“Forge in the void, you are nothing but questions, aren’t you? Please. That one is best left for later, when I have understanding. Now, will you show me what you know? Please?”

The other resolves into a form that is startlingly human: pale, dark-haired, all long and narrow limbs. Eyes that glow, like opal. “A foolish statement. I know very little. After all this, and you still lack that fundamental. But no matter. You want to see what has gone before, and that I can show you. The story of Misery Nomaki, Last Savior of the Faithful, as experienced by Misery Nomaki, Last Savior of the Faithful.” Zie presses a pair of spindly fingers upon the other’s forehead. “Come then, friend. Open your mind. See as I saw. See as they saw.”

PART ONE THE CAPITAL

CHAPTER 1

But really, where do we begin? Do we imagine that the story of a person begins when zie is born? Or do we acknowledge that each one of us is the creation of a dozen forces, bearing down upon the clay of a being with all the weight of history? The threads that make up Misery Nomaki began in the distant past, not as fixed points but electron clouds, diffuse and undefinable, woven through the tapestry of human history in ways that are difficult to put into words or comprehend. Shall we start with the Old Planet, whose name has been forgotten, and swim the warm oceans as life begins to coalesce? Should we walk alongside the parade of creatures as they unfurl into human form, and watch as these shabby beings stumble toward the ruination of their planet? Perhaps a better opening would be the shoal of vessels that fled their burning home, each stocked carefully with a collection of individuals that has been deemed suitable to represent the future of humanity. Here we see the one christened The Cause of Labour streaking away into the dark, embarking upon its ten-thousand-year journey across the stars. Into long sleeps and uncharted territories and the ALISS Apocalypse and all that followed after.