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A/N: Argh! Sorry this is late guys. I was so tired after work yesterday I completely forgot it was Monday. *facepalm*

“May I come with you?” Malisia asked. “I’m kind of curious about this as well, even though it doesn’t really effect me. I’m always surprised Savira didn’t experiment on goblins. The ways that we differ from both speakers and dragons might have been relevent.” She hesitated. “On the other hand, I’m glad it didn’t occur to her.”

“Of course you may,” Sonia said as they walked together towards the throne room. “What differences do you think might have been relevant?”

“Well, we don’t have heart friends,” Malisia said. “And not just because we’re born here. Mother says the two sides of our ancestry balance each other out so it’s almost like we’re our own heart friends.”

“Can you take resonant form?” Daniel asked. “I mean, you’re shapeshifters too, aren’t you?”

“We are,” she agreed. “And not precisely, but we can…” She hesitated. “It’s easier to show you.” She paused and held out one hand. After a moment, it shimmered as if made of water then reformed as a birdlike claw. The water-like shimmer moved up her arm leaving the birdlike form behind it.

“Ah! So you can only transform part of your body at a time?” Sonia asked.

“Usually.” Malisia shook her arm and the process reversed so fast Daniel couldn’t follow it. “Void! But it’s weird doing that slow enough for someone to see it. Normally the wave passes through us almost instantly.”

“Usually,” Daniel asked as they started again.

“If we end up in the void for some reason, we’re forced into full resonant form but even there we can’t hold it for long. If we can’t get somewhere safe and retake our material form within a few minutes, our energy dissipates into the void and we die.” She gave a wry smile. “Needless to say we avoid the void if at all possible.”

“I can imagine,” Daniel said.

“Are you sure that the reason you don’t have heart friends is that you don’t need them?” Sonia asked. “How do you know it’s not geographical, like it is for dragons?”

“Well for one we’re not unstable at higher power levels like both Speakers and Dragons are without one, and for another, the first goblins were human-speaker hybrids, not dragon speaker hybrids, and many were born on Taloa. None of them ever had a heart friend.”

“Human-Speaker hybrids? Now that’s a strange thought,” Sonia said. “I’ve never really thought about how you worked before. You breed true, don’t you? What happens if you have a child with a speaker or a dragon?”

“Mostly; we occasionally have speaker or dragon children even with each other,” Malisia said. “It’s even more common if the other partner isn’t a goblin. Father’s mother was a human-haltia hybrid, apparently.”

“Really,” Sonia paused in front of the throne room doors. “That’s interesting. Thank you for indulging my curiosity.”

“You’re welcome,” Malisia said. “It is an interesting subject. I expect your sister will be interested as well.”

“Oh, no doubt.” Sonia laughed. “Lydia as well. They’re both curious as hell.” She smiled at Malisia again and pushed the doors open.

Daniel had been about to ask something else but it was knocked out of his head when Lydia barrelled into him.

“Dan!” She hugged him hard. “You’re okay! I was so worried.”

“Yeah, you gave us all a scare there, Dan.” Karen said. She and Andrew had come over while Lydia was speaking.

“I’m fine,” he said. He looked over to where Savira was sitting. She was chained but seemingly uncowed as she met his eyes.

“You’re a pretty good fighter,” she said. “I shouldn’t have got angry with you for that.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” Daniel said blandly before looking over at his father, who was talking with a pair on nymphs who seemed on good terms with him and who both had infants with them. “Are these the two mum mentioned?”

“They are,” Matthias said. “Have you called for Kelaria?”

“I have,” he said. “I’m sure she’ll be here soon.”

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