Yalran had given Helen and Caleb a reprieve that evening, but a reprieve was all it was. They'd gone away that time as free human beings, but I knew they'd be back. Of course they'd be back.

And my yeerk couldn't stall forever, no matter how much she might have wanted to.

I recognised those things even at the time. That's why my yeerk and I continued to talk very little, even after she finally finished on the beach and made her way back to my home.

Yalran was still barely talking to me the following morning, and I in turn was still barely talking to her. I don't thing either one of us wanted to speak, really, nor did we have any wish to hear what the other had to say. She'd said her piece on the beach that day, and I'd said mine; as far as I was concerned, it was as simple as that.

Except it wasn't simple at all, of course, when we were still sharing a single body - for a given definition of "sharing", anyway. I couldn't help but smart when she selected jam for her toast that morning - without even pretending to want my input - and I felt even more exposed than usual when she stepped me into the shower afterwards. Yalran for her part likewise seemed on edge: she held onto my movements far tighter than she normally did, and she'd been determinedly walling me off from her thoughts from the moment I'd awoke.

((You know, I thought you'd be at least a little grateful for yesterday)) my yeerk said, as she dressed me in my room after getting me dry.

((Yeah? Well, thanks, I guess.)) .

Truth be told, I was hardly in a thankful mood. I knew my yeerk was still perfectly willing to go off get people infested - and she was willing to go and do that with my very own idea, that I had so stupidly allowed myself to make.

And so, I continued to keep quiet as Yalran said her goodbyes to my family, before heading off out towards the Yeerk Pool down, down below.

Yalran seemed to relax a little, once we were out of the house. By the time she'd descended the steps to the Yeerk Pool, her grip on my movements had gone back to normal: loose enough for me to feel, but not loose enough for me to do. I suppose the thought of being around her own kind was comforting to her - despite the pangs of hunger she must have been feeling by then, and despite the atmosphere around us being anything but relaxing. We were back in that cold dark world of desperate screaming prisoners, and already I wanted to be anywhere but here.

Yalran walked me over to the usual pier and stood in the queue, seemingly without a care in the world. And then I felt her probe into mind, and I realised she wasn't without a care at all.

Because if I wanted to, I could report her for her little acts of decency towards me. If I wanted to, I could get her killed.

((Yalran, I'm not planning anything. Relax.))

((Yeah, well, felt right to check.)) She shuffled me forwards in line. ((You know you'd lose out if you did it, though.))

((You'd lose more,)) I said.

Yalran flinched then - as in, physically flinched - and I wondered if anyone around us would notice. ((I guess you're right,)) she eventually said.

We were speaking softly to each other - softly enough, in fact, that we'd have never been able to hear one another if we were trying to have this conversation out loud. Both of our voices would surely have been drowned out by the cacophony of sounds from the caged hosts around us: the screaming, the begging, the cursing, the crying.

But talking mind-to-mind like this, we could hear each other clear as day. It was like I was hearing the world on two channels at the same time. The first channel, of course, was the world beyond my body and mind. That world was the wailing hosts, the infested host bodies rushing to and fro, the grinds and whirls of machines as the Yeerk Pool complex was expanded ever-larger. The second channel, meanwhile, was just…us: me and Yalran, in a quiet little space, with nothing at all that could ever disturb us.

We made it to the front of the queue without saying anything else. Yalran lay me flat on my stomach and turned my head sideways, as a pair of heavy-set Hork-Bajir guards stood ready to my rear.

((Well, have fun,)) I said, knowing that the Pool to her would be anything but fun.

I kept myself still as she slithered from my ear, even after I began to feel control return to me. I lay quietly as she wormed herself all the way out, and fell into the sloshing murky sludge below with a soft plop.

I made to push myself up. And then I found myself rolling onto my back, and I realised then that something was very wrong.

My entire right arm was asleep - not asleep in a pins and needles sense, but asleep in that it wouldn't do a single thing. I could feel the limp arm - I could feel the muscles in it, all normal and relaxed - but that was doing me no good at all. It was as though I'd flat-out forgotten how to move it.

The two Hork-Bajir from before entered my field of vision, the expressions on their beaked faces looking anything but friendly.

'Up!' one them said, gesturing impatiently. 'Up! Now!'

'Trying! I-ah!' I went, as I was yanked to my feet.

The two guards took me by my arms and marched me down the pier, half-dragging me as I tried to keep up. They brought me to an empty cage and thrust me inside. I stumbled, almost tripped, and then banged my shoulder hard against the bars on the cage's far end.

One Hork-Bajir immediately stormed off, muttering what I was sure were curses under its breath. The other one lingered for a moment, watching me. I watched back, rubbing at my shoulder.

'What did I do to you?' I said, swallowing down a lump. 'What did I do to any of you?'

The creature left me then, as though it hadn't even heard.

The cage, that time, remained relatively empty. There were four other people in it by the end, all of whom were around my age. One of them screamed, one cried, and two just sat talking quietly amongst themselves. I'd retreated to one of the far corners by the time they were all there, keeping to myself and trying my hardest to get my bad arm back into working condition.

