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406 pages, Hardcover
First published February 6, 2024
“Oh, you’ve always got to smile a little, Din… Even during, you know, the abysmally fucking awful times.”
“Oh, people love the Legion, with their swords and their walls and their bombards. But though they receive no worship, it’s the maintenance folk who keep the Empire going. Someone, after all, must do the undignified labor to keep the grand works of our era from tumbling down.”
“It’s not all walls and death and plotting! Nor is it dreary dispensations and bureaucracy! We do these ugly, dull things for a reason— to make a space where folk can live, celebrate, and know joy and love.
“I have never liked the company of too many people, Din. I have always preferred patterns and the consumption of information to socializing. I have preferred and will always prefer staying in my residence and will avoid stimulation at all costs. This is simply who I am.”
“It’s the maintenance folk who keep the Empire going. Someone, after all, must do the undignified labor to keep the grand works of our era from tumbling down. I simply perform maintenance, in my own little way. And you have ably assisted me in that, of course.”
“Perhaps it is a wise thing, to prepare for death every day, just as the Empire prepares for death every wet season.”
“Oh, people love the Legion, with their swords and their walls and their bombards. But though they receive no worship, it’s the maintenance folk who keep the Empire going. Someone, after all, must do the undignified labor to keep the grand works of our era from tumbling down.”
“For the Empire is huge. Complex. Often unwieldy and slow. And in many places, weak. A massive colossus, stretching out across the cantons, one in whose shadow we all live … and yet it is prone to wounds, infections, fevers, and ill humors. But its strangest feature is that the more its citizens feel it is broken, the more broken it actually becomes.”
“And when the Empire is weak, it is often because a powerful few have denied us the abundance of our people.”
“Born into systems beyond our control, into relationships and organizations that obligate us to change, all so our families may prosper… That’s what the empire is, isn’t it?”
“If you want to figure out where everyone got fleas, look no further than the biggest pack of wild cats. Even if they do prowl behind high walls and fancy gates.”
“I didn’t really need her to confirm my hunch. I mostly wanted you to bring her so I could fuck up her day. She sounded like such an awful turd.”Need I say more? Didn't think so.
“Excuse me,” said Gennadios. “But— the investigator is blind?”
“Only occasionally, Madam Gennadios,” said Ana. “I find that reducing one or several senses often makes it far easier to absorb information, and think. Please— sit.”
“You sound,”she said, “a touch shook there, Din.”
“I think it’d be mad if I didn’t, ma’am. The only comfort I have is knowing you’re accustomed to things like this.”
She frowned. “Accustomed? Hell, Din, I’ve no idea what I’m fucking doing.”
"I was just wondering if that was why you’d asked me to bring Gennadios.”
“Oh, partially. I didn’t really need her to confirm my hunch. I mostly wanted you to bring her so I could fuck up her day. She sounded like such an awful turd.”