Is there some... Shen Yuan has to laugh, because it's that or start screaming. Lan Xichen looks so lost and confused, despite his power, just like another boy Shen Yuan used to know.

"The Tower," he says evenly, "is one of the Pthumerians. And Trench is its body." He gestures at the wall of the barracks, the city beyond it. "Trench is a mess because it's sick; what do you think will happen if it dies? What do you think will happen to us? Where will we *go?*"

A young man is crying somewhere outside. A little girl giggles. "I have nothing to go back to," Shen Yuan says bleakly.