Page 110 of As You Wake, Break the Shell

“Fruit. Fruit is a plant ovary. Or, well”—Signy popped a slice into her mouth and began to chew—“botanically speaking, you can quibble about that a lot, depending on what kind of plant you’re talking about and how their organs are arranged. And, also, not all plants produce fruit. In gymnosperms—which we don’t have any of here, they’re mostly trees—”

The taxonomical tangent Signy had begun to skip merrily along was lost on Cora. She was too busy falling headlong into a quiet calamity. She stared down at the remaining mandarin segments filling her palm, her lovely little mandarins, so cute, so orange, and now, irrevocably fucked. She’d never thought about what fruit was. It was just . . . fruit. Fruit, like shoes or forks or windows or pillows. Fruit. A thing that existed in the world without a larger context. Or it had, right up until now. So cute, so orange, and yet, she could already tell it was never going to be just fruit ever again.

Signy laughed. “Are you okay?” she said.

Cora looked at her despairingly. “I think next time, I’ll bring muffins instead.”

A wicked, knowing smile spread across Signy’s face. She tossed another piece of mandarin into her mouth. “I have really bad news for you about what flour is.”

Chapter 787 Signy, Lodestone

If you were to compare Lodestone City to a flower turned upside down, the elevator hub was the stem. Residential sectors stretched out from it like petals, clustered around the town square (the town oval, really, but that would’ve been a dumb thing to call it). This constructed hollow was tall and cavernous, carved in angles intended to prevent people from feeling trapped. Lights were strung in an asymmetrical web, hung relatively low over the humans mingling beneath. The cave floor held a great medley of structures, some made with cave brick, some with metal scrap, some with mixes of both. Places like the med clinic and the school had roofs and doors to ensure privacy, but many of the structures were little more than open-sided shacks or topless booths, accessible to anyone who wandered by.

Signy smiled as she removed her earbuds and headed out of the elevator, breathing in the familiar smells of fresh produce, frying oil, and machine grease. She’d barely had time to exhale before she heard someone calling her way.

“Hello, ladies!” It was Jeremy, cheerfully waving to them from his seat at the info desk. He was thirteen years old and took his job as weekend market greeter very seriously. “Welcome back!”

“Hello, sir!” Cora grinned, her hand in Signy’s as they strolled up. “What’s good in town?”

“Ooh, you picked a good day to be here,” he said in a confident salesman’s patter. “Big batch of snap peas just hit the grocery today, and if you stop by the bakery, they’ve got strawberry rhubarb pie.”

Cora looked straight at Signy. “Well, shit, we gotta get strawberry rhubarb pie.”

Signy gave her wife a fond smile, but kept her attention on Jeremy. “How’s your father doing?” she asked. Ryan had been in the med clinic a week prior with an inflamed appendix. Lodestone did not have a surgeon among their number yet, and so the hope around town was that a few heavy courses of antibiotics would suffice.

“He’s . . . okay,” Jeremy said. “Nurse Britt’s pretty confident this round of meds will do the trick, but, y’know, he’s tired.”

“I’ll bet,” Cora said, frowning sympathetically. “If there’s anything we can do—an extra hand at home, or somebody needs a shuttle ride somewhere, you or your mom can call us anytime. It’s easy for us to hop over here.”

Jeremy nodded courteously. “I’ll tell my mom that. Thanks.”

“Please do,” Signy said. “And speaking of, do you know if Britt is around today? Or is she making house calls?”

“Mm, I haven’t seen her go up,” Jeremy said, “so she’s probably at the clinic.” The boy snapped his fingers. “I just remembered—Noelle has squash.”

Signy paused. She couldn’t have heard him right. “What do you mean she has squash?”

“She has squash,” he repeated. “Crop just came in.”

Squash was not a crop that had been attempted in the Ring until a few months prior. It had a high water cost, and as it had never been part of anyone’s diet on Fortune, it wasn’t at the top of Lodestone’s agricultural wish list. But the Ring had far more ice on hand than was needed to cover the basics, and so there was plenty of opportunity for people to experiment with the Primer’s untested templates. Signy hadn’t been part of the squash project, but she was absolutely interested in the results. That said, the timing of this didn’t make any sense. “It’s spring,” she said. “I thought that’s a fall crop.”

“Uh . . . I dunno,” Jeremy shrugged. “I just know she said they’ve got squash.”

Signy turned to her wife, her mission for the day set. “We need to go see the squash.”

“Before . . . pie?” Cora said.

“Before everything.” Signy held Cora’s hand tightly and began to hustle in the direction of the produce stalls. “See you later, Jeremy.”

“Uh, bye, Jeremy!” Cora called as she allowed herself to be pulled along. She took a few quick steps, catching up to Signy’s side. “Hon, I gotta be honest—I have no idea what squash is.”

“Well, good news for us both,” Signy replied with a bounce in her step. “We’re about to find out.”

Chapter 35 Signy, Fortune

Okay, so . . . he’s going to kiss my cheek?” Cora said.

Signy rocked her head back and forth as she led Cora up the inner stairwell of Mountain Hearth Family Apartments. “Sort of,” she said. “He’s going to put his cheek against yours and kiss the air beside it.”