A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2)

by Becky Chambers

“You know, it’s funny, the way you said that.” “The way I said what?” Mosscap asked. “That you don’t need an object to facilitate that feeling.” Dex gave a single chuckle. “You are an object facilitating that feeling. The feeling’s coming from you, after all.”

“You don’t have to do anything. You just have to be you. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you nervous.” “Yes, well, you did, Sibling Dex.” The robot wrung its hands together, and the whir in its head grew louder.

Nothing was preventing Dex from doing that again. They knew how. It wasn’t that they didn’t care or didn’t want to. They wanted. They still loved performing tea service—or at least, they loved what it had been. But as they tried to connect to what had once been so captivating, they felt nothing but yawning absence. A void where they’d once been filled.

They were running up against a wall, and it didn’t matter whether they understood where the wall had come from, or what it was made of. The only way to get through it was to stop trying, for a while. So, they would not make tea in Stump. They would not make tea anywhere unless they really, truly felt like it.

Dex blinked. “The hell have you been reading?” “Everything,” Mosscap said.

“Why is that funny?” Dex asked. “Because it’s so very human, and I am not. And it’s not funny, it’s delightful.

“Well, that’s the nice thing about trees.” Mosscap put its hands on its hips as it looked around. “They’re not going anywhere. You can take all the time you need to get to know them.”

But I don’t feel like it’s true, for me. I feel like it’s true for everyone else but not me. I feel like I have to do more than that. Like I have a responsibility to do more than that.”

“You see,” it said. “You understand. I wish you didn’t, because I know it means you’re as tangled up as I am, but … I’m grateful that you do.”

“You walked out of the woods, and you said, ‘What do you need, and how can I help?’” Mosscap smiled at this. “I remember, yes.” “Well, I didn’t know then,” Dex said, “and I still don’t. But what I do know is … you help. You’re helping me figure it out. Just by being here. You help.”