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A little while later . . .

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When the official dinner had ended, most of the crew headed off to bed. Evlidone, Alyidana and Valar had all started questioning Veronica about her "Hybrid abilities," so Eliza took a breather. She found Thug and Tiny both staring at a single sapling in the courtyard, apparently trying to figure out how many leaves it had. Eliza didn't bother to ask why, because they probably didn't know. They were trolls . . . they didn't always understand things . . . they just did them. She walked down a hall and wound up in the control room, and found...