Page 41 of As You Wake, Break the Shell

“Radio producers?”

“Rorquals.” She frowned, trying to remember. “It’s pheromones, isn’t it?”

Otto paused in front of his chair. “I’m not actually sure.” He pondered, and then his face brightened with a very particular glee—the glee of an old man who had just been handed an excuse to go look something up.

Chapter 779 Signy & Cora, Cypsela

Signy [18:16]: what are you cooking

Signy [18:16]: it smells amazing

Cora [18:20]: can you smell it in the garden?

Signy [18:20]: no, I’m in storage

Cora [18:20]: oh phew, I thought the air vents were fucked

Signy [18:22]: so what are you cooking

Cora [18:22]: I am sautéing onions and garlic

Signy [18:22]: is that all

Cora [18:22]: yes

Cora [18:23]: but they are a winning combo I agree

Chapter 20 Cora, Fortune

I like your plant,” Twig said.

“Hmm?” Cora said as she shoved furniture aside. She didn’t own a ton of stuff, but her room was really only meant for one person, and making space for the floor mattress required some shuffling.

Twig took a bite of her sandwich. She was tucked up on Cora’s desk chair, staying out of the way as instructed. She chewed, swallowed, then repeated: “Your plant.” She pointed at the little pop of green standing beside Cora’s computer monitor. “It’s cute.”

“It is.” Cora pushed her laundry hamper into the corner with the side of her calf. “And I am definitely gonna kill it.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know what to do with plants.”

“Then why’d you buy it?”

“I didn’t. It was a gift.”

“From who?”

“New friend.”

Twig cocked her head, chewing. “New friend, or new friend?”

“Just a friend,” Cora said. She slid the mattress into the space she’d cleared, let it slap flat to the floor, and began to pull apart the bundle of bedding. “And speaking of friends—”

“Here, I can do that—” Twig said with her mouth full, starting to get to her feet.

Cora waved her off. “Nah, I’ve got it. You’ve got crumbs all over you.”

“No, I—oh.” Twig looked down at her shirt, which did, in fact, have crumbs all over it. She gave them a quick brush with the palm of her hand.