Some Desperate Glory

by Emily Tesh

Kyr was stronger than that. Let others preach and smile and argue and lie; she was still a soldier of humanity. Her family was her station. Her family was her cause. Her family was fourteen billion dead, and her mother was a murdered world.

“A majo,” Mags said. “Was it … What was it like?” “Like a person,” Kyr let herself say. “No one said they were people.”

And there it is! The distillation of the theme!

A peace brought about with the threat of violence is only a war in waiting.

History has a tendency to outrun us.