The crowd formed a silent half circle around the creature on the ground; people traded glances, but no one moved to help, or to stop Liya from entering the lobby. Teige was crouched at his head, arms wrapped around his jaws and horned head bowed; the creature's head seemed to have too many mouths, but it was at least somewhat stable looking compared to the rest of him. Extra arms and wings and tails moved ceaselessly from where they grew out of him, all in different stages of solidity, leaving strange rainbow afterimages as they went. A livid sort of glowing split ran from his near shoulder up through the inside surface of his upraised wing, and pale, smoky, bluish shapes with jaws and wings were spilling out of it, as though straining to escape. Yoshi was knelt at this spot, fruitlessly trying to cover the split with a wad of bloody cloth.

Liya had frozen, agape at this. The feathers were still a steel grey, though--and the tails were barred black and white--and even one or two of the many arms scrabbling on the marble floor were still human-like, dark skin shot through with bright red veins.

"Liya, I don't know how it's possible," Vlad said behind her, "but I think your brother is half--"

"Reifa," Liya finished, and hurried forward. Vlad blinked after her.

"Well, yeah."