BooksBarbecue
Back Stringers Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. FRONT COVER
  2. TITLE PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  63. CHAPTER SIXTY
  64. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

She knew from Aptat’s suit that the power augments had operated with a type of anticipatory intuition of movement based on the slightest twitch of muscle. Supposing that Mother’s suit operated in the same way, Naecia began to lift a leg to step out. Instantly, she felt the suit kick in to boost the movement. She did the same with the other, and exited the vault entirely. She held up her hands and closed them, the suit processing and then assisting the movement – all except for the non-existent middle finger on her left hand. That finger on the suit remained permanently straight, even when the rest were closed.

Then, two words came together to form an intention in Naecia’s mind. Protect me. And the mask snapped shut.

CHAPTER FIFTY

CHAPTER FIFTY

What made Jecca decide to leave the Timelance and cripple their own species in the process? What was the thing that penetrated their mind enough to change it? How can something incapable of understanding anything beyond its own limitless power be made to question its purpose? Now, the answer seemed obvious: introduce a sensation it had never been forced to experience, a feeling against which it believed itself immune: pain.

Jecca had shown me their prior, the life and death of the Instrument Maker. Their experience had been indistinguishable from hers; so that in the final moment, they had perceived the Instrument Maker’s death as their own. I knew this as absolute truth: I had felt Jecca’s horror as they’d watched the Bloom of God swallow the sky through her eyes.

As with my recent priors, the Instrument Maker had become more insistent over time, bombarding Jecca’s mind with the reflections of her life, her music, her child – and her death that had come at the tolling of the Scythin’s terrible chord. At first, Jecca denied and ignored. But the break in their reality couldn’t be undone – the Scythin had experienced absolute terror and soul-piercing anguish, sensations that their kind simply did not feel. And so the fractures spread.

Jecca had always eaten the fruit gathered by the Bloom of God, the food of thought that fueled the Scythin. Now, it only brought disgust.

Reflections came to me of Jecca trying to forget what they had witnessed, experienced. As a Stringer, Jecca had been the Instrument Maker when the Bloom of God had brought about her death, obliterating the very galaxy where the cord of Jecca’s consciousness had been wound. Memories and lamentations for her seeped into Jecca’s being and expanded like ice in a crevice. In the end, it was blunt force empathy that had broken the lone Scythin. And they mourned the lives that would be lost if the chord were ever allowed to sound again.