Book One – Chapter 15

Their faces were smooth, their features uniform yet far from bland. Their eyes, multifaceted and vertically slit, reflected the light with a peculiar metallic glint. Their mouths were lined with a narrow yet disturbingly wide, beak-like overgrowth, permanently curved into the suggestion of a grin. Beneath it, Yu glimpsed rows of needle-like teeth. When they spoke, their secondary jaw structures clicked and trilled, producing subtle sounds that did not quite register as speech. Yu felt them, resonating in his bones more than his ears.

During introductions, the brothers had made themselves comfortable in the common room. Unlike Gurs and Tellin, who had exchanged brief greetings before returning to their posts, Deltington and Estingar lingered. They watched. They waited. Yu had noticed the way they had deferred to Bubs, only reaching for food once the mianid had given explicit permission. And when they finally ate, their jaws clicked between bites in what seemed to be a never-ending, rhythmic dialogue.

They spoke Teh when addressing him, but Yu was certain they communicated between themselves on an entirely different level. Not only through the faint pulses of their clicking sounds but through something deepern still: The bioluminescent patterns shifting beneath their dark blue skin were not random flickers; they were …  yes, language. Their very bodies, even their wings, seemed alive with subtle light. It was mesmerising, like watching shallow rivers of bright blues flowing just under their skin. When they glanced at each other, these rivers shifted, pulses of light brightening and dimming in synchronised, silent conversation. Yu just knew they were talking. It was hard to explain. There was a strange duality to them, something that felt … whole. He was not sure whether he found it beautiful or profoundly alien.