Pendulums with Second and Sixth MarsAnother reference to Sparrow smelling familiar, which kicked off a fresh round of speculation in the comments.

Did she smell different to mammal-based Beings in particular? Was she a descendant of the original creator/binder of Beings? (This was originally posted before Interlude 3, so readers didn’t know that Beings had different creators over time.) Did she happen to have the same name as the original creator/binder of Beings? Was she, indeed, Cohen’s daughter? Or maybe Patrick’s daughter?

Turns out that yes, it’s the Cohen one, and Cybele is picking up on the scent after being locked up by Cohen for a serious chunk of time. That said, I don’t think she would’ve noticed — except that Sparrow had a Being hanging around with her, which prompted Cybele to look closer.


Cybele (thinking): Well, that was confusing! She was hanging out with a Being, but didn’t want to tell me that she knows one. Are they checking up on us for Cohen? Is she its Master, or just an associate? Why are they really here?

I could tell the boss about it — but not before the debate. He’s been working so hard to prepare! I can’t mess up his concentration and ruin all his great talking points!

Bennett: I know you are, but what am I?

Cybele (thinking): We’ll need to talk later about what other Beings might have an interest in us . . .

. . . and why it was with a human who smells so suspiciously familiar!