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Contents (188)
  1. THE
  2. IMMORTALITY THIEF
  3. Taran Hunt
  4. Contents
  5. CHAPTER ONE:
  6. The Nameless Ship and the Dying Star
  7. CHAPTER TWO:
  8. Three Convicts and a Generous Opportunity
  9. CHAPTER THREE:
  10. The Lost Language
  11. CHAPTER FOUR:
  12. Sean Wren and the Philosopher Stone
  13. CHAPTER FIVE:
  14. Leashed
  15. CHAPTER SIX:
  16. The Imp of the Perverse
  17. CHAPTER SEVEN:
  18. Lantern-Eyes and the Minister
  19. CHAPTER EIGHT:
  20. Indigo and Ultraviolet
  21. CHAPTER NINE:
  22. Three Lives and One
  23. CHAPTER TEN:
  24. Rot and Bone
  25. CHAPTER ELEVEN:
  26. Signs in the Dark
  27. CHAPTER TWELVE:
  28. Dead End
  29. CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
  30. A Way Out
  31. CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
  32. Missed Chances
  33. CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
  34. One and Two
  35. CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
  36. The Choice and the Hull
  37. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
  38. The Indigo Minister and I
  39. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
  40. The Minister and the Lieutenant
  41. CHAPTER NINETEEN:
  42. Lieutenant Lantern-Eyes
  43. CHAPTER TWENTY:
  44. Mara Zhu’s Experiment
  45. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:
  46. Forty Locks
  47. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:
  48. Oh, Shit!
  49. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:
  50. Beta Version
  51. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR:
  52. Some Really Angry Rocks
  53. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE:
  54. The Trap
  55. (Featuring: Sean Wren’s Inability to Use a Grenade)
  56. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:
  57. Made of Man
  58. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN:
  59. The Moment
  60. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT:
  61. Three Doors
  62. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:
  63. The Roach
  64. CHAPTER THIRTY:
  65. Family Photo
  66. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE:
  67. The Last Words of Mara Zhu
  68. Part one
  69. CHAPTER THIRTY TWO:
  70. Sins of the Father
  71. CHAPTER THIRTY THREE:
  72. The Lieutenant
  73. (again)
  74. CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR:
  75. Field and Forest
  76. CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE:
  77. The Minister, the Lieutenant, and I
  78. CHAPTER THIRTY SIX:
  79. The Deer and the River
  80. CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN:
  81. Some Fresh Bullshit
  82. CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT:
  83. Enemy of the Enemy
  84. CHAPTER THIRTY NINE:
  85. Impromptu Electrodynamics
  86. CHAPTER FORTY:
  87. Babel
  88. CHAPTER FORTY ONE:
  89. Three Strangers and a Desperate Offer
  90. CHAPTER FORTY TWO:
  91. Another Lengthy Détente with Some Stubborn Assholes
  92. CHAPTER FORTY THREE:
  93. The Worst Camping Trip of My Life
  94. CHAPTER FORTY FOUR:
  95. Sisters, State Secrets, and Just So Many Creepy Children
  96. CHAPTER FORTY FIVE:
  97. Nests?!
  98. CHAPTER FORTY SIX:
  99. My Mother’s Wardrobe
  100. CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN:
  101. I’m Susceptible to Bribes, But Only in the Form of Grammar
  102. CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT:
  103. The Center of It All
  104. CHAPTER FORTY NINE:
  105. God Damn Children
  106. CHAPTER FIFTY:
  107. The Bodies of the Past
  108. CHAPTER FIFTY ONE:
  109. Test Subjects
  110. CHAPTER FIFTY TWO:
  111. A Hot, Piping Cup of Coffee with a Side of Creepy Children
  112. CHAPTER FIFTY THREE:
  113. Sean Wren and the Incredible Hypoxia
  114. CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR:
  115. Trust Me
  116. PART ONE
  117. CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE:
  118. Trust Me
  119. PART TWO
  120. CHAPTER FIFTY SIX:
  121. Trust Me
  122. PART THREE
  123. CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN:
  124. The Shedding of Blood
  125. CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT:
  126. Lab 17
  127. CHAPTER FIFTY NINE:
  128. Something in My Eye
  129. CHAPTER SIXTY:
  130. Eye for an Eye
  131. CHAPTER SIXTY ONE:
  132. What Must Be Seen
  133. CHAPTER SIXTY TWO:
  134. Third Eye
  135. CHAPTER SIXTY THREE:
  136. Hindsight
  137. CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR:
  138. Eye on the Prize
  139. CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE:
  140. The Last Words of Mara Zhu
  141. PART TWO
  142. CHAPTER SIXTY SIX:
  143. An Old Friend
  144. CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN:
  145. The Wall
  146. CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT:
  147. Sean Wren’s Special New Skill
  148. CHAPTER SIXTY NINE:
  149. Last One There Loses
  150. CHAPTER SEVENTY:
  151. Sympathy for the Devils
  152. CHAPTER SEVENTY ONE:
  153. A Frighteningly Efficient Kidnapping
  154. CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO:
  155. The Whole Truth
  156. CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE:
  157. The Breaking of the Fellowship
  158. CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR:
  159. Perversion of Potential
  160. CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE:
  161. Benny
  162. CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX:
  163. Sean Wren, Unkillable Machine Man
  164. CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN:
  165. The Republic
  166. CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT:
  167. Sister
  168. CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE:
  169. The Ministers
  170. CHAPTER EIGHTY:
  171. Number One
  172. CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE:
  173. Brother
  174. CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO:
  175. The Philosopher Stone
  176. CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE:
  177. Center of the Compass
  178. CHAPTER EIGHTY FOUR:
  179. Sean, Tamara, and Shay
  180. CHAPTER EIGHTY FIVE:
  181. Memory
  182. CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX:
  183. Improvisational Linguistics
  184. CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN:
  185. The Dreamer
  186. CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT:
  187. A Letter from the Dead
  188. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I stood up, put my body between the Minister and Lantern-Eyes. He raised his arm.

