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August 26 - August 31, 2023
“Move thoughtfully,” she whispered. “And bring freedom to others.
One day, thought Sancia, I will be a person who has a girlfriend all the time and a job when I have to, rather than someone with a job all the time and a girlfriend whenever time allows.
She much preferred tinkering with Orso’s scrivings. They could be a bit grumpy, but at least they were a lot less touchy-feely.
No one in their right mind would have ever imagined someone would scrive the heel of their boot. That had been Berenice’s idea.
“We did it!” he shouted. “We really did it!” “Mm, mostly Sancia did it,” said Berenice.
“I eat a lot more than rice and beans these days,” said Sancia, grinning at her. Berenice froze, and Gregor tactfully turned away. “That is enough,” Berenice said quietly. But she smiled.
She also eats PUSSSYYYYYYY
“Kiss me,” said Sancia. “I have. Repeatedly. Despite the taste of Crucible wine on your lips.”
“Either I’m still drunk,” said Orso, “or this is all a bad dream, or both.”
“Were they monsters by choice?” asked Gregor. “Or by necessity?”
He set down the pickax, wiped sweat from his brow, and studied the shallow hole at his feet. “How many strokes are we at for you?” “One hundred and seventy-four.” “And for me?” “Thirty-nine.”
“I would rather risk a life of damnation,” said Gregor, “and save her, than abandon her and stay with those who first damned me.”
“An imperiat?” said Crasedes. He sounded immensely displeased—which made whatever part of Sancia’s mind that wasn’t mad with fear feel very, very happy.
“I didn’t come to smuggle or steal. I came to this place to give—my time, or my life—so that others can enjoy what I have.”
“Learn what your city has forgotten,” he said. “What men of power have forgotten time and time again, throughout history—that there is always, always something mightier.”
“This feels,” said Giovanni as he adjusted the cask of wine in the carriage, “a little like old times.” Orso helped him seal up the cask. “I agree.” “However,” said Giovanni, hopping down, “I hated old times.” “I agree.” “Being that I always kept almost dying.” “Again, I agree.”
Then the door of the workshop burst open and Gregor walked in, holding a large leather sack that smelled quite gamy. “I have brought the butchered monkey corpses,” he said.
Dying was very easy in Tevanne. Artfully fighting was not.
What change could possibly be accomplished in the face of such thoughtless, ignorant conviction?
Just from a glance, you somehow knew that this being’s very existence was torturing reality.
“The problem with might, you see,” he said, “is that there’s always someone mightier.”
“I’ve been alive a very long time, Sancia. And if there’s one thing I have learned throughout all the history that I’ve seen, it’s that mankind is quite good at coming up with delightful little innovations…but all of them are eventually turned to cruelty, and oppression, and slavery. Even the simplest ones become weapons. Take beans, for example.”
“There is no innovation that will ever spring from the minds of men that will not eventually be used for slaughter and control.
Humankind is most innovative at turning innovation to the cruelest ends. Power alters the soul far more than any innovation I could imagine, even at the height of my privileges.”
“Eventually I came to realize, Sancia—you can’t make laws or policies or dictums to constrain this impulse…You must overwrite all the hearts and minds of mankind—directly, instantly, and permanently.”
An emperor’s hunger for control will always outlast a moralist’s desire for equality and idealism.
“You all…You are thieves, yes?” “No,” said Gregor. “Yes,” said Sancia. “Sometimes,” said Orso.
But the line between life and death is always blurred. To live is to die, just very, very slowly.”
“Then…could we ever win?” Gregor said. “Is this just a dance we do over and over? Will everything we build turn to nothing but ugliness?”
“I’m going to chance it,” said Sancia. “But if I start screaming or something—” “Run like hell,” said Orso. “Got it.” “No, I meant come and get me, asshole!” said Sancia. “God!”
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHH KID KID KID KID WHAT THE HELL WHAT THE HELL WHAT THE HELL HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL!>
Well, I’ll be honest, I hadn’t pictured Berenice being the one to be with you, since, you know, she seemed a little above your level, and don’t get me wrong, you two are cute as hell now, but—>
“I am judgment,” said his voice. “And I have been a long time coming.”
An hour into their labors upon Orso’s hierophant-killing bullet, Sancia decided that never in the history of all of Tevanne had so much work gone into altering one little ball of lead.
“Good evening, Sancia,” he said merrily. “How are you doing tonight?” “What do you want, you bastard?” she snapped.
I went to places no living human has ever gone before. I glimpsed the infrastructure that makes this reality possible. I saw the fingerprints of God, still impressed in the bones of creation. And I began my long labors to ensure that the atrocity that had befallen me would never happen to anyone else.”
“If the children of men cannot rid themselves of their predilection for slavery,” said Crasedes, “then the children of men shall be made slaves themselves. If they cannot make the right choice, then it’s better to just remove the choice entirely.”
“Orso. Are you still alive?” He moaned again and said, “Unfortunately.”
<Whatever happens,> said Berenice, <I don’t want to lose this.> <Because together,> said Sancia, <we are unstoppable?> <No. Because together, we are one.>
<You think Clef might actually be Crasedes’s child.
does someone hear the phone ringing because i freaking CALLED ITTTTTTTTTTTT
<I am, my love.>
kill me
But she did know why. She knew why she cried: because she’d found Berenice, and she’d wanted to have as many days of her as possible. <I am with you, my love,> whispered Berenice in her ear. <I am you. I will always be with you…>
<I…I want…I want to eat up the world!> he said, frenzied. <I want to build and rebuild and design and…and dance! I want to dance! Oh God, there’s so much to work with in all of you! There’s so much material there, there’s so mu—> <Orso,> said Gregor blearily. <I am glad for you. But we must focus.> <Oh,> he said. <Right. Crasedes, and…and the end of the world and all.>
<I wanted to watch you flourish,> he said, <and one day say to you that…that you had done great works, and you should go forth and do many more. But now everything unravels before my very eyes…> She squeezed his hand. <Not everything,> she said. <I mean, Orso—you are aware that you and I are sharing minds using the very technique you invented, yes?> He smiled weakly. <Yes.> <Yes. One dream dies, but another’s born. Let’s make sure it survives.>
<Kid!> Clef said, sounding awed. <Kid, what…Like…Like, holy shit, right?> <Yes,> said Sancia, sighing with relief. <Holy shit indeed, Clef.>
“What—kid?”
Ruh roh
The thing that called itself Tevanne walked out into the gardens of the Dandolo estate, cradling the body of the dead woman in its arms.
“You have done great works,” he said aloud to her. He kissed her on the brow. “Go forth, and do many more.”
I'm about to walk into speeding traffic
