"The Nest gave us two paths," Mai Mingle said in a low voice. "...and both are dead ends."
'Has the opposition grown so powerful that they can completely alter the Nest's rules just to eliminate me, leaving me no chance of survival?'
'Then why didn't they just kill me from the start?'
"You're wrong. For me, both are dead ends."
Suo Beihua scoffed. "I'll die if I stay in the stairwell, but if I jump, what happened to Robert will happen to me. He was consumed by his own transformed state, so I'll probably suffer the same fate. But you don't have to worry. Haven't you already returned to normal?"
As she spoke, she gestured from her own snake tail to Mai Mingle's face.
Mai Mingle froze. It was as if a bolt of lightning had flashed through the storm clouds of her mind, faintly illuminating something.
"Wait, that's not right. What you just said..." She stared downstairs, murmuring, "Let me think."
