Yes, Gala. He walked to the door and shouted to Citizen Harmane: "Keeper! I must see my wife! Have her brought to me!"
It was impossible for the Keeper to refuse. He called gently, "I will invite the Citizeness," and toddled away.
The third thing was time.
Tropile turned to Citizen Boyne. "Citizen," he said persuasively, "since your death poem is ready and mine is not, will you be gracious enough to go first when they—when they come?"
Citizen Boyne looked temperately at his cellmate and made the Quirked Smile.
"You see?" he said. "Wolf."
And that was true. But what was also true was that Boyne couldn't and didn't refuse.
IV
Half a world away, the midnight-blue Pyramid sat on its planed-off peak as it had sat since the days when Earth had a real sun of its own.