Others—of the wise-eyed children …

I kept their extraordinary progress hidden from the Old Council and the Builders. I did not tell my husband. Erde-Tyrene was far outside the usual runnels of Forerunner commerce. I removed my Lifeworkers, trimming their numbers to a few, and then, to none. The planet became a forgotten backwater.

Every now and then, I dropped by in person to study their progress. I gave them all my geas, my mark of instruction, utility and pride. I wished to be remembered. My own existence seemed so frail, after what we had done. When I worked with the humans, studying their genetics and personalities, I could almost forget the larger conflicts that loomed.

But that time was also spent away from my husband, and his difficulties were growing. The Didact continued to stubbornly promote his Shield Worlds, demonstrating their effectiveness again and again to Council audiences. He continued to make dangerous enemies.

As for the memories of his victories … they slipped into the past.

They dimmed.

The Master Builder brilliantly chipped away at the Didact’s remaining base of support. The political war between Builders and Warrior-Servants came to a head. Warrior-Servants were reduced as a rate. Many moved to the Builder rate, taking on the role of Builder Security. The insult was obvious—but at least they survived, found prosperity, and became of value to the new regime.

And then came the final blow. Juridicals ruled against my husband. The Didact was found in contempt of the Council, ordered to stop making Shield Worlds, turn over his records and ancillas, end his planning, and submit to the authority of the Builders—and in particular to Faber, the Master Builder.

The Didact refused.

Even as my humans revived classic forms, then flowered into new and unexpected variations, the possibility grew to certainty that I would have to proceed alone, because of the my husband’s pending exile—or execution.

String 4

STRING 4

LIBRARIAN

I LAST SAW the Didact on our estate around Far Nomdagro, a small orange star seven light-years from the Capital system. We shared this world with a million Warrior-Servants. Many of our neighbors were already pulling up their estates and families, abandoning their birth rate to enlist in Builder Security.

Nomdagro was temperate, ancient of birth and low of mountains, half-ocean and half-land. I suppose by comparison our estate was humble, but I had never lived anywhere more luxurious. Unlike Lifeworkers, Warrior-Servants were not inclined to live frugally.