[b]Jackdaw![/b]

[i]in the great grey room
there was a train engine
and a green ribbon
and a picture of--
the academy tower at dusk
and there were disappointments sitting on chairs
and two drifting kittens
and a pair of mistakes
and a little toy house
and a brash little mouse
and your parents' expectations for your life
and a quiet old name who was whispering: "hush"

goodnight room
goodnight moon
goodnight academy tower
goodnight light
and the green ribbon
goodnight disappointments
goodnight chairs
goodnight kittens
and goodnight mistakes
goodnight little house
and goodnight mouse
goodnight parents
and goodnight expectations

goodnight nobody

goodnight life

and goodnight to the name who is whispering: "hush"

goodnight stars
goodnight air

goodnight sorrows everywhere[/i]

***

[b]Team Heart![/b]

Sasha bellows her happiness with a toot of her horn and surges up onto the makeshift pier that once was a landing on the great ballroom stairs. Books tremble beneath her, but she's up and at 'em! Congratulations, all of you successfully made it: Coleman, Sasha, Lucien and Ailee! Now's the time to cheer!

...

Hold up.

Jackdaw is back out in the water, and she's floating. She's floating face-down. Did she fall out? Is she the price that the Flood demands? Questions swirl about, but the fact of it is: Jackdaw's out there, and her coat should be dragging her down, but she's floating almost peacefully.

Taking from the Flood, [i]again[/i], will doom you to disaster. The reasonable thing, the sane thing to do is to leave Jackdaw to float and bob until she slips silently beneath the water. That's how you survive in the Heart. Take her back, and there will be disaster; there will be a reckoning; all that you have done thus far will be child's play.

And you will all be, just a little bit, more like creatures that can survive in the Heart.