I did get it going in the end. I was bending and straitening and tensing it without the slightest of trouble - but only after what must have been at least an hour of trying. I'd resorted to repeatedly picking it up and bending, as though to remind myself what moving it felt like.

All too soon, I was faced with having to walk to the front of the cage, ready for the guards to come and pull me out. My shoulder was still hurting a little from when I'd fallen into the bars, and I hoped desperately that the guards I got this time this time would be different from before.

I did indeed get a different pair, that time around - not that it did me any good.

They came for me at their usual hurried pace: two yeerk-controlled Hork-Bajir, with their tall reptilian bodies and their wickedly sharp blades. They pulled me out of the cage and marched me back to the pool, fast enough that I had to half-run to keep up.

When we got there, I saw four Hork-Bajir at the end of the infestation pier in front of me. Only three of them were infested. The fourth one was flailing, its head held under the Yeerk Pool sludge by its three enslaved brethren. It kicked and splashed and fought, catching one of the yeerks right in their host's stomach. That yeerk fell down backwards, roaring as it went over.

And then the struggling stopped. And that poor Hork-Bajir lifted its head from the sludge and stood up, its yeerk in full control.

As soon as the coast was clear, my two guards surged forwards. They kept hold of me as I got down onto my knees, and then unceremoniously pushed me forwards. I bought myself, crawled forwards a little, dropped to my stomach, began to breath in -

My head was shoved under.

I'd still been breathing in when they did it. I closed my mouth abruptly, but not before I'd taken in a great mouthful of pool liquid. I coughed and choked, the sourness and sliminess of the sludge enough to make me feel sick. And I needed air - air! I flailed my my body in my panic, wrestling against the Hork-Bajir guards' powerful arms.

Yalran pushed into my ear then. She seemed to be moving faster than usual, as if she knew that something was wrong. One by one, my muscles relaxed, slipping from my control. She didn't speak to me at first, but I could feel her going through my memories, replaying ever second of the events that had brought me to this point.

((You're okay,)) she said. ((They'll let you up now. You're fine.)) Her tone was soft and gentle - far more-so than she'd ever spoken to me before.

The Hork-Bajir guards indeed let her up. My lungs were practically burning by then, and Yalran gasped for breath as soon as my head surfaced. She lay still on the metal pier for a moment, breathing quickly and hoarsely, with the two guards still gripping my shoulders.

And then, she spun around, the Hork-Bajir finally letting me go as she did. 'You could have drowned her, you idiots! What were you thinking?'

One of the huge creatures standing over me gave what almost seemed like a shrug. 'Was struggling. We held her,' he said.

'Of course she was struggling! She needed air! She - get back here!'

They'd turned to leave, no-doubt off to collect their next hapless prisoner. Yalran clambered me to my feet and ran to catch them up.

They both turned to face her. One of them had its blades raised. 'You in control,' it said. 'Leave.'

'No! I'm not leaving! You two could have killed my host, and you want me to just-'

'Leave. Now!'

Which was when Yalran properly took in her surroundings.

She was just slightly off of the pier. She was being watched - by her fellow yeerks, and by others too. There were humans staring at us from the cages - as well as couple of voluntary humans staring at us as they made their way to be re-infested.

One of those humans was Kessam's host. I still hadn't learnt her name.

The other of those humans was Miss Andrews - host to Tellarin 1476, Yalran's sub-visser. Yalran caught her eye, and she quickly looked away.

'Fine,' Yalran said. 'I'm going.' She stormed away towards the nearest exit without looking back.

((How did you know?)) I said.

She'd been hurrying when she'd gone into my ear that time; I was sure of it.

((You never struggle like that,)) Yalran said. ((I knew there'd be a reason. Had to be.)) She started up some stairs, seeming in as much of a hurry to get out of that place as I would have been. ((I'll give you your arms. Once we're alone.))

I'd honestly forgotten about that, until she brought it up. But now that she'd said it…

((No. Not just my arms. Everything.))

((Your arms are enough,)) Yalran said.

((No they aren't. I want everything, Yalran. Everything.))

She stopped walking. She looked around her - to check we were alone, I have no doubt.

((Beth, you do realise what you're asking, right?))

((Of course I do. And you know that already. You're in my head, right?))

((Oh yes. Tell me about it,)) She resumed her walk up to the surface, but at a far slower rate than before. ((There's no reason for it but sympathy. I'm not doing it. You'll just have to-))

((Isn't that enough of a reason? Sympathy? For me?))

She paused again then. But then we heard footsteps coming from somewhere behind us, and she hurried on up in earnest.

((Fine. If you really want to - fine.))

((You'll do it?))

((I'll do it,)) Yalran said. ((But not here. And not once you're out in the open, either. But once we're somewhere safe and there's no-one around, then…))

Had I been in control of my face, I'd have been smiling the biggest smile in the whole wide world.

((So? Satisfied?)) Yalran said.

She knew the answer to that already, of course. She was in my head; she couldn't not know.

((Very,)) I said.