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

by Becky Chambers

Mosscap reached out its hand. With an aching gentleness, it lay its fingers on the animal’s dying body. Its eyes became focused, and it bowed its head closer. “It’s all right,” Mosscap murmured, its metallic voice thick with respect and sorrow. “I know. It’s not fair. But it’s all right. It’ll be over soon.”

All three sat still, and together, they held vigil as something that had never existed before and never would again ceased its struggling and came to an end.

It was always a strange thing, coming home. Coming home meant that you had, at one point, left it and, in doing so, irreversibly changed. How odd, then, to be able to return to a place that would always be anchored in your notion of the past. How could this place still be there, if the you that once lived there no longer existed?