The Naturalist Society

by Carrie Vaughn

Should she pray? Which of the hundreds of names of God and prayers to him would do any good here? That was the problem; so many things could not be accurately named despite the quest of so many people to do so. The more was discovered, the more waited to be discovered, and no one had yet found a way past death. She didn’t pray.

“It’s all in the mindset,” Anton said. “Anything can be an adventure. Any day outdoors is a good one.”

“You weren’t expecting them. That’s the weakness, isn’t it? We often don’t see what we don’t expect to find.”

This is the great paradox that becomes clear again and again: that the greatest Arcane Taxonomists simply don’t care about power. They care about knowledge gained through close observation.

And so science itself must be its own purpose. Exploration must be its own reward.