And beneath that, a single diagram: a circle with a smaller circle inside it, labeled The Nest .

Kasha was crying. "You came back. You actually came back."

She was not alone.

"Your predecessor." Kasha pulled a notebook from her jacket—identical to Xhu Xhu's, but thicker, more worn. "There have been ten secret junior acrobats before you, Jules. Each one chosen by the person before. I was Volume 10. I found you three months ago, watching you through the theater's fly tower. You're better than I was at your age."

By night thirteen, she could achieve the first stage of The Hollow Place: folding her torso into her own pelvis, her head emerging between her knees, her arms wrapping around her waist from the inside—a position that should have crushed her lungs but instead made her feel weightless .

"What is that?" Xhu Xhu whispered.

"Jules," he said slowly. "Where did you get this?"