“Then I met a man who showed me the way. Nothing new could grow on this continent until the weeds of the old were pulled out by the root and tossed into the compost pile of history. So, he said, forget the old debates about what system should replace capitalism. Kill the state, and the seeds of a thousand new worlds will sprout on its corpse. You’ve seen two of those sprouts already.”

Sasha shook her head, “If you’re referring to the Heavenly Kingdom…it’s a nightmare. The old U.S. can’t have been worse than that.”

Jim shrugged. “Depends on your perspective, I suppose. Tell me, Sasha, you left the AmFed, the old U.S.A.’s most direct successor state. Why was that?”

“Because it’s a soulless pit,” she said, the words almost leaping from her throat. Jim smiled at that.

“This isn’t though, is it?” he gestured out at the City of Wheels below them.

“No…” Sasha said. Whatever else it was, Rolling Fuck was not soulless.

“Neither is the Navajo Nation,” Jim said. “Or Cascadia. The Blackstone Nation. Even the Mormons are up to some interesting things these days. One faction, at least.”

“So which do you believe in? Who do you fight for?”

He grinned again. “None of them, child. As I told you… I fight for change, to cast down the ossified bones of the old world and make space for the new. I owe allegiance to no nation or god, save, perhaps, Lady Eris.”

“Who?”

He smiled. A bit of smugness leached into the expression; she could see it clear as day right around his eyes. It should have repelled her more than it did.

“Eris was the Greek goddess of discord, back when people cared what the Greeks believed. She set the spark that lit the Trojan War. I know it’s a bit silly, reaching back to that old mythology. But I can’t help myself. There’s something about those old gods that calls to me. I can identify with them.”

He leaned in. There was an eagerness to his posture, his tone, his eyes. The snakes jerked and spun on his muscled chest and arms.

“I’m offering you a chance to join us on Olympus, dear Sasha. You’ve spent your time in worship. It’s time to embrace your own Godhead. Leave your antique books behind and rewrite the world with your own will.”

“I don’t know if that’s what I want,” Sasha said in a still, small voice. She tried to ignore how much part of her ached for what he promised. The thought of killing again nauseated her as much as it excited her. But the thought of having power, the kind of power she’d seen Roland exercise…that was intoxicating. She hated how badly she’d started to want it.