Melanie is bursting with questions. What sort of things do trees and grass and flowers sing about? Can Illyria still sing back to them, or can she only listen? What would happen if she did sing back? Would the plants - or the cordyceps - listen to her, too?

Could she make the fungus so loud that it bursts out of the box Melanie keeps it in?

Could she make the fungus stop singing?

Melanie folds her hands neatly so she won't fidget with them. She needs to choose her questions carefully. "That's what they called the people who had been taken over by the grey, in my universe: hungries. All most of them did was hunt and eat. There was no room in their minds for anything else." She meets Illyria's gaze, a little puzzled by the intensity of her focus, but not shrinking from it. "The symbiotes were - are - different. We can still think."