Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy, #1)

by Robert Jackson Bennett

he built his own artificial god to govern the whole of the world.

Loly

She understood absolutely none of this.

That was extrwmely straightforward if she can read tge words

ancient giants, or maybe angels—but

Those are nephilim

no one had ever claimed the hierophants were real.

Well that wpuld be juzst ridiculous

the fact that the plate had been forcibly implanted inside her would not matter one whit to the merchant houses: a scrived human was somewhere between an abomination

Not a tief like u just said?

Sancia would have to pay a black-market physiquere more than the merchant houses were willing to reward them for handing her in—and the merchant houses were willing to pay a lot.

OR the doc might take your money and turn you in anyway

But ah yeeaaahh she’s definitely looking at me like she heard

Oh look a personality!

Sancia put the key back in the false floor in her closet, slammed it shut, and then slammed the closet door closed.

Boo she cant stand someonje being interesting

overcaffeinated street vendor…

?

You never told me your name, you know.> “I don’t need to tell a damn object my name!”

RUDE what u got against keys

but she hadn’t ever seen sigils like these.

Duhhhhh sje is so slow

<I feel like I’m entitled to something resembling decent treatment, here.>

This

<There’s nothing before the dark. There’s just the dark. I was always in the dark, as…as far as I can recall.>

<Nothing. There was just me, and the dark, and nothing else. For…> He paused. “For how long?” Clef laughed miserably. <Think of a long time. Then multiply that times ten. Then multiply that times a hundred. Then a thousand. That still doesn’t come close to how long I was there, in the dark, alone.>

<That presumes I was made, which is something I’m not sure of yet.> “That’s insane, someone had to have made you!” <Why?> She couldn’t come up with a good answer to that.

Lol she coudnt be a christian aplogist

A key that did little more than insult you in your mind would have pretty low value to the merchant houses.

GIRL its an artificial mind how is that not amazing

<So…what do you open?> <Anything.>

A sonic screwdriver!

Sitting in the corner was her collection of practice locks,

Not before this para

All closed things wish to open. They’re made to open. They’re just made to be really reluctant about it.

Wut

With Clef in her hands, she could rob the Commons absolutely blind,

As long as you dont gwt caught red hnded wjich is already the part thats actually difficult

Sancia was pretty sure her client was from one of the four merchant houses,

Huh so she doesnt know

angelic alphabet

Sancia thought back to her last meeting with Sark,

Flashback scene!

Especially not in…in paper money!

Lol the worst type of mpney

lame,

Leg injuriesa specific category

That disturbed her. She could tell if a rig was scrived if she got within a few feet of it—she’d start hearing that muttering in her head. But Clef seemed to be able to do it from dozens of feet away.

Holy shit thats like a difference of 10 feet

She knew this wasn’t like her,

Lol editors note

She was surprised to find how much she resented it, and she wasn’t sure why.

Uh we need this to be the motivation ok pls

But to have him just come out and say that—it burned her.

Lol she has no independent thoughts

<BE YOU THE BEJEWELED SPUR OF WHICH THE LADY WROUGHT ON THE FIFTH DAY?> bellowed

Of not needed

all she could think was: That’s what a scrived device is? That? It’s…like, a mind? They think?

Oh wait were just now learning its code

Certainly, she was used to hearing a faint muttering when she was close to scrived items—but she’d still assumed they were just things, just objects.

Editor losing their shit

<Listen, there’s no rule against any of this, is there?> <WELL, I GUESS NOT.> <So let’s give it a shot, eh?> <I…ALL RIGHT.>

Lol

She got the mad idea that cracking a scrived device gave Clef something akin to a powerful sexual release.

Ok

Scriving formed the foundation of the Tevanni empire. It had won countless cities,

So mkuch telling

her muddy eye squinting unpleasantly.

Pov skew

it’s not like you can just translate each sigillum individually. Rather, each sigil

What are plurals

“This will take some explaining,

EXPOSITION

“The fairy giants. They built the ruins across the Durazzo, in the Daulo countries. Aqueducts and the like. Right?”

Full points!

eighty years ago,

So tgere are peopled living who remember the industrial revolution

He bounced up the steps,

Is he five

and he was hugely, hugely fat—a

Two hugely wut

and the head would come zipping back to the shaft with tremendous speed.

Sounds super dangerous to the operator but ok

“You said that might makes right in the Commons.” He ripped the chair away, and Antonin quailed in the corner. “But might is so often illusory, isn’t it?”

And it was likely he’d made a good deal of enemies tonight. But it was wisest to move before word could spread.

Wrong conjunction

All of Tevanne was smeared with starlit smoke and steam, a ghostly cityscape sinking into the fog.

waited for the breeze to rise.

Lol imagining 5 dudes twiddling vtheir thbs upstairs wondering when the heck shes gonna show up

Maybe this will kill, she thought. Or disable. Or something. I just need to slow them down.

Just noting vthat the hero will kiill if needed - in case she judgrs anyone ese late

It felt insane. She was no soldier, and she knew it.

Omg like so brave. I guess soldier murder skills are super different from thief murder skills

The screaming above her kept going on and on. It was an awful sound, and she tried her best to ignore it.

Ughhhhh can he stfu already