"Hjerte is my deal," Ulla tells him, low and fervent. "Or rather, the Hjerte who was here in a flood a long time ago. He was shaped differently in the breach. So strange to think of him as a bear rather than an octopus."

Because in her mind, he's always an octopus.

"I stayed when Warren left in part for Taylor, in part because Warren knew I'd outlive him and wanted to make sure I remembered how to not crumble in his absence. And in part for Hjerte. A duet partner I can trust completely, who I won't outlive by centuries. There's a cost to spending the rest of my life among humans. Your lives are so much shorter. I wanted someone I wouldn't have to lose."