The Library at Mount Char

by Scott Hawkins

first ambition, then perception, and finally regret.

“It used to, but I adjusted.” She crushed the maggot. “You can adjust to almost anything.”

regression completeness,”

“Moo ichido itte kudasai, Yamada-san.”

genuine emotion is the very essence of self.

The last Monstruwaken made an appearance as well, which was a great honor. He lived barricaded in the crown of the black pyramid at the end of time, and rarely manifested in the former world.

But when she was fresh out of sleep it was difficult to keep the truth of her heart from tangling in the lies of her conscious mind, and her fingertips often trembled.

amuse-bouche, which meant “mouth amusement,”

‘Heart coal’ is just a term for the syndrome.”

The problem with a heart coal is that the memory always diverges from the actual thing. She remembers an idealized version of her son. She’s forgotten that he was selfish, that he enjoyed giving little offenses. It

uzan-iya, which was what they called the moment when an innocent heart first contemplated the act of murder.

Uzan-iya—the moment when the heart turned first to murder.

He is still king. His word for ‘promise’ also means ‘a bone that cannot be cracked.’

Kali the annihilator,

Steve sighed, wishing for a cigarette. “The Buddha teaches respect for all life.” “Oh.” She considered this. “Are you a Buddhist?” “No. I’m an asshole. But I keep trying.”

Dresden, turning to face the pack of dogs, how every muscle of the lion’s anatomy stood out in taut relief, the mute vehicles of his titanic and furious will.

Wazin nyata—the moment when the last hope dies.

She examined David with a surgeon’s eye and a malice that had no bottom.

“Slave neurons. They make you suggestible. The light activates them—once they’re part of the architecture of thought, a person will do as they’re told.”

The Library was vast.

He did a few pages every day, sometimes on one thing, sometimes another. Over time it adds up.”

you’d just given him a little zap in the pain center of his brain. You said it was ‘the theoretical upper limit of suffering.’

“Exactly. But here’s the difference. Suffering—normal suffering—is transient. What we perceive as emotion is just a quick connection between three-dimensional space and one of the higher physical planes—rage, joy, pleasure, whatever. The repercussions can echo for years, but the actual link usually only lasts for a fraction of a second.”

“You can adjust to almost anything.”

The “hall” below the jade floor was like being inside the metal artery of some giant beast.

It’s a four-dimensional projection of a seventeen-dimensional universe. Kind of like a shadow, or the place where the circles overlap in a Venn diagram.”

Then, kicking down the first stone of an avalanche, Steve said, “You have to be strong.”

“I must send you into exile, that you may be the coal of her heart. No real thing can be so perfect as memory, and she will need a perfect thing if she is to survive. She will warm herself on the memory of you when there is nothing else, and be sustained.”

“Step down into the darkness with me, child.” Just that once, Father looked at her with real love. “I will make of you a God.”

The stegosaurus blinked at her as she passed.

“Are you familiar with the notion of regression completeness?” She had heard the term somewhere, but couldn’t quite call up the meaning. “No.” “It’s the idea that however deeply you understand the universe, however many mysteries you solve, there will always be another, deeper mystery behind it.”

“It has a price, though. In the service of my will, I have emptied myself.”

American word for this time of year is “April” or, sometimes, “spring.” That was true, but it was also true that in the calendar of the librarians it was the second moon, which is the moon of kindled hope.

People would invite old Mr. Black to come hang out, have a beer, but he always said the same thing: ‘I’ll be along once I get a good char on this pork.’ Every time. The grown-ups made fun of him for it. And his house was on top of a pretty steep hill. So to Steve and me, his place was Mount Char.