Something slammed into the backs of my knees. I landed hard on the floor, the breath driven from me. Lantern-Eyes had kicked me from behind to knock me over. The Minister, expressionless, took aim at her now, but instead of firing twisted sharply to the side to catch the bullet Leah had fired at him on his gauntlet.

Lantern-Eyes climbed back into the hole in the wall, pulling the fallen panel up behind her. The Minister blew towards me like a dark wind. I pushed myself away, elbows digging into old metal, crawling on my back. He reached the wall just as Lantern-Eyes sealed it, and his fist slammed into the metal with a thunderous echo.

Someone grabbed me under the arm—Leah. She hauled me back, but the Minister’s attention turned on us.

Leah moved at my side and I knew, somehow, what she would do, and what he would do in response.

“No—” I said, as Leah drew her gun and shot the Minister for a third time.

He blocked it, as he had the other two times, with the guard strapped to his wrist. Then he lowered his hand, no change in expression, and with his other arm he drew a long knife from its sheath down his back.

“No,” I said again, shoving back as if I could push Leah out of the way, but his next step brought the edge of his knife into Leah’s neck. Leah made a terrible little interrupted gasp, a wet choke, and I heard it echo in my skull.

I sat, half-upright, and waited for the edge of his knife to continue through me.

CHAPTER EIGHT:

Indigo and Ultraviolet

The Chosen weren’t the only ones who believed the Ministers had no souls. My family worshipped the God Who Shed His Blood For Us, and our church believed the same thing.

They were all right about the Ministers: the priests, the Chosen, my father. I saw it the day the Ministers came to Kystrom. I’d seen a man injured in the street, helpless, unable to move. I’d hidden behind a hedge and watched between the branches as a Minister came down the empty street alone towards him, beautiful and terrible, shaven head, uncertain gender and a collar-light that glowed a dark and bloody crimson.

The Minister had stood over the dying man, their sword in their hand, the tip of it held a careful inch above the ground. The sword was stained a duller red than their collar-light. The Ministers used guns, explosives, bombs, and any other modern weapon—but they had used those at the start of the assault. Now that they were on the ground, they seemed to prefer the silence of blades.

The dying man gasped something, too quiet for me to hear from my hiding place. And the Minister looked down at him, and I’d imagined I’d seen curiosity in their expression as they looked the dying man over, head to toe.