Jasmine was still curled around both children when the strike force finally returned at dawn, her face pale and drawn with an exhaustion that went far deeper than sleeplessness, but both twins slept peacefully in her arms, their small chests rising and falling in steady, untroubled rhythm.

"They're whole," the healer confirmed, after a careful, thorough examination that left no corner of the twins' small bodies unchecked. "Whatever reached for them, it didn't take hold. I've never in three centuries seen anything like what you must have done to stop it."

"I don't know what I did," Jasmine admitted, voice hoarse from hours of silent, desperate effort. "I just knew...