corona, a little spark each for Tima and Sandre, nothing else, and everything I doused is back, not like I never touched it but like it's had a month to rekindle - what happened?"

"I don't know," she says, "but I would dearly like to find out."

"So would I," says Chelsa. "This changes things - I said I'd leave him be when he was still nice and warm - now he's not."

"I'll go talk to him," she promises.

Chelsa nods, teeth clenched. She appears to intend to wait right where she is while this occurs.

"If you're going to sit there, you might as well kill me some more," he says eventually.

"I'd rather talk," she says evenly.

"I don't give a shredded fuck what you'd rather," says Harley.

"That's a shame."

"Eat me."

"I can see this isn't going to be a productive conversation," she sighs. "Chelsa is upset that you don't love her anymore."

"Chelsa should crawl into a hole and die," says Harley.

"That's not going to happen," says Aelise.

"Too fucking bad."

"Do you know anything about where all your kindled connections mysteriously went while you were asleep?"

"Up my ass, wanna take a look?"

"You're doing a pure shit job."

"I stopped Chelsa from dousing you again," she points out. "Is there anything, anything at all, that I could offer you to get you to put up with Chelsa kindling you to her?"

Harley hisses.

"I'll take that as a no."

"Can you not just get her to leave me the fuck alone?" he growls.

"I'll try," she says. "I don't expect it to work. Feel free to run away again. It worked so well the last time."

He pulls the blanket over his head and turns away from her.

Chelsa is standing in her office still, frowning.

"Harley is not feeling cooperative today," she says.

"You're not trying to add him to Kers's coverage. He doesn't need to cooperate for your power to work. Or mine."

"Something tells me I would rather have him cooperating than otherwise," she says. "How far away do I have to keep him before you won't be annoyed by his existence?"

"Before he was just fading out and now he's gone cold. Our deal was everyone. You provide the broadcast equipment and I include you in the kindling and I kindle everyone. He's someone."

"You are very good at solving the problem that I made that deal to solve. Harley is a problem you are demonstrably very bad at solving," says Aelise. "I would like it if you would consider leaving him to me."

"I was going to! And then - I don't even - how did he do it?"

"I don't know," says Aelise. "I hope to find out. It's not completely impossible to get information out of him; it just takes patience."

"What if I wake up one morning and Corona's gone cold too?" whispers Chelsa.

"I don't think he will," says Aelise. "There's a lot of things about Harley we don't fully understand yet. I want to understand them. But I only have the one source of information, so I need to handle him carefully. Okay?"

"How long?" Chelsa asks.

"I don't know. A while. Until I know what's going on, ideally."

"How long will it take you to give up?"

"I won't give up."

"So maybe forever, then, you might want me to wait hundreds of years, with a cold spot on the planet you said I could warm up entirely."

"Do you want him off the planet? I can do that."

"Fine. Put him off the planet. And I'll wait. But you'll try, won't you?"

"I will try."

"Thank you," sighs Chelsa. And she droops, but she goes back to her friends' quarters to warm up.

"Well, I'm glad somebody around here is happy," she remarks. "C'mon, up you get, I want you off this planet in an hour."

"What's the rush?" he asks, crawling out of bed.

"I don't want to test Chelsa's patience."