Thus do serpents, born scaled and ugly, shed their skins and sprout silver wings. May the Spinner bless the bed in which you lay. The voice falls silent. In the darkness there is only the regular wheeze of air through a throat tube. Then comes the sound of a chair scraping back.
Tired footsteps shuffle across the floor.
The door opens and closes. The high-pitched whine of a firefly begins. The noise drones on and on, then stops. A cool green light bathes Cy's face from below then winks out. He coughs in the darkness without waking.