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"I came here from Wolf Hollow in Ipswich," she says, rising and heading deeper into the old house with her guitar. "I was still very young, and I could walk in human form, but I was clumsy. But Holds-the-Dawn was also a gibbous-moon—"

"Holds-the-Dawn?" you ask.

"The head of the Shadow Lords, before everyone died," Nin says. "She taught me to play guitar. She took lots of notes—there was only one other wolf-born with us, and he was old and had forgotten most of what he was. Holds-the-Dawn took notes and tried to…" Nin strums a few chords, concentrating. "She wanted to know how I thought. She said that we all have a lot of noise inside us. She said we need to let it out one way or another. I don't know how she died."

You follow her to her…den? A sense of dissociation hits you, almost a spike of fear, probably not unlike the Delirium when it afflicts regular people. The geometry of Nin's little room is wrong. Table with laptop, band posters, clothes rack, turntable. But not laid out like they should be. You momentarily feel like one of those sniveling cosmic horror protagonists, terrified by funny angles and off-kilter stares. You try not to look Nin directly in the eyes as you flip through her record collection. It's partly organized by era, from grampa boogie-woogie (The Misfits, B-52s) to mom rock (Smashing Pumpkins, The Cranberries), with a large and disorganized section of old deep cuts from across the Atlantic: Elton's contributions, you suspect, as it's mostly trip hop and Eurodance from the last years of the 1900s, some with Jordan Dey listed in the credits.

"This is the WiFi password," she says. The Child of Gaia smiles as she points to a scrap of paper, pleased to behave in a socially acceptable manner. There's no cell coverage around here, so you sign in. The feeling of dissociation fades once you have data access. While you work, Nin takes out her own phone-tablet, which is twice the size of yours, with an attached physical keyboard. Maybe for typing in hispo form?

"Tell me about the Children of Gaia." They seem the most humane of tribes—maybe I should consider joining them.

"Are you okay here? Do you have everything you need?"

"Tell me about being wolf-born. Like, how did you get a name?"

"I'm still worried about the Cultists. We may need to be ready to fight."

"So, do you have enough clothes?" I am not trying to undress Nin right away but I am willing to watch her try on different outfits.

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