Damaris giggles.

"I wonder what Yseult and Céleste are doing right now, they don't have to go through the motions of being professional angels... I wonder how old they are now. And if they have little sisters by now."

"That's a weird thought," laughs Damaris. "I wonder if we'll be older than they are, when Jane comes back?"

"You were once!" says Keziah. "I mean, not exactly, but our mom was pregnant with you when Rose hadn't even decided to have Yseult."

"I don't think that counts," she says, giggling.

"I guess not. I wonder if time ever goes backwards? Like, could they be younger than they were when we saw them?"

"I don't think that works," says Damaris. "Where would the time go? What would happen to the Yseult and Céleste who met us?"

"They'd happen later, I guess? And not mention that they saw us when we were younger?"

"Can you imagine them doing that? I can't."

"Well, maybe something bad would happen if they mentioned it. Maybe things wouldn't happen how they remember them, if they did?"

"You two were seven! Can you imagine acting perfectly like you'd never met somebody you already knew, when you were seven?"

"Nnnnno," acknowledges Keziah, laughing softly.

Damaris giggles.

"Do you think there will be more of you by the time Jane is back? From one of the other worlds? Maybe me too, I guess it gets less and less likely for Ariel and Pen though, depends how many kids they have."

"Unless there's one family where we all come out in the wrong order, or something," laughs Damaris.

"Do you think that could happen? All four of us backwards maybe, Pen oldest and you youngest? I don't think so, you're such a big sister."

"Weirder things have happened!"

"What weirder things?"

"Cousinoids. Cousinoids are weirder."

"How are cousinoids weird? It would be really strange if - if Glass's kids and the Joker's kids were the same as us, because then they'd be the same as each other without any of the same parents!"

"It's not their not being us that's weird, it's their being at all," she says. "I mean - not that I want them to stop. It's just, I can wrap my head around alts, but alts of our parents getting together with people who aren't alts of our other parent and having kids that are almost kind of like our cousins or half-siblings or something... it's weird!"

"Well, Glass doesn't have one of Daddy," says Keziah reasonably.

"That doesn't make it less weird."

"What if by the time Jane is back you and Yseult are both grown up and married? Do you think the people you marry will be alts?"

"I have no idea. I have no idea how I could have an idea. I have no idea if I'm going to get married!"